The End of a Childhood

The entire length of the fence was concealed with bushes, so you couldn’t see the orchard.  For years, we didn’t even know that there were apples over there.  Perhaps the bushes were planted there for that reason, who knows.  Peter went first, as I waited my turn to crawl under the fence.  He was on his belly using his hands to throw the fresh dirt aside that covered the hole we made the year before.  As Peter dug, he reminded me of our Beagle, Henry, digging for a jelly bean we had thrown in the grass.  He finally removed enough soil to make his way under.  The back pockets of his jeans along with the heels of his Red Ball Jets were the only things exposed.  As I looked at his tennis shoes, a thought came to me.  It seemed like only yesterday when I had to decide which shoes I wanted.  I had to weigh out the difference between Red Ball Jets and PF Flyers.  The choice of shoe brand really wasn’t that difficult; I figured in a few months my shoes would be shot, and if I made a bad choice now, I could go with the other brand next time.  Both shoes were black, high tops.  The Red Ball Jets had the red ball placed directly over the side ankle bone.  The contrast of the small, rubber red ball on the black made them very cool.  The PF Flyers advertisement was enough for me: “THEY MAKE YOU RUN FASTER AND JUMP HIGHER!”  Heck, I went with the performance qualities rather than the look.  You just never knew when you would have to run faster and jump higher. 

I was hoping this situation wouldn’t have to prove the ad correct.  When I saw Peter’s rear end and legs suddenly move with more speed than normal, I knew he was being pulled by someone or something from the other side.  He looked like a string being sucked into a vacuum cleaner.  The obvious voice on the other side proved it was no vacuum, but the worse case scenario.  I could just imagine Old Man Hardy grinning from ear to ear as he nabbed his culprit.  He was old, but he wasn’t stupid.  Out of forty trees, one was nearly picked clean.  It didn’t take him long to figure out where we were coming in to steal apples.  I’m sure he planned his whole evening for this little surprise.  If he would have been real smart, he would have waited for both of us to get on the other side of the fence.  No such luck.  When I heard Peter let out a yell, the jump higher part of the shoes proved true and the run faster came soon after.