Gerald of Kerk

By Paul Thomas Keenan

Gerald found that getting into mischief in a small town was easy. From grade school to high school, Gerald found it hard to fit in at times, and the pals he fell in with left an impression on him. He was influenced by his peers as he was young, persuadable, and naive. But as time passed, Gerald found that having vices in ones life are not all too easy to ignore and are best never ventured into. Although in high school he found that he did not fit in, the buddies he did acquaint himself with gave him memories to look back on as an adult. He left high school with a taste of deviance and a future he would look forward to as his school days folded and closed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524590864

Paul Thomas Keenan

Paul Thomas Keenan resides in Duluth, Minnesota. Gerald of Kerk is his first novel and his second book. Embracing Change, a collection of poems, was his first book.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

The sun shone on radiant pillars of whitewashed fences and dew-soaked lawns. Rising from a rested night’s sleep, Gerald opened his eyes to find the day of sunshine coaxing him from his restful slumber. He stretched and uncovered his small frame of five feet and two inches. His body, which was far from finishing growing at this point in his life, was disproportioned. His head was large like that of a jack-o’-lantern, his arms long and dangly with hands that looked like that of oversized baseball mitts. His feet were attached to skinny knobby-kneed legs and were all of seven inches in length. He lumbered out of bed, throwing his frame on one of his barbells he had misplaced the day before, making him limp for a moment, but he quickly recovered and casually strolled to the bathroom to wash up and brush his teeth.

Gerald hated washing up and brushing his teeth in the morning, but since the dentist scared him, he was determined to never go back to him. For getting a poor checkup and have him drill on his teeth again would be to Gerald as if he were given a death sentence by way of Chinese water torture. After taking care of the morning ritual, he walked downstairs to an aroma that he most always loved—pancakes and sausage grilling on the stove. He plopped down on his chair where he usually sat for every meal and began to riffle his breakfast into his mouth, not thinking of even thanking his mother for the meal. What do you say? she asked. He spoke with a mouthful of pancakes, Thank you.

After finishing his meal, he went outside and jumped on his bike. This was no ordinary bike—this was of a dark blue-white banana seat high sissy bar, which was four feet high, an oversized rear tire, and was a one-of-a-kind, greatest bike in the world. It was coveted by his friends, and to make the sound of a motorcycle, he put clothespins on the frame to hold playing cards in place that would rattle in the spokes. He sped away with the rattling of the cards in the spokes, giving him the feeling that he had the greatest-sounding bike in the neighborhood. He quickly wasted little time traveling to his friend’s place, who lived on the other side of town. He enjoyed the cool morning air as he pedaled his bike across town to meet with Forest.

On the way to his pal’s place, he would most always take the street, which was home of at least six older boys of the neighborhood. Now Gerald never looked for trouble with these boys, but they seemed to find some reason to chase him down and give him gordies and arm punches, leaving Gerald with a feeling of discontent and making him dread seeing the boys. But for today, the boys were not congregating so he had nothing to worry.

While approaching these boys’ residence, he would pedal a little bit faster with hopes of never having a confrontation with them. After passing the potential danger point, he found himself getting closer to his pal’s place. Gerald was soon wondering what was in store for him and Forest today.

He arrived at his friend’s place and knocked on the door. In a moment or two, peeking out the open door was Forest’s mother. He asked, Is Forest home? She shut the door, and in a few minutes, Forest appeared. Hey, Forest, Gerald exclaimed. Can you play today?

Forest, who was not as big as Gerald, stood at about five feet high, with shaggy blond hair, and skinny like Gerald with a smile of brown-and-black teeth. Forest disliked brushing his teeth, but enjoyed the sweet candy and usually had a piece of candy in his mouth at some point in the day.

He replied, We could play matchbox cars. Gerald replied, Sure. Forest had many toys to spark the imagination, and playing in the dirt with cool matchbox cars and Hot Wheels was one of their favorites.

Forest went back into the house and returned with a boxful of shiny metal cars and trucks. Within moments, they were dividing them up and making roads in the dirt under a pine tree, one of two pine trees that stood in front of Forest’s place, which with the acidic pH balance from the needles of the trees caused grass not to grow underneath them, giving the boys a place to make roads for a small town they created on a sloping hill in loose black dirt. They played for about one hour until ten o’ clock morning time.

Then Forest, after moving a truck in the dirt and making a sound he found resembled a truck, said, Let’s cruise to Red Owl and buy some candy. Gerald, who was up for anything and enjoyed candy as much as Forest, agreed.

