Baartock, by Lewis Roth (C)1989
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an adult. >> Baartock, by Lewis Roth (C)1989
Here is a short message from the author of Baartock:
This book is directed at children, up to about third
grade, though it should be read to them by an adult.
Baartock, by Lewis Roth (C)1989
BAARTOCK
by Lewis Roth
Chapter 1
Baartock was sitting by the side of the old two lane country
road, crying. Seven years old and all alone for hours, but that
wasn't why he was sobbing, tears running down his cheeks. He had
grown up in the forest, he was used to being alone, except for his
parents. He wasn't lost and he hadn't run away from home, though he
felt so ashamed he didn't want to go home. It had been a bad day, a
terrible day. Baartock had been waiting all day to scare someone,
but there hadn't been anyone to scare. It was such a bad thing to
happen to a troll on his first day.
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. He missed and that
made him even angrier. When he got to the road and looked both ways,
he crossed it and hid in the culvert. Then he waited and listened.
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.
He knew what he was listening for. The sound of someone
walking down the road. Baartock had practiced at home, just the way
his father had shown him. He would stand waiting, just out of sight.
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. The sun was right
overhead. He was hot and tired and hungry and lots of things,
but mostly unhappy. The longer he waited, the unhappier he got.
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.
"What's the matter?" Mr. Fennis didn't know anything about
trolls, but he knew about children. And what he saw was a very dirty
little child sitting by the side of the road, crying. Mr. Fennis
taught third grade and would have been at school, but this morning he
had to go to the dentist. He was hurrying to get back to school. He
didn't want to miss more than half the day. The substitute teacher
had been sick and Mrs. Jackson, the principal, was teaching his
class. That was almost as bad as the pain in his mouth.
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."
"You don't have to be scared. I'll try to help you. Do you
know how to get home?"
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."
"No school." Baartock didn't know what school was, but he
didn't think he should be there. "Father said 'wait here'. I came
early today, but nobody came."
"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.
"Baartock. Mother calls me Baartock."
"All right, Baartock. You can call me, Mr. Fennis. I teach
third grade at the school where you should be today. I'm going to
take you home." Then he had a thought. No point in driving back to
the old Howard house if no one would be there. So many mothers had
jobs. Besides, he was in a hurry to get back to school. "Is your
mother home now?" he asked.
"No." Baartock knew that his mother would be out gathering
poison ivy and catching lizards for dinner.
"Well, Baartock. You should be in school and I'm going
there. You can ride there with me and come home on the school bus."
Taking Baartock's hand, they walked to the car.
For some trollish reason, Baartock's mother hadn't told him
not to talk with strangers, or not to go anywhere with them. Maybe
it was because she didn't think that he would ever get the chance.
But, Baartock knew that he was supposed to be scaring someone, not
talking to them. Or going in a car with them.
Because he had stayed up in the woods until today, Baartock
had never seen a car. He didn't know a car was, or what it looked
like. He certainly had never ridden in one, but he liked this thing
they got into. Mr. Fennis was neat about most things, but his car
was a mess. The paint was scratched, one of the fenders was dented,
and on the floor were some paper coffee cups and soda cans. On the
back seat were seven over-due library books, an overflowing litter
bag, a couple of cans of oil, which should have been in the trunk,
and some plastic tubing for a science project. To Baartock, it
looked just like home. He was busy looking around when Mr. Fennis
started the engine and began to drive off. Then Baartock went wild
and really did scare Mr. Fennis.
Chapter 2
It was only a short drive, though it felt very long to both
Baartock and Mr. Fennis. When Mr. Fennis finally parked the car at
Marvis T. Johnson Elementary School, he got out and helped Baartock
out of the back seat.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you, Baartock," apologized Mr.
Fennis, helping him out. "You almost made us crash when you grabbed
the steering wheel. You don't do that in your folks car, do you?"
"Don't like!" said Baartock angrily, as he kicked at the side
of the car.
"Don't do that! It's my car. It may not look pretty, but
it's paid for and takes me where I want to go."
"Go home," said Baartock and he started to walk off the way
they had come. Like all trolls, he had an almost perfect sense of
direction and couldn't get lost. This place wasn't at all like the woods
and he didn't like it. It was all new and frightening to him. Since he
was a troll, he wasn't going to be scared, or not much anyway. He
was supposed to do the scaring.
"Come on, Baartock. Let's go on into school." Mr. Fennis
grabbed Baartock's hand.
"Don't want school! Want to go home!"
