Markie and Me

By Charlotte Lewis

Markie and Me tells the stories of two eight-year old boys. Charles Wilcox and Mark Wilson are best friends who are very inquisitive, adventurous and intelligent. Often they plan carefully for a project without alerting their parents of their intents. Often they just fall into a happy circumstance. Seventeen tales of young boys included.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: May 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643455259

Charlotte Lewis

Charlotte Lewis, a retired accountant, lives in Southeast Kansas. Charlotte graduated from University of Southern California with a major in elementary education and a minor in music. Since retirement, she has self-published several novels and has published in Reminisce Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Hackathon Short Stories, Readers Digest Online, and Mused – an online journal. There's more to learn at charlottelewisonline.com

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Markie

and Me

Charlotte Lewis

MARKIE AND ME

Copyright © 2018 Charlotte Lewis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Stratton Press, LLC

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1-888-323-7009

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in the work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Shutterstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-64345-477-1

ISBN (Ebook): 978-1-64345-525-9

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

A Passage to India

The Cave Explorers

The Gallon Jar Marble Contest

Mr. Blaylock’s Groceries

The Ranger Rory Contest

The Puppy Sitters

Wedding

Jason’s Birthday Party

Markie and the Crow

Bagging Marbles

The Last Day of School

Charley’s Birthday

The Gardeners

The Baby Sitter

Markie Turns Nine

Miss Windsor’s Waterfall

Thanksgiving Dinner

For Sophia Dunaway

When you and your best friend are eight,

you just do stuff.

Markie and Me

Narrated by Charles Wilcox, Age 8

A Passage to India

Last week when I was reading the Sunday funnies, I found a bunch of coupons my Mom had gone through and put with the paper to go to the recycle bin. Right on top was a buy one get one free from the Super Sundae Store. That has to be the primo coupon of coupons. Maybe she didn’t see it. Boy! Am I ever lucky.

My friend Markie and me have been saving up to buy a Flurry in a Cup and here is a coupon. We only have to pay for one and get another one for free. I read it real careful like. It didn’t say you had to be eighteen or anything to use it. I cut it out and stuck it with my money. I have just over two bucks. If Markie has that much we can both get a Flurry in a Cup with this coupon. What a deal.

After I read the Sunday funnies, I got on my bike and went to Markie’s house. He lives a block or two from me. I showed him the coupon and he got super excited. He says he has about two dollars, too. His two dollars and my two dollars should be enough for two Flurries with this coupon. He kept saying, Don’t lose it. Don’t lose it. Is he crazy? I’ll guard it with my life. We decided that we’ll ride over to the Super Sundae Store on Saturday, right after Ranger Rory, and get two Flurries. The Flurry in a Cup is the best sundae the Super Sundae Store sells.

It was a long week at school. I kept thinking which Flurry to get. Something chocolate sounds good but there’s a couple different chocolate ones. Markie thought he’d like something with strawberries. We talked about Flurries a lot this week. We sat on the wall during recess and talked Flurries. We talked about Flurries in the cafeteria. We’ve seen all the commercials and know that they are just the best thing that the Super Sundae Store sells.

Finally, it was Saturday. Markie came to my house. Don’t forget the coupon, Charley. I bet he said that twenty times before we left. No way could I forget the coupon. No way.

There’s a short-cut. The big restaurant on the corner has a huge parking lot. We don’t go to Super Sundae often but, when we do, we take a shortcut through the parking lot. There were a lot of people at the restaurant Saturday so we walked our bikes through the parking lot instead of riding. We took it very slow so we didn’t bump into people or cars. If we’d been riding through like usual, we would never have seen it. There it was. Right in the middle of the parking lot. A manhole cover. But it is not just any manhole cover. This one goes to India. How do I know? Well, it says so. Along the edge it has something like some company name. But in the center in big capital letters it says INDIA. Markie said no way, but it’s pretty obvious. There is a passage to India from the restaurant parking lot.

This definitely requires some investigation.

Markie reminded me that the coupon has an expiration date and maybe we should get our ice cream before checking out India. He was right though I don’t think the coupon expires for another week. But why take a chance? We got back on our bikes and went to Super Sundae.

The girl at the counter is a senior in high school who lives down the street from Markie. What can I do for you guys, Mark?

Markie turned to me and I laid the coupon on the counter. She smiled. All she said was Which two Flurries do you want? And what size?

Well, we didn’t know there was a choice of size. She explained the sizes and how much each one cost. We piled our money on the counter. She counted it very careful like and said, You have enough for two large. We studied the menu and told her what we wanted.

She told me, Good choices. The Muddy Fudge is my favorite. I felt pretty smart ‘cause that’s what I ordered. Markie ordered the strawberry shortcake after she guaranteed it had real strawberries in it. Find a seat and I’ll bring your order out when it’s ready. Unless you’re going to take them to go.

We hadn’t even thought of taking them to go. We’re on our bikes. We sat in one of the booths and she brought our order to us. She gave us each a long blue spoon and a napkin. We ate our Flurries in a booth just like regular customers. We talked about the manhole cover. There are manholes all over the place, Charley. Do you think all of them go someplace?

I hadn’t thought about that. Where do manholes go? We decided to look at all the manholes on the long way home and see what the covers said. There was one in the parking lot at the grocery store. It didn’t say anything. We found two others - they both said Sewer. Markie nodded his head and said, I think we’re on to something, Charley. The one at the restaurant is the only one that gave the name of a real live place. INDIA.

