Slim Novel 12 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage
30. Ali's Hobby Club for Kids
Ali brought the big sunfish home for several hours keeping it in her bathtub and then Sunday to Ben's pet shop in plastic water bag.
Ben shows her the 20-gallon tank prepared with air bubble purified water and a pebble & rock bottom.
“Perfect, Ben.” She dumps her sunnie into the tank and it swims to bottom and stays there, its waving fins & gills showing it is healthy. The water from the plastic bag has brown sediment suspended in it and lake plants and one-cell swimming animals that will grow and multiply in the tank.
“Miss, he's a beauty,” comments Ben, referring to the golden green and red brown pumpkinseed-pattern of the fish’s scaly skin.
“He?”
“I ain't exactly certain but males got color and this fish sure has. Get more and we see.”
"Next thing is, I need kids to listen to me talk, will you help me?”
“Yeah, easy, Miss. The Kids is allus comin’here. I tell 'em you be here nex' Sunday noon . An' hot dogs for all. Sure, I get you a crew."
“Sensaysh, Ben. I leave this guy with you. Toodle loo. See you next Sunday.”
31; Meeting
Ben donates his side room. When Ali arrives, she sees 4 boys around age 10 years old, wearing black-color gang jackets that zipper-up in front but now opened and showing bright yellow sewed-on felt script across the back that spell THE YOUNG KNIGHTS in a diagonal down from just below left shoulder. And in front over left chest each kid shows his name. As Ali is introduced by Ben she notes Eddie the youngest, with intelligent eyes and a slight left side tilt to his head; Googie, shorter, chunky build, with brown wiry hair; Sherman, pudgy with pasty complexion skin; and Zip, the shortest, with a smart-guy look.
Ben's side room is a little larger than a big bathroom. The kids sit on folding chairs and Ben stands behind. Ali gets up on a box in front. The big sunfish is displayed in a small tank on a slim high stool on Ali's right.
"OK, guys, like I just told you when we got introduced, I'm Ali --"
Googie interrupts, "You an Ayrab?"
"The full name is Alison and I'm a Le Beau, from my French forebears."
"Wha! A frenchie!"
"Ben exerts discipline. "Ok! Ok! Let the lady speak."
"You fella's look like real smart guys," Ali points at the sunfish. "Keeping fish at home in a tank is a fun hobby - you can learn a lot and become a biologist."
"Zip interrupts, "What's your racket, Sister?" He is being friendly in a Bronx street way despite his gangster talk.
"I'm studying at Hunter. I want to be a teacher for guys like you. This is part a my education. So howzabout we organize a hobby club and we start by doing a cookout fishing next Sunday and I show my secrets and each one a you guys'll catch sunfish and be able to keep 'em as pets?"
So it is decided. Next scene is 4 AM outside in front of Ali's apartment.
The kids are part of a local gang typical of the Bronx then - they are the curious, adventurous ones who admire hobbies and outdoors. Ben had told them about this weird, sexy Hunter College girl - he says Cunter College, which excites the boys. Ben says he's not sure but she may be a nympho. It assures the boys' attendance.
Zip is the leader and a wiseguy and Googie, whose name comes from Slavic Gugick, is the social success who has actually made out with girls. Sherman is artistic from his Viennese parents; and Eddie's Dad is a hotshot lawyer in Manhattan making him the richest.
Ali has the motive to create a Future by connecting with youth. She does not mind they are boys. At the time, girls had no interest in hobbies.
These kids do not mind the 4 AM meet-up; they already are into going ocean fishing at 5 AM and also they are excited to be close to a real woman.
32. Ali and Gang in Forest
A lightening early dawn sky through tree foliage shows Ali and her 4 guys arriving in the Glenn.
"Hey, real nice, real private!" says Zip. He spots something interesting on the ground and picks it up "A scumbag!" he shouts, holding the used condom in Ali's face. "Howzabout it, Miss?"
Ali reaches for Zip's hand that has the condom and he thinks she is going to take it. But, she gives a sudden twist of her arm and Zip flips sideways and land's on his back on the ground among the fallen leaves and twigs and sod.
The other kids watch, amazed, as Zip sits up from Ali's judo flip and brushes himself off. "Hey, Lady! Why'd ya go and do that?"
"Just want to teach you and your pals I am boss here and don't you try any of that hanky-panky. We are out here as a hobby club, to have fun and learn about Nature. Not to be smart ass like you just was."
