Swear that he heardYou’re a good kid, Jag, in avoice that was totally familiar.
At the same time it was not.
It was a couple of months after when he saw thetombstone go up.
He was in Dutch’s truck again, alone, visiting his dad.
And he was pissed because Hound and his mom were just notgetting it on.
Seriously with that, what the fuck?
Hound was, like, wasting his whole damned life waiting forhis mother to snap out of it.
But did she?
No.
Hell, everything she needed was right there.
In her boys.
And in Hound.
Jesus.
But yeah, Jag saw the new headstone, which was good.Seeingthat, he could think of her, the pretty girl, and not think about why he keptcoming to his dad’s grave, especially when he was frustrated that his father’swife wasn’t hooking up with a man his father considered a brother.
And Jag didn’t know why, but when he saw that newgravestone, he turned right around, drove to the store, bought some paper,envelopes and Ziplocs, as well as duct tape.He found a pen in Dutch’s glovebox and drove back to the cemetery.
He sat on his father’s grave and wrote her a note because heknew, that headstone was up, they’d come back for certain to check it out.
The note read:
Hey,
I’m the guy from across the way.Just to say, it sucksnow and people are gonna be weird about it for a long time.Just ignore themand do your thing.You got her in your head, you know?That’s not goinganywhere.Ever.
And you got your dad and your brother.That’s big.
I got my mom and my brother.And they’re like,everything, you know?We look out for each other.We’re a family.Totally.
I can’t say it’s all good, because it’s not.
I can just say you get on with it.
So let people do their thing, you do yours, and sticktight with your dad and brother.
You’ll be OK.
Hangloose,
-J
He’d then folded it up, put it in an envelope and wroteForthe Girl Across the Wayon it.
When he was done with that, he’d taped it to the base of hermom’s headstone.
Her mom’s name had been Bryn.
