Jason’s First Date
from Book One of The Courting of Miss Macy Rose

   Jason Carter gripped the steering wheel of the 1946 dusty red Ford pickup truck as it bounced along the dirt road winding through the West Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains. In the pickup Jason was dodging big potholes filled with water and mud while swerving around fallen limbs that lay on the road from the fierce thunderstorm that came through two days ago. His shirt started to feel damp, it being summer with the humidity and all, and it was an awfully warm evening for June. More than anything else, Jason was feeling awful nervous about wanting to get where he was going to quicker than he was getting there. Even though he was moving as fast as he dared push the gas pedal down, he was only averaging about 5 miles an hour, more or less. His heart was beating kind of heavy because he knew he was late getting to Miss Macy Rose Miller’s house, on account of how bad the road was after the storm. Jason was going to pick her up for their first date, something they had planned now for a long time. Truth is, he was not only upset about being late, but he was worried something awful at the same time, fearing he was going to damage his daddy’s pickup if he hit one of those holes in the road too hard.  

   Now first off, Jason is my best friend. Me and Jason are both 17 years old and fixin to start our last year of high school this fall. Folks around here say Jason is a mighty handsome fellow, and I guess I would agree with that, mostly. He’s got what my ma says is chocolate brown hair, with streaks of lighter hair running through it from being in the sun all summer. Jason has blue eyes like the color of polished steel, and he’s just a little taller than I am, not so much as you’d hardly notice that is. His shoulders and arm muscles are hard from the years of growing up on a farm and working long hours any day he wasn’t in school, in church, or sick in the bed. Without his shoes on Jason’s at least six feet and one inch tall, which I know for a fact because since he says he’s taller than me I’ve made him prove it a time or two.

   So, if you are wondering who I am, my name is John David Hopewell, though most of the time I am just called JD. I grew up on my family’s farm which sits just down the dirt mountain road from the Carter’s place, and our farms run up against each other’s. Jason was born in February and my birthday is in March, so me and him really grew up together, sort of like twins almost. Seeing as how you could holler real loud and hear each other from our front doors, we spent most of our time together as kids. Then as we got older we’d work together a lot on each other’s farms, helping out and working alongside of his pa and mine. It was awful close to feeling like just one big family, because our folks was friends from way back too. I reckon I know Jason probably better than he knows his self, and the same goes for him knowing me. And I’d guess there’s almost nothing I can think of that we’ve done that we haven’t done it together. Same goes for everything we talk about, and that’s how I came to know so much about the story I am telling you here. So, this is the beginning of what I want to say about my best friend, Jason Carter, and how he come to be courting Macy Rose Miller.

   Jason had been planning this date with Macy Rose for close to two years. He had on a new plaid blue and white shirt he had saved to wear for just this occasion. After he put the shirt on he tucked it real neat into the slim waist of his clean and stiff blue jeans that his ma had just washed for him.  The reason I’m saying all this is because most of the time I don’t think either me or Jason cared all that much about how we looked. But this was a real special time and he wanted to look his very best. After scrubbing up in the shower two or three times as long as usual, he took extra care in how he combed his hair and brushed his teeth. Then he finished everything off with a couple of splashes of his pa’s Old Spice after shave. He brushed and polished his Sunday shoes, then slipping them on his feet he said goodbye to his ma and pa. And that’s how he come to be on that dirt road trying to get to Macy’s house after that thunderstorm had done messed everything up.

    “Man, this road is one cotton-pickin’ mess!” he yelled, though it was to nobody but his self. “I guess that storm was worse ‘n I thought.” Then, about as soon as he had said all of that out loud, he went around a corner and stalled the truck because he didn’t push in the clutch in fast enough before hitting the brakes. There he was, smack dab right in front of a big old limb the size of a tree, just laying across the road. That limb had to be moved before he could get past it. There just was no other way at all. “Well shoot, ‘least I got stopped in time,” was all he had to say even though he was the only one what heard it.

   Jason had his eye on Macy Rose Miller for over two years now, ever since her family moved from North Carolina up to West Virginia. The Millers had bought their selves a farm a little over two years ago, up the road past the Carter’s place. So it’s about, maybe three or four miles from Jason’s, though I never measured it. That might not sound like much of a distance to a lot of folks, but here in the mountains where we got a lot of dirt roads it can be a real challenge to get that far if you’re in much of a hurry. Especially after a storm like the one we had two days ago that left trees and limbs down and everything just a big muddy mess. 

