Goodbye Normal Jeans
A novel by Danny
Chapter 4
School turned out to be a lot different then
I honestly expected it to be. Most of the day no one paid me much attention
until about five minutes before it was time to go home. I was sitting in class
and started hearing someone behind me making snake sounds.
It got so annoying that I finally turned
around and saw it was some boy I didn’t know. He was sitting one row to the
right and one desk back and was attempting to covertly draw my attention to my
backside.
That’s when I realized I’d spring a leak and
my britches were showing the signs. I got so embarrassed that my entire head
became red hot. Heck, I wouldn’t of been surprised none if steam had shot from
my ears.
I was shoving my books into my backpack when
the bell rang. I started to stand up but someone had taken a hold of my shirt
and pulled me right back down in my seat. I felt my wet diaper squish as my
bottom hit the seat again.
When I turned to see who it was I seen it was
that same boy. He was holding onto my shirt just behind my right elbow and
knelt down beside me. “Wait until the rest clear out. There will be less chance
of someone noticing.” He said quietly and I couldn’t help but notice the way he
talked. It was so very proper with a hint of some sort of accent.
I suppose I was taken off guard ‘cause I gave
my arm a tug to try and loosen his grim on my shirt but it didn’t work.
“Calm down!” the boy said while displaying a
fake smile, “I am trying to help you, however if you would rather be the butt
of everyone’s jokes?” he said with a shrug and let go of my shirt.
Just as he was beginning to stand up to leave
I reached out and caught hold of his backpack. A couple others in class notices
this so I had to make something up and fast, “Ok, I’ll trade ya but I got to
ask my ma if’n it’s ok first.”
Thankfully he was just as quick thinking as
me. “That does sound like the best idea all around!” he said and sat down in
the seat in front of me to make the others think we were going to continue
talking.
“If your mother agrees, do be a good sport
and bring them to school tomorrow.” He said and then whispered, “Are they gone
yet?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, “hook, line and sinker!”
“Beg your pardon?” the boy said with one
eyebrow sitting high on his forehead.
I shoot my head, “Their gone.”
“Splendid! I do dislike seeing others made
fun of just for being different.” He said.
“My name’s...” I started to say but he cut me
off.
“Everyone knows who you are!” he giggled
slightly and I wasn’t sure how to take it.
He thrust out the wrong shaking hand, “My
friends call me Nugget.”
“Nugget?” I asked taking his hand with my
wrong shaking hand too.
“On account of my last name being Goldberg.”
He said.
“I like it!” I said
“Do you prefer to be called Kris, Kristian or
dare I guess Doc as short for Doctavio?”
“Nah, most everyone just calls me Nevada.” I
said.
His other eyebrow jumped up to his forehead,
“Really? Oh I do like that! Nevada it is then!” and he gave my hand a firm
squeeze before letting it go.
He gave the classroom a quick scan, saw
that two of our class mates were talking with our teacher so he continued on.
In a whisper he said, “Don’t worry about missing the bus; I will have father
drive you home.”
My confusion must have been written across
my face.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you must see
the nurse before you leave for home?” he said and before I could reply he said,
“I shall wait for you then.”
Right then out teacher spoke up sounding a
bit putout by our lingering presents, “You’ll turn out the lights then Mr.
Goldberg?”
Nugget snapped to his feet like a
well-trained military soldier, “Yes Sir! We’re right behind you Sir!”
Our teacher smiled and playfully gave
Nugget a salute before leaving the two of us alone in the classroom.
“Wow I never seen,” I started to say.
“In addition to being our teacher,” Nugget
began as he took my backpack, laced his right hand through the strap and slung
it over his shoulder, “He is also my cousin.”
“Really?” I said noticing the Nugget
appeared to be wearing some sort of glove on his right hand but the thought
quickly left me as I stood up and felt the weight of my wet diaper hanging
between my thighs.
As if we’d been friends all out lives he
and I walked out of the classroom and down the hall to the nurse’s office. The
entire time he was talking a bit louder then a normal level and waving his arms
about at the same time.
“Actually he is more like twice removed
however my mother could tell you exactly. She lives for family genealogies. I
would hazard to guess that if you ever met him outside of the school setting
you would take a shine to him.”
I couldn’t get a word in edgewise but that
wasn’t such a bad thing. It was actually kind of amazing ‘cause whenever
someone would look at us their attention went right to Nugget and his
expressive hands and arms waving about.
