Jeremy was first day, he had met Mr. Stempel after school. The man had stopped him and said, "Boy, I thought you left town?"

"N-not m-me," Jeremy had answered cheerfully and kept walking, swinging his books.

He hoped that wasn't rude. Jason had told him not to be rude to the man. (Darn him.) Said they needed to all be civil, because they needed him as much, if not more, than he needed them. So he was to be polite at least, and friendly if he could manage it.

That'd be the day!

School wasn't too bad. The new teacher was a little bit of a thing. She also didn't tell him to write stories and then try to authority her way into making people treat him different. Or say he was wrong because she didn't think he thought right.

Of course, some of that was because he was one of the 'big boys' in school now.

Not that he was big, because two younger boys were bigger than him, but he was older, and he was – he wasn't new, and nobody thought he would be moving away or anything. (Staying away was another thing, or working away. That kind of stuff was normal.)

There were seven boys and three girls attending this term. One of the girls was the same age as him, mostly. She (Rebbie) had brown hair and eyes and on recess she sat on the steps and read books. The other two girls (Martha and Sarah) were littler, but not exactly little. They liked to jump rope and play circle games, and the big-younger boys liked to try to grab their jump ropes and ran away with them.

Math was stupid and mostly boring. It was like estimating board-feet, but babified. Although it was probably a good thing to know exactly how those things were figured out, just in case he'd have to do it by himself someday on trees he didn't know.

History was interesting when it wasn't a bunch of dates and battles. Sometimes Miss said they were living in historic times. Was that because there were battles and dates? Jason said things like that, too. That thought always made him want to laugh, that itty-bitty teacher sounding so like Jason, who was anything but itty-bitty.

Reading things was more interesting, since he'd been reading, or been read to, for as long as he could remember. He knew most of the essays and poems already. But who knew there were so many rules about words, and that you could make maps of them – the sentences, not the single words. And the parts all had funny names, worse than the indian names for the rivers and mountains. Obvers (or maybe absurds) or objectives or propositions, and the objectives and obvers had objects – well, he probably wasn't getting the words right. He'd probably have to look at the books – look in them.

It was a good thing he liked making maps.

That's what he was doing when Josh came in later.

Josh asked 'what're you doing?" while he got his supper and coffee and came to sit at the table.

"M-making sentence m-maps."

"Huh?" Josh pulled his book over and looked at it. "Oh. Parsing. I was never much good at that, and Jason was no help at all. For all his words and stuff, he didn't have a good understanding of how they all work together."

"Jeremy sighed. "I had the words wrong. I thought they were ob-things and they're ad-things. I understand why it's a adverb, b-because you add it to the v-verb to make it m-more v-erbery, but why is the other a add-jective? What is a j-jective?"

"You ask such strange questions. Do you care if I finish the stew? Want some coffee?"

"Uh-huh. P-please finish the stew, we been eating it long enough."

Josh resettled himself (and Jeremy) with refills. "I suppose, maybe because you add them to objects? So you know better what kind of thing an object is."

"Huh. M-mayb-be. That m-makes sense. An' they explain the add-verbs betterer, too, so they didn't name it for just one j-job, but for all of 'em."

"You know there AIN'T no such word as betterer."

Jeremy laughed, as did Josh.

Jeremy finished his mapping, and closed the book. "Why do we n-need to l-learn this stuff?"

"Well, you might want to write it down for somebody else to understand. Like to explain how to do a job a certain way. Like how to use all this safety equipment and stuff we got in. Jason can explain it nice and clear, but when he goes on to another job with someone else, and the ones he was talking to didn't or don't understand, if they could look it up in a notebook or something that might be quicker than waiting for Jason to come back and explain it again. You know how impatient he gets about stuff like that."

"Yeah. Least when he's working." Jeremy leaned his chin in his his hands. "What are y'all d-doing?"

"Marking trees. Inspecting equipment. Learning about the new stuff. Not much, it's still pretty slick up there, where it isn't frozen."

"I 'spect it's slipperier where it's frozen," Jeremy murmured, and Josh smacked his head.

