Baartock

Lewis Roth

Chapter 1

Today was such an important day. Today was the very first day that Baartock was to go out scaring all by himself. He had stayed up late the night before and had gotten up early, so he would be all tired and cranky. He had gone out of the cave where he lived and rolled in the smelliest, nastiest mud he could find, so he would look his scariest. And he had practiced his screams and shrieks, until both his parents yelled at him to shut-up and to go scare somebody. He had set out, going down the old dry stream-bed, just like his father had told him. On the way, he fell down and cut his knee, which made him really angry. He threw a rock at a bird that was singing in the trees, trying to make fun of him.

The culvert wasn't much of a bridge. It was just a big, old concrete pipe that went under the road for rain-water to go through. He wished that it was a bridge, any kind of bridge at all. Even a wooden bridge, but a real bridge that he could hide under and come rushing out to scare people. He crouched down to wait and listen.

Then, when he heard something, he would run up the hill, roaring and
screaming. The practice had all gone so well. When he did it at home, he never had to wait long to hear something. He had scared lots of squirrels, a deer, two opossum, and a skunk. Baartock didn't like to remember the skunk. They had scared each other. To help pass the time, Baartock remembered of some of the stories that his father told. Stories about the famous trolls in his family, and how they had scared people. How his Great-great-uncle Sssssgnaarll had chased a whole village. He had come running down the side of the mountain and right into the village, yelling and screaming his loudest, and everybody had run away.

And how wonderfully ugly his mother's grandfather Munchch-Crunchch had been. So ugly, that just as soon as he looked up over the side of a bridge, people would faint right where they were standing. It was fun to think about things like that, while he was waiting. He thought about the name he was going to earn for himself. Something really scary and wonderful. Baartock wasn't his real name. That was just what his mother called him. His father would just
yell 'kid', and Baartock knew that meant him. That's the way it is with trolls. But he wouldn't get a name, a real troll name until he was twelve years old, and had scared lots of people.

He wanted to earn a really scary name like Arrrggrr-Munch Slinurp, which was his father's name. He waited for a long time, but no one came. After a while, when he got tired, he ate his sandwiches. They were really good. His mother had put extra sand in them. Just as he finished his lunch, a bee stung him. That got him angry again, and he felt that he could scare anybody who came along. He settled down again to wait and listen. But he didn't hear anything. He kept waiting. When he got tired of waiting down under the road in the culvert, he climbed up and hid in a bush by the side of the road. Baartock waited some more, but still nobody came walking down the road.

He was sitting by the side of the road, crying, when the car drove up and stopped near him. He was sobbing so hard that he didn't hear it. It wouldn't have mattered if he had heard it. His father hadn't shown him how to scare a car. He did hear the car door slam, when Mr. Fennis got out.

As soon as Baartock saw Mr. Fennis, he knew what he was supposed to do. If he hadn't been sobbing so hard, he might have been able to scare him.

"Ahgrr," Baartock started to yell, but it got all mixed up with his crying and didn't come out scary at all.

"What's the matter?" Mr. Fennis asked again. "Are you hurt?"

Baartock could only shake his head.

"Are you lost? What's wrong?"

Baartock tried to say, "I'm trying to scare you," but all that came out was "scare."

Baartock nodded his head and sobbed some more. He hadn't been able to scare this person. Now they were even talking. Oh, this was awful.

"Let me take you home," said Mr. Fennis. "Which way do you live?"

Baartock pointed up the hill. "I don't think anyone lives up there. You must live in the old Howard place." Mr. Fennis seemed to be talking mostly to himself. Then he asked "How old are you?"

"Seven," answered Baartock.

"You should be in school today."

"You've been waiting for a school bus all this time?" Mr. Fennis knew what the trouble was now. The poor kid. Missed the bus, and he's been sitting here ever since. No wonder he was crying. Though he could have gone back home and gotten cleaned up. I'd better take him home and explain things to his mother.

"What's your name?"

"Don't have name," Baartock was feeling a little better. Just sobbing every now and then.

"Well then, what can I call you?" asked Mr. Fennis. After all, he was a teacher and he knew how to get an answer.