Me and Mr. Bell by Philip Roy

Author:Philip Roy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press
Published: 2013-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Studying books was way more work than digging around a stone in a field. I was so tired I fell asleep with my clothes on. And that’s how I woke up in the morning. And I was late for school. My mother called up from the kitchen. “Hurry up, Eddie! You’re late! Your brother and sister already left.”

I climbed out of bed a bit confused because I wasn’t completely awake yet. I came downstairs, washed my face and sat at the table for porridge. My mother looked at me with a worried face. “What’s with you lately, Eddie? You’ve been acting strange.”

“I have?”

“You have. It’s not like you to sleep in. Yesterday, you went to school early. Today, you can’t get out of bed. Hurry up and get going.”

“Yes, Ma’am. Do you know where Dad is working today?”

“Your father is cutting firewood today. He won’t be back until dark. Hurry up now. I’ve never seen you so slow.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” I gobbled up my porridge, grabbed my jacket and boots and went down the hill to the McLeary farm.

I found Mr. McLeary in his barn, walking behind the cow trough with a pail in his hand. He looked confused to see me there. He frowned with deep lines in his forehead, and his eyebrows went up, then came down, then went up again. “What are you doin’ here?”

“Hello, Mr. McLeary. My father wants to know if he can borrow your rope and pulleys for just one day.”

Mr. McLeary’s eyes opened wide. “My rope and pulleys? Does he? Well, I don’t see why not. I won’t be using my rope and pulleys today. What does he need them for?”

I didn’t want to tell him why I needed them. “He just needs them for one day. I’ll bring them back tomorrow first thing.”

He stared at me with his head tilted back, as if he were trying to stand up taller. He was already pretty tall. “I won’t be using them today,” he said. “Are you gonna carry them up the hill by yourself?”

I nodded my head. “Yes.”

He started into a room at the front of the barn. I followed him in. “What did you say he needs them for?”

“Uh … he needs to make both sides equivalent.” I knew from math that equivalent meant equal.

“He needs to make … oh, there you go, that’s your father’s fancy way of talkin’. What the heck does that mean?”

“I think it means both sides are supposed to be the same.”

“Oh, that’s right. I knew that. Yes, well, one of these days I might have to borrow your father’s rope and pulleys and make both of my sides the same too.”

“Okay.”

Mr. McLeary handed me a large coil of rope, pulled three pulleys off the wall and dropped them by my feet. I bent down and tried to pick everything up, but it was too heavy and awkward.

“Here! Do it like this.” He lifted the rope over my head so it would hang over one of my shoulders.

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