Small Steps (Holes 2)

He lay awake all Thursday night, but when he got out of bed Friday morning he had a plan. It didn’t solve all his problems, but at least he’d come to a decision. He realized he couldn’t do everything. He couldn’t please everybody.

He called Felix, then went to school and took his speech final. It was ridiculously easy, as he knew it would be, with only multiple choice and true/false questions.

He didn’t go to economics. There was no point. He hadn’t read the last three chapters.

His feeling of regret was so strong that he actually felt pain walking away from the school building, but he’d made a decision and he knew he had to stick to it. He felt bad about letting Jack Dunlevy down too. Other people complained about their bosses, but Jack had been more than fair with him.

But when someone like Kaira DeLeon invited you to San Francisco, how could you not go? He could hear her voice singing in his head.

Got no rearview mirror

And none on either side.

Ain’t no lookin’ back, babe,

When I take you for a ride!

Who knew, he might never have to work again. Whether or not he graduated from high school wouldn’t mean a whole heck of a lot.

A horn honked. He turned as the car made a sudden U-turn, then came right at him. It stopped against the curb, with its back end sticking out at a forty-five-degree angle.

Felix and Moses came out from either side.

“I want the letter now,” said Felix.

“I told you Monday.”

“I know what you told me. I want it today. I don’t appreciate being strung along.”

“I’m not stringing you along. Look, it’s like you said. You talk to the police, everybody loses. You wait till Monday, everybody wins.”

Moses’s fist slammed against the side of Armpit’s head, spinning him backward.

Armpit managed to keep from falling. He raised his hands with his palms out. “Just wait.”

Moses didn’t want to wait. He came at Armpit again, but this time Armpit saw him coming. Armpit ducked under the swinging fist, then charged like a bull headfirst into him.

Moses’s cowboy hat flew off as he fell back against Felix’s car, cracking a headlight.

He was lucky it was the headlight and not his head.

Moses got back to his feet, rubbed his hands together, and smiled at Armpit.

Armpit readied himself.

Moses took one step toward him, faked with his right, then slammed his left fist into Armpit’s gut.

Armpit doubled over but fended off the next blow, and the two of them fell to the ground and rolled into the gutter, fists flying as they traded punches. Armpit took several blows to the head, but Moses’s punches only got weaker, while his own seemed to gain power.

A horn sounded from the street, and Armpit looked up to see a long white limousine stopped in the middle of the road. “I called the police!” the driver shouted, pointing to his cell phone.

Armpit rose to his feet. He took a couple of steps backward as he watched the limo drive down the street and turn the corner.

“Just give me till Monday,” he said. “You’ll get the letter.”

Moses pulled himself to his feet using the side mirror for support.

The cowboy hat lay on the ground, white with a brown band. Armpit, remembering X-Ray’s glasses, stepped on it.