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"AAAAYYYEEEEIIIIAAA!"

Jackie and I watched, wide-eyed, as a vaguely hu sounds as it ran through the h the air, only to land on what looked like a tars and duct tape

"Trey?" I screeched

He came around the back patio, plastered head to toe in mud When he saasstart, and skidded over the ho mud onto Mr Eckhardt’s pristine white fence

Another kid followed his lead And then another, until my backyard reseo It was impossible to tell how many kids slithered around in the ht andout over the rest I hadn’t seen hi time He looked alive

He didn’t look like Jesse He didn’t look like me

He looked free Really, truly free

Maybe freedo to do with joy

Jackie bent over and removed her shoes and tucked her socks inside She tossed them into the car and then carefully rolled up her jeans

"What are you doing?"

"I dunno," she said while she waded into theheavily down her back She wobbled a little until she found her footing "Can I try?" she called out to the group of kids but didn’t get an answer

Jackie didn’t wait for one She aardly slogged over to the patio Without waiting for an opening, she half ran, half stuot to the end She sat there for a ht have hurt soet dirty I didn’t either, but for hi clean was a near obsession It didn’t take a psychiatrist to figure out why Jesse had such an abhorrence of dirt; it raphs of the aparte of relatives cra tidy Jesse’s tiny room--narroin bed made with military precision, scratched dresser without a speck of dust, books shelved in alphabetical order--was an oasis of calm in a sea of chaos Neatness and order becas to keep him steady when the twin tornadoes of poverty and crih the world around him He kept his habits into adulthood, and I was happy to join in I liked the feeling of satisfaction brought on by cleaningsafe And that was close enough for us

Until death filledas a safe life As much as I hated to ad of accoone Jesse wasn’t in his rightful place, so what did it matter?

Jesse avoided dirt while he lived, but in death he was surrounded by it

Noas

And I didn’t have a talisman to keep the tornadoes away

"That eso eye contact with me I’d hosed down all of Trey’s friends, sent them home with one old towel each, and put a pot of coffee on for Jackie She’d twisted her ankle on her way to her ass, and now her foot perched atop a stool in my kitchen