Baartock, by Lewis Roth (C)1989
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an adult. >> Baartock, by Lewis Roth (C)1989
Chapter 15
It had rained all the rest of the day. Baartock had a great
time up at his bridge. The water was racing under the bridge, making
a wonderful gurgling sound. It made hiding under the arch like being
in one of the stories his father told. The only thing missing was
someone walking over the bridge. He would come out from under the
bridge screaming his loudest and run up the side of the stream bed.
He could just see them running away.
Right then it really didn't matter that there wasn't anyone
crossing his bridge. Baartock now knew so many humans and so much
about them, that was easy to pretend who was walking up to cross the
bridge. There was Mr. Fennis, of course. He had run away so
wonderfully. Then there was Ms. Laurence. Baartock could scare her
easily. He didn't pretend to scare Mrs. Jackson or Mrs. Stogbuchner.
Somehow they didn't seem like people to scare. But that girl in his
class, Janice, Baartock scared her again and again. And some of the
other children in the class. They were all so easy to scare. He was
having a great time.
He even pretended that Jason was helping him scare people.
Not that Jason was anything like a troll, but Baartock liked him and he
thought Jason would have fun scaring people.
After a while, when it started to get dark, Baartock went
back home in the rain. He was glad that his father had known it was
going to rain. They had gathered in extra firewood. Even though it
wasn't cold, the fire warmed the cave and helped him to dry off.
Though it had been raining all day, his mother had fixed an
extra good meal. Baartock really liked the cricket and green bean
salad. Later they all sat around the fire and his mother patched his
pants and sewed on the new winter coat she was making, and his father
told stories. He stayed up late, and it was still raining hard when
he finally went to bed.
The next morning it was still raining, and his mother told
him to go wait for the bus, but if it didn't come when it should, to
come back home. And his father surprised him by saying he would be
staying home if it kept on raining. The room he was working on in the
cavern would probably be flooded, and he wouldn't be able to work.
So, while it was still raining quite hard, Baartock went
down to stand by the side of the road and wait for the school bus.
Actually, he wasn't waiting right beside the road in the rain, but
back a little way, under some trees that still had lots of leaves.
He thought he could see the bus in time to come out and catch it. He
waited and waited, but he didn't see a bus or a car or anything
coming down the road. He went over to look at the culvert. Rain water
was coming roaring down the stream bed right at the culvert, but
there was so much that it couldn't all get through. There were
branches and rocks that had come down with the water that were
blocking the opening. It was beginning to make a pool on that side
of the road. On the other side, it was shooting out of the culvert,
but it was beginning to make a pool there too.
When Baartock felt he had waited long enough, he went back
home. His father was carving out some extra shelves in the kitchen.
He went to watch his father work, and started handing him tools.
They worked most of the morning. His mother came back home and saw
the mess they were making, and started making some sandwiches. They
all finished about the same time, and his mother chased them both out
of the cave so she could clean up. There were rock chips all over
the kitchen.
Then Baartock and his father went up and sat under his
bridge and ate their sandwiches. For a while, his father told
stories, about when he had been a young troll, before he'd earned his
name. Then they looked at some places that Baartock had had trouble
with building his bridge. They stood in the stream and the pouring
rain, and his father showed him some better ways to do the
stone-work. They even took a few of the stones out, and his father
worked on them, then they put them back. Baartock was much happier
about the way the bridge looked now. Then his father showed him
places where the water might weaken the bridge if they weren't fixed,
not today, but later when the rain stopped and the water went down.
While they were working the rain eased up as if it were
going to stop, then it started coming down again as hard as before.
They had quite a busy afternoon, and his father said that it was time
to go home, even if there was still a mess in the kitchen for them to
clean up.
It rained all the next day, too. Not as hard as before,
just a steady rain that went on and on. Baartock went down in the
morning to see if the bus would come, but it didn't. He waited a
long time, playing beside the stream, but nothing came along the
road.
