Author: Jack Yerby

Six
A Kitchen Bet

“Mrs. Tsosie, what happened to all the stuff in the Hampton House after it burned down?” asked Kenny. He and James were sitting in front of Mrs. Tsosie’s mobile home drinking lemonade and playing with Gingersnap. 
James had a stick in his hand with an old rag tied to the end of a long shoestring. He was dragging the rag quickly in front of him as he sat in one of Mrs. Tsosie’s beat-up, old lawn chairs. Gingersnap barked as she chased the rag, growling like a bear when she caught it.
James had taken one of Mike’s long shoestrings to make his toy.  Mike’s feet were so big that his boots used extra-long shoestrings. This made them ideal to tie to a stick to play Catch-the-Rag. Kenny sighed. He knew if James didn’t get that shoestring back on Mike’s boot before winter came, James would get pounded by their big brother. 
“Folks came and took what’s they wanted,” Mrs. Tsosie answered to Kenny’s question about the stuff from the burned ruins. “I gots a good blender from over there.” 
She didn’t point to the Hampton ruins with her hand; that would be impolite. Instead, she used the typical Navajo way of pointing. She puckered her lips tightly like she was going to kiss something nasty, then aimed them toward the house without turning her head. Unless the boys had been watching her face, they would not have known she was pointing to something. To the Navajos, that was the proper way to point without being rude.
“At first they took all the furniture that didn’t burn. And the stuff in the kitchen like the stove and the icebox.” 
Mrs. Tsosie was old enough to remember when food was kept in a large, boxlike container called an icebox and cooled by a large block of ice in a compartment on top. When she explained how they were built to the boys, Kenny pictured it as a refrigerator without an electrical motor and the freezer filled with a block of ice.
She paused for a sip of her lemonade, then continued. “Then after everything was took and it was winter, they come got all the wood that wasn’t too burnt up. They burned it in their stoves that they had to heat their homes.” She paused for another sip.
“My sister got her a new icebox from that old lady Hampton. You know, the kind you plug into the electricity and don’t have to buy the ice for?” She smiled as she continued, “We started to use that for the mutton when we wanted to keep it from spoiling. She found a big envelop with money and a card where you don’t put the ice no more.” 
Kenny puzzled over what she said. Then he realized that she meant the freezer of the refrigerator.
Mrs. Tsosie continued, “She gave me the card because I was knowing Mrs. Hampton. She kept the money. All hundred and seventeen dollars of it. It was Mrs. Hampton’s savings I think.”
“Why didn’t it go to her heirs?” said Kenny.
“She didn’t have no family except her son. And he was dead. He robbed a bank in the New York City with a friend. They came here to New Mexico to hide. But they caught them.”
“Who caught them?” asked Kenny. Sometimes Mrs. Tsosie’s English was hard to follow. Kenny figured it was because she grew up on the reservation speaking Navajo. She still thought in Navajo he guessed.
“The police,” she said. “They came to her house one night. The son he got killed in the gunfight, and the friend, he got captured. But they didn’t find no money.”
“Do you think Mrs. Hampton kept it?” said Kenny.
“No, she was always poor. And she didn’t like what her son had did. She was sorry she ever had a son. She even said so when the people asked about him.”
“Do you think the money was in her house?”
“The police think so. They think they were going to split it up in the house.”
James interrupted them, a confused look on his face. “Who was going to split it up in her house?”
“Old lady Hampton’s son and his partner,” said Kenny with a superior tone of voice. “Weren’t you listening?”
“Well, who was always asking her about her son?” he shot back, changing the subject.
“The FBI,” said Mrs. Tsosie. “And the folks from the newspapers.”
“Did they write an article about the robbery in the papers?” asked Kenny with interest.
Mrs. Tsosie nodded her head yes.
“Which paper?”
“Oh, the really big one.”
“Which one is that?”
“The really big one in the city. New York.”
“The New York Times?”
Mrs. Tsosie nodded again, and took a sip of her lemonade. 
Kenny just sat there deep in thought.
* * *
“I bet I can make an egg stand on its end,” said Kenny to his three siblings. They were sitting around the kitchen table waiting for their mother to finish making dinner.
She had already corralled James and made him get in the bath while she washed him with a stiff brush that she used to scrub the kitchen floor. She could still smell a little bit of skunk odor on him. She was determined to get it off of James, even if he lost some skin in the process.
And once James was clean, she didn’t want him to go back outside and get dirty. So, she had grounded him to the kitchen table while she fixed dinner. When he complained that it wasn’t fair, she agreed and made all four of her kids sit at the table until dinner was ready. Kenny knew that Mike and Katie would make James pay for this after their mother went out for the evening.
In order to make time pass quicker while their mom cooked dinner, Kenny issued his challenge about being able to make an egg stand on its end. His siblings looked at him with interest. Anything to make time go faster.
“Which end of the egg you gonna make it stand on?” said Mike, taking the bait. “The big end or the little end?”
“The little end, of course. That’s harder.” 
Kenny grinned at his older brother, daring him to make the bet.
“Okay, what are the stakes?” asked Mike. 
“Dishes for a week.”
“You mean whoever loses has to do the dishes for the winner for a week?”
Kenny nodded. “If you win, I wash and dry dishes for a week. If I win, you wash and dry for a week.”
“Okay, I’ll bet you that you can’t make an egg stand on its end all by itself,” said Mike.
Katie looked at her brothers with interest. She and James alternated with Mike and Kenny on kitchen chores each week. This wager sounded like she could get out of washing dishes for a week.
 “Hey, if I bet you too, will you take my week after Mike’s?” said Katie. 
“Yep,” said Kenny with a sly grin. 
He had figured when his lazy sister heard Mike make this bet, she would want to get in on it too if it meant a week without after-dinner chores. Neither one saw him grin to himself.
Solemnly the three shook hands, sealing the wager. Kenny then got up, walked over to the refrigerator, and took out two eggs. He sat back down at the table not saying a word.
He took one of the eggs, tapped it firmly on it’s pointed end, and smashed the end flat. The shell cracked, but the egg didn’t run like his siblings thought it would. Letting go of the egg, it stood on its end without toppling over.
“Hey! That’s not fair!” said Katie. “It’s hard boiled!”
“I didn’t say I would make a raw egg stand on its end. I just said I could make an egg stand on its end.” Kenny sat back with a smirk on his face.
“That’s right, he did,” said their mother from over by the stove. “He won, fair and square.” 
Kenny’s smile grew even bigger. With Mom as the judge, there would be no backing out for Mike and Katie.
“Double or nothing!” said Mike quickly, looking at the second egg. He held out his hand for a fast handshake to seal the deal before Kenny could make up his mind. 
Kenny looked over at Katie, a silent question on his face. 
“Yeah, me too. Double or nothing.” And she also held out her hand to seal the bet. 
Kenny solemnly shook hands with his two older siblings. 
Then he smiled as he watched his brother smash a raw, uncooked egg on the kitchen table. 
He bolted for the safety of his bedroom as Mike and Katie looked at each other and realized that they were both saddled with a whole month of washing and drying dishes.