Chapter 3

As Rigby delivered his papers that Saturday afternoon, he collected from a few customers when he saw people out in their yard. And he thought about his cousin Gloria.

She was sixteen, both taller and heavier than he was, and she was a high school junior. She was kind of pretty with long, blonde hair and blue eyes. He told her what he knew about the nearby school, that it had a reputation for the being the best high school in the county, and one of the best in the state. He was surprised it had been so easy to talk to her, girls usually ignored him and most refused to talk to boys at lunch or on the playground. He told her that a bunch of teachers were called “murder’s row” because they were so tough. And he told her that they had a good basketball team. And that some kids smoked out in what they called “the grove.”

“Football?” the girl had asked, and he had to explain that they played soccer and field hockey instead.

Anyway, she seemed nice and said she was sorry she had chased him out of his room.

A woman was out looking at her beetle trap so Rigby checked his receipt book and then approached her and asked if she could pay for the paper. She smiled at him and told him to go ring the bell. A man answered and Rigby got another two-fifty for two months of the Star.

When he got home, dripping sweat, he counted his money and found that he now had thirty-seven dollars in bills and almost three more in quarters. Pleased, he checked his receipt book and found that he had about a half-dozen more customers to collect from. There were three days left in the month.

On Sunday, after he delivered the thick paper with the comics section which included a comic book that had to be cut out and folded, he and his mother went to Mass. They went to church fasting so they could receive communion. Rigby’s stomach growled at him, but he was used to going to church hungry. Sometimes he wished he was like his father and could stay home, eat pancakes and read the funnies.

After lunch Uncle Tommy got everybody into his big car and drove them out to the David Taylor Model Basin on Conduit Road. His pass got them through the gate and they were able to look at a map, a large model of the long basin itself and pictures of the huge facility while Gloria’s father signed in and got his credentials. Evidently Sunday was just another day at the David Taylor Model Basin. A lot of things seemed to be going on.

Then they went down the winding road, across the narrow bridge and to the Glen Echo Amusement Park. Since it was the Labor Day weekend, the park was quite crowded. Uncle Tommy bought everybody ten tickets and they were on their own. Rigby headed for the roller coaster and got in line. It cost five tickets but it was by far his favorite ride.

Gloria followed him and sat beside him in one of the middle cars. “I’ve never been on one of these,” she told him with a smile.

He pulled the safety bar down on their laps, grinned at her and said, “You’re allowed to yell if you want to.” She just blinked at him and looked puzzled.

The ride started with just a rattling noise and couple of rolling curves and then they were being towed up a steep hill. “What’s that funny sound?” Gloria asked. The roller coaster was making a steady clacking, a loud metallic noise, like a big clock.

“There’s like a chain underneath that pulls us up this big hill. The rest of it is just gravity. We just sort of coast down the other side.” Rigby smiled and got himself ready for the fall., remembering the first time he had ridden the Coaster Dip. “But fast,” he said as they neared the top.