Holes 2

The sun was barely raised when trumpets were being played from the loud speakers across the camp. Everyone was moaning and groaning. The sun hadn’t even started to rise yet.

They changed into their working pair of clothes and went out to the shed after breakfast to fetch their shovels. Because of Cat’s weight, strength, and height, she got stuck in the back of the line.

When she got to the front, she grabbed a rather big shove which was the only choice left. She looked at it in fear. It was heavy. No way would she be able to finish digging her hole around the time of everyone else.

Squid walked up to her and exchanged his shovel for hers. It was a lot smaller than what she had originally taken. Cat looked at him astonished that he would do that.

“Squid, you really don’t have to do this you know. I’ll be fine with that one.”

Looking at her, he lifted his burrito from breakfast that he had stolen. “Smaller shovel, smaller hole.” He then went on his way with the boys to ‘dig for character.’

It was around lunchtime when Mr. Sir drove up to the scene to fill up empty canisters and give out sandwiches. The sun was beating down on Cat’s face. She didn’t even think it was possible for a woman to sweat that much, but she did.

The boys jumped out of their holes and ran to the truck quickly. Seeing that Cat was stuck and trying difficult to even move a muscle, Zigzag came to her aid and helped her out. “Most people who aren’t able to get out of certain situations end up dying earlier in life than people who can carry themselves.”

Squid was standing above the hole with his shovel in hand. “Pay no attention to Zigzag. I read his profile. Says he has acute paranoia. I’m sure you’ll do fine here.”

Cat found Squid to be interesting. He was very hostile, with not smiling and with his monotone voice and yet he was very sweet with the few actions he had performed with her. Looking deep into his eyes, she smiled. “I sure hope so.”

The big, scruffy voice of Mr. Sir was heard suddenly. “Zigzag, Cat, Squid. If you don’t get over here now, I will not be giving you food till dinner!”

The three kids lined up, Squid making sure he goes first, then Cat, and Zigzag last. Cat waited for him to get his food.

“Mr. Sir, I have a question. What is turkey made out of?”

Mr. Sir looked irritated. “Now Zigzag, you know there are no stupid questions but let’s not go overboard and say we did.” He lifted the door to the back so it was closed tight.

“I’m serious. Well, at least the turkey you give us. How processed is it?”

Mr. Sir sighed as he pushed him back and walked to the front of the car, hopped in and drove away furiously. Squid walked over with a big smile on his face and a handful of sandwiches.

A few guys ran over to him, applauding his work. They pat him on the back, rubbed his head, taking off his hat. He seemed pretty proud of himself too. A couple of the guys took them and left the two remaining for the butterfingered thief.

Cat walked over to him in shock. “Did you just steal all those sandwiches?”

“I’m the king, baby.”

“No, you’re not. Why would you steal them?”

Squid put his cap back on. “They don’t feed us enough. Plus, why are you talking? You stole a necklace that probably costs more than your life.”

“You’re the man, Squid.” X-Ray was more than pleased with his brofriend. He might as well have been kissing him.

Cat sat at the edge of her hole to eat her sandwich. She was hardly half way finished while the others may have had a little less than half to go. Her shoulders were aching and she had blisters forming on her fingers. It was almost too hot for her to breathe. There was no way that she would finish at all.

The turkey sandwiches tasted like cardboard to her. It wouldn’t be hard to believe if Zigzag was really wondering what they were made out of. When she finished her lunch, she opened her canister and took a few sips from it and putting some on her face.

Most of the boys were finishing up their holes. Cat watched them all walked away from her. Feeling completely alone and useless, she leaned against a wall and fell downwards to the ground. It was a lot cooler there considering the sun hadn’t hit inside the hole for a while. She wondered why she didn’t just do it before.

She covered her eyes with her hands, about to cry from exhaustion. It surprised her when she felt the sand in her face and heard boots it the floor hard. Looking up, it was X-Ray.

“I really shouldn’t be doing this but let’s face it, you’ll never finish this thing.”

She stood up. “Well, I will, just not today.”

“Get out!”

“What?”

He leaned on his shovel. “I’m going to dig the rest for you.” A ginormous smile appeared on his face as she got out.

So she didn’t seem like a bitch, she stayed with him until he was done. After all, he was doing her a favour. If he hadn’t come, she would have been all alone in the dessert and working on the daily project until sunset.

It was clear that X-Ray was tired. His eyes were barely open and his body was limp. His breathing was heavy as blood, sweat, and tears fell from his face.

