in town they said the boy was “touched,” and the less charitable called him “retard.” Lee had long black hair and small eyes set in a pudgy face. Grizz fought a brief anger rising in him. If he had been shooting at him, he had lost the gun during his flight. The whole thing was senseless. Had Lee thought to spill Grizz’s blood to even the score? He bit his tongue and concentrated on the child before him. This could have been Seth, hurt after some foolish lark. This should have been Seth, not some child come to work a reckoning.
Lee loosed a hoarse, birdlike cry as Grizz yanked his legs beneath him and probed for broken bones. He didn’t intend to be gentle. The boy’s eyes were glossy as wet stones. Not knowing what else to do, Grizz spoke at random, fearing the boy’s shock would become fatal. He couldn’t handle any more blood on his hands. “The damnedest thing I ever saw,” he began, “and I’ve seen many a thing in my lifetime. The way you came down that ridge was a thing of beauty.”
Lee groaned again as Grizz poked at his ribs. Along the boy’s arm he felt something quick and wet and warm. He took out his pocketknife and cut open the shirtsleeve. His arm was sliced open. He saw tendons, red and glistening. Words left him for a time.
He cut off the rest of his shirt and then ripped it into ribbons. Still Lee had not spoken, but his breathing seemed to steady. Grizz noted a twitch in the right leg and figured the boy had been lucky not to crack his spine or spill the contents of his skull like an egg against a skillet. He wrapped the wound tightly and then pressed down to staunch the flow of blood.
He found his breath again. “I won’t be able to describe it, I think, the way you fell. You likely won’t remember it. Only me and these coyotes and blackbirds saw you come down that ridge, and by Jesus and Joseph, you are one lucky bastard.” Lee groaned as if in agreement with Grizz’s rambling. It was all the encouragement he needed. “I recognize you from when you were little and you and Kelan used to come around here.” Grizz sucked on his teeth, surprised that the memory of Seth’s friends could renew such a sharp ache inside him. His eyes welled, and the boy’s features blurred below him. This could have been Seth, he thought. This should have been how it happened, a close scrape, a rescue. He shook the vision away; it did him little good now.
“What were you doing up there, besides trying to kill me?” Lee’s glazed eyes found his. Grizz was there to see his consciousness rising to the surface, like some fish swimming toward the light. He was there in the grass wet with dew and blood, and when Lee said, “Seth’s wolves. They were after me,” in a clipped, frightened tone, he felt a laugh escape his chest, a clean, beautiful feeling.
THE GROVE
Clara answered the phone only to find Ernest Sheuffler, the superintendent, greeting her in his slow baritone. This was their second conversation since she had resigned. “Have you been thinking over my offer?” he asked.
She pictured him on the other end of the line, a fat man who dressed in caramel-colored suits, the seams straining around his shoulders. “I’m sorry, Mr. Sheuffler. My answer’s the same as when you called a few days ago.”
“How have you been doing?”
“Oh, fine,” she said. “Fine, fine, fine.”
He was silent, leaving the tinny echo of her voice ringing in her ears. “I believe you have a talent for teaching, Mrs. Warren,” he said after a moment. “The students miss you. One came to see me, and we talked about you.”
Clara waited. Mr. Sheuffler was proving to be a frustrating person. Moving way out into the country was supposed to provide Clara the time and focus she needed to finish her dissertation. Teaching had been a mistake.
“You remember Leah Meyers?” he asked.
“Sure.” Seth’s girlfriend.
“A smart girl. I trust her judgment. She told me you’re one of the best teachers she’s ever had.” Why would Leah go and see the superintendent? She wouldn’t, not unless summoned. “It’s not a good idea,” Clara told him. “I’m due in December. Those kids … what they need is some continuity. Hell, what they need is someone who knows what they’re doing.”