Free Trial by Fire by Norah McClintock Page B

rest.”
    I thought about all the stupid things I had done—and all the times my grandpa Jimmy
had either found out or I had confessed. There were so many things about Jimmy that
I missed. He had a great sense of humor. He was kind to everyone. He loved to perform,
and he did it well. But most of all, he had an attitude to life that made more sense
than anything I’d ever heard from anyone else. It could be summed up in two sentences,
both of which I’d heard Jimmy say on many occasions. The first was Who are we to
judge? The second: We all have things we regret saying or doing, but we can’t unsay
them or undo them ; the best we can do is resolve not to say them or do them again
when the opportunity presents itself . It was this outlook that made Jimmy the greatest
person I’d ever known.
    “Nobody’s perfect, Charlie.”
    He offered me a sad, crooked smile before he started talking.
    “When I brought the money back to my team, they wanted to know how I’d managed to
raise so much. Like an idiot, I told them it was from Mr. Goran. I thought people
would like that. I mean, he already owned the farm, and Clyde Winters was dead. None
of that was going to change. I thought maybe people would get over it if they saw
that Mr. Goran wasn’t a bad guy.”
    “But it didn’t turn out that way, huh?”
    “Uh-uh. The team had a big debate on whether to accept the money or not. Some people
wanted to take it because it would guarantee that we’d win the prize. Some people
didn’t want it because it came from Mr. Goran. We couldn’t agree, so we voted on
it.”
    “And?”
    “ I voted to keep it. So did three other members of the team. Only two people voted
against it.”
    “Majority rules.”
    “Yeah,” Charlie said. “But when the grand totals raised by each team were announced,
ours was a hundred dollars short. We came second by nearly fifty dollars.”
    “What happened to Mr. Goran’s money?”
    Charlie’s expression soured. “A funny thing,” he said. “It vanished. I asked our
team treasurer, who, by the way, was one of the two people who voted against taking
Mr. Goran’s money, but…Once the winner was announced, nobody on my team cared anymore,
not even the ones who voted with me. But that’s not the whole story.” Shame crept
into his face again. “When I got the donation from Mr. Goran, he was really nice
to me. He invited me in for tea. He asked about my family and told me about his.
He seemed like a good guy. I told people that.” He stared down at the ground. “Anyway,
he offered me a job. He said he needed another pair of hands.” He glanced at me.
“I wanted to take it. He was paying more than I could make at a fast-food place or
working retail. Those are the only places that hire kids. But I had to ask my folks.”
    “And they said no?”
    “Not exactly.” He crumpled the napkin he’d been holding. “They said it was too bad
the way everyone was acting about Mr. Goran, but if I wanted to take the job, it
was okay with them. They also told me that it might not be easy for me if I did.
My mom grew up here. She was the most worried. She said people here have a certain
way of looking at things and that it’s hard for them to change. Once they made up
their minds that Mr. Goran stole Clyde’s place, they would never accept him. I knew
she didn’t want me to work for him. My dad said I should follow my conscience.”
    Again I waited. There were some things that couldn’t be rushed—that shouldn’t be
rushed.
    “So I didn’t take it,” Charlie said.
    “Mr. Goran must have been disappointed.”
    He hung his head. “I guess.”
    He guessed ? “What did he say when you told him?”
    “I never did.” He refused to look at me. I assumed if he didn’t hear back from me
that he’s figured it out. And I was ashamed, you know? I wanted the job, but I didn’t
take it because I was afraid of what kids would think and how much I’d get hassled.
I didn’t tell anyone besides my parents