by Geof Johnson
“I still don’t see how you learned all that stuff from the Internet,” Tina said.
“I watched a couple of videos with them,” Grandpa said. “Apparently, you can learn how to do just about anything if you search long enough.”
Zach knew his grandfather was lying about watching videos, but decided the best thing to do was to let him. Zach felt guilty about the way they were dancing around the truth, but he hadn’t thought about what would happen when he and his friends shot the bow in front of his mother. Should I miss on my first try? He didn’t want to.
Shelby handed Zach an arrow from the package. “Hurry up and shoot it! You’re taking forever.”
Zach eyed the distant target and set his feet in a line with it. He nocked the arrow and raised the bow slightly over his head and lowered it as he pulled the string back.
“Wow,” his mother said. “You look like you’ve done that a thousand times already.”
Zach took a relaxing breath as Bo had taught him, cleared his mind, and released the string. The arrow zipped away. It struck the target in the outer, white ring, on the top side.
“You missed,” Jason said.
I meant to.
“What are you talkin’ about?” Tina’s voice rose almost to a squeak. “He just hit it, first try!”
“Didn’t hit the bullseye,” Jason said.
“I might be able to do better.” Zach held out his hand for another arrow and Shelby gave him one. He nocked it, drew, and fired. This time the arrow struck the inside edge of the black ring.
“Well, that’s better,” Justin said.
“It’s got a little more power than I’m used to, I mean, than what I expected. Just takes a little adjusting, is all.” But the bow wasn’t that different from the one the white giant had made for them. Zach felt an exhilarating tingle flow through him and he smiled and regarded the sleek curve of the black-and-blue fiberglass in his left hand. I like this a lot.
“Quit stalling, Zach,” Shelby said.
He accepted another arrow and shot it, this time hitting the red ring, not far from the bullseye. “That’s more like it.” He looked over his shoulder at his mother, who was standing with Tina, both of them staring at him open-mouthed. “I love this bow, Mom. Thanks for getting it for me.”
“Oh.” She blinked and closed her mouth. “You’re welcome. I…I didn’t expect you to be so good at it right off. Is it really that easy?” He offered her the bow and she shook her head firmly. “I’d just make a fool of myself. You go ahead.”
“Hurry up.” Shelby poked him on the upper arm. “You get two more shots, then it’s my turn, right?”
Zach held out his hand for another arrow.
Badminton and horseshoes were forgotten for the rest of the afternoon. Zach and his friends only wanted to shoot the bow. And they did, over and over, taking turns, five shots each. Liz and Tina watched the archery demonstration from behind them, sitting in the wrought iron chairs at the edge of the terrace. Liz’s father was helping retrieve the arrows and keeping Beepee from getting them, in some kind of game that they both seemed to enjoy.
“Whooo!” Liz clapped for Zach when he hit the bullseye, his second time that day. “Good one, honey.”
He looked back at her and grinned, then turned back to face the target.
“I never imagined that he would be able to do that,” Liz said.
“Me either.” Tina picked up her glass of wine, which was sitting beside her on the concrete patio of the terrace. “They’re all good at it, even Shelby. I don’t see how, ’cause it’s so hard.” Tina had tried it earlier. One shot. It missed badly, landing in the grass several yards to the side, and she immediately gave up the bow.
“I don’t understand it,” Liz said. “Zach has never been good at any sport. Never. It used to drive my husband absolutely nuts. I guess Zach has finally found his thing. Maybe I can enroll Zach in an archery club. There’s bound to be one around here somewhere, as much as Whitmer people love the outdoors.”
Tina nodded without looking at Liz. She was watching Shelby take the bow from Zach, ready for her turn. “If I ever have money again, maybe I’ll buy my kids one of those. My boys have always wanted to do a sport, but I think they’d be happier doin’ one where they can run into people and knock ’em down, like football or rugby or something.”
