It Is Said (Mathias Bootmaker and the Keepers of the Sandbox) (2 page)

Alice jumped when Alexander’s hand touched her shoulder.
 

“Don’t worry. I see him,” he said.
 

She looked up at him as he finished clearing away his own spot on the window.

“We never should have come here Alex.”

He looked at her, and smiled.

“It’ll be okay. Your turn is next. Just remember, wait for the signal.”
 

With that Alexander turned and walked back to the center of the room to wait for the Man in Black.

“That’s enough Daniel,” he said as he took his place. “He knows where we are now.”

Daniel was relieved. He had done his part, and he was proud of himself. But for now, he would continue to sit at the piano with his back to the saloon doors. The less he saw of this bully, the better he would be at his next task.
 

Alexander’s focus, however, was completely on those saloon doors. He couldn’t see the Man in Black, but he knew he was there tying his coal black horse to the hitching post. He couldn’t see him, but he could hear his black boots splashing in the muddy street. He could hear the creaking of the boards as the Man in Black stepped up to the doors of the Abandon All Hope Saloon.
 

This day was Alexander’s thirteenth birthday. His friends Daniel and Alice were younger than he was, but not by much. They were his best friends and that was all that mattered. A boy begins to become a man when he turns thirteen and a man takes care of himself, his family and his friends.

The Man in Black was standing tall and dark against the harsh haze and the sheets of rain. The brim of his black hat cast a shadow over his face, but his eyes were clearly fixed, focused and glaring at Alexander. Only the saloon doors and a bit of distance stood between them.
 

Things were changing for Alexander. This was his last day playing in this particular sandbox. He would soon be moving on to the world of men, and his friends needed to learn that they would be all right without him. They needed to know that they could be brave and take care of themselves.

The Man in Black took one step forward.

“Before you come in here,” Alexander explained, “we want you to know, we don’t want any trouble. If you ride on, right now, you’ll suffer no consequences for all your past actions.”

No one moved as the Man in Black put his hands on the saloon doors. They could hear his black gloves stretch as his fingers clenched the rotting wood, and his knuckles bulged up against the tight leather.

“But if you come through those doors,” he continued, “well, I can’t be responsible for what fate has in store for you.”

The Man in Black stood stone still. He had one foot over the threshold by just the sharp point of his black steel tipped boot.

“Ride on,” Alexander said sternly.

 
The Man in Black turned his head, lowered it slightly and spit on the ground. He chuckled a little, mostly to himself, as he pushed open the saloon doors and took one step inside.

 
Alexander took two steps towards the imposing form they all chose for the thing they feared most.
 

“We don’t want to fight. But you won’t stop picking on us and that’s not fair.”

The Man in Black surveyed the room, looking down at each child with indifference as he sized them up. He turned his attention back to the tall thin boy.

    
“I’m not afraid of you, mister. You and I both know you’re just a coward, a yellow coward.”
 

The Man in Black spoke for the first time.

“I know you are,” he growled. “But what am I?”

It was Alexander’s turn to chuckle, mostly to himself, and then he quietly said, “Now.”

The spitball that hit the Man in Black surprised him. He turned to his right and eyed the little blonde girl by the window. She was crouched low behind a table. The straw was still at her lips. He wiped the spitball from his face and glared at her. She pulled the straw from her mouth and stuck her tongue out at him.
 

A loud sound from behind the Man in Black caused him to spin on his heels. The quick turn to his left revealed that the chubby boy at the piano was up to no good. He had thrown open the top of the piano and was reaching inside. Recognizing his true target, the Man in Black advanced on the boy.

Daniel was standing on the piano bench, half inside the piano and half out. His prop, which he had cleverly hidden, was stuck. No matter how hard he pulled, it just wouldn’t come loose and the Man in Black was coming. He could feel his presence with each step. Daniel closed his eyes, grabbed the object with both of his little hands and pulled as hard as he could.

The Man in Black was almost on top of the boy when the child suddenly turned. At first, he didn’t recognize what the boy was holding. But he could see that the boy was not in control of the device and he was fumbling with the trigger.
   

When Daniel turned and opened his eyes, he got his first full look at the Man in Black. This was not the Bully Bob he knew. But in that monster’s eyes, he could see the essence of every bully there had ever been. Daniel raised the seltzer bottle in his hand and pulled the trigger.

The blast of bubbly water hit the Man in Black square between the eyes propelling him away from Daniel.
 

“Now!” Alexander shouted.

A dozen children stood up from their hiding places behind the bar.
 
Each one was different.
 
Boys, girls, tall, short, chubby, skinny, brave, and not so brave. They all held their seltzer bottles up, pointed at the Man in Black and fired.
 

The overwhelming spray of water drove him towards the saloon doors. He stumbled backwards reaching for anything in his path that might stop him. Nothing worked. Then the streams stopped.