   Now, Macy Rose, she has blonde hair and blue-green eyes that dance like a bonfire. She’s kind of tall and thin, and when she smiled at Jason that first day she came to the high school, for him it was like the sun had come out after a long time of gray clouds. Fact is, he was stopped right there where he stood and as soon as he could move himself he walked over to her and introduced his self. She was friendly, just a little bit shy, and she seemed on the quiet side. Now for Jason, everything he saw right in front of him was just about as close to perfection as he could imagine. And it was all wrapped up in one very beautiful girl who had just smiled at him the sweetest smile he had ever seen in his life. 

   Somewhere in their first conversation he asked her if she might perhaps like to go with him over to the town of Parson’s Home, where they could maybe see a movie together. Then after that maybe they could get a milkshake at the drug store, which was practically right next to the movie theater. Now Parson’s Home isn’t much of a town, it’s so small that folks can drive right past it and never know they’ve been some place. But it has a General Store, a real small movie theater that only shows movies on Saturday nights, and then a small drug store that has ice cream. We all went to a country school that’s just outside of Parson’s Home. Oh, I left out that we have a Post Office too, it’s right inside The General Store. 

   So, after Jason asked Macy Rose about the movie and the milkshake, she replied very sweetly that while that all sounded just as nice as could be, her daddy had set a rule a long time ago that she could not date any boy until she was at least 17 years old.

   Jason’s heart kind of felt like a free flying bird what had been shot down out of a blue sky on an otherwise perfectly fine day. But he knew right off that he had got ahead of his self, because there was no possible way his folks would let him go on a date at age 15 either. Especially with a girl from a family they had not even met yet.

   Jason was just a little embarrassed but tried his best to hide it. “So how ‘bout we should make a promise to each other, an’ as soon as we both turn 17 we’ll make a date t’ see a movie t’gether an’ then we can have that milkshake at the drug store.”

   Macy smiled and her eyes flashed. “I think that sounds nice, Jason Carter. Yes, I would like t’ do that.”  

   “When is your birthday?” Jason asked.  

   “June the 19th.” 

   “Mine’s February the 7th… I am gonna mark a calendar tonight.”

   “You got yourself a calendar that’s two years from now?”

  Jason felt a little more embarrassed now, it was like he was stumbling all over his self. “Oh, yeah. I guess you’re right. Well, soon as we get t’ 1957 then I am gonna mark it, I promise. Sometime near the end o’ June then.”  

   Macy smiled again. “I think that sounds like a fine idea, Mr. Carter. An’ I promise t’ keep my social calendar open.”

   Later, when Jason told me all about their conversation, he said, “JD, her voice is so soft an’ her smile is so sweet, I think she could talk t’ flower buds in January an’ have them turn their heads an’ open up in bloom right in front o’ your eyes.”

   I looked right at Jason. “So you’re sayin’ she’s like the sun t’ you, an’ she’s the light in your eyes?”

   “I reckon so. I never seen any other girl like her in my whole life.”

   So, as he was swerving slowly around those watery holes on that muddy road Jason was thinking about every word she’d spoken, every look he’d seen on her face, and every blond hair on Macy’s head that moved in the breeze outside the schoolhouse that day. It was all as fresh on his mind as it was over two years ago, in 1955. It had sure been a long two years for him, but now it was passed, and Macy’s daddy said she could finally go on that date with Jason Carter. 

   All through that day as he was working on their farm, he was counting the hours and minutes until it was time to get ready to go pick her up. His daddy had said he could use the pickup, and Jason had even washed it and cleaned up the inside that afternoon. As soon as he could, Jason gobbled down a bit of supper and scrubbed his self up in the shower until his skin was red. It was their first date, just the two of them, a young man and a young woman who might just possibly be on the very edge of falling in love.

   “No, that’s not quite right.” Jason would correct me for saying that. In those two years’ time since they first met, he had fallen unashamedly and madly in love with Miss Macy Rose Miller. Though she had never quite committed herself to those kind of words on the matter, Jason was pretty sure she felt much the same towards him. He had himself a ton of hopes for it, anyways.  

