[HOLES_LOUIS SACHAR] Chapter 4-1.

4.

 

Stanley felt somewhat dazed as the guard unlocked his handcuffs and led him off the bus. He'd been on the bus for over eight hours. 

 "Be careful," the bus driver said as Stanley walked down the steps.

 Stanley wasn't sure if the bus driver meant for him to be careful going down the steps, or if he was telling him to be careful at Camp Green Lake. "Thanks for the ride," he said. His mouth was dry and his throat hurt. He stepped onto the hard, dry dirt. There was a band of sweat around his wrist where the handcuff had been.

 The land was barren and desolate. He could see a few rundown buildings and some tents. Farther away there was a cabin beneath two tall trees. Those two trees were the only plant life he could see. There weren't even weeds.

 The guard led Stanley to a small building. A sign on front said, YOU ARE ENTERING CAMP GREEN LAKE JUVENILE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY. Next to it was another sign which declared that it was a violation of the Texas Penal Code to bring guns, explosives, weapons, drugs, or alcohol onto the premises. 

 As Stanley read the sign he couldn't help but think, Well, duh!

 The guard led Stanley into the building, where he felt the welcome relief of air-conditioning.

 A man was sitting with his feet up on a desk. He turned his head when Stanley and the guard entered, but otherwise didn't move. Even though he was inside, he wore sunglasses and a cowboy hat. He also held a can of soda, and the sight of it made Stanley even more aware of his own thirst. 

 He waited while the bus guard gave the man some papers to sign.  

 "That's a lot of sunflower seeds," the bus guard said.

 Stanley noticed a burlap sack filled with sunflower seeds on the floor next to the desk.

 "I quit smoking last month," said the man in the cowboy hat. He had a tattoo of a rattlesnake on his arm, and as he signed his name, the snake's rattle seemed to wiggle. "I used to smoke a pack a day. Now I eat a sack of these every week."

 The guard laughed. 

 There must have been a small refrigerator behind his desk, because the man in the cowboy hat produced two more cans of soda. For a second Stanley hoped that one might be for him, but the man gave one to the guard and said the other was for the driver. 

 "Nine hours here, and now nine hours back," the guard grumbled. "What a day."

 Stanley thought about the long, miserable bus ride and felt a little sorry for the guard and the bus driver.

 The man in the cowboy hat spitted sunflower seed shells into a wastepaper basket. Then he walked around the desk to Stanley. "My name is Mr. Sir," he said "Whenever you speak to me you must call me by my name, is that clear?"

 Stanley hesitated. "Uh, yes, Mr. Sir," he said, though he couldn't imagine that was really the man's name. 

 "You're not in the Girl Scouts anymore," Mr. Sir said.