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just extras.”
He was nodding, but very slowly.
I sighed and said, “Thank you for not saying anything about it at dinner. I owe you.”
He pulled my curtain aside and looked across the street. “One's character is set at an early
age, son. The choices you make now will affect you
for the rest of your life.” He inute, then dropped the curtain and said, “I hate
to see you swim out so far you can't swim back.”
“Yes, sir.”
He frowned and said, “Don't yes-sir me, Bryce.” Then he stood and added, “Just think about
what I've said, and the next time you're faced with a
choice, do the right thing. It hurts everyone less in the long run.”
With that, poof, he was gone.
The next day I went to shoot some hoops at Garrett's after school, and when his mom
dropped me off later that afternoon, my granddad didn't
even notice. He was too busy being Joe Carpenter in Juli's front yard.
I tried to do my homework at the breakfast bar, but my mom came home from work and
started being all chatty, and then Lynetta appeared and
the two of them started fighting about whether Lynetta's makeup made her look like a
wounded raccoon.
Lynetta. I swear she'll never learn.
I packed up my stuff and escaped to my room, which, of course, was a total waste. They've
got a saw revving and wailing across the street, and
in between cuts I can hear the whack, whack, whack! whack, whack, whack! of a hammer.
I look out the window and there's Juli, spitting out nails and
slamming them in place. No kidding. She's got nails lined up between her lips like steel
cigarettes, and she's swinging that hammer full-arc, way
above her head, driving nails into pickets like they're going into butter.
For a split second there, I saw my head as the recipient of her hammer, cracking open like
Humpty Dumpty. I shuddered and dropped the curtain,
ditched the homework, and headed for the TV.
They handymanned all week. And every night Granddad would come in with rosy cheeks
and a huge appetite and compliment my mom on what a
great cook she was. Then Saturday happened. And the last thing I wanted was to spend the
day at home while my grandfather churned up dirt and
helped plant Juli's yard. Mom tried to get me to do our own yard, but I would have felt
ridiculous micromowing our grass with Granddad and Juli
making real changes right across the street.
So I locked myself in my room and called Garrett. He wasn't home, and everybody else I
called had stuff they had to do. And hitting up Mom or
Dad for a ride to the movies or the mall was hopeless. They'd tell me I was supposed to be
doing the yard.
What I was, was stuck.
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And what I wound up doing was looking out the stupid window at Juli and my grandfather. It
was a totally lame thing to do, but that's what I did.
I got nailed doing it, too. By my grandfather. And he, of course, had to point me out to Juli,
which made me feel another two inches shorter. I
dropped the curtain and blasted out the back door and over the fence. I had to get out of
there.
I swear I walked ten miles that day. And I don't know who I was madder at — my grandfather,
