Chapter Two, in which Weirdo draws in a magic notebook

One day after school I walked out to my bus, but our normal bus wasn’t there. Instead we had a short bus. The bus driver said our normal bus was in the shop getting a thingy done on the thingy. I was the last to get on.

We normally had just enough room for everybody on our normal sized bus. We really had to cram in with this one. Every seat had about seven kids in it. I tried piling myself onto a few of the seats that didn’t already have kids hanging out the window, but everybody pushed me off.

“Why don’t you just sit there?” The bus driver pointed to a seat with only one kid in it.

“Can I stand?”

“Nope, that’s against student transportation ordinance 43.a.2.”

Weirdo smiled at me from his spacious seat. I froze.

“C’mon kid," the bus driver pulled his sunglasses down and looked over the top of them at me, "Gotta get the bus moving. Sit down or get off.”

I sat down slowly next to Weirdo. I sat as far away from him as I could. One cheek was hanging into the aisle. Weirdo was drawing in a notebook. I pretended not to watch him, so I just looked out the corner of my eye. He was drawing a picture of a man with a bunch of money around him. At the bottom of the page he wrote ‘Wednesday’. Today was Tuesday.

“Do you know what this is?”

“No.”

“Of course you don’t. It’s a magic notebook. Whatever I draw in it will come true on the day of the week that I write at the bottom.”

“You want it to rain money?”

“Kind of. Actually it's a picture of my dad winning the lottery. Here's my stop. See you tomorrow.”

Weirdo stepped over me into the aisle. I heard him sing, “We’re in the money” as he got off the bus.

* * * * *

The next day we had the same short bus and I had to sit with Weirdo again. It’s kind of like going to the dentist - it’s not so bad if you’ve done it once before. In fact, this time I sat with both cheeks on the seat. Barely.

“My dad won the lottery this morning. We all got new shoes and panties. I’ll show you mine when we get to my stop. I told you it was a magic notebook.”

“You call them panties? Only girls wear panties.”

“That’s what we call them in my house. It’s easier to say than underwear.”

“I don’t want to see them.”

“I’m not wearing them now. My mom will probably be hanging them on the clothesline when we get to my house. Are you kidding? I’d never wear new panties right out of the bag, that's sick."

"Why is that sick?"

"My Uncle Jake says that the factory workers have to try on all the panties they make before putting them in bags just to make sure they fit right. But I do have my new shoes on. The factory workers are required to wear socks when they try the shoes on, so it’s okay to wear them right out of the box.”

I noticed my mouth was hanging open.

Weirdo pulled out his notebook, licked the tip of his pencil and began drawing. I told him he could get lead poisoning from licking the end of the pencil like that. He laughed and told me I was cute.

“What is that?”

“This is a picture of you sitting next to me on the bus.”

At the bottom of the page he wrote ‘Thursday’. He also wrote my name and drew an arrow to the kid with short hair and thin glasses. Then he wrote ‘Weirdo’ and drew an arrow to the kid with big curly hair and thick glasses.

As we pulled up to a house with underwear hanging out front, Weirdo stood up in his seat and yelled out the little window opening, “Hey Mom! Are my panties dry?”

A lady in his front yard waved and said something back.

“Okay, see the ones on the line closest to the house? Mine are the little ones.”

Weirdo ran off the bus and gave the lady a hug. Then he grabbed a pair of underwear off the line and ran into the house.

* * * * *

The next day we had our normal bus. I didn’t have to sit with Weirdo again. But when I got on the bus Weirdo was waving to me and saying, “Sit here! Sit here!”

I looked around at my friends. Nobody saw me get on, so I sat with Weirdo.

“I told you it was magic.”

“What is?”

“The notebook. See, you’re sitting with me.”

I forgot all about his drawing from yesterday. I said, “But you asked me to sit here.”

“You didn’t have to, but the power of the notebook drew you to me.”

Weirdo pulled the notebook from his bag, then pulled the pencil out of the spiral. He looked me right in the eye and slowly licked the tip of it.

Weirdo drew a picture that looked a lot like yesterday’s picture, except that this time I was sitting with him and giving an apple to him. He wrote out our names and drew the arrows, then wrote ‘Friday’ at the bottom of the page.

“So, I’m supposed to give you an apple tomorrow?”

“No, you’re not supposed to. You are mentally bound by the magic to do it.”

We came to Weirdo's house.

“What are those hanging on the clothesline?”

“Paper towels.”

“You wash and dry your paper towels?”

“No, my Uncle Jake hangs them up there when there aren’t any clothes to dry so that low flying aircraft will see the lines and won’t fly through them. See you tomorrow.”

Weirdo ran off the bus and put his arms out like he was an airplane. He flew beneath the clotheslines and into the house.

* * * * *

I walked out to the bus the next afternoon and saw that we had the short bus again. I asked the bus driver if the thingy wasn't fixed right. He lowered his sunglasses and said, "I don't ask you about the holes in your pants, do I?”

I looked at him quietly.

“Go on. Bus is full. You have to sit with the weird kid again.”

I looked at Weirdo, all by himself. I sat down and a brown paper bag on the seat next to him fell over when I plopped down on the seat. An apple tumbled into my lap. I picked it up and handed it to him… and remembered the drawing. Weirdo smirked at me.

“Oh come on. You set that up.”

“Three for three. When will you believe me?”

“When you draw something crazy that couldn’t happen. If you draw a picture of a dragon eating me, and a dragon comes and eats me, then I’ll believe in you.”

“Okay. So I’ll draw a picture of a dragon eating you. But you can’t call the police on me or anything when it happens, because I’ll just tell them that you made me do it. Actually, I need you to write that on the back of the page to release me from liability.”

Weirdo licked his pencil twice and began drawing. There was a big spotted dragon with me in his mouth. At the bottom of the page he wrote ‘Saturday’.

“Now I warn you, this will ruin your weekend.” He handed the notebook and pencil to me. “Here, now write on the back that you asked me to do this.”

I took the notebook and turned the page over. I wrote ‘I asked Weirdo to draw this,’ and signed my name below it. I tried to give them back to Weirdo, but his face was pushed against the window.

“Ooh, ooh.” He started pointing and bouncing a little in his seat. “Ooh, ooh.” He turned to me and said, “Look, there’s my mom bringing the groceries in. She went grocery shopping!"

The bus pulled over and Weirdo ran off. He was trying to look inside the grocery bag his mom was carrying, but she shooed him away. They went inside and closed the door. The bus drove off.

Weirdo forgot his notebook. I held it in my hands. There was the dragon. Eating me. Of course it wasn’t really magic.

Of course.

I felt silly. I had to do it anyway. I licked the tip of the pencil and began drawing. Where Weirdo had drawn me with short hair and thin glasses, I penciled in big curly hair and made the glasses thicker. He hadn’t written my name with an arrow, so just to be safe I wrote ‘Weirdo’ and drew an arrow.

* * * * *

I didn’t have a good weekend. I could not stop thinking about what I may have done to Weirdo. I was afraid I killed him with his own magic notebook.

I got on the bus Monday afternoon. He wasn’t there. We drove by Weirdo’s house, and there were only big underwear hanging from the lines.

I threw up a little bit when I got home. Then I got out the magic notebook and drew a picture of Weirdo sitting on the bus with me. At the bottom I wrote ‘Tuesday’.

Tuesday afternoon came. Weirdo was in his seat. I sat with him. I sat with him the next day, the day after that and everyday for the rest of the year. Neither of us ever mentioned the magic notebook again.