Page 17 (2/2)

They pulled off the road, into a state park Kittridge and Pastor Don checked the bathrooave the all clear

"Thirty e said

They had more supplies now, boxes of crackers and peanut butter and apples and energy bars and bottles of pop and juice and diapers and forotten Danny a box of Lucky Charrocery store’s cooler had spoiled; he’d have to eat it dry Danny, Kittridge, and Pastor Don unloaded the jugs of diesel froan to pour it into the tank Danny had told theallon capacity, precisely; each full tank would get theuy," Kittridge had said

When they’d finished refueling, Danny took the box of Lucky Charms and a can of lukewarm Dr Pepper and sat under a tree The rest were seated around a picnic table, including Ja that everyone had decided to let bygones be bygones Linda Robinson was diapering Boy Jr, cooing to his Danny had never been around babies much He’d been led to understand that they cried a lot, but so far Boy Jr had kept quiet as a ood babies and there were bad babies, Moood ones Danny tried to re a baby himself, just to see if he could do it, but his o back that far, not in any orderly way It was strange how there was this whole part of your life you couldn’t recall, except in little pictures: sunshine flaring on a pane, or a dead frog squashed in the driveway by a tire tread, or a slice of apple on a plate He wondered if he’d been a good baby, like Boy Jr

Danny atching the group, feeding fistfuls of Lucky Char them doith the Dr Pepper, when Tim rose from the table and walked over to hi?"

The boy’s hair was standing all whichaway froave a loose-boned shrug "Mind if I sit with you?"

Danny scooched over to make room

"I’m sorry the other kids tease you sometimes," Tim said after a minute

"That’s okay," said Danny "I don’t mind"

"Billy Nice is a real dickhead"

"He picks on you, too?"

"Souely "He picks on everybody"

"Just ignore him," Danny said "That’s what I do"

After a minute, Tim said, "You really like Thomas, huh?"

"Sure"

"I used to watch hie layout of Thoine wash, I had all that stuff"

"I’d like to see that," said Danny "I bet that was great"

A brief silence followed The sun arm on Danny’s face

"You want to knohat I saw in the stadium?" Tim asked

"If you want"

"Like, a thousand million dead people"

Danny wasn’t sure what to say He guessed Ti you should keep bottled up inside

"It was pretty gross"

"Did you tell April?"

Tim shook his head

"You want to keep it a secret?"

"Would that be okay?"

"Sure," said Danny "I can keep a secret"

Tim had scooped up a little bit of dirt froh his fingers "You don’t get scared much, do you, Danny?"

"Sometimes I do"

"But not now," the boy stated

Danny had to think about that He supposed he should be, but he just wasn’t What he felt was more like interested What would happen next? Where would they go? It surprised hi Dr Francis would be proud of hiuess I’m not"

In the shade of the picnic area, everyone was packing up Danny wished he could find the words to make the boy feel better, to wipe the memory of what he’d seen in the stadiu back to the bus when the idea ca for you" He reached into his pack and removed his lucky penny and showed the boy "You hold on to that, I pro bad can happen to you"

Tim took the coin in his palm "What happened to it? It’s all squished"