Wireman

CHAPTER 1

Bloomington, Texas

^{Summer 1960}

TEN-YEAR-OLD Nick Ringer walked along the railroad tracks. Sunlight flashed from the worn, glittering metal and brought tears to his eyes. Everything was so bright and dry. The town looked as bleached and pale as Mama’s sheets.

He used a pine branch to sweep a path for his bare feet. Little red stones rolled aside and stickers clung to the sappy needles. Finding an anthill taller than the rail it hugged, Nick stopped and listlessly annihilated the colony until there was nothing left but a small heap of tan dirt.

He might as well go home. There was a chance his brother Daley would play with him now. Being two years younger, Daley liked his comic books more than the lure of aimless wandering, but sometimes when the day cooled he could be talked into improbable adventures.

Nick kicked a tin can, sending it bumping across the dusty street. Daley was dumb. Who needed him?

Passing his neighbor’s house, Nick saw Eileen sitting on the front steps.

“I’ve got two BB guns,” he called. “Wanna go shoot the cows out back?”

“Nah. It’s too hot to shoot cows,” Eileen replied listlessly.

Nick sauntered across the ditch, dragging his branch, and stood before her. She wore butter-yellow shorts and a white cotton top. Her brown legs glistened as if covered by a sheen of silver. Nick squinted, trying to determine if the mirage was real. It wasn’t. Blond hairs created the silvery veil that disappeared beneath the cuff of her shorts.

He straightened up, throwing back his shoulders, and smiled shyly. “Let’s do something.”

“Do what?”

Uh-oh, there she was talking through her nose again.

“I don’t know what, yet. Let’s go see,” Nick said, moving toward the backyard.

Eileen followed him resentfully. She too was bored with the long summer day. Nick Ringer was not her friend, but there was a chance he might find something for them to do together: He was shabbily dressed in chocolate-brown pants that had holes in the knees and a rip in the seat. Eileen studied the rip and the dingy white material of his underwear. She repressed a giggle.

The Texas sun continued to beat down on the two children. Nick sized up the possibilities in Eileen’s backyard and pointed to the metal T-bar of the clothesline. “We’ll swing. You go first.”

Eileen threw back her shoulders and strode past him. There wasn’t a boy in the neighborhood who could outdo her. The T-bar was baby play. Already she had mastered swinging from the top poles of the Garcias’ swing set next door—a heart-stopping maneuver that held her fourteen feet above the ground.

Nick bowled an empty milk carton into a pile of trash, then sat down on the thick grass and crossed his legs. Eileen jumped, caught the left side of the hot bar, and let out a loud whoosh until her hands got used to the heat. She hoisted her legs up through her arms. She dropped, swinging free. She blinked at Nick in his upside-down squat and said, “Ha-ha, this is easy.”

“You do it pretty good. But you’re a tomboy.”

“So what? Lots of girls are tomboys. I can beat you at anything. You’re just an old hobo anyway,” Eileen taunted.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Hobo, hobo. You wear pants with holes in ’em and I can see your panties.”

Nick dropped his gaze and wiped sweat from his forehead. Eileen was bad. She was meaner than a horny toad. He frowned, scooted closer, and almost grabbed her long pigtails.

“Boys don’t wear panties,” he said. “And I don’t have any nice clothes.”

“That’s one sorry excuse.”

“Shut up.” Nick felt like growling.

“That’s what my mom says about your mom. ‘She’s one sorry excuse for a human bean.’ That’s what she says.”

The bushes rattled at the edge of Eileen’s yard and Nick turned to see his brother struggling through.

“What y’all doing?” Daley asked, shading his eyes with one hand as he joined them.

“I’m swinging by my legs, stupid.” Eileen made a face. She felt sweat bunching up behind her knees and their grip on the T-bar was beginning to slip. She reached up, caught the bar with both hands, and dropped to the ground. The world came upright, spinning.

“We could go shoot cows,” Nick suggested. His voice was softer, less defensive now that his brother was present. He was considering either ganging up on Eileen or forgiving her. She was mean but pretty—a terrible combination in a girl.

“I don’t shoot cows, no way. My mama says you only do that ’cause something’s wrong with you. You’re not supposed to hurt things. ” Her clenched fists rested on her waistline and she gave Nick the benefit of her sternest face, the one usually reserved for little kids who didn’t know better.

