At the fence line, Grandma Toady’s truck was parked. The head lights were on, the doors were open and a flash light beam was scanning the area. Another flash light beam bobbed along the cow trail. Mama was already through the barbed wire fence. The flash light illumined her face. There were tear tracks on her cheeks and wild fear in her eyes.

Munch waved his flash light and called out, “We’re over here Mama. We’re okay.”

She stuttered, “I-I heard a gun shot.” The next instant, Munch was in her arms and she was sobbing against his shoulder.

He whispered, “Mama, its okay. Mr. Jenkins shot a boar. That’s all. I’m fine.”

“If anything happened to you, I don’t know what I would do.”

This was the thing. Once you lost someone you loved very much a fierce fear was born and Mama clung to him literally and figuratively too hard. He hated that he scared her, but truth be told the whole boar thing was the MOST exciting and scary thing that had every happened to him. He and Max would be talking about it when they were old men.

Grandma Toady, wasn’t emotional at all. She had raised six kids, four of which had been boys. When Max reached the truck she hugged him and told him, “Well, I guess you and me are going to be spending some more time together. If you want to hang out with me, you don’t have to get yourself grounded.”

Max like Munch was way too excited to care about being grounded. They would both care once the adrenaline rush leveled out, but right now they felt like MEN. They had survived the attack of a wild animal. Yeah, they climbed a tree and Mr. Jenkins was the one who shot the boar, but still…still it was AMAZING.

Gently, but firmly, Munch pulled away from Mama. She was embarrassing him. Munch noted that Lolly and Mitzi hadn’t come along. They were probably waiting at the trailer. He hoped they weren’t worried..

Grandma Toady said, “Okay, everybody in the truck!”

Munch helped Mama climb through the barbed wire fence. She was a bit wobbly. At the truck, he opened the door for her and she scooted inside. She left room for him, but he told her he was riding in back with Max. He needed to put some space between him and Mama’s hysterics. At this moment he just wanted to hold on to the excitement of the adventure and not feel the guilt of scaring Mama. He climbed into the truck bed and sat down beside Max. Max gave him a high five that he hoped Mama didn’t see. The truck bumped along the pasture. Both boys were still in the land of adrenaline high and it felt good! When they reached the trailers, Mitzi and Lolly were on the front porch. As soon as the truck stopped, Munch and Max hopped out. Mitzi ran to her brother and sobbed, “You ain’t dead, you ain’t dead. I thought you got shot!” For all her theatrics Mitzi had yet to shed a single tear.

Max rolled his eyes, but he still hugged his little sister. He said, “I’m okay Mitzi. Me and Munch got chased up a tree by a wild boar.”

Mitzi pulled away from him and asked, “A wild BEAR. Aunt Estelle said there weren’t no bears here.”

“No, a boar is a boy pig.”

“Oh. Yeah I saw them before. Aunt Estelle told me to never go near them. How come you and Munch was so dumb?” All concern real and fake for Max seemed to have drained right out of Mitzi.

Lolly hugged Max and then Munch. She whispered in his ear, “Glad you’re okay.” The instant she let go of him, Mama jerked his arm and said, “Home, now.”

The walk to the house was a quiet one. Mama didn’t say a thing, but Munch could feel her anger. She had gone from my son might be dead to, that little piece of crap scared the daylights out of me. Once they were inside, she said, “Go get cleaned up and then go to your room.” He did as he was told.

In the bathroom mirror he saw a huge gash on his face. He must have gotten that when he was scrambling up the tree. It might leave a scar. Now that would be cool. Gently, he cleaned it off with a cotton ball and some peroxide. It didn’t look deep enough to leave a scar, but it might. He took off his muddy clothes. He hadn’t been this dirty since he was a kid. Wow!

After his shower he went to his room. He was still so hyped up he couldn’t sit still. What he wanted to do more than anything was call Thahn Ho and tell her about the boar, but that wasn’t going to happen. At least not tonight. Finally, he turned on his record player and listened to BB King wail the blues. The music helped. Funny how the blues worked. They could sit with you and keep you company in a bad mood, or they could commiserate with you about the unfairness of life. They always made him feel less alone.

*

Mama didn’t talk to him until the next morning. She was calmer and she didn’t seem to be so pissed at him. He was shoveling oatmeal in his mouth when she sat down at the kitchen table with him. The first thing she said, surprised him, “Michael, I over reacted last night. My brother’s ran hog wild over this farm when they were your age and my Mama didn’t get hysterical when they broke a bone or needed stitches from their stupidity out in the woods. I am sorry if I embarrassed you.”

Stunned, Munch stared at her for a moment before he said, “It’s okay Mama.”

She gave him a smile and he felt better. He didn’t like it when they were at odds with each other. Not a single word was said about being grounded, so he didn’t ask. This was really too good to be true.

His mother glanced at the kitchen calendar. On the square that had the number 21 on it were the words Birthday Boy. Munch was the birthday boy, well he would be on the 21st of March. Mama turned back to him and asked, “Have you signed up for Driver’s Ed yet? Lolly has.”

Seriously, not this again. He wished Mama would get off his back about that stupid class. He was never gonna take it. Evasively he said, “Uh, no not yet.”

“Michael that class is going to be full. I have signed all the paper work. What is the hold up?”

The hold up was that ever since he and Max had gone on that stupid joy ride back in the fall, he had been afraid to drive. He honestly didn’t know why people called something so stupid a joy ride, from his experience it was no joy at all. The fact he got into a car and let a thirteen year old boy drive him anywhere was crazy stupid, but it had seemed like fun at the time. Max was actually a pretty good driver until he swerved to miss a rabbit and they plowed into the deep ditch on the side of the road. The trip to the hospital had not been fun at all. Last night he had faced a wild boar, but that boar had not been as scary as careening across the road, falling into a big ditch and smacking his head hard against the dash board. Munch shrugged and said, “You know I’m planning on moving to New York after I graduate college and no body drives there.”

Mama frowned. “It will be six or seven years before you can move to New York and I am not driving your sorry ass around for that long.”

His mouth dropped open. Mama didn’t t talk like that. She was so pleased with her racy talk she was about to start giggling.

He promised, or maybe he lied, “I will talk to the counselor Monday.”

“You better. I don’t want to pay for lessons for you, when the school offers Driver’s Ed for free.” She gave him a sideways glance before she said, “I was talking to Huong and she told me Thahn Ho has signed up.”

This he did not know. “What period?”

“I don’t. You’ll have to ask her.”

“Okay.” Drivers Ed was ON.