Me, Joe, and TJ played ball for quite a while. TJ tossed to me, then I threw it to Joe from my spot on the porch. Then Joe tossed it over to TJ. It was all right fun, I guess. But my bandaged feet kept me from getting really into it. And then whenever I missed the ball I had to crawl all over the porch to get it back. My knees were getting powerful sore by the end of a half an hour.

“Let’s do somethin’ else.”

“Like what?” TJ asked. “You can’t do much taped up the way ya are.”

I looked at the swing still dangling from the old oak. I was glad it wasn’t the same tree Hoove was tied to. It’d make swinging unbearable if it had been.

“Let’s swing around the tree.”

“No way,” Joe grouched. “You can’t even walk. Chief’d have a sure fit if he caught you up there.”

“C’mon Joe. It’d be fun. I wouldn’t even have to step on my feet. Y’all could carry me over there and put me on the swing.”

“What happens when you lose control and mangle into the tree?” Joe asked.

“I’ll keep my feet out of it.”

“You can’t do that and steer, Kel.”

“I can to. I’ll just lean. I can do it, Joe. C’mon, please.”

“I know I’m gonna regret this,” Joe said putting down his mitt. “Help me out here, TJ.” 

Joe and TJ picked me up and carried me over to the swing. They got me seated without any fuss. Then Joe and TJ wrapped me around the tree until I sat above their heads.

“On three, TJ,” Joe said and started counting. “One...Two...Three!”

They gave me a shove and I started to unwrap. The rope pulled straight out. I tucked my legs under the swing to keep my feet from hitting the tree. The swing whipped faster until it began to wind back up.

“Stop me Joe!” I yelled to keep from banging into the tree bark. “Stop me!”

Joe rushed in and grabbed me by the ankles. The swing stopped too fast and jerked me into the tree where I split the bark with my head. It was a good thing too, my head is the hardest thing I own.

“You okay?” Joe asked. “This is a stupid idea!” he finished up with, just as Chief came running from the porch.

“Joe! Stop that immediately!”  Chief ran across the yard and was at Joe’s side a split second later. “What the hell do you kids think you’re doing!”

I winced. Chief was really mad.

I gulped some air in before saying, “But Chief it was my idea. Don't be mad at them.”

He looked at me, the fire still in his eyes. “I knew it was your idea, Kelly, but that does not excuse your brother. I expect a little more common sense from him.” Chief turned on Joe. “Well?”

“She was bored with catch–”

“Of course she was!” Chief 's voice was low and deep, and it made the ground tremble. “She wasn’t hanging out a window!”

Ouch.

“Come on down from there, Kelly.” He reached up to me and I slid into his arms. 

Joe’s face was deep shade of red. I looked over at TJ who was even redder than Joe. It didn’t seem possible, but there it was.

Chief carried me back to the porch and set me on the steps again. He looked at me, a little too sharply. “You are to stay put, young lady. If you want off these steps, call for me. I’m just inside.” He turned to Joe. “I want you to watch your sister, Joe. No more of those stunts.”

“Yes, sir.”

The door to the den opened up and Peter came out to get TJ.

“Pa says we have to leave, Teej. You got chores at home.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“Hurry, huh?”

TJ nodded to him. Chief, who was watching them, turned back to me. “Billy has something he’d like to ask you, honey. I’ll send him out.”

“I didn’t know he was here.”

“They just arrived.”

I nodded and watched him go inside. “Joe, I’m sorry I got you into trouble. I really am.”

He looked real tired when he looked at me. “It’s okay, sis. I knew it was a stupid idea and went along. It’s my fault.”

He smiled. “I had two whole weeks of nothing crazy. I guess I missed it.”

At that I smiled. “Ya missed me, huh?”

He nodded.

“I guess I’d better get,” TJ said.

“I’m glad ya could come over TJ, even if it was just for a little while. You comin’ over tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sure. Maybe Joe and I could stick ya in that chair of yours and wheel ya to the fishin’ hole.”

“Sounds like a safe idea,” Joe said, “but I think we’d better ask Chief first.”

TJ smiled. “That’s a good idea too. I’ll see ya all tomorrow.”

“See ya TJ,” Joe said.

“Bye, Teej,” I told him.

Joe sat down next to me and leaned against the porch beam. “Now what do you want to do?”

“We could play checkers. I don’t think even Chief would care if we did that.”

“I’ll get them.”

Billy came out just after Joe left. He had a big smile that stretched all the way across his face. He walked over to me on the steps and sat down next to me.

“Hiya, Billy. What’s goin’ on? Chief said ya wanted to ask me somethin’.”

Billy nodded.

“What is it?”

Billy told me his question with his hands. He wanted to give me a new dog. He went about it but I stopped listening once I figured that much out. I felt my face grow warm. There was no way anyone could take Hoove’s place. No way. I’d be a traitor to Hoove if I let another dog into his place at the foot of my bed and in my heart. How could Billy even think I’d want to forget Hoove that way?

“Billy, no!” I yelled at him. He stopped his talking and his hands fell to his sides. “I can’t do that. Hoove was special. Ya just don’t forget dogs like Hoove! Ya just don’t replace ‘em. How could you even say such things?” I felt the tears start. “Go away! Ain’t no dog that can take Hoove’s place!”

Billy didn’t go anywhere. He just looked at me. I felt his eyes go through me. His eyes, too, started to water. Then he started talking with his hands.

