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Dick Nelson's Travis and Trish |
Chapter | Supplement | Related book: The Incident at Crystal Lake | Ordering
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INTRODUCTION
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Travis and
Trish begins with Trish's call to her sometime friend, Lois, to see if the two
of them might get together for the afternoon. When Lois mentioned that she had
to take her younger brother to the pool, Trish hesitated. "I'll tell you
no lie," she said. "I'm going to try to find something else to do.
But I might join you at the pool."
"It
figures," Lois replied. Four-year-old Brad had been an incredible pest to
Trish. Clearly he loved her, but his way of showing it involved beating on her
and "bugging" her in numerous other ways.
When Travis, Trish's
younger brother, came home, Trish considered asking him about doing something
together. Travis told her he had talked about getting together with two of his
friends, Wayne and Fred, and suggested she might come along.
"I'd
rather go to the dentist," she said, since she thought of those two boys
as predelinquents.
Trish put
on her bathing suit and found Lois at the apartment pool. Brad proved to be
more obstreperous than usual. After several encounters, he came at her with a
stick, aiming at her hair once again. She snatched the stick from him, swung it
like a tennis racket, and swatted him on the bottom.
Brad
howled, Lois verbally attacked Trish, and the lifeguard banned her from the
pool for the rest of the summer. When Trish decided to face the problem and
call Lois, her mother answered and read the riot act to Trish, assuring her she
was planning to call some of the people for whom Trish often babysat "and
tell them what kind of monster they entrust their children to."
She went on
to insist that Trish stay away from Lois and said she was going to call the
parents of two of Trish's other friends, saying, "they need to know what
kind of person they've been letting their daughters consort with."
Travis,
too, encountered friendship problems. He rode on his bicycle with Wayne and
Fred to Rolland's pond where they padded and splashed around for a time.
Travis
tried to get a good conversation going. "What do you guys really think
about things -- like what life is all about, and stuff?" and that worked
for a little while. Then Travis asked, "What's in the thermos? I'm
thirsty."
Each boy
had brought something to share; Travis brought a plastic bagful of popcorn,
Fred carried a half-full can of peanuts, and Wayne had a thermos filled with
punch.
Travis took several
sips, then finished the cup Wayne handed him. "Hmm. This tastes different
somehow. What did your mom put in it?"
Wayne said,
"She didn't put anything special in
it."
"No,
but Wayno sure did, " said Fred.
When Travis
learned that Wayne had spiked the punch with some wine, he was instantly angry.
"I don't want either of you ever pulling something like that on me
again," he said.
As Travis
went toward his bicycle after a few moments, Wayne called him a wimp.
"Yeah,
sure. I'm a wimp -- 'cause I want to be the one who decides what I do and when
I do it," said Travis.
Chapter 5
appears in full below. The Choice Awareness Supplement presents this Big Idea:
What we
say and do is a choice.
As with The
Incident at Crystal Lake, there is a double
asterisk in each chapter (**) that indicates there is at least one activity --
something to think about or try out -- in the Choice Awareness Supplement pages
in the back of the book. There is also a reminder at the end of the chapter,
plus the page number to return to -- so the reader might easily relocate the
signal. For individual readers the activity may be completed in a break from
reading. If a teacher, counselor, or other leader is using the book with a
class or counseling group, the activities may be used when the schedule
permits.
CHAPTER 5 -- AT THE APARTMENT
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Travis waited for the others to get their bicycles, then
took the lead without saying a word. He felt warm inside, and just a little --
what was it? -- "rubbery," he thought. He kept telling himself not to
do anything foolish. As a result he rode slowly or at middle speed, and
straight ahead -- no tricks, no fancy moves, and no smiles. When they could,
Wayne and Fred rode together, but they seldom spoke.
A few blocks from home, Travis stopped at a traffic
light and the others came up beside him. "C'mon up for a few minutes,
guys. We gotta talk." Wayne and Fred shrugged their shoulders and looked
at one another. Travis stared straight ahead. As soon as their light turned
yellow he checked the traffic and sped on ahead.