Jeremy touched his paper, was satisfied the ink had dried, and folded it to fit into the book. He started clearing the table, casting a few glances at Joshua, who seemed to be thinking something out.

Jeremy washed and dried the dishes, and put them away.

"Jeremy."

"Huh?"

"Would you care if I stayed here in town with you a couple days?"

"Why?"

Josh shrugged.

"Are you 'n Jason fighting?"

"No."

Jeremy looked straightly at him.

Josh managed a strangled laugh. "If you must know, I'm bored to death up there! There's not enough work, and what there is is such piddling stuff –! I'd rather be here in town, where if there isn't anything happening, there probably will be. And maybe I could pick up odd jobs here and there."

"So it's your idea?"

"Yes. God, yes! I wish I had been as smart as you and not even gone."

"D-did you ask J-jason?"

"I talked to him about it. I didn't ask."

"Oh." Jeremy thought that over. "What did he say?"

"He said to talk to you about it. But he looked relieved at the idea."

Jeremy nodded.

Josh began washing up. He was tired. Being bored all day was more tiresome than working hard all day, he thought.

After he was finished, Jeremy took his turn at the washbowl while Josh settled himself into (Jason's) bed. Jeremy smiled to himself at that.

"I d-don't c-care if it's you. YOU don't th-think I'm a little kid."

"Yeah, I don't think Jason thinks so, so much anymore. He just doesn't know what to do about it. Or what to think. And he doesn't want you to think he doesn't trust you."

"Okay." Jeremy threw out the water and turned out the light.

And that's how it was.

"Well, Jeremy, how are you liking school? No problems?" Jason asked, while looking over paperwork.

Jeremy shrugged. "It's ok-kay."

"Are you going to finish the term?"

"Uh-huh."

"Then I'll expect you to do so."

"I know that."

Jason laughed. "Just making sure, little brother. Josh says you've had supper for him every night when he gets in."

Jeremy shrugged again. "G-gotta do s-somethin' at n-night."

"I know Seattle doesn't have much of a night life, but I'm sure other young men in your group find plenty to do. Away from their homes." Not that there were a lot of young men (!) Jeremy's age around. No 'group'. Sad but true.

Jeremy smiled to himself. Jason was trying to be nosy without being nosy. "Well, they c-can't d-do anything AT their homes."

"I hope they aren't doing any of those things at your home."

"S-so do I." Jeremy grinned.

Jason laughed, rattled his papers and tousled Jeremy's hair. "Good boy."

Jeremy made a face at him, and Jason laughed again. "Sorry."

Jeremy shrugged. "You st-till call Josh 'boy,' t-too."

"Mm." Jason's attention had returned to his paperwork.

That plan (or schedule, as Josh called it) held for the first two weeks. Josh spent a day or a day and a half at the work site, and two days in town. Jason came in on the weekends, and once or twice when business or weather brought him into town.

The biggest problem was that all three brothers were restless. Jason and Josh were able to use up some of their energy working, but the early April weather made that sporadic. Jeremy spent energy running up and down the streets, running errands on the days Josh wasn't there to get those lil jobs, and in challenges with the other older boys in school. They did a lot of silly things, like running into one another, climbing trees quickly and carelessly, jumping over (hopefully) mud puddles, and wrestling one another. Or both the others. It just depended.

Lottie fussed at Jeremy, usually when he lost at puddle jumping, and Mr. Stempel occasionally yelled at them all for fighting, and ran them off. The other boys nya-nya-ed, but Jeremy usually managed to mumble an apology. When Josh was in town, he mostly laughed and sometimes acted as a game judge for them. If Josh was there, Mr. Stempel took a couple minutes extra to talk seriously to him because he was old enough to know better.

Josh was pleased with Jeremy during these 'meets' because he did well. He might be small, but he was strong. Strong and smart. When they did tree climbing contests, he was usually the last to get started, but was faster and would go higher than the other boys. Jeremy could judge at a glance the quickest way up and also how high the limbs would bear his weight. One time being smaller paid off for him.

Mid-April, they had a week of mild weather, and Jason needed Josh all week.

