Shame

be wary of reporters, but apparently not wary enough. Mama had told me they lied better than politicians, and she was right about that.
    “Two of them were waiting for me outside my school. I remember the reporter had a big mouth, and in that mouth was enough gum to make it look like a chaw. The photographer was a short, fat guy with three or four cameras around his neck.
    “‘Hey, Gray,’ the gum-chewer called to me, all friendly like. I didn’t trust him. I walked away from him, and when he started following me, I ran. I took the back route home. But they knew where I lived.
    “Mama was at work, so I was by myself watching TV when I heard our doorbell ring. I pulled back the curtain a little and saw the same two men. The curtains to our house were drawn. That’s how we coped with the outside world. From the day my father was arrested to the day I left Eden for good, we never opened those drapes, never let any sunshine in.”
    Caleb took a deep breath. Had he ever opened those drapes, he wondered? But he only allowed himself a moment of self-pity.
    “The men kept knocking, and Mr. Chaw kept calling out my name. ‘Just want to talk to you for a minute, Gray,’ he kept saying. ‘I’ll make it worth your while. Give you fifty bucks if you just have a few words with me.’ I didn’t say a word, though. Mama had taught me that if I said anything, even the word no, it just encouraged them.
    “What I remember, though, is how tempted I was just to talk. Not so much for the money but because nobody at school was speaking to me other than to call me names. The town mothers had figured I was contagious or something and had told their kids to stay away from me. But I didn’t talk with those reporters, didn’t say a word, because Mama had been as serious as death about me not having anything to do with them.
    “The gum-chewer tried calling me out every which way, but finally he seemed to give up. He must have known I was watchinghim, though, ’cause he called out, ‘All right, Gray, I’m sorry you don’t want the money, but tell you what, I’m going to leave you some presents in this here bag. Going to leave you my card, too. You can watch me leave the bag on the path right here.’”
    Caleb realized his voice unconsciously took on the tones of the gum-chewing reporter. He still remembered his voice.
    “The man dropped the bag down on the dirt path that led up to our house. Then he walked over to this shiny van parked on the street, started it up, and drove away.
    “I kept looking at that bag. Watched it for maybe five minutes. Finally, I opened the door and looked around. No one was in sight. I walked down the path, but I didn’t pick up the bag right away, just worried it with my foot a little. Nothing happened, so I opened it up. Inside was a baseball cap, some gum, and some chocolate. I dumped the bag out, pocketed the goodies, and then I tried on the baseball cap. It fit just right. I didn’t bother to check out the writing on it or the patch. That was my mistake.
    “The patch showed two hands reaching for a throat, and beneath it was the word
shame
. I heard some clicking going on, and I turned toward the sounds. The fat guy was hiding behind one of our pecan trees, shooting pictures of me as fast as he could. I ran back into the house, but it was too late. A week later I saw myself on the cover of one of those tabloid newspapers. The banner headline said, ‘I Want to Be Just Like My Daddy! Says Son of Shame.’
    “Everyone in town seemed to have a copy of that paper, and everyone seemed to believe what they read. That made-up article justified their prejudice.”
    Lola said nothing. She started working around the knife wound. It had to be tender. It had to hurt like hell. But the physical pain seemed to bother Caleb far less than the mental. He didn’t even appear to notice her ministrations.
    “There was another story in the paper,” said Lola, “one you didn’t read. Two of your employees vouched for you. They saidthey had worked for you for years and that there’s no way you could be a killer. They told about the time you tried to talk a man out of cutting down a tree because there was a bird’s nest in it, and that when the man insisted it be cut, you took the nest and the birdies home and hand-raised them.”
    “The whole family helped.” Caleb had never been so happy as when those birds fledged. It had been an around-the-clock project.
    His character references and the bird