“If each second of life is the
only reality and memories are daydreams of the past, then all I have
written is just a dream.”
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“In October she returned to us
with a baby boy. Grey Cloud had a son he would never know about. That
son was you.”
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Bill was mad now. "I wish you’d
left him back in Kansas with that pious brother of yours like I tried
to get you to do,” he growled.
Mother for once was talking back. "You’re
the one who always starts the talk about him being part Indian, knowing
what it does. Then you blame him for defending himself."
His voice was louder. "It's easy for mixed blood like his to
turn bad. You cross a dog with a damn wolf and you have the same thing.
Outside of that tough Travis kid and the nigger boy, nobody in town
will let their kids near him. He's been fightin' with one of the young
fellas that hangs around the pool hall. This fella always wants me
to hear what Wayne has done and manages to talk to his friends where
I can hear. He says Wayne threatened to kill him and he thinks he
might try. So he told Wells, the policeman. "Some people are
blaming me and that kind of talk hurts my business."
Mother sounded like she was crying.
"One of these days maybe we will both leave here for good."
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On the way back we decided to cut through
the fields to Roy's house. I was walking down a fencerow when I spotted
an iron wheel in the grass. Roy knew at once it was a big disc wheel
from a plow. It was about twenty inches across made of heavy solid
iron with a large center axel hole and sharp around the outside edge.
While junking we had found a boys bicycle frame with good back wheel
and pedals. The disc wheel could be used for a front wheel.
Mr. Swanson was sitting on the back
porch, smoking his pipe and with a wave of his big hand toward the
wheel, he said, "I don't guess I will ever be surprised at what
you boys come draggin' in. Now what you have in mind for that old
disc wheel?" We sat on the step and I told him about the bicycle
frame and my plans of making one we could ride.
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