   Now as I was saying before, me and Jason became friends when we was little. Fact is, I don’t remember us not being friends, and I can’t remember one single time we ever had a fight. Now I’ve got me four little brothers and I can’t say the same about them and me. Oh, I love them sure enough, we are brothers and all, but I fight with them, they fight with me, and they fight each other. I guess brothers do that. But not me and Jason. We’re as close as brothers and there’s never been a hard word between us.

   Of course, I never fought with my sister Mary Beth. She’s four years younger than me, but we’ve always been real close and we get along just fine.  

   With Jason and me, we spent our growing up hiking through the woods, hunting small game with bows and arrows, shooting our guns at ghost bandits and imaginary beasts, hunting for wild game with our dads, and skinny dipping in the pond. We’d love to go out camping and sleep under the stars when the weather was perfect for that sort of thing. Seems like Jason and me are just about the same in everything I can think of, so I guess being such good friends just came natural to us. 

   One time when we were maybe four or five, we were outside the steps of the church when Jason suddenly hollered out, “John David Hopewell, you are my best friend an’ I will be your best friend for the rest o’ my life, an’ even after that.” People laughed at us, and one old lady remarked on how cute we little boys were. But those words said it all, from then on that’s how it’s been. I love my family, but nobody’s ever been as close to me as Jason Carter. So when Jason decided to fall in love with Macy Rose it come as kind of a surprise to me. That’s when I noticed things starting to change with Jason, and I didn’t know what to think of it at first. I liked her and all too, I mean you can’t help but like somebody as pretty and nice as Macy. But from then on Jason seemed to be talking about her real often, and wanting to see her every chance he got.

   About when we started up in high school there was times we talked about what we wanted to do when we graduated. Now that we’ve got just one more year to go, we’d been talking about different ideas and plans. That felt normal seeing as how for a long time we had said that whatever one of us did the other one would do too. So, the older we got the more serious we were in talking about it. That’s all been starting to get more complicated though, since Macy Rose was taking up more of Jason’s attention. I could see that all our planning now had to include Macy in the picture. It’s not that I minded, I am not the sort to get troubled over stuff like that, but it does set me to wondering what will become of the future. Jason dreams of marrying Macy Rose some day, and that would be a fine thing, I guess. It’s sure something when your best friend you’ve been knowing almost all your life decides he is in love. It got me to wondering how it will be if I ever fall in love. I expect I will some day, because it seems to be the way of things. Right now I sure don’t know who it would be. But watching Jason I figured I was learning things about life that some day I would know first hand for myself. 

   All of these thoughts about Macy, himself, me, and the future were flowing through Jason’s mind like a river, starting from his earliest memories and winding through the hills moving off into the distance where hopes and dreams live. And that’s when it happened. In his daddy’s pickup he had come to a dead stop on the road right in front of that huge limb that was the size of a tree. It was laying clear across the road from one side to the other. When he saw the limb, which was really more of a log, he hit the brakes but he forgot to put the clutch in all the way, and so the engine on the truck stalled. Yeah, it just plain quit on him. Right off he knew for sure now that he was really going to be late getting to Macy Rose’s house.

   Looking through the truck windshield at that log on the road in front of him, Jason was trying to figure out how he was going to move it without getting too muddy. He was hoping he could anyway. Jason stepped real careful getting out of the pickup, choosing the best places to put his feet so he wouldn’t step into any of the deep mud holes. As he closed the pickup door, he saw the side of the truck was splashed and splattered with mud and dirt, which told him it had been completely useless to clean it up and wash it like he’d done. He walked up to the log, and it was awfully big. Off at the side of the road he tried to pick the log up or budge it on the one end, but it was like that end of it had hit the ground coming down. It was stuck deep down into the mud. He figured it must have fell awful hard.

   Next, Jason set to wrasslin with it pretty good to get it unstuck out of the mud, and right off his hands and arms and shirt sleeves was in the mud. He knew he’d have to lift awful hard and drag the log out of the way. All this time while he was working with it to move it, he sure was wishing he had thrown a chainsaw into the back of the truck. The other end of that log was all tangled up in the trees so he knew there was no way he could move it from there.    