Shelby released an arrow and it hit the outer edge of the yellow bullseye, and she smiled at the target.
“How about her?” Liz said. “That would be good sport for her self-confidence, don’t you think?”
“She looks like she’s pretty darn good at it, doesn’t she? She’s as good as her brothers, maybe a little better. Never thought I’d say that. Maybe that’s why they’re not pickin’ on her today.”
“Has she ever done any kind of extracurricular stuff?”
“When she was younger, we were thinkin’ about lettin’ her do ballet, ’cause she likes to dance so much, but Kenny got locked up and money was tight, and that put an end to that idea.”
“She has the figure for it.”
“You mean ’cause she’s so skinny?”
“I like to think of her as slender. She’s got that long, elegant neck that you always see on dancers.”
“I’ve always thought she had a pretty neck.”
“That is, when you can see it. Seems like she’s got her chin down half the time, hiding it.”
“It’s all about the self-confidence.” Just then, Shelby took another shot and it hit the center of the target. Tina jumped to her feet and thrust her hands over her head, still holding her drink, and a little of her wine sloshed out and ran down her wrist. “Yay, Shelby! Good one, girl!” Tina sat back down and Liz could see Shelby blushing from twenty feet away, but she kept her head up. She was obviously proud. Tina was, too.
“I think this is definitely the sport for her, don’t you?” Liz said. “I hope someday soon you have the time and the money to put her in in an archery club.”
“If I had gotten that promotion, I could do it.”
“Did they give it to someone else already?”
Tina lips pinched together into a tight bundle before she said, “The owner gave it to some guy who’s only been with us for a year or so. He’s younger than me, too, but he and his wife go to the boss’s parties and schmooze and all that, and I can’t do that because I work two jobs. Plus, he’s a guy and all. You know how good ol’ boys are. They like to stick together.”
“That stinks. It’s not fair.”
“Not much I can do about it. Just grin and bear it.”
“I don’t see how you do.”
“Me either, sometimes. You just do what ya gotta do to keep the lights on and put food on the table.”
Chapter 36
Fall break was over. For Zach it had seemed like one long stretch of hard work. Now he had to go back to school, and he and his friends still had to rake leaves, with jobs scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoon. He dreaded it.
He and his mother came home on Tuesday afternoon to find his grandfather’s truck in the driveway, along with two others parked in the street. Sawhorses were set up on the lawn in front of the steps, and narrow scraps of wood lay nearby beside an electric saw. Two windows were missing, the hollow spaces staring back like empty eye sockets. A few new ones were already in place, but Zach didn’t notice them until his mother pointed them out.
“Oh, Zach, don’t they look great?” she said after they’d gotten out of the car, parked behind the other two pickup trucks. Her face was beaming as they walked up to the porch, and through the open doorway Zach heard the sounds of hammering and men’s voices. They went inside and found Grandpa and two other men trying to remove another old window on the far wall of the living room, crowbars and hammers in their hands and intense expressions on their faces. Grandpa looked up when they neared, but only nodded without introducing his helpers.
“Looks awesome, Dad,” Zach’s mom shouted over the din. “How long do you
think it will take?”
“We’ll finish most of the downstairs by dinnertime. We already did the family room and laundry room. The upstairs will take a day and a half, maybe.”
“So you’ll be finished by Thursday?”
“That’s the plan.” He picked up a hammer and smacked it against the edge of the unyielding window trim until it finally gave way. Then he glanced at Zach. “You and your friends raking today?”
“Soon as I change clothes.”
“Well, do a good job.” He turned his attention back to the window and whacked another piece of trim.
I’m glad I’m going to work now, Zach thought. It’s too loud in here.
* * *
Zach was relieved when he and his mother came home Thursday afternoon and his grandfather and his two helpers were gone. All of the new windows were installed. His mother walked through the entire house, delightedly opening and closing every one of them.