“You’re lying about what your mama says,” Nick challenged.

Daley backed away from the two older children and waited for the big argument. He noticed the look on Nick’s face and knew it was going to be a wingding if Eileen did not shut up.

“I am not lying, Nick Ringer. My mama did say those things and she’s smart. It’s crazy to hurt things, that’s what it is.”

“Nobody’s crazy.” Nick glanced at Daley for support and saw him shrug his shoulders and shake his head, retreating from the fight.

“Hurting’s crazy and you’re crazy. Everyone says so,” Eileen insisted.

Nick stared hard at her. The sun was so bright behind her back she was in silhouette, her face in shadow.

Indignation brought spots of color to her cheeks. She swung her braids around to the front of her blouse and pulled at them with both hands. She was a scraper—a fierce, hard ten-year-old girl. If he ever tangled with Eileen, he would have to break her arm to make her cry uncle. He began to smile at the thought.

“What’re you laughing at?” Eileen asked. She looked to Daley for confirmation that Nick was crazy and stupid and needed a whipping. “What’s he laughing at?” she asked Daley.

“Maybe I am crazy.” Nick spoke softly, quietly. “Maybe I howl at the moon and eat dead babies.” Eileen shivered. Suddenly she did not want to taunt Nick. She wanted to go indoors and get a glass of Kool-Aid with lots of ice in it.

“Well, Miss Snot, what ya got to say to that?” Nick was pleased at the uncertainty in Eileen’s face. “Don’t I howl at the moon and eat dead babies, Daley?”

Nice and Eileen’s attention focused on Daley, who glanced up from beneath thick brown lashes and made a timid motion with his hand. They could see he was not agreeing with anyone.

“Why don’t you go home, Nick?” Eileen took a step toward her house and stopped. “I can’t play with you. Mama said so. If she looks out the window and sees you here, she’ll run you off.”

“Can’t nobody run me off ’lessen I want to go.”

Eileen squenched her eyes and thought furiously. What would it take to make him leave the yard? “Your feet are always dirty.”

Nick laughed, throwing his head back with dramatic flair.

“Your hair needs cutting and I bet you’ve got lice,” Eileen tried.

Nick stopped laughing and stepped closer, his look menacing.

“I bet you’re retarded.” Eileen knew she was losing ground, but she could not give up. She also knew she was being unduly cruel, but her mouth just kept going.

Nick moved closer. Daley coughed behind a fist and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Now y’all…” he whined.

“I bet your mom’s what they say.” Now Eileen was desperate.

“What do they say?” The tone of Nick’s voice was like a slap.

“That she’s a… a… whore!”

Nick closed his eyes and clenched his fists. He hated Eileen. Older children had said that word to him before. But never someone his own age. Most ten-year-olds did not know what “whore” meant. Eileen knew too much and said too much.

Eileen suddenly hopped out of Nick’s range. She was scared. She had made him mad, but she really had not wanted to go that far. Yet he stood between her and the house, between her and something cool to drink. He was awful. A bully. She vowed silently never to speak to him again.

“You should run away from home, you’re so stupid,” she said. “I watched you Saturday. You didn’t know. You were squeezing a frog and kept on till he was squished dead. I saw you!”

That was it. The last of her ammunition against Nick. The memory of Saturday’s kill scared her. It had taken a long time for the frog to die. When Nick had dropped it to the ground he had walked away in a daze.

Eileen had told no one what she saw. There was something horrible about Nick Ringer that she would never be able to get across to adults, something worse than even they imagined.

Nick looked up at the saffron sky and took slow, deep breaths. He heard his brother stalking toward the bordering bushes to return home. Nick slid his gaze sideways and saw Daley disappear into the leafy branches. He turned abruptly and left the yard, following Daley.

Eileen stood rooted to the spot, amazed Nick had given in. She heard their back door slam shut. Trembling and sweaty, feeling guilty about the name-calling, Eileen raced for her house and stayed inside the remainder of the day. Even her mother’s yelling could not induce her to go outdoors again.

That night when the moon rode high across the night sky, Nick slipped from his bed, went out the back door quietly, and crossed into Eileen’s yard.

