REBUILDING MY LIFE
By
Tim Myers
REBUILDING MY LIFE
by Tim Myers
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2010 Tim Myers
All rights reserved.
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Chapter 1
“You can take the handcuffs off me. I’m not going anywhere.”
The bounty hunter beside me said, “You’re right about that, kid. Once I turn you over in Viewmont I don’t care if you skip your way to Canada. To be honest with you, I’d prefer that, it would be another juicy fee for me, but until your uncle signs the papers in my pocket you’re not going anywhere.”
“That’s just it. We’re on a bus. How am I going to get away now?” The cuffs were biting into my wrists; I was certain he’d tightened them on purpose. The diesel fumes made my eyes sting and the smell made me want to throw up, but I knew complaining about anything to my captor wasn’t going to do me any good.
The bounty hunter shook his head. “Save your breath. You almost burned me once. Give it up, it’s not going to happen, kid.”
Kid. That just about summed it up. I was almost thirteen, a man in his own right in some cultures, but not in the good old US of A. If they only knew. Or cared.
It didn’t matter that my folks were paying the thug to transport me to some godforsaken corner of North Carolina, just as it hadn’t mattered that they’d paid him to hunt me down like some kind of stray dog instead of their son. Why couldn’t they face the fact that I was gone in my heart, even if they managed to capture my body? The district attorney hadn’t prosecuted, not enough evidence, he’d said, but the town gossips had convicted me just as surely as if I’d been found guilty in court. A trial would have been better; at least then everyone would have heard the truth. As it was, people came to their own conclusions, and I knew I couldn’t stay in Clanton any more.
I’d died that day with Molly, at least in my heart.
For the thousandth time since we’d gotten on the bus, it quivered to a halt. We seemed to stop at every wide spot in the road.
“This is the end of the line, kid,” the bounty hunter said as he started to stand.
I looked out the dusty window and saw a small town that was hardly big enough to deserve a name.
Viewmont. In ten seconds I knew that it was no place I wanted to be.
Not that it mattered.
I’d be gone by nightfall.
I was going to make my second chance to escape the last one I needed.
I don’t know what I expected; a wild man, I guess. Uncle Jake was always discussed in whispers at our house, a black sheep who had committed some kind of dire social breech that took him off all the guest lists when it came time for family gatherings. Truth be told, I didn’t even know if he was my real uncle or not, since neither Mom nor Dad claimed him as their own. How desperate had they become, shipping me off to this stranger in the middle of nowhere?
A few people in the aisles stared openly as the bounty hunter led me off the bus. Even though he’d thrown a windbreaker over my cuffs you could still see them where the material didn’t cover the shining steel. Waves of heat hit me from the pavement; the middle of summer was dry and dusty. If anything, it was worse than home.
As we waited for my duffle bag to be unloaded from the belly of the beast that had brought me there, a man in his early thirties walked toward us. It had to be my uncle. He was clean shaven and sported a crew cut that showed every bump and furrow in his head. The man looked like he could wrestle bears for breakfast, with a neck thicker than my thigh. He was probably a military wash out. Wonderful. I was going to be living with a GI Joe refugee, at least until I made my break.
“You can take off the cuffs. I’m Jake Lancing.”
The bounty hunter shook his head. “Mr. Lancing, you sign these papers and I’ll be glad to release the boy, but the key doesn’t come out till then.”
My uncle signed the papers and handed them back to the man. “Now take them off. I don’t tie up my dog, I’m not going to tie up my nephew.”
“Whatever you say. He’s your problem now.”
It felt good getting the cuffs off, but I wasn’t about to give the jerk who’d brought me the satisfaction of seeing me rub my wrists. Before he got back on the bus, he had one last shot for me. “See you soon, kid. Your kind always takes off. That’s what keeps me in business.”
After the bus buried us in one last cloud of diesel fumes, Jake pointed to my bag. “Grab your gear and let’s go.”
So much for my little family reunion. It looked like my Uncle Jake wanted me visiting about as much as I wanted to be there.
I picked up my duffel and followed him to the rattiest old pickup truck I’d ever seen in my life. It had probably been blue to start with, but so many coats of Bondo and primer covered it now that it was hard to tell exactly what the original color had been. The long bench seat in front was covered with an old worn blanket, and I found a black Labrador sitting in the passenger seat of the cab.
“Where am I supposed to sit?” I asked.
“Get in back, Chance.”
Obediently the dog climbed through the sliding window in back and settled in the bed of the truck, but not before shooting me one hopeful look. The bed of the truck was full of the oddest collection of scrap junk I’d ever seen. There were motors, cables and hunks of battered old metal that looked like a junkyard had exploded back there. Chance circled an old pillow three times, then curled up and settled immediately down to sleep.
As we drove out of town, I kept expecting Jake to say something about what had brought me there. I hadn’t met a grownup yet who didn’t love to lecture. At the very least I was waiting for a list of rules I’d have to live by while I was with him. Grownups are big on rules. It’s their way of trying to impose their will on kids.
We were quickly out in the middle of nowhere without a word of instruction or any ‘wisdom’ from him. The mailboxes were so far apart I wondered why they even bothered. My uncle finally whipped his truck off the road into a break in the trees that seemed to grow everywhere around us. There was nothing that resembled a driveway or even a path. I could barely see two broken lines in the weeds ahead of us about the width of our tires, and that was it.
It was obvious Uncle Jake didn’t get into town much.
