Richard, the paperboy, from The Red Scarf, 1944, # 11

Richard, the paperboy, from The Red Scarf, Sept. 1944, #11
Well, course, none of them girls would even speak to us the next day at school. Can’t really blame em though. I guess if you’re a-gonna throw up riding the Bullet with a couple of girls ain’t the time to do it. Yeah, I blamed John Clayton cause he throwed up first. Anyway, all the boys thought it was just about the funniest thing they had ever heard, but for some reason, none of them girls did. Heck, Norphlet is such a little town that even old Doc down at the newsstand had heard about it. And you’d just know, I was nearly 20 minutes late that morning. Course, I had one of the best excuses…actually I’d been saving it.
“Doc,” I said, “You’ll never believe in a million, million years what happened this morning.” Well, that got old Doc’s attention…just before he was gonna deduct 50 cents from my measly paper route money.
“What?” He gave me one of them, “I know you’re lyin’ like a sorry yard dog looks.”
“Well, Doc, this is the gospel truth. .” Doc just shook his head. “Doc, I was up early and headed down to the newsstand when I passed the alley just up the street, and I saw this sneaky looking feller rattling the back door to the newsstand.”
“What?”
“Yeah, Doc, it was right before you got here. I sent a rock from my sling shot at him, but he just yelled,” “Get outta here, kid!” “And then Doc, he done pulled a gun out and fired at me.”
“Richard are you telling me the truth?”
“Doc, if I’m lyin’, I’m dyin’. Anyways, Doc, after them shots nearly got me, I took off like a scalded dog heading down to Marshal Wing’s office. Heck, I’d have been early, if I hadn’t took on that robber. That’s why I’m late.”
“Richard, Wing’s office is just a block away. That couldn’t have taken you more that a couple of minutes.”
“Naw, it didn’t, but Wing wasn’t there, and I had to go down to his house, but he was out checking on something else, so I never did get to report the robber.”
“Get them papers in your bag and get outta here! If you don’t have a paper on everybodies porch by 6 I’ll deduct a whole dollar!”
“I’m gone, Doc.”
Your know, if you tell a little white lie that don’t hurt nobody, it’s okay…well anyway that’s what I think.