The fence Randy invited out was a new kid in the neighborhood, Paul Francisco. He was well-dressed and soft-spoken, and, I thought, a little bit prissy. He was shoeless like the rest of us, although he’d developed a pretty interesting innovation involving socks. He had two pairs of gym socks, the kind with colored stripes, one pair for each foot. On the soles of his feet he’d applied globules of rubber cement for traction. Everyone called him Francis. We couldn’t coax him into the sewer, try as we might. He wouldn’t go. “It’s just rainwater,” said Randy. Francis looked into the drainpipe, the trees, the sky. “My father says ‘Siwash’ is an old Illini word for a dirty Indian. The story goes, when the first settlers arrived here, they asked the Illini where they were. The Illini pointed at the filthy white people and said, ‘Siwash.’ They liked it so much they kept it as the name of the town. I’m not crawling in that Christ-loving sewer. That wasn’t part of the deal.” We carried the loot out to him, armload by armload. We stacked it on a patch of brown grass. Ceci and Francis dickered over the price. They settled on twenty dollars. Francis wouldn’t take the power tools, because he couldn’t move them. He couldn’t move any of it, of course; he was just a kid with twenty dollars to burn. He was lonelier than I was. I guess he figured maybe he could impress us. We were arguing how to move the stuff when there was a rustle in the bushes overhead. There were kids up there, voices. At first I blamed it on Francis, but later I was convinced it was Randy who blabbed. He had a big mouth; he was indiscreet. We’d been found out. There were kids everywhere. The first wave swarmed into the ditch, and everyone started to run. Randy led Ceci by the elbow in one direction, and I went another. I ran the length of the neighborhood, trying to lose the pursuit, then button-hooked back towards my house. Randy and Ceci were sitting in the back of the Ford Falcon, all chummy. It was infuriating. I opened the door of the car. “Get out.” They got out.
THE GREAT SIWASH SHOE WAR | 23