The Battle of Jericho (19 page)

“That's true,” Kofi began, “and runnin' never killed anybody.” Jericho looked at him sharply, but said nothing. “The swats were rough, but I hear they do that in all clubs. But I don't like how they're treatin' Dana—especially Eddie. I was ready to choke him when he kissed her!” He brought his fist down on the table with such force that it shook.

Josh nodded. “You knew that was gonna happen, man. She set herself up for it, but why do you think she's puttin' herself through all this?”

“She told me once that her father, the big time military man, wanted a son and was really disappointed when Dana was born that she was a girl. So he decided to teach her everything he would have taught his son. She played baseball and basketball as a kid, took flying lessons, and boxing, too.”

“She's not the only girl to do that stuff,” Jericho reasoned.

“Yeah, but she's the only kid her daddy had, and I think Dana always felt like she was never quite good enough for him. So she keeps pushin' the limits.”

“I think she'll do fine,” Jericho said with a confidence he didn't feel, even about himself. “We just gotta make sure we look out for her.”

“I've seen Dana in action!” Josh laughed. “Maybe we ought to get her to look out for us!”

“What do you think they're up to tonight?” Kofi whispered.

“I don't know.” Jericho licked his fingers and the wrapper of the ice-cream sandwich. “Hey, Josh, has Uncle Brock said
anything
to give us a hint about what's coming up?”

“No, he just keeps smilin' and struttin' around like some kind of rooster. He's so proud he's about to explode.”

“Too bad. It would help to know,” Kofi said with a sigh.

“I kinda like the idea of surprise. Every night is a new adventure,” Josh said as he cleared his tray.

“Do you think they do the same pledge activities now that they did when he pledged?” Jericho wondered.

“Probably not. I bet ours are a lot more intense,” Kofi said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, I guess, but I don't know how I'm gonna make the rest of this week. I am
so
tired!” Jericho said as he walked out of the lunchroom with them.

By the end of the school day, Jericho felt like he was dragging. He was anxious to get home and get a quick nap before the night's activities. But then he noticed Arielle coming down the hall, talking to Eric Bell. She was smiling at Eric and laughing, touching his hand lightly as she talked, and looking at him with the same sparkling eyes that Jericho loved to look at. Eric looked deliriously happy as he rolled along beside her.

Arielle didn't notice Jericho at first. He watched her as she sat with Eric in the main hall near the door. She was looking directly in Eric's face, her face very close to his. They seemed to be whispering and giggling. Jericho felt ill.

Arielle finally saw Jericho and waved. “Hi, Jericho. I was just telling Eric about my silly little sister. He has a sister about Kiki's age.” Jericho didn't even know that Eric had a sister. He'd never bothered to ask. He said nothing for a moment.

“What's wrong, Jericho?” Eric asked. “You look tired.”

“I guess I am,” he said deliberately. “And this is just day three of the Warrior pledge week.”
Where does he get off talkin' to my girl with his crippled self?
Jericho frowned. I
hope he gets his feelings hurt!

Eric looked at Jericho with a pained expression. “My
bus is coming early today,” he said. “I think I'll wait for it outside.” He moved to the front door. Before he left he turned his chair back to face Jericho and Arielle. “I'll see you tomorrow, Arielle,” he said pointedly before going out the door to wait for his bus.

“What was that all about?” Jericho asked Arielle.

“All what?” she asked. “What's wrong with you?”

“What's up with you and Eric? I see you walking down the hall with him, and sitting here where anybody can see you, laughing and giggling like he's some kind of movie star.” Jericho could not explain why he felt so angry.

“What do you mean 'where anybody can see me'—like I'm supposed to hide when I talk to him?” Arielle replied, her dark eyes flashing.

“That's not what I meant,” Jericho said, feeling even more confused and upset. “It just doesn't seem right.”

“So what are you tryin' to say?” she asked. She was really getting angry.

“I'm sayin' that it's not fair to give him hope or make him think about something that's not possible.” The words weren't coming out right, but Jericho was unable to express himself clearly.