   The whole thing was like he was fighting against something bigger and more stubborn than he was. Now, when that log finally moved, it come loose with a big and sudden jerk, with the end of it popping fast out of the ground and mud flew up all in front of him, hitting him smack in the face and hair, and then landing everywhere else on his clothes, even inside his shirt. Looking down at his shirt and pants he saw he had big splatters of mud all over him. His blue and white shirt was now more of a brown-red color, and his blue jeans only hinted at being blue. His shoes were all mired up too and heavy with all the mud caked to the bottoms of them. By the time he got that big log out of the way he didn’t look like his self no more. 

   Now there was just nothing he could do about that mud that was all over him, so he looked in the pickup and found a rag behind the seat. He sort of wiped his face and hands off on it, though all he really did was manage to smear the mud around some. Letting out a big sigh, Jason got back in the pickup and pushed the starter button. He figured he might as well keep on going even though he was late and covered in mud now. But as many times as he tried, that engine never roared up. An awful feeling of discouragement was settling over him, seeing as how it didn’t seem like there was much more that could go wrong at this point. After waiting a minute or so he tried the starter again, but again, nothing happened. That truck just wasn’t going to start, no matter how many times he tried that starter button.

   He got out of the cab again and opened the hood up, so he could look over the engine, but truth be told he had no idea what he was looking for. Finally he slammed the hood shut and then one more time he tried the starter, but that pickup still refused to start. He sat there behind the steering wheel trying to think and decide on what he should do. He could walk back home and get his pa to come help him, but they only had the one truck. In the end he decided he would just walk the rest of the way to Macy Rose Miller’s house, and that way he could at least apologize for the date what just got ruined.

   I guess Jason was a real sight to see as he come walking up the road and on to the Miller’s front yard. He was tempted to not show up at all, with him being covered from head to toe with all that mud, but he knew it wasn’t the right thing to do.  And he knew he wasn’t going to impress anybody now, that was for sure. He had done all that scrubbing up and dressing up for nothing. As he walked up to the front porch, he saw Macy Rose sitting there by herself in a rocking chair, wearing a real pretty yellow dress. She was just sitting there, rocking and waiting for him. 

   Macy saw Jason walking across the grass and as he got close she called out, “Hey you. How come you’re walkin’? You know you are over a hour late, Mr. Carter. What happened?” 

   “Hey. I am so sorry, Macy Rose. My pickup broke down back a mile ‘r so on the road. I had t’ get out to move a big ol’ log what had fell ‘cross the road an’ when I stopped the truck quit. It wouldn’t start again, so I figured I’d walk over here an’ at least explain an’ apologize t’ you. Looks like we’re not gonna get t’ see that movie t’night.” 

   “Oh, well, I guess that’s ok. I mean, you couldn’t help it an’ all. You sure did get yourself dirty though. Did you fall down ‘r somethin’?” 

   She started to laugh but kept it short when she saw Jason weren’t in no mood to laugh at all. He’d been planning and looking forward to this night for over two years and just about everything that could go wrong had just gone wrong and his heart felt sunk. It was turning out to be the worst Saturday night he’d ever had. He figured the only thing he hadn’t done yet to embarrass his self was to throw up right in front of Macy Rose. But the truth was, that’s pretty much exactly what he felt like doing. 

   Now, Jason didn’t let the whole thing bother him for too long.  Fact is, a week later they went on that date and that time everything was just fine. There would come many a time when we’d all laugh over that whole thing and every time the story got told it seemed to get funnier and muddier. Making people laugh is not my natural-born talent, not like some people. Now Macy’s brother David, he always had that ability for making a joke out of anything. Sometimes I didn’t even understand his meaning in it, but David liked to make folks laugh just about every chance he got.

   So while Jason were standing there dripping mud onto the Miller’s front grass, David come stepping out onto the porch from inside the house. He nodded a hello to Jason and then looking at him close he said, “Wo, wo, wo. What happened t’ you? You get into a mud fight with a’ angry squirrel on your way over here?” 

   Macy started to laugh a little after what David said, but again she stopped herself when she saw Jason weren’t smiling. Jason looked up at David like he was ready to give up. “Ha ha, David, very funny. More like a fight with a big ol’ log what fell ‘cross the road. Then my daddy’s pickup wouldn’t start back up for me.”

