Free Renewal 9 - Delay Tactics by Jf Perkins Page B

turning cold. The wind felt like November as I remembered it, and the sky was laden with unending overcast. Still, it was a different flavor of clouds than the previous year. Instead of the turbulent black mass of the previous fall, this was medium gray to silver, and didn’t give me the feeling of living under the shadow of an angry fist. That’s not to say we were off the hook. By my birthday at the beginning of December, we were all huddled around Sally’s big woodstove. Most of the livestock were sheltered in several barns with the heat of the stoves we had brought with us to keep them alive. The best part about my birthday was that no one mentioned a word about Juannie, even though I was sure I could feel her memory hanging over all of us like the heavy quilts hanging on the walls.
    Well, that’s not entirely true. The best part was presents. Mom and Dad gave me a knife. It was a Buck folding knife with an antler handle and a pristine stainless blade. It came in its own special wooden box, which it promptly vacated to move into my pocket. I tossed out the cheap Chinese knife I had been carrying since the Breakdown to fend for itself in a dresser drawer. Lucy, Tommy, and Kirk joined forces to make me a gift. They rolled it out of the hallway with obvious pride. The wooden contraption was meant to be a scooter, I think. It was an unnatural marriage of boards and metal wheels from old roller skates, hammered together with many large, bent nails. I set my foot on it and was about to give it a kick across the kitchen floor when Mom said, “Outside. Only outside.”
    Kirk’s comment was, “We tried to make you a skateboard, but that thing was dangerous!” Everyone laughed at the idea that something could be more dangerous than what we were seeing in front of us.
    Arturo’s gift was a promise to give me driving lessons in the spring. “Parents can’t teach their own kids to drive,” He said. “That’s just asking for headaches and hair loss.”
    Jimmy’s gift was a special birthday performance of a song he made, “Especially for Bill.” It was a very good song, but the dance that went with it, even better.
    Margaret and Jackie, who had become inseparable, gave me a knitted thing. Don’t ask me what it was because I tried to find out on the sly, and everyone I asked gave me a different answer. I was afraid to wear it on the wrong part of my body, and afraid not to wear it and give offense to the ladies who made it. I compromised and gave it a visible place of honor in the room I shared with three other boys. That seemed to do the trick.
    Jones gave me a hug, which I have to admit was pretty thrilling. She backed away before it became even more embarrassing than the stupid look on my face, but the damage was done. Aggie walked up to me with her red face glowing, and kissed me right on the lips, thus staking her claim in front of God and everyone. I was too stunned to notice the array of smiles aimed in my direction when she pulled away with a distinct smack. All those faces are burned into my memory and I still blush when I think about my first real kiss, even to this day.
    Sally Bean stole the show, to my relief, when she showed up with her present, a giant carrot cake made with her own greenhouse carrots and many treasures from her enormous basement food supply. The thirteen candles were full-sized dinner tapers, but on the monstrous cake, they looked just about right. Jimmy led the singing of Happy Birthday and helped me blow out the candles.
    That’s the day I became a teenager, even though I had been counting myself a man for quite some time.
    Chapter 9 – 13
    The horseman was standing by his mount on the shoulder of the highway. In the darkness, the black horse looked huge like a dangerous hole in the night, waiting for someone to get too close and fall in. He held up a hand as we made the final turn onto 41A from Magnolia Lane. The last mile had been a roller coaster ride up from the Normandy Road. Aside