Chapter Three

Three days had passed since Squid's last dream. Or nightmare. He couldn't really tell. He kept on thinking about the black bird. The room. The fire. The tapping. The tapping wouldn't stop. It was as if it was in his head.

The day was sunny. Very sunny. Beads of moisture had formed on the shovel and the boys.

"Could it get any hotter?" said Armpit.

"I dunno. But I don't think I'm gonna talk anymore," said X-Ray.

"Yeah. Hey, what time is it?" asked Caveman.

"Do you think we know?" asked Squid.

Caveman shrugged.

"Hey guys let's just get back to digging," X-Ray said.

"Thought you said you weren't gonna talk anymore," said Zigzag as he continued digging. X-Ray didn't answer.

"Hey, I think I can see smoke," Magnet said after a while.

"Is somethin' on fire?" asked Zigzag hopefully.

"Nah. It's just the water truck," Armpit said.

They continued digging. But not for long.

"Water truck!" some of the boys exclaimed as they got up out of their holes. It was currently about three yards away from them. "All right," Mr. Sir said, "I only have E- tent after you guys, so hurry up."

They all quickly got in line.

"Hey man," Squid said pushing Zero back, "Get in your spot in line."

Zero angrily went to the end of the line.

"Was that so hard?"

When Zigzag's turn came up he asked, "Hey, I have a question. Why are you so.grumpy.?"

Mr. Sir turned to look at him. "What is the matter with you jackasses? Can't you just leave me alone?"

Everyone was silent. Was that a rhetorical question? Not like anybody knew what rhetorical meant.

"That's more like it."

Fourty- five minutes after they got back to digging X-Ray said, "I bet you he's crying like a little girl." He cleared his throat and imitated the voice of a retarded girl, "Wah! Wah! Can't you just leave me alone? Wah Wah!"

The other guys couldn't help but laugh a little. Even Zero.

"Good imitation," Zigzag said.

"Just doin' what I gotta do to keep us all workin'. It's only gonna get hotter and hotter. Right?"

"Right," Armpit said. He was about three and a half feet in his hole. X- Ray, Zigzag and Squid were four. Magnet and Caveman were three. And Zero was done.

Squid watched Zero leave. Then X-Ray. Then Zigzag. Then Armpit. Then Magnet. Then Caveman. What was he waiting for? He didn't know. He could have gone a few minutes after Zigzag, but for some reason he didn't want to. But if he did, then it sure would have saved him a lot of sweating. He headed towards the camp.

In thee Wreck Room, some of the guys were singing one of three sailor songs. But they changed the words a little.

"Gloucester Girls they have no tits! Squeeze away! Squeeze away! They comb their hair with codfish dicks. We are bound for a Miss Lepe`."

Caveman shook his head as X-Ray Zigzag and Armpit sang. What were they going to do with Gloucester Boys? Nobody knows. Nobody probably even wants to know.

Sooner or later, Squid was so tempted to sing along, that he sang the Leave Her Johnny with them. No words changed. Well, maybe a little.

"Oh, I thought I heard Mr. Sir once say, "Leave her, X-Ray, leave her! You can go downtown and draw your pay. It's time for you to leave her."

More words changed, but I bet that you would be bored with this chapter unless you already are. But I think that you might as well keep on reading.

"Meeting in D- tent!" Mom announced. Like they cared. They were already in their tent anyway. Besides, it never was a meeting. He might as well say discussion in D- tent

"Discussion in D- tent!" he said. "We're going to share what you like about one an other."

There was silence for a moment.

"Nyeesh," Zigzag said. "Does that mean we have to--"

He didn't finish. Magnet's hand was clamped over his mouth. "No Shovel Head," he said. "We tell each other what we think about each other."

At first Zigzag didn't say anything. He just sat completely still. But soon enough he nodded.

"All right," Mom said, "Who should we start with?"

He looked around the tent. "Ah, Alan. Tell us what you think about Ricky."

"Well, he's kinda tall. He's kinda weird, but in a really cool way. And he's kinda tall and cool."

Mom gave him a stern look which probably meant that he was going to say "Tell us what you really think about him".

"Tell us what you really think about him," Mom said. Like you didn't see that one coming.

"I like him."

They all knew what Mom was going to say next.

"Why?"

"'Cause he's cool."

"Okay," Mom said, "That's good enough for me." His eyes looked around the tent for more prey. "Alan, tell us what you think about Zero," was his decision.

Okay, not much of a cliffhanger, but it'll do for me. You should thank the people who got tired of waiting. Thank them 'cause I wrote this in twenty- five minutes (That might be why it's not that good). Thank them 'cause thay read this. Thank yourself 'cause you read this. And you'd better be thanking Edgar Alan Poe for writing poems the way he does. Review (I don't say read and review 'cause if you've just read it and it says read and review that means you would have to read the whole thing over again and again and again and again and again and you'll never get a chance to review)!