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Joey's back. He and John Jr. came walking through the back door about an hour ago. John Jr.'s a bit cut up but was more worried about his dad than anything. Joey seems fine...in body. I'm not so sure about otherwise. Jubie didn't come back with them. John Jr. says Joey won't talk about it. He doesn't know what happened. Joey won't talk to us either.
After Jesse and I nursed the boys' cuts and pushed them off to bed, we went out on the back porch and joined Mary and Variety. Mary had just returned from the hospital. She said John Sr. was doing amazingly well. The doctors said he could come home later this afternoon. She made up some story about a hunting accident. They seemed to have bought it. Mary is one of their own. She filled out all the paper work to cover our story. She says two weeks ago it would have been impossible to take a gunshot through the hospital without a police report but these days they were too busy with other trauma cases to worry about it.
Nobody in particular answered. The ladies seemed to be lost in their own thoughts. I looked out through the murky morning air at the drab, leafless trees bordering the backyard, wishing I could take a week off for snorkleing in Cancun, or maybe a couple of weeks in a lodge in Colorado. Wishing is great stuff. It takes your mind off what you've got those times you don't want to have it. Wishing makes you feel like anything is possible no matter how dim your prospects look. It was the child in me...wishing.

"That's something to worry about alright." The little black boy was standing by the screen door playing with the latch. "When the `Awakening' came, the children could no longer avoid the `gere'. They are in great pain and confusion. Most of these children have been badly hurt. They knew only fear and hate until their `friends' came. They are learning to love, to forgive. They are being healed but it is a slow, halting process. "We draw them towards the light but the pull of the `gere' is powerful." He quit fiddling with the screen door and came over and crawled into my lap. "You know, you're running that `parent' number again. Didn't I warn you about that." He gave me that nasty, condescending little smile.