“White shirt and jeans,” Artexplained.
“What is it?” Erin asked from the recliner beside thesofa.
Wes studied the picture, smiling as though he knew very well that he had likely been mistaken during theirdebate.
“Wes and I have a disagreement about what we were wearing this one day a very long time ago, and I just found the outfit he waswearing.”
“This is in one photo. I hardly ever worethat.”
“I remember you wearing it around town,” Art assuredhim.
“No. I’m not conceding. Get me a photo of that day, and then maybe I’llreconsider.”
Art shook his head, knowing he wasn’t going to have any luck changing Wes’s mind, but enjoying trying nonetheless. Still, it was nice that he’d found the evidence, if only to justify his own version forhimself.
“We’re not going to agree on this,” Wes told Justin, “but it’s cute that he remembers a random outfit I owned back in the1950s.”
Art laughed at Wes’s comment when Wes added, “Speaking of which, Justin, would you mind swinging us by downtown? I figured it would be nice to take a walk down memory lane with my newboyfriend.”
Art had this uneasy tension about how Justin would respond to his grandfather talking about him using that term:boyfriend. However, Justin smiled. These were very different times from when he and Wes grew up and talk like that among family wasn’tdone.
“I would love to be you guys’s personal chauffeur,” Justinreplied.
“Good. I’m going to grab my hat, and we’ll be on ourway.”
“Hat?” Art asked before Wes started into thekitchen.
“We threw it away!” Justincalled.
Erin laughed. “He’s not going to believethat.”
“I’ll get it, Papaw!” Karl called out as he raced to catch up withWes.
* * *
Justin droppedWes and Art off near the library, one of those remnants of Winebourne that had withstood the test of time, but even that had several buildings that had been added on since they’d made their way up and down thosestreets.
“Little more than the run-down shack we had back in the day,” Wes noted with a tremendous amount of sarcasm as he looked over the four-story construction it had transformedinto.
“I remember when they updated it back in the eighties. Then they converted into this building. I spent a lot of time here when I came back to Winebourne to take care of Mama. Checking out books, and of course, some days just to get away from the house and the school. Because getting away from my mother was apparently one of those things that never changed withtime.”
Art turned to him andlaughed.
“What is it?” Wes asked, not understanding his sense of humor about his mother’s tyrannicalparenting.
“That hat just looks so silly onyou.”
Wes had stolen a light-beige brimmer hat from Justin’s coat closet before they left. He’d worn it on the walks he’d taken through Justin’s neighborhood while he was still recovering from his heart attack, and he’d intended to take it with him to Heathrow Estates, but Karl had such a fondness for it that he left it as amemento.
“I believe you meant to say that this hat makes me look like Clint Eastwood,” Wes insisted, and Art erupted into a fit oflaughter.
They continued along Main Street, joking around as they noted the various changes and how even the historic buildings had been altered in some way through thegenerations.
When they came to a small cluster of shops—a thrift store, a Dollar General, a chiropractic office, a dentist, and a frozen-yogurt shop—Wes asked, “You know when these werebuilt?”
“Probably about ten years ago? No, fifteennow.”
“Really? This was all just woods when we were growing up. And my buddies and I, one of whom I won’t name now that he’s exposed just how horrible of a human being he is, and Kyle Leslie used to go back in the woods and hangout.”
