Momma and Daddy walk through the room in the morning and both gaze for a while at Jacob. Daddy puts the back of his hand against Jacob’s mouth and he tells Momma he can still feel Jacob’s hot breath. I’m pretending to sleep and they’s being quiet and talking low about how we’s going to take care of him for they never done nothing like this before. Daddy says his aunt knows nursin’, but she’s across the country and ain’t too good at it he suspects.

She thinks dark circles under the eyes are a sign that you ain’t poopin’ enough. Momma whispers that it may be time to get Jacob down to town and to the hospital. Daddy says sharp that we can't do that, and ain’t got the money for it besides. Jacob is still alive and breathing and that’s enough for now. He’ll probably snap out of it, and he may just be in need of a rest, seeing as how he was in the water for so long. I hear more murmuring and I can't quite make it out, but they call each other by Ross and Robyn so I know they talkin’ serious.

My eyes is closed, but I feel it as they talk their words in my direction and I know they is talking about me, only I don’t rightly know what they’re saying. They walk out of the room and I open my eyes and Jacob is in the same spot, and he ain’t better like what we were hoping he would be. I hear Momma and Daddy far enough away in the house now that I can heave up out of bed and crouch over Jacob. I can see he’s breathing too and I touch his cheek and it’s wet and hot and his hair is damp on the edges. I peel back his blanket to give him some air, and I see there’s a wet spot around his hips and a smell I know is pee and he ain’t done that since we hid from ghosts when we was real little.

I wonder if he sees them again.

I don’t know if I should call Momma and Daddy over to help him since I ain’t know what to do when someone pees in the bed, but I’m afraid they’s still mad at me for leaving Jacob alone on the river bank with his lungs filled with leaves and mud.

I look out of our room and they’s standing in the kitchen. Daddy is looking out the window at nothing. Momma is talking to him fast, and he’s a stone and not nodding nor looking at her. She slaps his arm and he looks at her then with a powerful anger, and Daddy ain’t had that look in him from what I’ve ever seen. He gets close to her face and I hear him say loud and clear.

“Jacob done gone in the water, and he ain’t breath for long enough in a row. He’s either going to make it up here alone, with us, or not at all.” Momma pulls back from him like she was slapped. Her cheeks are fire red and she says, “if you don’t take Jacob to town for someone to look close at him, it’s as good as you killing that boy. Gabe done left him in the dark and with his stomach filled with mud and leaves, but with or without Gabe leaving him, it’s you what‘s going to kill him.” Daddy turns from her and looks back out the window and Momma brushes past him and slams the door as she leaves the house.

I watch Daddy for a long time, and he’s not moving or doing nothin’ besides staring out that window and humming to himself a tuneless hum. Tapping his toe on the floor from time to time like he’s in a different place where no son comes back from the river a different son. I walk slow up to him and he don’t change his hum nor the tapping. I stand next to him and look outside the window and see the garden what has been feeding us and Momma is in it.

She is stooped, violenting up the weeds, her pony tail flying around her back as she works with abandon through the corn and tomatoes and runner beans. Throwing weeds, and rocks, and dirt clods, as hard as she can in every direction. Her bare hands and knees covered in dirt and her dirty face streaked from her eyes to her chin and she ain’t never going to stop.

Daddy and I stand there together. He finally looks at me and is surprised like he didn’t know I was there the whole time. He gestures out the window. “She just doing some weeding I expect. Gotta tend to them plants so we can eat them. Right, ol’ Scamp?” I nod and he gives me a slap on the shoulder and says “that’s real good, you unnerstand what all it takes to be up here. what with pulling weeds and the like. Yes indeed. Welp, I got some things what also need attending to, and this here is an important errand I got to run. I may be gone for a while, but I’ll be back soon’s I can. Ain’t that right? Always come back as soon as I can?”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

His eyes are like wet marbles and I say “you sure do Daddy. You come on back just as quick as you can all the time, and we is always glad for it.” He nods and stands there, thinking about something, then nods again like he done figured out what he was thinking about and he says “well ‘ol Scamp. I best be off” and I say “bye Daddy” as he walks to the door, but he ain’t turned back nor give an answer and he ain’t bring nothing with him, just walks to the truck, gets in, and takes right off. I look out the window at Momma and she’s taken to sitting on the ground, hunched over so I can see the bones in her back through her worn white shirt like a hundred knuckles.

