Billy Don't. William OSB Baker
Blair told me you were working. I am so happy for you."
"Right neighborly of you to say so." Mr. Blair was not a man of many words, and he considered Mrs. Baxter's well intended comment to be an invasion of his privacy. Later he would tell his wife, "Ain't £it'n fer neighbors to be know'n our business." He continued on past Mrs. Baxter. "Good ev'ning, Mrs. Baxter." Again the hand was raised to the wide hat brim.
"Good evening, Mr. Blair," Her words were muted. Men, she thought, how silly they are in their senses of pride and guilt.
Mr. Blair walked diagonally across the barren yard to the cement walkway leading to the rear of the house, entered by the back door and hung his hat on a peg on the washroom wall, placed his lunch box on the pantry counter, and moved to his wooden rocking chair in the living room. Mr. Blair, traditionally called Pop by all those who lived in the Blair household, was an unassuming person, quiet in his behavior, but stern and unrelenting in his principles. Never borrow and never lend. Solve your own problems and mind your own business. His standard answer to nearly all situations was, "Stay on your own side of the fence." He was a tall, rather frail man in his daily dress of bibbed overalls and blue cotton work shirt, both of which appeared to be several sizes too large. The years of hard life and suffering showed in his lined and weathered face.
First there had been years of trying to support his growing family of nine children as a farmer in the dust bowl of Oklahoma. Then he made an attempt at lumbering where he suffered the crushing of both legs in a tree felling accident. Now, as a self-taught carpenter, in the years of the Great Depression, with little work to be found and the physical inability to hold a full-time job, he was a spent man without the knowledge or courage to seek new endeavors.
The burdens of caring for the family and finding ways to make ends meet fell to his wife, an evangelistic fanatic, whose reasoning for her often questionable actions stemmed from the fear of God, and the Day of Reckoning. While Mr. Blair's religious beliefs were less dramatic than those of his wife, he did describe himself as a "God fearing man", and together they espoused the damnation preaching’s of their evangelical beliefs. Mrs. Blair was seen differently by different people. To some, she was the champion of the Blair household, giving of herself to the pleasures of the members. To others, she was an uncompromising religious fanatic who bestowed ungodly trepidations upon the household members and all those around her. And to others she was the source of energy behind the Blair's ability to sustain themselves in a time of desperate needs and hardships. In truth, Mrs. Blair was all of those things. Billy often studied Pop as he sat in his rocking chair leaning forward stroking his aching legs in rhythm with the rocking while uttering in barely audible words, "mercy, mercy, mercy, Oh God have mercy." Mr. Blair's eyes would be closed, his face turned skyward, pleading his words. "Oh God, give me mercy, give me mercy." Billy tried to understand his pleading, to gain a sense of feeling, but it was beyond his ability.
Here was Mr. Blair asking for mercy, yet Mrs Blair spoke of God as someone who saw all the bad and made black marks on people's souls. Whatever a soul was.?
Billy did not understand. Billy liked Pop Blair when he would whittle a stick for him or let him turn the crank on the ice cream freezer. At other times he feared Pop Blair for the painful knuckle rap Pop gave him to the top of his head when he was late in bowing his head for the supper prayer or in finishing his meal. When darkness carne Pop Blair would stand, and bless those present before starting his long, painful climb to his bed in the attic. Billy wondered, but never knew why Pop Blair slept in the attic, while Mrs. Blair slept in her own bed on the second floor.
"Clean the chicken coops tomorrow, Billy." This time it was the words of Pop Blair..
The round pot-belly stove which Mrs. Blair perpetually coated with stove blackening was a symbol of friendship to Billy. It was warm and inviting, and smelled good, especially when Mrs. Blair placed two or three coffee beans on the top of the stove where their toasting sent off a satisfying l aroma.
"Go to bed, Billy."
Bedtime was not a friend of Billy's. The angle iron cot he slept on sat just inside and to the left of the bedroom door. It was a small bed compared to the two brass poster double beds used by Mrs. Blair and Eugene.
Randolph, who was becoming known more by Timmy, the name Mrs. Blair had given him, slept in the crib at the foot of Eugene's bed and across the room from Mrs. Blair's bed. The single bare light bulb hung by its electrical cord in the center of the bedroom. During the daytime the ever-present horde of flies would swarm round the hanging cord, landing on it to brush their forelegs before flying off to another destination. The cord was obliterated with the deposits of the flies. From his bed Billy could see tomorrow's pesky population positioned for the night on the electrical cord.
Nightmares came quickly to Billy. Black depths of fear, falling through space, attacking spiders, visions of the Devil, and always the mystical shrouds of black. His nightmares would shock him awake. Down, down, down into the bed. Escape. Under the covers. Hide, hide. Billy was scared. Billy was alone.
CHAPTER FOUR
The tall impenetrable bamboo thicket grew against the high-board fence separating the Blair's smaller garden from the Baxters' garage. In the center of the bamboo thicket, close to the fence, Bax and Billy found a secret hiding place impervious to anyone passing alongside the Blair's house or on the street. Bax had found it while the two of them had been walking the high board fence. Together they devised a circuitous route to the opening in the thicket which would not leave a give-away trail to their most secretive of hiding places.
First they would climb the tree on the Blair's side of the fence, then work their way out upon a limb hanging over the fence and swing down onto the fence. From there they walked the fence, hidden behind the tall bamboo on one side and the Baxter's garage on the other, to where they could see the open ground below them, and jumped down into the perfect hiding place. They returned the same way, each helping the other to scale the tall fence. Never did they leave a path for others to follow.
From their hiding place the boys could watch the comings and goings of the Blair household, knowing they were secure behind the thick stand of bamboo. Not wanting to give away their trusted secret location, Billy and Bax were always quiet when in their secluded hideaway. Seldom did they stay long, since without something to hide from, the self imposed silence soon grew boring.
"Billy. Billlllly. BILLLLY." The call for him to come became louder and louder, then became filled with frustration. "BILLLLLLEEEEEEEEE."
Billy pursed his lips, and placed his forefinger against them indicating to Bax he was to be quiet. Their eyes told each other they were not going to answer Mrs. Blair's calling. Slowly, with the gentleness of a light breeze, Billy parted the bamboo stalks to view the back porch. There with her hands to her mouth stood Mrs. Blair again calling out his name. "BILLLLLLEEEEEEEEE." He looked at Bax. They both laughed. Billy put his hands over his mouth to stifle the sound and rolled on the ground, laughing.
Soon the calling stopped. "You are going to get the razor strap.” She shouted toward the barn, then turned and entered the house.
Again Billy parted the bamboo stalks. "She's gone." The boys sat wiping the wetness of laughter from their eyes, forever satisfied with the security of their hiding place.
"You want some candy?" asked Billy.
"Yeah, sure, but where ya gon,na get it?" Bax asked.
"At the Neville Corner Store."
"You got any money?"
"A nickel." Billy pulled the coin from his pocket, showing it to Bax.
"Geez, where'd ya get it?"
"I took it. Ya wan’na go or not?"
"Ya, I wan’na go, but who'd ya take it from?"
"God."
The reply was curt and hard. Bax knew to leave it alone. Billy faced the tall fence. "Help me up." Billy raised his foot for Bax to place in his hands. Billy jumped, grabbed