I was waiting to see some kind of house, but we kept driving, all of it in silence, taking twists and turns on paths I couldn’t even see. After what felt like forever the old truck finally wheezed to a stop.
I had to look twice before I believed what I was seeing. There was a pile of junk under a tarp in the clearing and beside it stood an honest to goodness Teepee.
“Where’s your house,” I asked.
“I’m living there for now,” he said as he smiled. “You hungry?”
I was starving, but I wasn’t about to admit it. “I’m okay.”
“Suit yourself,” he said as he got out of the truck. He leaned through the window and looked steadily at me as he spoke. “Listen Tom, we both know you’re not here on a social visit, but I’m not going to start in on you about what happened. I’m sure your Mom and Dad have covered all that. Whether you like it or not, this is going to be your home for the next three months, so the sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be. There’s only one real rule around here. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. It’s as simple as that.”
“Is that what I am to you, cheap slave labor? Is that why you took me in?”
Instead of blowing up like Dad would have done, Uncle Jake just smiled at me. “No, I just thought we black sheep should stick together. I need the bed of the truck unloaded. That’s your meal ticket for tonight.”
He called out, “Chance,” as he walked away, and the dog went running after him.
“Where are you going,” I asked as he headed for the woods.
“To the new building site. You’re welcome to join me as soon as you get everything unloaded.”
I waited until he was gone, then grabbed my duffel and headed for the road.
Uncle Jake was going to have a surprise waiting for him when he got back to his truck.
As I ran down the path, my only regrets were that he hadn’t left the truck key behind, and I didn’t know how to hotwire an engine.
Chapter 2
I must have walked an hour before I realized I was lost. Where was the road? If my crazy uncle had some kind of decent driveway I’d have been able to get to the highway and hitchhike out of there. That is if any cars ever came out in the middle of nowhere.
My rumbling stomach kept gnawing at me. Maybe it hadn’t been the smartest thing, cutting out like that without anything to eat. Finally I saw some kind of clearing ahead. It had to be the road.
When I saw the teepee reaching toward the sky, I realized what had happened.
Somehow I’d gotten turned around and had ended right back where I’d started from.
It was too late to try again, and my stomach was growling like an angry lion.
Slamming my duffle onto the hood of the cab, I did the only thing I could do.
I started unloading the bed of the truck.
“Need a hand?” my uncle called out to me as I wrestled with an ancient washing machine body that felt like it weighed a ton.
“No, I’ve got it,” I said as I heaved at the machine again. I had nearly finished unloading the truck bed by myself, and I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of asking for help now. If he wanted to give me a hand on his own, that was fine by me, but I wasn’t going to be the one who brought it up.
“Good enough. I’ll go ahead and start dinner then.”
He had to see that I couldn’t move the hulking thing by myself. Why wouldn’t he help? I got mad, shoving at the metal box and driving it all the way off the back of the truck.
It didn’t help. I was in worse shape than I’d been before the thing hit the ground. It wasn’t moving an inch in the dirt.
Without a word, Uncle Jake steered a hand truck toward me and tapped it with his finger. I waited until he was gone before I retrieved it and strapped the monstrosity to it. It was still an effort moving the machine, but at least I had wheels now. After I stowed the wreck away with the rest of the junk under the tarp, I was ready to eat a two pound steak by myself. I found Uncle Jake behind the teepee stirring a black pot suspended on an iron tripod above a fire. He poured two cups from a battered old pot sitting on a rock near the flames, then handed one to me along with a plate.
It surely wasn’t anything remotely resembling a steak. What I got was a plate of beans that had been cooking over a slow fire all day and a mug full of coffee that was strong enough to bite back.
“This is it?” I asked, looking down at the mess on my plate. “I don’t even like beans.”
“Suit yourself,” he said as he dug into his portion.
My stomach growled again and I realized it had been a long time since the egg biscuit I’d eaten early that morning. How bad could it be? I put a single bean on the edge of my fork and tasted it. I wasn’t about to admit it, but it was really pretty good. Before I knew it, I was wiping the bottom of the plate with my finger trying to get the last bit of sauce from the beans.
“There’s more if you want it,” he said, tapping the pot with his fork.
“No thanks, I’m stuffed.”
He nodded as he finished off his own plate. “It’s just as well. It’s going to have to be breakfast, too.”
“Beans again?”
He shrugged. “I don’t have the time or the gear to cook something fancy. We’ll have a big meal at lunch every day, then beans for dinner and breakfast. You’ll get used to it soon enough,” he added with a smile.
“Whatever,” I said. “So where am I supposed to sleep? There can’t be room in that teepee for both of us.”
“You’d be surprised. You can sleep wherever you want, Tom. I’m not your Dad, and I’m certainly not your Mom. There’s a sleeping bag in the Teepee laid out for you, but if you’d like, you can sleep in the truck bed or out under the stars.” He glanced up at the thick cloud cover in the growing darkness and added, “It looks like rain though, so I’d sleep inside if I were you, but it’s up to you.”
“I’ll take my chances,” I said as I stood.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m kind of beat,” I said. “I thought I’d hit the sack.”
“After we get the dishes done. You want to wash or dry?”
I looked at him like he’d lost his mind, but decided to keep my mouth shut. After all, I’d be gone in a few hours, and once my parents saw that strange old Uncle Jake couldn’t keep me prisoner, they’d have to find somewhere else to lock me up. Anyplace had to be better than where I was at.