The culvert that he had hidden in was completely blocked
now, with branches and rocks. The water had made a big pool, and it
was flowing over the road. He went up the hill a little way and sat
there, dropping small branches into the stream, and watching them
float down, across the pool and across the road.
After a while, he went back home. It was such fun to splash
his way up the stream. He got thoroughly soaked. When he got home
and dry, he helped his father make one of the closets larger. His
father chipped and dug at the rock wall, and Baartock swept and
picked-up, and carried all of the trash outside in a bucket. They
worked most of the afternoon. Dinner was a simple meal. It had been
too wet to go get anything, so it was mostly left-overs.
The rain stopped just after dinnertime, and Baartock went
out to look around. It was getting dark, but he walked up to his
bridge. He was worried about the spots his father had pointed out.
When he got there, his bridge was all right. An opossum was hiding
under the arch, trying to stay dry, and it growled at him. It wanted
to be left alone and Baartock was able to see what he wanted to,
without chasing it off.
Going home in the dark, he slipped and fell into the stream
a couple of times. He was glad to sit by the fire and get dry, now
that he knew that his bridge was safe.
The nest morning it wasn't raining, though there were still
a lot of clouds overhead. But they were blowing away, and it might
be sunny later. Baartock walked down to wait for the bus. He went
down the path beside the stream. Even though the rain had stopped
the night before, the stream was just as full as it had been when it
was raining. It was still rushing and splashing its way down the
hill.
Baartock couldn't get all the way to the road. The water
had risen even higher. It wasn't a pool, it was a lake. The road
was completely under water. It was almost as deep as he was tall.
During the night, two of the trees beside the stream had fallen over,
and were lying across the road. The holes, where the roots had been
were filled with water. And there was still more water coming down
the stream. He walked along the edge of water for a long way.
Finally, near the driveway to the 'old Howard house', there was no
more water covering the road.
Baartock played by the side of this new lake for a while, skipping
stones. When he grew tired of that, he went up the driveway,
and home. He left his lunch bag, and went up to check on his bridge
again. The opossum was gone, but there was still too much water for
him to work on his bridge, and he went back home.
His father had decided that he couldn't go to work again,
so he was sleeping late. His mother was busy in the kitchen,
so Baartock got out his pencil box and some worksheets he had
brought home from school and sat near the mouth of the cave
and did them again.
Chapter 16
The sun started to come through the clouds, and Baartock
moved his stool outside the cave. He was just about to get back to
work, when he heard someone coming up the hill. He put his pencil
box and worksheets on the stool and went inside to tell his mother.
They were just coming out of the cave when Mrs. Jackson and Mrs.
Stogbuchner came into the clearing.
"Hello, Mrs. Slinurp. Hello, Baartock," called Mrs.
Jackson. To Baartock's mother, she said, "This is Baartock's
teacher, Mrs. Stogbuchner."
"I'm pleased to meet you," said Mrs. Stogbuchner. "I told
Baartock that I wanted to meet you this week."
No-one asked if Baartock had remembered to tell his mother,
but the way she looked at him said that he had forgotten.
"I hope we're not coming at a bad time," Mrs. Jackson said.
"No," said his mother. "You want to talk?"
"Baartock, I see you've been doing some school work. I
think that's a very good," said Mrs. Stogbuchner, looking at the
worksheets. Then she followed his mother and Mrs. Jackson into the
cave.
Baartock thought about checking his bridge again, but it was
nearly lunch time, and after lunch maybe his father could help him
work on it. So he sat back down in the sun, and kept working on the
papers. He could hear the adults' voices, but he couldn't hear what
they were saying.
After a while he decided he was hungry and went to look for
his lunch bag. He remembered putting it in the kitchen, so he went
to get it. The adults were still talking, and he didn't think they
had even noticed him, until Mrs. Jackson said, "Baartock, something
happened to the bridge we looked at."