** "I'm serious, guys," Travis began, as
he opened the apartment door, "I gotta make my own decisions about stuff
like that. You can do what you want to, but I don't want you making my choices
for me."
"What's all this about?" asked Trish, as
she rose from where she was stretched out on the floor in front of the sofa.
"Oh," said Travis. "I didn't know
you were here. Once you get with Lois you're usually good for hours."
Trish blinked several times. "Tears?"
thought Travis.
"Never mind about Lois," said Trish, her
voice trembling. "What were you kids talking about -- decisions and
stuff."
"Oh, nothing," said Travis.
"It didn't sound like nothing to me," she
said. "C'mon, I want to know."
"You don't have to tell her everything," said Wayne. Fred nodded.
Travis leered at Wayne and scowled, then turned to
Trish. "These guys laced the punch we took to Rolland's Pond -- with wine,
they said, and they didn't let me know about it 'til after I drank a big
cupful."
"I
didn't do it," said Fred.
"Maybe not, but you didn't tell me about it
either," said Travis.
"You've got to be kidding," said Trish,
looking from one boy to another. Neither Wayne nor Fred looked her in the eye.
"Why do you get into stuff like that?"
she asked.
"Oh, don't make a big deal out of it. There
wasn't all that much wine, and we just like to get a little buzz on now and
then," said Wayne. "We thought we'd give Travo a chance to try
it."
"Well Travo wants to decide when
he's going to try something," said Travis.
"Hey, c'mon, answer me -- like I said -- why
do you get into stuff like that?" asked Trish, glaring directly at Wayne.
Wayne looked at the floor for a time. "If you
want the truth -- I don't have such a great life," he said. "And for
just a little while I kinda forget all the rotten stuff going on." Trish
gave a quick nod. Travis had reported all the yelling between Wayne's parents.
They were going through a messy divorce, and neither of them wanted Wayne to
live with them -- but they both wanted custody of his older brother and younger
sister.
"What about you, Fred," she asked.
"Why do you do it?"
"No big deal. I guess I just do whatever Wayne
does," he said.
"At least you're honest," Travis
muttered.
"So, like Mom says, if he jumped into the
Grand Canyon, you'd do it too, I suppose," said Trish.
"Maybe," said Fred, looking at Wayne and
laughing.
"C'mon, Trish, this is my business," said Travis.
"You heard what I was saying when I came in. I
told them I wanted to make my own decisions about stuff like this. You don't
need to jump in and take care of me."
"Well, when you're around these guys things
always seem to happen to get you in trouble. I just don't want you to end up in
some home for delinquents or whatever."
"Yeah, yeah. It'd be a great embarrassment to
you and your 'fawncy' friends -- Lois and Pat and Beverly. You don't really
care about me -- just how it would look to them," said Travis.
"It happens that I'm on the outs with Lois
right now, and if her mother does what she said she would, I doubt that Pat and
Beverly will be acting very friendly either. So it isn't them I'm concerned
about," said Trish, blinking back tears.
"Well, guys, I made my point," said
Travis, turning back to Wayne and Fred. "I make my own decisions,
right?"
"OK, OK," said Wayne, backing toward the
door, holding his hands up and outward toward Travis.
"We better be going," said Fred, and he
opened the apartment door.
"See you guys," said Travis softly, his
face grim.
"Sure, sure," said Wayne, as he and Fred
walked out into the hall.
"So long," said Fred.
As Wayne turned to go, he twisted the welcome mat
in the hall, and it kept the apartment door from closing completely. Travis
stepped forward and put the mat back in place. Footsteps covered most of what
Wayne said to Fred, but one word wafted up the stairway and Travis heard it
clearly. "Wimp."
Travis ambled over to the sofa, sat down, leaned
back, and stretched his legs out before him. "I knew that's what they'd
think of me," he said to himself.
Trish blinked away tears and sat down in a blue
overstuffed chair that angled toward the television. "Hey, brother, I
admired you taking those guys on. You keep standing up for what you
believe."
"Yeah, and lose a couple of friends,"
said Travis.
"Tell me about it," said Trish, staring
off toward her brother's dim reflection on the television screen, her mouth a
narrow line. "Through a glass darkly," came into her thoughts.
