Caleb Battles The Wall
by Lisa McCourt Hollar
Caleb looked at his sister puzzled. He hadn’t meant to scare her. Pulling Pickles out of his pocket he held the wayward frog out to his sister, “Pickles was bad. Pickles ran off.” He thought that should explain things to his sister. When Sarah started crying, he put Pickles back in his pocket and leaned forward to give her a hug. “I sorry, Sarwah.”
Sarah squeezed her brother back, then, wiping her eyes she said, “Pickles doesn’t belong in your pocket. Go put him in your room. Try picking it up too, Mom will be back home soon.”
Caleb went to his room and put Pickles in his aquarium. He dropped a couple of crickets inside for Pickles to play with. Pickles liked playing with crickets, but the crickets didn’t seem to like Pickles. They were always disappearing. Caleb had tried to watch once, to find out where the crickets went, but they were playing hide and seek with the frog and hid in his mouth. After a while Caleb got tired of waiting for the game to end and started another game.
Sarah had said to pick up his room. Caleb looked around; toys were scattered all over the place. He kicked one toy out of the way, then another and bent down to touch the ground. He tried to dig his fingers into the carpet and pulled up. The carpet and the room stayed where it was. He tried again. The room refused to budge. Sitting down, Caleb decided to give this some thought. After a while he decided Sarah must be joking about picking up his room. It was too big. He would need to take it apart first, like he did with his Lincoln Logs.
Lincoln Logs were easy though. They just came apart when he pulled on them. Daddy took things apart all the time though. He used tools. Caleb opened the door and looked up and down the hall. He didn’t want Sarah to catch him. He wasn’t supposed to go to daddy’s tool room. A quick run down the hall, Caleb opened the door to daddy’s room. Daddy’s tool was there on a table. The wench. Daddy used the wench to take things apart all the time and the scew diver to put them back together. Caleb stared at the wench in awe.
Back in his room he banged the wench against the floor. It made a banging noise, but it didn’t take the room apart. He banged the wench against the wall. It still didn’t come apart. He banged again. Maybe he was using the wrong tool.
“What are you doing?” Caleb jumped and turned around. Sarah was standing behind him. She didn’t look happy. “Is that a wrench? What are you doing?”
“I tryin’ to pick my room up but it too big. Have to take it part,” Caleb said. Sarah stood there and looked at him for a moment. Then her shoulders started shaking. Caleb was afraid she was going to cry again, but then he saw she was laughing.
“You don’t pick your room up by taking it apart with a wrench. Pick your toys up and put them away. Use your head you goof.”
Caleb looked at the door after Sarah left the room. Use your head? He turned and looked at the wall. The wall looked back at him. Caleb had seen a karate guy break something in half with his head. Sarah, as always, knew what to do. She was so smart.
Yelling, like the karate guy does when he breaks something in half, Caleb ran at the wall, ramming it with his head. The wall hit back, knocking him on the ground.The ground bit him. His room did NOT come apart. Rubbing his head, Caleb went running to tell Sarah what the wall did to him.
copyright© 2011 Lisa McCourt Hollar. All rights reserved.
