Manhunt. Volume 9, Number 2, April 1961

Buzzard, Brother, Blood by Lewis Banci

Jack, dangerous? Of course not! After all, he was her favorite brother.

January 20th, my room.

I have decided not to put Dear Diary any more, because there’s not enough lines anyway and putting Dear Diary only takes an extra line. It is not worth the trouble. As always, it was a lovely birthday yesterday (my 8th!) with lovely presents from everyone. Mama gave me a new party dress, and Papa gave me white and yellow shoes to go with it, and Teddy gave me a set of pencils (but I bet Mama got them) and Patsy gave me two coloring books and Henry gave me a dolly with red hair that comes out all over everything. Jack as usual gave me a diary, which is this very one I am writing in. Poor Jack wanted to play with the dolly of course, but Papa wouldn’t let him and shouted very hard. I wonder if Jack will ever be too old to cry. 17 seems to me quite old enough already. Henry is only 14, and he never cries, but Patsy is 11 and Teddy is 4 and they cry lots.

I try not to, to make up for Jack. Anyway, the other thing I want to say is it’s starting to snow now. Papa has gone to town. I’m not supposed to know why he went, but I heard him and Mama talking about it. He went to arrange for Jack to get put away. Papa said it’s for everyone’s good and Mama cried a lot but then agreed yes he could get dangerous. I think it means Jack will go away soon and I don’t like that because Jack is my favorite brother no matter how much he cries. Maybe I should tell him where Papa went and why. I hope it snows lots.

January 21st, my room.

Two things. First, Papa is not back yet and the snow is still coming down! It was just like night all day long. Jack says it will be over the roof soon if it does not let up soon. I hope he is right because we have a three story house and I love snow. The second thing is that Mama fired Mrs. Wagner and will have to do the cooking herself now. Henry says the prospect does not appeal, and Jack laughed and told him to be nice. This is one of Jack’s good days, which is not so unusual as Henry claims. Henry also claims that’s why Mama fired Mrs. Wagner, because she was talking about Jack and said he is dumb like a fox on his bad days. Henry even says Mrs. Wagner said Jack chopped Scooper up but Papa said poor Scooper got hit by a car when he was chasing a cat and Papa ought to know. Jack keeps pestering Papa and Mama for another dog, but they are not agreeing to anything. Even if I thought it was true about Jack and Scooper, Jack would still be my favorite brother, because I’m his favorite sister. And a diary is my favorite present. I hope Papa isn’t going to have Jack sent away. He’s so nice, on his good days.

Jan. 22nd, the dining room.

Along with not putting Dear Diary any more, I have decided to put Jan. instead of January. Which will not save space since you have to use a whole line for the day anyway, but it is easier and means the same thing, so where is the difference? It is not snowing quite so hard any more, but it is still snowing some. Mama says Papa must be stranded in town and will have to stay at the hotel, and Henry said why couldn’t he call up, so Mama said the phone lines are probably down. If the light lines go down too, then we’ll have to use candles. I hope so.

Jan. 23rd, my room.

Mama says it’s been a long time since she cooked herself, but she is starting to remember how all over again. Henry said he wished she’d hurry up about it, and Jack knocked him down right on the floor, which made Patsy smile and me laugh, only now Henry seems to have a black hatred for the both of us girls. It’s all right with me, I am never going to ask Henry to help do my homework no matter how high Henry’s marks go in school. And speaking of school, Mama says we are missing too much of it, so she has started reading to us in the mornings. Yesterday Jack recited the whole list of presidents by heart, but today he couldn’t remember them at all, so we played house with Teddy while Mama and Henry and Patsy did sums. For supper we had chicken only Mama burnt it and Henry said again he wished Mrs. Wagner was here. He knew it was all right because Jack wasn’t listening to anyone right then. Mama said that all cooks were ingrates.

Jan. 24th, my room.

Today was terrible. Jack took the scissors and cut all the buttons off Henry’s clothes and then tried to cut the head off Henry’s canary Chrissy, but Mama saw him in time. What excitement, Mama got so mad she locked Jack in his room. And he jumped out the window. Henry said too bad the snow was there or he would have broke his neck. We watched while he got up and wandered around in the snow. Mama was crying like anything and kept saying I don’t know what to do. Henry suggested letting him freeze and I tried to knock him down like Jack did, but he weighs too much for me. Then Jack came up to the window where we were and Mama opened it and tried to pull him in, but he pulled away and ran out to the woodshed. I could see his face getting blue already from the cold, and so could Mama because she cried some more and then locked us all in our rooms and said she was going out to get Jack. That was this afternoon. She’s not back yet and I’m getting awful hungry. It must be past supper time by now.

Jan. 25th, the kitchen.

I stayed in my room like Mama said to, but Henry didn’t. I heard somebody walking out in the hall and I called Mama through the door, but it was Henry. He said Mama was gone too long and he was going out to see why. He sounded scared, and I said he ought to stay in his room, but he went down stairs. I can’t see the woodshed from my window, so I didn’t know what was happening until I heard somebody coming up stairs later on, and then the key in the lock and what a surprise. It was Jack who opened the door! He looked cold as anything, and said let’s get Patsy and Teddy and have some supper. He had the keys to all the rooms and we got Patsy and Teddy who were both in Patsy’s room. Patsy wanted to know where Mama and Henry was, but Jack wouldn’t say. We went down to the kitchen and Jack made a great big supper for us without burning a thing. We had hot dogs.

After supper Pat and me washed the dishes and we put Teddy to bed and then the three of us played parcheesy until we got tired. It was lots of fun, only Patsy kept asking where was Mama and Henry. Jack finally said they went to town to find out what happened to Papa, and he was to take care of us until they got back. Patsy said when would that be, and I wish she hadn’t because it set Jack off again on one of his bad spells. He just sat there and cried and cried and cried. I hope Mama won’t be long.