“What do you mean?” I asked when he told me that the dog wouldn’t be in Hoove’s place. Billy reached over and touched my chest with his hand flat out. Then he touched his own. He made a second move with both arms wide open.

“I never thought of it that way,” I let him know. He made his sign for his pa and all their dogs and I finally got what he was saying. No other dog would take Hoove’s place, but that doesn’t mean that there is no place for another dog here. Chief was now out a good hunting dog. And it would be selfish of me to turn down the dog from Billy. Sure, it would remind me of Hoove, but that didn’t mean that remembering Hoove was a bad thing. Billy said I had a big heart. Just like he and his pa. There was room to love another dog like they loved all their dogs. The new pup wouldn’t be taking Hoove’s place at all. I’d only have to make it a place of its own to be. That’s all.

I looked at Billy for a long time. “Thank you Billy.” I smiled for him. “I’ll take him. There’s room, you’re right.”

Billy smiled big and open. His white teeth showed brightly in the sunlight. But not near as bright as his pale blue eyes. He reached over and hugged me real tight.

“I love you Billy,” I let him know.

He pulled away to stare at me.

“What’s the matter?” I asked him.

Billy opened his mouth part way. I could see his tongue roll along the top. Spit came out at the corners as he worked his jaw.

He added breath to the working. “Ah.” he said. It was a wet ‘I’, thick and deep in his throat. “Love...yau...t-t-too.”

I looked at him hard, my own jaw loose; my eyes too far open. In the kitchen I heard Coach screaming, “Did you hear that! Did’ja hear! He spoke! My boy spoke!”

Billy turned to the window, then we both laughed and waited for Coach to come running out onto the porch.

“You’re a little rusty, Billy,” I said, “but keep practicing and you’ll be talking up a storm in no time.”

Billy smiled. I smiled back, just as Coach came out of the house.

“Billy, son,” he said stopping in front of Billy. Billy stood and they hugged much the way they did at the courthouse after Billy’s trial. I thought for sure they would squish the life from each other the way they wrapped their arms around each other so tightly.

I waited until they were through before asking Billy where my dog was.

He looked at his pa, then back at me. He mouthed the word first, rolling his tongue. Then he added a breath of air. “Trrwuck.”

Billy smiled. “Truck.”

Coach looked at me. “I don’t know what kind of magic you possess, child,” he said, “but you are a blessing to my boy.”

My ears got warm and scalp tingled. “I didn’t do nothin’, Coach. Billy did it all.”

Coach nodded. He smiled at me. “But you made him want to.” He turned to Billy. “Why don’t you fetch the pup, son?”

Billy nodded and left the porch. 

“I’m glad you decided to take the puppy, Kelly. You and your father have done a lot for Billy and me. But this is not given out of gratitude. Billy really wanted you to have this puppy. It was that important to him. As it was to me.”

“I sure appreciate it too, Coach, sir.”

“I hope you get well real soon, child. I still need a shortstop.”

At that I smiled. “Chief said you were holding that open for me.”

“I wouldn’t think of anyone else playing that position.”

“I’ll be out of the bandages by next week.”

“If everything checks out then I’ll see you at practice next Saturday.”

“You will, sir.”

Coach smiled. He messed up my hair before leaving the porch.

“What took you so long?” I asked Joe when he finally came back out with the checkerboard.

“Chief made me wait while you and Billy talked. I’m glad you took the pup, Kel.”

“You don’t think it’s being a traitor to Hoover?”

“Nuh-uh. It’s just giving another dog the good home he had. That’s all.” Joe lowered his voice and moved in close. “Besides, that would be like saying Chief is a traitor to our mother. Do you think he forgot about her the minute he married Miss Elly?”

“No. I don’t think he could ever forget her. I guess I didn’t think about it that way.”

Joe nodded and started to set up the board between us. Billy came back from around the side of the house. A black puppy followed him. Me and Joe broke off of our game to watch. 

Billy ran ahead of it and it followed at a wobbly trot. Once it tripped, spilling over itself into the grass. A brown leaf blew across its path and it chased it instead of Billy, diving after it when it hit the ground. Once it got its teeth on the leaf, it tore it to ribbons. A second leaf sat on the ground, not two feet away from the pup. The wind pushed at it from underneath, just enough so’s that the leaf sat there rocking. The pup saw it and started after it. He stopped just short of the leaf and watched. Then he started to sneak up on it. Little steps until he wasn’t but three inches away. 

We watched him get real low to the ground. Just as he was ready to crash down on the leaf the wind caught it and blew it right back into the puppy’s face. The pup jumped about two feet into the air backwards. When he landed he took to barking at the leaf. Me and Joe started laughing. 

“What are ya going to name him?” Joe asked me.

“I don’t know,” I said and looked at the pup. Just then Mr. Douglas came out onto the porch. 

“Kelly, darling,” he said at me. I turned to him. “I must be on my way or my wife will sell my belongings. If there is anything you want, you just ask. And if you want to come by the station and visit me, you’re always welcome.”

“Thanks, Mr. Douglas. I will.”

He kissed me good-bye on the top of my head and went back into the house. I remembered the times we had at the filling station when it was his turn to keep me safe from the tiger. He let me help him fix cars and stuff. It was fun. He also taught me how to play cards, especially when his friends showed up. Those times he’d take me into his lap we’d play a game he called poker. We always won, especially when we played Black Jack.

I turned back to the dog that was barking up a storm at Billy who was chasing him in the yard. I smiled and turned to Joe.

“I got it. I’ll call him Black Jack.” 

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