Second
Nine Weeks

Chapter Twenty-One: Luke

I've been thinking about it and thinking about it, so a couple of weeks ago I asked Granddaddy if he would take me hunting. He told me he had never hunted, and I said I knew that, but that I had taken a hunter safety class in eighth grade and passed the class (you can bet I studied for that class and aced the test). And all I needed was a licensed adult to take me hunting, and he could take a hunting safety class online, and we could go. Then Granddaddy said what are you going to hunt with, and I told him I had been thinking about that, too, and maybe he could give me my Christmas present early—a crossbow. I told him I had read online about Parker Thunderhawk crossbows, and that maybe that bow could count as both my Christmas present and my 15^th birthday present for next year.

Granddaddy laughed and said he could do all that, but we still didn't have a place to go. And I told him that I ride my bike around a lot and that a neighborhood about a half mile from our house had all these houses on like five-acre lots, and there's this wooded hillside with a creek behind all those houses, and I had seen the deer coming out of the woodlot into those backyards in the evenings, and maybe some of those people would let me hunt with a crossbow in their backyards. Granddaddy laughed again and said okay, and then I said I needed one more thing and that was a popup blind to put in one of those backyards, so the deer couldn't see us or smell us so easily. Granddaddy said he would try to find one at the flea market or a used one on eBay.

Granddaddy asked had I asked my dad about all that, and I said no, that he was angry or working most of the time, and I already knew that his answer would be no. That Dad had always said no when I asked him to take me fishing, and that I was going to ask my granddaddy first about taking me hunting. Granddaddy then told me he had been meaning to have a serious talk with me for a long time and now was as good as any. He said that he did not raise Dad to be the way he is, and they had had some arguments about me. Then he asked me how much I knew about what happened with Dad when I was seven. I said I knew a little.

When I was seven, the police came to our house one night and arrested Dad. Mom was shaking, Dad was angry but he wasn't doing much talking back to the police, and I was scared. Mom has never worked except to help Dad with his cars, and Mom kept asking after the cops took Dad away where we were going to get money to pay the bills. Later, I asked Mom why the police had arrested Dad, and she said that they had accused him of being a part of a stolen car parts ring, a chop shop she called it. That my father would beat the charge in court. Dad didn't have to go to prison after the trial; he always has bragged to me that he "beat the rap," that he was too smart for the cops. So I guess that means he was guilty but the police couldn't pin the crime on him.

Granddaddy said I knew more than he thought I did, and then he asked if I knew about the family curse that the men had. I said I wasn't sure, and Granddaddy said that the men in our family had a problem with alcoholism. I told him that Mom had made me promise over and over ever since I was 12 that I would never drink alcohol, and I had promised her I wouldn't, and I never had tried it like some of the guys in school had...that I would keep that promise to Mom forever. He said that was a good promise to make, and he told me to keep it, too. Then Granddaddy teared up, and he said he had been a drunk and had only stopped drinking when I was born, that he vowed to Grandmother that I would never see him drink or drunk, and he had always kept that promise to Grandmother and me. He said Mom had made Dad stop drinking not long after they had gotten married, and that he had told her he would and he had kept that promise to Mom. I knew that Mom never allowed any alcohol in the house and that she never even used any to cook with, but I didn't know about the other stuff.

Granddaddy said "now you do," and that he would buy me the crossbow for Christmas and as my birthday present and take care of the blind...but that it was up to me to find somewhere to hunt and then he would take me hunting. I told him I would get on it right away. I wanted to ask Granddaddy if Dad was still doing illegal things, but I was afraid to...that the answer might be yes. Dad talks all the time about me dropping out after high school and working with him with the cars, but I don't want to work for him. I worry that he would do something shady, and I would get arrested along with him. If I ever find somebody to marry me and we have kids, I am never, ever going to do something illegal and have the police arrest me and have my kids see their dad hauled away.

The very next day after school, I rode my bike to the neighborhood; it's the same one where Elly lives. I stopped at her house first, and she answered the door when I rang the bell. She had this really surprised look on her face when she opened the door, then she smiled at me...that smile that she smiles to everyone. She just takes my breath away when she smiles at me. I tried not to stutter about why I was there and managed to get out that I wanted to talk to her dad. He was pretty gruff when I asked him to hunt and he said no. Then I took off and visited three more houses; the first two said no, but the third man said, sure come on over.

As soon as my crossbow comes, I'm going to practice with it every morning after I go running before school. I'm going hunting for deer with my granddaddy...how awesome is that!