My Friend Bobby Read online

  Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  Transcriber's Note:

  This etext was produced from _The Counterfeit Man More Science Fiction Stories by Alan E. Nourse_ published in 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.

  My Friend Bobby

  My name is Jimmy and I am five years old, and my friend Bobby is fiveyears old too but he says he thinks he's really more than five years oldbecause he's already grown up and I'm just a little boy. We live out inthe country because that's where mommy and daddy live, and every morningdaddy takes the car out of the barn and rides into the city to work, andevery night he comes back to eat supper and to see mommy and Bobby andme. One time I asked daddy why we don't live in the city like somepeople do and he laughed and said you wouldn't really want to live inthe city would you? After all he said you couldn't have Bobby in thecity, so I guess it's better to live in the country after all.

  Anyway daddy says that the city is no place to raise kids these days. Iasked Bobby if I am a kid and he said he guessed so but I don't think hereally knows because Bobby isn't very smart. But Bobby is my friend evenif he doesn't know much and I like him more than anybody else.

  Mommy doesn't like Bobby very much and when I am bad she makes Bobby gooutdoors even when it's cold outside. Mommy says I shouldn't play withBobby so much because after all Bobby is only a dog but I like Bobby.Everyone else is so big, and when mommy and daddy are home all I can seeis their legs unless I look way up high, and when I do something bad I'mscared because they're so big and strong. Bobby is strong too but heisn't any bigger than I am, and he is always nice to me. He has a longshaggy brown coat and a long pointed nose, and a nice collar of whitefur and people sometimes say to daddy what a nice collie that is anddaddy says yes isn't he and he takes to the boy so. I don't know what acollie is but I have fun with Bobby all the time. Sometimes he lets meride on his back and we talk to each other and have secrets even thoughI don't think he is very smart. I don't know why mommy and daddy don'tunderstand me when I talk to them the way I talk to Bobby but maybe theyjust pretend they can't hear me talk that way.

  I am always sorry when daddy goes to work in the morning. Daddy is niceto me most times and takes me and Bobby for walks. But mommy never takesme for walks and when we are alone she is busy and she isn't nice to me.Sometimes she says I am a bad boy and makes me stay in my room even whenI haven't done anything bad and sometimes she thinks things in her headthat she doesn't say to me. I don't know why mommy doesn't like me andBobby doesn't know either, but we like it best when mommy lets us gooutdoors to play in the barn or down by the creek. If I get my feet wetmommy says I am very bad so I stay on the bank and let Bobby go in, butone day when Bobby went into the water just before we went home forsupper mommy scolded me and told me I was bad for letting Bobby go intothe water and when I told her she hadn't told me not to let Bobby go inshe was angry and I could tell that she didn't like me at all that day.

  Almost every day I do something that mommy says is bad even when I tryspecially to be good. Sometimes right after daddy goes away in themorning I know that mommy is angry and is going to spank me sooner orlater that day because she is already thinking how she will spank me,but she never says so out loud. Sometimes she pretends that she's notangry and takes me up on her lap and says I'm her nice little boy butall the time I can hear her thinking that she doesn't really like meeven when she tries and she doesn't even want to touch me if she canhelp it. I can hear her wondering why my hair doesn't grow nice like theBennet twins that live up the road. I don't see how mommy can be sayingone thing out loud and something else inside her head at the same timebut when I look at her she puts me down and says she's busy and will Iget out from underfoot, and then pretty soon I do something that makesher angry and she makes me go to my room or she spanks me. Bobby doesn'tlike this. Once when she spanked me he growled at mommy, and mommychased him outdoors with a broom before she sent me to bed. I cried allday that day because it was cold outdoors and I wanted to have Bobbywith me.

  I wonder why mommy doesn't like me?

  * * * * *

  One day I was a bad boy and let Bobby come into the house before mommytold me I could. Bobby hadn't done anything bad but mommy hit him on theback with the broom and hurt him and chased him back outdoors and thenshe told me I was a very bad boy. I could tell that she was going tospank me and I knew she would hurt me because she was so big, and I ranupstairs and hid in my room. Then mommy stamped her foot hard and saidJimmy you come down here this minute. I didn't answer and then she saidif I have to come upstairs and get you I'll whip you until you can't sitdown, and I still didn't answer because mommy hurts me when she getsangry like that. Then I heard her coming up the stairs and into my roomand she opened the closet door and found me. I said please don't hurt memommy but she reached down and caught my ear and dragged me out of thecloset. I was so scared I bit her hand and she screamed and let go andI ran and locked myself in the bathroom because I knew she would hurt mebad if I didn't. I stayed there all day long and I could hear mommyrunning the sweeper downstairs and I couldn't see why she wanted to hurtme so much just because I let Bobby come in before she told me I could.But somehow it seemed that mommy was afraid of me even though she was sobig and strong. I don't see why anybody as big as mommy should be afraidof me but she was.

  When daddy came home that night I heard him talking to mommy, and thenhe came up to the bathroom and said open the door Jimmy I want to talkto you. I said I want Bobby first so he went down and called Bobby andthen I opened the door and came out of the bathroom. Daddy reached downand lifted me high up on his shoulder and took me into my bedroom andjust sat there for a long time patting Bobby's head and I couldn't hearwhat he was thinking very well. Finally he said out loud Jimmy you'vegot to be good to your mommy and do what she says and not lock yourselfup in rooms any more. I said but mommy was going to hurt me and daddysaid when you're a bad boy your mommy has to punish you so you'llremember to be good, but she doesn't like to spank you. She only does itbecause she loves you.

  I knew that wasn't true because mommy likes to punish me but I didn'tdare say that to daddy. Daddy isn't afraid of me the way mommy is and heis nice to me most times, so I said all right if you say so. Daddy saidfine, will you promise to be nice to mommy from now on? I said yes ifmommy won't hit Bobby any more with the broom. And daddy said well afterall Bobby can be a bad dog just the way you can be a bad boy, can't he?I knew Bobby was never a bad dog on purpose but I said yes I guessed so.Then I wanted to ask daddy why mommy was afraid of me but I didn't darebecause I knew daddy liked mommy more than anybody and maybe he would beangry at me for saying things like that about her.

  That night I heard mommy and daddy talking down in the living room and Isat on the top step so I could hear them. Bobby sat there too, but Iknew he didn't know what they were saying because Bobby isn't very smartand can't understand word-talk like I can. He can only understandthink-talk, and he doesn't understand that very well. But now even Icouldn't understand what mommy was saying. She was crying and saying BenI tell you there's something wrong with the child, he knows what I'm_thinking_, I can tell it by the way he looks at me. And daddy saiddarling, that's ridiculous, how could he possibly know what you'rethinking? Mommy said I don't know but he does! Ever since he was alittle boy he's known--oh, Ben, it's horrible, I can't do anything withhim because he _knows_ what I'm going to do before I do it. Then daddysaid Carol, you're upset about today and you're making things up. Thechild is just a little smarter than most kids, there's nothing wrongwith that.
And mommy said no, there's more to it than that and I can'tstand it any longer. We've got to take him to a doctor, I don't evenlike to look at him. Daddy said you're tired, you're just letting littlethings get on your nerves. So maybe the boy does look a little strange,you know the doctor said it was just that the fontanelles hadn't closedas soon as they should have and lots of children don't have a goodgrowth of hair before they're six or seven. After all he said he isn't a_bad_ looking boy.

  Then mommy said that isn't true, he's horrible! I can't bear it, Ben,_please_ do something, and daddy said what can I do? I talked to