He sat in the damp grass at the base of the T-bar and watched his neighbor’s back steps. The adults in both houses had been in bed for hours. A few minutes later the bushes rustled and Daley stepped through.

Silently, he walked to where Nick sat and hunched down, rocking back on his heels.

“What’s going on?” Daley asked.

“I thought you were asleep. I heard you snoring.”

“I woke up when you left,” the younger boy explained.

He wiped his nose though it did not need it and glanced at the blanket of stars overhead. “What are you going to do?” His eyes combed the heavens as if he did not care what the answer might be. It did not really matter to him anyway.

“I’m gonna string up her cat,” Nick said calmly.

Daley slowly turned to his brother. He sucked in his breath, counted to ten, and let it out again. “What for?” he asked.

“Because she deserves it.”

“You’ll get whipped for that. We both might. ”

“I don’t care. I’m gonna do it.”

Daley rocked back and forth in the grass. Dampness soaked through his jeans and made him shiver.

“How’re you gonna string it up?” he asked cautiously.

“With this.” Nick dipped his right hand into his pocket and withdrew a three-foot length of thin wire.

Daley looked quickly away. He licked his dry lips. “Shingles is like her baby doll. She’ll cry.”

“I know.” Nick smiled softly.

“Maybe you shouldn’t do it,” Daley suggested.

“She called me names.”

“You called her names too. We all do that. I don’t care what they call us anymore, do you?”

There was a long silence before Nick replied. “Yeah, I care. I care a lot.”

It was nearly dawn before the kitten straggled out from beneath Eileen’s house, meowing as it climbed the cement steps. Eileen loved the motley tabby kitten obsessively. She carried it everywhere with her—on her shoulders, in her bicycle basket. She sometimes dressed it in doll clothes and crooned lullabies until it fell asleep in her arms. She would have slept with Shingles if her parents had permitted it. Nick knew all about Eileen and Shingles.

Daley had fallen into a light doze. When Nick moved stealthily to the begging kitten, his brother woke up and watched. Nick scooped up the gray-black ball of fur and cupped his hand over its mouth. He carried it to the clothesline.

“Come on, Nick. Don’t do it, huh?” Daley pleaded as he stood up.

“Shut up,” Nick hissed, his concentration ebbing.

He pulled the wire from his pocket. The noose slipped into place around the small furry neck. The kitten did not have a chance to protest. Its tiny body swung gently by the thin wire from the arm of the clothesline’s T-bar. It stared into the night, not seeing, its tongue lolling like a fat worm from its pink mouth. Nick studied the corpse closely for signs of life. After a lingering look at Eileen’s house, he went to his house without speaking to Daley.

The younger boy followed, a hangdog sadness bowing his youthful body into that of a stunted old man.

Eileen’s parents discovered the kitten after breakfast. They called Nick’s mother into their yard to see Shingles hanging by the wire noose, the stiffened body an incomprehensible warning swaying in the summer breeze.

They did not have any proof, of course, they made that perfectly clear, but everyone knew Nick was the culprit. Even his mother knew it. Eileen had accused him, turning her reddened eyes away when he was led into the yard, his head unbowed.

No one was able to coerce Nick into admitting guilt. His mother beat him for three nights with a wide leather belt, but the punishment seemed useless. Then Daley was beaten, the belt digging deep and raising half-inch welts on his legs and back, but there was no betrayal.

Nick later confided to his brother. “It didn’t hurt much.”

“Well, it hurt me. I can’t sit down or sleep on my back,” Daley complained.

“You could’ve told on me. I didn’t care. I was gonna get a whipping for it anyway.”

Daley shrugged and quick tears came to his eyes. “Oh, I didn’t care. It didn’t hurt that bad.” He paused and considered his next statement. “I don’t think you really had to kill Shingles, though, Nick. It was a pretty kitten.”

“It was just a dumb stupid cat. It was supposed to die.”

“Okay, Nick, it’s all right. Don’t get mad,” Daley said quickly.

“I’m not mad. Not at you.”

Nick leaned over and hugged his brother.

“Nick?” Daley said after an amiable silence.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t do it anymore, okay? I don’t want you to do that anymore.”

Nick walked away from Daley, unable to make a promise he expected he would have to break.

Deep down inside he knew it would happen again.

And again.

The kitten’s death was simply the beginning.