Holes (6 page)

“I like animals,” said Magnet.

“Good,” said Mr. Pendanski. “Does anyone know of any jobs that involve animals?”

“Veterinarian,” said Armpit.

“That’s right,” said Mr. Pendanski.

“He could work in a zoo,” said Zigzag.

“He belongs in the zoo,” said Squid, then he and X-Ray laughed.

“How about you, Stanley? Any ideas for José?”

Stanley sighed. “Animal trainer,” he said. “Like for the circus, or movies, or something like that.”

“Any of those jobs sound good to you, José?” asked Mr. Pendanski.

“Yeah, I like what Caveman said. About training animals for movies. I think it would be fun to train monkeys.”

X-Ray laughed.

“Don’t laugh, Rex,” said Mr. Pendanski. “We don’t laugh at people’s dreams. Someone is going to have to train monkeys for the movies.”

“Who are you kidding, Mom?” asked X-Ray. “Magnet’s never going to be a monkey trainer.”

“You don’t know that,” said Mr. Pendanski. “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. Nothing in life is easy. But that’s no reason to give up. You’ll be surprised what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it. After all, you only have one life, so you should try to make the most of it.”

Stanley tried to figure out what he’d say if Mr. Pendanski asked him what he wanted to do with his life. He used to think he wanted to work for the F.B.I., but this didn’t seem the appropriate place to mention that.

“So far you’ve all done a pretty good job at messing up your lives,” said Mr. Pendanski. “I know you think you’re cool.” He looked at Stanley. “So you’re Caveman, now, huh? You like digging holes, Caveman?”

Stanley didn’t know what to say.

“Well, let me tell you something, Caveman. You are here on account of one person. If it wasn’t for that person, you wouldn’t be here digging holes in the hot sun. You know who that person is?”

“My no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather.”

The other boys howled with laughter.

Even Zero smiled.

It was the first time Stanley had ever seen Zero smile. He usually had such an angry expression on his face. Now he
had such a huge smile it almost seemed too big for his face, like the smile on a jack-o’-lantern.

“No,” said Mr. Pendanski. “That person is you, Stanley. You’re the reason you are here. You’re responsible for yourself. You messed up your life, and it’s up to you to fix it. No one else is going to do it for you—for any of you.”

Mr. Pendanski looked from one boy to another. “You’re all special in your own way,” he said. “You’ve all got something to offer. You have to think about what you want to do, then do it. Even you, Zero. You’re not completely worthless.”

The smile was now gone from Zero’s face.

“What do you want to do with your life?” Mr. Pendanski asked him.

Zero’s mouth was shut tight. As he glared at Mr. Pendanski, his dark eyes seemed to expand.

“What about it, Zero?” asked Mr. Pendanski. “What do you like to do?”

“I like to dig holes.”

All too soon Stanley was back out on the lake, sticking his shovel into the dirt. X-Ray was right: the third hole was the hardest. So was the fourth hole. And the fifth hole. And the sixth, and the …

He dug his shovel into the dirt.

After a while he’d lost track of the day of the week, and how many holes he’d dug. It all seemed like one big hole, and it would take a year and a half to dig it. He guessed he’d lost at least five pounds. He figured that in a year and a half he’d be either in great physical condition, or else dead.

He dug his shovel into the dirt.

It couldn’t always be this hot, he thought. Surely it got cooler in December. Maybe then they froze.

He dug his shovel into the dirt.

His skin had gotten tougher. It didn’t hurt so much to hold the shovel.

As he drank from his canteen he looked up at the sky. A cloud had appeared earlier in the day. It was the first cloud he could remember seeing since coming to Camp Green Lake.

He and the other boys had been watching it all day, hoping it would move in front of the sun. Occasionally it got close, but it was just teasing them.

His hole was waist deep. He dug his shovel into the dirt. As he dumped it out, he thought he saw something glisten as it fell onto the dirt pile. Whatever it was, it was quickly buried.

