"I'm good at that kind of stuff." "Are you?" "I like English."
"Then I'll come over later and you can help me. It's about railroads. The paper is."
Nathan can hardly believe the offer. Why does Roy want to spend time with him? Roy lets him descend first, but they linger on the short walk to the house. Roy says maybe he can help Nathan with other stuff, like math, since he's pretty good at math. Since Nathan is ahead of kids his own age, maybe he could use somebody older to help him. He mentions this casually, like a stray thought. They will study together later, after supper, the fact is established. Something about the agreement makes Nathan happy and afraid at the same time.
An image of his father gives the fear. The image comes to Nathan from dangerous places, from territories of memory that Nathan rarely visits. The memory is his father standing in a doorway, in the house in Rose Hill, and it reminds him of Roy because of the look in his father's eyes.
Later, standing at his bedroom window, Nathan watches Roy moving from barn to shed, shirt unbuttoned, sleeves rolled above his elbows, flesh bright as if the glow from a bonfire is radiating outward through his torso and limbs. He is cleaning the barn, stacking rusted gas cans and boxes in the back of the pickup truck, forking soiled hay into damp piles. He moves effortlessly from task to task as if he is never tired. The sight of him is like a current of cool water through the middle of Nathan.
It is a new feeling, not like friendship. Not like anything. Nathan has had friends before, especially before the family began to move so often. This feeling is stranger, forcing Nathan to remember things he does not want to remember.
After a while Nathan retreats from the window, lying across the bed scribbling idly at homework. He wants supper to be over. The arithmetic figures waver meaninglessly on the pages of his text. When he tries to concentrate, the word problems make periodic sense. He reads one long paragraph, considers it, realizes he has remembered nothing he has read, then finally stands, pacing to the window and drawing the curtain carefully back.
Roy stands below. He is waiting near the hedge as if he has called Nathan. He carries a wooden crate full of Mason jars with dusty, cobweb covered lids. Nathan parts the curtains slowly. Roy waves hello without fear or surprise. Nathan fights the impulse to turn away, to pretend he has come to the window for some other reason than to look at Roy. Roy's gentle smile disturbs Nathan deeply. It is as if he knows what Nathan is thinking and feeling. He sets the crate on the back porch and turns. He heads back to the bam for more jars. Nathan goes on watching as long as there is light.
Mom calls Nathan to supper, and he descends from upstairs as if into some shadowy pool. He sits underwater and eats the food his mother has prepared. Tonight, Dad misses supper, working late. Tonight, Nathan can taste what is in front of him.
After supper, Roy crosses the yard to Nathan's house for help with his homework. Nathan sits at the desk in his bedroom with light from a warm study lamp pouring over his grammar textbook. He has completed work on his sentence diagrams. Footsteps sound in the hall, and when Nathan turns, Roy is leaning against the door jamb, gripping school books as if he would like to crush them in his big boned hands. He says, "I told you I was coming.''
"I know. I was waiting."
The statement pleases Roy. You sure it's okay?" "I finished my homework while you were doing your chores."
He has bathed and wears a white cotton shirt, buttoned to the collar. The cloud of his aftershave is vigorous. "Miss Burkette says you're supposed to be good at English, even if you are younger than me." He takes careful steps into the room, laying his books on the bed and rubbing his knuckles. "I hate to write stuff."
"I like it okay"
"I have to write about trains." Roy's brows knit to a sharp black line. He spreads open his notebook on the bed, and Nathan sits beside him on the sloping mattress. Miss Burkette has assigned his class to write a seven paragraph essay on a preselected topic, "Railroads in the United States." Roy has brought the volume "QR" of the 'World Book Encyclopedia with him, and he shows Nathan the sentences he has copied down from the article on "Railroad."
Nathan studies the writing and asks questions about the facts for the essay. Under these circumstances it becomes simple to talk, and the conversation feels as easy as their quiet. They discuss the essay seriously, agreeing that Roy must narrow what he wants to say about railroads, weighing one topic against another. Roy selects steam engines as a starting point and soon he is writing words on paper under Nathan's supervision. Roy seems vaguely surprised that the essay is actually getting written, and they work step by step through all the necessary decisions.
