trouble. The flames were spreading toward the door, eating up that dry
old wood in no time. I kicked out a board in the back wall and squeezed
through. When Brian didn't follow, I ran up the street calling for help. I
saw Dad walking home from work. We ran back to the shack. Dad kicked
in more of the wall and pulled Brian out coughing.
I thought Dad would be furious, but he wasn't. He was sort of quiet. We
stood on the street watching the flames devour the shack. Dad had an
arm around each of us. He said it was an incredible coincidence that he
happened to be walking by. Then he pointed to the top of the fire, where
the snapping yellow flames dissolved into an invisible shimmery heat
that made the desert beyond seem to waver, like a mirage. Dad told us
that zone was known in physics as the boundary between turbulence and
order. "It's a place where no rules apply, or at least they haven't figured
'em out yet," he said. "You-all got a little too close to it today."
NONE OF US KIDS got allowances. When we wanted money, we walked
along the roadside picking up beer cans and bottles that we redeemed for
two cents each. Brian and I also collected scrap metal that we sold to the
junk dealer for a penny a pound—three cents a pound for copper. After
we redeemed the bottles or sold the scrap metal, we walked into town, to
the drugstore next door to the Owl Club. There were so many rows and
rows of delicious candies to choose from that we'd spend an hour trying
to decide how to spend the ten cents we'd each made. We'd pick a piece
of candy and then, as we got ready to pay for it, change our minds and
pick another piece, until the man who owned the store got mad and told
us to stop fingering all his candy and make a purchase and get out.
Brian's favorite was the giant SweeTart candies, which he licked until his
tongue was so raw it bled. I loved chocolate, but it was gone too quickly,
so I usually got a Sugar Daddy, which lasted practically half the day and
always had a funny poem printed in pink letters on the stick, like: To