   “Well, that’s some tough luck. That was a mighty big storm what come through here. I didn’t know there was a log ‘cross the road, I ain’t been out there since it blowed an’ rained so hard. Must o’ been worse than I thought. Where’s your pickup now?”

   “A ways down the road, maybe a mile or so. I don’t know, it was hard t’ tell with how muddy the road is an’ all.” 

   “So you walked here?” 

   “Yes, I did.” Jason was getting impatient with talking to David Miller, because he came here to see Macy, and he wasn’t quite sure if he was all done apologizing yet. All he really wanted to know right now was that Macy wasn’t too unhappy and that she’d still go out with him on a date real soon.

   “Look Macy Rose, like I said, I am just as sorry as I can be, but maybe we can plan this for another night? I ‘spect I best be headin’ back home, seein’ as how I’ll be walkin’. My Daddy is gonna need his pickup first thing in the mornin’ an’ I somehow got t’ get it home. I might maybe can get JD t’ help me.”

   David looked at Jason and smiled. “Well, I can help you. I’ll drive you back to your truck an’ try t’ start it for you, I’m pretty good with stuff sometimes. In case we can’t get it started I’ll bring ‘long a chain an’ I can tow it for you back t’ your place.”

   “I’d surely be much obliged, David. That’s mighty kind o’ you, if it ain’t too much trouble.”

   “Oh, it’s no trouble, it might be fun anyway. I didn’t have nothin’ t’ do tonight since nobody asked me t’ go see a movie an’ get a milkshake.” David laughed but I don’t think that either Jason or Macy thought he was all that funny this time. They were both disappointed that after waiting all this time, on account of her pa saying they had to, that their first date seemed nothing more than just plain busted up. 

   Macy stood up and brushed herself off. “Well, Mr. Carter, since you are already here an’ you pro’bly haven’t had your supper, no sense in wastin’ the entire evenin’. Come on in an’ have supper with us, Mama is just about t’ set it on the table.” 

   David was real quick to agree. “That’s a great idea, Macy. Yeah, come on in, Jason. Well, uh, maybe you might wanna rinse your shoes off at the hose? Or even just take ‘em off?”

   “I ‘spect I should pro’bly do both. Thanks.”

   “Well wait, I got some clean clothes you can put on, might not fit you as good as they do me, but you’ll feel a whole lot better not drippin’ mud all over my mama’s kitchen.” 

   “I can’t argue on that, an’ I’d appreciate it, I surely would. Maybe I can just go change in the shed t’ keep the mud out o’ the house. An’ I’ll wash up some at the hose. Thanks, David.”

   “You’re welcome, I’m sure, Mr. Carter. It’ll be just like tryin’ on clothes at a fancy store, with your own private dressin’ room.” Jason didn’t know exactly what he was talking about, but then David is two years older than him, and he’s been to a lot of places so he knows a lot more about the ways of things. 

   Jason didn’t know why everything that David said seemed to always have a joke attached to it. He was always making people laugh though. Well, except me I reckon, I didn’t always find him to be so funny, and I reckon right now Jason didn’t either. But then neither one of us knew David all that well, and we always sort of figured his jokes were putting us down. Jason told his self in his mind that he was not going to be unhappy, but I reckon he come close to it a time or two by this point. What he had expected would be the best night of his life so far, had come down to a muddy mess and a broke down pickup, and him now about to be wearing Macy’s brother’s clothes, a guy he didn’t even like all that much.

   Pretty soon David came out the door again with a stack of clothes under one arm, including clean socks, and in the other hand was a bowl with a wash rag and a towel. “There’s a hose by the shed, you can wash some o’ that mud off you, an’ put these on. You might not look much better but I reckon you’ll feel a lot better. I can help you with the hose if you want, I’ll hold it for you I mean.” 

   “Thanks, David, I ‘preciate it.”

    David being 19, he was a couple years ahead of Jason and me in high school, so he had already graduated last year. Though they knew each other of course I doubt anybody around would ever have called Jason and David “friends.” Ours was just a small country high school and some classes mixed the grades, so Jason had been around David some in the time before he graduated. And while he had never thought of him as a real friend, since he was Macy’s brother he did see a lot of him when he’d call over at the Miller’s house. And like I already said, David would joke around a lot and that would irritate Jason at times. I reckon he would have liked to be taken more seriously, and not just be treated like a younger kid, sort of like how it was back in high school.

