Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp

Author:Tim Tharp [Tharp, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-48681-3
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2006-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Sunday morning, a chilly gray mist hung low in the woods where we hunted, Blaine and his dad and me. Somewheres up ahead, they moved on, scaring up quail and talking football, while I lagged back by myself. I used to stick to Blaine and his dad about as tight as the skin on a peach, but lately I was wandering off by myself more and more. There was a deep gully over on the west side of the hunting lease that I liked to go to, and I found me my usual good smooth rock and set down to mull things over.

The gully was full of gold and brown leaves, but there wasn't no wind this early in the morning, so they just laid there still and damp instead of blowing up in curlicues like they done in the afternoon when the wind was up. There was birches and oaks and dogwoods and all sorts of trees out there. Little thorny vines and sticker bushes and blood-red sumac grew along the gully walls. There always was something about this place that cleaned my head out and made me think more clearer, if I could just get alone for a while.

I had a biology teacher this year, Miss Rose, and she was always going on about wildlife conservation. She was practically a nut on it. Sometimes I got to thinking maybe I might ruther do something in that line of work instead of football. I still didn't know what all it took to do it, but if you got to work outside in places like this, then that would suit me just fine.

After what happened out at Wild West Days, I figured the woods was the best place for me. Setting here on my rock with the good smell of the mist in the air and the trees looking down at me like wise old men, I could see how stupid I was. There wasn't no reason in the world for that fight. Sure, them boys needed to know they oughtn't to be talking to another guy's date, and Blaine had every right to make sure they understood we wasn't going to put up with no more knee-spearing from the Okalah Outlaws, but we could've spelled that out plainer than a first-grade reader without swinging fist one.

Truth be told, I was about fed up with myself. I didn't know why I couldn't be more the way I was on the football field out in real life. Like I say, on the field I was about as confident as they come. I'd do my time-freezing deal and see everything that needed doing in a split second. Then I'd walk out of the stadium, and the next thing you know I got Misty Koonce bawling to beat the west wind and Sara Reynolds looking at me like I'm Frankenstein.

Funny thing, though—standing there talking to Sara last night, I really started to feel like I knew what was what. As good as if I was sizing up a third-down-and-five situation with a minute left on the clock.

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