Chapter Twenty - Apple Day

BING BONG BOOONG!

The musical doorbell sung in a melodic descending arpeggio as Laurie got up on his tippy toes to press the enticing white button. He was practically vibrating with excited anticipation as he waited to see if someone would open the door, seizing a shiny red apple from out of our little cart and holding it proudly in the air - ready to present it to some grateful member of the public.

“Someone’s gonna answer this time.” He’d told us as I dragged my way up the stairs of what seemed like the thousandth porch of the afternoon. “I know it!”

Charlie had just rolled his eyes. “No one’s home.” he’d sighed. “Everyone’s still at work. We should’ve just gone downtown and stopped people walking past like the Bobcats are doing.”

“Maybe you’re just not ringing right.” Laurie had countered.

That had been too silly even for Alex, the red-headed girl sniggering teasingly at the irrational first grader. “How do you ring a doorbell wrong?”

“I dunno. Not pressing hard enough?” he had shrugged, barging his way to the front of our little group. “Let me do it!”

After he pressed the button, a few moments passed in silence. Zach looked bored and Charlie looked frustrated, Laurie kept holding out his apple in endless innocent hope, and Alex kept a hand clapped to her mouth - holding back giggles. She prowled up beside me like a mischievous raccoon, whispering conspiratorially in my ear.

“You can see Laurie’s undies!” she pointed out with a giggle.

“Huh?” I blinked tiredly, rubbing my eyes. Sure enough, the red-tipped top of his Lightning McQueen themed Cars briefs were poking out of his cargo shorts sagging down as he reached up to hold aloft his apple, a red number 95 and a black and white checkered victory flag displayed prominently on his butt. I summoned a dopey sleepy smile for Alex’s benefit, though my heart wasn’t in it.

Noticing us gossiping, Zach shot us an admonishing glare - coming up behind his brother and helpfully hitching up his shorts to cover the embarrassing exposure. He patted him comfortingly on the shoulder, prompting him to lower his arm. “I don’t think anyone’s coming, bud.”

Just then however, a shadow through the tinted stained glass window alerted us to someone shuffling behind the door. We heard them rattling on the chain, before the door swung open to reveal a little old lady with a pair of impossibly thick round glasses and a warm homely smile. Our first customer all day! Amazingly, it seemed that Laurie’s legendary doorbell-pressing skills really did seem to be what we were lacking.

Laurie squealed in delight, jumping up and down as he held up his apple again. “Hello! Would you like an apple?” he demanded, spitting out the whole sentence in less than a second flat.

“Oh!” the lady remarked, looking a little confused at first as she took it. It wasn’t like she had much choice. Laurie had all but thrown it at her! “Yes, how kind.” she said ponderously “Thank you.”

“Would you like to make a donation to the scouts?” Laurie continued to interrogate in a treacle-sweet excitable screech, fidgeting his balled up fists at his chest in anticipation.

The lady blinked, taking a moment to decode the boy’s breathless bluster before she saw his bucket hat and beaver tail, seeming to put two and two together. “Oh, of course! Apple day!” she enthused, nodding sagely as she admired them all in turn. “Look at all you adorable little Beavers. Of course I’ll make a donation.” She held up a calming finger, slowly turning around and starting to shuffle away again. “Let me just get my purse…”

Laurie twisted around, looking up at Charlie with a braggadocious smirk on his face. “Told you!” he sang, playfully sticking out his tongue.

Charlie smiled back indulgently, tutting to himself. “You’re just lucky.” he told him. The white tail just looked happy to finally have some donations rolling in. “We should pick up the pace, though. The Bobcats must be miles ahead of us!”

I winced at the suggestion. I was already struggling to keep up with the energetic troop of younger boys, and now Charlie wanted us to start going even faster? I let out an almighty yawn, stretching my arms high above my head and making my beaver vest and t-shirt ride up just a little to reveal my belly button. I blushed in embarrassment, quickly tugging the garments down again. “Do we have to?” I whined.

Laurie giggled. “Cooper’s sleepy!” he announced at the top of his lungs.

Charlie turned to look at me, seeming to notice how tired I looked for the first time. “What? Really?” he asked, looking vaguely disappointed in me. “Come on Cooper, we haven’t even done one block!”

“I told him he should take a nap, but he didn’t listen.” Zach informed the group, patting an admonishing heavy hand atop my bucket hat. “Maybe you should take a snooze in the apple cart?” he joked, making the other Kindies laugh.

I shrank back, feeling very embarrassed indeed. “I’ll be fine…” I mumbled, rubbing the tiredness away from my eyes again before I crossed my arms in a sulky protest.

The old lady returned, ushering Laurie to step forward before giving him a kindly wink and pressing a crisp red 50 dollar bill into the boy’s hand. He let out an audible gasp, turning right around to show us - waving it proudly above his head. I’d always thought it was a little weird how all the Canadian money was so brightly coloured. Only the 20 was the normal green, the other bills ranging from a weird muddy orange, to a garish bright purple, to a shade of cold icy blue that would have looked more at home on the packaging of a box of mints. Still, 50 dollars was a huge donation. I certainly wouldn’t have paid that much for some measly apple - no matter how shiny!

The other Kindies looked suitably impressed, crowding around Laurie and locking heads as they stared wide-eyed and gasping at the precious bill. Zach however was more concerned with ensuring the proper courtesies were observed, breaking apart the trio of beavers and making Laurie turn around to look at the woman again. “Say thank you.” he instructed firmly.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Laurie shouted in celebration, so breathless I thought he might actually pass out.

“That’s quite alright, dearies.” The lady chuckled, starting to inch her door closed again. “See that you Beavers put it to good use!”

