Renewal 7 - When the Student Is Ready Read Free Page A

followed me back outside. We stood in the middle of two feet of crystalline snow and stared at the thermometer for a good three minutes. We were lucky. If the device had hung on any other side of the house, we would have never seen it. The ceaseless wind kept the back of the house relatively clear of snow. Only six feet of the stuff was piled against that wall. The yard was on a gentle hilltop and was scrubbed by the gale winds. Most of the snow had piled into the low spot beyond the old homestead, which was completely buried. Dad guessed that the bottom of the valley had collected thirty or forty feet of snow. If the next winter was as bad, he liked to say, we’d have glaciers in Tennessee.
    The news triggered a slow-motion party. We were all skeleton thin, and had no energy for any real celebration. We had managed to keep the young boys in better shape, but they seemed to have adopted the tired movements of the rest of us.
    I don’t think about God nearly enough, but as we enjoyed our seventeen below, the sun broke through a gap in the clouds and shone on our little band of survivors. Sign from God? You tell me.
     
    Chapter 7 – 3
    Terry and Seth escaped from the square after three that afternoon, both with a bag of food from the State. Seth’s family was aware of his community ties. All he needed was to swing by his uncle’s house and drop off the food. He introduced Terry and gave them a quick update on the news. Seth’s uncle decided to ride his bike down to the square to get his own bag of food, and that effectively ended the visit.
    Terry’s folks, and Terry himself, officially, lived in a scrap built-cabin in the scrub woods just northeast of the old Central High School. There were no roads into the patch of hackberry and white pine. It had once been called “The Barrens” for good reason. Nothing decent wanted to grow there. Terry’s family got by on raising goats and chickens, and an occasional pig. They traded the excess for other kinds of food. Terry knew that his father was a lousy trader, and somehow always ended up with less than most. The problem was, he was a Shelton, known historically as the best of local horse traders, and no one could tell him otherwise. They settled for laughing when he turned his back. Terry’s father had lost many friends over the arguments that ensued when they were just trying to help him out.
    Terry’s mother was an even forty years old, but she looked at least sixty-five as she limped out the door. She had heard the truck approaching, and emerged to see the cause of an engine  in a corner of the county that hadn’t seen a truck in her entire lifetime. Terry was becoming a decent driver, and slalomed expertly through the little trees near his home. He could see his mother and waved at her through the windshield. She didn’t seem to notice. In fact, when she realized the truck was heading for her house, she ran back inside to fetch a shotgun. He stopped the truck a hundred feet short of the goat pen, well out of range of the shotgun, and shut down the engine.
    He got out, leaving Seth in the cab. He waved again and said, “Hi, Mom!”
    It took her a few second to connect her son with the massive armored truck, but when the linkage was made, she broke into a snaggle-toothed smile and waved back at her son. “Terry, is that you?”
    “Sure it’s me, Mom. Who else would find you back here?”
    “Well, the truck...”
    “Sorry if I scared you, Mom. It’s the fastest way to get around and there’s a lot happening.”
    “Oh, sure...” Mrs. Shelton said, the obvious questions waiting to escape.
    “Where’s Dad?”
    “Oh, he heard they are giving out food on the square. He went to get some.”
    “Wow, word travels far and fast.”
    “Yeah, the Jones told us about an hour ago.”
    “That was nice of them,” Terry said, knowing the Joneses went well out of their way to pass the word. He supposed it was exciting news to share with anyone.
    “We don’t see them