Jan. 26th, my room.

Here’s a puzzle. Patsy is gone too. When I woke up she already left. Jack said he didn’t know where she went, but we found a note on the kitchen table, from Patsy. It said she was going to try to walk over to the Jensen’s house. I don’t think it was a smart idea, because they live way down the road, and the snow is awful deep. Jack was just wonderful today and he played hide and seek with Teddy and me all morning. After lunch he read to us and then we played some more parcheesy, only that wasn’t so good because Teddy is too little for it. We put Teddy to bed right after supper and played Old Maid six times. It was just like playing house all day, for real. Now I am going to bed. Mama should get back tomorrow. Anyway, I hope so. It would be nice if someone came to call on us, but the snow is coming down again, so I guess that’s out. I bet one really good hot day would melt everything. But you can’t expect a hot spell in Jan, I suppose.

Jan. 27th, the kitchen.

Nothing happened all day, except the snow stopped again. We used most of the fire wood so I told Jack I was going out to the woodshed for some more. He got real excited and nasty and went out to get it himself. He said if I put one foot outside the house I’d be sorry. If Mama doesn’t come tomorrow I’m going to start worrying.

Jan. 28th, my room.

No Mama, but we played the loveliest and noisiest games all day long, I clean forgot about worrying. It was nice not having any one yelling at us to stop.

Jan. 29th, my room.

At last the storm is really over and the sun is out good and strong. It would be nice to go out and play, only Jack says we can’t because the snow’s too deep. So we played hide and seek again. Jack was having a bad day, but he wanted to play anyway. That’s when Teddy got sick. I was It and Jack and Teddy ran to hide. After a long time (because I count slow) I went to find them. I looked all over except Teddy’s room because the door was locked. Jack finally came down stairs and said Teddy fell down and hurt himself and he’d have to stay in bed for a while. I wanted to go up and see him but Jack said he needs lot of sleep, so I didn’t. The best part of the whole day was we stayed up until midnight! We were listening to the radio, and Jack was talking back to it. He was very funny, and we both laughed a lot.

Jan. 30th, the kitchen.

Jack has been very bad all day long. He started crying right in the middle of breakfast and now it is after supper and he is still crying. I spent the whole day with my coloring books, coloring.

Jan. 31st, the living room.

Jack started out real good today, but right after lunch the phone rang. I ran to answer it, but Jack beat me to it. He stood there with his hand on it but he didn’t pick it up. Finally it stopped and we played Old Maid again. Jack was the Old Maid five times and I was the Old Maid two times. I wish we answered the phone. It might have been Mama.

February 1st, my room.

As soon as I woke up this morning I remembered about Teddy. I tried to open his door but it was still locked, so I woke Jack up, but he said Teddy needed more sleep. When I said he might be hungry Jack said to fix him some cereal and he’d take it up. I did, with lots and lots of sugar and gave it to Jack. I watched from the hall. Jack unlocked Teddy’s door and put the tray inside real quick and locked the door again. He looked at me kind of funny when he saw me, but I didn’t say anything because I thought he was going to have a bad spell. I can sort of tell when they’re coming. But he was all right in the afternoon and went out to the front yard to make a snow man for me to look at. Watching him in the snow was almost as good as going out in it myself, only I knew I couldn’t when I saw it came up to his waist line. On me it would have been over my shoulders. When he was about half done, the phone rang again. I knew Jack wouldn’t want me to answer it, but I thought it might be Mama, so I picked it up, only I waited too long because it stopped ringing just before I touched it. I decided not to tell Jack about the phone, in case it would make him mad.

Feb. 2nd, my room.

When Jack came in from making the snow man, he was soaking wet and he changed all his clothes. I was hanging up the wet ones on the kitchen chairs when the bedroom keys fell out of his pocket. I wanted to take them because he might have a bad day and not remember where he put them and we’d have to break Teddy’s door down to get in to feed him. Papa sure wouldn’t like that. Right then the phone rang again and I ran for it, only Jack was all changed by then and beat me to it as usual. Just like before, he wouldn’t answer it. I told him he was mean since it might be Mama, and he said to look out, I might fall down and get hurt like Teddy. I went into the kitchen quick and took the key to Teddy’s room and then gave him the rest of them. He never missed Teddy’s key.

Feb. 3rd, Teddy’s room.

7 A.M.

I got up real early this morning and went down to the kitchen and took all the food I could carry and brought it up to the hall outside Teddy’s room. I don’t think Jack’s been giving Teddy enough to eat. Just when I unlocked Teddy’s door, Jack came out of his room, so I had to slam the door real quick without even turning the lights on or pulling the shade up. I locked it from the inside just as fast as I could. Jack told me to come out but I wouldn’t. I’m too mad at him. Teddy isn’t even here! I pulled the shade up and saw the room was empty. The cereal bowls are right on the floor where Jack set them, and I’m not unlocking the door until he tells me where Teddy is.

9 A.M.

I am putting the times down because it is good practice in telling time, and because this is the first time I ever wrote more than once a day in my diary. Jack is still right outside the door, yelling at me. This is his worse day so far. The sun is out again.

11 A.M.

Finally Jack went away from the door and down stairs. From this window I can see the woodshed, and that’s where he went, and came right out again with Papa’s ax that he’s not even supposed to touch and came back to the house with it. I just heard him climb up the stairs again and right now he’s making a terrific racket trying to get in here. I guess he’s awful mad at me, but I better open the door and take that ax away before he hurts himself.

11:15 A.M.

I opened the door, but he wouldn’t let go of the ax and he wouldn’t let me out of the room. So I am just sitting here writing because there isn’t anything else to do. I can hear Jack now, coming up behind me. I bet he’s going to apologize for...