Boomtown (5 page)

Jonny was the first one to react. “This is for
us
? All of it? For
free
?”

I put my hand on his shoulder. “Hang on a minute, buster, before you start lighting any matches. We've had
enough
fireworks for one day, don't you think? Probably enough for a lifetime.”

“Ah, c'mon, Dad. Just look at it. A hundred and fifty
pounds
!”

Leona cut in. “Now, Reverend, don't look so worried. On every fourth Friday, from May through September, everyone gathers down by the river in Chang Park and shoots off fire-works. It's all carefully supervised and a real
blast
, if you know what I mean. My husband will be there—quite a number of adults, actually—and the fire chief with his truck.”

“And an ambulance? And maybe a few stretchers? You heard what happened at the fireworks factory?”

Leona laughed. “Sure, I heard about it. You really know how to make an entrance!”

“Well, I'm not looking for a repeat performance, not tonight anyway. It's totally out of the question.” My back started to hurt again just thinking about it.

“Dad!” Jonny complained. Sarah joined in. “It's not fair!” Even Ruth was pouting.

Janice came to the rescue. “Listen here, Mr. Button. We're new in this town and you know what they say: ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.' We should
join in.
We'll meet more of the neighbors and let the kids have their fun. We'll be there to watch. It'll be fun for us too. Please?”

“That's right, Reverend,” Leona added. “It's a great way for the kids to make friends. Just think about it—after this morning Jonny and Sarah are
famous
! The park will be swarming with kids from the town. I'll be down there with my family. The whole Welcome Wagon committee will be there. Please say you'll come.”

I was almost convinced, but not quite.
When in Rome, do as
the Romans do?
I thought about what the Romans were famous for—it usually involved mass destruction and quite a bit of slashing and burning. After the episode that morning, I wasn't game for any more of it. But I looked into the eyes of my wife, then the faces of Jonny and Sarah and even Ruth, and figured I didn't have any choice. That was happening a lot lately.

“Okay,” I said, “we'll go, but only on
two
conditions.”

Once the cheering subsided, they asked me what they were.

“Number one, we aren't going anywhere until we've finished moving in. That goes for
all
of you—
especially
you, Sarah—all your things put away, your room cleaned up, your bed made.”

“I will! I promise!”

“And number two, you will
not
under
any
circumstances push
any
buttons or flip
any
switches without complete and total adult supervision, and
not
until I am hiding behind a rock—is that understood?”

“Thanks, Dad!” Jonny said, pumping my hand. “It's a deal!”

“All right, now that's settled. Let's get back to work.”

Unpacking continued without further interruption. By the time it started to get dark, all the furniture was in position, all the boxes were unpacked, all the beds were set up, and we still had time before the fireworks show to eat another delicious meal. Gramma Edna and her sewing ladies insisted on feeding us until our stomachs were ready to burst. I could already tell that in Boomtown we'd never starve.

By eight o'clock I was so tired and sore that I tried to get out of going to the park, but Jonny and Sarah wouldn't leave me alone.

“C'mon kids, I have to get some sleep. Tomorrow is Saturday. I have to get ready for my first Sunday. I'm going to stay home. Ruth and your mother can take you.”

“But you
gotta
come, Dad! Have you even
looked
inside the box?”

I had, actually. The Big Bang Boom Box consisted of two parts. There was a latch that held the lid closed. Once it was opened, the lid contained all the loose fireworks: strings of firecrackers, Roman candles, sparklers, fountains, bottle rockets, and that sort of thing. There were smoke bombs and squirmy snakes and smoke worms and spinning flowers and buzzing fire bees, but there was also something I'd never seen before. It was an army of little tin soldiers (made out of cardboard, of course) that when you lit the fuse, they would go marching across the ground until the fuse hit the main charge, after which their heads would go shooting off and explode with a bang. There were also about twenty fire frogs; light the fuse and they went jumping all over the place, flipping upside down, spewing fire and smoke, and finally disappearing in a blast of green flame and sparks. Those were really something to see.

But that was nothing compared to the second part. The main box contained a preset fireworks display, complete with launcher tubes and a timed fuse mechanism. All you had to do was set the box an appropriate distance away from spectators, light the extra-long fuse, duck for cover, and watch as the rockets' red glare filled the air. Pink ones, blue ones, green ones, gold and silver bursts, loud explosions, balls of fire, shooting and crackling and whistling fireworks for almost ten solid minutes. I was forced to admit I was suitably impressed by the display. I marveled at the clever inventors at the fireworks factory who had designed it.

However, as enjoyable as the fireworks turned out to be, the best part of the evening had to do with the people we met, especially the children of Boomtown who took to our kids like mice to a hunk of cheese. Ruth met some other high school girls who invited her to try out for the cheer-leading squad. Sarah and Jonny were that night's celebrities and they both went home with a dozen new friends. It was everything Janice and I had been hoping for.

It started with a boy about the same age as Jonny who came over and introduced himself. “Howdy! The name's Busy. What's yours?”

“Jonathan. But people call me Jonny—or sometimes Jon for short.
Your
name is kinda weird, though.”

“What,
Busy
? Nah, that's not my
real
name.”

“What is it then?”

“My
real
name is Bartholomew Zed Gunderson—that's a mouthful, ain't it? My initials are B. Z., so my friends just call me ‘Busy.' Get it?”

“Sure, I get it now.”

“My
dad's
nickname is the weird one. It's ‘Lazy.' Lazy Gunderson—sorta the opposite of mine.”

