The driver took my ticket and told me to find a seat as he put the bus in gear. It lurched off to the beginning of what would end up being a trip that seemed like it lasted forever. Once we got out of town the road started that led back down the mountain my mother had driven up

But this time there wasn’t as much to look at, ‘cause the trees didn’t go up to the sky anymore. You see, as soon as we would reach a forest the tops of the trees that hung over the road would disappear as we drove under them like they were being cut off by the front window of the bus and landing back on the forest floor. I thought about trying to turn around so I could see if the window really did cut them off. But I knew it really wasn’t happening so I didn’t.

What I did notice again were all the houses. The cold weather made them look even more broken down than before. Most of the ones I said didn’t have any windows now had scrap pieces of wood nailed over the space where the window used to be. But there were a couple that didn’t have anything or just a piece of an old cardboard box covering the space.

The thing that got to me the most were the kids I saw who were my age or even younger walking around outside with practically nothing on, even though it had to be close to freezing out. Their bodies were dirty and the clothes they did have on were all torn and filthy like they’d never been washed.

But you know every time the bus passed they always stopped what they were doing and waived, which to me seemed to be a big cover up ‘cause the look on there face said please stop and take me with you.

So you know what I did? I started waiving back. Most of the time we were driving by so fast I didn’t know if they even saw me. But one time we were going through this town where the road was real narrow. The bus had to go so slow that I could get a good look at the kids that were waiving as we past.

I waived to this one boy who kinda reminded me of Rufus. He got this shocked look on his face like nobody had ever waived back before. It took a few seconds but just as his staring face was about to move from my window to the one behind me he smiled. It made me feel so good inside I started to cry a little. I swear if the bus window had of opened I would have tried to reach him and pull him in. I bet we would have had so much fun riding the rest of the way to Baltimore. Maybe I could have talked Major Leonard into giving him a scholarship to Hayward. I could tell he was smart just by the way he smiled. You know how you can tell certain things about a person just by the way they look. And you know what else I could tell? He was just like me, if you know what I mean.

 I got a better look at those little shacks the houses all had behind them. I could see them better this time ‘cause there no leaves on the trees that they usually sat behind. A couple of the doors were open and as we drove by I could see this wooden box that had a hole cut in the top where you must of sat. I thought about that boy in the town with the narrow street and wonder what it must have been like for him to have to go in one of those little shacks.

I started to feel so sad that I decided to try to go to sleep so I could forget about all of this for awhile. And you know what happened? I had one of those dreams again only this time it was about that boy in the town with the narrow street. I really wanted to get off the bus and run as fast as I could back up the mountain to meet him. But I knew I couldn’t so I just slept some more.

When I finally got off the bus the first thing I needed to do was take a piss. I’d been holding it since that guy woke me up and you know how long ago that had been. I found the men’s room but you know I couldn’t help but think about that boy back in the town with the narrow street and how he had to go in that shack. I bet I thought about him every time I had to go for at least a couple of months. I don’t know what it was I just couldn’t get him off my mind. I kept on seeing him wave and then that smile he gave me just before he disappeared to the window behind me.

I even was thinking that maybe one day I’d figure out what town he lived in and go back there and see him. But I never did and then I don’t know why but I just forgot about him, at least for awhile.

I stopped mucking out the stall when I heard the sound of the truck tires spitting up gravel when they made the sharp left hand turn by the old springhouse and came to a lurching stop in front of the barn. I watched from just inside the barn door as this kid about my age got out of the passenger’s side of Mr. Grant’s truck. I guess he must be who Mr. Grant was bringing to help me with the work around the farm.

He looked kinda raggedy with a red and gray plaid flannel shirt that was faded from one too many washings, which he wore pulled out over top a pair of dirty blue jeans whose cuffs hung over an even dirtier pair of scuffed up brown boots. He saw me watching him and didn’t say a word as he shook his scruffy crop of brown hair to the side so it wasn’t covering his blue eyes, which were blank like they had nothing to say either. He turned around and reached inside the cab of the truck and took out his designer luggage. Two brown paper sacks with the letters A&P printed on them. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna like him or not as I made sure my blue oxford cloth shirt was tucked neatly inside the waistband of my khakis and my freshly polished paddock boots were not too dirty from the work I had been doing. 

All I knew about him was he was from Southern Maryland and his family were tenant farmers and didn’t want him around anymore. He was coming up here because he needed a job and a place to live and Mr. Grant was able to give him both. There was something else too... I couldn’t figure it out at first. I just knew I felt all funny inside like there was something about this kid that was important.