Somehow we have to figure out how to find out more about India and where it is. We finally decided that we could go to the school library and ask Mrs. Crenshaw. She’s been at the school library for as long as we both can remember and, if she doesn’t know something, she can probably tell us how to find it.

So that’s what we did on Monday. Mrs. Crenshaw seemed really pleased we were even in the library. She told us that India was on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, south of China. I didn’t tell her but that wasn’t a lot of help - we don’t know where China is either. She showed us some books with maps and said, Are you planning to visit India, boys? She was smiling and I don’t know if she was being funny or not.

No, ma’am, just curious is all. No way are we going to tell her we found a tunnel to India in a parking lot. The whole world doesn’t need to know. Mrs. Chenshaw showed us two shelves that had books about India. One book had a map in the middle but it was kind of small and hard to see everything. We found India -right by China just like Mrs. Crenshaw said. It is about 6 inches from Washington. Looked like the only thing between them was the Pacific Ocean.

The first bell rang and we put the book back and went to our class. Six inches - how far can that be?

The next day we went back to the library, Mrs. Crenshaw had a book to show us. This is a pictorial review of India by region. I thought you might be interested.

Wow, were we ever! The pictures were really good. There was one of a huge white palace with a great big swimming pool in the front yard. And one with cows in the road. They must have belonged to somebody but it didn’t look like anybody cared they were in the road. And then there was one of people wading in a river. Well, the picture said it was a river but it wasn’t very deep and looked really muddy. There were pictures of cities and some of just people. When the first bell rang I put the book back on Mrs. Crenshaw’s desk. Thank you. The pictures are very interesting.

Markie and me talked about the pictures at first recess. India must be an awful big place. How will we know where we are? Do you think there will be signs when we get there? We know sort of where India is but now we have a zillion more ideas, and lots of questions.

My Dad and Markie’s Dad are real good friends. They were in the Navy together. Once in a while on Saturday they go hiking and take Markie and me with them. Mom packs us a lunch that Dad carries in his backpack and Markie’s Mom does the same thing for him and his Dad. It just happened we went hiking that next Saturday.

After we’d walked for hours, Dad stopped at a neat flat spot high up that looked down on the Columbia River. "Jack, how about eating here?’

Markie’s Dad looked around. Great spot, Rick. I’m starving. They both took off their backpacks and started setting out the food.

Since our Dads had been in the Navy we thought maybe they could tell us about India. So, in between bites, Markie asked where exactly is India. Markie’s Dad asked my Dad, Are they teaching geography in the third grade now? Dad shook his head. He didn’t know.

Why do you want to know, Markie?

Charley and me have been reading about India at the library and just wondered.

Both Dads made faces at each other. What do you want to know? It sounded to me like maybe they did know something about India.

Markie had been working on questions the whole time we were hiking, I think. Well, we saw a map and it looks like it’s a straight shot from here to India.

I guess it kind of is. The Pacific Ocean separates the North American continent from India. There might be a few islands here and there but, yes, it sort of is in a straight line from here.

How big is the Pacific Ocean? Mark was asking our Dads what we’ve been asking ourselves.

My Dad handed me another sandwich. It’s big. Really big. It’s at least 7000 miles from here to India. Wouldn’t you say that, Jack?

Markie’s Dad nodded as my Dad kept talking.

Maybe even 7500 miles, as the crow flies. It’s a big ocean.

Dad, we don’t have a crow.

He looked at me funny. In a straight line, Charley. Crows fly in a straight line.

I nodded but didn’t say anything. He could have just said in a straight line.

Dad kept on talking. The Pacific Ocean is about 14,000 feet deep, I think. Right, Jack?

Yeah, I think so. And the Captain told us when we were in the West Pacific that the Mariana Trench was twice as deep or deeper than the rest of the ocean. Yeah, guys, the Pacific Ocean is one big muther.

How about India? Is it pretty big, too? Markie was worried we’d get lost.

They both scratched their heads. My Dad said, We never were in port in India. There’s a lot of little countries by it where we did dock. But we never got to India.

Markie’s Dad said, We were in the Philippines. They’re really close to India, and close to China too. And Vietnam and Laos. And Thailand. In fact, those little places might be in the way if you drew a straight line from here to the southern tip of India. But the US Navy never saw fit to dock at India. Can’t tell you much about it. Sorry, guys.

That’s okay, Dad. We’re just curious. Mrs. Crenshaw has some neat books about India. We can look it up. Markie looked at me and I agreed. We can go back to the library. I was kind of disappointed that our Dads had never been to India. I had a whole bunch of questions. Dad told me once the Navy says join the Navy and see the world. Well, the Navy missed India.

We finished our picnic lunch and then laid back on the rocks and watched the clouds. Our Dads checked their hiking map. They decided that we didn’t have enough time to go much further but we’d take a different way back to our car. We didn’t care. It was going to be a long way back either way.

We learned a lot about the Pacific Ocean but not much about India. Like Markie said the next day when we were riding our bikes, We sure know a lot about the ocean.

We do. And now I’m wondering how there could be a tunnel to India. Markie, do you suppose it just starts out as a tunnel and then we have to climb around rocks and cliffs and deep holes and stuff like in that movie about going to the center of the earth? Or worse, does the tunnel end in the ocean and you have to swim?

"What do you mean? Don’t you think there is a tunnel? If there’s a tunnel, wouldn’t there be signs? If it’s a way to get to India, wouldn’t they