A Fine Dark Line Read Free Page A

Earth’s Core, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the tip of a metal mole machine burrowing up from the surface.
    I gave up on the latter idea immediately. It wasn’t burrowing at all. It was just sticking out of the ground. Perhaps, I thought, it’s the tip of the machine and it’s stalled, and Abner Perry and David Innes from the novel are trapped down there and need my assistance.
    Now, I didn’t really believe this, anymore than I believed a dinosaur would rise out of that old pond and crash and chew its way through Dewmont, though I should add there wasalways a part of me that did believe it and thought on some level, in some universe, in some far corner of my mind, that it was real. But for the most part I knew it was the edge of a metal box.
    I attempted to dig around it with my hands, but the dirt and grass had become too entwined.
    I went into the drive-in, used the padlock key hidden under a brick next to the shed, got a shovel out of storage, and went back.
    When I returned to the spot where Nub and I had found our treasure, Nub had already begun to dig up the unidentified ground object. He had managed with paws and teeth to make pretty good progress.
    I carefully pushed Nub aside, and ignoring my sore foot, I dug.
    I had to stop and take a breather a couple of times. It was so hot it felt as if I was sucking down hairballs with every breath. I wished then I had filled and brought the army canteen my Uncle Ben had given me, and I even considered going to get it, but didn’t.
    I stayed at it, and pretty soon, the little box was free. It was about twice the size of a cigar box and it had a small, rusty old padlock holding it together. I tugged at the lock, and rusty or not, it was still firm; in fact, the rust may have only made it tighter. The keyhole in the lock was filled with dirt and roots.
    A summer rain started up. One moment there had not been a cloud in the sky, the next the clouds rolled in and the rain started, soft and steady, giving the earth that sweet smell that either makes you want to plant or sin.
    I knew I had to finish up whatever I was doing, because Mom would be wanting me out of the rain, and it was near lunchtime.
    I thought about using the shovel to knock the lock off, but hesitated. I was afraid I’d end up breaking the shovel.
    I decided the best thing to do would be to get a more serviceable tool out of the shed for the job. But when I got back to the shed with the box, I heard Mom calling me to eat.
    I pushed the metal box on a shelf, put a greasy cardboard box full of electrical fuses and switches in front of it, went to wash my hands and eat.
    Though I would not have imagined it right then, what occurred at dinner caused me to actually forget about the box for a time.
    ———
    I SUPPOSE D ADDY could have picked a more opportune moment to confront Callie, and it’s my guess he would have had it not been an immediate and shocking discovery, but my father was not in any way like the fathers you saw on television in the 1950s, calm and collected and full of sharp wisdom.
    We were sitting at the table waiting for him, plates of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy stacked in the center of the table, when he arrived holding something with a pair of tweezers.
    I thought it was a balloon. It dangled limp from the tweezers and was tied in a knot at the top and was filled with something, and Daddy’s hand shook as he held it.
    He looked at Caldonia, said, “I found it in your room.”
    Caldonia turned red as Santa’s suit, slid down in her chair. Even her ponytail seemed to wilt. “You couldn’t . . .” she said.
    But, he had.
    Later we learned he had gone in Callie’s room to shut her window against the rain, and had seen what he now held with tweezers. But at that moment, all I knew was here was a veryupset man standing at the table with an odd balloon dangling from a pair of tweezers.
    “You’re only sixteen,” he said. “Not married.”
    “Oh, Daddy,” Callie said, and