There was a big cage in the bed of the truck. I had never seen anything like it before and wasn’t sure what was inside until Josh, that’s this kid’s name, walked around and climbed up in the bed.

  Jake was a big Black and Tan Coonhound and when Josh opened up the door to his crate he let out that baying sound that a hound dog makes. It was music to my ears. I started to like Josh better already and walked out of the barn and over to the side of the truck just as he jumped out of the bed and picked up the two A&P bags. “You stay in that truck, you hear!”

“Hi, my names Rodney.” He still had that blank look on his face.

“Josh.” As he opened the door to the tack room where he’d be sleeping and I followed him in.

“I like your dog.” That seemed to be the right thing to say as a smile came over his face and that’s when I knew. That’s when I knew what was bugging me inside. He was the kid. The kid that waved and smiled at me in the town with the narrow streets!

I must have had a strange look on my face like I was gonna cry or something. “What’s a matter with you?”

“You’re h-h-h-i-m-m-m,” I couldn’t get the words out. He got this stern look on his face and was opening his mouth to deny anything I said. “Y-y-o-o-u waved to m-m-m-e-e…” I got myself together and took a deep breath before I started to explain.

I asked him if he ever lived in Virginia.

“Yeah.”

I had to pause again. It took me awhile to get started but once I told him about me going to Hilltop and getting thrown out for beating up a kid and a teacher and the bus ride and me waving he remembered and got real interested in the rest of my story about how I thought about him a bunch of times ‘cause he had to live in that crappy town with the narrow streets and the broken down houses with the shacks in the back where you had to go to take a piss or anything else.

We just stood there and stared at each other for what seemed like a long time, even though it was only about a minute.

“You do any coon hunting?”

“No. But I’d like to.” He told me then about how things were in Southern Maryland and that he hunted just about every evening. He wanted to know if I knew anything about the woods around here and if I’d ever seen any raccoons. I told him about the woods out just beyond the main pasture and that I ridden horses over there but never seen any raccoons.

“We’ll give them a try tonight. Can you go?”

“Yeah, sure!” Sounded good to me ‘cause since it was a Saturday I could stay out late. That was all we pretty much said for the rest of the day. We just worked together around the farm and kinda looked at each other like we knew we’d found a friend.

In this part of the early fall it didn’t get dark until around eight o’clock; so, I waited until around seven thirty to drive back out to the farm. I had gotten my driver’s license over the summer and bought this old Chevrolet pick-up for five hundred dollars. It was so cheap because it didn’t have power steering and nobody wanted it. But I didn’t care and figured it was good exercise for my arms, ‘cause some of the horses Mr. Grant put me on pulled real hard.

Miss Lawrence did ask me where I was going. When I told her she gave me one of those looks not like a mother would, but like another kid who thought I was up to more than coon hunting. I knew she was right and gave her that innocent boyish grin.

“Rodney, be careful.”

She’s so cool. I wonder how many other kid’s mothers would have said that.

When I got to the farm I met Josh and Jake out in front of the barn.

“Rodney, why did you beat up that kid and the teacher at Hilltop?”

I wondered why he hadn’t asked me before. I might as well get the truth out before this goes any further. “’Cause I’m queer.”

He stared at me for what seemed like a long time moving his eyes up and down my profile. When he paused at the front of my pants I knew. I knew I was right about him being just like me. He was different the same way I was. We had that common bond.

Nothing more was said as I led the way through the pasture and climbed the board fence that was just on the outer edge of the woods. Josh followed and even though it was dark I could tell by the way I heard Jake sniff the air he was anticipating a good run.

We did have flashlights and I shone mine into the trees looking for the break in the woods and the path I had ridden down so many times on horseback. Jake ran ahead to the very end of the lights beam and showed us the opening we were looking for.

His yelp was short each time he picked up a scent. Like a fresh idea that is written down until the writer has a story finished. Jake was using each scent to lead him to his goal. I learned something else that night too. Jake’s way of hunting was about life. I needed to be like him and piece each event together to be guided on my path.

  I looked over at Josh when he said, “Listen to him he’ll lets us know. Each time the cry gets a little longer he’s getting closer. Sit down here on this log and listen. We’ll know.”

  We sat together on that log with our pant legs and our boots touching, and the full moon shinning down through the trees and listened to Jake. I felt something inside that night. Listening to the baying that dog was making and when I looked at Josh I knew I’d found somebody who understood me, what was going on inside, even though we never said a word.