DANIEL ASA ROSE
567
the branch whence it came. "Is this a hickory?" he mused.
"This?" said Roy, slapping the bark authoritatively, "this here's
an elk tree."
There was no "silence."
Ricky boy had arisen.
Question carefully.
19. What was Ricky wearing?
A purple bathrobe and purple slippers. Black frame glasses
over his orange bangs. A scowl.
In
his position on the upstairs
deck he looked like a figurehead on the prow of a haunted ship.
20. Ricky slept until one?
Even at one he was not happy about rising. Experts say this
is rare for twelve year old boys, but it was typical of Ricky, who
suffered nightmares in the dark and frequently could not get to
sleep until two, three, even four a.m. The night before he had
stayed up extra late, pacing, reading, and finally passing off at
about the time Roy was getting up.
21.
Reading?
Monster paperbacks. And drawing monster pictures, gluing
monster models, chewing monster bubblegum.
It
was Ricky's
way of working out his nightmares. During the day he didn't
have to be so quiet and was able to create imaginative monster
sounds on his father's quadriphonic tape recorder. Remember
that Roy was a songwriter and you will see what a distortion,
what an affront, Roy considered this last practice to be.
22. Sounds like little Ricky needed help, yes?
But where was he to get it? He was pretty certain his parents
were monsters, and he was convinced, after one session, that the
school psychologist was one of them too-else how could the
guy know so much about them? Ricky protected his secrets from
these dissemblers.
If
they asked about his preoccupation, he'd
explain that he loved monsters, that monsters were his friends–
a sensible lie, one curries favor where one can.
If
they asked him
to name his favorite color, he'd say lime green , his least favorite.
If
they asked him to make his bed, he'd tuck the quilt in
crossways . Ri cky was safer when he kept others off balance in
these ways but he blanched if they managed to throw him off
