Farewell Summer

Doug grabbed the gunnysack and scraped all the chess pieces up and dropped them, one by one, into the sack. There went Pete and Tom and Bo and all the

Doug shook the gunnysack; it made a dry rattling sound like old men's bones.

And with a last backward glance at his army, Doug started down.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

GRANDPA'S LIBRARY WAS A FINE DARK PLACE bricked with books, so anything could happen there and always did. All you had to do was pull a book from the shelf and open it and suddenly the darkness was not so dark anymore.

Here it was that Grandpa sat in place with now this book and now that in his lap and his gold specs on his nose, welcoming visitors who came to stay for a moment and lingered for an hour.

Even Grandmother paused here, after some burdensome time, as an aging animal seeks the watering place to be refreshed. And Grandfather was always here to offer cups of good clear Walden Pond, or shout down the deep well of Shakespeare and listen, with satisfaction, for echoes.

Here the lion and the hartebeest lay together, here the jackass became unicorn, here on Saturday noon an elderly man could be found underneath a not too imaginary bough, eating bread in the guise of sandwiches and pulling briefly at a jug of cellar wine.

Douglas stood on the edge of it all, waiting.

"Step forward, Douglas," said Grandfather.

Douglas stepped forward, holding the gunnysack in one hand behind his back.

"Got anything to say, Douglas?"

"No, sir."

"Nothing at all about anything?"

"No, sir."

"What you been up to today, son?"

"Nothing."

"A busy nothing or a nothing nothing?"

"A nothing nothing, I guess."

"Douglas." Grandpa paused to polish his gold-rimmed specs. "They say that confession is good for the soul."

"They do say that."

"And they must mean it or they wouldn't say it."

"I guess so."

"Know it, Douglas, know it. Got anything to confess?"

"About what?" said Douglas, keeping the gunnysack behind him.

"That's what I'm trying to find out. You going to help?"

"Maybe you could give me a hint, sir."

"All right. Seems there was flood tide down at the City Hall courthouse today. I hear a tidal wave of boys inundated the grass. You know any of them?"

"No, sir."

"Any of them know you?"

"If I don't know them, how could they know me, sir?"

"Is that all you got to say?"

"Right now? Yes, sir."

Grandpa shook his head. "Doug, I told you, I know about the purloineds. And I'm sorry you think you can't tell me about them. But I remember being your age, and getting caught red-handed at doing something I knew I shouldn't do, but I did anyway. Yes, I remember." Grandpa's eyes twinkled behind his specs. "Well, I think I'm holding you up, boy. I think you got somewhere to go."

"Yes, sir."

"Well, try to hurry it up. The rain's still coming down, lightning all over town, and the town square is empty. If you run and let the lightning strike, maybe you'll do a fast job of what you should be doing. Does that sound reasonable, Doug?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well then, get to it."

Douglas started to back away.

"Don't back off, son," said Grandpa. "I'm not royalty. Just turn around and skedaddle."

"Skedaddle. Was that originally French, Grampa?"

"Hell." The old man reached for a book. "When you get back, let's look it up!"

CHAPTER TWENTY

JUST BEFORE MIDNIGHT, DOUG WOKE TO THAT terrible boredom that only sleep ensures.

It was then, listening to Tom's chuffing breath, deep in an ice-floe summer hibernation, that Doug lifted his arms and wiggled his fingers, like a tuning fork; a gentle vibration ensued. He felt his soul move through an immense timberland.

His feet, shoeless, drifted to the floor and he leaned south to pick up the gentle radio waves of his uncle, down the block. Did he hear the elephant sound of Tantor summoning an ape-boy? Or, half through the night, had Grandpa, next door, fallen in a grave of slumber, dead to the world, gold specs on his nose, with Edgar Allan Poe shelved to his right and the Civil War dead, truly dead, to his left, waiting in his sleep, it seemed, for Doug to arrive?

So, striking his hands together and wiggling his fingers, Doug made one final vibration of his literary tuning fork and moved with quiet intuition toward his grandparents' house.

Grandpa, in his grave of sleep, whispered a call.

Doug was out the midnight door so fast he almost forgot to catch the screen before it slammed.

Ignoring the elephant trumpet behind, he barefooted into his grandparents' house.

There in the library slept Grandpa, awaiting the breakfast resurrection, open for suggestions.

Now, at midnight, it was the unlit time of the special school, so Doug leaned forward and whispered in Grandpa's ear, "1899."

And Gramps, lost in another time, murmured of that year and how the temperature was and what the people were like moving in that town.

Then Douglas said, "1869."

And Grandpa was lost four years after Lincoln was shot.