   Jason felt comfortable at the Miller’s supper table, seeing as how he’d eaten with the family several times over the past couple of years. The Carters were near neighbors and had become one of the Miller’s first friends they had made since they moved here from North Carolina. The Millers had bought this farm that has a big apple orchard on it. Like most of the rest of us that have farms, they spent much of their time working on the farm. It seemed to Jason that Harve Miller was more on the quiet side, but he would usually listen up whenever someone else was talking. His wife Letty was a lot friendlier, a real sweet lady and she had a big soft spot in her heart for Jason. Harve seemed indifferent to his daughter having a boyfriend, other than his very determined rules of course, including the one that she would not date until she was 17. All in all, Jason truly liked the Millers and cared for them more all the time, especially Macy Rose. And he did notice that David was being pretty nice and treating him more like a friend this night. He felt like maybe he was seeing a different side of David, one that he liked some better than before. 

   Harve Miller ate his supper without saying a word, but the laughter around the table that night was good for Jason, even though he would have rather had that time to be alone with Macy. Mrs. Miller and the young folks all joked and teased over lots of little things. They left out the subject of Jason’s being late and all muddied up when he come walking across the front grass. I guess David figured Jason had all the teasing he wanted from that for now. When supper was over Harve sat in their living room reading while Letty cleaned up. David brought out a deck of cards and the three teenagers played Rummy for probably going on a couple of hours. During that time Jason found that he actually enjoyed David’s company and his sense of humor. He didn’t seem near as stuck up and unfriendly right then as he did back in high school. 

   Then David stood up and looked out the window. “It’ll be gettin’ dark real soon. We pro’bly should get back t’ your pickup while we still have a little daylight, so I can drive you over there now. Macy, you want to come ‘long for the ride?” 

   “Nah, I think I will stay home, seein’ as how you don’t know how long it’s gonna take. I got a book I’d like t’ read tonight.” She looked at Jason with a smile, “Thank you ever so much for such a fine first date, Mr. Carter. I do hope t’ have the pleasure of your comp’ny again on some occasion.” 

   Jason had never noticed before that Macy had a sense of humor so much like David’s. His mouth kind of dropped open a bit, thinkig’ that right then she had sounded just like her brother. Then he thought that it wasn’t such a bad thing, being teased after all, though he did like it better coming from Macy than he did David, at least right now anyway. He wondered if maybe the joking and teasing was her and David’s way of saying, “I had a good time an’ I like you.” It was a curious thing to him. Jason’s family and mine joked around a lot, but it seemed we always knew where it was coming from and there was never any doubts that it came from being loved. He’d always thought that when David teased it always sounded like he thought of himself sort of better than others. Jason figured he had to think on that some.

    “I guess I’m ready t’ go then. Good night, Macy Rose, an’ good night Mrs. Miller.” He called over to Harve and said in a louder voice, “Good night Mr. Miller, an’ thank-you for settin’ a place for me at your table.”

    Harve Miller never looked up from his reading but he said, “Fine, fine Jason. Give my howdy t’ your folks.” 

   Jason and David walked outside where the air had cooled, and it felt fresh. Dave took a deep breath, then he said, “I love these kind of evenin’s, don’t you? Looks like it’s a nice sunset t’night. I love watchin’ the sunsets. Lot’s o’ times I’ll go for a walk by myself ’bout this time o’ night, after I got all my chores done. Just seein’ an’ feelin’ the colors o’ the sunset an’ the air changin’ is a kind of a happy feelin’ an’ a lonely one, all at the same time.” 

   “Yeah? I feel that way too. I watch the sunsets a lot, an’ I always enjoy it.” Jason wasn’t used to David talking like a friend to him about things he felt inside, and it got him to thinking maybe he and David had some things about them that were the same. He had never thought on it too hard before, but that’s exactly how he would always feel watching a sunset, enjoying the beauty but feeling a deep loneliness inside of him. His pa always said that was a feeling called melancholy. That was not a word Jason would say very often. 

