Chapter Twenty Two

I was finishing my hole just as Lewis spat into his. I glanced at Squid, and he glanced at me and gave me a small nod.

"Hey, Lew! Hold up, I want to talk to you," I said pushing myself out of my hole.

Lewis stopped, and I ran up to him. We started to walk back to the camp site.

"So, you wanted to talk to me?" Lewis asked me.

"Yeah," I answered. I wasn't sure how to tell him.

"About…?"

"You might not like what I have to say though," I said worried.

"Emma, I'm a big boy. What is it?"

"Um…Squid and…I…were talking last night. And…"

"And…? Emma whatever you have to say won't be that bad. It's not like you are trying to tell me you and Squid got together, right?"

I didn't say anything. I just looked around.

"You did, didn't you?! Emma!"

"Well, he's-"

"Do not tell me he's sweet or funny. He's a criminal."

"Guess what! So am I. And you, and everybody else here!"

"But Emma-"

"Don't you 'But Emma' me! I'm a big girl Lewis, so you know what! Stop trying to tell me what to do. I just thought I would let you know because you are my brother," I said stomping off to my tent. "Ah! He is so aggravating!"

"Who?" Hype asked.

"My no-good-worthless-idiot brother! I think of all people he would be the one who wanted me to be happy, but no! As soon as I told him about Squid, he flipped out! Ah! I want to rip the eye balls right out of his head, stick them up his butt, so he can see how much of an asshole he really is!"

"Dang, you really are mad," Hype said looking at me.

"You got that right!"

I cooled off by dinner time, but I was still mad. I was walking through the dinner line with Squid, talking about what had happened with Lewis when we looked at Mr. Sir. He had three purplish-red scars down the left side of his face.

"Hey, what happened to your face?" Squid asked him. Good God, how stupid was he?

Mr. Sir grabbed him by his jumpsuit and slowly said, "Is there something wrong with my face?"

"N-no Mr. Sir," Squid stuttered.

Mr. Sir pushed him into the table, so Squid hit his head. I rushed over to help him up.

"Does anyone see anything wrong with my face?" asked Mr. Sir. "How does my face look to you now? I'm kind of handsome, don't you think?"

"Yes, Mr. Sir," everybody said through out the Mess Hall.

Mr. Sir went to the kitchen and we all heard pots and pans being thrown around.

"Hey, are you okay?" I said turning my attention towards Squid.

"Yeah, I'm cool," Squid said standing up.

We walked over to the table together. Lewis was glaring at Squid. I was so sick of him. I just went back to my tent and went to sleep.

Out on the lake the next day, we all were asking Caveman what he knew about Mr. Sir's face, but he just shrugged and dug his hole. I bet he just wanted to get away from Mr. Sir as soon as possible. The first time the water truck came, it was driven by Mom. The second time, Mr. Sir was driving.

No one said anything except "Thank you, Mr. Sir" as he filled each canteen. No one even dared to look at his grotesque face.

As I waited, I ran my tongue over the roof of my mouth and inside my cheeks. My mouth was as dry and as parched as the lake.

"Thank you, Mr. Sir," said Hype, as she took her canteen from him.

"You thirsty, Caveman?" Mr. Sir asked

"Yes, Mr. Sir," Caveman said, handing his canteen to him.

I watched as Mr. Sir opened the nozzle, and water flowed out of the tank, but it didn't go into Caveman's canteen. Instead, he held the canteen right next to the stream of water. The dry ground quickly absorbed the water.

Mr. Sir let the water run for about thirty seconds, then stopped. "You want more?" he asked.

Caveman wisely didn't say anything.

Mr. Sir turned the water back on, and again we all watched it pour onto the dirt.

"There, that should be plenty," he handed Caveman his empty canteen.

"Thank you, Mr. Sir," he said.

Three days had passed since Mr. Sir had received the scratch marks down his face. Every time Mr. Sir delivered water, he poured Caveman's straight onto the ground. Fortunately for Caveman, Mom delivered the water more often than Mr. Sir. I knew Mom was aware of what Mr. Sir was doing, because he always gave Caveman a little extra. He'd fill Caveman's canteen, then let Caveman take a long drink, then top it off for him. That didn't really bother anybody, but what did was Zero had started digging part of Caveman's hole. When he tried pointing out that he was the one who took the blame for the sunflower seeds; we told him it was his own fault because he spilled them. Magnet even told him, "I risked my life for those seeds, and all I got was one lousy handful." It might seem like we were being too hard on him, but we didn't have someone who dug half our hole everyday. Caveman even tried to tell us that he needed to save his energy because he was teaching Zero how to read. Yeah, like we believe that.

"Same old story, ain't it, Magnet?" Armpit said one day. "The white boy sits around while the boy with a little color in his skin does all the work. Ain't that right, Caveman?"

"No, that's not right," Caveman said.

"No, it ain't," Armpit agreed. "It ain't right at all."