I guess I was due to start High School in the fall, and I ...



Tronk’s Way Martino

I was due to start high school in the fall, and I remember my parents telling friends at a dinner party that it was ‘now or never’ if we were ever going to live their dream and move to the country. I’d lived my whole life in Medford City and I didn’t know anything about the tiny town of Lambton. My younger sister Louisa and I thought it would be pretty boring and we’d hate it, but life in the country was exciting in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. Let me tell you what happened the first day we ever rode a bus to school.

On that first sunny Tuesday in September, Louisa and I walked up the lane to the road. We’d always gone to the same school, walking there and back together. We’d be on the same bus, but after that, who knew? What were these “country kids” going to be like? We had to admit our new home by the river was beautiful, but just who were we going to meet in a place where we didn’t know anyone?

The bus arrived and we hopped on. There were already a lot of kids at the back, laughing and jostling each other. We paused in front of the driver. He was a big man, but he looked friendly. He smiled at us.

“Climb aboard, girls. Lots of seats to choose from.”

Louisa looked at me like she always did when she expected me to decide. I decided we had the whole year to get to know the other riders. We sat in the second seat, across from our driver. I noticed a hand carved wood plaque above his head that said “Tronk”.

“That’s my name. Tronk. Tronk Dixon. But don’t you dare call me Mr. Dixon- that was my father. You call me Tronk, ok?”

Louisa pursed her mouth and raised her eyebrows, meaning she thought this was a little odd. It was a funny name, probably a nickname. Did everyone in the country have nicknames? Would we be given nicknames, maybe ones we didn’t like? Next week I’d ask him about it, but for now I was just glad that our bus driver seemed like a decent man.

We rolled on towards town and the bus stopped at an old farmhouse. The road up to the house was smooth and freshly gravelled, but the land fell away on either side, with muddy puddles and odd tufts of grass, making the yard look dirty. Horses grazed in the mud. The house was a dingy yellow and brown, with a sinking porch and curling shingles on the roof.

I stopped staring at the house when the bus door hissed open. A big kid with dirty jeans and a sleeveless tee shirt got on. He squinted at Tronk and turned to look at us. He gave us a dismissive little “tuh” and moved towards the back. The other kids had suddenly become quiet.

“ How y’all doin’? Ya miss old Judlee all summer?”

He couldn’t have been more than 16, but he already had a voice like sandpaper, and from the looks of the other kids, a personality to match.

“Hey, Ashcan, you look browner than ever. Didn’t think you Indian types’d tan much. Whatya got for lunch? Curry again? Don’t go stinkin’ up my bus openin’ that stuff up now.”

“It’s Ashram, Judlee. Leave him alone”, said a little girl who couldn’t have been older than Louisa, and was probably in her new grade 7 class.

“You be quiet, little Emily. I know you got a nice lunch and I might just help myself to it if you don’t shut up.”

None of the other kids said anything in her defence. Some of the other boys looked to be Judlee’s age, but they kept their heads down. Nobody but Emily had made eye contact with him.

He got up and stretched, and grabbed the chrome handrail and swung himself into an L seat. He let out a bit of a whoop and stuck a landing, arms out, waiting for some type of reaction from the crowd, but he didn’t get one. He spun around and tromped towards us at the front of the bus. He did his handrail trick again and stopped in front of Tronk, his back to us.

“Hey Honky-Tronky, how’s it goin?”

“Just fine, Judlee, just fine. I’d appreciate it if you’d sit down. You know everyone should be in his seat when the bus is movin’.”

“Ya, ya, I will.”

He took a good look at us.

“These the new kids?”

Tronk didn’t say anything.

“You know my name’s Judlee. Judlee Armstrong. What’s yours?”

He didn’t seem like the kind of kid I’d want to know, but he had introduced himself, and I had no reason not to talk to him. I looked at Tronk. He seemed unaware of our conversation. I looked back at Judlee.

I’m Jackie. This is my sister Louisa. We just moved here from Medford.”

“Wooeee! Medford City? That’s why you two look all fancy on the first day. Bet you think you’re smarter than us country kids, don’tcha?”

I wasn’t going to respond to this, other than to shake my head no with a little chagrined smile. He could see I wasn’t going to take the bait, and he fell silent for a moment, looking out the window. Suddenly he turned towards us.

“So, Jackie, you like the whackie tabaccie? That why your sister’s wheezie, wheezie Louisee? Hey everybody, meet Whackie and Wheezie!

None of the other kids responded. I could feel Louisa getting nervous beside me. Suddenly we lurched forward. Tronk had hit the brakes hard. We saw a little rabbit dart past the front window of the bus.

“Hey Tronkie! Ya tryin’ kill us?”

“Can’t be runnin’ over the wildlife, Judlee. They got a right to be too, ya know. Everybody got a right to go about their business without being hassled.”

“My Dad woulda smoked that jack and laughed about it. He’d probably stop and see if it was worth skinnin’ and pop it in the back of the pickup.”

Tronk didn’t say anything more. Louisa and I looked at each other. This kid seemed to be pretty much everything we didn’t want to run into here. At least we knew who to stay away from at school.

We picked up some more kids. A couple of bigger girls hopped on and noticed us right away. Judlee gave them the same look he gave us and shuffled off to the back again. The big girls sat with us and told us about the schools. They’d both graduated from Louisa’s, and assured her that it was a good school with nice teachers. They asked us where we were from.

“Medford”, I said.

“Wow, Medford. Why’d you come here? You have awesome stores there- Hollister, Lulu Lemon. Stef’s got her license. Sometimes on the weekend we bomb down just to shop, you know? Anyway, nice to meet you.”

She looked towards the back of the bus, and frowned when she saw Judlee.