Zach watched her pull the last one down and latch it. A satisfied smile was on her face. “I know you aren’t impressed with them,” she said, “but you’ll be glad when winter gets here. A big house like this with those old windows would be cold and drafty, and you know how much you hate to be cold.”
“I’m glad they’re finally done.” It was good timing, because Zach had a ton of homework, even though he was tired from raking leaves the previous three days, in addition to getting up early for school every morning. He wanted to take a nap, but he couldn’t.
“Don’t you have a test you have to study for?”
“Yes ma’am.” He plodded up the stairs to his room with his backpack still slung across his shoulders.
* * *
By Friday afternoon Zach was too worn out to think, let alone work in the lab. His friends couldn’t come over, so Zach shot his bow in the backyard for a while and then settled in front of the computer in the family room to surf the Internet, waiting for his mother to make dinner.
Grandpa arrived a few minutes later and talked with Zach’s mom in the kitchen before joining Zach, pulling up the wing chair beside him, settling his big body into the cushioned seat and laying his hands over the ends of the armrests. “Whatcha doin’?”
Zach turned his head toward him for a moment and tried to smile. “Not much.”
“You look beat.”
“I am. I sure hope I can keep this up. School and raking and homework are wearing me out.”
“You got a job tomorrow?”
“In the morning. We could’ve had one in the afternoon, too, but we want to go see Bo. We’re kinda worried about him.” Zach briefly thought about the dark circle on Bo’s forearm and felt a tightening in his gut. “We need a break anyway. I’m gonna keel over if I keep working this hard.”
“If it makes you feel any better, the leaf-raking season will be over soon.”
“I hope we make enough money by then to buy everything we need for the lab.”
“How much do you have now?”
“A little over four hundred dollars. You think that’ll be enough?”
“Doubt it.”
“Great.” Zach sagged in his chair. “I feel like I’m going to be working my butt off forever.”
Grandpa glanced at the doorway behind him that led to the kitchen, where Zach’s mother was cooking, and he lowered his voice. “We don’t have forever, do we?”
“Bo thinks we have until the first snows.”
“First snows? That could be anytime. One year it snowed hard during Thanksgiving week, and that’s just over a month away. Two years ago it didn’t snow until late January, but it really came down hard, then.”
“How about last year?”
“We had an ice storm just after New Year’s. Power went out for almost two weeks. Nearly froze my fanny off. It’s a good thing I had firewood, but I was down to eating canned beans for the last couple of days ’cause I couldn’t get to the store.”
“Glad I missed that.”
“Me too, though I wouldn’t have been so lonely if I’d had you and your mom here with me. Now that I’m thinking about it, I guess I should write myself a note to stock up on some firewood.”
Zach draped his head back over the top of the chair and released a big sigh. “I could go to bed right now and sleep ’till noon tomorrow.”
“Can you reschedule your morning job?”
He rolled his head from side to side without looking at Grandpa. “They want it done early.” Then he shook his head harder. “Seems like it never ends.”
Grandpa reached over and patted Zach on the forearm. “But you’re doing all this for a good cause. Keep reminding yourself that. Bo doesn’t stand a chance of getting back to his world without you. You and your friends, together, I should say. If your dad were alive today, I think he’d be proud of you for what you’re doing. I wish we could tell your mom, ’cause she’d be so proud she’d probably bust wide open.”
Zach felt his face grow warm, and all he could say was a mumbled, “Thanks.”
“My dad used to have this saying, and I’m sure you’ve heard it, that what you do when no one’s watching matters the most. I used to believe that meant what you thought you could get away with, like shoplifting or cheating on a test or something. What your morals are when no one’s minding you. Now I’ve come to think it means what good deeds you do when nobody’s around to pat you on the back and say good for you, like if you put money in one of those little charity boxes when you’re by yourself, or pick up litter from the sidewalk. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Of course. But Bo and my friends know what I’m doing, and so do you.”
