I was at the local library today, stealing the WIFI to play game on my iPhone, when I suddenly recalled a childhood experience.
There we were with our hands pressed to the glass doors and our faces cupped in our hands..looking in. Looking for the first signs that someone was inside. The coast was clear, with that we all slowly made our way into the library. The time frame was grade 3. It was our gang. Myself and four others - 2 of them were girls. They hung out with us, because if they didn't, they would 'tell.' To this day I often wonder what they would 'tell.' And who would they 'tell?' I guess that is what the scarey part was. That was Mikey, Bobby, Sarah and Lainie. The last two, they were the girls. They were kinda cool. So we let them in our little gang. Even though they threatened us that they were gonna, 'tell.'
As we walked into the library our initial reason was to get warm. Yet, deep down we knew there was more. It was a cold Fall day, the wind was blowing and there was a rain mixed with snow. That I remember. I looked at all those books. Books for both young and old. You know the ones that had pictures in them and the others that had none at all.
I really don't recall who said it first, could of even been me for that matter. The conversation of typical 8 yr olds went something like this.
"Wow those books are way up there." "One day we will be able to reach them." "Look how far I can reach up." "I can reach higher that all of yous!"
Just then, the tag along showed up out of thin air. He always seemed to do that. I'm sure there was that one individual who always hung around when you didn't want him to. Well, Spidey, as we called him because he seemed to have that
spidey sense when we - the gang- got together to do something. For some reason when we got together it almost always ended up being mischievous, adventuresome and every so often with some police involvement. Spidey asked what we were doing, we told him nothing just getting warm. So he decided to stay. To our dismay.
Well Lainie, she was the catalyst to our many woes, said "Look!" With that she knocked a book from where it was perched to the floor. Not to be outdone by a girl, I knocked down 2 books from its shelf. With that she glared at me like I did something wrong. Not a word was spoken between all six of us - including Spidey. It seemed like hours yet it was only seconds. Spontaneously, everyone of started pulling books from the shelves. Starting from the lowest shelving to as high as we could reach - probably only the third of fourth shelf up. Little people books, big people books. Everything our little hands could touch found itself on the floor. When we finished - all about a minute later - we found ourselves laughing with delight. We looked around satisfied with our job, realizing what we had ,we took off as fast as we could. As we ran out of the library, I recall Sarah saying, "Where is Spidey?"
We got back to our class room. No sooner did we sit down than our principal, Mr. Harrison came into our classroom. He was a scarey old bugger. He had black framed glasses. he had gray hair on his sides and had a bald hair cut up the middle - as we called it. We called him Big Foot because he was one hairy guy. He didn't look impressed. In fact, he was one angry white guy, that we later said. He pointed his short stubby fingers at each of us. We were marched to the library, in single file and didn't dare step out of line. As we stood in the library, the scary principal, screeched,
"WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS" With military like training we all stared ahead, not looking for we knew what he was speaking about, not uttering a single word of blame or admittance of guilt. With one stride, Big Foot zeroed in on Spidey - there he is again showing up out of nowhere. We knew we were done for. Without the angry hairy white guy uttering a word, Spidey began to cry. He wailed like he was being beat to death. He sobbed so hard that he was having a hard time catching his breath. Still looking straight ahead, each of us mumbled, "wait till after school." So, when he caught his breath, Spidey spilled the beans. He told Big Foot how he watched us come into the library and he followed us in. He pointed at Lainie and I saying we started it all. Then made up a lie, how we made him do this - masterpiece of a mess- with us.
That was enough evidence that Big Foot needed. Still standing in line. Not really knowing what was next, Big Foot pulled out a huge leather strap. My first thought was, "Spidey is going to pay for this." Spidey's first reaction - a wailing and hard sobbing all over again. Each of held out our hands, and as brave as an 8 yr old could be I felt the hot sting of that leather weapon come down on my hands. I didn't cry but looked Big Foot in the eye and smiled.
Did we get Spidey after school? NO. He caught the bus home that day. As the bus drove by, he smiled and stuck his tongue out at us.
About a week later, our class had library time. Walking into that library, the mess was cleaned up, each book placed in its proper Dewy Decimal place. I even walked in the aisle that I was proud to have rearranged. I looked for the librarian. When she wasn't looking. I took two books and put them in different areas of the library. YES, I was a rebel.
I wonder to this day if those books have ever been found.
Chi-Meegwetch
Baamaapii
