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Show 83 the sidewalk. And one of the Grey boys was ambushed, shot off his horse in a range war. But I suppose the incident which shocked people the most was a strange kind of ceremony out at Fisher's Pond. A group of boys went swimming there, eleven or twelve years old, naked in the usual way, a romp in the sun and water it probably started out to be, but one of the group was a thin, consumptive boy, weak, cross-eyed, a constant whiner. Somehow he alienated the other boys until, probably at first just to teach him a lesson, they put him in the center of a circle. But unlike us naked boys in our hayloft dancing around a teenage goddess, these boys had stiff greasewood branches and they used them. Apparently the weak boy's cries only set them off more, until they were all dancing naked around him naked, dancing in a circle about him and beating him with their greasewood sticks until he was dead. But that was long past, I had barely heard of the Nazis, the struggle then was still with the depression and for us teenagers with the mysterious demands of love. That mess. So Dom and I drove out to get his girl, Betty, who told us that Kate was staying at her brother Andy's place just a couple of farms down the road. Her father was having business and personal problems, mainly drinking too much, and now had a room in a boarding house. So we drove over there and Andy's wife June told us to come in, Kate was back in the kitchen. June and Andy were listening to the radio in the living room, and Dom and Betty said they would stay outside where it was cool, so I went back to the kitchen. The dishes were done and Kate had on a dressy blouse and a skirt. Sure, she'd go out to see Dom and Betty. It sure is hot in this kitchen, just let me put this stuff away. "What's that?" It was some sheets of paper somebody had been drawing on and I could see her deciding whether or not to show them to me. There were a dozen or so. |