Suddenly, there was a booming voice, coming from the back of
the cave. "What happen bridge?" Baartock's father was awake, and
coming out of the bedroom. The word 'bridge' would wake most trolls
from a sound sleep.
Meeting just one adult troll for the first time had been a
surprise for Mrs. Stogbuchner, and even Mrs. Jackson hadn't met his
father. And Baartock's father was bigger and angrier looking than
most trolls, even though he wasn't any meaner than Baartock's mother.
But they didn't know whether to stay or run. Before they could
decide, Baartock's father was in the living room saying, "What happen
bridge?" again.
His mother saw just how scared the humans were, and said,
"Wait. She tell."
"There was just too much water," began Mrs. Jackson, not
sure what he wanted to know. "It collapsed. It fell down. There's no
more bridge in town."
Baartock had told his father about the bridge, of course.
And what he had thought of a human-built bridge. He wasn't really
surprised that it had fallen down.
"Where bridge?" asked his father.
Baartock was just about to tell him, when Mrs. Jackson
asked, "You want to see the bridge?"
"You show me bridge," replied his father. "You show me
bridge now?"
Just as suddenly as his father had appeared, they were going
out of the cave. Baartock grabbed his lunch bag and followed them
out. They went down the hill toward the 'old Howard house'.
"We'll have to go the long way around," said Mrs. Jackson.
"Your road is flooded too."
That didn't matter to his father and they kept walking down
the hill. When they got to the car, there was a problem trying to
figure out where they were all to sit. Mrs. Jackson had to slide the
front seat up, so the three trolls could sit in the back. If they
hadn't been trolls, they wouldn't have been able to squeeze in. But
trolls can bend to fit into tight places. Soon they were all inside
and Mrs. Jackson was driving.
Baartock opened his lunch bag to get something to eat. His
father had some too, but his mother said she wasn't hungry. Neither
Mrs. Jackson or Mrs. Stogbuchner wanted any either.
Riding in a car for the first time didn't seem to bother
Baartock's father. Maybe it was because he was going to see the
bridge, or maybe it just didn't bother him.
They did have to go the long way around, but eventually they
got to where the bridge had been. There were lots of kids standing
around and some adults too. There were big orange painted barrels
blocking the road, so people wouldn't drive their cars too close.
Mrs. Jackson had to park her car down the block. They got out of the
car and went over to look. Baartock thought he saw Jason, but he
wasn't sure. Besides, seeing the bridge was more important, right
then.
The water hadn't really gotten that high, though the stream
was moving very quickly. It was easy to see what had happened. The
water had washed away the dirt around the supports, and then the
supports had started to move, and the span had fallen down. It was
lying, broken and twisted, in the rushing water.
Baartock's mother was interested, but she could see what she
wanted from where she was standing. Baartock and his father walked
right to the edge to examine the wreckage.
"Don't get so close to the edge!" a man in uniform shouted
at them. He started to come over to tell them to move back.
"I look at bridge," Baartock's father growled at the man.
"Yes sir," said the man, backing away. Most of the other
humans nearby backed away also.
His father looked at the way the bridge had been built from
where he was standing, then suddenly, he jumped into the stream.
"Hey! Help him! Get a rope, somebody!" the man in uniform
was shouting. He came rushing to the edge to find Baartock's father
standing, quite calmly, waist deep in the rushing water, examining
where the supports had been.
"Hey! Catch this," the man shouted, starting to throw the
rope.
"Stop!" Baartock's mother had come over. "He working. You
stop or he get angry."
"But he's going to . . ." the man started to say, looking up at
her.
"You stop," his mother said again.
"Yes ma'am," the man said, and he took the rope and went
back where he had been standing. He just stood there watching, and
not knowing what to do.
Mrs. Jackson went over to talk to him. Soon the man walked
over to his car and got out a blanket and gave it to Mrs. Jackson.
