“It had been around for years. I told him it wasn’t stable,” Mrs. Pearson said, sounding satisfied.
“Anyway … we decided to try it out, and it worked like a dream. One of the stumps flew about ten feet into the air.”
“You would have loved it,” Roc said with a big smile.
I could see how blowing some stuff up could be a good time.
“We thought we knew what we were doing.”
“The key word there is ‘thought,’” Mrs. Pearson reminded him.
“Well, it did make it all go faster,” he defended himself.
“What went wrong?” I asked.
“We had this big maple-tree stump next to an old shed. After doing a few, we’d gotten the hang of digging the hole to put the dynamite in so it would direct the stump to where we wanted it. But this time, we put a stick in, and when it detonated, it did nothing but blow dirt everywhere. This was the biggest and last stump, so I figured we could use the last three sticks to dislodge it.
“When we set it off, the stump shot a hundred feet into the air. Some of the root system must have been under the stone wall of the shed because it shot rocks everywhere. We had all ducked behind the Bauers’ pickup truck, and it was good that we did. It did over three thousand dollars’ worth of body and windshield damage.
“We also lost a few windows on the side of the house, which was about 300 yards away. Rock was found in fields almost a quarter-mile from where the stump had been,” he explained.
“Tell him about the police,” Mrs. Pearson urged.
“That was a bit of a problem. They got calls from all over, reporting a bomb going off. We’d used up all the dynamite, so they let me off with a warning.”
“Next time you do something like that, call me,” I said.
It was probably good that my mom wasn’t there, but my grandma had some pointed commentary on the matter. I just winked at Mr. Pearson to let him know that if he wanted a partner in crime, I was in.
◊◊◊
Zoe and I went for a walk after dinner. We ended up on the bluff that overlooked the river. It was the perfect place to build a home once the river was cleaned up and fixed. It was so peaceful back here. I sat down with my back to a walnut tree, and Zoe sat in front of me and leaned back into my arms.
“How’s your summer going?” I asked.
“We sold some horses, so I was able to buy new colts to train. Most of the early training is just spending time with them so they get used to people.”
“I didn’t know you did that,” I admitted.
“Dad decided that I could try it this year. My goal is to get them broken and saddle-trained so I can sell them. The money will go towards college expenses.”
“It seems everyone has college on the brain. Tracy is freaking out about where she’s going. Even Coach Hope was asking me where I plan to attend.”
“Where do you plan to go?”
“I probably won’t decide until the spring signing period, if I play football.”
“What do you mean, ‘if’? I thought that was what you planned to do,” Zoe asked as she turned her head so she could look me in the eyes.
“I might skip college, and either do movies or play baseball.”
She laughed at me.
“Your mom will kill you.”
“I could convince her. Don’t you think I could take distance-learning classes? You can get your degree online now. If I play baseball, I could take classes during the offseason,” I said.
“When would that be? Baseball ends in either September or October. Then there’s winter ball if you’re developing, and spring training is after that. You’d play ball almost year-round.”
“When did you get so smart about baseball?” I asked.
“Since you started to get good at it,” Zoe said, and then she smirked. “Tami told me.”
“I believe that.”
“You might do movies?” Zoe asked.
“I don’t know. All that makes my head hurt right now. I guess I’ll find out how good I am next week.”
“Tami says you’ll be just fine.”
“When did you talk to Tami?” I asked.
“We all drove up with her mom for a girls’ weekend. Well, everyone except Halle. She was off promoting your movie. She said you were a jerk for shooting your Cuban movie during the release.”
I chuckled.
“Halle didn’t need me for that. I bet she loved it.”
“She did, but we all could tell she missed you. She wanted to share that with her big movie-star boyfriend.”
“I’m not her boyfriend,” I shot back.
Zoe just sighed. I know, I’m a ‘stupid boy.’
“Have you talked to her since you came back?” Zoe asked.
“Yeah. Halle and her mom are having a rough time of it. Fritz told me that Trip is doing well enough that they can take him back to LA. They want him to see a specialist about his shoulder wound.”
“What about his friend?”
“They’re having the funeral this weekend; same for the bodyguard that was shot.”
“Are you planning on going?” Zoe asked.
“No. I knew Craig, but we weren’t really friends, and I never met Andy. Plus, I need to focus on baseball, and the trip across the country would be too much.”
“Tami said you wouldn’t go,” Zoe said.
I just was quiet for a minute.
“Do you miss him?”
Leave it to Zoe to figure out that my best friend Jeff would be the reason I didn’t want to go to a funeral. My stomach tightened as the memories flooded back. Like Craig, Jeff had been taken much too soon. There was also the sense of helplessness. There was nothing I could have done to prevent either death. Somehow, I felt that if I’d been there, it might have turned out differently. How? I have no idea.
I’d talked to Uncle John after Jeff had died and told him my thoughts. He just shook his head and explained the futility of that line of thinking. Uncle John made some comment about part of it was being young and believing I could do anything. One of life’s lessons was that sometimes, things are just out of your control. All you could do was pray and turn it over to God. That’s not as easy as it sounds, though.
“Do you want to pray about it?” Zoe asked, guessing why I’d gone quiet.
“Do you mind?” I asked.
“Never.”
◊◊◊ Wednesday June 15
Paul was called back to LA for a meeting with Fritz and all his other employees. I was told not to get into any trouble until he got back. I didn’t expect we needed security, but Dad said that someone had tried to scale the fence while I was gone. Paul left after getting my promise to be good, though he seemed skeptical.
Cassidy was put in charge of my security. She decided I had slacked off long enough. After baseball, she took me to the dojo with her dad and Brook. Coach Hope was impressed with what we’d learned in Cuba. Shiggy stopped by to see what we were up to.
“You can stop right there. You’ll end up hurting yourself if you aren’t properly trained. It sounds like he was showing you shortcuts that aren’t allowed in my dojo,” Shiggy said.
“The stuff he taught us seemed to work,” I said.
Shiggy shook his head.
“What he taught you was a part of what is called ‘Iron Hand’ or ‘Iron Palm.’ It was originally part of the 72 arts of the Shaolin temple. That takes years to learn to do right, and many teachers only teach a select few how to do it.
“It is devastating when done correctly,” Shiggy admitted. “The downside is that it can cause you harm learning it. I don’t expect you’re interested in losing flexibility or range of motion. You have too much of your future depending on that arm of yours. I would never risk it just to learn how to hit someone harder. If you want to do that, go buy a gun.”
I was sold. But I didn’t think Cassidy was.
“I want to learn to do it,” she said, confirming my fear.
“I’ll buy you a gun,” I offered.
She looked at her dad. Clearly, I’d stepped in it.
“I told her she couldn’t have a gun,” Coach Hope said.