“Oh yeah. I’ve been walking. For years and years.”
The man grinned slowly. He wasn’t sure if he was being let in on a joke or creating one himself. “What did you say?”
“I appreciate this food.” Devon gestured to the empty wrappings in front of him. “I don’t have any money,” he said patting his empty pockets, “but I’ll pay you back as soon as I can.”
“When you get a job, you can buy somebody else a sandwich.”
“I can do that.” Devon grinned.
“Your mama will be here before you know it. Here,” Jimmy said and handed a napkin to Devon. “Wipe your mouth.” Jimmy looked away while Devon rubbed the napkin across his face, wiping sweat with it on his face and his neck. “Your mama sounded worried. You should tell her when you set out for a walk.”
“I know it. She’s a good woman.”
“Well, you think about your mama when you’re running around.” Jimmy rubbed his head a little embarrassed to be scolding this stranger.
“I’m almost twenty-three.” Devon laughed.
Jimmy laughed with him. “One day you’ll think you couldn’t have been twenty-anything, it’s so young. You’ll look at people, kids,” Jimmy said, looking around the restaurant for someone Devon’s age to make his point. “You’ll see people that same age and you’ll wonder how you ever thought you were grown. I said to myself ‘why did anybody let me out of the house.’” Jimmy chuckled. “I didn’t have my head on straight, that’s for sure.”
Devon nodded wisely. “I know what you mean. I don’t feel all that good sometimes. I let my car roll down the hill. I forgot the brake.”
“That’s a shame.”
“It didn’t hit anybody, but it was rolling down the road backward until it ended up in the woods.”
“Well, don’t take it too hard. You can get another one.”
“I don’t. I like to walk. I hear the road, the outside, and the animals. I don’t have to think so much.”
“What do you mean?”
“In my mind.”
“What do you hear?”
Devon looked at Jimmy Patterson but didn’t answer. He liked this man, but there was no telling what he might think of the truth. “It’s nothing. Just headaches.”
“Whatever it is, Devon, you have to let it go. Keep on trying to get a job. Get a girl. That’ll take your mind off of things. Work is the main thing.”
Devon shook his head so slightly, Jimmy could barely tell.
“Church is on Sunday. I need to stop preaching.” The man took a package of cigarettes and tapped them in his palm. “You smoke?”
“That’s not good for you.”
The man laughed. “You’re right about that.” The man put his ashy hands on the table. He needed lotion, but he always forgot or better said he always let it go. He hated the effeminate feel of rubbing his hands together, beautifying. A man didn’t take care like that.
“Do it in the bathroom,” his wife said. “Nobody will think you’re gay in your own bathroom.” She laughed.
“I’ll be right outside. You hear?” It occurred to Jimmy that Devon wouldn’t be there when he came back. “I’ll be right outside that door. Okay? Come on out with me and keep me company.”
Devon nodded and balled up his trash. “I’ve got to go to the bathroom.” Devon motioned his head to the store. “Gotta go.” Devon did not look at Jimmy’s face.
“You coming right back? I’ll just wait here for you.”
Devon didn’t answer. “I appreciate the sandwich, sir. Not many people will help you out.”
“You’re grown, Devon.” Devon looked over Jimmy’s head. “Devon, listen, your mama’s coming all the way out here to get you, Devon. You want her to find you, don’t you?”
“She’ll find me.”
“Be back here, son.” Jimmy knew he shouldn’t, but he let the boy out of his sight. He thought about going to the bathroom with him and waiting for him outside the door. Jimmy quickly smoked his cigarette with his eye on the door. Devon did not come past him. That he was sure of. He waited at their table for five minutes, maybe less, before he entered the two-stall bathroom. “Devon,” he called. “Are you in here?” Though he knew it was no use. Jimmy hurried outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of the young man on the road. He had no choice but to call the boy’s mother. For hours, maybe more, long after the dark would consume a solitary figure on the shoulder, Jimmy searched for Devon on the highways.
Devon almost made it.
Two miles from his house. A young man, still a boy, walking the road, watching the red hills melt one into the other. Apple trees sprung in rows. Did they dance when no one was looking? He never saw the car. When Devon was a boy he would lie down in the middle of the dirt road outside his trailer. He didn’t mind the rocks and the sharp pressure poking through to his back. From miles away, he could hear a car coming down the road. Feel the car as the warm earth began to rumble, his pelvis bouncing with the rotation of the faraway wheels. He smelled the rising dust kicking up around him as the car got closer. In this secret game, he’d lie there longer and longer never really close to being hit. A secret game, since every other time, long before the driver ever saw him, he would be safely on his way home.
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