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Hooter ripped another sheet of paper
from the Big Chief tablet, crumpled it up and hurled it at the
growing pile of other failures in the corner.
It shouldn’t be this hard.
He read the passage from John 3:16
again, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so
that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have
eternal life.”
It was the perfect verse to build a
lesson for the Sunday School class, especially seeing as it fell
on Valentines Day.
“You can’t show more love than
that,” thought Hooter. But every time he put pencil to paper,
all he came up with were the beginnings to ghost stories.
Maybe it was the fact that kids love
ghost stories, and the kids he’d be teaching were in
Kindergarten and First Grade, either not reading or not reading
fluently.
He pondered that and remembered how
cousin Charlie’s boy had responded to his Kindergarten teacher
the first day of school when she’d looked at him and said,
“Joshua, can you count to 10?” as if he was already behind if he
couldn’t.
“Heck no,” Joshua replied, “I’ve
only been here a half hour.”
Then Hooter had an idea, maybe a
ghost story was just what he needed.
Stretching for the Lesson
With the kids gathered around on Sunday, Hooter reminded them it
was Valentines Day. He read John 3:16 to them, then he opened up
a ragged old notebook and began reading the story that had
finally come to him:
“No, Binky, not like that. You’re doing it all wrong,” Millie
grumped, jerking the bottle of bubble juice from her little
brother’s hand.
Bossy and a Brat. That’s one of the
reasons I can’t stand her, Binky thought to himself. O.K. two
reasons.
Binky was almost 4-years-old and he
was pretty sure you couldn’t do bubbles wrong.
“Like this,” Millie said, sticking
her face close to his and pinching her lips together like their
goldfish, Gus.
While Millie was pinching her lips
and blowing, Binky slapped the bottle of bubbles from her hand.
“Mama! Mama! Do you know what Binky
just did?” Millie shouted as she ran to find Mama.
And a tattletale, thought Binky.
That’s three reasons.
Hooter emphasized that last part; he was getting into it.
Jerry Jacobs, had been listening
intently. When he heard that last part, he turned and whacked
his older sister, Jamie, on the arm. She scowled and punched him
in the gut.
“It’s a story, remember,” said
Hooter.
“But, she’s just like that,” Jerry
Said, glaring at his sister.
Hooter continued:
Binky decided to stay out of sight after breakfast. He went to
the old bedroom that nobody slept in unless Grandma and Grandpa
came over. He started digging through the big cardboard box
filled with dress-up clothes.
There was the cap with the airplane
thing on it that didn’t spin so good anymore. Nahh.
There was the army helmet with the
crack in it. Nope.
There was the one Daddy called his
Elmer Fudd hat that was missing one of the ear flaps. Almost,
but not quite.
Finally, there it was. The Santa
Clause cap, Binky’s favorite. He pulled it onto his head and
over his ears. It felt good.
Binky dug a little deeper and found
a pair of old sunglasses with one of the windows missing.
He put those on, too. He had just
pulled one of Daddy’s old tee shirts over his head when Millie
walked in.
Binky thought he could be a million
miles away in a snow storm and Millie would still find him.
“What’cha doing?” Millie asked all
kind and sweet.
Binky knew plenty of words and how
to use them, but he wasn’t sure what you were supposed to say
when someone asked something that made no sense.
Idiot. That’s the first word that
came to mind. He’d heard Daddy say that to someone in another
car when they were driving in Lubbock on day. He still wasn’t
sure how Daddy could hear the man in the other car, or how the
man in the other car could hear Daddy, but they had quite a
chat.
“What’cha doing?” Millie asked
again, sweet like before. Ever since she’d lost her front teeth,
she reminded Binky of Halloween.
Binky shrugged.
“If you wait in the living room,
I’ll surprise you,” she said.
How can it be a surprise if I know
it’s coming, wondered Binky.
Besides, Binky knew enough about
Millie’s surprises to know it wouldn’t be something he’d want.
