The Time Keepers

Chapter 66

CHAPTER 66

A S T OM ENTERS THE STORE, THE PLACE IS COMPLETELY DARK, and neither Jack nor B?o is there. He switches on the light, heads back to the workshop, and lifts the receiver off the phone to call Grace and let her know that no one else is there. But Molly has answered instead and tells him that Grace is still at the school.

“I’ll call over to Jack’s apartment. Maybe there’s a chance he took B?o there to show him something.…”

“But he never invites anyone up there,” Molly reminds him. “I’ve always wanted to visit, but you told me how private he is, Daddy.”

His daughter is right. “I know, honey, but it can’t hurt to call. Tell Mommy I’ll drive around a bit looking for them if he’s not home.” He keeps his words to a minimum, not wanting Molly to panic. He tries to convince himself that many things could have happened; perhaps B?o was watching TV with Jack or out walking with him and Hendrix. He picks up the phone again to call Jack. But after several seconds with no answer, he hangs up the receiver, grabs his car keys, and heads out to find them.

B?o manages to swallow the first pebble after Clayton orders Buddy to hold his arms back and he shoves the rock into his mouth. The second one is still pinched between Clayton’s fingers when Buddy grows afraid.

“Come on man, that’s enough,” he cuts in as B?o continues to wriggle beneath his grip. Clayton pushes the rock into B?o’s pursed lips.

B?o tries to scream several times, but Clayton just pushes his hand over his mouth and threatens to suffocate him.

“He can’t swallow all those stones.” Buddy eyes the circle of rocks in the fort’s center. “He’ll suffocate, Clay.… He’ll die.…”

B?o is kicking now underneath Buddy’s grip, grunting as Clayton tries to push the next stone down.

And then suddenly they all hear the sound of a dog barking.

“What the fuck?” Buddy says as he lets go of B?o, who lunges forth and falls to his knees, gasping for breath.

Soon they also hear the sound of heavy footsteps, not just the barking and panting of a dog. Jack pulls away the flimsy shower curtain entrance and bends down to enter the fort.

“What’s going on here?” his voice booms, as he spots B?o curled in a ball on the dirt floor, his face mottled with cuts and emerging bruises, his body heaving, and his hand grasping his throat.

Buddy doesn’t say a word. He has never seen Jack up close before, only from a distance when he picked up his laundry or went into the watch store. But both times his head was bent down, and it was difficult to see his damaged features clearly. Now, however, Jack is hovering over them, his expression transforming into one of rage as he realizes these boys have hurt B?o.

“We didn’t do anything,” Buddy insists, but Jack is looking straight at Clayton, who, in his shock, hasn’t dropped the third pebble still grasped in his hand. Jack sees the dirt patches on Clayton’s knees, and the eyes that are struggling to take Jack’s disfigurement in fully. Both of them believe the other is a monster.

He is about to lift Clayton off the ground and slug him when his instincts surprise him. Still holding Hendrix’s leash in one hand as the dog snarls and barks at the two older boys, Jack reaches for B?o.

Clayton and Buddy run. They run fast, their chests heaving as they dart over the uneven terrain, branches scratching at their faces. They reach their bicycles and frantically try to race home.

Jack lifts B?o into his arms. The fragrance of soil and wet leaves, the scent of boyhood mixed with perspiration and fear, draws him back to the jungle in Vietnam. He carries B?o, clutching him to his chest. Not slung over his shoulder like Chief had carried Stanley all those years earlier, but with the same honor in his heart. Jack holds B?o high above the forest floor, a man focused on protecting his friend.