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smackenzieOn Tuesday, to James' surprise and Mrs Godwin's pleasure, he is invited to a birthday party for one of the boys in his class at school. The boy's name is Hollis Campbell and his father is a captain of industry just as Mr Godwin is. Mr Campbell inherited a great deal of money from his father, who made the family fortune from cattle ranching, and is now engaged in what James learns is called "diversifying", or branching out into other industries and jobs.
James expects there will be steak at Hollis' birthday party, if his grandfather is a big rancher. He wonders if Hollis' grandfather ever had trouble with Mexican bandits or Indians on his land, or if criminals ever tried to kidnap his daughters and hold them for ransom. He decides for himself that the elder Mr Campbell must have had to chase evil men from his land, for so much property and so many cattle are attractive to the common western criminal.
Mrs Godwin takes James shopping for a birthday present, but James does not know Hollis any better than he knows any of the other boys in his class, and does not know what he might like. James only knows what he would like as a present, and when his mother takes him to the toy store he points out the toy six-shooters and models of horses and even the Indian chief marionettes with their buckskin jackets and long feathered headdresses.
"I do not think Hollis' mother would approve of him receiving a handgun for his birthday," Mrs Godwin says, "even as a toy."
James' birthday is not until the beginning of November, but he is already thinking that he would like a six-shooter for his birthday, and perhaps a toy horse and a cowboy to go with it.
"Are you no longer interested in pirates?" Mrs Godwin asks playfully. James shrugs. "Is it now cowboys that boys your age wish to emulate?"
"What is 'emulate'?"
"It means to act similarly to. If you emulate a cowboy, that means you do the same things he does."
"Ride horses and shoot bandits and rescue damsels in distress!"
"Well, yes, you could do that. But is that something Hollis would like?"
"It is something I would like."
"When it is your birthday, you may receive cowboy paraphernalia. But it is not yet your birthday, is it? We are here to find something for your friend."
James wants to say that Hollis Campbell is not his friend, but in a way Hollis is, and he must think of James as his friend, or he would not have invited him to his birthday party.
Mrs Godwin finally decides on a gift, because James is no help, and she has it wrapped and they buy a birthday card and on Saturday, when Mrs O'Donnell brings Liam and Sean back to the house to play with him, as promised, he tells them he has been invited to a party and does not know if the birthday boy will like the present Mrs Godwin has picked out for him.
Liam does not seem to be interested in any presents that are not food, and Sean admits that the best present someone could give him would be a whole day at Luna Park and Steeplechase Park, both on Coney Island, during which he can ride all the rides and see all the attractions and eat as much as he wants.
"I have only ever been to ride on the carousel," James says. "Mr Sewell drove us."
"There is going to be a new subway station there," Sean says, "and then we will be able to go more easily. You should come with us. Mrs Meara gives me and Liam money sometimes to run errands for her, so we will be able to ride the roller coaster and eat red hots for lunch."
"What are red hots? I do not know if Momma will let me go. She does not like me to go so far without her."
"Luisa can come too. And Julia."
"But not the other one," Liam says.
"The other one?" James repeats. "My other sister? Her name is Aimee. She would not like the roller coaster anyway."
"Well, ask your ma later," Sean says. "Me and Liam need some time to make some money."
"You can be my guests and Momma will pay for your entrance." But Sean shakes his head. "Why not?"
"Because we can pay our own way."
James does not quite understand this, but Sean and Liam both seem very adamant about not letting Mrs Godwin pay for their rides if they all go to Coney Island together, and since James likes them and does not want to offend them, he lets it slide.
The weather is nicer today than it was last weekend, so the three boys are allowed into the courtyard, where Sean drags one of the cast iron chairs under the maple tree so he can climb up the trunk and sit on one of the large branches. Liam follows with more difficulty and perches on an opposite branch, hanging on to it with both hands and looking a bit uncertain. James stares up at them. He does not know if he is allowed up the tree or not. It is not something he has ever particularly wanted to do.
"What are you waiting for?" Sean calls down. "Haven't you ever climbed a tree before?"
"No," James calls up.
"Now is a good time to learn." Sean points to the cast iron chair. "Stand on that and use it to boost yourself up."
So James climbs on the chair, grabs a branch within reach, and with a great deal of shouted encouragement and a combination of scrabbling his feet against the trunk and hauling himself up onto increasingly higher branches, finally manages to sit astride the branch with Sean. He sits with his back to the trunk of the tree, a little nervous about being so high and unsure if the tree will hold both their weight.
"You scraped your knee," Sean observes, pointing to James' knee. James looks at it. He did not even feel when he scraped it, but now it is starting to sting.
