SOLO ELITE THE GREAT AWAKENING

Teddy was always filthy—not because his parents didn’t love him, but because he was a boy who was always playing in the dirt and always using his shirts as a napkin, and that’s probably why we got along so well. Teddy Joe was the Palmers’ only child. Teddy had always wanted a big brother to play with, but he told me that he had settled for me because I was bossy enough. I didn’t understand everything about his sickness or why, on certain days, his parents wouldn’t let him out. Maybe I didn’t want to know.

Clack, clack. I could hear the sound of wood slapping together and snapping apart, coming from Teddy’s yard across the fence. I cautiously walked over to the wooden fence and found a large crack big enough to see to the other side. Teddy was standing there by a tree, shouting and wearing a funny-looking hat. He was swinging a stick at the tree and yelling like a madman. I could hear him call out, “Draw thy sword!”

I laughed as Teddy swung wildly at the wind so seriously. He just looked so silly; how could I not laugh?

Teddy froze after he gave the final death blow. Unsure if he was being watched, he slowly turned around.

Standing here, I thought about Mama and what she had said. I knew she really had told me not to let Teddy know that I had stayed home today, so I looked back toward the house to see if Mama was watching me, but I could tell she was in a deep coma-like sleep in the recliner. She seemed so understanding, under the present circumstances, and I was sure I saw her nod her head, as if telling me, Go. It’s your birthday. Turning again toward Teddy, I was met by his gaze staring back at me through the crack.

“Happy birthday, Robin,” said Teddy.

“Holy crap, Teddy!” I screamed and stumbled over my feet and fell on my butt. I whispered angrily, “Teddy, you scared me. What is your deal?”

Teddy stood there staring with a big dumb blank look on his face, just staring; he stood there with his nose running and with his eyes wide open as he wiped his nose on his dingy shirt. He made me so mad that, if I could have punched him through the fence, I would have. But he had given me a necklace through the hole in the fence and had said once more, “Happy birthday.” I couldn’t stay mad at him, and that’s how it always was with me and him. He always did something that irritated me that he was completely unaware of, but he was my friend and my only friend.

“Do you want to play with me, Robin?”

“Sure,” I said as I dusted off my pants.

“Cool. I got something I really want to show you!” said Teddy, before abruptly disappearing.

I looked for any sign of Teddy, puzzled by his strange response, although he was a little bit on the weird side. Suddenly the fence shook violently, and I heard the strangest noise ever. It was an animal-like grunting noise, maybe the sound a gorilla stuck in tar would make. Looking to the left of me, I could see that Teddy had found a section at the end of the fence where he was trying to squeeze his way through and was dangling in midair. Seeing him flail around like a madman in a funny hat and dangling by his pants was straight-up comical. His belt loop was hung up on the fence and then snapped, making Teddy flop to the ground like a baby giraffe being born. I stood there in amazement that he was unfazed by the fall.

Teddy sprang up, unhurt, and said, “So what do you want to do? Wait, that’s right! Do you want to walk down to the country store with me? My dad gave me five whole dollars!”

Like I said, Teddy was known for getting overly excited about dumb things. For a moment I thought about Mama and what she had told me, but she was asleep and would be for a long time. “Uh, why not?” I said.

Miss Honey’s Country Store was a broken-down place with the only gas station in town, and I don’t even think the pumps worked. There was an old gravel road that kinda ran alongside the main road. I think it must have been some sort of wagon trail at one point because there was an ancient wooden bridge beyond the cutaway and used to walk behind the gas station. I’m pretty sure Teddy and I were the only ones who knew about the old gravel road, which was more like a wooded trail now since the vegetation took over most of it.

Mr. Johnson’s house was right at the dead end where the entrance to the trail was. His was the last house on my street. It was a bit scary to enter that way because Mr. Johnson had at least a dozen big dogs that would bark and nearly jump over the fence to get us, but today we would avoid his house by cutting across the woods. The only way to do this was to use a trail behind my house that Teddy and I had carved out last summer. It would lead straight to the end of the gravel road near the gas station but would also add an extra fifteen minutes to the route. At least we wouldn’t have to take the chance of getting mauled to death by dogs.

The cooking being done in the store always smelled so good from down the road, but neither Teddy nor I ever had any real money to get anything other than a few pieces of candy. After we finally made it through the woods, we went to the front door of the country store. As we walked in, we were confronted with a heavy cigarette smoke smell mixed with the smells of old grease on the hot grill.

“No school today?” said the old lady behind the counter while knocking the ashes from her cigarette.

“No, ma’am. Not today,” I said while Teddy hid quietly behind me.

The old lady paused for a moment, standing there and squinting. “OK. What will it be, sweetheart? It’s a little early for lunch, but I’ll see what I can do for ya.”

I nervously replied, “Two cheeseburgers and two Cokes, please.”

The old woman took a final drag off her cigarette before heading to the kitchen. Teddy and I looked at each other, both a little nervous and a little unsure about what to do next.

Up until then we had never stayed more than a minute or two. I walked over to the booth in the corner closest to an old TV that was always on the news station, Teddy soon followed, sitting right beside me. Suddenly the front door opened, and the smoked poured out, and in walked Mr. Johnson, who then turned and picked up a newspaper. He smiled and waved at us, and took a seat a few tables down. I didn’t say much because I was afraid that Mr. Johnson would realize that I wasn’t in school today, but he was too busy reading his newspaper to notice.

“Here are your burgers and Cokes, kiddos,” said the old lady while holding the tray and shaking.

Teddy and I both said thank-you and ate slowly, waiting on Mr. Johnson to leave. We waited for at least an hour, but finally Mr. Johnson left, which meant it was safe for us to leave.

“Oh, man, I’m stuffed,” said Teddy as we walked out the door.

We both were way too full to attempt the long journey home through the makeshift trail, so we decided that we would take our chances with Mr. Johnson’s dogs and walk down the old gravel road. Teddy and I both headed behind the gas station with our to-go cups still in hand. The tree branches jabbed at our faces while the thorny vines hooked our clothing.

“OK, are you ready?” I asked Teddy.

Teddy nodded his head yes, and we set off down the gravel trail. Walking over the bridge, some of the smaller pieces of gravel fell through the cracks and splashed below.

“Teddy, wait,” I said while pointing down the trail.

One of Mr. Johnson’s dogs had gotten out and was now in the front yard barking at the garbage man.

“I’m not going down there, and, if we walk down the main road, I’ll surely get caught by Sheriff Lynch,” I said.

“Well then, we’ll have to cut through here to get to our trail. It we walk to the real opening farther down, the dog will see us, and then we’ll be Alpo for sure,” said Teddy.

We found the clearest section beside the bridge and made our way to the water.

“If we follow this stream, it’ll lead us back to our trail, and, if we get lost, I’m pretty sure that this is the same stream that leads behind my house,” I said.

“OK,” said Teddy, and we started walking, staying on the bank of the stream.