I decide that Jacob needs some fresh air. “Gettin’ on up now!” I say “getting’ on outside to peek around, and find maybe some treasures or somethin’ interesting!” I try to pick him up, but he’s so heavy. I try to drag him by his legs, but his shirt catches on the floor and rucks up and I see his stomach and it looks hollow. I realize he ain’t ate nothin’ since I fed him that soup and I ain’t seen Momma nor Daddy give him nothin’, not even no water which don’t taste like nothing, but you sure like it when you feel thirsty.

“Wait there!” I say “first you need some fuel for this outdoor exploration!” I hop to my feet and go into the kitchen to look for something I can give him so he don’t get too hungry. Soup is good. It got water and food in it and I look for some but there ain’t none left. I guess it all got finished up yesterday. I go through the cupboards and there ain’t much since we ain’t go shopping like most folks. Daddy is always proud about that because we make our own food, but most of it is outside still and in the ground. Since there ain’t nothing for Jacob to eat inside, I decide to tiptoe on out to the garden and grab up a few things what look easy to eat and I ain’t want to so much since Momma is out there still and the thought of talking to her makes me nervous.

I head outside anyway and walk careful to the garden, and I reach for a lettuce what looks green enough and ain’t no bugs on it so I grasp it up and it’s warm with the sun and smells like the outdoors and it’s a good smell. I peer at Momma out of the corner of my eye and she’s lookin’ at me and not saying anything. I find some beans growing on a vine and I pick them too, and this’ll have to be enough for Momma was making me jumpy, just staring and not saying anything. It startles me and I almost drop Jacob’s food when she says “Daddy left” and now she’s rocking back and forth. “Daddy left and you think he’s going to get someone to look at Jacob? He done tell you that was what he was doing? Before he left?” I say “no Ma’am, he done told me he was going to run a special errand, and he was going to come back as quick as he could.”

Momma stands up and walks close to me and says “your Daddy ain’t helping that boy. He’s leaving him to flounder in the sea until he goes under for good. Your Daddy ain’t even reach in a hand to pull him out.” She caresses my face and I’m looking down at my hands and at the lettuce and bean for Jacob “you love your brother? You love Jacob?” And I nod and say “he ain’t drowning like you say. Jacob is in there and that soup ain’t brought him out, but I’m fixin’ to get him wound back up again since he’s probably just tired from being in the water for too long. Pretty soon we’s going to go out and build a fort together.” Momma nods and looks down at the food I got and says “you all get movin’ then. Get to windin’ that Jacob back up. You doin’ just fine. Just fine.”

I say yes Momma and she turns her back on me and sits on the ground between a row of tall corn. I’m about to walk back inside when she calls out, “Gabe.” She gestures at the tree line. “Heard tell, just beyond where the trees stop and the dark starts, there’s something that watches us. If you look long enough, you’ll catch a glimpse. It’s as tall as a tree and it’s as dark as the sky before the stars come out and once you see it, you can't not see it. You think that’s true?” I stay quiet and she goes on.

“What you think will happen if you see it and don’t look away?” I stand there, not knowing what to say, but those words spooked me. I say “Momma, why you sittin’ out here?” She waves her hand behind her without looking back. I stare at the tree line. I see where it turns from green to black, but I look away fast when I get a feeling like when a cloud covers the sun. I say “okay, Momma” and I walk back inside. On the way to Jacob, I fill a glass of water and look up out the window at her. She’s staring at the treeline and smiling.