Now it’s Daddy's turn to be surprised, for I never disagreed with Daddy before and that’s why I’m his number one Scamp. He looks at me hard and says “that the truth, Gabe? You seen something in there what we all can't?” I say that this is so. Daddy looks at me hard again and I keep his gaze and don’t look away none. A change comes to his face and he says “you was always my favorite. Now I can say it since the other one is done and gone, but I’m finding it hard to believe you.”
He ain’t called me Scamp, and I noticed, but I go on. “This is as far as I can get with him and we all need to help him now. All I do is be with him, and change him, and Momma helps with the feeding, but Jacob and me is always been close friends even when we fight. He took things from me, and I took things from him, and we was close. Is close. I can see him in there.”
Daddy nods and looks at Jacob. “Ok Scamp. If you say so. but what all you need from me? He ain’t need nothin’’ no more ‘sides food, and water, and hosing off from time to time, so what you all want from me? You say he’s in there and I only believe it because you say it and nobody else, but what else do you want except for me to tell you I believe you?”
Momma says “that boy is wasting away and needs more than food and water and a hosin’. That boy is turning into a skeleton. He needs more than what me and Gabe can give him. He needs to be moved around so when he does come back, he won’t be too weak to walk. You been tinkering out there, or at least that’s what you say when you leave for hours on end without no explanation. Except for bringing things back into this house from those piles. Unless you is hiding from us and this here problem on purpose?”
Daddy is offended and says that’s not so. He’s out there looking after his family. Momma says, “that’s good. Because he’s part of the family too whether you like it or not. Gabe done told you he was still in there and you agreed. Since you ain’t feed him, or read to him, or wash him, get on back out there and make something for him. Get something from those piles what can get him moving and some exercise, unless you want to strap him to your back and flop him around the woods like a wooden puppet. The boy and I ain’t strong enough to be taking him around like that. Gabe can hardly even drag him on a blanket.”
Daddy is shaking his head but stops and looks at me and sighs. “This is for you Scamp. You and me is more alike than you know. I’ll do this for you. Just you.” Daddy looks at Momma and says nothing and heads out of the house and Momma and me is left with Jacob again. “You think he’s going to do something to help Jacob, Momma?” Momma says she doesn’t rightly know, but if he’s going to do something, it’s either now or he ain’t never going to do anything. We’ll have to fare on our own.
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She goes to the kitchen and starts scrubbing something hard, even though I ain’t seen nothin’ that needs to be scrubbed. I tend to Jacob on the couch and there ain’t much more to be done now since we done fed and changed him already, so I just talk to him some. I can see Momma in the kitchen is listening to me without wanting me to know. Her hands ain’t exactly idle, but she ain't doing much with them and her shoulders is hunched.
“What you doin’ there ’ol Jacob? Takin' a rest? Yeah, you need to rest, gotta keep up your strength! Pretty soon we’s going to be out there in the wilds. I was thinking about a way we can make some secret traps what can probably bring us a bear if we play it just right. Use the right bait for it and all, and I had a thought that maybe once we catch the bear, we can let it not eat for a while. Just a little while! not like, too long! Just enough so that we can befriend it by feeding it something it might like. We do that often enough and I bet we can get us a tame bear. Ride it all around and have it climb trees with us on its back and all that. Can ride it while it hunts in the night and we’ll tell it where to go and it’ll bring us to all kinds of places what are secret. Don’t that sound good?” I take Jacob’s jaw in my hands and move it up and down and say in a Jacob voice “that sure do seem good!” Momma gives a little snort from the kitchen and I look up but her back is still turned and I know this will work. I know Daddy is out there right now, getting' to work on something for Jacob.
This goes on for some time, just talkin’ to Jacob while Momma is in the kitchen and now it’s time to change Jacob and feed him, so we do that. We’s getting better at it so it don’t seem too out of the ordinary now. Jacob does fine with taking his food and we done learned that the sloppier the food was, the better it went down for him, and that’s better than when I was shoving beans and leaves of lettuce in his mouth. Now I ain’t so afraid of him choking since I wouldn’t know what to do if that were to happen. We is all on the couch now and is cozy under a blanket and Momma is reading a book and I have a book open with pictures so Jacob can look at them too if he wants, but I ain’t in the mood for making up a story for him and I only want to look at the pictures just now.
There’s a thumping on the porch and I know Daddy is stomping his boots to get something off them since Momma do get on us for tracking the outside to the inside. That makes her have to do everything twice a day instead of once and she don’t like that too well. I take that as a good sign, that Daddy doesn’t want to upset Momma with his trackin’s. He comes inside and has a big scratch on his arm.
His clothes are rumpled a little more than usual and there’s a smell on him like wood dust and the outside, and his hands is covered in grease. He looks at us all on the couch and says “I done it, and I done tested it, and I done like what you all wanted. I tinkered with a few things and got a mighty scratch for my troubles and I hope I ain’t get too infected.” For now, Daddy was looking for someone to say ‘poor Daddy’ so he could get some attention. Momma knows the game just as I do, only she’s been playing it for so long that she gets tired of it, but this time she knows that playing the part is going to go further than not.