Stanley stared at the pile a moment, unsure if he’d even seen it. Even if it was something, what good would it do him? He’d promised to give anything he found to X-Ray. It didn’t seem worth the effort to climb out of his hole to check it out.

He glanced up at the cloud, which was close enough to the sun that he had to squint to look at it.

He dug his shovel back into the earth, scooped out some dirt, and lifted it over his dirt pile. But instead of dumping it there, he tossed it off to the side. His curiosity had gotten the better of him.

He climbed up out of his hole and sifted his fingers through the pile. He felt something hard and metallic.

He pulled it out. It was a gold tube, about as long and as wide as the second finger on his right hand. The tube was open at one end and closed at the other.

He used a few drops of his precious water to clean it.

There seemed to be some kind of design on the flat, closed end. He poured a few more drops of water on it and rubbed it on the inside of his pants pocket.

He looked again at the design engraved into the flat bottom
of the tube. He could see an outline of a heart, with the letters
K B
etched inside it.

He tried to figure out some way that he wouldn’t have to give it to X-Ray. He could just keep it, but that wouldn’t do him any good. He wanted a day off.

He looked at the large piles of dirt near where X-Ray was digging. X-Ray was probably almost finished for the day. Getting the rest of the day off would hardly do him much good. X-Ray would first have to show the tube to Mr. Sir or Mr. Pendanski, who would then have to show it to the Warden. By then X-Ray might be done anyway.

Stanley wondered about trying to secretly take the tube directly to the Warden. He could explain the situation to the Warden, and the Warden might make up an excuse for giving him the day off, so X-Ray wouldn’t suspect.

He looked across the lake toward the cabin under the two oak trees. The place scared him. He’d been at Camp Green Lake almost two weeks, and he still hadn’t seen the Warden. That was just as well. If he could go his entire year and a half without seeing the Warden, that would be fine with him.

Besides, he didn’t know if the Warden would find the tube “interesting.” He looked at it again. It looked familiar. He
thought he’d seen something like it, somewhere before, but couldn’t quite place it.

“What you got there, Caveman?” asked Zigzag.

Stanley’s large hand closed around the tube. “Nothin’, just, uh …” It was useless. “I think I might have found something.”

“Another fossil?”

“No, I’m not sure what it is.”

“Let me see,” said Zigzag.

Instead of showing it to Zigzag, Stanley brought it to X-Ray. Zigzag followed.

X-Ray looked at the tube, then rubbed his dirty glasses on his dirty shirt and looked at the tube again. One by one, the other boys dropped their shovels and came to look.

“It looks like an old shotgun shell,” said Squid.

“Yeah, that’s probably what it is,” said Stanley. He decided not to mention the engraved design. Maybe nobody would notice it. He doubted X-Ray could see it.

“No, it’s too long and thin to be a shotgun shell,” said Magnet.

“It’s prob’ly just a piece of junk,” said Stanley.

“Well, I’ll show it to Mom,” said X-Ray. “See what he thinks. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get the day off.”

“Your hole’s almost finished,” said Stanley.

“Yeah, so?”

Stanley raised and lowered his shoulder. “So, why don’t you wait until tomorrow to show it to Mom?” he suggested. “You can pretend you found it first thing in the morning. Then you can get the whole day off, instead of just an hour or so this afternoon.”

X-Ray smiled. “Good thinking, Caveman.” He dropped the tube into his large pocket on the right leg of his dirty orange pants.

Stanley returned to his hole.

When the water truck came, Stanley started to take his place at the end of the line, but X-Ray told him to get behind Magnet, in front of Zero.

Stanley moved up one place in line.

That night, as Stanley lay on his scratchy and smelly cot, he tried to figure out what he could have done differently, but there was nothing he could do. For once in his unlucky life, he was in the right place at the right time, and it still didn’t help him.

“You got it?” he asked X-Ray the next morning at breakfast.

X-Ray looked at him with half-opened eyes behind his dirty glasses. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he grumbled.