Cat held him up, putting her arm on his waist as he propped his arm on her neck. Only a few holes later, they stumbled into one of them.

They struggled to get up, even more so for Cat when X-Ray got on top of her and started kissing her neck. Cat screamed loudly, trying to get him off of her. “Get the fuck off of me, asshole!”

He sat on her pelvis. “Come on Cat. I dug your hole today. Now you gotta give me something in return. This is just what I want.”

Cat punched him on the arm. “I don’t owe you anything. Get off!”

After a few more kisses to her face, X-Ray spoke again. “Listen, none of us have had sex in 18 months. This is only fair.”

Struggling for a few more seconds, Cat got him off of her after kneeing him in his balls and jumped out of the hole, running back to camp.

She ran into the tent she was staying in, picked up her stuff and began running as fast as her legs would allow her too. The sun was falling, giving the sky a beautiful pink colour and cooling down the sand of the dessert.

She couldn’t stay there if this was going to be the next year in a half, if she was going to have to live with X-Ray and other perverts. There was no respect for her there. Cat could only find some dignity was when she was with the Warden Walker. Even then, Cat was alone.

She wasn’t even a few yards away from the camp ground when a voice called out to her. Unable to see the face, she grew scared in fear that it would be Mr. Sir, but the voice was far younger and a little deeper.

After crashing onto the ground from exhaustion, she coiled up, closing her eyes, and started to weep.
The boy that had been talking to her ran up to her, lifting her up into his shoulder, trying to console her. It was Squid without his hat of handkerchief on and his orange outfit’s sleeves were tied around his waist, making the suit into pants and revealing his body.

“You’ll die in no more than a day if you run away. You don’t have the water or food. If you don’t die from that, you’ll be bitten by one of them yellow spotted lizards.”

Cat pushed him away from her. “Don’t think I give a shit, Squid. You don’t know me. You don’t know half of my life. Maybe I want to die. Life is against me.”

“Your life can’t be as bad as mine or some of the others. We saw you coming off the bus the other day with your designer crap. That’s why you’re made fun of.” Squid lifted himself up and walked away.

There was no way that Cat was hearing what she was hearing. “You guys mock me?”

“You couldn’t tell?” He couldn’t help but smile at her innocence. “You don’t belong here. Besides not being a guy, you ain’t anything like us. We’re badass, you’re princess.”

Cat stood up with poise, her head held high. “As I said then, you don’t know me and all the reasons why I should run.”

Squid seemed irritated with her. She pretends to have the crappiest life ever when clearly she lives a life in luxury. All the guys at the camp had bad histories. Their parents were usually horrible to them leading these guys to self-destruction

In all honesty, Squid didn’t want to see Cat become one of the guys. He couldn’t bear to see something so innocent and clueless become a bad person. “Please, just don’t do it.”

“And tell me, why do you care about me?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t. I just don’t want to have the guilt of letting someone die.”

“You don’t care? Then please don’t pretend to like me. It’s misleading and I hate when people are fake.”

Squid took his stick out of his mouth and spit on the sand. “You call me fake one more time and you’ll regret ever meeting me.”

Cat shook her head. “I don’t need a man to help me or be nice to me. I’m a strong independent woman.”

“God damn it, you’re a feminist at a man’s camp.” Those words seemed to defy gravity. They just didn’t make sense to Squid and yet it made all the sense in the world.

It infuriated Cat to hear him call her a feminist. “Shut up. I can be independent and not a feminist!”

Squid folded his arms. “Then I dare you to try it.”

“You’re a jerk.”

“And you’re a feminist.”

As he began to walk away from her, Cat ran up to him and touched him for the first time, on his arm. “Is your mother a feminist? Is that why you keep saying that? Do you have some hatred for women?”

As soon as he said ‘no’, he left her alone a few yards away from camp.

Once again, Cat sat alone at the table, as far away as she could possibly be from the guys.

Throughout the whole meal, she looked at her tent group, in particular, she kept looking at Squid and the perverted X-Ray.

Finally, when everyone was finished with their dinners, they began walking back to camp to have their story time with Mr. Pendanski. Seeing that Squid was walking alone, she stopped him in his tracks.

She got real close to him without touching him. The look on her face wasn’t irritation, but a look of hurt and being scared. “You began assuming things earlier before I could get a word in. You didn’t even ask me what had happened that made me cry. It wasn’t about me being a spoiled brat.”

“Then what was it, Cat?”

She just shrugged her shoulders lightly and whispered. “I can’t tell you.”

All of a sudden, a scream of Cat’s name echoed throughout the camp.