Shades of Gray by Tim O’Brien Read Free Book Online Page B

Will’s bandaged arm and frowned. “You get kicked by that rabbit this morning?”
    Will nodded without raising his eyes.
    â€œI blame myself for that. I should have made sure you knew how to get them out of the trap. Those scratches can really hurt.”
    Surprised, Will looked up. “You’ve been scratched?”
    â€œSure have. When I was about your age, I walked my olderbrother’s trap line for him. Came back all bloody, with no rabbit. At least you didn’t lose your rabbit.”
    Uncle Jed passed Will a plate of stew, and the boy waited for Meg to pipe up with her story. But she didn’t say a word.
    â€œWell, I lost my rabbit, too,” Will finally admitted. “This is Meg’s rabbit.” Then he forced himself to say, “Tell your pa how you got it, Meg.”
    Uncle Jed grinned appreciatively as he listened to Meg tell how she’d killed the rabbit in the garden. “Good for you, Meg! Good for you!” he said when she’d finished. Then he turned to Will. “Well, since we can’t count on that happening again any time soon, let me tell you how to get a rabbit out of the trap. You grab the hind legs and jerk him out, and then you whop him on the back of the neck like this,” he said, making a chopping motion with the side of his palm.
    â€œPull him out by the legs and whop him on the back of his neck,” Will repeated. But thinking of the warm, furry creature he’d held that morning, he wondered if knowing what to do would make it any easier to kill the next rabbit.
----
    A few days later Will brought back two rabbits from the trap line. After they had been skinned and cleaned, Aunt Ella set one aside and wrapped the other in a cloth.
    â€œMeg, I want you to take this over to Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins. I’ll bet they haven’t tasted meat since the old man lost his leg in January.”
    â€œYou’re going to send it to Mr. Jenkins?” Meg asked in disbelief.
    Slipping the neatly wrapped package into an empty flour sack, Aunt Ella handed it to her daughter. “This is as good away as any to let him know we don’t harbor any bitterness,” she said.
    â€œCan’t Will take it instead?”
    Seeing the misery on her daughter’s face, Aunt Ella relented. “Very well, but you’ll have to show him the way.”
    Will slung the sack over his shoulder, and the two of them set off. They headed south, past the buckwheat field and then through the orchard and into the second-growth woods beyond.
    â€œWhy don’t you want to see Mr. Jenkins?” Will asked.
    â€œWell, his two youngest sons were killed in the war,” Meg explained, “and last fall when Pa and I were down at the store Mr. Jenkins said he didn’t think it was fair for young men to die protecting the rights of people who wouldn’t fight for themselves.”
    Will said nothing. He felt the same way.
    Meg went on. “Pa said he agreed with him and asked who he had in mind. Well, Mr. Jenkins said he had in mind a neighbor who always hid in the woods when the conscription teams came through looking for recruits. So Pa said he always made a point of going hunting under those circumstances, but he was sure Mr. Jenkins didn’t mean him, ’cause if any of his rights needed protecting he’d protect them himself.
    â€œWell, finally Mr. Jenkins got so angry he challenged Pa to step outside the store and fight him. Pa didn’t want to fight an old man, so he said he had no quarrel with him and turned around to leave. And then Mr. Jenkins called him a coward.”
    Will whistled through his teeth. “What happened then?”
    â€œPa turned around and walked right up to Mr. Jenkins and took hold of the front of his shirt and yanked him up soonly the tips of his toes were still on the ground. He held him there, just held him there so their faces were about six inches apart. Then he said, ‘Jonas Jenkins, who