The Rattlesnake Warden

I was in deep trouble. Huge trouble. The most trouble I could be in at Camp Green Lake. Even in all this trouble I was able to appreciate the shade of the two oak trees as I passed between them. When Mr. Sir knocked on the door, the Warden opened it up. Mr.Sir said that there was some trouble on the lake and she invited us inside. I felt awful. Her cabin was air conditioned. She turned off a T.V. and sat down. She asked what the problem was. Mr. Sir explained the situation and told her how he thought that I was covering up for the real thief. Again I took the blame. Inside I was screaming "It was X-Ray!" but I kept my cool. Mr.Sir finished and then Warden asked me to fetch her a flowered case in another room. I got it for her and she opened it. It was a make-up case. It was kinda weird if I do say so myself. Having this kinda of situation on her hands and all she can think about is make-up. She held out a bottle of liquid and explained to me how she has come by it. She explained that it was nail polish and how she made it herself with her secret ingredient, rattlesnake venom. She then ran the back of her hand down my face making my skin tingle. When she touched my wound, the pain made me jump back. She then confronted Mr. Sir asking him if he thought I stole the seeds. When he replied no, she struck him across the face with her polish still wet. Mr. Sir started to writhe in agony and screamed over and over. The Warden said to me to go back to my hole. When I asked if he was going to die she replied, "No, Unfortunately for you.".
I started the long walk back to my hole thinking about what had happened. I wondered what Mr.Sir would do to me. I thought about my pig stealing great-great grandfather's son and how he felt after being robbed and stranded in the desert by Kissin Kate Barlow. The man had somehow survived for seventeen days in the desert before some rattlesnake hunters found him. When they asked him how he survived he said he found refuge on god's thumb. He was insane from his time in the desert. He spent a while in the hospital where he married one of the nurses. Nobody ever found out what he meant about god's thumb.
Caught up in my thinking, I almost stepped on a rattlesnake. It would have bitten me if I stepped on it but it's rattle had saved me. I started to run to my group, a little shaken after what had just happened. I could have sworn that my heart had skipped a beat.
When I got back to my group they asked about what had happened. They seemed surprised that I was still alive which kind of disturbed me. I didn't tell them about Mr. Sir hoping I could avoid the conversation altogether. When I went to my hole, it was already dug for me. I asked who did it but nobody took the credit for the work. I then noticed that Zero's hole was smaller than all the others. I was the first done. I spat into my hole and then returned to camp. Zero took no credit for digging my hole.
Later when I thanked him I asked why he did it he said, "you didn't steal the seeds.". When I said, "Neither did you." he sad something that confused me. He said, "you didn't steal the sneakers either." This really puzzled me. When he left, I ran out after him and offered to teach him to read. He agreed. We went inside and I started to teach him about the letters of the alphabet. Whenever I asked him to recite something he did so without even a single mistake. He also astounded me with his math skills. He didn't know anything about adding or multiplying but just knew the answer. What a weird kid! We decided on a system where I would teach him a certain amount of letters everyday and he would help me out by digging part of my hole every day. Later that night as I layed awake, I thought about how the deal I made with Zero would seem to the other guys and I also figured out where the initials on the tube came from. They could be from the famous outlaw, Kissin Kate Barlow.
The next morning at breakfast I was only semi-conscious in the line for food with Mr.Sir watching me like a lion about to pounce on it's prey. Suddenly there was a crash. Mr.Sir was holding a kid who just asked what had happened to his face. Mr.Sir scared the living daylights out of the poor kid. Mr.Sir made it very clear that no one should be commenting on his face.
Later while I was out on the lake, Mr.Sir came to fill everyones canteens. When it was my turn he purposely missed my canteen and let the water seep into the ground. It was one of the worst things I could have imagined him doing although it doesn't seem like it. The wasted water was like somebody destroying gold. It was very precious.
Three days later I found myself digging a hole under the scorching sun. It had been three days since the Warden had slapped Mr.Sir and every time he filled my canteen, he let the water fall to the ground leaving me to stare at it with a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Although having Zero dig part of my hole everyday was a great thing, it didn't sit well with the other guys. They made a ton of sarcastic remarks and complaints about it. Even if I tried to explain the deal I had with Zero they would ignore me. It left me to wonder what these people really were deep down.
The next time Mr.Sir came to give us water he filled mine up but when he filled it he went around to the cab with it and came back. He told me to drink it. I didn't. I left it by my hole but was so thirsty I had to dump it to avoid temptation. I'm still wondering and fearing what he put in there. Later while teaching Zero he told me his real name. He said his name was Hector Zeroni.
The next day while digging my hole, the weather changed. The humidity rose because of a storm in the distance. Between flashes of lightning, I could see the mountains in the distance. I couldn't usually see the mountains but with the lightning I could see them clearly. Through one flash, I saw a rock form that looked like a giant fist with one thumb sticking up in the air on top of one of the mountains. Then it was gone. This got me thinking. Could this possibly be the thumb on which my great grandfather took refuge before he was found insane in the desert? Could this possibly be it?