1973

It was the first day of school for Billy Black. His brother had started the year before, which in Bobby's mind meant he knew all there was to know about the school. But the truth was he was only in first grade, Billy in kindergarten, so they were at the bottom of the pecking order. Either way, Billy was relying on Bobby to get him through the day. Their mom was still asleep when school and their dad was already at work, so Billy and Bobby walked to school by themselves. Their classes were right across the hallway from each other. Billy was one of the last students to show up and took a seat next to the Arteara kid, Quil. Once class officially started, the first thing she did was have everyone sit in a circle and introduce themselves. Normally, everyone knew each other, but sometimes there was a kid from the Makka reservation in the school that no one had met before. Quil Arteara was one of the first to introduce himself. Then after him was a little girl.

"Hi." Then she went quiet. She was extremely shy and wasn't much of a social butterfly. At events where her parents were invited, like a bonfire or a birthday, she always stayed next to her mom and dad. In class, she was sticking next to Quil. He was the only one she knew.

"Why don't you tell us your name, dear?" The little girl kept her eyes down. Quil bumped his shoulder to hers to get her to talk.

"Sarah Arteara."

"And why don't you tell us a little about yourself, Sarah." Sarah was quiet again. Quil nudged her again.

"I'm Quil's cousin….I like Bugs Bunny."

"Do you have a favorite movie?"

"I don't know. My mommy really likes Meryl Streep." Deciding she didn't want to force anymore, the teacher smiled.

"It's nice to meet you, Sarah. Everyone say hello to Sarah." The class said hello to Sarah, then the teacher moved her attention to Kelly Call, the girl from the Makka reservation.

After all the kids were introduced to one another, the teacher started with lessons in the Quileute language. Kelly, for the most part, was a little left out since she hadn't grown up learning the language from her parents like the other kids had. After that part of the lesson, the kids got a snack time, then nap time, then they played for a few minutes until they went on to the English alphabet and colors and so on. Once fifth period rolled around, all the kids went to the cafeteria for their lunch before going to the gym for the rest of the day until their parents came to get them. All they needed to do while they played was stay out of the way of the gym class going on at the time. Sarah sat with Kelly and a few of the other girls in the kindergarten class while Billy sat with Bobby. Quil and Sam followed.

"Why is your cousin so shy? She seems boring."

"You mean Sarah?" Billy nodded, then Quil nodded too. "She's just shy. I'm glad she isn't so sad anymore at least."

"Sad about what?" Billy asked.

"Her big brother was killed in Vietnam a few months ago. The funeral was just two weeks ago and she's been a bit of a cry baby since then. She seems better now. I never knew her brother, so I wasn't so sad." The kids didn't elaborate much on the matter. Truth was, Quil's father had died in service years ago and he'd never really known him. His mother had not remarried and was a single mother with Quil's grandparents living with them to help take care of Quil and his mom.

The Vietnam War had been going on long before any of them were born, so they didn't know much about it aside from what their parents complained about. One guy in the reservation, Billy's cousin, Calvin Uley, had gotten back from Vietnam and was home for a few weeks. But his stay hadn't been enjoyable. Everything spooked him. Shutting the window would make him jump and he used most of his time home stocking up on condoms and pantyhose. Billy laughed about it, but he didn't know they used pantyhose to protect themselves from mosquito bites. When Calvin went back, he died a few weeks later. But it wasn't from combat. He'd died in a bar where the bartender was putting shards of broken glass in the ice cubes and putting them in the soldier's drinks. 12 men were killed, Calvin Uley being one of them.

Just about everyone's father had served as well. Sam Uley's father had been serving since he graduated from high school. He'd gotten Sam's mom pregnant while he was visiting and they'd gotten married when they'd found out she was pregnant and he went back to Vietnam a month later and was still serving in Vietnam now. The money his father was sending over was what kept a roof over their head and food on the table. But Sam's mother was also wasting a lot of that money on alcohol and was often drunk and wasn't good about taking care of her son. It was essentially a family of people who didn't know each other. Billy's father had served for about a year before he was discharged because of an injury to his leg. They didn't need to amputate, but he walked with a limp because of that injury to this day. That's how Billy's parents had met. Ann Uley had just gotten out of college for nursing and was the nurse who treated William Black. They'd had drinks together one night after he'd been released from the hospital, they had sex, and nine months later, Robert Uley Black was born, who Ann named after Robert Kennedy, a politician she'd always had a huge crush on. They were married after Bobby was born, and over their honeymoon, she got pregnant with William John Black, whom was reluctantly named after his father. Of course, their marriage started going downhill long before Billy was even born. He couldn't remember a single day where his parents were happy together. It was known to everyone, including Bobby and Billy, that they were married just for the kids.

After lunch was over, all the kindergarten kids were taken to the gym with their teacher. A third of the gym was closed off, giving the smaller portion to the kindergarten class and the bigger section to the gym class. Quil and Billy and Sam went straight for the kick ball and began playing. A few other boys stepped in to play, but left the game when Sam's throw turned out to hurt enough to bruise. Billy and Quil ended up ditching Sam and hung out with Harry Clearwater, one of the kids who had left the game from a ball in the face. Sam didn't seem to be upset by Billy and Quil leaving him. He just wondered to the closet that held games and played with a few other kids that had retreated from the kickball game.

