It was after test week of tenth grade that it started raining.
He didn't know when he decided to do it, it seemed that one day he just woke up and knew it would happen.
That day, after he got home, he took some stilts from the back of Willa-Jean's closet(she didn't use them any more either), and went outside.
He knew she wasn't home. She had probably gone off with Daisy. All the more making this the best opportunity, before he became sensible again. It would be best if he just built up the habit, after all, this was more because she wasn't there, and he had to do something.
So he started marching on the stilts, up and down Klicketat Street, mumbling the song to himself as he went.
Willa-Jean was sleeping over at a friend's house, his parents and grandmother were away at a meeting. He didn't have to be back before dark.
So he wasn't.
He went up and down the street on stilts until late into the evening. He was exhausted. And he felt better.
So he kept doing it.
Every day after school he went out on the stilts, and no one came out and bothered him because it was raining.
So she never saw him.
He didn't want her to see him.
He didn't care if she saw him.
This wasn't for her.
This just made him feel better, and that was all.
But was was there to feel bad about?
It kept raining. He got a mild cold.
They didn't notice, so he didn't tell them. But his teachers noticed.
Because he flunked the test.