So, with Mr. Fennis pulling one way and Baartock pulling the
other, they went into school. As soon as they got inside, Baartock
stopped wanting to go home and started looking at this new kind of
cave he was in. There were big boards fastened to the walls, covered
with lots of colored papers. There were cases with glass frames with
more colored papers behind them. The walls were a bright yellow, and
there were lights overhead. Even the floor was smooth and shiny.
There were a lot of new things for him to see. He was still looking
around when they got to the school office.
"Ms. Laurence, Baartock seems to have missed the bus this
morning," said Mr. Fennis to the woman sitting at a desk, behind the
counter. Ms. Laurence was the school secretary. "I found him still
waiting by the road."
"Baartock? I don't know any Baartock."
"Well, he's seven, so he must be in Mrs. Stogbuchner's
class. Could you get him down there? I've really got to get back to
my class. Good-by, Baartock." With that, Mr. Fennis hurried out of
the office and down the hall, leaving Baartock in the office.
Baartock looked at Ms. Laurence. Then he looked all around
the room. When he had seen enough he said, "Not
Mississtog-Buchnersklass. Go home! Now!" Baartock thought it might
be fun to meet someone with a wonderfully scary name like
Mississtog-Buchnersklass, but he was tired and wanted to go home. He
was just out the door, leaving Ms. Laurence calling "Baartock!
Stop!" when he crashed right into Mrs. Jackson, the principal.
Mr. Fennis told Mrs. Jackson about Baartock just as soon as
he had gotten into his classroom and she came running to the office.
Mrs. Jackson had been a school teacher for many years and principal
for a few more, but she wasn't sure that she had ever seen a child
quite like the dirty, wild, little one, who was trying to pull away
from her. "Stop right now!" Mrs. Jackson's voice echoed up and down
the hall. Baartock stopped squirming and stood, wide-eyed, staring
at her. He didn't know humans could sound like that. Down the hall,
classroom doors opened and several teachers looked out. Mrs. Jackson
ignored them as she pushed Baartock back into the office and closed
the door.
"Please tell me your name." Before he could say that he
wasn't old enough to have a name, Ms. Laurence answered "Baartock."
"Baartock," said Mrs. Jackson as she brought him over to a
bench, "sit down. Tell me how you got so dirty."
"Rolled in mud. Want to go home."
"You certainly must have rolled in the mud. I understand
you missed your bus this morning."
"Mrs. Jackson," said Ms. Laurence, who had stopped watching
them and was busily looking through some papers, "We don't have any
student named Baartock." School had just started the week before,
but Ms. Laurence was sure that she knew the names of all the new
students. And where to find their records.
"Is today your first day?" asked Mrs. Jackson. "Yes! First
day! First day!" Baartock answered right away. Finally he had found
someone who understood that today was his first day to go scare
people by all himself.
"But, Mrs. Jackson, I don't have his registration forms,
medical records, or anything." Ms. Laurence was now going through
file drawers.
"I'm sure you'll find them. Baartock and I will just go
down to Mrs. Stogbuchner's class, then I'll be back to help you look,
" said Mrs. Jackson as she opened the door. "Baartock, let's go meet
your teacher. I'm sure you'll be very happy in her class."
"Want to go home!" repeated Baartock rather loudly as they
walked down the hall.
"Please don't shout, Baartock. We don't want to disturb the
other classes. I'm sure you would like to go home. I would like to
go home, too, but we're supposed to be here. And we'll get everything
straightened out about your bus schedule, so you won't miss your bus
tomorrow. I'll make sure that you get home after school is over.
Just behave yourself and do what Mrs. Stogbuchner tells you."
Chapter 3
"Now, let's get you into class," said Mrs. Jackson. They
went to the last door on the right side of the hall, and Mrs. Jackson
looked through a little window in the door.
"Is it recess time already? The class must be outside."
She opened the door and they went into the classroom. It was a
bright cheerful room, with windows all along one wall and chairs
pulled up around low tables.
"This will be your classroom," Mrs. Jackson said. They
walked to a door in the back of the classroom and went outside.
"Let's see if we can find them. They should be on the
playground. That's around this way." Hand in hand, they went around
to the back of the school building.
There was the playground. And the class. So many humans.
Baartock had never seen that many humans. They were swinging, racing
around, climbing, playing, and just standing. They were laughing and
yelling and screaming. They were all having fun. Baartock was so
interested, that he didn't see the woman coming over to them.
"Baartock, this is your teacher, Mrs. Stogbuchner," said
Mrs. Jackson. "Mrs. Stogbuchner, this is Baartock. This is his first
day, isn't it Baartock?"
"First day," said Baartock, still
looking at the children.
