Baartock

  Chapter 6

  The next morning, after his father had gone off, Baartock and hismother left the cave. They went through the woods toward the old emptyhouse, the one Mr. Fennis had called the 'old Howard house'.

  They were crossing the stream bed when Baartock saw a muddy pool hecould splash in. He was just about to dive into it when his mothersaid "No!" When he caught up with her all she said was "Not today."It was puzzling to him. She always let him get muddy.

  When they got to the empty house, there was a car in the driveway, andMrs. Jackson was standing beside it.

  "Good morning," she said. "Are you ready to go to school, Baartock?"

  Baartock wasn't sure about that, so he didn't say anything. He hadalmost forgotten about school. That was part of his first day, but notthe important part. He had forgotten about Mrs. Jackson saying shewould see them in the morning.

  Mrs. Jackson opened the car doors, and when Baartock and his mother gotin, she showed them how to fasten their seat belts. Mrs. Jacksonexplained that while she was a good driver, some other drivers weren't,and that they were probably safer wearing the seat belts. His motherlistened carefully to what Mrs. Jackson was saying. She didn't seem tomind being in a car, until Mrs. Jackson started the engine. WhinnurfSlinurp was a troll, so she wasn't about to get scared, but she didgrip the edge of the seat very firmly. When Mrs. Jackson asked if shewas all right, she just closed her eyes tightly and said "Go." But asthey drove toward town, Baartock's mother finally opened her eyes tosee where they were going.

  This time Baartock watched out the window as they drove into town.There were lots of buildings like the old empty house that he knew.There were humans walking and lots of cars, and some big cars calledtrucks. Some of them came right at them, but they always just missedMrs. Jackson's car.

  He was learning a lot about humans. Mrs. Jackson had been talkingalmost all the time while she had been driving. He learned aboutstreets, and blocks, which were between streets, and about houses andstores. Only he hadn't seen a single bridge. Suddenly he said,"School that way," and pointed.

  "Yes, you're right, Baartock. The school is that way. You certainly doknow just where you are. But we've got to go some place else first.We're almost there."

  In just a few blocks, Mrs. Jackson turned the car into a driveway andparked in a space in front of a brick building. She showed them how tounbuckle the seat belts. Baartock practiced putting his on and takingit off, while she walked around to open the doors. There was a sign onthe front of the building, 'Public Health Services', but that didn'tmean much to Baartock. As they walked to the house, he asked about it.

  "I'll tell you about it in just a minute," Mrs. Jackson said.

  Baartock didn't know what a minute was, but he decided to wait and seewhat this house was. And if there were any children here. He had beenthinking about Jason, and wanted to race him again. He was sure thathe could run faster, even though Jason was a little bigger.

  Inside there was a woman at a desk, who looked up as they came in. Sheseemed surprised when she looked up at Baartock's mother, but shedidn't look scared. "Nurse Dodge is expecting you, Mrs. Jackson," shesaid. "You can go right in."

  "Thank you," said Mrs. Jackson, and she led them down a hallway. Therewere several doors, and she knocked on one and was opening it when avoice said, "Come in."

  There were chairs and a desk in this room, as well as a woman dressedall in white clothes, who stood up and came around her desk as theywent in. "Norma, thank you for seeing us so early," said Mrs. Jackson."Mrs. Slinurp, this is Nurse Norma Dodge. And this is Baartock."

  "I'm glad to meet you," said Nurse Dodge in a cheerful voice. "Pleasecome in and sit down." After she shut the door and went back behindher desk, she said, "I understand Baartock is to start going to ourschool."

  Baartock didn't know anything about that, but his mother said, "Yes."

  "Let me tell you about what I do here," said Nurse Dodge.

  "I explained about medical records and shots," said Mrs. Jackson.

  "I'm sure that you did, but I would like telling about it anyway," saidNurse Dodge. To Baartock's mother she said, "I see most of the schoolchildren here and many of the adults too, and I try to keep themhealthy. I give the shots that will keep them from getting sick. ButI understand that Baartock has never been sick." "Yes," said his motherproudly. "Baartock never sick. Little trolls never get sick. Bigtrolls not get sick, too."

  That wasn't really quite true. Many young trolls get sore throats whenthey first start to practice their screaming. That was because theywould shriek instead of yelling or screaming. Their mothers would makethem gargle with warm salty water and that would usually make thembetter right away. But other than that, young trolls never got coldsor fevers or were ever sick.

  "But if you never get sick," asked the nurse, "how do you know aboutbeing sick?"

  "I see humans sick before," answered his mother. "Not same for trolls.Maybe break arm, break leg same as humans. There are troll ways to fixtrolls. Trolls never get human sick."

  Baartock didn't like to remember about breaking things. During thesummer, when he was building his bridge, an arch stone had fallen onhis hand and it broke two of his fingers. It had really hurt. Hismother had put some salve on his fingers so they wouldn't hurt andwould heal faster, then she had straightened them and wrapped them.When she unwrapped them two days later, they weren't broken any more,and he went back and finished his bridge. But he remembered how muchit hurt, and he was more careful after that.

  He stopped listening to what the adults were saying. He was gettingtired of just sitting. There wasn't anything in the room to interesthim, but there was an open door to another room, so he got up to lookat it.

  There wasn't much in that room either. Just a little bed and a lot oflittle doors under a counter. They were too small for an adult to gothrough, but he thought that he might fit through some of them. He wasjust about to go look behind those doors when his mother said,"Baartock sit!"

  Baartock went back and sat down and waited some more. He waited forwhat he thought was quite a long time. The adults just kept talking.Talking about him. He knew that they would keep on talking and theneither he would have to do something now, or else he couldn't dosomething until he was bigger. And he was right. After all thetalking, they agreed that he had to have a shot. Nurse Dodge went inthe other room and came back with a tiny bottle and something shecalled a 'needle'. Baartock's mother did a lot of sewing, but thiswasn't like any needle that Baartock had ever seen before. She putsomething from the bottle into the needle, then came over to Baartock.He was watching her carefully.

  "This may hurt a little, Baartock," she said. "You might want to lookover at your mother." Then she wiped his arm with something thatsmelled awful and made his arm wet, and she stuck the needle in hisarm. It did hurt, a little like getting stuck by a thorn on a bush inthe woods. Then she pulled the needle out and said, "That wasn't toobad, was it?"

  "Not hurt," said Baartock, though it did hurt some.

  Nurse Dodge put the needle in a metal trash can and put the littlebottle back in the other room. Then she went back behind her desk andwrote something on a piece of paper. "The school needs this to showthat Baartock has had his required shots," she said, "and I'll keep acopy here."

  "Well, Baartock," said Mrs. Jackson, "shall we go to school now?"

  "Go see Mississtog-Buchnersklass? Go see Jason?" asked Baartock.

  "Yes. We should hurry, so we'll be there before lunch."

  They left the house and got back in the car. Mrs. Jackson let Baartockput on his seat belt himself, but she checked to make sure it wasfastened.