Going Where It's Dark Read Online Free

twisting it back and forth.
    “Doing anything special this summer?”
    Buck avoided Mel’s eyes. He couldn’t guess, could he? He shrugged.
    Mel inspected the plug in his hand, then glanced over at Buck again. “Got a favor to ask. I know your dad needs help in the garden, with vegetables coming up overnight, almost. I was thinking about something the other day, though, if you’ve got some extra time. It’s another job for you, but the kind you do partly because you want to, not just because you’re getting paid.”
    “Like what?”
    “Well, one of our drivers quit last week and another’s going to retire. I’ll be getting some of their cross-country runs, and that means I’ll be on the road a lot more. I’ve been looking in on Jacob Wall a couple times a week. But if I’m going to be gone four and five days at a time, maybe you could look in on him for me when I’m away.”
    Buck tried to remember if he’d ever seen the man who’d moved into the small yellow house halfway between the Andersons and the general store. “What do you m…mean, ‘look in on’?”
    “Take in his mail, see if he needs any groceries, get something off a shelf for him—just see if he’s okay. He’s not an easy man to get along with; doesn’t even want me there half the time. But he needs me—needs someone—and he knows it.”
    “What’s wrong with him?”
    “Not sure. Moved in last year. Rheumatoid arthritis or something. Walks like every joint in his body gives him pain. Gets disability checks, Ted Beall told me. The only way he’ll accept help is to give me a five-dollar bill on Fridays. Hands it to me without a word, and I take it without a word. Doesn’t want thanks from anyone, and sure as heck doesn’t want pity.”
    “You d…don’t ever talk to him?”
    “Oh sure, but not much. If you take over for me when I’m out of town, you can keep the five on Fridays. Any big repairs he needs, I’ll do when I get back.”
    Buck shifted his weight to the other foot. “I d…don’t know….”
    “Well, I don’t either, and I’m not about to make up your mind for you. I’ll get Joel to do it if you can’t.”
    Buck thought about that garden. If he weeded five rows a week, got a five on Fridays…Buy that headlamp sooner than he thought. More than that, though, he didn’t like saying no to Uncle Mel.
    “I’ll g…g…give it a try,” he said.
    “Good.” Mel closed the hood of the car, handed the rag to Buck, then reached in the backseat and grabbed an old pair of overalls rolled up in a bundle. He gave those to Buck as well. “Those can go in the trash. So torn up I’m embarrassed to wear ’em even when I’m changing a tire.”
    No way,
Buck thought. No matter if they were four sizes too big; he could cut them down and wear them over his clothes the next time he crawled in the Hole.
    •••
    They walked a half mile down the road to Jacob’s house. Buck was still in his Sunday pants, but had traded his white shirt for a brown tee from Bealls’. Printed on the front were the words
Bealls’ Country Store
in yellow, with the outline of a rooster beneath.
    Mel bent his elbows and pulled his shoulders back in a giant stretch.
    “Whoo!” he said. “Sure does feel good to walk around. Someday I’ll be trying to get out of that semi and find my butt’s sprouted roots to the seat.”
    Buck laughed. He and his uncle both had the same sort of loping walk. Like Buck, Mel was on the short side, but he was definitely muscular. He might have spent a good part of his week sitting in the cab of a truck, but the hauling of freight on and off when he got to where he was going kept the muscles in his arms and legs as thick as a boxer’s.
    “You like your j…job, though,” Buck reminded him.
    Mel nodded. “Like sitting up high while I drive, seeing the country, the way it changes, south to north and east to west. Like talking with other truckers on our radios. Makes me feel for Jacob all the more, trapped