“Wow!” Alex observed as soon as the door was closed. “Fifty dollars!”

Charlie had no time to waste, immediately starting to hop down the porch stairs and onto the street again. “Bet the Bobcats don’t have that much.” he boasted. “You were right Zach, knocking on doors really does make more money!”

Zach gave a humble nod, putting a stabilizing hand on my shoulder and guiding my hand to the bannister as I tripped over my feet on the first step. “Careful, Cooper.” he chided.

“I am being careful!” I insisted.

He ignored me, turning to Charlie and pointing out a father trundling away down the sidewalk a few houses further up with a toddler in a stroller. “Charlie, why don’t you go see if that man has a loonie?” he instructed, tossing him an apple.

“Maybe he’ll even let Cooper have a turn in his stroller.” Alex teased, slinking up beside me again with that same mischievous grin on her face.

“I’m not even tired!” I repeated, but the bags under my eyes made the truth obvious. I tried to keep up as Charlie, Alex and Laurie all bounded forth toward the unsuspecting man pushing the stroller. Only Zach waited for me to catch up, holding out his hand for me to hold and offering a friendly smile. I took it gratefully.

Charlie launched into his practiced speech, jumping in front of the man’s path on the sidewalk and proceeding to lecture him about all the good works that scouts do - not letting him get a word in edgeways. The man seemed a little off put, wearing an impatient frown, but eventually he dug out a crisp blue five dollar bill from his wallet. negotiating his stroller around the group of us and setting off down the road again. He hadn’t seemed particularly convinced by Charlie’s speech, and I guessed he had pretty much paid us just so that Zach would come and collect us.

“Wait!” Laurie shouted at the man, ready to run after him into the road if his brother hadn’t quickly hooked him under the armpit. “You forgot your apple!” But the man was already long gone. Laurie looked sadly up at his brother. “Why didn’t he take it?”

“I think Charlie scared him off.” Zach shrugged, “You don’t have to read out the whole pamphlet.” he informed him with a roll of his eyes.

“People need to know. Why else would they donate?” He held up his measly five dollar bill as if it were evidence of his theory. It was nothing compared to Laurie’s fifty, however.

After another hour or so canvassing the houses, we raised quite a bit for the scouts program - almost $100! As the evening went on and people returned from work, we found a lot more success knocking on doors - mostly preferring Laurie’s strategy of keeping things short and sweet to Charlie’s forceful diatribes. At one point, Zach talked me into taking the starring role, though I hadn’t been able to get through the whole question without letting out an embarrassing gaping yawn.

“Get that boy to bed.” the man at the door had told the others with a chuckle, pressing a ten dollar note into my palm.

Finished for the day, we decided to head back to the Beaver lodge. We were just crossing the little wooden bridge over the creek when we saw Nate, Nick and James sitting on the curb by the riverside munching on the apples they were supposed to be handing out. Eager to get back somewhere where I could sit down, I had rushed to the front of the colony along with the excitable Laurie - making our way up to the street level. I quickly put a hand out in front of him, pointing out the bullying boys, but it was already too late.

“Well if it isn’t Oopsy Coopsy and his little brown tail buddy.” Nate sneered, jumping to his feet. He strided over towards us, reaching down and grabbing my chin to roughly squeeze it just like he had done that time outside the principal's office. He saw my tired eyes, slapping me painfully across the face and making me give an exhausted series of blinks. “What’s the matter?” he mocked. “Is it past the baby's bedtime?”

“Stop it Nate!” Zach shouted with a protective growl, running up to the pair of us with Charlie and Alex following closely behind.

Nate smirked with all his preteen smugness, not looking even remotely intimidated before he shoved me forcefully into Laurie, causing the both of us to tumble onto the concrete sidewalk. I let out a muted yelp as my hands scraped against the rough surface causing painful scratches, while Laurie landed hard on his butt. I sucked in a breath through my teeth trying to hold in the pain and hoping desperately that I wouldn’t cry.

Zach rushed forward and shoved Nate away from us, teeth bared and holding down his clenched fists at his side like an angry dog pulling against an invisible leash. “What the hell man, that’s my little brother!” He yelled at him, a little break in his voice betraying just a hint of uncertainty.

Nate just kept smirking, taking a couple steps back and raising his hands confidently up to his chest - ushering his two lackeys up beside him to ready for a fight. Alex and Charlie bared up too, now standing on Zach’s right and left and also raising their hands up with inexperienced, perhaps naive, courage. The two groups stared at each other for a moment, neither sure what would happen.

Prompted by the tiniest of nods from their leader, Nick and James darted forward like two lithe panthers, easily snatching up Alex and Charlie and holding both of them in place with no more effort than they would have to employed to restrain a couple of rambunctious preschoolers.

Meanwhile, Zach and Nate sprung forward into their own bout. Each took a few swings at the other, but all missed - the senior cubs darting skillfully out of the way of their opponent’s blows. “Why are you doing this?” Zach spat at him during a lull in the action, looking terribly conflicted. “Aren’t we friends?”

Nate chuckled, and so did Nick. “Friends?” He repeated, taking the opportunity to swing his fist square into Zach’s face, making a meaty smacking sound. “Is that what you thought?”

Zach staggered back and held a hand over his nose, a slight shift of his fingers revealing it was bleeding. “Ow!” He exclaimed.

“We were never friends.” Nate snarled, raising up his other fist and driving it into Zach’s gut. The Keeo let out a hoarse wheeze, falling down onto his knees. “You were just some dork who would do whatever I say.”

Nate lifted his heavy booted foot, preparing to bring it down on Zach’s head.