Chapter One - Decision

Jay didn’t talk to strangers. They said things or laughed in ways that made him feel uneasy. This was different though; the man asked Jay for help. A white news van had pulled up alongside him, raising a cloud of dust that clung to the side of his sno-cone. A heavy-set man stepped out and approached Jay.

“Excuse me, sir. I’m Fred Jennings with the State News Journal. Can I ask you a few questions about what happened here?” Grandma would say Fred Jennings had Dunlap’s disease. His belly had “done lapped” over his belt. Jay drank the soupy remains of the sno-cone and chewed on its mushy wrapper.

Jennings’ hard gaze belied his roundness. He ain’t one of those fat, jolly souls Grandma speaks about. No, Jennings looks like a cat about to have her way with a mouse, Jay thought. Maybe that’s how he got so round, eating mice like me for lunch every day. Jay thought about the faintly grape-flavored remnants in his mouth. Even after the flavor was gone, the paper would still be purple no matter how long he chewed it. Jay knew that for sure. He’d experimented with it for years now. Once the paper’s stained, it stays stained. If I can just keep quiet, maybe he’ll go away. ‘Cause sure as shootin’ once I open my big mouth, I can’t go back to being quiet again.

Jay hunched into a ball and turned invisible. When he went to town, sometimes he pretended he was invisible. He’d hunch his head down into his shoulders and look at the ground as he walked. This made him invisible to most people. Every once in a while someone still made him out and they’d holler “Hi, Jay.” When that happened, he pulled the shirt up over his head and completed the cloak of invisibility. It always worked -- except with Grandma. Grandma’s powers of discernment were second only to God’s. Jay never could hide anything from her all-knowing eyes.

The reporter cleared his throat and dug around under his ball cap with a pencil. The pressure of a decision was unbearable. Jay looked for a sign to steer him right. He found it right above the brim on the man’s cap. It read, “Just do it.”
Jennings shifted his weight and repeated, “Could I ask you some questions about what’s happening around here, son?” Jay reckoned it’d be rude to refuse the big man – and besides, God had provided a sign -- so he nodded.