"Ok! Ok!" Zip says as he gets up. "You da Boss."
Ali laughs, "Yeah I guess you can call me Sir Boss now? Any of you read Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court? "
Eddie raises his hand.
"OK, nuff a that. Go gather wood to light a fire."
Ten minutes later the gang has made a big bundle of twigs under the cookout grill with Ali's NY Times as paper to start the fire.
"Now kids I want one of you to light the fire, keeping in mind that our caveman ancestors didn't have matches or lighters and so lighting a fire was something very serious and muchly mysterious. And as homework I want you all to go to the library and read Jack London's short story To Light A Fire to get appreciation of how really vulnerable we are to Nature."
Eddie lights the fire and Ali asks him to research how primitive man lit fires.
The kids brought steak, hot dogs and bacon. Ali directs Sherman in frying it over the grill and adds "Next time, I will teach you about not needing to eat meat." They also have raw potatoes and onions, which, Ali shows them, cook well by burying the potatoes and the onions in the fire's hot glowing embers.
While Sherman tends the cooking, Ali goes herb hunting with the others. She wants to teach them to live off the land - to find foods naturally. A few minutes down the slope from the Glenn, next to the pond, she points to what in Japan she calls Mitsuba because of its 3-leaf stem.
. She directs them to cut the stems just above ground so as not to disturb the roots. Then back to the Glenn where the eats are ready and she sits them down for a brief cookout breakfast seminar with morning sunlight making shadows from the overhead tree foliage in a light breeze.
The group sits at the 6-foot (c.2m.) long plank table with facing benches along its sides. Ali stands at one end. Eddie and Sherman are on Ali's left and Zip and Googie, on her right. Ali is in blue Levi's with brown flannel over-shirt hanging loosely out. On the table are paper plates - on each plate a sizzling hotdog, a hand size fire-toasted juicy steak cut from Zip's dad's butcher shop, a roasted chicken thigh the kids call, polkie, a baked potato still in its burnt skin and cut in half with almost boiling, yellow, melting butter dripping over it, a baked full onion big as a baseball and soft with dripping juice, and, covering the whole portion, the Mitsuba cut green leaves and stems. There is no ketchup or mustard or salad dressing because Ali is trying to show the kids a more healthy way of eating starting with real tastes of foods.
"OK, you guys. First concentrate on me and not your eating."
She takes out a 3-finger-thick, black hard-cover book.
"This book, gang, is gonna be your bible. The Outline of History by a fella named HG Wells.--"
Eddie interrupts. "We got it at home. My older brother Allen is always telling me to read it and he reads aloud from it as we walk in the street."
"You got a good brother. Listen to him. Now, guys, I don't want to delay your enjoyment of the food but - like a blessing before eating - I want to read a little of what Mr HG Wells has to say.
Ali holds the book open to Chapter V - Changes in the World's Climate. It is a first edition published 1920. The chapter focuses on climate fluctuations revealed by, as H.G. Wells calls it - the Record of the Rocks - 3 billions years earth temperatures obtained from rock core analyses. Mr Wells points out that Earth's climate changes are depending on 3 main factors: first, the Earth's angle of inclination and its orbit about the sun, which has changed from the original no inclination and circular orbit of unchanging climate to the present 22 degrees inclination and elliptical orbit of increasingly extreme seasons; second, the heat of the sun which fluctuates due to sunspot activity and also to the sun's natural evolution as a star from young yellow giant; and, third, and most recent, the changes due to life on Earth. She reads from it.
"So our Earth's climate fluctuates due to forces beyond Man's control, and one of those forces is Man himself through forest clearing and fire burning activities. There have been ages of worldwide warmth such as humans would find hard to live in and ages of icy glaciers covering half the globe. Now we live in an interval of mildness, but only an instant in the lifespan of our Earth. We must prepare for future changes if we wish humanity to be a cosmic phenomenon instead of an aborted microcosmic moment."
She closes the book and sits down.
Surprisingly the kids do not immediately start chewing up the fragrant food.
Eddie turns to Ali and says "Gee, Miss Ali, that guy is talking about important stuff. I never hear stuff like that. It sounds like maybe the end of the world or something."
"Nah, it's bunk," says Zip.
"We got a World War on now," Googie observes. Who got time for this kind a stuff? We gotta take care a Hitler and Hirohito first."
Sherman observes, "Didn't this HG Wells write The Time Machine? Yeah, now I remember. It talks about the Earth maybe ending in fire or ice."