“You know …” said Stanley.

“No, I don’t know!” X-Ray snapped. “So just leave me alone, okay? I don’t want to talk to you.”

Stanley didn’t say another word.

Mr. Sir marched the boys out to the lake, chewing sunflower seeds along the way and spitting out the shells. He
scraped the ground with his boot heel, to mark where each boy was supposed to dig.

Stanley stamped down on the back of the blade of the shovel, piercing the hard, dry earth. He couldn’t figure out why X-Ray snapped at him. If he wasn’t going to produce the tube, why did he make Stanley give it to him? Was he just going to keep it? The tube was gold in color, but Stanley didn’t think it was real gold.

The water truck came a little after sunrise. Stanley finished his last drop of water and stepped up out of his hole. At this time of day, Stanley sometimes could see some distant hills or mountains on the other side of the lake. They were only visible for a short while and would soon disappear behind the haze of heat and dirt.

The truck stopped, and the dust cloud drifted past it. X-Ray took his place at the front of the line. Mr. Pendanski filled his canteen. “Thanks, Mom,” X-Ray said. He didn’t mention the tube.

Mr. Pendanski filled all the canteens, then climbed back into the cab of the pickup. He still had to bring water to Group E. Stanley could see them digging about two hundred yards away.

“Mr. Pendanski!” X-Ray shouted from his hole. “Wait! Mr. Pendanski! I think I might have found something!”

The boys all followed Mr. Pendanski as he walked over to X-Ray’s hole. Stanley could see the gold tube sticking out of some dirt on the end of X-Ray’s shovel.

Mr. Pendanski examined it and took a long look at its flat bottom. “I think the Warden is going to like this.”

“Does X-Ray get the day off?” asked Squid.

“Just keep digging until someone says otherwise,” Mr. Pendanski said. Then he smiled. “But if I were you, Rex, I wouldn’t dig too hard.”

Stanley watched the cloud of dust move across the lake to the cabin beneath the trees.

The boys in Group E were just going to have to wait.

It didn’t take long for the pickup to return. Mr. Pendanski stepped out of the cab. A tall woman with red hair stepped out of the passenger side. She looked even taller than she was, since Stanley was down in his hole. She wore a black cowboy hat and black cowboy boots which were studded with turquoise stones. The sleeves on her shirt were rolled up, and her arms were covered with freckles, as was her face. She walked right up to X-Ray.

“This where you found it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Your good work will be rewarded.” She turned to Mr. Pendanski. “Drive X-Ray back to camp. Let him take a double shower, and give him some clean clothes. But first I want you to fill everyone’s canteen.”

“I just filled them a little while ago,” said Mr. Pendanski.

The Warden stared hard at him. “Excuse me,” she said. Her voice was soft.

“I had just filled them when Rex—”

“Excuse me,” the Warden said again. “Did I ask you when you last filled them?”

“No, but it’s just—”

“Excuse me.”

Mr. Pendanski stopped talking. The Warden wiggled her finger for him to come to her. “It’s hot and it’s only going to get hotter,” she said. “Now, these fine boys have been working hard. Don’t you think it might be possible that they might have taken a drink since you last filled their canteens?”

Mr. Pendanski said nothing.

The Warden turned to Stanley. “Caveman, will you come here, please?”

Stanley was surprised she knew his name. He had never seen her. Until she stepped out of the truck, he didn’t even know the Warden was a woman.

He nervously went toward her.

“Mr. Pendanski and I have been having a discussion. Have you taken a drink since Mr. Pendanski last filled your canteen?”

Stanley didn’t want to cause any trouble for Mr. Pendanski. “I still got plenty left,” he said. “Excuse me.”

He stopped. “Yeah, I drank some.”

“Thank you. May I see your canteen please.”

Stanley handed it to her. Her fingernails were painted dark red.

She gently shook the canteen, letting the water swish inside the plastic container. “Do you hear the empty spaces?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Mr. Pendanski.