"What's bugging you," said Travis after a
long silence.
Trish burst into tears. Then, over the next several
minutes, she told what had happened between her, Lois, Brad, and Mrs. Amory.
"So, on one beautiful, sunny afternoon,"
she summarized, "we each found out something about our so-called friends.
Now I know that Lois won't stand by me -- and I'm sure things are gonna be
messed up with Beverly and Pat."
Travis said what he could think of to be helpful to
Trish, then he was quiet.
After two or three minutes Travis sighed, and Trish
looked at him. "You know, I did
try, before those guys pulled that stunt on me, to get them to really talk for
once -- like you and I do, every now and then. They couldn't handle it,"
said Travis.
Trish nodded and thought for a while. "I've
been thinking a lot about my 'friends,' too. It seems like I just get to tag
along whenever it suits them -- especially Pat and Beverly. I'm not sure they
ever really wanted me."
"That's wild," said Travis. "You're
not sure your friends want you, and I'm not sure I want friends like those
guys."
Travis yawned and swung his feet up on the sofa.
Trish continued to stare ahead. Several minutes went by. "Maybe we both
need to make some new friends," said Trish. The only response from Travis
was steady breathing.
Trish went to the kitchen, put ice cubes in a
glass, and filled it with a clear soft drink. She sipped often and stared out
the kitchen window for a long time.
"What was it Wayne said about wine helping him
forget?" she asked herself.
On impulse, she opened the refrigerator door. She
held her glass in position and pushed the spout on the boxed wine to her left.
"Hmm. The color hardly changes." She filled the glass with white wine
and carried it off to her room.
"I can use a little forgetting right now,
myself," she thought to herself.
(** p. 26)
Supplement to Chapter Five:
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The STOP -- THINK -- CHOOSE ACTIVITIES supplement
in Travis and Trish begins by suggesting
that the book may be read and the activities completed individually or with a
friend, or it may be used in a group setting by a teacher, counselor, or other
group leader.
The double asterisk (**) in each chapter is a
signal that the activities in the supplement relate to the following sentence
or two. The signal is repeated at the end of the chapter, and the page noted,
so that the reading does not need to be interrupted.
Key Idea.
The chapter supplement begins with a key idea that is designed to encourage the
reader to think about choice-making. The Key Idea in Chapter 5 is:
What we say and do is a choice.
Discussion Paragraph. The discussion paragraph explores the key idea and
encourages the reader to think think about it either alone or in discussion
with others.
Activities.
Cues include the following:
P. = an activity that can be used with a partner.
G. = an activity that can be used with a group.
P.G. = an activity that can be used with either a
partner or a group.
*J = an invitation to write a journal entry about
the chapter, the key idea, the discussion paragraph, and/or the activity.
Following is the Supplement to Chapter 5 in its
entirety.
AT THE
APARTMENT
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5-26 (Refers to chapter 5, page 26)
What we say and do is a choice.
In Chapter 5, Travis made an important statement.
He told Wayne and Fred, "I don't want you making my choices for me."
He had the right idea. Here is a definition of the word choice: Anything you say or do over which you have some control
is a choice. When you say or do something,
whether it is wise or unwise, at least the way you say it or do it is your
choice. Take some time to consider what that means to you. *J
P. G. Reread the paragraph above, paying special
attention to the definition of the word choice. As an activity, partners or small groups are to turn a
piece of paper the wide way and make three columns. Title the first two
columns, Things I make choices about,
and Things I don't make choices about.
List some ideas in those two columns. After you list several items in each of
the columns, title the third column, Choices I make when I don't think I
have choices. Now, look at the first item
in column 2. Suppose it says, "Time for bed." That would mean that at
least one person thinks he or she has no choice about bedtime. Do you know
what? Even then you make choices. For example, you could hurry right to bed,
you could dawdle and take your time, or you could say, "Oh, please, can't
I just finish this program?" Those are examples of choices you make when
you don't think you have choices. Have fun listing some of those kinds of
choices for each item, then discuss no-choice choices.
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Nelson. Last updated June 9, 2010