Forest went inside and returned with two quarters and a dime that his mother gave to him. They mounted their bicycles and headed to the local store. On the way to the store, which was three full blocks away, they passed the high school, Simmons Produce, and the meat market. Not knowing this at the time, but the high school they would attend would be demolished and a new school built on the edge of town two years after their graduation. The site of the old school would become a vacant lot, where all the memories of their childhood and teen years had been spent while attending school. Simmons Produce, a company that dealt with the distribution of eggs, would also go the way of distant memories. The fast-moving trucks and the busyness of the workers as they processed the eggs from the surrounding farms, making the eggs satisfactory to sell at the stores and markets, would be embedded into their childhood minds; change seems to happen suddenly, yet gradually, not knowing how it will affect the lives of the community. The meat market would close for business for a spell, about three years, and would later be purchased by a butcher who seemed to make a profit for years to come.

Much would change after their graduation of high school: the closing and demolishing of businesses and older houses; the cutting of trees, trees that had been there for years and were part of their childhood, trees that they had conquered as boys and tested them, making them closer to men because of it; and the disappearances of people that were a fixture in their lives who would either leave town or die. The boys did not know this at the time, but death and change affects everyone. A person of the community who never seemed vital to the grand scheme of things was an intricate link in the chain, and once gone, memories of them were stained portraits in their minds, memories that they would by chance reach for from time to time as adults and feel joy. But for now, Gerald and Forest pass by these places and people not acknowledging the presence of them. But hopefully as adults, they would wonder where they have gone and would be grateful that they got a chance to have them in their lives.

They arrived at the Red Owl grocery store, where there was candy from gum to chocolate bars and suckers to Pop Rocks, and went into the building to the checkout line. They each grabbed a ring sucker, candy cigarettes, gum cigar, and a candy bar. They paid for the purchase, not really knowing if they had enough, but they had some idea and exited the store. The heat from the summer sun was beginning to raise the temperature and was already starting to melt the chocolate bars they had bought. The wrapper, as they peeled them back, had runny chocolate on it, making eating the chocolate bar a messy feat, which made them thirsty for milk.

Gerald looked at Forest, whose mouth was full of chocolate, and asked, How much do we have left? Forest, digging into his pocket replied, Twenty cents.

Is that enough for milk? Gerald asked. Forest nodded his head yes. They entered the store again to buy two pints of milk. When they were outside, they took a heavy refreshing drink of the liquid, and relief was given.

Soon they decided to visit Huddy, who lived just down the block at the back of the meat market in an apartment building with his younger brother and mother. Huddy and his younger brother Gib moved to the town with their mother at the beginning of the last school year. He was a fresh new face as a friend to them, and since they were close to his place, they wondered if he could play. When they got to the apartment complex, Forest went inside to see if Huddy could play as Gerald waited outside. He returned with Huddy and his younger brother Gib. Huddy was of blond hair and tan skin from the days of being outside that summer. His brother, Gib, was two years younger than the boys, but was allowed to hang with them at times. His small frame was close to four feet in height, and the bike he used was his mother’s, which, big for his tiny stature, caused him to stand continually while pedaling. Since it was a ladies’ bicycle, he could do this successfully.

Outside the complex, the boys gathered where they found themselves riding their bikes up and down the asphalt slope, which was built for the runoff of the rain. The incline would shed the rainwater to the sewer, so it would not accumulate at the base of the building; it was a massive metal shed used to house the buses for the school year and the chartered buses, which were customarily used to transport persons comfortably to their destinations for like trips to the state fair, which happens in August. But Gerald, when young, never frequented the Minnesota state fair; he would attend the Kandiyohi county fair, which was in the neighboring county held in Willmar, and for some reason, the attending of the Swift county fair, the county Gerald lived in. It was an event he never thought to make an appearance at. The Minnesota state fair was the granddaddy of fairs and had everything—food, livestock, events, and much more.

As the boys grew tired of the asphalt slope, they decided to move to the sandlot at the back of the Simmons building only a block away. There were large culverts that when installed are used to direct the water of the streams or rivers under highways and country roads. They were put in while the roads were constructed, and they were massive in size to the boys. They were a good eight feet in diameter, and the boys were dwarfed while playing on the structures. They made a game of tag, jumping from section to section of the concrete tubes. They played the game for a half hour. Until Huddy jumped off one of the oval cement structures and leaned against the