“Give him hope about what? You think he hasn't got a chance with me just because he's in a wheelchair? If you think that, you're a narrow-minded punk! I like Eric because of who he is, not for how he gets around.”

“So now you
like
him?” Jericho sneered. He knew he was twisting her words unfairly.

“So what if I do like him? You don't own me!”

“I didn't mean that. It's just that I saw you with him
and . . .” Jericho couldn't finish. He wished he were in a hole at the bottom of the ocean. The whole situation was getting out of hand.

“He's smart, he's good-looking, and he makes me laugh,” Arielle said as she angrily tossed her book bag onto her shoulder. “He's my friend, and I
do
like him,” she added defiantly.

“Maybe he's the wrong kind of friend to have,” Jericho muttered. He was saying it all wrong, but he knew what he had seen in Eric's eyes.

“I can't have friends?” she asked as she headed for the door.

“Not friends that look at you like he did. You didn't see how he was lookin' at you, Arielle—like you were a piece of soft chocolate candy.”

“So what if he did? You can't tell me who to talk to or who to laugh with or who to like!” She stormed out of the front door and purposely went over to talk to Eric.

Jericho couldn't understand why he was so furious, but he knew he had to get out of there. He left by the back door and drove home alone.

JERICHO ARRIVED AT THE WAREHOUSE A LITTLE
before eight, still upset about his fight with Arielle. He had tried to call her, but she wouldn't come to the phone. He knew he'd been wrong, and he wanted to apologize, but she wasn't ready to talk. He sat in his car in the dark parking lot, taking deep breaths, trying to focus on whatever the Warriors had in store for him tonight.

Josh and Kofi got dropped off by Josh's dad, Dana arrived a few minutes later, and soon the other pledges arrived. Jericho got out of his car and joined them on the front steps. It had started to rain and the temperature had dropped close to freezing.

The Warriors arrived at eight. “It's cold out, so I think you need a good run tonight to warm up,” Eddie Mahoney said.

Jericho groaned and glanced over at Kofi, who looked away.

“Around the warehouse until I say stop,” Eddie said. “And get those jackets off! They'll just slow you down.” Jericho looked at the other pledges, who reluctantly had begun to peel off their winter coats.

“Are we runnin' inside or outside, sir?” Cleveland asked.

“Outside. Fresh air is good for you. And if you're fast enough, you won't get cold. Begin.”

The fifteen pledges began a slow, miserable jog around the building. After five times around, Jericho's chest ached from inhaling the cold air into his lungs. His nose was running, and even though he was sweating, the cold and rain penetrated his clothes and skin. Why was he doing this? he thought miserably. Kofi ran slowly, taking huge, gasping gulps of breath as Jericho passed him. “Don't you dare,” he whispered to Jericho between gasps. Dana ran with Kofi, matching her stride with his.

The front of the warehouse had a sidewalk, and a dimly lighted parking lot was located on one side. On the other side of the building was a narrow driveway that led to a house that had long been boarded up. Along the far side of that driveway a tall, concrete wall had been built to separate the warehouse property from the buildings next to it. It extended all the way back to the deserted house. But the ground in back of the warehouse was unpaved. It might once have been a yard, but it was now just a cold, muddy area filled with trash and rocks. It was not lighted, so Jericho and the others weren't sure what they were running over as they made their laps around the building. In the very back of this yard was a huge Dumpster, which even in the cold air reeked of garbage and decay.

Eddie and some of the pledge masters sat in Eddie's car, watching the pledges run. Finally, after fifteen times around the building, Eddie got out and told them to stop. Jericho glanced over at Kofi, whose face, instead of his usual tan color, looked almost blue. He was heaving and leaned against Eddie's car. Dana stood near Kofi and as far from Eddie as she could. Jericho had never felt so cold and so hot at the same time. He just wanted to take a steaming shower and go to bed. But Eddie wasn't finished with them. Jericho noticed with irritation that the Warriors all had put on long, heavy rain jackets with hoods.

“Okay, Pledge Slime. Now we search for treasure.” He and the other pledge masters, who carried flashlights, led them to the backyard.

