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"Maybe I oughta join your mother's home school," he said. "You can't join it. Its just for me."

"Oh." He nodded. "Sure." Then he smiled in confusion. "Just for you? I don't get it."

"My mother is a professional teacher, and she tutors me in every subject. What's so hard to understand?"

He shrugged.

"You're just the first person I met doing that at so old an age, that's all."

"Well, now you know someone." I said.

He shrugged and looked around. I wasn't chasing him off. That was for sure.

"You stay here all day?"

"Yes, I do. So?"

"How do you make friends?"

"I don't." I said. "For now," I added.

He kept petting Cleo and nodding as if everything I said made absolute sense.

Then he practically leaped at me, his hand out. "I'm Elliot Fletcher."

I looked at his hand.

"I don't bite," he said.

I shook it quickly.

"My name is Noble Atwell."

"Wow. What do you do, rub sandpaper on your palms?" he asked, turning my hand around m' his. "Those calluses feel like rocks ."

I pulled my hand away from his quickly. "I do all the outdoor stuff," I said proudly.

"Like what?"

"Like chop wood, cut brass, plant, take care of our chickens, look after things."

"Yeah. my father was talking about me taking on house chores now, to earn gas for my car when he gives in and buys me one this year after I get my license. We lived in a town house in Jersey. No lawns to cut, and especially no firewood. Man, this is like a real farm, huh?" he said looking at our property. "That's cornstalks?"

"Yes." I said. "Its delicious. We pick it off the stalk and cook it the same day,"

"I bet you hunt, too, huh?" he asked me.

"No."

"Fish?"

I looked away, deciding whether I should just chase him off, walk away myself. or what. I thought I saw Mommy come around the rear of the house, and for a moment that made me freeze, but it was just the shadow of a cloud.

"Sometimes," I said.

"I was wondering what was in that creek. It looks pretty deep in spots."

"When we have heavy rains in the spring, there are sections that would be over both our heads."