I dried while Uncle Jake washed, and the dishes were done soon enough. He tried to start a few conversations with me but I resisted. Sure, I was curious enough about him, but I wasn’t about to ask any questions, especially since I wasn’t all that willing to answer any of his.
There was a lot more room inside the teepee than it looked like from the outside, but slipping away would be a lot harder if I was sleeping right beside him. I dragged my bag outside as Chance started to follow.
“Go away,” I snapped at him. The only response was an increased pounding of his tail. “What’s wrong with this mutt?”
“He just wants to be friends.”
I ignored my uncle and looked down at the dog. “Well I’m not looking to make any new friends. Go away.”
“Chance. Here,” my uncle said softly and the dog trotted diligently over to him.
I took the sleeping bag and found a spot near the truck to bed down. In a few hours I’d be gone, but I needed some time to rest up if I was going to tackle the long hike to the road.
Rocks kept digging into my back; the sleeping bag had probably been made forty years ago and the night around me was full of some of the strangest noises I’d ever heard in my life. There was no way I was going to get any rest out in the middle of the wilderness.
So I thought. I was asleep before I finished zipping up my bag.
All of a sudden I was in the shower and couldn’t reach the handles. But why was I taking a shower with my clothes on? Then a crack of lightning flashed through my closed eyes and a ferocious explosion ripped me awake. The rain in my shower dream was a pounding torrent of water. Uncle Jake had been right after all.
I was outside in the middle of one nasty storm.
I dragged my wet sleeping bag into the tent, not caring if I woke my uncle up or not. Evidently he was already awake. “There’s an extra blanket over by your head, but don’t touch the side of the teepee.”
“Why not?”
“It’ll wick the moisture in. You’re in real luck, catching a storm like this your first day here.”
As I tried to dry my hair on the blanket, I said, “What’s so lucky about that?”
“We’re in the middle of a drought, Tom. Any rain is good rain.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re not soaking wet.”
His laughter filled the teepee. “You’ve got a point there. Good night.”
“Yeah, whatever,” I said as I settled down to sleep.
It was obvious I wasn’t going anywhere that night, not with the rain and the lightning and the darkness that sucked every bit of light into it.
I did the only thing I could do.
I fell asleep again.
I woke up freezing with something wet licking my face. “Go away. You’ve got bad breath.”
Chance didn’t seem to mind my scolding. He lapped one last time at my nose, then pushed his way out of the teepee. I grabbed my heavy jacket from my duffel and walked outside.
Everything seemed greener than it had the day before, and there was a real bite in the air. Leaves glistened with the rain and a few standing puddles reflected the clear blue sky in them.
Uncle Jake called out, “Grab a plate, we’re burning daylight.”
“It’s freezing,” I said as my teeth chattered.
“You should be here in January. I have to chip the ice off the spring to get water sometimes.”
“No thanks,” I said as I snagged a cup of strong coffee. My watch must have gotten wet in the rain. I tapped it a few times, but there was nothing on the display. “What time is it,” I asked rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
“Early morning is all we need to know.”
“You don’t even have a watch?” I asked, not believing what I was hearing.
“Don’t need one,” he said as he finished up his breakfast of reheated beans. “Now eat up. We have a lot to do today.”
So much for slipping out when he wasn’t looking. Oh, well, one day of labor wasn’t going to kill me. Tonight I’d be ready.
After we finished the dishes, Uncle Jake said, “Grab that post hole digger, will you,” as he pointed to something tucked under one of the tarps.
It was the oddest contraption I’d ever seen, two small, scooped shovel blades joined in a pivot partway up the handles. “Is this it?”
“Nothing but. I keep forgetting you’re a city boy.” As he spoke, he effortlessly threw a couple of thick brown bags the size of pillows onto a wheelbarrow and said, “Follow me.”
As we walked through the woods I kept searching for our final destination. What was he doing out in the middle of nowhere, and why had he agreed to take me on? Was it just for grunt work I could give him, or was there something deeper going on out here?
He stopped at a break in the trees and said, “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“That?” I asked as I pointed to a burned out shell of an old storage room perched on the hilltop.
“No, the view, Tommy my boy, the view.”
I hate being called Tommy; I have since the first grade. “The name’s Tom,” I said.
“Tom it is,” he agreed. “You know, why don’t we drop the ‘uncle nephew’ thing. You can just call me Jake.”
“Fine,” I agreed. I’d felt awkward calling him ‘uncle’ anyway, since I hadn’t even met him until the day before.
“So what do you think?” he asked again.
“It looks like every other spot around here.”
Jake shook his head. “Is there no poetry in your soul, Tom? You can see the mountains in the distance, the pond down below, and everywhere you look are trees. It’s all glorious, isn’t it?”
“I guess so,” I said. “What happened there?”
“That was my first place. Got hit by lightning and burned to the ground. I got greedy, wanting the best view I could manage, and it bit me. This cabin will be midway between the water and the peak. I learned a lot building the first one. I plan on making a whole new set of mistakes this time,” he said, smiling.
“You built that yourself?”
He laughed, the sound echoing in the valley below. “Don’t sound so surprised. A man should be able build his own shelter, don’t you think? In a month you’ll be able to do it too.”
“If you say so,” I said. “Where do you want these,” I asked as I offered him the posthole diggers.
Jake said, “I like them right where they are. In your hands.”
“I can’t pick anything up with these,” I complained. Every time I drove the diggers into the softened dirt, all I managed to do was move the red clay soil around in the bottom of the hole.
“That’s because you’re not taking a big enough bite,” he said. “You can’t be timid. Let me show you.”
