Jason and Josh were asleep, but Jeremy was awake, listening to the wind blown ice hitting the roof and windows.
Jason had listened to it, looked out the window, and shook his head. "Dangerous," he said. "We'll probably not work anymore this week."
"Unless we get a heat wave," Josh wise-cracked."If it gets above forty tomorrow, we can probably work the day after."
"Not the way the wind is driving the ice." He dropped the window covering and sat down on his bed. "Good night, brothers."
His brothers had followed suit shortly thereafter, and now Jeremy was the only one awake.
The night was noisy, and he was scared of what he might have ahead of him. It wasn't just talking to people, even strangers. The real fear, for him, was that he would not be able to talk at all, no matter how much he wanted to.
That happened words just wouldn't come out. Sometimes he couldn't even think the words.
Sometimes he cried instead of talked.
Sometimes he used to run away.
His brothers understood about those times, because sometimes it happened even with didn't think he was crazy, or stupid, even if Josh did call him dumb a lot. Maybe he was dumb a lot.
But other people didn't know. They didn't know he couldn't help it, especially after Mama died, when the words just stopped. (Had Jason used them all up that day?)
When Da died, they said there was something wrong with him. They said a judge would take him away from Jason and Josh because of whatever was wrong with him.
Judges were scary.
And now he had to talk to one. HAD TO.
What if the judge thought there was something wrong with him, too? Would he still try to take him away?
He thought maybe there would be something wrong with him, if they took him away from everything.
He rolled over and buried his face in his pillow, so no one would hear if he accidentally cried.
The wind rattled the windows and he couldn't tell if it was rain or sleet being thrown into the glass.