Everybody liked Timmy Rice. He'd come riding his bicycle past the canyon gates and he'd be grinning and standing up on the pedals and pumping so hard the bike would wobble from side to side, and we'd all run out on our lawns or stand in our driveways to wave and yell at him. Timmy was a crazy guy who was always doing these crazy things.
- Like the time he tried helping old lady Warwick take potted plants down from her porch windowsill. Old lady Warwick hadn't asked him to help her, but Timmy saw her trying to pick up one of the pots that looked too big for her, so he gets off his bike to help. Well, right away he drops one of the pots and it lands on Mrs. Warwick's foot. She starts hobbling around and screaming in pain and when Timmy tries to help her take her shoe off he somehow knocks her off the porch and she falls flat on her back in a flowerbed. Now she's really screaming and the neighbors had to call an ambulance.
- At the hospital they find out old lady Warwick broke three toes on her right foot and sprained her left shoulder. For a long time our parents would talk about Timmy causing Mrs. Warwick's accident. When they did I could see their eyes would kind of laughing. In lots of different ways Timmy had a way of making everybody laugh.
- Then there was the time in January when we had the big flood. Even before El Nino it could rain plenty hard in Southern California. The canyon we live in is a natural riverbed and before they put in the storm drain when it rained the water covered the street and flowed real fast. That January storm rained harder than I had ever seen it rain and after a few hours the water stretched from one side of the street to the other. For five days and five nights the street stayed filled with water. I liked the night's best because I would lie in bed listening to the scraping and the bumping caused by the small trees and rocks that the rain had torn off the hillsides and carried down the canyon.
- The third night of the storm I was sitting in the dining room eating dinner with my parents, when my mother points out the window and asks: "Who is that?" My father says: "My God, it's Timmy Rice!"
And sure enough, there was Timmy flying down the street on his bicycle. The torrent is carrying him along real fast and Timmy is clinging to his handlebars and grinning like mad.
- I go running out the door and just when I get to the curb Timmy goes down, the bicycle disappearing under the muddy brown water. Soon all you can see of Timmy is the top of his head. Then he disappears and a second later I see him hanging onto the Mercer mailbox next to the curb, his legs going off to the side with the current and the rain beating down all around him.
- I climb over the fence between our place and the Mercer's place and by the time I get to Timmy he had pulled himself up on the lawn and he's shaking his head and grinning like he always did. "You seen my bike?" he asks me.
- I look through the rain at the churning brown water and I tell him he might find the bike down at the bottom of the canyon.
- "Ah, I'll never find it," Timmy says. "But boy, did I have a ride! I started up near the golf course and I got all the way down here. I guess just about everybody saw me. Now I gotta go because Mom might be worrying."
- And he just gets up and walks away like nothing had happened. That Timmy Rice was really a crazy guy.
- I never knew Timmy's mom but I'd see her now and then in their garden weeding the vegetable patch. Her name was Gladys and she had a narrow face and these big sad brown eyes that always seemed like they were full of tears. She lived with Timmy in a small house outside the canyon gates and that meant she didn't get together with our parents.
- I think it was because Timmy didn't live in the canyon that our parents blamed him for anything that might be missing from their houses. Whenever a saw, a toy, or even a piece of lawn furniture was missing, Timmy was sure to get the blame. Every time my father couldn't find something he would say: "I bet that damn Rice kid took it."
- All the canyon parents made jokes about Timmy's stealing. Once I heard Mr. Mackay say that the Rice garage must have looked like his did two years ago.
- If all this bothered Timmy he didn't show it. I mean he didn't show it until that trouble with Mr. Johnson's 22 rifle. Then he showed it a lot.
- All us canyon kids and Timmy were lying on the Mercer lawn taking a break from playing football, when Billy Johnson says that his father kept a 22 rifle in their garage. That got us all to talking about guns, and Doug Mackay said that in a contest he could outshoot anyone there. Timmy, with that big grin on his face, then said he could beat Doug in a shooting contest. I don't know why Timmy said this because I don't think he'd ever shot a gun before. Anyway, after he said it Doug challenged him to a shooting contest with the Johnson 22 rifle.
- Billy Johnson ran over and got the rifle from his garage and we all started walking up the foothills to find a safe place to shoot the rifle. While we were walking up the hillside road, Johnny Helms said it was against the law to shoot in the canyon. I said that was true, but how would anybody know it was us doing the shooting?
- "Because they'll hear the noise and find us," Johnny said.
- Doug Mackay told us his seventh grade science class had seen a film that said if a noise came from far enough away, it was impossible to know from which direction it came from. That didn't make much sense to any of us, and we all argued with Doug as we were climbing to a place where we couldn't be seen shooting.
- Billy was carrying the rifle, but when we got to this ravine that we thought would make a safe shooting place, Doug Mackay took the rifle from him and showed us how the clip worked and where the safety was and how to aim the rifle. Doug's father had been in the army and taught Doug a lot about guns, and so we listened respectfully.