"Nice to have you in my class, Baartock," said Mrs.
Stogbuchner. "I'm sure you will enjoy it here."
"I'll come see that you get on the right bus to get home,
Baartock," said Mrs. Jackson. "Why don't you go play. But, please
behave yourself. I want to talk to Mrs. Stogbuchner for a moment."
Baartock started walking over to where the children were
playing. He was thinking so many different things. It was his first
day and he should be scaring people, and here were humans to scare.
But there were just so many of them, all running and laughing and
playing. Nobody was paying any attention to him. They weren't even
looking at him. Baartock couldn't think of any way to scare anybody.
This was all so new, and not the way it was supposed to be. He was
suddenly scared. He didn't know what to do.
Baartock had been slowly walking by the fence that went
around the playground. When he got to the jungle gym, he stopped and
watched the three boys who were climbing on it. He wasn't quite sure
why they were climbing and chasing each other, but they seemed to be
having fun. Suddenly, Baartock jumped up on the bars and climbed up
to the top. It was like climbing a tree, but it was different, too.
He was just sitting there, looking around, when one of the boys, the
one with red hair, climbed up beside him.
"Hi. I'm Jason. Are you new?"
"No, I'm Baartock," he said. He wouldn't want a dumb name
like 'New'.
All the other children were about the same size as Baartock,
but Jason was even bigger. He was trying to think what to say to this
red haired boy.
Then Jason started to climb down again. When he was just a
little way down, he called, "Try to catch me, Baartock!"
Baartock knew what to do. He started climbing down, chasing
Jason as fast as he could. By now, Jason was on the ground, running
past the swings. When Baartock got down, he started running. He ran
past the swings, past the slide. He was catching up to Jason, he had
almost caught him, when a there was a whistle and Jason stopped.
Baartock crashed into him and they both fell down. Jason got on his
feet right away.
"We've got to go in now," he said as he pulled Baartock to
his feet. "We have to go line up. Come on."
Baartock didn't understand what they were going to do, but
he walked along with Jason. As they walked over to where Mrs.
Stogbuchner was standing, Baartock said, "I caught you."
"I can run faster," answered Jason. "Next time you won't."
Mrs. Stogbuchner again blew her whistle. "Recess is over.
Time to go inside," she called. Then she saw Baartock and Jason.
"Making friends already, Baartock? Jason, please let Baartock sit
next to you and help him along today."
"Yes, Mrs. Stogbuchner," said Jason.
"Everybody settle down," called Mrs. Stogbuchner as she
walked past the children, who were lining up.
"I'm supposed to be first today, right, Mrs. Stogbuchner?"
called a boy from the front of the line.
"All right, Jimmy," she answered.
"There. I told you so," Jimmy said loudly to the girl
standing next to him.
"Don't start a fight about it, Jimmy," said Mrs.
Stogbuchner, who was now at the back of the line. "Let's walk inside
quietly. No running!" she called, as Jimmy started rushing off.
In just a few minutes, Baartock found himself sitting right
next to Jason, at one of the low tables in the classroom. Mrs.
Stogbuchner, standing in front of the classroom was saying, "We have
someone new in class." Everybody was looking around. "Baartock,
please stand up. This is his first day."
Baartock stood up, but he was embarrassed. Now everybody
knew this was his first day, he'd never be able to scare anybody. He
was still standing, when Mrs. Stogbuchner said, "You may sit down
now, Baartock."
Jason reached up and pulled Baartock back onto his chair. A
couple of children at the next table were giggling, and several
others were whispering something and pointing at him. Baartock felt
uncomfortable. He wasn't really too interested in the papers that
were passed around. But he got interested in making the marks on the
paper, when Jason helped him color the worksheet. There were so many
bright colors. He got so interested in coloring that he didn't pay
any attention to anything else. It didn't seem very long before Mrs.
Stogbuchner said, "It's time to get everything put away now."
Jason whispered to him, "Where do you live?"
"That way," said Baartock, pointing. That was the way a
troll would give directions. Just point in the direction you were
supposed to go, and then walk until you got there. In spite of
everything that had happened today, he knew just exactly where his
home was. He had been so busy, he hadn't thought about it until now.
"Want to go home," he said.
"We all get to go home in just a few minutes, Baartock,"
said Mrs. Stogbuchner, who had been walking around making sure that
everything was put away. "Everybody sits down quietly and waits for
the bell."
Baartock started to ask Jason, "What's bell?" But he only
got to say "What's . . .."
Mrs. Stogbuchner was still standing behind him. "Baartock,
in this classroom, 'wait quietly' means 'no talking'."