“I would never know it to look at him that
he has six children, all girls,” he wiggled his eyebrows as he said, ‘all
girls’, “and the oldest is our age.”
“Hey we are having a party the weekend
after next; could come?” he asked just as we found ourselves stepping through
the door into the nurse’s office.
“Well Mr. Doctavio?” The nurse said, “I
didn’t expect to be seeing you for a third time today. She stopped abruptly
when she caught sight of Nugget just behind me.
“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there Mr.
Goldberg!” she said to Nugget. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that he had
gone all pink.
Wearing the goofiest smile he spoke to me but
was looking right at the school nurse, “Hey I’ll just wait for you outside in
the hall if that’s alright?”
“Huh, yeah, uh, thanks!” I replied sounding
like a plum idiot.
“Oh, here’s your pack!” He said passing it
to me.
“See ya!” I said as Nugget streaked out the
door like he was on fire.
“I see you’ve met the President.” The nurse
said as she locked the door closed to keep anyone from walking in on us.
“Huh?” I replied continuing my streak of
stupid replies.
“Didn’t you know? Mr. Goldberg is the student
body president. He is only the second one his age ever to hold that honor in
the entire history of this institution.” She said while helping me up on the
table type bed thing.
“Wow!” I exclaimed, “No I didn’t know that!
I never met a President before!”
“Well now you did! But what say we get you
cleaned up and see if we can’t get you on that bus?” she remarked.
“Uh,” there I go again grunting like a
idiot again, “he done said, uh,” I had to recall what he’d said, “Oh yeah, his
pa is goin’ ta take me home.”
She worked fast while she talked, “Oh my,
you are making some powerful friends today.”
I honestly didn’t want to say it again but
I just couldn’t help myself, “Huh?”
“Mr. Goldberg’s father works for the
Governor.” She said.
“Ouch!” I cried out.
“Oh dear I am so very sorry! I didn’t mean
to poke you with a pin.”
That ended our conversation and before I
knew it I was zipping up a dry pair of britches and rushing out the door.
True to his word Nugget was standing just
outside the office door.
“There you are! That didn’t take long.” He
said when he saw me. I think maybe I might have blushed a little but thankfully
he didn’t seem to notice or at least he didn’t react to it if he did notice.
While we were heading out of the school I
had time to ask him why he acted so funny when he saw the nurse.
“You have to promise not to tell her but I
think she is an angel!” he said with this weird dreamy look in his eyes just
the way my older brother Kevin gets whenever he is thinking about his girl,
Meggin.
“You didn’t even give me a chance to
promise!” I complained jokingly.
He was lost in his dreams so I gave him a
nudge, “Alright! I won’t tell her but I’m think’n it ain’t much of a secret.”
“Do you really think so?” he asked.
I just smiled and said, “Come on
lover-boy!” as the two of us stepped outside.
It was kind of weird seeing my bus pulling
away without me in it but when Nugget said, “There, now see, you have to come
with us!” He was grinning so big that if he were older he’d have been mistaken
for a car salesman easy.
“So, President huh?” I asked.
Anyone that saw the two of us together
might have thought that I had just told the worlds funnies joke because right
then Nugget burst out with the loudest belly laugh in the history of the world.
Through his laugher he managed to say, “I
was wondering when you’d figure that out!”
“I didn’t know. It was the nurse; she
told...” I stopped talking when I saw the car Nugget was leading me too.
I never seen such a car ever in my life! It
must have been as long as four cars and was all white and silver and shiny. And
inside the car everything was just as red, as red could get. It was so big
inside that I bet we could have fit the whole entire school body inside and
still had room for dancing.
“Wow!” I exclaimed.
“I suppose I should have warned you.”
Nugget said and it seemed he was getting some pleasure from seeing my reaction.
“My father is the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio.” Nugget said.
“Lieutenant?” I asked, “What’s that mean?
He in the military or somethin’?”
The car started moving as Nugget giggled,
“No nothing like that.” And without even the slightest pause he said, “Basset,
we’re taking my friend Nevada home.”
From the front seat I heard, “Very good.”
And I had to put my hand over my mouth to
keep from laughing out loud. I leaned toward Nugget and whispered, “Does he
know he’s named after a kind of dog?”
From the front seat came, “I heard that!”
I thought Nugget was going to laugh himself
to death. “Don’t mind Basset, I tease him like that all the time. Isn’t that
right Barfet?”