“But not your mom, and certainly not your dad. I know their approval would mean a lot to you. It would mean a lot me if I were in your place. It would mean a lot to any kid.”
“Can’t have everything.”
“Well, I’m proud of you.” Grandpa leaned back in his chair and nodded. “I wish I could brag on you, ’cause I get tired of hearing my friends up at Bennie’s crow about their grandkids.” He chuckled. “If they only knew.”
“But you’re helping Bo, too, and you don’t have to. That’s good, Grandpa. Mom thinks you’re just working on the lab to make money off of Uncle Nicholas’s projects, but I wish we could tell her the real reason so she’d stop thinking you’re so lazy.”
“It’ll take more than that to change her opinion of me.” He laughed again, deeper and heartier, and Zach smiled with him. Grandpa’s face turned serious and he said, “But I feel like I gotta help. I got a pony in this show, now.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“It means I’m invested in all this. Bo did me a huge favor when he gave me that salve for my knee.” He bent his leg a couple of times, watching it as he did. “It doesn’t hurt at all, even when I go up and down stairs. Been a long, long time since it felt this good, since before I went to Vietnam. That’s well over forty years. Can you imagine? To have that kind of pain every single day, for that long? It was terrible. Hurt like crazy sometimes, like a hot knife stickin’ deep in there.” He jabbed his kneecap with one finger. “But it feels almost normal, now. No pain at all.”
“That probably makes things easier for you.”
“Darn straight it does. I went upstairs in my house for the first time in months, just to see what it’s like up there. I’d almost forgotten.”
“Is it really dirty and dusty?”
“Your mom has already cleaned it since y’all have been here, so it’s in pretty good shape. I changed the sheets on the bed the other day. I think I’m going to start sleeping up there again.”
“That’s your old bedroom?”
“The one I shared with your grandmother.” He cleared his throat and lowered his eyes for a moment. “I think she’d want me up there. I’ve been sleeping downstairs on the day bed in the parlor ever since she died.”
“You haven’t been up there since then?”
“Just a few of times, to get my clothes. It hurt
my knee too much, and it just felt wrong, sleeping in that bed all alone, so I didn’t.”
“Are you going to be able to do it now?”
“I think so. It’s been long enough. It’s time.”
The room filled with an uncomfortable silence as Grandpa stared at his age-spotted hands, folded together in his lap, and tapped the tips of his thumbs together. Then he looked up and said, “It’s also time to help your tall, white-haired friend. Let’s see about ordering some tubes right now from an electronics supplier, while your mom finishes fixing dinner. It’s going to take at least a couple of weeks for the tubes to get here, so we’d better get going on this before it’s too late. Think you can find a website for an electronics supplier?”
“I’ve already searched a few times. There are plenty.”
“You got that list of the numbers we copied off the old tubes?”
“It’s in my room.”
“Why don’t you run up there and get it, and let’s see how many of them we can buy for four hundred dollars.”
“We can’t get all of them, can we?”
“No, but we can get enough to start. We’ll order the ones for the first section of the control station. Then we’ll reassemble that and start testing stuff to see if it’s working.”
“Think we’ll finish before it snows?”
“Hope so, but don’t be disappointed if we have a few setbacks along the way. We’re ridin’ through unfamiliar territory, and there are bound to be some problems.”
“We can deal with them, though, can’t we?”
“Yes, we can.” He jerked his thumb in the direction of the stairs. “Now go get that list.”
Chapter 37
Bo motioned for silence and then pointed. Through the gap in the leaves, Zach saw the deer, a buck, with ten points on his rack of antlers. Bo mimed shooting it, and Zach nodded and fitted an arrow to his new bow while his friends knelt quietly behind him.
The animal was beautiful, Zach thought, majestically unaware of their presence. They were downwind and had been silent as specters while they crept through the forest to get within killing range. Now the deer was grazing on a low plant, its head down and its body showing a perfect profile to Zach. He could hit it, easily. He was that close.