   “Do you miss goin’ t’ school, David?”

    “Me? Nah, I can’t say that I do. School was all right, but we moved around so much all the while I was growin’ up that I was always goin’ to a new one an’ I never made any kind o’ real friends.”

   “Wow, I can’t even imagine that. JD an’ me been best friends ever since we was little, an’ I always went t’ the same school.” 

   “I know, I remember. You two were thicker ‘n thieves. How is JD these days, anyways?” 

   “Oh, he’s fine, I’ll be seein’ him t’morrow. We’re plannin’ t’ go swimmin’ once we get our work done.” 

   “That sounds nice, it’s gonna be a hot day t’morrow.”

    “Well, I don’t think I’m gonna miss school at all. One more year t’ go. JD an’ me are startin’ t’ talk about what we want t’ do when we graduate. You just been workin’ on your farm? You got any ideas what you want t’ do?”

   “Yeah, mostly I just been workin’ here, there’s always plenty t’ do, an’ the orchard takes up a lot o’ time. I wouldn’t mind gettin’ me a job but there’s no jobs right around here right now what I know of. I did hear that they are hirin’ up at the loggin’ camp an’ I was thinkin’ I might check in t’ that. It might be interestin’.” 

   Listening to him, Jason got to thinking on how he had more conversation with David Miller this night than any other time in all the while he’d known him. Fact is, he thought David was real nice to talk to, and he was seeing how David and Macy were more alike than he ever thought before.

   In a while they got to Jason’s pickup and it was just settin there looking kind of pitiful surrounded by the mud puddles. David parked his pa’s pickup and shut it off. “Let me try t’ start it first. It might be that you just flooded it.” Seeing that log what had done Jason in, David whistled. “Wow, that was a big log. It’s lucky you come out of it alive!”

   Jason smiled at David. “Maybe you’re right, David Miller. That thing almost had me but I fought it hard.” They both laughed some. “Ok, you try t’ start it, an’ I hope it works.” 

   David pumped the gas pedal three times and then pushed on the starter. On the first try the engine just made a slow grinding sound and wouldn’t start. Then on the second try the engine fired up to life, and David looked very pleased with his mechanical abilities. “I would say you‘re ready t’ go now. Just get yourself turned around an’ avoid as many mud puddles as you can, an’ don’t stop the truck til you get home.” 

   Jason didn’t think he needed quite so much instruction but he was truly grateful at that moment for David’s help. And he was enjoying how he made him laugh. “Thanks again! I’m much obliged, an’ I’ll see ya ‘round.”

   “Good night, Jason. Hey, wait. It was a lot o’ fun this evenin’. I’m actually glad your truck wouldn’t start an’ you had t’ stay home with us. Sorry you missed out your date though. But I had a real fine time. I’d like t’ do somethin’ with you again sometime, if you want.” 

   “Well, that’d be nice, David. We can do somethin’ sometime. You know where I live, but I don’t remember you ever bein’ at my house.”

   “Nah, I don’t think I’ve been there. I’ve talked t’ your folks a few times though. I guess mostly when they come over here t’ see my folks. I run in t’ your pa at The General Store a time or two an’ we talked some. I enjoyed that a whole lot. He’s a nice man. Smart too.”

   “Yeah, I think so. Pa is a real good man. Well, you come on by sometime then, we’ll put out the welcome mat.”

   “What does that mean?”

   “It’s just a sayin’, JD’s pa says it all the time. I guess it just means you’re always welcome t’ come by. You pass our place ever’ time you go down the mountain.”

   “Yeah. I don’t go out much since I graduated, I mostly just work around here. Pa keeps me real busy. He’s sort o’ determined that way. A farm life is a workin’ life, I know that. But you know, there’s nothin’ I can think of I would rather do than bein’ outside an’ workin’ in the woods or in the orchard. I love the peace.  I hate bein’ cooped up inside all the time. I guess that’s one reason I don’t miss school at all.”

   “I hear you on that, I feel the same way. I love bein’ outdoors an’ workin’ on the land. Well, I better get home now, thanks again!”

    David watched Jason turn the pickup around and then head away from him. He stood there making sure Jason was moving along all right until he couldn’t see the red tail lights of his pickup no more.