Jake expertly drove the diggers into the soil, slamming the handles together and pulling out a massive mound of soil in one fluid motion. Flipping it carefully aside onto my meager pile, he said, “Drive it home and twist as you pull the digger out and you’ll be done with this hole in no time.”
I tried it just like he’d said and managed to get a few small clods out of the ground.
“Better,” Jake said as he turned back to the wheelbarrow, now full of a wet gray mess that he mixed with a hoe. “Hop to it, Tom, we’ve got a footing to pour.”
“Is this good enough,” I asked.
He peered down into the hole and said, “Not deep enough, not by half, and the bottom has to flare out so the concrete will hold. If we don’t get below the frost line the post will heave out of the ground.” As he took the diggers from me and attacked the hole, he said, “Remember, without a good foundation, it doesn’t matter how pretty a place you build on top.”
“Oh, Man, you’re not trying to teach me something profound, are you?”
Jake stopped digging for just a second as he said, “I’m just trying to show you how to dig a hole. The rest of it’s up to you.”
He surveyed the excavation, then said, “Now study it, Tom. I want your next one to look just like it.”
I peered down into the hole and saw the smooth sides and flared base, knowing I’d never be able to duplicate it.
“Now we add the concrete,” Uncle Jake said.
Whether I liked it or not, it looked like I was going to learn how to pour a footing.
Chapter 3
Jake wiped some of the sweat off his brow and said, “We’ve put in a good morning’s work. I think we’re due for a break, don’t you?”
I could barely stand, I ached so much. “I just want to lay down and die.”
Jake said, “You’re welcome to it, then. I’ve got my hammock set up back at the site. Why don’t you go ahead and I’ll finish this last footing on my own.”
The thought crossed my mind that it was the perfect time to finally make my escape, but I doubted I could make it back to the teepee, let alone all the way out to the road. As I collapsed into the hammock, I wondered if that was part of my uncle’s plan, to keep me so worn out that I was too exhausted to get away.
If that truly was his intention, it was turning out to be a brilliant plan.
I woke up to the sound of voices nearby. Keeping my eyes shut, I strained to hear what was being said.
A woman’s voice said, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Now what fun would that be,” Jake said to her in a playful voice.
“Jake this is serious.”
“Carla, it’s going to all work out. You just have to trust me on this.”
“Do you think it’s fair to the boy to bring him here when you’re in real danger yourself?”
Jake hesitated, then said, “He’s got nowhere else to go. Don’t worry, I can handle Granger.”
He was about to add something else when I sneezed.
“It’s about time,” he called out to me. “There’s somebody here I’d like you to meet.”
I couldn’t pretend to be asleep anymore so I rolled out of the hammock and walked toward them. The woman was a little younger than Jake, but not by much. Her long auburn hair was pulled back into a ponytail that jutted out of the back of a Braves baseball cap. She wore a rugged pair of jeans, thick boots and a flannel shirt, and she appeared to be just as fit as my uncle was.
Jake said, “Carla, may I present my nephew Tom. Tom, this is Carla. She’s the vet around here.”
She smiled brightly. “It’s nice to meet you, Tom.”
“You, too,” I said. Carla stood awfully close to Uncle Jake. Were they going out together, or were they just friends? It was a lot harder to tell with grownups than it was with teenagers.
Carla smiled once more at me, then said, “Well gentlemen, I’d better be on my way. Mrs. Lane’s prize heifer is about to calve again and she panics if I’m not by her side.”
“Say Moo for me,” Jake said.
Carla rolled her eyes slightly and said, “Good luck, Tom. Trust me, he kind of grows on you after a while.”
“See you,” I said as she got into a cool four wheel drive Ford truck.
After she was gone, I said, “Hey Jake, was that your girlfriend?”
He pretended to think about it a few seconds then said, “I’d have to say that’s none of your business,” followed by a huge grin. “Tom, are you hungry?”
“For anything but beans,” I said.
“Don’t worry, you won’t have to eat my cooking this afternoon. Carla picked us up some burgers from town. It’s her way of saying welcome.”
I dove into the bag without another word. “Real food,” I said as I pulled out a double burger and thick-wedged fries.
“Are you trying to say you like this better than my cooking?”
I would have answered him, but my mouth was full.
Jake shook his head as he looked at me, but I noticed he pulled a burger out of the bag himself. Maybe he was sick of his own cooking too.
The food was gone too fast and I dreaded going back to work.
I think Jake read my mind. “You about ready?”
“I guess so,” I said, getting up stiffly from the log I’d been sitting on.
“Grab your trunks if you have them. I don’t care if you want to go skinny-dipping, nobody else is going to be around here but the two of us.”
“We’re not going back to work?” I asked.
Jake considered it for a moment, then said, “I guess if you have your heart set on it we could. But I kind of like splitting my days in half. Hard work in the morning, play and study in the afternoon.”
My sudden hope for respite crashed. “I have to do schoolwork out here too?”
“You mean am I going to give you lessons and tests and all that rubbish? Bite your tongue.”
I wasn’t going to take his word for it. “So what am I going to be studying?”
“It can be just about anything, really. You can choose your own subject and we’ll get a book on it, or I can teach you something I know.”
“Like what,” I asked as I brushed the dust off the seat of my jeans.
“Let’s see, I can teach you how to cook beans,” he grinned after saying that, then continued, “or omelets or stews or just about anything you want to learn in an open air kitchen. I used to be a pretty fair cook once upon a time.”
