My Angel, My Only
Chapter Ten ll Hector Zeroni
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That evening, the two boys were sitting in the tent. Stanley had brought out some paper and a pencil.
"Do you know the alphabet?" he asked Zero.
Zero bit his lip. He had heard of it somewhere, "I think I know some of it. A, B, C, D."
"Keep going," Stanley said, looking at him intently.
Zero had trouble remembering. He looked upwards.
"E..."
"F," Stanley supplied.
"G," Zero said defiantly. He blew some air out of the side of his mouth, so that several of his brown locks billowed up, "H...I...K, P."
"H, I, J, K, L," Stanley corrected.
Something stirred in Zero's memory.
"That's right," he said slowly, "I've heard it before. I just don't have it memorized exactly."
"That's all right," Stanley consoled, "Here, I'll say the whole thing, just to kind of refresh your memory. Then you can try it."
Zero nodded.
"A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z," Stanley said in it's little rhyming-song way.
"A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J... K... L, M, N, O... P, Q, R, S, T, U... V, W, X, Y, Z," Zero repeated slowly.
"Yeah, that's right!" Stanley said, grinning.
"Well, I've heard it before, somewhere," Zero said, trying to pretend it was nothing. But he couldn't help smiling.
After that, Stanley taught him how to write an 'A'.
"Actually, there are two ways to write each letter. That's a capital 'A'. But usually you'll see a small 'a'. You only have capitals at the beginning of a word, and only if it's the start of a sentence, or if it's a proper noun, like a name."
Zero was clueless, but nodded nonetheless. He knew Stanley was trying his best to explain things clearly, and he appreciated that.
As he copied down a small 'a', Zero said, "So there are really fifty-two."
Stanley didn't say anything. Zero glanced at him and saw that he looked puzzled.
"Instead of twenty-six letters. There are really fifty-two," Zero explained.
"I guess that's right..." Stanley looked amazed, "How'd you figure it out?"
As Zero wrote another capital and small 'A', he remained silent.
"Did you add?"
Zero still didn't say anything.
"Did you multiply?"
"That's just how many there are," Zero said, dropping his pencil.
Stanley still looked amazed.
They moved onto the letter 'B'. While Zero was writing his 'b's, he said, "You can teach me ten letters a day. Five capitals, and five smalls. After five days I'll know them all. Except on the last day I'll have to do twelve. Six capitals and six smalls."
Stanley stared at him again, and Zero almost smiled.
"I'll dig part of your hole everyday," Zero offered.
Stanley shook his head, "Nah, that's cool."
"Look," Zero said, his eyebrows raising slightly, "You're a slow digger."
Stanley laughed, "What, so you're baggin' me out now?"
"Yeah, I'm baggin' you out," Zero said with a chuckle, then he grew serious, "If I dig your hole for an hour, our holes will get finished at the same time. Then you can teach me for about an hour."
"Alright then," Stanley agreed.
Zero continued printing his 'B's. Stanley asked him again how he figured out it would take five days.
Zero had no clue himself. All he knew was, that was how many there were. He remembered doing these sort of number thingies a few years ago, but his memory had gone fuzzy on him.
"It's good math," Stanley had said.
"I'm not stupid," Zero replied, finally saying what had been on his mind for months, "I know everybody thinks I am. I just don't like answering their questions."
After the reading and writing lesson, Stanley and Zero had bonded a little bit. This suited Zero perfectly fine.
At dinner, they both went and got their soup. Mr. Sir was in charge of serving the casserole. The left side of his face had swelled to the size of half a cantaloupe. There were three dark purple jagged lines running down his cheek.
Stanley winced when he saw him. Zero stared, amazed. He wondered what had happened. He remembered Stanley telling the others the Warden got mad at Mr. Sir for bothering her. But he had never said they had gotten involved in a cat fight as well.
"What happened to him?" Zero murmured out of the corner of his mouth, while they moved up in line to get rice. There was a metal sort of bench that they could slide their trays across when lining up. It was easier than holding them.
Stanley just shook his head.
"Whoa, what happened to your face?" one of the other campers asked Mr. Sir, when he was getting his casserole.
Mr. Sir dropped the ladle. He grabbed the boy by his collar.
"Is there something wrong with my face?"
The boy was choking and gasping for air. Mr. Sir threw him onto the ground. He knocked over a chair and made a table crash as he fell onto the floor.
"Does anyone see anything wrong with my face?"
There was complete silence. No one even coughed.
Mr. Sir walked above the boy, who scrambled back.
"How does my face look to you now?"
"Fine," he gasped, looking terrified.
"Don't you think I'm kinda purdy?" "Yes, Mr. Sir," everyone chorused at once.
While this all happened, Zero had kept his head down. He was trying not to laugh.
