Waiting with Elmer. Deanna K. Klingel

street, bobbing and weaving down the colorful sidewalks.

      “Just a closer walk with thee,” Rake sang out, the other men harmonized, “boombda boomda,” slapping their thighs and clicking their fingers while they hummed.

      In the distance they heard the wailing of the approaching train. A truck rattled by. Willy stopped, held his breath, and watched it drive away. He exhaled. In the street in front of the mission, Willy squinted into the low setting sun. The men hauled out wooden bats, leather gloves, and other things Willy knew nothing about. Drum drew four chalk circles in the street, with another in the middle. He dusted his hands on his chest and grinned.

      “The diamond, Willy,” he explained. “Now then, let’s play ball!” he hollered. The men chattered and hurried out to the street with enthusiasm. Charles sat in the swing and chattered, “Hey, batter-batter!”

      Before the sun was completely set, Willy had learned the rules of baseball, how to throw, catch, and run bases. He learned how to field and snag high balls from the air. He didn’t know when he’d had so much fun. His biggest surprise was how much fun the men had. He didn’t know grown men could have fun. When he put his head on the pillow after lights out, he was still snagging balls out of the air. He no longer listened for the truck.

      Only one more day, Tuesday, and then it’s Wednesday, first day of school.

      Willy’s stomach turned over in a joyful flip. Could he dare to feel so happy?

      Chapter Seven

      “Willy, you hardly touch your supper, man, what be wrong with you? Growin’ boys need sustenance,” whined Drum with a worried expression on his face. “My mama say you got to have fuel in the tank or you got no get up and go.”

      “Don’t feel hungry,” Willy murmured.

      “Guess you got a case of nervous stomach, huh, Willy? Worrying over school tomorrow?”

      Willy shrugged and glanced at Rake. It was Tuesday. He was nervous, he was worrying; he was even scared.

      “At one school I was at they called me half-‘n’- half.”

      “Half and half?”

      “Yeah. My mama’s colored. My dad’s not.”

      “Oh, I see,” said Drum. “So, you have a little trouble fittin’ in? Well, now, I don’t know a lot, Brother Willy, but this much I can tell you. Lots of folks look into their coffee cups and say ‘oh woe, my cup be half empty.’ But around here, we look in our coffee mugs and we say, ‘praise God, my cup is half full.’ So, you got to decide on your own, Mr. Half an’ Half, are you half full or are you half empty? Looks to me like you might have the best of two worlds. You got coffee and cream together. You might even have a full cup. Who’s to decide that? Only you.” Drum passed the bread. “You’ll figger it out.”

      “Brothers, I suggest we have a sweet hour of prayer for our brother Willy tonight. He’s going to school tomorrow! What do you say about that?”

      Willy felt his neck burning and his stomach tightened. When he turned around to see who’d spoken he was surprised to see it was the old man who sat in the swing.

      “Amen, Brother Charles, amen,” they all said. They began to hum and move their chairs into a circle. Willy dragged his metal chair. His ears burned. He wished he could be anywhere but here. He’d sat in this prayer circle a few days ago when Skeet was going for a job interview at the tannery outside town. Elmer had brought Skeet a new work shirt and pants, and everyone had to pray about it. Now they’d be praying over him. He squirmed.

      Rake watched the forlorn, worrying boy dragging his chair.

      “You’ll be fine, Willy. You’ll be fine.” Rake gave Willy a real hug and Willy’s body went stiff as a board. No one hugged him, except Grandma, and she… Willy glanced at Rake who watched the shroud falling across Willy’s face.

      One after another, the men offered their prayers for Willy’s first day of school. They prayed about his book learning, about friends he’d meet, and they prayed for his teacher. Willy listened and soon was joining in the group’s “Amen” at the end of each prayer. He never imagined there were so many things to pray about. His legs, tightly wound around the chair legs, unwrapped and stretched out in front of him. His stiff shoulders loosened up and his arms dangled loose in his lap. He stopped scowling and his headache went away. When they finished praying and singing, Willy was hungry.

      “I’ll bet everyone would like a little dee-zert to-night,” shouted Rake. “Willy, you run out back to the ice box and get us a little ice cream.”

      “Ice cream?” Willy ran out to the back room and swung open the ice box door. He returned with a bag full of ice cream cups and flat wooden spoons. The men took as long to savor their little ice cream cups as they’d spent over their entire supper. Before long someone called “Lights out!” and a voice responded, “Praise God.” Willy went straight to sleep without a worry.

      The first voice he heard in the morning was Elmer’s. He heard the platform rolling up the orange ramp and Elmer’s booming voice singing good morning to everyone.

      “I came to accompany our scholar this morning,” he said. Willy buckled his knickers, tied his shoes, and buttoned his shirt. He gathered books and pencils and grabbed a doughnut from the brown bag. The smell of unwashed men and strong coffee filled the kitchen.

      “Well, now don’t you just look fit as a fiddle this mornin’,” Drum said cheerfully. Drum filled Willy’s lunchbox, and Willy went out the door. Elmer rolled down the orange ramp beside him. They were half-way to school before either of them spoke.

      “This is an important day for you, Willy. I imagine you were sent off with prayer, am I right?” Willy nodded. “One thing all those men have learned while waiting is not to take on anything new, scary, or interesting, good or bad, without prayer. Prayer just makes the wait and the doing so much better, Willy.”

      “Yes, sir, I’m starting to see it that way,” Willy answered.

      “You aren’t alone today, Willy.”

      “I know.” Willy glanced over his shoulder and looked up at the large cross blinking in the morning sun. Then he gave a long look down the road ahead of him.

      ***

      The men were all anxious to see Willy after school and hear his account of the first day.

      “I got moved three times today. Each time the teacher said I was too old and not right for her class. The school nurse said I’m not ten. More like thirteen or fourteen. She said I got some pimples and I might be fifteen. She said everybody needs to know their own birthday. But I don’t. The kids laughed at me about that. After lunch I went to a different building that says Waitnsee Junior High School on the door. But now I got to do things I don’t really know how to do. I have to do algebra. I don’t even know what that is. I have to do history and biology. I don’t know how to do any of that stuff, so maybe they won’t let me come back. Tomorrow I might get moved again. I got homework to do. I guess this is how you do school. My stomach hurts. I’ll probably just be sick tomorrow.”

      Willy heard the wheels rolling behind him in the gathering room. “Hi, Elmer, what are you doing here?”

      “Came to see you and hear about your school day.”

      “Oh, that. Well, I won’t do very good at it, Elmer. I don’t know how to do any of the things. It’s all new.”

      “Wonderful!” Elmer clapped his hands. “There! Just like I said, the teachers would sort it out and put you where you needed to be.”

      “No, you got that wrong, Elmer. They moved me around, but I ended