“I think I’ll pass,” I said. “What else have you got?”
He said, “I can teach you how to live off what you find in the woods, write poetry, build a comfortable chair, make your own hat or build your own blacksmith’s forge. Any of that interest you?”
“Living off the wilderness sounds cool.”
Jake wadded up the last burger wrapper and threw it in the fire. “Survival training it is. Now what can you do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on, Tom, you’ve had to have picked up at least a few skills in your thirteen years. What can you teach me?”
“Nothing,” I said.
“That answer is unacceptable. Try again.”
“Okay, I can teach you to hack into any computer system you can name. I can do stunts on my skateboard and I can play a mean guitar. I don’t see anything out here I can help you with.”
“Don’t bet on it.” He dove into the covered pile and pulled out a long wooden box.
“What’s that,” I asked.
“Patience is a virtue,” he said as he unlocked the hasp. As he threw back the lid, Jake said, “Drum roll, please,” then he pulled out a streamlined backpacker’s guitar.
“Where’d you get that,” I asked as I took it from him. It was badly out of tune, but besides that, it looked to be in pretty good shape. I’d had to leave my guitar behind when I’d bolted, and it was one of the things I’d missed most.
As I tuned the strings by ear he said, “I traded a man over in Poplar for it in exchange for shoeing his horse. His regular farrier was out sick and he didn’t have any cash on him, so I made the trade. Always have wanted to learn to play it.”
As I moved easily through a few chords, he said, “We can start now, or wait till after we swim. I’m hot and dirty myself. That water will feel good.”
I put the guitar aside and said, “Fine by me.”
“Let me grab the soap and we’re off.”
I hit the water of the pond and almost bounced off it, it was so cold! Jake laughed as he dove in after me. “Feels great, doesn’t it?”
“It’s freezing,” I shouted, my teeth nearly chattering out of my head.
“You get used to it,” he said as went under again.
“I doubt that,” I said to the empty air.
As Jake soaped off the grime he’d accumulated, I swam a few strokes to warm up. It wasn’t nearly as bad after a few minutes, but I doubted I’d ever get used to it. I wasn’t going to have to, I reminded myself. Come nightfall I was gone.
Or maybe not. If I let Jake teach me about surviving in the wilderness, I’d never have to go back to a town again. The only thing I wanted in the world was to get away from people and be by myself, and Jake might just be the one to teach me what I needed to know.
Mom and Dad had no idea that sending me to Jake was the worst thing they could have done. I’d learn what he had to teach me, then no one would ever hear from me again.
“Your fingers have to go here for a C chord,” I said as I tried to position his hand properly on the neck of the guitar. At first I thought Jake had been kidding about me teaching him anything, but he really was eager to learn. I hated to admit it, but he was picking it up a lot faster than I had.
After a while I asked, “So when do my lessons start?”
Reluctantly he put the guitar back in its case and stowed it under the tarp.
Almost as an afterthought, I asked, “Can I play it later, just for kicks?”
“You know where it is, Tom. I know it’s not what you’re used to, but you’re welcome to whatever I have.” He looked at my cutoffs and said, “You might want to change back into your jeans. We’re going trailblazing, and it’s going to get a little sticky in some spots.”
“I’ll be all right,” I said. The sun was warm and I’d finally managed to drive the chill out of my bones. Putting on my dirty jeans was the last thing I wanted to do.
“Suit yourself. I’ll be ready in two minutes.”
As Jake changed into jeans I put on my tennis shoes. The air smelled different out in the woods away from the cars and the factories. I could see why Jake would want to live out in the country, but why as a hermit? Maybe he wasn’t the loner he pretended to be. I had a feeling Carla was a lot more to him than just a friend.
But I knew he couldn’t love her as much as I’d loved Molly.
The tears came again, unwelcome but unstoppable, as I thought of her. Would she haunt me the rest of my life, or would her memory fade with time? And could I live with the outcome either way?
I was wiping my eyes when Jake came back out, dressed in jeans and a long sleeve shirt. He threw a worn flannel shirt at me and pretended not to see me crying. As long as he was willing to ignore it, so was I.
“Try that on. You’ll need it.”
I put it on as I stood. “What’s the first lesson?”
“It’s simple, but it’s one you’d better remember. Mother Nature’s no mother at all. If you ignore her or try to treat her badly, she will smack you down like a horse swats a fly. Ignore me if you want to, but turn your back on her and you can be seriously dead.”
“Wow, and I was worried this wasn’t going to be any fun,” I said with a grimace.
“Oh, it’ll be fun, all right,” Jake said as he led me off into the woods. “Just wait and see.”
Chapter 4
“Put this on your scrapes and cuts,” Jake said as he threw a tube of Neosporin at me an hour later back at the teepee.
“I’ll live,” I said as I surveyed the damage. Jake had been right about the blue jeans. My legs looked like somebody had been doodling on me with a knife. It seemed like every stick and briar had struck for blood during our time in the woods. Jeans would have definitely helped, and I promised myself that from then on I’d match whatever Jake wore when we went out in the woods together.
He stirred the pot again and I could feel my mouth watering. “That doesn’t smell anything like beans,” I said.
“It’s stew, and it’s ready any time. Since Carla brought us lunch we’re having two fancy meals today. You hungry?”
I grabbed my plate. “Oh yeah.”