"OK, guys," Ali says. "I delayed your eats long enough. Just wanted to get you thinking about the future. It's your future because you all got the rest of your lives to enjoy your world and make it better. So we'll talk more about this stuff later. Now, let's eat! But go slow, no chit-chat and you'll enjoy it more."
The hour ends with them chewing fresh-picked raspberries, and drinking startlingly good and cold water from a New York Parks Department deep-spring water tap. Then after cleaning up, she marches them off to the Lake, like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to catch sunfish.
For next, click 12.33 Dear Miss - Could You Help Me to Die?
31; Meeting
Ben donates his side room. When Ali arrives, she sees 4 boys around age 10 years old, wearing black-color gang jackets that zipper-up in front but now opened and showing bright yellow sewed-on felt script across the back that spell THE YOUNG KNIGHTS in a diagonal down from just below left shoulder. And in front over left chest each kid shows his name. As Ali is introduced by Ben she notes Eddie the youngest, with intelligent eyes and a slight left side tilt to his head; Googie, shorter, chunky build, with brown wiry hair; Sherman, pudgy with pasty complexion skin; and Zip, the shortest, with a smart-guy look.
Ben's side room is a little larger than a big bathroom. The kids sit on folding chairs and Ben stands behind. Ali gets up on a box in front. The big sunfish is displayed in a small tank on a slim high stool on Ali's right.
"OK, guys, like I just told you when we got introduced, I'm Ali --"
Googie interrupts, "You an Ayrab?"
"The full name is Alison and I'm a Le Beau, from my French forebears."
"Wha! A frenchie!"
"Ben exerts discipline. "Ok! Ok! Let the lady speak."
"You fella's look like real smart guys," Ali points at the sunfish. "Keeping fish at home in a tank is a fun hobby - you can learn a lot and become a biologist."
"Zip interrupts, "What's your racket, Sister?" He is being friendly in a Bronx street way despite his gangster talk.
"I'm studying at Hunter. I want to be a teacher for guys like you. This is part a my education. So howzabout we organize a hobby club and we start by doing a cookout fishing next Sunday and I show my secrets and each one a you guys'll catch sunfish and be able to keep 'em as pets?"
So it is decided. Next scene is 4 AM outside in front of Ali's apartment.
The kids are part of a local gang typical of the Bronx then - they are the curious, adventurous ones who admire hobbies and outdoors. Ben had told them about this weird, sexy Hunter College girl - he says Cunter College, which excites the boys. Ben says he's not sure but she may be a nympho. It assures the boys' attendance.
Zip is the leader and a wiseguy and Googie, whose name comes from Slavic Gugick, is the social success who has actually made out with girls. Sherman is artistic from his Viennese parents; and Eddie's Dad is a hotshot lawyer in Manhattan making him the richest.
Ali has the motive to create a Future by connecting with youth. She does not mind they are boys. At the time, girls had no interest in hobbies.
These kids do not mind the 4 AM meet-up; they already are into going ocean fishing at 5 AM and also they are excited to be close to a real woman.
32. Ali and Gang in Forest
A lightening early dawn sky through tree foliage shows Ali and her 4 guys arriving in the Glenn.
"Hey, real nice, real private!" says Zip. He spots something interesting on the ground and picks it up "A scumbag!" he shouts, holding the used condom in Ali's face. "Howzabout it, Miss?"
Ali reaches for Zip's hand that has the condom and he thinks she is going to take it. But, she gives a sudden twist of her arm and Zip flips sideways and land's on his back on the ground among the fallen leaves and twigs and sod.
The other kids watch, amazed, as Zip sits up from Ali's judo flip and brushes himself off. "Hey, Lady! Why'd ya go and do that?"
"Just want to teach you and your pals I am boss here and don't you try any of that hanky-panky. We are out here as a hobby club, to have fun and learn about Nature. Not to be smart ass like you just was."
"Ok! Ok!" Zip says as he gets up. "You da Boss."
Ali laughs, "Yeah I guess you can call me Sir Boss now? Any of you read Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court? "
Eddie raises his hand.
"OK, nuff a that. Go gather wood to light a fire."
Ten minutes later the gang has made a big bundle of twigs under the cookout grill with Ali's NY Times as paper to start the fire.
"Now kids I want one of you to light the fire, keeping in mind that our caveman ancestors didn't have matches or lighters and so lighting a fire was something very serious and muchly mysterious. And as homework I want you all to go to the library and read Jack London's short story To Light A Fire to get appreciation of how really vulnerable we are to Nature."
