CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: A BAR OF CHOCOLATE
There was no school on Sunday, so I went to the park and watch people play basketball.
There were a lot of people in the park, and I saw a lot of people I knew, so I called them one by one, “Hey, Ced. Hey, Oliver.” They both lived next-door to mine and studied in the same high school as I have.
Cedric came to me and said, “How’s about a game of basketball?”
But whenever it was my turn, no matter how hard I throw, the ball just wouldn’t go into the net. Cedric took the ball from me and said, “Get outta here, Ron. You’re too stupid to play with.”
So I had to sit aside and watch them play. Cedric was really good. He always got the ball into the net. But too bad there’s a hole under the net and it kept falling out, so he had to keep throwing.
Suddenly I realized that I haven’t eaten breakfast. No wonder my stomach was so hungry. I stood up, patted my pants and said to Cedric, “I’ll come later after breakfast, Ced.”
Cedric was still throwing the ball and didn’t reply. He must be very angry at the hole under the net to not talk to me.
On the way home, I met Tom Riddle, the guy who hit me with his motorcycle the other day. He was always wearing that pair of green rain boots and had a towel around his neck. Whenever he comes for waffles, he would always ask for an extra spoonful of maple syrup with a small stick of butter on top, and black coffee to go.
Tom saw me and said, “Yo, egghead. Why aren’t you at school?”
I glared at him and said, “There’s no school on Sunday, the professor said so.”
I was still a little angry with him for hitting me.
“Don’t be so grouchy,” Tom laughed out loud. His teeth were small and he had fangs. Maybe he’s a vampire like in TV, but vampires don’t walk around in the morning. Maybe he’s a snake pretending to be human. I never asked him about that. He patted my head and said, “How about helping me with a little task, eh?”
I asked him, “What task?”
He led me to the park wall and pointed at a pile of bricks, saying, “If you help me push the cart, Uncle Riddle will give you something real nice.”
But I don’t know how to push a cart. Tom said, “It’s way easy. Even a retard can do it.”
I thought, since I’m a retard, then I should be able to do it.
Tom stooped down and put a brick into the cart, and then another, then another…after putting them in, he stood up and told me to push the cart.
“Push it slowly and don’t let it fall. Push the cart all the way to that big tree over there, take out all the bricks and stack them up neatly and you’re all done. See? Wasn’t that easy?” Tom said as he wiped the sweat off his face.
So I pushed it real carefully. The cart was really heavy. Every time I moved, the cart would fall sideways. Tom came to me and helped me hold the cart straight and said, “Take it easy, son. You’ll get the hang of it once you’ve walked a few more times.”
I pushed it all the way to the big tree, took out the bricks and stacked them neatly on the ground. Tom yelled from the wall he was standing at, saying, “Alright! That should do it! Come back here and get some more!”
I went back to get some more bricks, and this time the cart didn’t fall sideways. I was very glad. I felt very smart. I decided to tell Harry Scarface tomorrow that I am good at moving bricks and I am good at pushing carts.
Cedric was coming out of the park with his ball in his hand and he was looking at me weirdly. He asked, “What the heck are you doing moving bricks?”
I replied, “Tom taught me. If you want to, I can let you move some. It’s so easy, even a retard can do it.”
Cedric threw the ball in the air and caught it again, saying, “You are such a dumbass. You don’t even know Tom’s using you!” After that he went back in to play ball again.
I pushed all the leftover bricks to the tree. Tom was sitting on his motorcycle and was checking his fangs with the mirror. He said, “All done?”
I nodded.
“Very good. Ol' Riddle always keeps his word. Here’s something for you,” he licked his fangs a little and took out a bar of chocolate from his pocket.
“This is a very expensive brand of chocolate, all the way from France. See the French words on it?” he said as he showed it to me. He was right. I did see French words on it, just like the ones in the textbook during French class. I opened the bar of chocolate and ate it. I was really hungry, and moving bricks and sweating made it worse.
“Tastes good, doesn’t it?” Tom asked as he wrapped the towel around his neck.
I nodded.
Tom said again, “Next time I’ll ask you to help me move them again.” So I agreed.
But the next day, Harry Scarface told me not to go help Tom Riddle to do his dirty work. I tried to tell him that the bricks weren’t that dirty, and it was very easy to clean off my hands, but Harry Scarface said I just didn’t get it.
I really didn’t.
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