---
The next day, when the water truck came, Mr. Sir was driving it. No one said anything except for, "Thank you, Mr. Sir."
Zero got his canteen ready as Stanley handed his to Mr. Sir.
"You thirsty, Caveman?"
"Yes, Mr. Sir," Stanley said with a gulp.
Mr. Sir opened the nozzle, but held the canteen right next to the stream of water. The water flowed and splattered onto the dry ground.
Zero stared, wondering what was happening. Had Mr. Sir lost his eyesight?
The stream of water ran for thirty seconds, before Mr. Sir turned it off. He handed Stanley's empty canteen back to him.
"There, that should be plenty."
Stanley was staring at the shrinking dark spot on the ground.
"Thank you, Mr. Sir."
He shuffled away.
Zero cautiously handed his canteen to Mr. Sir. To his relief, his canteen got filled with water.
"Thank you, Mr. Sir," he said. He walked towards Stanley's hole, where he was digging as it was his turn.
Stanley was sitting beside his hole, staring into space.
"Want some water?" Zero offered, handing his canteen to Stanley.
He took it gratefully, and only drank a bit.
Zero picked up the shovel and started digging.
"Hey, you know that gold tube X-Ray found?" Stanley asked him suddenly.
Zero glanced at him, and then nodded, "Yeah."
"Well, I was the one who actually found it. I gave it to X-Ray 'cause we had a sort of deal. Anyway, I just figured out what the tube was."
Zero waited for him to break the news.
Stanley looked at him, "It's half a lipstick container."
"Cool," Zero said slowly, wondering why Stanley was telling him this.
"The initials 'KB' were engraved on it. I reckon it belonged to Kate Barlow."
Zero almost dropped his shovel and laughed aloud. With his eyebrows raised slightly, he leant forward.
"Kissin' Kate Barlow?" he said in disbelief.
Stanley seemed to think to himself for a moment. Then he took another sip from Zero's canteen, and nodded.
"Yup. Kissin' Kate Barlow."
Zero wondered if lack of water caused people to go crazy.
---
Three days later, Zero got annoyed at the other boys who were constantly paying Stanley out because he was digging part of his hole for him.
Honestly, Zero didn't care. It didn't seem like he was digging any extra. And he was learning a lot in return, Stanley was a good teacher.
"Same old story, ain't it, Armpit?" X-Ray had mocked, "The white boy sits around while the black boy does all the work. Ain't that right, Caveman?"
"No, that's not right," Stanley replied.
Zero would've gone to his defence, but he never said anything to the other boys. It was like what Zigzag had said, "He only talks to the Caveman."
The water truck came, and Mr. Sir was driving it again. Sometimes, it angered Zero to watch as Mr. Sir wasted all the water, right in front of Stanley's face. Luckily, Mr. Pendanski filled the canteens more often than usual.
This time, however, Mr. Sir filled Stanley's canteen. Then he suddenly left to the cab of his truck, where he was blocked from view.
"What's he doing in there?" Zero wanted to know.
"I wish I knew," Stanley had replied.
Later that evening, Stanley taught Zero the final six letters of the alphabet. Then he taught Zero how to write his name.
Zero really enjoyed writing his name over and over. Stanley spelt it out for him, and he'd write it down.
Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero.
He picked up his piece of paper, and smiled at it.
"Zero," he repeated. Then he put down his work, and looked seriously at Stanley, "You know, that's not my real name."
"Really?" Stanley said, looking quizzical, "But I mean, even Pendanski calls you--"
"I know," Zero said, still admiring his writing, "Everyone's always called me Zero, even before I came here."
"Oh. Okay," Stanley said. He didn't know what else to say.
"My real name is Hector."
"Hector."
"Hector Zeroni."
Stanley smiled, and held out his hand, "Nice to meet you, Hector Zeroni."
With a laugh, Zero took it and shook his hand.
He had a warm feeling in his stomach.
Hector Zeroni has been born again.
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---->A/N: OH--EM--GEE! I GOT THE HOLES DVD. AHAHHAHA. Hem. Anyway... HI EVERYONE! Thanks for reviewing, ahaha, it's so mad to see all those reviews. ((dances)) Guess what happens in the next chapter? ZERO RUNS AWAY! That means we're kinda gettin' to the good part! Yeah, this story will "fill in the holes" Mr. Sachar so-very-nicely did not. In other words, my story will offer a really odd explanation to where Zero's mother went. It'll be in the epilogue. Oh! And 'lil Zero is in my mummy's bedroom, watching Holes at the moment. His eyes are glued to the tele and I can't coax him over here. Oh, well! I'm sure he loves you all, but he's a bit too pre-occupied with the cookies and DVD all in one! So tata, my pretties, and flyyyyyy! =] --MSQ.