"I fell out of the tree the first time," Liam calls from the other side of the trunk. "The branch was too hard to hold onto, and I fell right off."
James tightens his hold on the trunk behind him. There is a knot in just the right place for gripping. He does not want to fall. He is afraid he would land on the cast iron chair and hurt himself.
"Screamed like a banshee," Sean continues. "But all he did was scratch himself."
"And bruised! I had a giant bruise."
Sean rolls his eyes. James guesses that it was not as impressive a bruise as Liam thought it was.
"You look very secure," Sean tells him, trying to be reassuring. "You are not going to fall off."
"I hope not," James says. "Luisa would get in trouble for not watching me." She does not know they are climbing trees, only that they have gone outside. "I like it up here, though." The sun filters through the leaves, making everything warm and golden-green. It feels very private inside the leaves and branches, like they have discovered a secret hiding place.
Later, after Sean and Liam and Mrs O'Donnell have gone home, James wants to tell Julia about his adventures in tree-climbing, because he tells Julia everything, but at the same time he wants to keep it to himself. It will be just for him and Sean and Liam, but perhaps he can find another secret place to share with her. The house is very large – there must be somewhere.
Sean and Liam do not have an opinion on Hollis Campbell's birthday present, and James does not want to keep it for himself, but on Sunday afternoon Mrs Godwin still makes sure James remembers to take it with him when Mr Sewell drives him over to the Campbell house for the party.
This is the first birthday party James has been to for someone who is not one of his brothers or sisters, and he does not know what to expect of a gathering of boys his own age, besides cake and the opening of presents. And there is definitely cake – a tall chocolate cake with white frosting and strawberries, as well as ice cream and candy and tiny square cakes that Mrs Campbell calls petit fours. James tries to steal one of those to take home for Julia, but it crumbles in his pocket so that by the time he gets home, it is all crumbs.
Hollis also has games at his party, and a man with a miniature horse which the boys ride in turns, and gifts for all his guests to take home. The boys get their litte bags at the end of the party, and James opens his in the car to discover two petit fours and an orange and a small cardboard box with "Hollis' Birthday" and the date printed on it, and inside it is a tiny painted metal horse and a tiny painted metal cowboy. James is surprised, as there were no cowboys at the party. The man who led the miniature horse around the Campbells' back yard was dressed in a suit.
Mr and Mrs Godwin have gone out when James gets home, but he shares his petit fours with Julia and tells her about the little horse and the running games and that the birthday cake had strawberries on it and Hollis liked all his presents, except someone gave him a book and he was not very impressed.
"What book was it?" Julia asks.
"Fairy tales," James says. "It was a book Aimee would like."
"There is nothing wrong with fairy tales. The Arabian Nights are fairy tales." She has been reading him more of those at night, after he asked Luisa and Luisa looked through the book and was scandalized. She would not tell James why she was so scandalized, but she would not read it to him either. So he asks Julia after Luisa has gone home, and Julia tells him about the City of Brass and Ali Baba and Sinbad and mermen and merchants and djinni and princes and princesses and kings and viziers, who she says are like advisors to the king.
But fairy tales are stories of Cinderella, and the girl and the frog prince, and the seven sisters, and the goose girl, and Sleeping Beauty – they are stories about girls, and not even girls who get to do anything interesting. At least some of the ladies in The Arabian Nights do things besides dance or look pretty or wait to be rescued, and the whole story is being told by an intelligent princess in order to keep the king from killing her.
It is one thing to pretend to be a pirate, or a Mexican bandit, or an Indian brave, and need to capture or rescue a damsel in distress. It is another thing entirely to have to read about ladies who never do anything but kiss frogs or pine away for the prince or sigh about how they do not have a pretty dress to wear to the ball. So James can understand why Hollis Campbell would not be entirely pleased to receive a book of fairy tales for his birthday.
He hopes that when it is his birthday, if he has a party and invites all the boys in his class at school, that none of them give him fairy tales as a present. He thinks he would like some of the stories from The Arabian Nights, though.
"Did you have a good time at the party?" Julia asks, and James realizes he must not have said.
"I think so," he says. "I got to ride the little horse and eat cake and play games, and that was fun. I suppose Hollis thinks we are friends now."
"Do you want him as a friend?"
James shrugs. He does not dislike Hollis Campbell, but he does not like him as much as Liam and especially Sean. He cannot picture Hollis climbing a tree or menacing his little sister with a walking stick masquerading as a pirate saber or pretending to be a cowboy who must rescue a damsel from a horde of Mexican bandits. But he can picture Hollis sliding around the ballroom floor in his sock feet, and perhaps that is enough for now to consider someone a potential friend.
And Hollis did invite him over for a birthday party, even if every other boy from their class at school was invited too.