When he had seen enough, Baartock's father climbed up on the
broken bridge span and calmly stepped up onto the road. Several
people in the crowd cheered when he came up, but he didn't seem to
notice.
"Where she?" he asked.
Baartock pointed out Mrs. Jackson, still standing next to
the man in uniform. They all walked over to her. Mrs. Jackson
handed him the blanket, and he used it to dry off.
"Can fix," his father said. "Build right this time. Not
fall down again."
"You can build a new bridge?" asked Mrs. Jackson.
Baartock thought that was a silly question. He had been
sure that he could have built a better bridge, and he wasn't even old
enough to have a name. "Hey! Baartock!" came a shout from the
crowd. Jason was standing there waving at him.
Baartock waved back. The adults were talking about things
that didn't seem to have anything to do with building bridges, so he
went over to talk to Jason.
"Isn't this really something. Are those your folks?
Everybody was sure surprised when your dad jumped in like that,"
Jason just went on in a rush. "Your dad knows about bridges?"
"Can build better bridge," Baartock answered.
Soon, Baartock's mother called him over and they got back in
the car and went home.
Chapter 17
The next day was Friday, but there wasn't any school. Mrs.
Stogbuchner had said that a lot of the roads were under water, just
like the road near Baartock's home. But even though there wasn't any
school, the next morning Baartock was going to town.
Early in the morning, his father got him up, and they had
something to eat. Baartock got the big lunch bag and his father
picked up his bag of tools and they left and walked down to the 'old
Howard house' and waited. The sun wasn't up very high when Mrs.
Jackson came driving up the hill.
"Good morning," she called, as she stopped the car.
"Go bridge now," said his father.
Mrs. Jackson had decided that was just the way trolls were.
With bridges, they were all business.
"Good morning," said Baartock. He thought any morning he
could go help work on a bridge was a good morning.
They got into the car. Baartock sat in the front and put on
the seat belt. His father stretched out along the back seat. He
wasn't squeezed into the back, like he had been the day before. They
still had to drive the long way around, but it wasn't too long before
Mrs. Jackson was parking the car.
There wasn't a crowd at the bridge, it was too early in the morning.
The man in uniform was there again. He didn't say anything to Baartock's
father, but he did wave to Mrs. Jackson, and she waved back.
His father didn't want to waste any time getting started replacing
the old bridge. As soon as they got there, he climbed out
of the car and carrying his bag of tools, went to the edge of the
road. He jumped down into the water, and Baartock started handing
him hammers and chisels, as he called for them. He would dry and put
away the ones that his father was finished with and threw back to him.
While they were working, people came to watch, but the man in uniform
kept them back. Jason came down too, but the man wouldn't let him come over.
At lunch time, his father climbed back up and dried himself
off with the blanket, and they sat under a tree to eat. Baartock was
hungry, but his father ate four sandwiches to his one. Lunch was
quickly over, and they were ready to go back to work.
This time, after his father jumped down, he told Baartock to
hand him the bag of tools. Then he walked carefully through the
rushing stream, across the wrecked bridge to the other side and
tossed the bag up on the road. Then he came back and told Baartock to
climb onto his shoulders. He crossed the stream again, and Baartock
scrambled up the other side. Then just as before, he handed down tools
or put them away.
During the afternoon, a man came to talk to Baartock's
father. He was on the other side, and Baartock couldn't hear what
they were talking about. After a while, the man left and his father
came back to work.
"Stone," his father said. That was enough. Baartock knew
they had been talking about how much stone would be
needed to rebuild the bridge. His father was going to rebuild the
bridge the right way, the troll way, with stone and not concrete.
It wasn't dark when Baartock was carried back across the
stream. They were finished for the day.
The next day, Mrs. Jackson couldn't come to get them. When
they got down to the house, Mr. Fennis was waiting for them. He
didn't say a word, but he stared at Baartock's father. He looked as
if his eyes were going to pop out.
