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ТЕКСТ 1

The secret box

Tommy was not afraid until he picked up the telephone. Then he knew that he was afraid because his voice was shaking when he spoke to the operator.

“The police”, he said just like people on TV said it. “Give me the police”.

“What do you want, little boy?” the operator said in that irritated voice grown-ups get when they don’t like the game you’re playing.

He wanted to cry but he knew he couldn’t cry. Not yet. Not for along time yet.

“The police”, he repeated. “Somebody shot Mark and my Mother. Somebody killed them”.

Then he had the police on the phone and it was better, he could just think of telling them his name and where he lived and that Mother and Mark were lying on the floor dead where someone had shot them.

He put down the receiver and went to the sofa. He didn’t let himself look at the bodies.

Soon the bell rang. He got down from the sofa and went to open the door. He looked up into the faces of the tall blue men standing there and then they went past him into the living room.

“Good God”, one of the man said, “the kid was telling the truth”.

One of the cops came over to him.

“How did it happen, sonny?” he said.

Tommy looked up at him and started to tell him how it had happened but the other cop stopped him.

“Better wait till the lieutenant gets here”, he said.

Then the lieutenant was there. There was a whole bunch of men with him, a man with a camera and a man with a doctor’s bag and another who went around looking for fingerprints and all of a sudden the room was full of cops doing the things they always did on the television shows.

Then the lieutenant came up to Tommy. “What’s your name, kid?” he said.

“Van,” Tommy said. “My name is Van”.

The lieutenant kept on looking at him. “It says on your pajama pocket that your name is Tommy,” he said pointing to the letters.

“That’s the name my mother called me,” he said. “Ever since Daddy left she’s called me that. But Daddy called me Van, and that’s my name.”

“The man over there isn’t your daddy?” the lieutenant said in a sharp voice.

“That’s Mark,” Tommy told him.

“Where is your Daddy?” he asked Tommy.

“He doesn’t live here any more,” Tommy told him. “Just me and Mother. Mother and Daddy aren’t married any more.”

“What did your daddy want when he came here tonight?” he said. “Did he want to talk to your mother?”

“Daddy wasn’t here”, Tommy told him, with surprise in his voice. “He didn’t come tonight. He comes sometimes on Sunday. But he doesn’t come her at night any more. Just Mark.”

One of the men came over to the lieutenant. “It must have happened this way”, he said.

“The man was sitting in that chair, while the boy’s mother was in the kitchen fixing some drinks. The man was shot first sitting right in that chair – it looks like a .32 (point thirty two) but we can’t be sure yet – and the woman was shot when she came running out of the kitchen with the drink in her hands. Two bullets in each of them. Death was practically instantaneous.”

The lieutenant turned his attention back to Tommy again.

“Are you all right?” he said anxiously. “I have to ask you, Tommy. So you’ve got to be a fine brave kid and help us out.”

“All right,” Tommy said. Then he couldn’t help any more. “When will my daddy come?” he said.

The lieutenant said, “We’ll get him as quick as we can. I promise you that. We want to see him, too.”

“Now tell me, was Mark your mother’s friend?”

“Yes. Mark and Mother were going to get married.”

“Did they fight much?” said the lieutenant.

“Well, they did, but not as much as Mother and Dad used to.”

“What did they fight about?”

“Me, mostly. He didn’t like me very much. He kept saying my father ought to take care of me instead of Mother.”

“Your mother wasn’t good to you, was she?”

“Yes,” Tommy said. “She was just good to me as she could be. It was just that she had Mark. She didn’t need me because she had Mark.”

“Were you in bed when…” the lieutenant began.

“Yes,” Tommy said. “I was in bed and I could hear them in the living room. They were laughing I nearly went to sleep and then all of a sudden I heard the pistol start shooting. It shot four times. I was scared and I didn’t want to go and see. But then I got up and went into the living room and there was Mark in the chair and Mother in the kitchen door.”

Then there was a phone call, and the lieutenant talked to someone, and then he came over to Tommy.

“He checks out,” he told the other men. “He was at the party with some friends. Never out of sight for a minute.” He turned to Tommy. “We finally got hold of your daddy, Tommy. He’s on his way here.”

A few minutes later his daddy came in. Daddy held him close and warm.

Then Daddy and the lieutenant had to talk a little but Tommy didn’t listen any more. He was looking instead at the woman who came together with his father.

Daddy came back. “Come on, Van,” he said. “I am taking you home. You are going to live with Daddy from now on.”

“Who’s she?” said Tommy pointing at the woman.

“That’s Martha,” said Daddy. “She may be your new mother one of these days.”

“Can I have secrets there?” Tommy said.

“Sure,” Daddy said. “All secrets you want. You’ll have your own room and everything.”

“All right then,” Tommy said. “I’ve got a secret I want to take with me. A secret box.”

“Get it,” his daddy said.

Tommy went up the stares to his daddy’s room. He opened the bottom drawer in the desk and took out a secret box. He opened the box and touched the cold metal of the .32 pistol. He closed the box and put it under his arm.

His Daddy smiled and Martha smiled and the lieutenant and all of his men smiled to see him marching so bravely out of the house into his new strange world.

Tommy was happy he had learned the TV lesson so well.

(After “The Secret Box” by Borden Deal)

ТЕКСТ 2