James wonders if this means he will have to have a birthday party as well, when the time comes. It sounds like a good idea to him. He will have to remember to ask.
words: 2166
total words: 18,476
quickie research: coney island
James expects there will be steak at Hollis' birthday party, if his grandfather is a big rancher. He wonders if Hollis' grandfather ever had trouble with Mexican bandits or Indians on his land, or if criminals ever tried to kidnap his daughters and hold them for ransom. He decides for himself that the elder Mr Campbell must have had to chase evil men from his land, for so much property and so many cattle are attractive to the common western criminal.
Mrs Godwin takes James shopping for a birthday present, but James does not know Hollis any better than he knows any of the other boys in his class, and does not know what he might like. James only knows what he would like as a present, and when his mother takes him to the toy store he points out the toy six-shooters and models of horses and even the Indian chief marionettes with their buckskin jackets and long feathered headdresses.
"I do not think Hollis' mother would approve of him receiving a handgun for his birthday," Mrs Godwin says, "even as a toy."
James' birthday is not until the beginning of November, but he is already thinking that he would like a six-shooter for his birthday, and perhaps a toy horse and a cowboy to go with it.
"Are you no longer interested in pirates?" Mrs Godwin asks playfully. James shrugs. "Is it now cowboys that boys your age wish to emulate?"
"What is 'emulate'?"
"It means to act similarly to. If you emulate a cowboy, that means you do the same things he does."
"Ride horses and shoot bandits and rescue damsels in distress!"
"Well, yes, you could do that. But is that something Hollis would like?"
"It is something I would like."
"When it is your birthday, you may receive cowboy paraphernalia. But it is not yet your birthday, is it? We are here to find something for your friend."
James wants to say that Hollis Campbell is not his friend, but in a way Hollis is, and he must think of James as his friend, or he would not have invited him to his birthday party.
Mrs Godwin finally decides on a gift, because James is no help, and she has it wrapped and they buy a birthday card and on Saturday, when Mrs O'Donnell brings Liam and Sean back to the house to play with him, as promised, he tells them he has been invited to a party and does not know if the birthday boy will like the present Mrs Godwin has picked out for him.
Liam does not seem to be interested in any presents that are not food, and Sean admits that the best present someone could give him would be a whole day at Luna Park and Steeplechase Park, both on Coney Island, during which he can ride all the rides and see all the attractions and eat as much as he wants.
"I have only ever been to ride on the carousel," James says. "Mr Sewell drove us."
"There is going to be a new subway station there," Sean says, "and then we will be able to go more easily. You should come with us. Mrs Meara gives me and Liam money sometimes to run errands for her, so we will be able to ride the roller coaster and eat red hots for lunch."
"What are red hots? I do not know if Momma will let me go. She does not like me to go so far without her."
"Luisa can come too. And Julia."
"But not the other one," Liam says.
"The other one?" James repeats. "My other sister? Her name is Aimee. She would not like the roller coaster anyway."
"Well, ask your ma later," Sean says. "Me and Liam need some time to make some money."
"You can be my guests and Momma will pay for your entrance." But Sean shakes his head. "Why not?"
"Because we can pay our own way."
James does not quite understand this, but Sean and Liam both seem very adamant about not letting Mrs Godwin pay for their rides if they all go to Coney Island together, and since James likes them and does not want to offend them, he lets it slide.
The weather is nicer today than it was last weekend, so the three boys are allowed into the courtyard, where Sean drags one of the cast iron chairs under the maple tree so he can climb up the trunk and sit on one of the large branches. Liam follows with more difficulty and perches on an opposite branch, hanging on to it with both hands and looking a bit uncertain. James stares up at them. He does not know if he is allowed up the tree or not. It is not something he has ever particularly wanted to do.
"What are you waiting for?" Sean calls down. "Haven't you ever climbed a tree before?"
"No," James calls up.
"Now is a good time to learn." Sean points to the cast iron chair. "Stand on that and use it to boost yourself up."
So James climbs on the chair, grabs a branch within reach, and with a great deal of shouted encouragement and a combination of scrabbling his feet against the trunk and hauling himself up onto increasingly higher branches, finally manages to sit astride the branch with Sean. He sits with his back to the trunk of the tree, a little nervous about being so high and unsure if the tree will hold both their weight.
"You scraped your knee," Sean observes, pointing to James' knee. James looks at it. He did not even feel when he scraped it, but now it is starting to sting.
"I fell out of the tree the first time," Liam calls from the other side of the trunk. "The branch was too hard to hold onto, and I fell right off."
James tightens his hold on the trunk behind him. There is a knot in just the right place for gripping. He does not want to fall. He is afraid he would land on the cast iron chair and hurt himself.
