Devonne Brown

Bart Goins, ten-year-old, Davis Lake Rock skipping champion has been suspected of cheating. After careful examination of his stones, there seems to have been Pop Rocks, the exploding candy, to the the bottoms of his skippers. If Bart’s basket hadn’t slipped off the rock it shouldn’t have been on in the first place, the hot pink candies on the bottom of the remaining five rocks in his basket, it may have gone unnoticed.

“Let me try,” Jim Thacker, one of the judges and mayor, flipped one of Bart’s stones, and managed to skip it fifteen times across the widest part of the river, even sticking the landing square on the other side. Jim beamed with pride. A collective gasp from the audience filled the air.

At the awards assembly, in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot, on the 4th of July, Bart was declared the skip master, his innovative technique was celebrated and demonstrated to the awed crowd.

John Salvo, his noble opponent, threw a sinker right out of the starting gate. John’s prowess went straight into the computer under the “Eternal Failure File” of stone skipping, but he was awarded a lifetime supply of gas station sushi.

Jim was about to present Bart with a glistening trophy, a life sized cutout of Bart caught as he skipped the winning stone, and a check for a hundred dollars. The heavens opened up and sent the crowd running. Lightning ended the festivities with a bigger bang than the fireworks could have. Jim Thacker declared the festivities over and said they’d save the fireworks for a double header Labor Day Extravaganza.