Jewelweed by David Rhodes Page A

shoes.
    â€œHi, Ivan,” he said, smiling. “Did you just arrive?”
    This seemed too dumb to answer, so Ivan didn’t respond. August was so used to being alone that sometimes the first things he said were kind of stupid.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Ivan asked.
    â€œMaking a dam,” August replied. “We can do it together, or we can do something else. Your choice.”
    â€œI like making dams good enough,” Ivan said, and August showed him what he’d already done.
    The dam was about half-built.
    â€œWe’re going to need some bigger rocks,” said Ivan.
    â€œI know,” replied August.
    â€œHow long you been out here?” Ivan asked.
    â€œI don’t have a watch.”
    â€œI have one, see. My mother got it for me at the dollar store. Oh, by the way, your mom says to come back and get something to eat if you’re hungry.”
    â€œI’m not.”
    â€œMe neither. Besides, I brought a couple candy bars. Want one?”
    â€œMaybe later.”
    â€œYeah, maybe later.”
    Milton flew around them several times, devouring the latest crop of flying insects, then went back to the trunk of the tree, where he again disappeared into the bark.
    They set to work and before long found a rock in the shape of a rhinoceros head with the horn busted off. It took both of them to carry it, and when they put it down August called it “the buttress.”
    Then they found an even-heavier rock—boulder-sized, weighing maybe two thousand pounds. “It would be nice to have that one,” Ivan said, “but there’s no one in the world can lift that rock.”
    â€œNot anymore,” said August.
    â€œThere never was.”
    â€œThere was someone, but he’s gone now. My dad said there was nobody like him.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œI told you about him before. His name was July Montgomery and he had the strength of three or four men, maybe more.”
    â€œHow come?”
    â€œNo one knows how he got that way. He and my dad were best friends.”
    â€œWhere is he now?”
    â€œHe died before I was born. Most people believe the government killed him. When they discovered his body everything looked highly suspicious, like some government agency had murdered him and tried to make it look like they hadn’t.”
    â€œHow did they do it?”
    â€œThey used a tractor.”
    â€œAnd he was a friend of your dad’s?”
    â€œYes. My dad was a close friend of his, maybe the only one, and they went places together all the time. Dad won’t talk much about those olddays now because of how much it hurts to think of his best friend being murdered. And my mom won’t either. She was well acquainted with him too. I think my dad was the only person July Montgomery trusted, because as a rule he didn’t have much time for other people. He was a loner.”
    â€œLike we are when we’re not together,” added Ivan.
    â€œCorrect.”
    They went back to building the dam, finding rocks and stacking them up. When water began to seep around the sides, they went after sticks and leaves, chunks of sod and clay. The air filled with insects again, and Milton came out to get them. Then the water started coming over the top and they hunted for a long curved rock. But as they worked Ivan could feel August worrying, until finally he couldn’t take it anymore.
    â€œOkay, I’m not working on this one minute more until you tell me why we’re doing it.”
    â€œWe’re doing this—” August began, then paused. “Because making a dam is fun.”
    â€œYou’re not telling me something,” Ivan said. He went over and stood next to the tree that Milton had disappeared into. “You never do anything just because it’s fun, August. You’ve been in one of your moods ever since I got here. What is it? Don’t forget, we’ve got a code between us. And I can tell