"Screamed like a banshee," Sean continues. "But all he did was scratch himself."
"And bruised! I had a giant bruise."
Sean rolls his eyes. James guesses that it was not as impressive a bruise as Liam thought it was.
"You look very secure," Sean tells him, trying to be reassuring. "You are not going to fall off."
"I hope not," James says. "Luisa would get in trouble for not watching me." She does not know they are climbing trees, only that they have gone outside. "I like it up here, though." The sun filters through the leaves, making everything warm and golden-green. It feels very private inside the leaves and branches, like they have discovered a secret hiding place.
Later, after Sean and Liam and Mrs O'Donnell have gone home, James wants to tell Julia about his adventures in tree-climbing, because he tells Julia everything, but at the same time he wants to keep it to himself. It will be just for him and Sean and Liam, but perhaps he can find another secret place to share with her. The house is very large – there must be somewhere.
Sean and Liam do not have an opinion on Hollis Campbell's birthday present, and James does not want to keep it for himself, but on Sunday afternoon Mrs Godwin still makes sure James remembers to take it with him when Mr Sewell drives him over to the Campbell house for the party.
This is the first birthday party James has been to for someone who is not one of his brothers or sisters, and he does not know what to expect of a gathering of boys his own age, besides cake and the opening of presents. And there is definitely cake – a tall chocolate cake with white frosting and strawberries, as well as ice cream and candy and tiny square cakes that Mrs Campbell calls petit fours. James tries to steal one of those to take home for Julia, but it crumbles in his pocket so that by the time he gets home, it is all crumbs.
Hollis also has games at his party, and a man with a miniature horse which the boys ride in turns, and gifts for all his guests to take home. The boys get their litte bags at the end of the party, and James opens his in the car to discover two petit fours and an orange and a small cardboard box with "Hollis' Birthday" and the date printed on it, and inside it is a tiny painted metal horse and a tiny painted metal cowboy. James is surprised, as there were no cowboys at the party. The man who led the miniature horse around the Campbells' back yard was dressed in a suit.
Mr and Mrs Godwin have gone out when James gets home, but he shares his petit fours with Julia and tells her about the little horse and the running games and that the birthday cake had strawberries on it and Hollis liked all his presents, except someone gave him a book and he was not very impressed.
"What book was it?" Julia asks.
"Fairy tales," James says. "It was a book Aimee would like."
"There is nothing wrong with fairy tales. The Arabian Nights are fairy tales." She has been reading him more of those at night, after he asked Luisa and Luisa looked through the book and was scandalized. She would not tell James why she was so scandalized, but she would not read it to him either. So he asks Julia after Luisa has gone home, and Julia tells him about the City of Brass and Ali Baba and Sinbad and mermen and merchants and djinni and princes and princesses and kings and viziers, who she says are like advisors to the king.
But fairy tales are stories of Cinderella, and the girl and the frog prince, and the seven sisters, and the goose girl, and Sleeping Beauty – they are stories about girls, and not even girls who get to do anything interesting. At least some of the ladies in The Arabian Nights do things besides dance or look pretty or wait to be rescued, and the whole story is being told by an intelligent princess in order to keep the king from killing her.
It is one thing to pretend to be a pirate, or a Mexican bandit, or an Indian brave, and need to capture or rescue a damsel in distress. It is another thing entirely to have to read about ladies who never do anything but kiss frogs or pine away for the prince or sigh about how they do not have a pretty dress to wear to the ball. So James can understand why Hollis Campbell would not be entirely pleased to receive a book of fairy tales for his birthday.
He hopes that when it is his birthday, if he has a party and invites all the boys in his class at school, that none of them give him fairy tales as a present. He thinks he would like some of the stories from The Arabian Nights, though.
"Did you have a good time at the party?" Julia asks, and James realizes he must not have said.
"I think so," he says. "I got to ride the little horse and eat cake and play games, and that was fun. I suppose Hollis thinks we are friends now."
"Do you want him as a friend?"
James shrugs. He does not dislike Hollis Campbell, but he does not like him as much as Liam and especially Sean. He cannot picture Hollis climbing a tree or menacing his little sister with a walking stick masquerading as a pirate saber or pretending to be a cowboy who must rescue a damsel from a horde of Mexican bandits. But he can picture Hollis sliding around the ballroom floor in his sock feet, and perhaps that is enough for now to consider someone a potential friend.
And Hollis did invite him over for a birthday party, even if every other boy from their class at school was invited too.
James wonders if this means he will have to have a birthday party as well, when the time comes. It sounds like a good idea to him. He will have to remember to ask.
words: 2166
total words: 18,476
quickie research: coney island
