Hard Row

She was supposed to be working and the kid had her car

until it was time to pick her up after work, but since we

don’t know precisely when Mitchiner went missing, it’s

possible that she dropped the boy off somewhere and

went on to the nursing home. Here, need some help

with that?”

I had pulled my sweater over my head and a lock of

hair was caught in the back zipper.

He gently worked it free and then one thing led to

another.

As it usually does.

(Ping!)

250

C H A P T E R

28

For us, it has truly seemed that each day dawned upon a

change.

—Profitable Farming in the Southern States, 1890

% Cal’s emotional meltdown the night before must

have cleared his system because he was in a cheer-

ful mood the next morning and no longer seemed to be

resentful about missing Monday night’s game. He let

Bandit out for his morning run without being asked

and only had to be reminded once to take off his Canes

cap at the table. He laid a pad and pencil beside his ce-

real bowl and asked me to tell him the names of all my

brothers, beginning with Robert—“He said I could call

them Uncle Robert and Aunt Doris”—so that he could

write them down and start getting them straight.

“They could be a whole baseball team with two relief

pitchers,” he marveled and was intrigued to hear that

one of the little twins—Adam—lived in California. “Is

he near Disneyland? Could we go visit him sometime?”

It was sunshine after rain.

I was due for an oil change, so I left when he and

Dwight went to meet the schoolbus and drove over to

leave my car at Jimmy White’s. Jimmy’s been my mechanic

251

MARGARET MARON

ever since I took the curve in front of his garage too fast

shortly after getting my driver’s license a million years

ago. He pulled it out of the ditch, replaced the front

fender, and let me pay him on time without telling my

parents, although he did threaten to tell his uncle who

was a state trooper if I didn’t take my foot off the gas

pedal once in a while. Gray-haired now and starting to

slow down a little, he’s turning more and more of the

heavy work over to his son James. Back then, it was

just Jimmy and one bay. Today it was Jimmy, James,

and two employees and the one bay had become three.