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snippet 8

2007-03-22

“Todd, I got a birthday card from Yeti.”

“What?” Sounded as though he didn’t think he’d heard me correctly.

“Yeah.”

“I’m coming over.” he said, and was at my house five minutes later. I handed him the card. He looked at it, grabbed the envelope and did exactly what I’d done, looking carefully at the postmark and the date, which was from the day before. Then, after looking at the card and reading the note, “What the....”

“I know! I tried to call Chris... but he wouldn’t have sent this. I doubt if he knows anything about it.”

“This is definitely Yeti’s writing.” Todd said and we found ourselves smiling. “You think...?”

“Fuck yes I think... You call Sue, I’ll get a hold of Clara and Ronnie and we’ll both keep trying Chris...”

“Okay.”

“Tomorrow? You got anything you can’t miss?”

Todd thought for a second. “First hour. I’ve got a test I shouldn’t miss. Can we leave after that?”

“Yeah. Why don’t we plan on leaving after school and we’ll get on the river Friday morning. We can camp at that livery guy’s place.”

“Perfect.” Todd rushed out, though I’m not sure either of us knew why he was in a hurry, or even if he was. We just found ourselves truly excited and loving it.

I called Clara, who was coming over anyway later for dinner. She started crying as soon as I told her about the card and drove over right away. I called Chris’s parents to find out where they thought he might be. They gave me the phone number to the bookstore where he was working in Ann Arbor.

For my birthday dinner that night, my Grandma and Grandpa Lewis came over and met Clara for the first time. Grandma and Clara hit it off right away and were laughing together within minutes.

I’d invited Mrs. Neville too, but she, much to both Clara’s and my astonishment, had a date. It seemed she’d been seeing a guy who taught at the other high school in town, and they were going to a play that night. She’d asked me to stop by her classroom saying she had a card for me, and I’d meant to, but I’d forgotten. Now I couldn’t wait to see her to show her Yeti’s card.

I half wondered whether she’d been the sender. I really had no idea who’d sent it, and so far, none of the rest of us did either, although the idea of calling the Hinkles to see if they’d played a role didn’t seem like the thing to do.

I’d talked to both of them a time or two since Yeti’s death and they’d still been in absolute shock. Mr. Hinkle especially, was dealing with what appeared to be some awful guilt over forcing his hand regarding Yeti’s military service. Chris had spent more time with them than I had and he’d told me that he felt real tension between Mr. and Mrs. Hinkle. Mrs. Hinkle seemed to have laid the blame for Yeti’s death at the feet of her husband, who’d gamely picked it up and was carrying it; an extremely heavy cross.

Chris said that there’d been a change in Mrs. Hinkle. She’d been a quiet woman; whom, to our eyes, had always been subservient to the whims of Mr. H. Now, though, with the death of her son, she was somehow seeming stronger, rather than weaker. Her voice was different, with an edge that hadn’t been there before; not shrill at all, but confident and poised.

Ronnie had noticed a similar change in his Mom after Alma had died. What was it, I wondered, that made women get stronger in the face of tragedy while men, at least those I’d seen dealing with it, seemed to get weaker - or at least more outwardly so. Maybe; Chris had speculated about Mrs. Hinkle; she was feeling guilty too, for not speaking out against the idea of forcing Yeti to join up if she been against it. Maybe, he’d said, she’d wanted to but hadn’t, whether out of fear or some other emotion she’d never dealt with satisfactorily, and had concluded that she'd never make that particular mistake again.

That made sense to me, but I’d only talked to them a half dozen times in my whole life, and never at any length. I simply didn’t know them as well as Chris, who’d been around them since he was a toddler, so I hadn’t really noticed the dynamics in the relationship change anywhere near to the extent he had, though I had no reason to doubt his observations.

Suffice it to say, we were pretty sure the Hinkles hadn’t sent the card, and I sure didn’t want to upset them any further by bringing it up to them, at least for the time being.

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Spirited Minikin (2007-03-22)
Can't wait to find out who sent it...!

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