~~~
Ahead of Robert and Kile, just before they were about to step into the Maple Springs Airport, they heard the buzzing start of Dan’s B52 model plane. This is what Rob had been hoping for. And there was Dan, eyeing his plane as it took off from the grassy landing strip.
“Hey Dan!”
“What’sup?” Dan nodded, not looking away from the plane rising in the sky.
“Oh… you know. Need a break from some family,” Rob replied.
Kile, disguised as Ricky, kept staring awkwardly at Daniel. The stare and open mouth look was powerful enough that even Dan, distracted by it, looked down from the plane and caught Kile’s attention. He smiled at the little boy and nodded, trying to be friendly enough. “You okay Ricky?”
“Mmmm…” the troll mumbled.
After a moment more, Rob, standing behind Daniel’s shoulders motioned for Kile to come back and talk with him. It took some pretty drastic arm movements and mouthing “Come here!” before the troll noticed and stepped away from Dan a little bit. Once he was out of the line of sight from Dan, Rob grabbed Kile’s arm and pulled him close.
“What are you doing? He’s gonna think something’s wrong if you don’t stop staring like that!”
Kile cusped his hand around his mouth and tried as best as he could to utter a hoarse and raspy whisper to Robert. “Why is Daniel skin so dark? …It’s very brown!”
“What?” the question took Rob by surprise and didn’t quite register what Kile was asking at first.
Dragging him as quickly and quietly as he could, Robert took Kile several more steps away, hopefully out of earshot of Daniel before the little troll said something terribly rude.
“What are you talking about?” Rob asked again.
Kile squirmed in the firm grip. “Why his skin so dark? I not see a human with such dark skin before!”
The troll seemed perplexed. Perhaps he was mesmerized by the difference in skin tone, but Robert was starting to feel a little uncomfortable with Kile’s blunt reaction.
“Are you saying you haven’t seen a black person before?” Rob asked.
“Daniel not black! He’s dark brown! …It’s very pretty. Remind Kile of forest,” Kile continued. He scratched his head and mopey hair with his long fingernails. “Are brown humans okay to talk to?”
Now, Rob was very glad he had pulled Kile away to talk with him. “What?! Of course it’s okay! Why wouldn’t it be okay?”
“Well…” Kile looked as though his hand had been slapped. “It’s just that…there are different kinds of trolls.”
“Yeah?” Robert said, standing upright for a moment to check on what Daniel was doing and if he needed to move the little troll even further away. Dan was fixed on the plane and so he knelt down next to Kile and allowed him to continue.
“Yeah. You know…like…” Kile said and then leaned in really close to whisper the last bit, “like the bridge trolls! They’re green!”
Kile stood back again from Robert and nodded his head very carefully and looked upon Robert with serious eyes.
Robert flapped his hands against his side before responding. “So…You’re saying you’re not allowed to talk to Bridge Trolls because they’re green?”
“No!” Kile responded agitatedly. “Never! Because they are dangerous! And they’re mean!”
Robert was beginning to get the same sense of unease about having made the exchange with the trolls for Ricky. How was he going to keep a crazy troll out of sight and out of mind for several days, or weeks…or months. Who knew how long he’d have to keep up this charade? Obviously, trolls saw things completely different than humans did. But then a thought occurred to him. That difference was the very reason Queen Isabel wanted Kile to go out with Robert and observe in the first place. A sense of duty and big brotherly responsibility tugged at Rob’s emotions. He decided he should continue to try to reason with Kile.
“Well, Kile…maybe that’s all just a misunderstanding?”
“No, no, no! Green trolls with horns are very, very bad. Never let one see you, Robbie!”
Kile adopted the use of the name Robert asked him to use easily enough. Perhaps reason was not beyond the little troll after all. However, as he pondered, Kile started huffing and flapping his arms. He was becoming a little distressed and Rob felt he had no real way to prevent it. The troll was reacting to something totally ridiculous, so how could he convince him to forget about it?
“Okay, so look Kile!” Rob started. He found he had to grab him by the shoulders again to get him to hold still and to stop looking over at Daniel with trepidation in his eyes. “It doesn’t matter what color skin we have, humans are all exactly the same! …You got it?”
“Daniel, not going to eat us?” Kile asked, one finger on his lip and the other hand grasping Rob’s coat sleeve.
“No. There is no way Daniel is going to eat us. Look Kile, there’s lots of black people in the world. …and yellow…and red…and even olive, I guess, from what Dad says. But none of them are going to hurt us just because our skins are different colors, because we’re all the same, really. You gotta relax, buddy! Stop looking for things to panic about.”
“Daniel will not smash us if we get in his way?” Kile continued to push.
“No! Look, Kile! Daniel is just a human. He’s just the same as you or me!”
The two locked eyes for a moment. Then both started giggling.
“Daniel not a troll, Robbie,” came the quiet response and with that Kile started waddling slowly back to Daniel’s side to see what he could see. He called back over his shoulder, “And Robbie not either!”
“You alright there, Ricky?” Dan asked once both he and Robert returned.
“Oh yes!” Kile said with a large grin. He flashed Rob a thumbs-up and winked, making Robert wonder where exactly the little troll had picked that up. “I am not scared of you at all now!”
“What?” Daniel said, glancing at the image of Little Ricky and then up at Robert. “I’ve never known you to be scared before, Ricky. In fact…most people in Maple Springs are afraid of you!”
While Dan went back to focusing on bringing the plane around again in a circle to buzz above the meadow, Kile looked to Robert for explanation. There was none coming, but Robert tried to redirect the conversation.
“Oh… He just wants to try your plane and was afraid to ask you.”
Rob looked back at Kile and smiled and winked himself.
“No way, Ricky!” Dan said. “You know my parents’ rules. You gotta be at least twelve to fly my plane. You’d totally wreck it.”
Somehow Kile picked up on the deception. He folded his arms and huffed a little. “No I wouldn’t!”
“Yeah, little dude. You’re a total spaz,” Dan replied, but his tone was familiar and it didn’t seem to upset Kile at all. “You get a couple years older, like Robert, and I’ll let you have a go.”
After another half a minute of flying, Robert cleared his throat and spoke. “I don’t supposed that means you’d let me try, does it?”
Dan thought for a moment. “When’s your birthday again?”
Rob seemed to lose just a bit of luster as he replied. “Not for another two weeks.”
Dan directed the plan around towards them again before responding. “Tell you what. I don’t think you better trying taking off and landing yet…but here. You can try controlling it in the air for a minute.”
Kile gasped with glee and grinned, clapping his hands together once.
“Really?!” Rob smiled.
“Sure. Just don’t push too hard on either stick. Just get used to it first,” Daniel replied holding out the RC controller to him.
For the next five minutes or so, before Daniel said the plane needed to come in for a refuel, Rob circled around the meadow while Dan gave directions. Kile watched in amazement, both the plane and the two older human boys. If he’d had his journal with him that Queen Isabel had give
n to him before their departure from Machsa he would have made a little note about how easily humans worked together. He thought for sure it was something his own people could learn from and made a strong mental note of it so that he wouldn’t forget to jot it down later that night back in Ricky’s room.
After a long visit with Daniel the older boy started packing up his plane, and Robert with Kile bid goodnight. As they were nearing home again they could hear Rob’s mother calling their names and decided they’d better hurry up.
Somewhat out of breath while trying to keep up, Kile said to Rob, “You’re right, Robbie! Daniel is a very nice human. I hope all humans are like that.”