As Jake was dishing my food out I heard a sound behind us. As I glanced back over my shoulder, I saw someone approaching from the woods. It took me a second to realize our visitor was a girl. From my first glance at her I doubted she was a day over twelve, but as she got closer I upped it a few years. Her white blonde hair was cut in a punk style, and the heavy canvas shirt she wore hung down past her knees. I’d eat my tennis shoes if she’d worn makeup a day of her life.
“Somebody’s coming,” I said softly to Jake.
“Hey Elf,” he called out without looking back as the girl approached. “Hungry?”
“No, I ate hours ago.”
“Well we’re just getting started. Pull up a log.”
Elf plopped down beside me and stuck out a hand. “How you doing, Tom?”
“Fine,” I said as I took it. “How did you know my name?”
Elf just grinned. “You’ve never lived in a small town before, have you? Half of Viewmont saw you get off that bus in handcuffs. So, are you some kind of mad dog killer or what?” she asked.
I shrugged my shoulders as I said, “One late library book and everybody goes crazy .”
Jake didn’t know how to take it, but Elf suddenly howled with laughter. “Wow, that’s some harsh overdue fine.”
The stew was unbelievably good. Jake could definitely cook more than just beans.
After a while Elf stood, turned to Jake and said, “I’ll get the fire started.”
Jake said, “Good enough. I’ll be over in a minute. I want you try to another leaf tonight.”
“Yes, oh master of the fiery art,” she said with a bow.
“What are you two talking about,” I asked.
“I’m teaching Elf some basic blacksmithing in the evenings. Want to learn?”
“No thanks, I’m still whipped from my lesson on the great outdoors.”
Jake finished up his stew and said, “Suit yourself. You’re soloing on dish duty tonight.”
I started to protest when he added, “I’ll do them tomorrow night and you can have a free evening for yourself. How’s that sound?”
I agreed reluctantly and he joined Elf at an odd contraption that looked like an old steel brake drum balanced on spindly metal conduit legs. Fire glowed within its gut in the approaching dusk as I worked on the dishes.
I had to admit I was curious about what they were up to, so I walked over as soon as I finished washing up.
Jake said, “Good, see the way metal’s changing colors, Elf? You’re almost ready. Wait for it, wait for it, now.”
Elf reached into the glowing coals with a long pair of black tongs and plucked out a small piece of glowing iron. She moved it quickly to an ancient black anvil and started pounding the steel with a huge metal hammer. It looked pretty impressive to me, but Jake wasn’t as easy to please. “You’re still taking too long drawing it out. Watch me again.”
He retrieved another piece from the fire and started hammering away at it with a steady but rapid cadence. The anvil rang out with each strike, and Jake’s pace was hypnotic. I had to admit the piece of metal was already resembling the outline of a leaf by the time he was done hammering. Jake held the metal up and said, “See how the edges flare, then taper back in? Let’s reheat yours and try it again.”
“I’ll never get it,” Elf said in disgust.
Jake smiled and said, “You’ve come a long way these last two weeks. Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Jake held up a twisted piece of metal that didn’t resemble much of anything as far as I could see. There was a hole pierced through it and a piece of leather shoelace formed a necklace.
“Oh, no, don’t tell me I have to wear every mistake I make,” Elf said.
“This is just a way to remind you where you started from, so you’ll realize how far you’ve come.” He placed the necklace around Elf’s neck, then said, “Now let’s try it again.”
I drifted away as they worked the iron and retrieved the guitar. I sat near the fire Jake had used to cook on and strummed a few chords.
Elf called out, “Why don’t you sing us a song?”
I stopped abruptly and put the guitar back in its case. Teaching Jake to play was one thing. Serenading another girl was something else altogether. Thoughts of Molly crashed through the wall I was struggling to build, and I fought the memories with all my strength.
Elf said, “I didn’t mean to make you to stop.”
“I’m kind of tired,” I said as I wandered away from them. The clouds were gone and the sky was on fire with glittering stars. I’d never seen so many in my life. It was the first good thing I’d found about being out in the middle of nowhere. I lay down on the truck hood and looked up into the sky. A few seconds later I felt the truck shake as Chance climbed up beside me.
“What do you want? I don’t have anything for you.”
He laid down on the hood beside me, careful to keep a space between us. After a few minutes his nose edged gently toward my hand, and before I knew what was happening, I found myself with a dog nestled beside me.
I must have fallen asleep. The next thing I knew Jake was shaking my shoulder gently. “You want your sleeping bag out here, or do you want to come inside? Either way, I’d recommend you climb off that hood. You don’t want to roll around in your sleep. It’s a tough way to wake up.”
“I’ll come in,” I said. Chance was gone, but I didn’t have to wonder long where he might be.
I found him curled up at the foot of my sleeping bag.
Jake said, “You want me to move him?”
“No, he’s okay.”
Before I remembered my intention to escape, I was fast asleep again.
Chapter 5
I woke up to the sound of shouting outside the teepee. I’d heard that voice arguing with Jake before, and an icy fist slammed into the pit of my stomach.
“Where is he? He’s not getting away with this.”
Jake said, “They told me you might show up here. You’re not welcome.”
“You can’t hide him forever. I’ll find the little snake no matter where you people try to stash him. This isn’t over, not by a long shot. He’s going to pay for what he did.”
I pulled on my jeans and stepped outside. Everyone had done their best to keep me away from Molly’s dad after what happened, but it looked like they’d failed.
He had threatened to kill me at the funeral, and if any man had a right to take someone else’s life, he had a claim on mine.
