Dream Boy by Jim Grimsley Read Free Book Online Page B

they had drums, too. You know, like in a band.”
    “Lord
help me,” says Mrs. Connelly. “I don't know about that. We don't do
that in our church, we just have a piano.”
    “We've
been Baptist since my daddy started going.” “Now I know you all moved
here from somewhere.” “Smithfield.”
    “That's
right. Your daddy told me. You lived in Smithfield.”
    “We
didn't live there long. We lived in Goldsboro before that. And Tims
Creek.”
    “I
think Tims Creek is a nice little town.”
    “Don't
you get tired of moving so much?” Roy asks.
    Mrs.
Connelly is watching. Nathan has the feeling they have talked about this
before, and is therefore more guarded. “Sometimes. It's not so bad though.
We lived in Rose Hill for a long time, when I was little.”
    Mother
and son look at each other. Nathan becomes afraid they've heard something, a
story about the reason Nathan's family moves from one place to the other.
Something about why they left Rose Hill. Dad likes to move, all right, but
never quite far enough.
    The
conversation ends when Roy's father comes from his office looking for a glass
of tea. He waits pleasantly while Mrs. Connelly stirs her large body to put ice
in a glass. They talk about the fall weather, the clover Roy and he are
planting in the field next to the house, the abundance of fish in the pond. The
ease with which the Connellys keep company with each other almost makes Nathan
feel at home himself.
    Later,
they carry their books to Roy's room, which is smaller than it seems from the
other side of the hedges, a narrow, angled space, mostly occupied by a bed and
Roy's desk. High on the wall are shelves for his baseball trophies, a sturdy
collection. Nathan examines each trophy scrupulously but makes no comment.
Nathan studies everything with the same attention to detail, including the view
to his own window. Roy leans beside him, then smiles. Finger to the lips, be
quiet.
    They
study. Roy sits on his bed. In his own house he behaves less bravely and dares
less than in Nathan's, and Nathan knows better than to get too close. He
spreads his science textbook across his lap. He peers into the closet, through
the shadowed crack in the door. He studies the poster of a famous baseball
player. Roy murmurs aloud as he reads.
    He and
Roy take long walks, over the whole farm, till Nathan understands the scope of
Roy's world. The sullen houses in the bare field become their landscape, and
they wander around the pond, memorize the graveyard, visit the Indian mound,
pick apples in the orchard, search out deer in the surrounding woods, hunt for
foxes and squirrels with Roy's 22gauge, or simply lie on beds of leaves with
their shirts open and their hands ripening on each other's bare skin. Nathan
learns that Roy will kiss but he will not kneel in front of Nathan as Nathan
will kneel in front of him. Nathan learns that he himself is somehow different
from Roy, governed by other laws.
    Always
the admonition is the same. You can't say a thing about this to anybody else.
You can't do this with anybody else but me. Okay? Followed by the cloud of
guilt, the moment when Roy can no longer bring himself to look at Nathan or to
touch him. The guilt clouds him worse each time.
    One
Friday afternoon, without warning, Roy asks Nathan, “Do you want to go
riding around tonight?”
    They are
assembling their books on the school bus. ay has headed down the metal steps,
then pauses to ask I question. Turning almost casually.
    Roy has
always seen his girlfriend on Fridays. Nathan never asked, but he knows.
“I need to ask my mom.” Roy shrugs.
    Quickly,
lest the offer be withdrawn. Tm sure she’ll say it's okay"
    Roy
shrugs again, but in a more friendly way. “Come with me while I ask.”
The request, unusual, reverberates. Roy considers, momentarily uncomfortable. A
slow change takes place as Nathan watches; a new thought occurs to Roy and a
smile spreads outward. “She'll like that, won't she?” he asks.
    Crossing
the yard,