Favorite Sons by Robin Yocum Read Free Book Online Page A

scripture. Besides, I’ll bet Jesus wasn’t getting pummeled with an oak branch when he said that.”
    He stared back into the fire and took a sip of his RC Cola. “My stomach feels like it’s on fire, Hutch. I feel like I gotta take a crap all the time, but there’s nothing left because I’ve had diarrhea since yesterday afternoon. I didn’t sleep hardly at all last night because I couldn’t get my brain to shut down.” He wrapped a bun around the hot dog on his stick and slid it off. Holding the stick between his knees, Deak grabbed the mustard with his free hand and squirted a yellow string on the blackened dog. “Do you ever think about the events that led to Petey’s death?”
    â€œYou mean the constant turmoil he had been causing his entire life?”
    â€œNo, I mean what happened yesterday morning, the events that put us and Petey up on Chestnut Ridge at the same time— Petey doing bird calls and Adrian with that chunk of granite in his hand?” I admitted I hadn’t. “Think about it. It all started with that storm Sunday afternoon.” He looked at me while he worked overa mouthful of hot dog. “God, or a high pressure system, whatever, brought a big storm over eastern Ohio. You, me, Adrian, Pepper, we all got on the phones and started lining up our arrowhead hunting trip. At first, we were going down to the old glass plant, but you said you didn’t think there were many good arrowheads left there because we’ve found so many over the years, so we decided to go to the Postalakis farm.” He again looked at me and I nodded, acknowledging my culpability in the decision. “After we were there on the hill for a while, Pepper said he was tired of hunting, but Adrian said he wanted to scout around the field closest to the Little Seneca, and we all said okay.”
    I chuckled, remembering Pepper’s response to Adrian’s declaration that he wanted to search longer. Pepper had said, “Well, if that’s what the great Adrian Nash wants to do, then by all means let’s all stand out here in the scorching sun and sweat our balls off some more.”
    â€œWhen we walked over near the creek, that’s when Adrian found the maul, and we all spent another five minutes admiring it and Adrian washed it off in the creek. You and Pepper whizzed in the creek. So, all those events put us in the clearing at the precise moment that Petey was there. If we had gone to the glass house field, or if we had left when Pepper wanted to, or if Adrian hadn’t washed the maul off in the stream, we’d probably never have run into Petey and none of this would have happened.”
    â€œMaybe it was God’s way of taking Petey Sanchez out of the mix before that goofy bastard could hurt someone else. It was only a matter of time before he killed or really hurt some kid, or burned up his entire family.”
    â€œYou don’t know that. Only God knows that.”
    â€œExactly. Maybe that was his way of stopping it.”
    â€œHe doesn’t work that way.”
    â€œWell, he should. I know Petey didn’t deserve to die, but he brought it on himself when he went after Adrian with that limb. Adrian was trying to protect all of us and he probably saved some little kid in the process.”
    â€œI don’t think he was trying to protect us. I think his temper got the best of him and he reacted.” Deak threw a nub of hot dogbun into the fire. “You know, you’ve always looked at Adrian not as a friend, but as your hero, like he’s bigger than life.”
    â€œThat’s bullshit.”
    â€œIs it? Would you be able to justify your silence if it hadn’t been Adrian Nash who threw the rock? Would you take a chance like this if it had been some other kid who killed Petey and you saw it happen?” I shrugged. “I’ll bet you wouldn’t. And what if he hadn’t been Petey? What if it