Boys Life

was gentle. I imagined she must like me, to be so gentle. I had seen her naked. In all my life I had seen no female naked but my mother. I had been in the presence of Chile Willow only a short time, but what is time when a heart speaks? My heart was speaking to Chile Willow in that moment, as she bathed my cuts and gave me a smile. My heart was saying If you were my girlfriend I would give you a hundred lightning bugs in a green glass jar, so you could always see your way. I would give you a meadow full of wildflowers, where no two blooms would ever be alike. I would give you my bicycle, with its golden eye to protect you. I would write a story for you, and make you a princess who lived in a white marble castle. If you would only like me, I would give you magic. If you would only like me.
    If you would only-
    “You’re a brave little boy,” Chile said.
    From the rear of the house, a baby began crying.
    “Oh, Lord,” Chile’s mother said, and she put aside her needles. “Bubba’s woke up.” She stood up and walked in the direction of the crying, her flipflops smacking the splintery floor.
    “I’ll feed him in a minute,” Chile said.
    “Naw, I’ll do it. Bill’s gonna be back soon, and if I was you, I’d put that ring back on. You know how crazy he gets.”
    “Uh-huh, do I ever.” This was said under Chile’s breath. Something in her eyes had darkened. She swabbed the last thorn scrape and capped the iodine bottle. “There you go. All done.”
    Chile’s mother returned, holding an infant that wasn’t a year old. I stood in the middle of the room, my skin screaming as Chile got off her knees and went back into the kitchen. When she came back, she was wearing a thin gold band on the third finger of her left hand. She took the baby from her mother and began to rock it and croon softly.
    “He’s a feisty thing,” the older woman said. “Gonna be a handful, that’s for sure.” She went to a window and pulled aside a flimsy curtain. “Here comes Bill now. Gonna get your ride home, fella.”
    I heard the pickup truck clattering as it pulled up almost to the porch. A door opened and slammed. Then through the screen door came Bill, who was tall and slim and had a crew cut and was all of eighteen years old. He wore dirty jeans and a blue shirt with a grease stain on the front, and he had heavy-lidded brown eyes and was chewing on a match. “Who’s he?” he asked, first thing.
    “Boy needs a ride to Zephyr,” Chile’s mother told him. “Got hisself lost in the woods.”
    “I ain’t gone take him to Zephyr!” Bill protested with a scowl. “It’s hotter’n hell in that truck!”
    “Where’d you go?” Chile asked, her arms full of baby.
    “Fixed that engine for old man Walsh. And if you think that was fun, you got another think comin’.” He glanced at her as he strode past toward the kitchen. I saw him look right through her, as if she wasn’t even there, and Chile’s eyes had deadened.
    “You get any money?” the mother called after him.
    “Yeah, I got some money! You think I’m stupid, I wouldn’t get no money for a job like that?”
    “Bubba needs some fresh milk!” Chile said.
    I heard the faucet pumping slimy water. “Shit,” Bill muttered.
    “You gonna take this boy home to Zephyr, or not?” Chile’s mother asked.
    “Not,” he answered.
    “Here.” Chile offered the baby to her mother. “I’ll drive him, then.”
    “The hell you say!” Bill came back into the room, holding brown water in another Flintstones jelly glass. “You can’t drive nowhere, you ain’t got no license!”
    “I keep tellin’ you I ought to-”
    “You don’t need to do no drivin’,” Bill said, and he looked right through her again. “Your place is in this house. Tell her, Mrs. Purcell.”
    “I ain’t barkin’ up nobody’s tree,” Chile’s mother said, but she didn’t take the infant. She sat down in her rocking chair, put the cigarette in her mouth, and gripped the knitting needles.
    Bill drank down the brown water and made a face. “All right, then. Hell with it. I’ll take him to that gas station over near the base. He can use the pay phone.”
    “That okay with you, Cory?” Chile asked me.
    “I…” My head was still spinning, and the sight of that gold ring hurt my eyes. “I guess so.”
    “Well, you better take what I’m offerin’ or I’ll just kick your butt out the door,” Bill warned.
    “I don’t have any money for the phone,” I said.
    “Boy,