“Oh yes Sir! And I never grow tired of it
Sir!” Basset said putting extra emphasis on the words ‘never’ and both ‘Sirs’,
which caused Nugget to laugh even more.
While Nugget began rummaging through his book
bag I asked, “I thought you said your pa, I mean, your father was taking me
home?”
He pulled from his bag, two Twinkies, though
they were a bit squished. He offered me one and I knew mum would skin me alive
if she knew I was eating something so bad for me but I took it anyway.
He was ripping open his Twinkie with his
teeth as he spoke, “Basset always picks me up from school and we stop afterward
to pick up father on the way home,” and then Nugget went quiet for moment
before shouting, “Basset Stop!”
The car lurched to a stop and Basset,
apparently forgetting himself yelled, “You lithle shith! You mabe me bith ma
thongue!”
Nuggets eyes became the size of dinner
plates, “Sorry Basset!” and trying to smother a fit of the giggles he added, “I
didn’t mean for that to come out like that!”
He leaned closer to me, “I get him like that
at least once a week!”
Basset had leaned forward to look at his
tongue in the rearview mirror and I could see him massaging it with his fingers
before he rested back against the seat again. “If you didn’t have a guest back
there I’d give you what for!” Basset threatened.
I looked to Nugget expecting him to be
expressing the same fear I was feeling but instead I saw Nugget rolling his
eye.
“Why’d you make me stop anyway?” Basset asked
in a nicer tone, “Or were you just being a little...”
“Basset?” Nugget called out with a laugh.
Once again I looked to Nugget this time
expecting him to answer the driver but instead Nugget said to me, “I have no
idea where you live. Are we even going in the right direction?”
Basset spoke up, “Oh we are not picking up
your father first?”
Not sure who to tell I looked to Nugget who
nodded toward the front seat. I spoke toward Basset and told him my address.
I got a kick out of Bassets reply, “Well
yeehaw! Y’all sit right back and enjoy the ride! We be goin’ country!” and the
car suddenly lurched forward slamming Nugget and me against the back seat.
From up front came, “Yeehaw get along little
doggy! Yeehaw, Yeehaw, Yeeeeeeeeeehaaawwww!”
I was laughing hysterically but when I looked
at Nugget he seemed like he was having some kind of laughing fit. It was then
that I noticed his right hand seemed to be missing completely.
I gasped and noticed that it was sitting on
the ledge of the back window of the car. “Oh my!” I cried out both from
surprise and fear.
“Basset you jerk!” Nugget continued to laugh,
“You sent my hand flying!”
The way Nugget reacted by getting up to
retrieve his hand from the back window you would have thought it was a shoe or
a hat that he’d lost and not a dang hand.
“You ok?” Nugget asked me.
“Me? You? Your? Whow? Hand?” is how it came
out.
I could hear Basset screaming with laughter
and Nugget shouted up at him, “I’m going to get you so bad for that one!” which
only made Basset laugh that much louder.
He laid his hand down in his lap and began to
roll up his sleeve, “I was born without a hand. See?” He said holding up a pink
nub where a wrist and hand would normally be.
Akin to putting on a sock I watched as Nugget
slipped the hand over his arm and rolled his sleeve back down.
“Well I’ll be a horse’s behind!” I exclaimed,
“I never seen nothing like that afore!”
As I was saying goodbye to Nugget and Basset,
who I finally got to meet face-to-face, I knew that me and Nugget were going to
be best of friends!
I stood on the front porch with pa and ma
while waving to Nugget who was in the back window of the car waving back at me
until the cloud of dust hid him and the car from my view.
It wasn’t until I stepped inside the screen
door that I remembered I had left my backpack lying inside the car.
To be continued . . .
A
message from the author:
I am so very sorry that it has been such a
long time since I have updated this story.
The first three-chapters of ‘Goodbye Normal Jeans’ seemed to flow out of
me all at once and then nothing for the longest period. And then today I sat
down, opened it up and about four hours later I had wrote another 10 pages.
I still have no idea where this story is
going and how long it will be but I am guessing that there is maybe one or two
more chapters hiding out inside my head.
I
really do appreciate everyone that has emailed me over the past few months
asking about this story. I hope this chapter doesn’t disappoint any of you and
if you have enjoyed this or even if you have not, I would like to hear from
you. You can email me at [email protected].
I’m not sure when the next chapter will be ready, but I will try not to let
there be such a huge gap in time.