"I wish we could play with the gym class. They're playing hockey right now." Harry said. The boys had wandered over to the curtain and Harry was looking into the other part of the gym looking at what the older kids were doing.

"How much trouble would we get in if we did?" Billy asked.

"Probably a lot. Are there any other games we can play?" Asked Quil. Harry turned to look at Billy and Quil. Billy turned to where all the activities were kept and they all walked over to look for something to do. Billy was waiting for Bobby to finish school so they could walk home together. Then they would have a few hours before their parents got home from work.

The boys found a basket ball and decided to play with that together. The hoop was on the other side of the curtain, so they just dribbled the ball around the small space staying out of the other kids' way. A few minutes of playing, Billy tossed the ball in Quil's direction, but Billy threw it too high and Quil couldn't catch it. The ball ended up flying to where the girls were and hit Sarah in the side of the face really hard. Sarah began screaming while the teacher ran to her to check if she was okay. Billy and Harry stayed where they were while Quil ran to his cousin to check if she was okay.

"Sarah! Sarah, are you okay?" Sarah answered, but it was muffled by her crying. The teacher patted Sarah's back and looked in Billy's direction

"Billy! Get over here!" Billy walked slowly to where the teacher and Sarah were and stood still when he was a few feet away from them. "You tell Sarah you're sorry right now!"

"I didn't do it on purpose. Quil dodged, so it's his fault."

"Billy!"

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry I hit you with a ball, Sarah." Sarah kept crying while the teacher continued to pat her back to make her feel better.

"Go sit in the corner Billy. I'll handle you in a moment." As Billy walked to the corner of the room, a few kids teased him, but immediately forgot about him and went back to their playing. Once the teacher had Sarah's crying under control, she handled Billy accordingly, with a spanking with a ruler, then time out for the rest of his time in the gym before Bobby finished school and came to get Billy. The house was empty when they got home and the boys went to their room to play. Their dad was home, limping through the front door, around five o'clock and plopped into his chair. He pulled the lever on the side so his feet were elevated, then the daily routine began.

"Hey! One of you come here!" Their father, Will, yelled. Billy and Bobby looked at each other.

"Your turn, Billy." Bobby said. Billy groaned and walked to the living room and sat next to the TV and turned it on.

"Now change it to channel seven." Billy did what he was told. Will waited a moment, then sighed. "Try channel three." Billy changed to channel three and Will waited a moment. "Alright, this is good. Now go get me a few beers, then you can go back to your room." Billy then stood back up and walked to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and pulled out as many beers as he could hold and brought them back to his dad. Billy put them on the coffee table and was about to walk away. "Damn it, Billy, bring the bottle opener too. My hands are soar today."

Billy went back to the kitchen to retrieve the beer bottle opener. But it was on the counter where Billy couldn't reach it. He looked for the stool Bobby and Billy used, but he couldn't find it. Instead, he used a chair from the kitchen table, retrieved the bottle opener, and brought it to his dad, not bothering to put the chair back. After giving his dad the beer bottle opener, Billy went straight for his and Bobby's room and closed the door. The boys stayed in there and played without being disturbed until their mother came home. Ann immediately started yelling at Will for drinking so much and their fight escalated from there. The boys ignored it until Ann screamed for Billy to come to the kitchen. Billy wasn't too concerned. Ann and Will had been fighting, so her tone was expected. Billy and Bobby came to the living room where Ann was, but were surprised that there were two people on the couch they'd never met before. When Billy was there, the family stood from the chair and faced Billy, who then realized Sarah was standing next to her father pouting.

"Billy, would you like to explain to me what happened at school today?" Billy shrugged.

"Nothing. Just school." Ann nodded skeptically.

"Really? Then would you like to explain why the Artearas are here telling me you hit their daughter in the head with a ball?" Billy looked at Sarah with a frown.

"I didn't do it on purpose! Quil was supposed to catch the ball, but he missed and it hit her! It's Quil's fault!" Ann rolled her eyes.

"I don't care, Billy. You say you're sorry to this little girl right now, young man."

"Do it, Billy!" Will yelled from his chair. "The sooner you apologize, the sooner they leave and I can get back to my game." Sarah's father rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. He just watched Billy expectantly. Billy held his head down staring at the floor and frowned.

"I'm sorry I hit you with a ball."

"Say it like you mean it, young man." Billy rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry I hit you with a ball, Sarah. I promise I'll never do it again."

"Thanks, Billy." Sarah's father interrupted, then turned to Ann. "Thank you for your time, Ann. We'll get out of your hair now."

"Again, I'm really sorry about Billy. It won't happen again. Will it, Billy?" Ann said to Billy sternly.

"Yes, mom, it'll never happen again."

"Good." Ann then showed the Artearas out and sent the boys back to their room.