Authors: Watt Key
“When’s he gonna get you some help?”
“I hope soon.”
“What about Caboose?” I said.
“You think he can run a loader?”
“You can teach him if he don’t.”
“I need somebody I can count on,” Daddy said.
“So does he.”
The next morning I woke to the sound of dump trucks groaning and putting on their air brakes outside. I turned over and saw Caboose with his eyes open. “Feels good to wake up outside the fence, don’t it?” I said.
Caboose nodded.
“Daddy won’t need the truck today. You wanna go fishin’?”
“I’ve got stuff to do.”
“You ain’t gotta do nothin’. We’ll go out to Uncle Tom’s lake and catch some bream. Then you can drive me to Carla’s school so I can see her.”
Caboose studied his feet.
“They smell better now, don’t they?”
“They smell like gas and they burn and itch.”
“That’s good. Killin’ all that stuff.”
Caboose drove us into town. We bought sandwich meat, bread, and worms at the gas station and then headed for Uncle Tom’s lake.
“What you think about my truck?”
“It drives good.”
“It’ll get a gear, won’t it?”
“It’s a good truck.”
“All the pieces I got out of your salvage yard, so you prob’ly own half of it.”
Caboose looked sideways at me.
“Well, nobody was there,” I said.
I waited for him to smile, but he didn’t.
“Come on, now. I know you feel better today. What are you thinkin’ about?”
“How long it’s gonna take to clean up that house. I got a lot to do. Maybe I don’t need to go fishin’.”
“What if you let Daddy teach you how to drive the loader? Bet you could scrape that yard clean in about five minutes. Push all that stuff out your front door, dig a hole, and bury it.”
Caboose frowned.
“You know I talked to him about givin’ you a job at the clay pit. He needs somebody else.”
“What’d he say?”
“Said he’d think about it. I’ll bet if you told him you were interested, he’d get you saddled up.”
“I don’t know,” he said.
* * *
The lake was just as I remembered it. Except for the cypress trees being a little bigger, it hadn’t changed a bit. We spent the day bream fishing and napping in the shade. For once I was glad that Caboose didn’t say much. I didn’t have anything on my mind but Carla and fishing, and that’s all I wanted for a while.
“You were right,” Caboose said. “It wasn’t a coin toss.”
“Forget it, man. We’re not talkin’ about that place.”
“He beat me at arm wrestling.”
I turned to him. His eyes were still closed. “Hah! He out-muscled you!”
Caboose frowned.
“I can’t wait to ask him about that.”
“I don’t mind tellin’ you now. It doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t care what they think about me.”
I didn’t say anything. Caboose opened his eyes and stared at the treetops. I turned away and studied my cork.
“You don’t have to be the same out here,” I said. “All that stuff behind us was just a bunch of things gone wrong.”
We didn’t say anything for a while.
Finally Caboose said, “I’m not as mad about it all as I was.”
“You got other things to think about now. There wasn’t anything to do at Hellenweiler but be mad.”
“I know what you’re tryin’ to do, Hal.”
“Then you tell me what I wanna hear.”
“I don’t know if I can forget what they did to Marty.”
“I never asked you to forget. But you think about bein’ out here in a place like this the rest of your life while Mr.
Fraley and the rest of those guards sit in a jail cell. That’s punishment, right there. And you did it to ’em. It don’t get any better than that. You let ’em sit in that prison and think about it.”
“I never thought of it that way.”
“I didn’t either until just then.”
Caboose sat up and stared over the lake. “I think I’m gonna be okay,” he said.
“Damn right you are.”
Daddy had a little stick-up clock on the dash of the truck and it showed two-thirty when we started for Gainesville. Rhonda and Carla would be out of school in a half hour. I slid down in my seat and put my feet on the dash.
“I hope we can find ’em,” I said.
Caboose didn’t answer me.
“I don’t wanna have to go to her house yet. Her daddy’s gonna wanna give me one of those talks. I hate that.”
“We’ll find her,” Caboose said.
We drove into the student parking lot five minutes before school let out. Caboose downshifted and drove slow while I searched for Rhonda’s car. All of the other cars and trucks looked new and shiny compared to what we were in.
“This is another world, ain’t it?” I said.
“What kind of car is it?”
“Red Grand Am. The one that drove in the field that day . . . Where do these people get money for cars like this?”
Caboose didn’t answer me.
“It’s been so long since I’ve been to a real school . . .”
I continued to scan the cars. Then I saw the Grand Am ahead of us. “Pull off right here,” I said. “I’ll walk over.”
He looked at me.
“I know. I just feel like a redneck in this thing.”
Caboose parked the truck and I got out. The school bell sounded before I’d made it to Rhonda’s car. I jammed my hands into my pockets and sucked up against the jitters in my stomach. Seconds later the kids poured out of the building and came toward us. I got to the Grand Am and leaned against the trunk.
As the kids came closer, I noticed how clean and neat they all looked. How colorful they were, dressed in the latest fashions, everyone unique and independent. All of the girls looked so fresh and the boys so sure of themselves. I suddenly had doubts and pulled my hands out of my pockets and stood up straight.
What am I doin’ here?
I mumbled to myself. I looked toward the truck and Caboose was walking my way. He stopped beside me and I looked at him and met his eyes. He didn’t have to say anything. Just the look was all I needed. I turned and faced the students again and there was Carla. To me she looked like the prettiest of them all. And she was my girl and I was going to make her proud of me. A second later she saw me and a smile spread across her face. She ran to me and hugged me and I squeezed her hard and breathed in the smell of her hair.
Dear Paco,
I’m home again. The pine trees are waiting for you out here and Caboose is going to be fine. He’s
started working with my daddy if you can believe that. We’re gonna get a second front-end loader and he’ll drive it full time. He’s also got a little house we’ve been fixing. It might be ready for the two of you to live in by the time you get out. You better come see us right after you walk through those gates. It all gets better again, I promise. See you soon.
Your friend,
Hal