“Remember doing scavenger hunts when you were a kid?” Rick asked. “We have hidden several objects in this Dumpster that you must find. I know you're cold and wet, so the sooner you find them the quicker you can go home.”

“We should tell you,” Eddie added with a cruel smirk, “Madison's dad works at the slaughterhouse downtown. He gave us a load of manure to add to the fun.”

“What's manure?” Cleveland whispered.

Josh answered, “Cow dung. Doo-doo. Feces. Sh—”

Cleveland groaned and interrupted, “I get it.”

“What do we have to find?” asked Jericho. “Sir,” he threw in quickly.

“Here's the list,” Eddie replied. “One ripe unpeeled banana, one whole peeled grapefruit, one used baby diaper, one whole pizza—uncut but not in its box—a shoe, a large rock, a wig, and a gun.”

A gun?
A gun?
Jericho looked in alarm at the others, who were clearly thinking the same thing. Yet not one of them spoke up.

Eddie barked at them before they had a chance to think about it any longer. “Get in that Dumpster, all of you, and find that stuff!” He left one flashlight on the ground next to the stunned pledges, then he and the rest of the Warriors retreated and watched. The back of the warehouse was suddenly dark and ominous once more.

This was not what Jericho had in mind when he dreamed about getting into the Warriors of Distinction. But he still didn't say anything. No one else did, and he couldn't let the others down.

“What's up with that—a gun!” Josh exclaimed.

“Where'd they get a gun?” Luis asked.

“And what they gonna do with it?” Cleveland mused.

Kofi, whose breathing seemed to be back to normal, said quietly to Dana, “The rest of the stuff they make us do is what I'd expect—just stupid stuff—but I don't like this gun business.”

“I don't either,” she said, “but all they asked us to do was to find it—they didn't ask us to shoot anybody.”

“Yet,” Rudy added ominously.

They were divided as to what to do. Some wanted to get in the Dumpster right away. A few wanted to go home. Josh finally said, “I'm cold, I'm wet, and I'm tired. The motto is 'All of us or none of us.' Let's just do it and get it over with.”

The Dumpster stood about eight feet high and ten feet wide. About two feet from the bottom was a door in the
front with a large steel latch, large enough to accommodate huge garbage bags and boxes. It was certainly large enough for a person to climb through.

Jericho opened the door. The stench greeted them made them jump back in disgust.

“I'm not gettin' in there!” Kofi exclaimed.

Jericho held his nose and looked inside with the flashlight. “Looks pretty gross in here. This stuff is ripe! Hey, I see the shoe already!” He reached in and pulled out an old tennis shoe. It was covered in brown muck and smelled like manure. Jericho gagged a little and removed his head from the Dumpster to get some fresh air.

“This is just gross, man!” Luis declared.

“Let's get this over with,” Dana urged them.

“What about rats?” asked Cleveland. “I can't deal with no rats, man.”

Josh turned to the group of pledges. “This is a test. They want to know if we're working together as a group. They want to see if we really believe in this 'All of us or none of us' idea. So do we do it? It's gotta be all of us. Raise your hand if you're not going to get in the Dumpster.”

Jericho really did
not
want to get in that Dumpster. He figured none of the rest of them did either. They looked at each other uncomfortably, but no one raised a hand.

“Okay, let's do it,” Josh said decisively. He climbed in first, followed by Kofi and Dana. Jericho climbed in next, the others giving him a hand as he hoisted himself into the bin. His feet sunk several inches into the soft, smelly
muck. Jericho helped the next few boys climb in, then others followed. Soon fourteen pledges stood huddled together—all of them in the Dumpster except for Cleveland Wilson.

“I ain't sharing no space with no rats,” he said defiantly.

“There's no rats, man,” a couple of the pledges said, trying to reassure him. “Just stink and garbage.”

“Where there's garbage, there's rats. I hate rats.” Cleveland was immovable.

“Hey, Cleveland,” Josh called from the back of the Dumpster. “All of us or none of us, man. Come on! We need you!”

Cleveland hesitated. “If I feel something moving, I'm jettin' outta here. Got that?” He climbed in slowly and stood very close to the door. “Now what?” he asked.