was expected to keep the candle close at hand. Any time he was caught without it, he would be scolded and punished.
The punishments were rather odd, though. Most commonly, his grandfather would cook dinner while he watched, then refuse to let him have any. Whenever this happened, the old man would show off his culinary skills by turning the most ordinary of ingredients into what appeared to be a masterpiece of the gustatory arts. Will couldn’t be sure if it actually tasted good, since he wasn’t allowed to sample the food on these occasions, but it certainly smelled amazing.
Those incidents put a fire in his belly, and not just the ache of his empty stomach. After the first few times, he began to pay close attention when his grandfather cooked, hoping to learn some of the old man’s tricks. At the very least, if he couldn’t eat during his punishment, he would learn to replicate some of it so he could make it for himself the next day.
As summer turned into autumn, he became grateful for the blankets his mother had sent. If the nights were cold in the summer, they were far worse in the fall. He didn’t want to think about what winter would be like. Without a bed to keep the floor from leaching the warmth from him, he didn’t think the blankets would be enough.
Winter was fast approaching, and with it his fourteenth birthday, though he had little hope it would be marked by a celebration of any kind.
He was sitting on the porch one afternoon, pretending to add and subtract fractions, while his grandfather was off chasing deer—or whatever it was he did when he went out—when Eric appeared.
Will jumped up in excitement. He hadn’t seen another human being aside from his grandfather in months. “Eric!” he shouted.
Eric was hauling what appeared to be a wooden frame of some sort, and another of Will’s cousins, Sammy Cartwright, was holding up the other end. Sammy, short for Samantha, was Eric’s younger sister by two years. She smiled at Will, hazel eyes twinkling above a nose dusted with a light sprinkling of freckles.
The two of them brought their burden to the porch and deposited it. “Sorry this took so long,” apologized Eric.
“Hi, Will,” said Sammy brightly, using one of her now free hands to push back her strawberry blond hair.
“Hey,” said Will, giving her a brief nod. He wasn’t particularly fond of Sammy. Through most of his childhood, she had been an annoyance, always wanting to tag along when he and Eric were looking for adventure. Worse, when they were forced to accept her, usually by Eric’s mother, they weren’t allowed to go very far. Instead, they became glorified baby-sitters.
He turned to Eric. “What is this?”
“A cot,” said Eric proudly. He had a bundle tied over one shoulder, which he now pulled off and rolled out. It turned out to be a large sheet of canvas designed to fit over the wood frame. “I would have finished it sooner, but we had a busy summer.”
“Let’s take it inside and set it up,” suggested Sammy.
In spite of himself, Will was somewhat glad to see Sammy as well. Despite their history, she had obviously matured quite a bit over the past year. She wasn’t as gangly and awkward as he remembered her being.
As they unfolded the wood frame and stretched the canvas across it, he noticed that his cousin had changed as well. Eric’s formerly skinny arms now displayed an impressive bit of muscle, the product of his labor no doubt. Will couldn’t help but look down at his own arms and feel slightly envious. As far as he could see, he hadn’t changed at all. If anything, his occasional missed meals had made him skinnier than before.
Sammy had a bag as well, and she opened it to reveal a linen pillow. “Here, I thought you might need this too.”
Will turned it over in his hands, touched by the gesture. The pillow was off-white in color and stuffed with old, but clean, rags. One side had been embroidered with green and yellow thread, creating a simple design of grass and flowers. “Did you make this, Sammy?”
She nodded, then looked away. “Momma let me have the scraps for the stuffing. She’s been teaching me embroidery, but I’m not very good at it yet.”
“I think it’s amazing,” said Will, genuinely impressed. “It’s probably the best present I’ve ever gotten.”
Sammy blushed, but Eric gave him an abrupt shove. “Have you forgotten the