The Man in Black had managed to get a hold of the saloon doors, and he held on tight anticipating another blast. But none came. He turned slowly and surveyed the room again. Same saloon. Different odds. He was grossly outnumbered.

In this situation, the Man in Black instinctively knew that the best tactic was to strike at the leader. He let out a scream so loud that the windows shook as he rushed the boy.
   

Alexander stood his ground. Knowing that the end was near, he smiled at the maniac rushing towards him.

“Now!” he screamed.

Suddenly, there were children everywhere. They popped up from behind the dilapidated billiard tables. They came around from behind the broken gaming tables. They appeared at the railing of the balcony and every single child held a water balloon in each hand.

The Man in Black never stood a chance. Balloons filled with water flew in from all sides. Burst after burst. Splash after splash. All saturating him in wave after wave of water.

It was a clump of mud on the bottom of the Man in Black’s right boot that brought the final moment upon him. All that water had dissolved that clump and let loose the tiny pieces of rock that slid under his heel. Down he went. Flat on his back.
 

The Man in Black lay there quite still and quite wet. Through the fog of defeat he could see a wrought iron chandelier hanging above his body. This was not a good place to be. He tried to roll to his left, but there was a child their standing over him. He tried to roll to his right but there were more children there, standing over him. He slowly sat up and found himself surrounded by children.

Alexander, Daniel and Alice pushed their way through the pack and looked down at the Man in Black.
 

“Say it!” Daniel ordered.

The Man in Black sneered at all of them until he noticed Daniel was still holding his seltzer bottle, and it wasn’t empty.
 

“Uncle,” was the last thing the Man in Black would say to them.

The children started cheering. Their screams of happiness and shouts of victory filled the saloon. They had defeated their bully and better days were ahead.
 

The Man in Black watched all of this with a stunned disbelief. In one moment, the Man in Black thought of revenge. In the next moment those thoughts faded as all of the children, one by one, began to vanish until the Man in Black was all alone.

Lightning struck close by and lit the windows with bright white light. The deafening roar of thunder followed, shaking the saloon through to its rafters. Taking its cue, the playerless piano began a twisted little tune. The final note hung in the air as the piano disappeared.

The old clock on the wall began to chime. It was high noon once more.

With each strike a little of his world was taken from him.
 
Bong
. Gone were the tables.
Bong
. Gone were the bar and its beautiful mirror.
Bong
. Gone were the balcony and its once carpeted stairs. So it went until there was nothing left but the old clock on the wall, and on the very last bong it vanished as well.

The Man in Black stood himself up and for the third time, surveyed the room. There was nothing left except for a sound. A creaking. A groaning. A shrill, metal pulling on metal sound. But there was nothing in the room. He looked up. He dove towards the saloon doors just as the wrought iron chandelier hit the floor with a crash. The dust barely had time to settle before the chandelier, like everything else, was gone.
 

Horrified, the Man in Black thrust himself with so much force through the saloon doors that he flew past his horse and landed in the middle of Main Street. He lay there in the mud and watched as the Abandon All Hope Saloon, the entire building, disappeared, leaving a giant gaping hole deep in the heart of Fears Corner.
 

A bolt of lightning, a crash of thunder, and the rain just stopped. A cold stillness, a blast of wind, and the hail began to fall.
 
The ice balls, each a different size, from tiny to huge, pelted everything else left in town. They coldly tore through wood and window. The never ever used jail was obliterated when a giant hailstone dropped square on it.
 

The Man in Black turned away from the blast of destruction. He tucked himself into a tight little ball right there in the middle of town and waited for the giant hail to fall on him. Then just like the rain, the hailstorm stopped. He dared not move.
 

With his arms around his head, the Man in Black couldn’t hear a thing. But with his body so close to the ground, he could feel a low rumble. He opened his eyes and there it was, two or three miles away, the biggest twister he had ever seen. It was coming fast, and the wind that roared up was proof of it.
 

His horse, once a fearless demon, was terrified and in a panic. He chomped at his bit and pulled at the reins that were still tied to the hitching post. He was tugging hard enough to almost pull the posts themselves right up and out of the ground.
 

The Man in Black could see his only means of escape about to escape on its own. Against the brutal force of the wind, he dragged himself up and began to fight his way to the horse. The tornado was bearing down on the town and the wind was getting vindictive. In its relentlessness it picked up the Man in Black and threw him towards his own horse.
 

He landed with a glancing blow under the hitching post. He reached up and grabbed the reins. Pulling them down, he used the slack to untie the horse. Free, the horse whinnied and reared up, pulling the Man in Black up into the air. As he flew over the horse, out of the corner of his eye, he could see his last hope of fleeing this place vanish.
 

The wind violently deposited him several feet away. He rolled along Main Street never letting go of the reins of his once present companion. Miraculously, the Man in Black rolled up and onto his feet and in a defiant gesture he raised his fist into the air. He brandished the reins in his clutched hand to the sky like a trophy.