Free On a Beam of Light by Gene Brewer Page B

water there. The whole thing was full of life. Birds and rabbits and groundhogs and some goldfish in the pond. We had daffodils and tulips and forsythia. It was beautiful in the spring and fall. And the winter, too, when the snow came. Sally loved winter. We used to do some cross-country skiing and Becky liked to skate around on the little pond. She loved all the birds and the other animals, too. She fed the deer. The house wasn’t very big, but it was just about right for us. Sally couldn’t have any more children…. ” He paused for a few moments, remembering.
    “We had a big fireplace and Becky had her own room with flowered wallpaper and enough space for all her things. She had some pictures taped to the walls. Rock stars, I guess. I never got much into rock and roll. The kitchen—” He broke off suddenly and his jaw seemed to clamp shut. “The kitchen—”
    “That’s all right, Rob. We can come back to the kitchen later. “
    “Why should we do that? Are you still hungry?”
    “Prot! Where’s Robert?”
    “He’s right here, collecting himself. Didn’t I tell you to be more gentle with him?”
    “Listen, my alien friend. I know what I’m doing. Robert has made remarkable progress since you’ve been back. Give him a chance. “
    He shrugged. “Just don’t push too hard, doc. He’s dancing as fast as he can. “
    “Are you going to let him come back, or not?”
    “Just give him a minute or two. He’s been trying to forget everything for a long time. It’s hard for him to cough it up on demand. “
    “I haven’t demanded anything. “
    “Could we talk about something else for a while?”
    It took me a moment to realize that Robert had returned. “Whatever you want to talk about is fine with me, Rob. “
    “I don’t know what to say. “
    “Let’s go back a little. Would you like to tell me more about your boyhood? Last tune we stopped when you were twelve, I believe. “
    “Twelve. I was in the seventh grade. “
    “Did you like school?”
    “I hate to admit it, but I loved it. “
    “Why do you hate to admit it?”
    “Everybody’s supposed to hate school. But I liked it. I remember the seventh grade because that was the first year we went to different rooms for different classes. “
    “What classes did you like best?”
    “General science. Biology. We had a field and woods behind our house, and I used to walk around there and try to identify all the different trees and things. That was great. “
    “Did you do that with a friend? Or one of your sisters?”
    “No, I usually went by myself. “
    “Did you like to be by yourself?”
    “I didn’t mind. But I had friends, too. We played basketball and messed around together. Smoked cigarettes up in the tree house. But none of them cared about my field or the woods. So I usually went there by myself. I can still remember the way the trees smelled on a hot summer day, or the ground after a rain. The crickets at night. I saw deer sometimes early in the mornings and around sunset. I watched them and found out where they slept. They didn’t know I was watching them. I used to go there in the evenings sometimes and wait for them to wake up, and then I’d see where they would go. “
    “What about Sally? Did you know her then?”
    “Yes. Ever since first grade. “
    “What did you think of her?”
    “I thought she was the prettiest girl in school. She had hair like the sun. “
    “Did you talk to her much?”
    “No. I wanted to, but I was too shy. Anyway, she didn’t pay much attention to me. She was a cheerleader and everything. “
    “When did she first begin to pay some attention to you?”
    “When we were juniors. I was on the wrestling team. She started coming to the matches. I couldn’t figure out why she did that, but I tried very hard to impress her. “
    “Did you succeed?”
    “I guess so. One day she told me she thought I had some good moves. That was when I asked her to go to the movies with me. It was our first