life are free,ââ he sang, ââbut you can keep them for the birds and bees. Now give me money.ââ
Willie whined.
âMy voice isnât
that
bad,â Dev broke off, offended. âEveryoneâs a critic.â
âNow, Willie,â Beau reprimanded him, jokingly. âBe nice to our guests.â
âStuck with the Simon Cowell of dogs,â Dev complained. âAnd heâs the size of Randy.â
Beau and I chatted as we sped north to Tuscaloosa. Dev had fallen asleep almost immediately, as he was wont to do when in a moving vehicle. His head lolled against the window, a faint trickle of drool working its way down his chin as he snored softly.
âHowâd you get into this?â I asked. âReenacting, I mean.â
âIt was my mamaâs idea,â Beau said with a grin. âMy dad passed away when I was real youngââ
âOh, IâmâIâm so sorry,â I interrupted, the words burbling up before I could stop them.
âNo, itâs, uh, itâs fine.â He smiled tensely, something shuttered flitting across his eyes. âBut my mama thought I could use some positive male role models. So she signed me up as a drummer boy. Jeffâuh, Captain Cauldwellâhad been a poker buddy of my dadâs. So he sorta looked after me, taught me the ropes, well . . . They all sorta did. Itâs a real close group. They all look out for their own. Sorta gruff, not the friendliest, always suspicious about newbies . . . They havenât been too rough on ya, have they?â he asked anxiously.
âNo, no, theyâre fine,â I assured him. âJust not super outÂgoing.â
âYeah, they probably wonât pay you much notice, but I wouldnât worry about it.â He shrugged. âItâs just their way. Prefer to keep to themselves. And, anyway . . . well . . . moreân ten years later . . . here I am.â
âThatâs cool that you stuck with it for so long.â
âWell, I love history,â he said, and colored a bit, embarrassed. âI mean, to do this, you have to. And if youâre a big olâ history nerd, like me, it doesnât get better than this.â He grinned. âBut Iâm guessinâ you already know that. Or you wouldnât be sittinâ in this truck in 150-year-old underwear.â
âSo true.â I grinned back. âItâs hard to explain to other people, isnât it? How much you love it.â
âI sâpose,â he said. âAlthough I sâpose Iâm lucky, spendinâ my summers here with people who are even nuttier about the war than I am, and then at UA . . . Yâall have Phi Alpha Theta at your school?â
âWhat?â I asked skeptically. âWhat is that, a frat? I, um, havenât started college yet.â
âYouâre still in high school?â Beau asked, surprised. ââCause you donât lookââ
âJust graduated,â I interrupted him. âIâm starting college in the fall.â Beau nodded. âBut I have to say I find it really hard to believe that you sit around with your frat brothers discussing the effects of the Union naval blockade on the Confederate home front or whatever.â
âNo, not a frat,â Beau said, roaring with laughter. âPhi Alpha Theta is a history honors society.â
âOh.â I blushed.
âCheck and see if they have it at your school when you start, then. Itâs nice, to have that group. Whole buncha nerds together.â He smiled. âAnd the department at UAâs pretty good tooâI can concentrate in exactly what I want to study.â
âWhich is . . . ?â I prompted, even though I had a pretty good idea what he was going to say.
âAmerican Civilization to 1865, History of Alabama to 1865, American South to 1865, U.S. Constitution to 1865, the Coming of the Civil War, the