“You murdering little bastard. You killed her,” he said as I stepped out of the teepee. “I don’t care what the DA said, you’re guilty as sin and you’re going to pay for what you did.” Only Jake’s restraint kept Sam Stevens from my throat.
Jake commanded, “Tom, go to the work site and wait for me there,” as he struggled with Mr. Stevens.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said firmly, standing my ground.
“You think I won’t kill you, boy? Well you’re sadly mistaken. I won’t leave here until you’re dead.”
As he struggled to get at me, I said, “You think anything you can do to me is worse than what I’ve already done to myself? Do you honestly think killing me will bring Molly back? If there was one chance in a million of that happening, I’d help you myself. She’s gone forever, Mr. Stevens, and there’s nothing either one of us can do about it.”
Abruptly, Mr. Stevens slumped from Jake’s grip and crumbled to the ground as if he’d been shot. “I need her, I need my Molly,” he whimpered over and over to himself.
I wanted to offer him comfort. After all, we’d both lost the one person in the world we’d loved the most, even if we’d never liked each other very much. It had been clear from the start that he cared for Molly more than he did even for his own wife.
But I kept my thoughts to myself.
There was no solace I could offer him.
There was none in my heart to give.
Jake helped Mr. Stevens back to his car. After a brief whispered conversation with Jake, Mr. Stevens nodded and started his car. As he pulled away, I felt a little disappointed that he hadn’t done what he’d come for.
It meant I’d have to face another day without Molly.
Another day living with the guilt.
You all right,” Jake asked me.
“I guess so. How’d he find me that fast?”
“My guess is that he paid the bounty hunter who brought you here for the address. Some folks are like that, loyal to the highest bidder. I can’t believe you faced Molly’s father down like that, Tom. You’re a brave man.”
“Bravery had nothing to do with it. I owed him it to him.”
“Tom, you don’t owe him anything. It’s not your .”
“Don’t even say it wasn’t my fault. Save your lecture, Jake. Nothing anybody’s going to say can change what happened.”
He nodded, then said, “Then let’s just try to put this behind us. We’ve got a cabin to build.”
I couldn’t let it go, though. “You think he’ll be back?” I asked as we walked to the construction site.
“It’s hard to say, Tom. It might not be a bad idea for us to keep on our toes for a while.”
“I’m not going to look over my shoulder every time I hear a twig break in the woods. If he wants me, he knows where to find me.”
Jake said, “You think you’d be doing him any favors if you let him beat you up or even kill you, Tom? You’d ruin the last bit of that sweet girl you both lost if you do. Think about what she would want.”
The tears tracked down my cheeks unbidden. “She’s not here anymore. That’s kind of the whole point, isn’t it?”
I broke away from him and started running into the woods. I half expected Jake to follow me, but the only footsteps I heard were my own.
I don’t know how long I ran, but by the time I stopped I was at a wide stream that cut through the forest. Sobbing, I found a huge gray boulder and stretched out on it, worn down from the strain of seeing Mr. Stevens again and the flood of memories he’d brought with him.
I never expected Elf to be the one to find me. Without a word she joined me on my rock, pitching smaller stones into the water as she sat beside me.
“You found my spot,” she said as she looped another one into the stream.
“Sorry, I’ll go somewhere else,” I said as I started to get up. I’d stopped crying, but I knew my eyes burned red from the jag.
She said, “Don’t get your shorts in a knot, I don’t mind sharing. You’re not in Viewmont by choice, are you?”
“Wow, did you figure that out all by yourself, Elf?”
If she was put off by the sarcasm in my voice, she didn’t show it. “The handcuffs were a clue, I’ll admit that much. Tom, is there anything I can do to help?”
“There’s nothing anybody can do.” I picked up a stone and hurled it across the bank. “It’ll work itself out or it won’t. Either way I’m not talking about it.”
I looked around, wondering how in the world I was ever going to get back to the teepee. “I hate to admit it, but I don’t have a clue where Jake’s place is.”
“That’s easy. Just follow me,” she said as she flew off the rock and disappeared into the woods.
I didn’t have much choice, not unless I wanted to spend the day lost.
I followed her trail like a little lost dog.
When we got back to Jake’s, he was working on a convoluted mass of metal in the clearing. “What’s he doing,” I asked Elf.
“It’s his latest sculpture. You’re so lucky to be related to such a talented man, Tom.”
“I guess,” I said as I tried to figure out just exactly what it was he was trying to build.
“You’d better believe it. How do you think he pays for building materials? Your uncle’s been living off his art for a long time, and there aren’t many sculptors who can make that claim.”
“Give me a second,” Jake called out when he saw us. “I just have to finish this section.”
I asked Elf, “Why are you so interested in being a blacksmith? Isn’t that an odd choice?”
“Why,” she snapped, “because I’m a girl? Believe me, there’s nothing you can do that I can’t, and don’t give me any garbage about being able write my name in the snow either.”
“Easy. I was just going to say it’s kind of useless. After all, in case you hadn’t heard, we had an industrial revolution.”
“And what did it bring us,” Elf said, her nostrils flaring. “More junk, more pollution, and more clutter when what we really need to do is simplify our lives.”
I was about to reply when Jake joined us. “You might as well give up now, Tom, Elf is a Luddite to the core. If she had her way we’d be living in caves and growing our own food.”
Instead of the temper I’d seen just a moment before, Elf said calmly, “No use pretending, Jake. You agree with me more than you’ll admit. Why else are you living in a teepee?”
“It’s comfortable enough in summer, and I needed shelter fast. Don’t kid yourself Elf, as soon as the cabin is done I’ll convert my teepee back into a storage shelter.”
