Friday, November 03, 2006

Watertown, Chapter 3, Jack

Jack lay on the flatbed of the truck watching the trees fly by overhead like giant fans brushing the sky. The truck hit a bump, Jack bounced up and laughed out loud. He held onto to Charley. The man in the straw hat looked back over his shoulder checking on Jack.

“You all right back there?” he asked over the roar of the truck’s wheezing engine.“Yeah! O yeah!” Jack yelled back.Jack raised himself up.
A column of dust spewed out from behind the rear tires. Jack couldn’t see the road at all. He stared into the swirling tide of gravel dust, and a word formed on his lips – satori. The truck hit another bump and Jack bounced up again, so he gripped the sides of the truck as best he could. A vision of the girl’s face suddenly appeared to him.

He tried to think of the song she had been singing.

She had to be a displaced person, he thought. In Chicago, the trains were full of them getting out and marveling at the buildings.The truck started to slow and Jack came out of his thoughts. The truck stopped and the driver stuck his head out of the window turning to Jack.“Well, this is it, muttly. The road cuts off here. If you’re fixing to go to Mountain Grove, take the switchback road but damned if I know if anyone has used it since last summer. We took a helluva beating this winter.” “Don’t worry. I know the way.” Jack got out of the truck. Charley jumped out. Jack let him pass and then he swung the tailgate back up. “Thanks for the ride, mister.” Jack slung the rucksack over his shoulder and tried to wave off the dust that was still rising from the road.“You got quite a hike ahead of you there, son.” The man in the straw hat squinted at Jack, “You got people around here?”“Yes, sir. My folks are up there. I just got in. Haven’t been back here in a while.”“Say. I know you. I do know you. Ain’t you Virginia May’s boy?”“Yessir. She's my mother.”“Well, thought you looked familiar. You take care now, and you tell your ma old George Jeffries says ‘hey.’”With that, the truck started up again and the man turned off onto an unpaved dirt road and headed off. Eventually the droning of the engine evaporated into the springtime air. For a brief moment there was utter silence. Then the birds slowly resumed singing. A whippoorwill softly called out. Off in the distance, Jack thought he heard an owlet. It was mid-afternoon. Jack’s stomach rumbled. Charley had sprinted off into the woods to chase something. Jack scratched his nose and laughed at the name he had given the dog.HeJack walked towards a clearing just beyond the line of trees that ringed the road. When he reached it, he sat down and dipped into his rucksack for the other sandwich. He took the sandwich out and sat on the rucksack since the ground was so damp. He un-wrapped the wax paper and eyed the sandwich and took a bite. It was dry. Pretty plain, he thought, but it’ll do. As he bit again into the sandwich, he looked directly up at the sky, now mostly clear and bolt blue. Off to the far west, however just barely above the horizon, Jack noticed boiling clouds the color of dirty snow. “Wow,” Jack thought. He hadn’t seen clouds like that since Pei Lei Lui. These were serious, fast-moving clouds. He could see the anvil shape of the mother cloud starting to form even as he watched. I’m in for a lashing, he said to himself.. Charley suddenly returned, panting hard and rubbing his muzzle against Jack’s leg. Jack split part of what was left of his sandwich and threw it to the dog.Jack finished the sandwich, wiped the crumbs off his chest and rose to his feet. Charley followed. He began to walk along the road, trying to remember how far it was to where the road ran across the little Niangua River. He was thirsty.

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