Fiction: Jacob Campbell

I met Jacob Campbell at the end of my sixth grade year. He was sitting outside the principal’s office, kicking his heels into the floor in some crazy rhythm that was totally making the school secretary annoyed.

“Jacob Campbell!” she squawked, “Will you please quit that noise?”

He looked at me, rolled his eyes, and slammed his dirty, holey shoes to the floor one last time. The he started drumming his fingers on his leg.

She shook her finger at him, her arm jiggling under her sleeve. Ick…

“Now, Philip, what brings you to the office today?”

“Oh, ma’am, Mrs. Recker asked me to bring this note on down here.’

She took the note from me and looked like she might almost pinch my cheeks, so I scooted back away from her real quick.

“Now, Jacob, you should take notice of Philip here. He’s a kid that’s going somewhere.”

I sure didn’t feel like I was going anywhere. Both my parents worked and that summer was the first I wasn’t going to the babysitter’s, so I wasn’t going nowhere that summer.

That day at lunch, Jacob Campbell dropped his tray on the table next to mine without asking.

“So, I hear you’re going places, kid. Where ya goin’?” he asked, his narrow eyes sparkling with mischief.

“I ain’t going nowhere, why do you care?”

“So you’re Philip. Philip, whatcha doin’ this summer?”

“Diddly. Why?”

“Well, I think I might need someone to hang with this summer, you think you got time?”

“Maybe. Yeah, I think so.”

He grinned and took a big bite of his loose meat sandwich, some meat dribbled down his cheek and onto his shirt. He didn’t even notice.

That summer was the best and worst summer ever. We wandered all over town, just checking what was up. Some days we did odd jobs for old ladies, some days we splashed around in the creek and chased minnows and tadpoles. Those were the good days.

The bad days? Jacob showed up at my door as soon as my mom left, like he was hidin’ in the bushes. He’d have this wild look like he hadn’t slept or eaten. Those days he was ornery and mad at everything. He would raid Mr. Tallet’s chicken coop and egg cars that drove by. He’d smash flowerpots and stop on the pretty red geraniums outside the library.

One day, the worst day, he kinda crashed into my house through the screen door. His nose was bloody and he held his arm like it was a baby kitten. He was crying and the blood and snot and tears were all over him. He kept saying, “He broke my arm. I’m gonna kill him when I get big. He broke my arm!”

I called my mom at work and she took him to the hospital.

I guess the hospital called his aunt or someone, ‘cuz I never saw him after that day. Until I read in the paper about him killin’ his pop.

This post was inspired by that great Grouch Marx quote, “When you’re in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell with you saying, ‘Damn, that was fun’.” I’m linking this up to Write on the Merge — check it out for other Marx inspired posts!

10 Comments

shelton keys dunning January 25, 2013

Nicely done.

Some minor concrit: I had confusion as to the age of the narrator. Starting off with “I met Jacob Campbell at the end of my sixth grade year” indicates an adult, reminiscent voice. Then “totally making” and “ick” yanked me backwards. Not an adult, was sixth grade last year? Then we’re back to the adult, reminiscent voice reliving the best times and the worst times.

So if/when you revisit, edit to the adult voice, it’ll help the flow and make more sense when we get to that last line, which is definitely adult.

Other than that, I LOVED this story. There’s a bit of To Kill A Mockingbird wrapped up in Stand By Me. Well played!
shelton keys dunning recently posted..Week Four: WoE Friends and a Heart Challenge

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- IASoupMama January 26, 2013
  
  Great idea — I’ll revisit and give it a shot. Thank you!
  
  Reply
angela January 25, 2013

I could see Jacob right away, which was a great set-up for the piece. I like the contrast between the characters, and the almost casual observation of how very good AND very bad the summer ended up being.
angela recently posted..Preschool Secrets

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- IASoupMama January 26, 2013
  
  Thnak you. I really liked these kids, too. Am thinking more about this piece, might work on it some more.
  
  Reply
Samantha Brinn Merel January 25, 2013

I love this story and as soon as I got to the line “I sure didn’t feel like I was going anywhere” I also thought instantly about To Kill a Mockingbird and the line where Scout is describing Maycomb and talks about how it’s a tired old town nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with. So incredibly well done.
Samantha Brinn Merel recently posted..This is Winter

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- IASoupMama January 26, 2013
  
  Thank you! I didn’t have “Mockingbird” in mind when I wrote it, but I’m a-ok fine with the comparison.
  
  Reply
cait January 25, 2013

Wow. A great piece! I liked the voice and flow of words and I felt really sad at the end for Jacob. It feels like a huge story told in just a few hundred words. Really good.

Reply
- IASoupMama January 26, 2013
  
  Thank you! I’ve been feeling that there is a lot more to this story — might keep at it…
  
  Reply
Write on Edge January 27, 2013

Once you slip into the memory, the voice of the young man is wonderful, and oh, I felt for that poor boy.
~Cam

Reply
- IASoupMama January 28, 2013
  
  Thank you — I’m thinking about re-working this piece, seeing where it takes me.
  
  Reply

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