Elf shook her head and started down the lane.
Jake called out, “Where are you going?”
“Somewhere with less testosterone. Have fun with your Lincoln Logs, boys.”
After she was gone, I said, “I didn’t mean to run her off.”
Jake slapped my shoulder. “If she wanted to be here, the worst insult in the world wouldn’t keep her away. You okay?”
“Yeah, I guess so. Sorry I wrecked your construction plans for today.”
Jake grinned at me. “Nonsense, I’m not married to my schedule. Just consider this morning your recreation period. After we eat some soup we’ll head over to the site and work this afternoon.”
“I was kind of hoping I could just take it easy today.”
Jake said, “Yeah, well, I was hoping to move in before first frost, and that means working every day.”
After a quick meal we headed to the site.
I asked, “What’s the plan today?”
“We’re going to let the footings cure a few days while we sort and size our lumber. We’re not building a regular foundation, Tom, the ground’s too rocky to dig a perimeter footing. The cabin will be on short posts. I was lucky; Kirkland McLeod had some left over and he needed a new chimney.”
“You can lay brick, too?” I asked.
“Tom, I’d hate to count the things I do well enough to get by. I’m the original jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Not like your father.”
“Yeah, he plans two weeks for every day a project takes him. So you two are brothers?”
“I guess in a way we are. Your folks never told you about the connection?”
“Nope, you’re kind of an unknown quantity.”
Jake smiled broadly. “My aspirations have been realized, I’m the ultimate black sheep of the family. Actually I’m your mom’s brother, but Thad and I were best friends for as long as anybody can remember. Your dad and I were stealing each other’s mats in kindergarten. Our families lived two houses apart, and Thad had the same disdain for my little sister that he did for most girls, especially since Gloria was eighteen months younger than we were.
“Then Thad and I went off to college. The first day we were home on summer break freshman year they fell in love at first sight after knowing each other all their lives. I was best man at their wedding. I still have a hard time believing it sometimes myself.”
“So what happened between you,” I asked as we moved a heavy post from the pile.
“It’s a long story,” he said with a sigh.
“I’m not going anywhere, are you?”
Jake laughed softly, “Another time, okay? We’ve had enough family history lessons for one day.”
As we worked, I kept wondering what could have driven such a hard wedge between Jake and my Mom and Dad, but I wasn’t going to ask again.
I figured he was entitled to his secrets as much as I was to mine.
The world didn’t know everything about how Molly had died, her dad included.
And if I kept one secret to my grave, it would be the last one I shared with Molly.
Chapter 6
We were still sorting through piles of wood when Jake suddenly looked up. “Do you smell that?”
“What,” I asked.
“Smoke.”
We ran for the clearing where Jake’s teepee stood, and I expected to see it in flames.
What we found was much worse.
Someone had lit Jake’s truck on fire.
Jake ran for the truck as I tried to restrain him. “It’s going to blow up,” I shouted.
“Let go, Tom. I can handle this.”
He brushed me aside and grabbed a blanket. I saw the fire was just in the cab, but how close was the gas tank? Jake seemed sure of himself, though, so I grabbed another blanket in case I could help. He threw open the driver’s door and jerked out the blanket that had been his seat cover. I started to beat at it with my blanket when Jake said, “It’s no use, Tom. Let it burn.”
He checked out the seat and saw a few burned spots, but there was no active fire inside the truck. We’d been lucky.
“I can’t believe Mr. Stevens would come back and do this,” I said in disgust. “It’s not right, Jake. All you did was take me in.”
Jake frowned as the blanket fire finally died. “Unless I miss my guess this wasn’t because of you. There’s something going on here you should probably know about, since you’re in it as deep as I am now.”
“What’s happening, Jake?”
“Somebody’s trying to run me off my land, and they’re getting bolder by the day.”
“Is it Granger,” I asked.
Jake snapped, “How’d you hear about him? What do you know about this, Tom?”
“I heard Carla warn you about him when she was out here.”
“Eavesdropping is a dangerous habit, Tom.”
I said, “I was sleeping and your conversation woke me up! How is that eavesdropping?” His words had stung me, mostly because they were true.
Jake said, “Sorry, I overreacted.”
I looked at the remnants of the blanket and asked, “Why does he want you gone? Arson’s a pretty serious thing, isn’t it?”
Jake shook his head. “If we hadn’t just had a rain it could have meant serious trouble, but Granger’s too smart for that. If word got out that he burned the valley down, they’d run him out of Viewmont.”
I said, “You still haven’t told me why he wants to drive you away.”
“He wants my land, and he’ll do anything he can to get it. He’s getting pretty drastic now, though. Elf’s going to have a fit when she sees this.”
“She’s pretty protective of you, isn’t she?”
“More than you’ll ever know. Matt Granger’s her dad.”
Jake kicked some dirt over the last of the smoldering blanket and said, “Why don’t you head back to the site? I won’t be long.”
“Where are you going?”
Jake said, “It’s time Matt Granger and I had a little talk.”
I stood my ground. “I’m going too.”
“Tom, this isn’t your battle.”
I looked at him and said, “It is now.”
We drove to the Granger place in silence. I could tell by the way Jake was gripping the steering wheel that he was hot. I said, “You don’t happen to have a gun, do you?”
It took him a second to realize I was talking. “What did you say? A gun? I don’t need one, Tom. Just because I live in the woods doesn’t mean I need a weapon.”