But, he didn’t want to cause a fuss and get Mama upset again so
soon. So, he shrugged and headed to the living room.
He walked half-way down the hall and
then stopped and tippy-toed back. He peeked into the bedroom.
Millie had pulled the old sheet from the box, the one that Mama
had cut holes in for eyes and a mouth. For some reason lately
Millie was all about ghosts and trying to scare people. That
gave Binky an idea.
Binky sat with his back to the
hallway that Millie had to walk through to get to the living
room. He was facing the hallway on the other side of the living
room that led to the back door and the giant yard with so much
fun stuff.
He could hear Millie trying to be
quiet as she snuck up behind him.
“Boo!” yelled Millie.
Binky jumped up, screamed like he
meant it, turned to look at his sister in the sheet, screamed
again and ran as fast as he could out the back door.
“Binky, it’s only me,” Millie
hollered between laughs. “Come back.”
In the whole yard, there was only
one place that even Millie could not get into—Daddy’s tool shed.
“Don’t you ever try to go in there
unless Daddy’s with you,” Mama had warned them more than one
time. “There are things in there that wouldn’t be good for kids
to have.”
Daddy would do this funny thing with
one eye, closing it while the other one stayed open, and he’d
tell Mama, “Remember that special latch I put on the door.”
Binky wasn’t sure what was so
special about the latch or how it worked. All he knew was that
one day while goofing around, he tripped and stumbled into the
door. It opened up. He closed it again real quick in case
someone saw. Then, he wondered if he could do it again.
Sure enough, if he hit the door hard
enough in the same spot, the door would spring open.
That’s where he went to get away from Millie. He was already
inside before she got to the back door.
“Binky! Binky!” called Millie, all
sing-song like for a while.
Good luck finding me, he giggled to
himself.
“Binky! Binky!” Millie called again,
and again, and a little more serious as time went on.
Binky peered out the dusty window to
watch Millie as she looked in one direction and then another,
calling his name. Finally, she dropped the sheet and ran for the
house.
Good riddance, thought Binky.
He couldn’t help but feel pleased,
especially when he heard the first rain drops splat on the tin
roof. He watched as one drop after another landed on the window,
and then made tracks as they chased each other down the glass.
He listened to how calm the sound of
the rain made him feel. He crawled on top of the sacks of smelly
stuff that Daddy poured into that green thing with wheels.
Then, Binky fell asleep.
It didn’t feel like very long. It
was Millie screaming again.
It figures, he thought.
“Binky!” Millie yelled. “If you’re
out here and don’t come out right now, when I find you, I’m
going to clobber you, you little wart.”
This wasn’t the Millie he knew. This
Millie was crying as she called his name and tried to act tough.
In the rain she looked like one of those drowned rats Mama
talked about.
“Biiiiinky!” called Millie. And then
more quietly: “If you can hear me, I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t
mean to scare you that bad. Honest, I didn’t.”
Binky wasn’t sure why, but he
started to feel sorry for his big sister. He couldn’t remember
feeling like that before.
Binky snuck out of the tool shed. He
crawled as fast he could toward his sister, mud and all. He
tugged on her pant leg, trying to get her attention without
scaring her. That seemed important for some reason.
When Millie felt the tug, she looked
down and opened up her mouth, but no sound came out. She dropped
to her knees and wrapped her arms around him so tight that Binky
was afraid he might go flat like a bike tire.
“Binky,” Millie managed to gasp
between sobs. She was holding him even tighter.
At first, Binky thought about
slugging her or at least pushing her away. Then he had a strange
idea: maybe the best way to help someone who needs it sometimes
is to let them help you.
So, he did.
Hooter beamed with pride as he ended the story, thinking how he
could now connect the dots between John 3:16.
“So, what can we learn from that
story about today’s Bible verse?” Hooter asked.
Jerry scowled at his sister and
said, “Stay hid.”
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