The House in the Meadow

Chapter 6 Bad Seeds Grow Beautiful Flowers

The morning after the city market, Marco woke up earlier than the others. He quietly picked out clothes and, trying to make as little noise as possible, he climbed down the ladder, dressed and left his dirty clothes folded neatly on the washing machine. When he was brushing his teeth, Hansol showed up.

"I need to pee." The younger boy declared.

Marco wanted to tell him to go pee outside into the bushes but knew Hansol would complain."I'm almost done."

Hansol tipped his chin upwards and flashed him an aggravated look.

Marco finished brushing as fast as he could. "The bathroom is now yours." He left, closing the door behind him. In the living room, he dug out his backpack from where he stashed it behind the sofa. Carefully, he wrote a note to Euijin and Feeldog explaining his need to go visit a friend of his dad's. He was sitting on the porch putting his shoes on when Hansol came out and watched him for a second before asking.

"I read your note. Are you really coming back?" Hansol pouted. "Why are you sneaking off?"

"I've just got business to take care of," Marco stated while he finished tying his shoelaces.

Hansol reached down and grabbed Marco's pack. "I'll come with you. Wait here."

"Look, this isn't a good idea. What if I get caught? You don't want to get caught with me." Marco insisted.

"Then maybe you shouldn't go," Hansol replied in a reasonable tone of voice. "Let me come, or I'll yell loud enough to wake everyone up."

Marco thought about it, his lips pursed together in a frown and finally agreed. "Okay. But you have to do what I tell you to do."

Hansol agreed but with a loophole, "As long as what you say makes sense."

Ten minutes later, they were on their way. Kneehigh weeds grew in the tire tracks leading to the house and, in the pale gray light of early dawn, the dark woods were spooky. Marco's foot hit a pothole, and he almost stumbled, but Hansol caught him. After that, they held hands.

They made it to the main road and walked along the shoulder to where the bus stopped. The morning was damp with a cold breeze. They huddled together, hungry since they left before breakfast, and watched the occasional cars passing them by. They didn't get on the first bus which was headed in the wrong direction; they waited for the second. Bored Marco played in the drainage ditch and tried to catch a frog. When he finally caught one, he dumped it into Hansol's lap and laughed at his shocked expression.

"Where did you get money for the bus ticket?" Hansol asked out of the blue.

"I found it," Marco answered, untruthfully.

Hansol didn't believe him.

The bus, when it finally arrived, was half full but it was easy to find two seats together towards the back.

"There are more people than I expected." Marco confided to Hansol.

"I heard that they made school buses yellow so you could see them at a distance." Hansol used a random fact as a conversation starter. "So, I wonder why they chose blue for this bus."

Marco tried to think of either an answer or a way of turning the blue bus into a joke, but his mind remained blank, so he went with the obvious, "I guess so it doesn't get mistaken for a school bus."

Hansol nodded as he pondered this.

Marco turned his face to Hansol's, "Why couldn't the bicycle stand up on its own?" He let Hansol think on that for a while before delivering the punchline, "Because it's two tired."