“I guess you met Judlee. I hope he’s not in any of my classes. Just stay away from him. He’s not dangerous if you don’t give him a reason to notice you.”

I was glad to meet a couple of kids who sounded like us and were friendly. So that was it. Just leave him alone and he’d leave us alone. No problem. I wondered if it was going to be that easy.

The first day went well. Most kids thought it was cool to have someone new in class, and they were pretty nice to me. Louisa felt the same way. We both felt pretty good when she got on the bus at 3:30. Her school was the first stop on the way home. All the high school kids were already on when she and Emily, who was in her class, sat down with me.

Judlee was up to his usual tricks at the back. He was pacing between rows, looking for someone to call out, or maybe just getting ready to spout one of his homespun taunts.

“Would you guys quit talkin’ about school? School’s over today!”

He did a little dance and glanced around, hoping to draw someone in. No one said anything, or even looked his way. His little dance routine carried him up to the front near us.

“Hey, Emily, you save me a little snack? You friends with the city slickers now?”

“Go away, Judlee.”

“The older one’s kinda cute, eh Em? She’s gonna need a date for the semi and I’m available.”

“As if anyone would go with you Judlee. Besides, if you were going to the semi, you’d have to take a shower, and I’m not sure you know what one is.”

A few kids chuckled at the back, and Judlee spun around and glared in their direction.

“You watch it, Emily.”

“Judlee, go sit down. You’re going to get hurt if you’re bouncin’ around all the time”, said Tronk.

Judlee looked right at me.

“I’ll see you around, Miss Jackie.”

He walked to the back. He didn’t sit down, but stood looming over the other kids. Tronk glanced in the rear view mirror and shook his head. I looked at his hands; they were huge and meaty, and you could see a single black letter on three fingers of each hand- “M M R” on the right and “M F R” on the left. I had no idea what they stood for. I nudged Louisa.

“Look at his hands- the letters.”

Louisa curled her bottom lip and shrugged.

“Ask him.”

“No!”

“Ask him!”

I looked back at Tronk. Maybe he was a war vet, or a former biker. He was older, but still muscular, and still fit enough. I thought of my dad and most of the men he knew, and I didn’t think any of them would want, as my dad would say, “a piece of” Tronk.

He looked at us as if he knew I had something to ask him.

“Why do you have three letters on each hand?”

“Well, Jackie, they kinda represent the two philosophies I’ve had in my life. See the right one?”

He took his right hand off the steering wheel and extended his arm toward us, back of his hand up, wiggling his fingers.

“‘M M R’ stands for ‘might makes right’. When I was young and foolish I used to believe that. But sooner or later you’ll meet someone bigger and stronger than you, and you’ll learn that philosophy won’t get you too far.”

He grabbed the wheel again and this time put his left hand up into the sunlight.

“‘M F R’ stands for ‘might for right’. What I’ve learned in life is that if you have any kind of strength, you should try and use it to help people, especially those who might not be as strong as you.”

He grinned at us and focused on the road again. Louisa and I looked at each other, surprised and a little impressed by what he had said. I wondered if it was a prepared speech that he’d delivered to new kids on his bus, for years. He sounded so natural and relaxed though, like these were the words he lived by. Were we lucky enough to have the perfect bus driver, a man who’d watch out for all of us, all year? I smiled to myself and settled back in my seat.

I was getting a bit sleepy when I heard Judlee again. He was standing again and telling the crowd what was on his mind.

“You know why my name’s Armstrong? ‘Cause I got the strongest arm in school. If I wanted to, I could be quarterback on the senior team, but I don’t bother, ‘cause I ain’t goin’ ta football practice after school-spend long enough there as it is!”

Before I could stop her Emily sprung up on her knees so her head was over the seat and shouted in Judlee’s direction.

“You might have a strong arm, Judlee, but it takes a brain too. You’d have to remember a couple dozen plays, and I doubt you’d ever keep that straight in your head.”

I heard him grunt and head towards us.

“I had it with you, Emily. You think just because you’re a girl you can…”

Suddenly the axles were squealing and we all lurched forward. Tronk had hit the brakes hard. I’ll never forget what I saw from my front row seat- Judlee, flying through the air and landing, chin first, on the rubber floor. His chin bounced and then he skidded, chin first, about 5 feet. His body came to a halt just behind the yellow safety line, with Tronk on one side and Louisa, Emily and me on the other. Everyone caught his breath, and there was a strange, frozen silence for a moment.

Judlee moaned.

“Oooh! My chin!”

He lifted his face off the floor, and slowly propped himself up into a sitting position. He looked around, not so much to see where he was, but to get a sense of how everyone was reacting to his situation. I took a good look at him. He’d lost a few layers of skin, and his chin was bloody and raw. It looked like a double strawberry, but you could still see his stubble poking out through the blood. Tronk bent down and cradled his shoulders with one hand, and offered him a thick gauze bandage with the other. Judlee looked up at him, surprised but also a little hurt, like Tronk had betrayed him.

“I had to stop it fast, Judlee. I wasn’t gonna hit that jackrabbit. You can’t let little ones get hurt for no reason. You’ll be okay. Sometimes a small hurt for us stops a big hurt from happenin’ to little ones who can’t do anything about it.”

Tronk helped him with the bandage and Judlee sat down on a seat in the middle. He felt the bandage on his chin and grimaced, and looked down at the blood on his hands. It was then that I saw Ashram holding a tissue out for him.

Judlee looked at him, then at all the kids at the back. He took the tissue.

“Thanks, ah, Ashram.” He smiled at Ashram. Ashram smiled back and nodded.

“No problem. Take it easy now, Judlee.”

Wow, I thought, there’s hope for everyone. I looked at Tronk. He was looking straight ahead, focused on the road, but I saw a little smile curl on his face.

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