Eddie lights the fire and Ali asks him to research how primitive man lit fires.
The kids brought steak, hot dogs and bacon. Ali directs Sherman in frying it over the grill and adds "Next time, I will teach you about not needing to eat meat." They also have raw potatoes and onions, which, Ali shows them, cook well by burying the potatoes and the onions in the fire's hot glowing embers.
While Sherman tends the cooking, Ali goes herb hunting with the others. She wants to teach them to live off the land - to find foods naturally. A few minutes down the slope from the Glenn, next to the pond, she points to what in Japan she calls Mitsuba because of its 3-leaf stem.
. She directs them to cut the stems just above ground so as not to disturb the roots. Then back to the Glenn where the eats are ready and she sits them down for a brief cookout breakfast seminar with morning sunlight making shadows from the overhead tree foliage in a light breeze.The group sits at the 6-foot (c.2m.) long plank table with facing benches along its sides. Ali stands at one end. Eddie and Sherman are on Ali's left and Zip and Googie, on her right. Ali is in blue Levi's with brown flannel over-shirt hanging loosely out. On the table are paper plates - on each plate a sizzling hotdog, a hand size fire-toasted juicy steak cut from Zip's dad's butcher shop, a roasted chicken thigh the kids call, polkie, a baked potato still in its burnt skin and cut in half with almost boiling, yellow, melting butter dripping over it, a baked full onion big as a baseball and soft with dripping juice, and, covering the whole portion, the Mitsuba cut green leaves and stems. There is no ketchup or mustard or salad dressing because Ali is trying to show the kids a more healthy way of eating starting with real tastes of foods.
"OK, you guys. First concentrate on me and not your eating."
She takes out a 3-finger-thick, black hard-cover book.
"This book, gang, is gonna be your bible. The Outline of History by a fella named HG Wells.--"
Eddie interrupts. "We got it at home. My older brother Allen is always telling me to read it and he reads aloud from it as we walk in the street."
"You got a good brother. Listen to him. Now, guys, I don't want to delay your enjoyment of the food but - like a blessing before eating - I want to read a little of what Mr HG Wells has to say.
Ali holds the book open to Chapter V - Changes in the World's Climate. It is a first edition published 1920. The chapter focuses on climate fluctuations revealed by, as H.G. Wells calls it - the Record of the Rocks - 3 billions years earth temperatures obtained from rock core analyses. Mr Wells points out that Earth's climate changes are depending on 3 main factors: first, the Earth's angle of inclination and its orbit about the sun, which has changed from the original no inclination and circular orbit of unchanging climate to the present 22 degrees inclination and elliptical orbit of increasingly extreme seasons; second, the heat of the sun which fluctuates due to sunspot activity and also to the sun's natural evolution as a star from young yellow giant; and, third, and most recent, the changes due to life on Earth. She reads from it.
"So our Earth's climate fluctuates due to forces beyond Man's control, and one of those forces is Man himself through forest clearing and fire burning activities. There have been ages of worldwide warmth such as humans would find hard to live in and ages of icy glaciers covering half the globe. Now we live in an interval of mildness, but only an instant in the lifespan of our Earth. We must prepare for future changes if we wish humanity to be a cosmic phenomenon instead of an aborted microcosmic moment."
She closes the book and sits down.
Surprisingly the kids do not immediately start chewing up the fragrant food.
Eddie turns to Ali and says "Gee, Miss Ali, that guy is talking about important stuff. I never hear stuff like that. It sounds like maybe the end of the world or something."
"Nah, it's bunk," says Zip.
"We got a World War on now," Googie observes. Who got time for this kind a stuff? We gotta take care a Hitler and Hirohito first."
Sherman observes, "Didn't this HG Wells write The Time Machine? Yeah, now I remember. It talks about the Earth maybe ending in fire or ice."
"OK, guys," Ali says. "I delayed your eats long enough. Just wanted to get you thinking about the future. It's your future because you all got the rest of your lives to enjoy your world and make it better. So we'll talk more about this stuff later. Now, let's eat! But go slow, no chit-chat and you'll enjoy it more."
The hour ends with them chewing fresh-picked raspberries, and drinking startlingly good and cold water from a New York Parks Department deep-spring water tap. Then after cleaning up, she marches them off to the Lake, like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to catch sunfish.
For next, click 12.33 Dear Miss - Could You Help Me to Die?
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