There were a few people already there, when they got to the
bridge. And the man in uniform was there too.
The water had gone down a lot, and they worked on something
new. This time, they didn't work where the supports had been, but
spent the day breaking up the old bridge. Some pieces his father
piled up, to keep the stream from washing away his new supports. The
rest of the pieces he tossed up to Baartock, who piled them beside
the road. It was a long hard day, and Baartock fell asleep in the car
on the way home.
The next day, both of Baartock's parents went off with Mrs.
Jackson to look at the stone they were going to build with. Baartock
didn't go along. He wanted to work on his bridge. Now that the
stream had gone down, he could fix it the way he wanted to. It was
fun, but now that he was working on a real bridge, his own seemed
very small.
He went to school the next morning, but after school,
instead of riding home on Mr. Barnes' bus, he went to help his
parents work on the new bridge. He spent the rest of the afternoon
helping pile up the broken pieces of the old bridge.
For the rest of that week and for several weeks after,
Baartock spent his days in school and his afternoons and weekends
working on the bridge. For a while, trucks came, bringing blocks of
stone, and big timbers they would use for supports, building the
bridge. They brought enough stone to make a hill of stone, until his
father said that was enough.
In those weeks, the crowd that came to watch the bridge
being built grew bigger, and there were more men in uniform to keep
them back. The pile of stone got smaller and the bridge got closer
to being finished. Somehow, word had gotten out that trolls were
building a bridge. A lot of people didn't believe it, and others
didn't care. Other people heard that a man, a woman, and a boy were
building a bridge by themselves, and came to watch. A few people
tried to push their way past the men in uniform to talk to Baartock's
parents while they were working.
Then one afternoon, right after lunch, Mrs. Jackson came to
get Baartock from class. He was surprised when she said that
they were going to the bridge. He usually didn't go until school
was over. As they went out to the parking lot, they went past
several school busses parked in front of the school. He thought
one of the busses was Mr. Barnes's, but they didn't go to it. They
went to her car and drove to the bridge.
When they got there, there was a big crowd just standing
around one end of the bridge. Baartock's parents were standing in
the middle of the bridge, but they weren't working. Baartock looked
at the bridge. It looked finished, but as he walked over, he saw
that there was one block missing from one side, and that block was
lying on the sidewalk.
He walked over to his parents to find out why they hadn't finished
the bridge. His mother just said, "wait," and kept watching Mrs.
Jackson. Soon the school busses drove up and a lot of kids got out.
There was all of Mrs. Stogbuchner's class, and a lot of other kids
besides. They came over to the bridge, but they didn't come across
it, they just stood there with the rest of the crowd. They were all
talking quietly, and watching Baartock and his parents. After a while
a man got up on a little wooden platform and started talking. He talked
for a long time, but Baartock wasn't listening to him. He had gotten an
idea. A wonderful idea.
Baartock's mother had been watching the man on the platform. When
he finished taking, she said, "Put stone in."
Baartock went over and picked up the last stone to put in
the wall. He slid it into place, and the crowd started to cheer. When
he stepped back, he saw the writing on the block. It was his special
mark, and the letters 'BAARTOCK'S BRIDGE'.
The crowd kept on cheering, and Baartock felt embarrassed.
Then he looked at his father. And his father looked at him. His
father must have had the same idea, for suddenly they both started
yelling at the top of their lungs, screaming, bellowing as loud as
they could, as they ran at the crowd standing at the end of the
bridge.
At the first sound, the crowd was frozen in place, and as
Baartock and his father kept yelling and running at them, the crowd
turned and ran away from the bridge as fast as they could. All the
humans kept on running until they were out of sight. Baartock and his
father stopped at the end of the bridge and they turned and walked
back, laughing, to his mother in the middle of the bridge. She
looked at them.
"Good bridge," she said. "Good troll bridge."
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.
End of Baartock, by Lewis Roth (C)1989