He said he would come just as quick as he could and he ain’t brought nothing with him when he left, not even his wallet nor a jug of water or food, so I know he ain’t planning on staying overnight unless it’s inside his truck. I sit on my bare mattress with my arms hugging my legs and I talk to Jacob. I tell him I was sorry I done left him at the river and I tell him all the fun things we can do together, all the things we can make.

We can dig a great big hole in the woods and cover it with secret tree branches so only we know the hole is there. It’ll be a fort underground and no one will find it, and we can hide all manner of things inside and take flashlights and maybe make tunnels that run all over the property. We can pop up out of nowhere and surprise people and they’ll think we’re magic. They’ll want to know our magic secret, but we ain’t going to tell them.

“We ain’t going to tell them nothing, Jacob” I whisper “just us making tunnels and popping up wherever we please.” I talk on and on about our plans and Momma and Daddy still ain’t back. It’s dark now, and I know this is around eating time, but I ain’t hungry no more. I don’t think I’ll ever be hungry again. Maybe I should feed Jacob, but I don’t know what all else to give him. The next thing I know, my eyes droop and I’m asleep.

I wake to a banging sound in the house. My first thought is that some big animal done broke through the door to find something good to eat. Maybe to drag off Jacob into the trees forever since he’s prime pickings as he can't run no more, nor give up a fight. I expect he wouldn’t make a peep if something ate on him, even if it was slow eating. I creep to the corner of my mattress and lift it up and get under to hide, even though you can see my legs sticking out.

I hear a drawer bang and I don’t know if an animal can open drawers or not, so I keep listening and I hear muttering and swearing and a big thump like something falling over and I know Daddy's home. I get a rush of relief and I run out to see him. He looks at me as I come into the living room and his eyes aren’t focused on me, then they are, then they aren’t again.

Daddy gives a breathy laugh and slumps on the floor. I come to him and he says “howdy ol’ Scramp. Scamp! Scamp is what you are! Give me a kiss!” He grabs my neck with both hands and plants a sloppy one on my cheek, and his whiskers scratch and his breath is sour like a drain. “I done come right back! Here I am!” He rolls on his back and looks at the ceiling. “Commed right back! It ain’t even too late, I guess. It’s still today ain’t it?” He sways his head and brings his wrist close to his eye and pulls it further back, then close again, even though he ain’t got no watch.

“Yep! Right on time! Like I said!” He flops his arm onto the floor and gives a big sigh. “Where that woman at? You see your Momma? She done with her chores in the garden? Get em’ done real good so we can eat that fukkin’... corn? Corn dogs?” I say I ain’t seen Momma since I done took Jacob on the hill for a walk. Daddy laughs and says, “takin’ him for a walk! Bet he walkin’ real good! Fukkin’ probably skipped right up that hill, ain’t that so?” I tell him I dragged him up there on a blanket, and Daddy laughs loud and hard at that, longer than it was funny, and he’s wheezing now. “Well, your Momma probably had some chores to do somewhere out there in them woods I guess. Maybe she’s weeding the woods. Them woods sure do got a lot of weeds in them!” I stand there lookin’ at Daddy, and he’s rocking back and forth on his back on the floor, like a turtle trying to right itself.

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“I ever tell you what my chore was out there? Out there when I left? Naw, you ain’t want to know my chore or whatever. That thing I was doing out there.” I says I want to know. He gets up on an elbow and looks hard but his eyes are focusing on the wall to my right. “He wants to know what all I been doing. What ol’ Ross has been doing out there.” He flops back on his back and interlocks his fingers over his chest.

“You’s a different kid. You’re better at talking at then your Momma is and that’s a fact.” One of his eyes is watering but I ain’t sure if he’s crying or if it just wanted to water. He wipes the eye and looks over at me and smiles. “How’s that boy in there, how’s Jacob, that boy. My boy. He any better? He talk or whatnot? Or lift his fingers up or blink his eyes or smile or anything? Drink from a cup?”

I say “no, Jacob ain’t do nothing, just sits there. But he do get things down his throat when you put them in his mouth.” Daddy wipes his eye again and says “good, that’s good.” The corners of his mouth turn down and his lips quiver, but that face goes away fast like it wasn’t never there. “Hey! I ever tell you what I done while I was gone?!” Daddy already said that but I tell him no. I ain’t know, but he can tell me if he wants.

“Well, I’ll tell you since you keep asking. I done took that truck right on down the road. I stopped right next to a nice place and set in the truck for a while, listenin’ to the radio and catchin’ the sights until it got dark. Then I turned the truck around toward home, but I wanted to see how fast she could go! See what that ol’ girl can do! I done got her up to 80 on that road and that weren’t enough for me, so I done turned the lights off too!

Turned em’ right off and used all my senses to steer in the dark at speed, and then I got a thought. All I gotta do is turn the steering wheel real quick to the right, for there’s a powerful number of trees along this here road, and I wondered what it would be like to hit one going that fast. I’m all set to do for I’m mighty curious, but you know what? You know what ol’ Scamparoni?

I get to thinkin’ about you ‘ol boy. How you like to go on rides in the truck and stick your head out the window and get ruffled in the breeze, and I ain’t do it after all for there wouldn’t be no one to give you rides if the truck was folded in half around a pole. Like a piece of bread around a hotdog. Momma ain’t so good at driving, and who going to give you rides if your Daddy ain’t around to do it?” I’m shaking my head as I don’t know. He’s laughing like it’s the funniest thing in the world, then Daddy whispers, “You ever heard the word suicide?”