SCRAP CITY of sleek gliding wings the birds perhaps rattled at the interruption let out deep angry caws and took off And that was when Jerome heard it Somewhere in there among the piles of junk was a whir A peculiar sort of whir If you were to ask him in what way this whir was peculiar he couldn’t tell you He just knew it was something he’d never heard before It went wrrrlgh in the strangest way That must have been what had excited the crows The whir came every few seconds It was definitely nearby And it was definitely peculiar Each time it came a whir here a whir there Jerome took a step in its direction like a game of Hot and Cold At first he thought it sounded like an old refrigerator but then he realized there probably wasn’t electricity this far from the junkyard shack which was a good fifty yards away It’s probably a generator he thought like the one behind his house that sputtered and coughed when the electricity went out No not a generator Something else Wrrrlgh it came again a little louder than before which meant Jerome was getting close Then the whir abruptly stopped Jerome stood still and listened straining his ears He waited He waited some more Whatever it was he thought with a sigh it’s over now He shrugged and turned back to the broken-down shack where he’d left his dad and uncle who were meeting with the old junkman 2
D S THORNTON His dad was a commercial real estate agent That meant he helped businesses buy and sell property Sometimes it was land and sometimes it was buildings After a whole year without a single sale Jerome’s dad had a client A client who wanted to buy the junkyard Earlier at the shack his dad had told him to wait on the porch while he went inside to talk to the junkman But after a half hour of listening to the men inside talk or really his dad talk Jerome couldn’t take it any longer The more his dad tried to press his points to the old junkman how a shopping center would be good for Shoney Flats how the junkyard didn’t have the customers it once had how it was good to retire while he still had the energy the more frustration Jerome could hear in his father’s voice Jerome knew this frustration well because it had been there just under the surface for months They called the junkman Wild Willy Wild Willy wasn’t his real name of course his real name was William Videlbeck But everyone in Shoney Flats called him Wild Willy even Jerome’s dad Or they called him a crazy old goat When Jerome was little he had thought Mr Videlbeck’s name really was Crazy Old Goat because he’d heard it so often That crazy old goat out at the junkyard people would say While he waited on the porch Jerome had tried to get a glimpse of Wild Willy He’d never seen the old junkman before But it was hard to see through the screen door 3
SCRAP CITY and the most Jerome could make out was a hunched-over shadow as the old junkman hobbled about the darkened shack Every now and then Jerome would hear the shadow grunt Nope not interested or Yer wastin yer time and then Jerome’s dad would start talking again That’s about all the junkman said the whole time Jerome was on that porch After some time he’d called through the screen door to ask if he could walk around but he wasn’t sure if his dad had heard him He’d tried a second time Fact was he’d wondered if his dad would even notice he was gone Whatever Jerome had said and took off into the junkyard which looked to be full of all kinds of interesting things Now just as he was turning back to the shack the whir suddenly sputtered out again Wrrrlgh it went Then Wrrrlgh wrrrlgh Jerome peeked around a mound of hubcaps hoping he could catch whatever it was mid-whir He looked behind an old propane tank and a claw-foot bathtub The whir was coming every few seconds He checked some metal drums a couple of engine blocks and a mangled-up weight bench Then at last when the noise sputtered out louder than ever he was sure he’d found it Got it he called as he poked his head around a broken-down washing machine Aw it’s just an old ice chest Jerome said disappointed 4
D S THORNTON It was a metal ice chest the kind his dad would bring back when they used to go fishing together Jerome frowned An ice chest shouldn’t be whirring He knelt next to it and put his ear to the red-and-silver words that read ARCTIC ICE Again the whirring stopped One more time he thought I can figure out just what this sound is if I hear it one more time The whir complied And when it did the ice chest wobbled A mouse Jerome decided It had gone inside and the lid fell down and now it was stuck in there Or maybe it’s a nice fat rat like Petey the Rat in science class The best thing about fifth grade Watching Petey nibble his way around a piece of cheese Then Jerome had another thought Maybe it’s hurt And if it was hurt trapped in there Jerome was going to have to move quickly Don’t worry little guy he said as he lifted an old bicycle wheel out of the way I’ll get you out of there The next whir surprised him because it sounded just like Out ub way-uh as if someone with a bad cold had asked Out of where And then Jerome was sure it was someone with a bad cold because after that it said I’m not id eddythink If you’re not in anything Jerome asked where are you He looked up and down and even behind the ice chest I’m right here it whirred sounding more like I’m 5