“Why do they call him that?”

“'Cause he flattened our house with a tractor.”

“He did?”

“That's right!” Busy grinned proudly, hitching his thumbs in his pants. “Flattened the house! Flat as a pancake!”

“You're making that up,” Jonny said.

“It's true! He was out in the cornfield one day. It was hot and he fell asleep—which is no big deal usually; he's always taking a nap it seems like—'cept this time he was still on the tractor.”

“What happened then?” Sarah interrupted, getting caught up in the story.

“Who's this?” Busy asked.

“That's my little sister. She's Sorry.”

“Sorry 'bout what?”

“Sorry about everything, usually. Just wait a few minutes. I'm sure she'll come up with something.”

Sarah punched Jonny in the shoulder. “I'm not
that
little. I'm ten years old. I'm big enough to keep up with any of you farmer kids.”

“You think so?” Busy replied, sizing her up. “Well, I'm the leader of my gang, and I say we don't have any
girls
to go in it. We'll take Jonny. 'Course we want
him
, after he blew up the fire-works factory and all. He's my new captain; that's what
I
say.”

“I am?”

“Sure 'nough. I need a guy who knows his way around rockets and stuff.”

Sarah cut in. “That's not
fair
! I burned down the fire-works factory too!”

Busy thought about it for a moment before he answered, “That's true. I heard you was the one who threw the switch. I'll have to talk to the other guys about it, but I won't make any promises. We don't want to catch no girl germs.”

Sarah crossed her arms and pouted. “Don't bother, coo-tie breath. I'll start my
own
gang! You'll see.” She stomped off into the night looking for any girls she could recruit.

“She's a real firecracker,” Busy decided. “She always goin' off like that?”

“Yeah, pretty much every five seconds. Anyway, you were talking about your dad?”

“Right, I was,” Busy nodded. “So my dad, he falls asleep on the tractor with his foot jammed on the accelerator and the engine still in gear. The tractor starts to turn in this big circle, you see, right through the rows of corn he'd already planted, right across the field, right through the fence!”

“He didn't wake up?”

“Nah, he was really tired on account of the fact that he missed his morning nap and it was so hot and all. So he just slept right on through, even when the tractor drove through the barn. The doors were wide open—he went in one side and out the other!”

“Boy, I wish I was there to see that!”

“Same here. I was in school so I missed the whole thing; so did my brother and sister. My mom was there, though, outside in the front yard hanging the laundry. That's where she was when he went rolling on by—right through her clean sheets—right over the top of her laundry basket! She started screaming and chasing him across the yard, but still he didn't wake up till he was halfway through the living room—'course by then it was too late.”

“You're joshin' me!”

“Nope. There he went, right on across the porch, through the front door, across the living room, into the kitchen, and right out the back!”

“What'd he do when he woke up?”

“About the time he was smashing through the kitchen, he opened his eyes and saw what was going on, but before he could get the tractor out of gear, he was in the back yard. There was nothing he could do about it, with this big ol' gaping hole right through the middle of our house! My mom ran around to make sure he was okay, just as the house tipped over and fell down flat as a penny on a railroad track!
Whomp!
Just like that!”

“Wow!”

“Yep. Ever since then people 'round here call him Lazy.

Lazy Gunderson, that's my dad!”

Jonny said, “You're so lucky. Your dad is
famous
.”

“Hey, your dad was almost killed by a
rocket
!” Busy answered back. “What could be better'n that?”

After the boys got to know each other, Busy introduced him to the rest of his friends, and from that moment on Jonny was never to be seen alone. It was always Jonny and Busy and Frank and Rocky and Bobby and Lonnie and all his other buddies as they went fishing or camping or tree climbing or exploring or who knows what else. In fact, I credit those boys for some of what ended up happening, although I share a large portion of the blame. If I hadn't been so
hard
on Jonny, maybe he could have trusted me.

What none of us knew was that there was another new-comer in town that night. We wouldn't find out until much later, but he was there watching the whole fireworks display from his hiding place in the trees. None of us heard him gasp when he laid eyes on the Big Bang Boom Box—when he saw the picture of Chang for the first time. None of us knew who the mysterious visitor was or what he was doing there.

But we would find out soon enough.

CHAPTER 3

Walt's Barbershop

I
n spite of the late night, Janice and I were up early the next morning. She had a few more things to put away, and I wanted to review my sermon notes before Sunday. We let the children sleep in. They were exhausted after all the excitement of the day before.

Gramma Edna popped in with some freshly baked muffins for breakfast. We sat and had some coffee while she talked about where to find things in Boomtown. Janice wanted to visit some of the shops, especially Gertrude's Beauty Parlor, and I needed to get a haircut. I was determined to make a good first impression on my new flock. My hair would be freshly trimmed, and I'd wear my best preaching suit and my favorite tie.

Gramma Edna provided directions to the local barber-shop. She chuckled and said, “We aren't the biggest town in the world. For the gentlemen, there's Walt's Barber Shop on Bang Street and for you, Janice, you're already planning to go to Gertrude's Beauty Parlor on Boom Boulevard. Those are your only choices.”

Just as she was telling us this, Sarah came barreling down the stairs and jumped into Gramma Edna's lap.
“Oof
!” Edna said, almost spilling her coffee. With Sarah on the scene and the other two close behind, Edna could only squeeze in a final word of advice: “Whatever you do, Reverend, if you stop in for a haircut—
don't upset Walter
!” I never got the chance to ask her what she meant.