Jeremy didn't know what he thought about that. He liked being alone again, but he missed the company at night. He supposed that must be what Jason had been talking about having the guys in his house.

So he didn't do that. It meant too much that his brothers trusted him to be alone, even if it did get boring at times. Cooking for one person wasn't very interesting, either, so he usually had supper at Lottie's. It depended on how much homework he had and if he liked whatever book he might be reading.

But golly, the (admittedly weak) sunshine sure made him miss being on the mountain and wrestling with the fallen giants. He figured school would get over with about the same time the weather would stay spring, but he knew that wasn't yet. They might still get snow, even here in town. At least one more good freeze.

Brr. Jeremy shook his head and wished it was June, after May, instead of April and not May yet.

Even the schoolchildren were excited, playing harder, yelling louder, and some days learning less. They couldn't concentrate. The sun was shining, and they had all survived most of the Long Dark.

/

"What in the world is he doing?" Jason demanded, stopping in his tracks and looking ahead.

Josh looked where Jason was looking, and laughed. "He's walking the ridgeline of the roof, it looks like. Don't tell me you've never done that."

"When he's by himself? And I broke my leg and had to stay inside and off my feet for a whole month. Totally useless."

"Well, he knows we're on our way so if he did fall, he wouldn't be helpless long. You weren't useless. Mom appreciated the way you kept me entertained with your stories, and your yeah, and jiggling the baby when he wasn't asleep."

"So she did." Jason waved at Jeremy who was holding onto the chimney to wave at them. "What are you doing up there?"

"W-wa-wa - watch – looking." Jeremy slid down the slant of the roof, stopped at the eaves and dropped to the ground in front of his brothers. "D-didn't th-think you was ever gettin' here."

"Get a little lonely this week, did ya?" Jason threw an arm across Jeremy's shoulders and they walked inside together.

Jeremy laughed. "M-maybe."

The brothers enjoyed the weekend, and on Monday morning, Joshua and Jason went back to work, and Jeremy went back to school.

The next week was a repeat of this one.

Until Thursday.

Thursday, the alarms were rung about the time daylight started to fade.

Jason was needed in town.

"Close enough to quitting time," Jason decided, telling the men to finish up what they were doing.

Josh brought horses.

Jason looked at him.

"Ralphie said Jeremy's in jail. I didn't think you'd want to waste time walking."

"Or talking to Ralphie myself," Jason agreed, setting off with Joshua right beside him.

Yes, Jeremy was in jail. That was Jason's first stop.

A child! A child in a jail cell! Well, a child, when it came to being jailed.

Jeremy was sitting on the floor, in a corner, hugging his knees to his chest, resting his head on his knees. His shirt was torn, his arms scratched, and what could be seen of his hands appeared bloody.

"What have you done?" Jason demanded, attempting a merely curious mild tone.

Jeremy looked up.

The sheer rage in his expression shocked Jason. Jeremy's eyes blazed, his jaw was thrust forward, his mouth in a snarl. His hair was practically standing on end. He didn't say a word and made no move beside raising his head.

Joshua's eyes widened. Something had Jeremy in a temper, that was for sure. And that look on his face – that was no child's temper tantrum either. There was nothing childish in that affronted anger. (And probably not for his own benefit.)

A glance at Jason satisfied Josh that the older brother saw the same thing, and didn't know how to react.

"Well?" Jason demanded, raising his voice just a little louder.

"Jason, you know he can't talk when –"

"I'm not talking to you, Joshua. You don't know anything I don't. This is his chance to tell me his side first." Jeremy came to his feet slowly, backed all the way into the corner, and shook his head. "No."

" 'No' what?"

"No side. No s-st-story. G-go away."

"Go away? Have you lost your mind as well as your temper?"

The eyes flashed fire, and Jeremy lunged for the rails, shaking them long and hard.

Long and hard enough for Jason to take a step back.

Jason took a deep breath, raked his youngest brother with his own angry face, and he turned and walked out of the building.

Joshua took Jeremy's bloodied hands in his, and looking around, began cleaning them. He asked no questions, and Jeremy offered no explanation.