Mrs. Jackson came into the classroom and walked over to
them. "Mrs. Stogbuchner, if you're finished with Baartock for today,
I'd like him to come to the office now."
"Yes. We're all through. Baartock, please go with Mrs.
Jackson, and we'll see you tomorrow."
When they got into the hall, Mrs. Jackson said, "Baartock,
we couldn't find your file, and I do need to talk to your mother.
Instead of riding on the school bus, I'm going to drive you home."
"Go home now?" asked Baartock quietly. He remembered how
angry this person could sound.
"Yes. I'm going to drive you home." Just then the bell
rang, and Baartock jumped three feet in the air.
Chapter 4
When Baartock and Mrs. Jackson walked out to the parking
lot, Mr. Fennis was waiting beside his car.
"Ready to go home, Baartock?" asked Mr. Fennis.
"Go home now," answered Baartock, and he started to walk
away.
"Baartock! Come back here!" Mrs. Jackson's voice stopped
him and he turned around.
"Not go home now?" asked Baartock.
"We're going to take you home, but we're not going to walk.
We are going to drive in the car."
Walking home was exactly what Baartock had planned to do.
Then he had an idea. "Don't like car. You drive. I walk," he said.
"No. Now please get in."
"You'd think he'd never ridden in car until today,"
commented Mr. Fennis as he got in and closed the door. "He became
positively wild when I drove him to school."
"Well, he'll behave this time, won't you Baartock. You just sit
quietly while we take you home."
"Sit," said Baartock unhappily.
Mr. Fennis started the car, and Baartock started to jump,
but he saw Mrs. Jackson watching him. So he just sat and looked even
unhappier.
The ride this time seemed much quicker for Mr. Fennis, since
Baartock wasn't jumping around in the car.
"They must live in Donald and Phyllis Howard's old house,"
he said as they drove down the country road. "I found him just down
the road from their driveway."
"I didn't know anyone had moved in there," said Mrs.
Jackson.
Just then Baartock exclaimed "Home!" pointing up the hill.
"Can we use the driveway instead, Baartock?" said Mr.
Fennis. "I don't want to walk up the hill, even if you do have a
shortcut." He drove on down the road a little further, then slowed
even more as they came to a mailbox and a dirt driveway.
"That's funny. The 'For Sale' sign's still there," said
Mrs. Jackson. Out in the middle of the corn-stalk stubbled field was
a weathered sign, 'Farm For Sale - Crow Real Estate'. "This is the
only house up here. They must have just not taken the sign down yet."
Baartock sat in the back seat and didn't say anything. Mr.
Fennis turned the car onto the driveway and started up the hill.
This dirt road did go near his family's cave, but he never used it.
Trolls almost never use roads unless there are bridges, and the
bridges are to live under or hide under.
The driveway went up the hill, between the field and the
woods. It didn't look as though a car had been on it for a long
time. The grass growing in the middle was quite tall, and the bushes
growing next to the road needed to be cut back. They scraped the
side of the car as they went up the driveway. And there were a lot
of holes that needed filling. Mr. Fennis was driving slowly, but the
car still raised a cloud of dust behind them.
Up near the top of the hill, the road turned away from the
woods, toward a grove of trees and the old frame house almost hidden
in the trees.
"Home over there," said Baartock, pointing back into the
woods, as Mr. Fennis was about to turn toward the house.
"But there aren't any houses in the woods," said Mrs.
Jackson.
"Can we look at the house first, Baartock?" asked Mr.Fennis.
"Home over there!" said Baartock again, still pointing
toward the woods, but he sat quietly as they drove up to the house.
There was a smaller sign on the porch by the front door, 'House &
Farm For Sale - Crow Real Estate' with a phone number to call.
"It certainly doesn't look like anyone lives here," said Mr.
Fennis, as he turned the car around in the driveway. "All right,
Baartock. Which way is your home?"
"Home that way," said Baartock, still pointing into the
woods.
"Mr. Fennis, do you think he's lost?" asked Mrs. Jackson
quietly.
"Not lost. Never get lost. Home over there!" said Baartock
firmly. Trolls can also hear very well.
Mr. Fennis drove the car back to where the driveway turned
down hill and stopped it. "Baartock, just how far is your home?"
"Home over there. Not far. Easy walk," said Baartock. If
these humans weren't with him, he could easily run home.
"Mrs. Jackson, if we are going to meet Baartock's parents, I
guess we have to walk through the woods. Baartock, will your mother
or father be home now?" asked Mr. Fennis.