Free The Wanton Troopers by Alden Nowlan Page B

dance. As he gambolled and capered he blew his cheeks full of air, then slapped his face with his palm, as though his mouth were a drum.
    â€œYa-ha-ha-ha-whoooooo!”
    â€œAnybody wanta jump through the broom?” Todd shouted.
    â€œAin’t got no broom.”
    â€œGet me a fork, then. Anythin’ll do.”
    While Judd sang and Eben danced, Todd fetched a fork. He grasped the tip of the handle with one hand and the base, just above the tines, with the other. The fork and his arms made a trapeze level with his knees, bending slightly; he jumped over the handle and laughed triumphantly, holding the fork behind him.
    â€œAnybody else able tuh do that?”
    â€œNobody else is crazy enough tuh try,” Angus jeered.
    â€œHuh? Yuh sayin’ I’m crazy?” Todd’s red eyes gleamed.
    â€œNo, he ain’t sayin’ yer crazy, Toddie!” Eben yelled. “Come on now, let’s all have another drink! Ya-ha-ha-ha-whooooo!”
    Here’s a cuckoo! There’s a cuckoo!
    There’s a cuckaroo!
    Here’s a cuckoo! There’s a cuckoo!
    There’s a cuckaroo!
    â€œYa-ha-ha-ha-whooooo!” Eben screamed. “Cripes! Ya-ha-ha-ha-whoooooooooooo!”
    After two hours in the barn, Judd went away with the men. When he returned, it was supper time. He staggered into the kitchen, roaring with drunken laughter, and dumped an armful of groceries on the table.
    Grabbing Mary by the shoulders, he spun her around and rubbed her cheek with his unshaven chin. This was as close as he ever came to kissing her.
    â€œHel-oh-ah-Mar!” he roared.
    She laughed and pushed him away.
    â€œOh, you big silly!” she chided him.
    He jerked a bottle from under the bib of his overalls, screwed off the cap and drank noisily.
    There was girl in our town,
    In our town did dwell,
    She loved her husband dearly
    But another man twice as well!
    â€œKevin!” he thundered. “Kevin!”
    Kevin approached him, grinning nervously. And Judd exploded with laughter and grabbed the seat of Kevin’s shorts and swung him high in the air. Such romping was as close as he ever came to a caress.
    Kevin squirmed and kicked, but he did not really want to get away. He enjoyed the sense of helplessness he felt in his father’s arms.
    Judd threw him on the floor and knelt beside him, wrestling with him, tickling the backs of his knees and his armpits. He jerked up Kevin’s shirt and poked his navel with a finger, rolled him over and smacked the seat of his pants, pinched his ear lobes and mussed his hair, grasped his ankles and stood him on his head, until Kevin was giggling hysterically, his eyes blurred and dilated with excitement.
    â€œFight me now! Fight me!” Judd ordered.
    Kevin stood up. Judd knelt, facing him.
    They boxed. Judd caught most of Kevin’s blow on his palms. His own fist opened just before it landed and he slapped Kevin’s cheeks and ears briskly with his open hand.
    â€œThat’s enough!” Judd cried. “I give up! Yuh beat me!”
    He squatted on the floor and drank from his bottle.
    Kevin laughed. His face was still stinging from the force of Judd’s slaps. But he was happy.
    Here’s a cuckoo! There’s a cuckoo!
    There’s a cuckaroo!
    Here’s a cuckoo! There’s a cuckoo!
    There’s a cuckaroo!
    Judd had bought bologna, canned pineapple, peanut butter, marmalade, oranges, and the canned clams that he liked to eat cold and raw when he was drunk.
    Supper was a feast. Kevin chewed slowly, extracting the last drop of flavour from the moist peanut butter, rolling the shreds of syrupy pineapple pulp on his tongue. At certain seasons, the O’Briens went weeks without tasting any food other than bread, milk, eggs, and potatoes.
    Judd, who claimed to have no taste for such delicacies, ate clams and drank black tea out of a tin mug, blowing on it to cool it. He was proud of the food piled on his table, Kevin knew, and