THE ADVENTURES OF HAP FARR AND HENRY HAWK

“Arnold's a pig's name, a pig's name, a pig's name! I seen it on the TV, Arnold the pig! They called you that 'cause you just grunted, didn't talk till first grade. And you smell like garbage!” When they're mad, sisters say things like that, at least my sister did. For a long time I believed her. I even thought I looked like a pig. My eyes are kind of little and my nose scoops up with a fat end, not all the way turned up like a pig's but still pretty ugly. Mostly I got along with Joleen but she was part of the reason I did what I did. Living in Cleotis, I didn't have a lot of grownups to talk to, and if I talked to strangers, most times they told lies to see if I caught on. I don't know why grownups do that, maybe to show they're smarter than kids, but I already knew that. I got on pretty good at school with my teachers, but after first grade you can't talk to them much or other kids call you goody-goody and teacher's pet. Most teachers just want you to be quiet anyways, so I kept my head down with my nose in a library book. Ever since third grade when Miz Reade showed me, I liked chapter books like Call of the Wild or The Jungle Book or Johnny Tremain, where things happened in far-away places. But then when I wound up with Mrs. Sweet, I decided she was no teacher who would help me. Joleen was fourteen when Mom left, I was going on eleven, and Buddy couldn't walk yet even though he was four. One night Mom drove off in Dad's pickup after we were in bed. They found it at the bus station, but nobody remembered her buying a ticket. I don't remember much about her 'cept that she hummed washing dishes. Sometimes I can still hear that hum but it reminds me I don't know where she is. I figured things just got too much for her around here, so she went off to find a better place, kinda what I did, 'cept I had an idea where I was going. That fall Joleen was going to the consolidated high school, I was going into sixth, and Buddy was almost able to crawl. Mostly he stayed in his crib on his back, looking up at the ceiling. I think he could see, sometimes he looked right at me, but he never turned his head at a noise. After the doctor talked about his “delay,” Mom went off, and Joleen had to change diapers and do laundry. I did lots of cooking like hot dogs or baloney cheese buns. Dad stayed home from work for a while, sat on the couch, not talking 'cept to yell at the TV. He let Buddy slide around on the kitchen floor where he could pull himself along with his arms. Mostly, I liked to go outside with Shep. I let him off his chain and we sat on the back steps, watching birds come and go. Shep's a big dog, all black with a wide head and yellow eyes. Dad said he might be a German shepherd with some Labrador or Rottweiler thrown in, but his ears don't prick up very high. They sort of droop down or go flat on his head and they're real soft when I put my face down beside his. I think he looks like a black wolf I saw once on TV, 'cept his nose isn't so pointy. Most times his tail hangs down, but if he gets worried, it gets stiff and straight with his fur kind of spiky. Then people go round us when they see him. Sometimes I took Shep along if Dad sent me to the store, but next door Miz Beeler'd start hollering about leash laws in that town. She never let her dog out of the yard, a bowlegged, fat, black and white thing with its nose pushed in so far it looked like its eyes were going to pop out. It couldn't breathe right through that nose 'cause when we went by, it waddled up to the picket fence, huffing and snorting. Shep never bothered it though he could have snapped it up in one bite. One time Dad took me and Shep down to fish in the river, and after that he let us go without him. Shep waded in to paddle around and then sniffed at weeds growing along the bank. We sat there, being peaceful, pretending to fish till it got dark. I liked watching the water slide by. Sometimes people in canoes or rowboats saw us and waved. I waved back though I'd never see them again. As I remember, that summer was hot and sticky like most summers are in Cleotis with some terrible big storms after dark. I'd be in my bed all sweaty, watching the green lightning outside the window and covering up my head to keep out the thunder. Buddy slept through it all in his crib across from my bed, but if trees were thrashing around, I could see twisters sucking our house clean off the ground. Maybe the wind could pull Shep out of his doghouse and strangle him on his chain. Dad said he couldn't come inside, dogs lived outside and just people lived in a house, so I stayed under the covers until the thunder moved on. Then I snuck out to see if Shep was okay. He acted all happy to see me, so we sat on the porch and watched the rain coming down. Even when no storms came, I snuck out after everybody went to sleep. The skeeters weren't bad after dark, so I sat on the porch steps with Shep and we watched fireflies wandering around and the moon coming up. I could see better when there wasn't a moon…