Faith's Bar Mitzvah part 13 #420 episode 172

"Gene is family! You don't turn family away, no matter what. See, way I hear he lost his job at the hospital over in Houston. Now he home living off his unemployment checks, because his money was long down here. He say he gone go back after six months, but for right now he was down here hunting a peace that only the country could bring. Child he sho know how to use dem big words! Yea..."

Darlean's voice trailed off down the hall. Faith was busy tying his shoes when his mother began talking about Gene. He slowed the squirrel's pace down the hole to hear what he thought was gossip, only to come to the conclusion it wasn't. He ran towards the screen door, she had let him venture off the post and freedom was his.

Faith could tell the weather was getting warmer. The rotten smell of the drying pond water that sat behind the weathered houses, was thick in the air. He and the other kids vowed never to swim in its murky depths. Other than the horses rolling in the mud at it's edge to ward off the seasonal mosquitoes, the pond was off limits. Faith pulled in a lung full and leaped off the porch. After checking all the usual spots, He found out all the kids were busy doing something already. He shook his head. Darlean had waited until well past one o'clock to tell him he could go play. He blamed her for the absence of the children, she knew what she was doing. His only course of action was Western Auto. He started the up hill.