I don’t know when Buzz
noticed the thing on the end of his nose. I had seen it that morning but didn’t
want to tell my pal on account that he thought he was the best lookin’ guy
walkin’ on the face of this, here, Earth. I kid you not. So when Becky Walters
said in her usual way,
“You got a big zit on the
end of your nose, Buzz,” he kinda took it real bad, which makes me think he
didn’t know it was there. I’m thinking how could he have missed it, I mean that
thing was so big, it had it’s own gravitational system.
Buzz said nuthin’ and walked
off home. Becky Walters looked real pleased with herself and said, “Did I say
somethin’ wrong?”. Becky knew she’d said somethin’ wrong, I mean that’s all she
was good at, on account of her Mom tellin’ everyone in town that her Becky was
a Princess and all.
The next morning, I see Buzz
- well I didn’t actually see him, but I knew it was Buzz ‘cause he was wearin’
the same jeans and shoes as yesterday. He had a big brown paper bag over his
head and two holes cut out for eyes so he didn’t get hit by cars.
I kinda thought the brown
paper bag might look even weirder than a big thing on the end of your nose, but
I wasn’t so sure of that fact that I could tell Buzz to go naked in the head
department. Apparently Buzz’s Maw had tried to fix the zit by stickin’ a needle
in it and it had made it worse. Buzz’s Maw wasn’t real good at doctor stuff but
it didn’t stop her makin’ up her own cures for everythin’.
When Buzz had a fever, she
had made him lie down in a darkroom with a brick on his head. Apparently it was
a cure that had been passed down thru the family. I’m thinkin’ craziness was
the only thing that was passed down in that family.
Buzz told me to go round the
corner where there weren’t no people to see his nose and he lifted the bag to
show me what was happenin’ under there.
“Wow!” Was all I said.
Buzz wanted to know if that
was a good ‘wow’ and I told him it was, but I had to cross my legs on account
that I thought I’d pee myself, ‘cause I wanted to laugh so bad. Buzz had a
tomato on the end of his nose – I mean, a big red bright tomato. No kiddin’.
We kinda tried to pretend
everythin’ was all right and neither Buzz nor me mentioned the paper bag. Some
folks would shout at Buzz callin’ him names and stuff, but the bag was so thick
that Buzz couldn’t hear nuthin’.
I decided since Buzz was my bested
friend in the whole wide world I would wear a bag on my head as well. It was
kinda cool.
Buzz’ Maw kept trying her
medicine on his nose and every day he’d show me it and it wasn’t getting’ any
better. I wondered if his nose might not eventually fall off, but I didn’t want
to tell my pal on account that it ain’t somethin’ you want to tell a buddy.
One mornin’ Becky Walters
was standin’ on the corner being a princess when she spotted Buzz and me and our paper bags and I’m thinkin’
she’s gonna pee herself - but she didn’t.
“Why don’t ya paint a face
on your bags,” she said and know what? I thought that was a great idea, too.
So Buzz and me went off to
paint our bag faces but like everythin’ with Buzz it wasn’t straightforward.
Next time I see him he’s dressed as a clown. Yep a big clown with big shoes and
a white face and a big nose; I mean it was his own nose but it suited the clown
face, I kid you not.
I thought the bag had been
all right but I wasn’t following my pal down the clown face road.
It had been his Maw’s idea -
she had thought why not just paint a face on her boy and be done with it, and
maybe she had a point. At school I could see the teacher kinda lookin’ at him
and shakin’ her head but she didn’t say nuthin’. She just went off and got all
the other teachers in school to come to our class. And they all left, crossin’
their legs like they were gonna pee themselves, too.
Buzz’s Maw got arrested on
the Friday for trying to cure the Sheriff’s daughter of her hiccups by making
her stand on top of an auto-mobile. The Sheriff said she was just plain crazy and
slung her in jail until the following Monday. The good thing about this was it
let Buzz’s nose get a rest from his Maw and so it started to get better. By
Monday, Buzz was ready to face the rest of town - just the way God had made him
- and he went up to Becky Walters and gave her a big kiss, right there, on her
lips.
bobby stevenson 2013
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