- Doug then says we shouldn't worry over anybody finding out where we were shooting because the film he had seen was scientific, and if something was scientific it was true and that was all there was to that. Doug seemed so sure we all wound up agreeing with him.
Timmy then takes a can he'd found under a bush and places it on the ground about fifty yards from where we were standing.
- The rest of us back off while Doug gets down on one knee and takes aim at the can. There is a loud pop and some sand flies up next to the can. Doug said the rifle's sights were off and that he should get another chance. We decide that's fair, and after Doug fiddles with the sights he fires again and this time the shot kicks up a puff of dirt on the side of the ravine behind the can.
- Timmy then grabs the rifle and says he will shoot standing up. He aims and fires. There's a "thunk" and the can flips over.
- Timmy starts laughing, and I say I want to try and hit the can. Doug says he wants another chance. We both grab the rifle, and while the three of us are jerking the rifle this way and that, the rifle fires into the air. There is a moment of silence, and then we all start arguing. Doug says it's Timmy's fault he didn't take his finger off the trigger. Timmy screams we both made him pull the trigger. We keep arguing and Doug asks Timmy if he wants to fight about it. Doug steps toward Timmy who is still holding the rifle and Timmy steps back from Doug.
Then from behind us there's this loud voice: "Timmy, you stop right there!"
- We turn around and see Mr. Mackay striding down the ravine with the angriest looking face I ever saw. He goes straight to Timmy and with one hand he tears the rifle from him.
- "You might have killed somebody!" he yells at Timmy.
- With his other hand he grabs Timmy by the neck and he asks: "Whose 22 is this?"
- When Timmy doesn't answer, Mr. Mackay squeezes his neck and Timmy squeals: "It's Mr. Johnson's gun."
- "Okay," says Mr. Mackay, "then suppose we take it back to Mr. Johnson."
- And he starts pulling Timmy by the neck down the ravine. The rest of us follow the two of them down the hill and into the canyon, and all the time Mr. Mackay is pulling Timmy by the neck and Timmy is making these gurgling noises.
- When we get to the Mackay's house all our parents are outside on the lawn, and they gather around Timmy and Mrs. Johnson asks: "How could you do such a thing, Timmy?"
- Timmy answers in a high voice that he didn't do anything, and my mother says to him: "You could have killed somebody!"
- Everyone agrees with my mother, and Mr. Helms said he had heard a bullet buzz over his head and that it was, "Pretty close judging by the sound of it."
- All the parents then start talking at once, and Mr. Mackay tells Mr. Johnson that Timmy had threatened Doug with the 22. Mr. Johnson shouts: "Somebody has got to teach that kid a lesson."
- "You shouldn't take things without asking, Timmy," Mr. Helms says.
- And then Mr. Johnson asks: "Timmy, how would you like it if people walked into your garage and helped themselves to whatever they wanted?"
- Timmy answers in a high voice that it wasn't his fault and that Billy took the gun. Mrs. Johnson said that Billy had been told to never touch the gun and that Billy never did what he was told not to do. Billy just stood there looking at the ground while Timmy said that Doug had shot the gun too. Mr. Mackay then asked Timmy how much he'd stolen from the canyon over the past few years.
- It was then that Timmy started crying, but that didn't stop Mr. Mackay from saying that he'd better not find him stealing anything again. If he did, he said, Timmy was going to get the whipping he deserved.
- Timmy keeps crying and shaking his head and mumbling he'd never stolen anything. Then my father said it all went to show what a broken home could do, and Mrs. Helms said: "That boy needs a father." Everyone agreed that Timmy needed a father, and Mr. Mackay said he'd been beaten with a leather strap when he was a kid and that it had not hurt him in the "long run".
- They were all standing around Timmy talking back and forth, and Timmy keeps crying and then he slowly sits down on the ground. Mr. Helms leans down close to him and says: "Are you going to do it again, Timmy?" Only Timmy is crying so loud it didn't seem like he heard him.
- Everybody starts walking away and my dad tells me to come with him and mom. I stand there watching Timmy cry, only now he was kinda choking too, like you do when you're finished crying but can't quite stop. My dad again tells me to come along, and I do, but before we got to our house, I turn around and see Timmy still sitting there on the Mackay lawn. Doug told me later that he sat there for a good ten minutes after everybody left.
- We canyon kids didn't see much of Timmy after that, and when we did see him he was kinda quiet and not nearly as much fun as he once was.
- Then about a year ago Timmy and his mom moved to Oregon with a man Timmy told us was his uncle, but all our parents said probably wasn't his uncle. Timmy has never written or phoned us since he left so we don't know how he is doing.
- Nobody says much about missing Timmy, but I know all us canyon kids sure do. He was a lot of fun, and besides, now it's harder for us since our parents can't blame everything on Timmy anymore. To tell you the truth, I think our parents enjoyed blaming Timmy for everything and they miss him because of that.
- I guess you could say Timmy made things easier for all of us and that's why everybody in the canyon misses Timmy Rice. Everybody that is but old lady Warwick, but then she doesn't even care for us canyon kids. Or our parents either, come to think about it.
