Chapter 10

“Why do you ask?” said another of them, almost accusatory.

I didn’t know how to reply. I couldn’t tell them the truth, that I was looking for his son, because then they’d want to know the why to that question as well. And heck, I was still figuring out the why for myself―the who, where, what and why, in fact.

Ma seemed to sense my dilemma and piped in with, “He borrowed our lawn chair; we need it back.”

“Since when do you lay out, Brenda?” said the north pointer with a smoker’s-cough chuckle. I squinted his way. Among the four of them, he alone looked strangely familiar. I wondered how that was possible. Maybe I knew him from high school, I reasoned.

“Where is he, Charles?” asked Ma. I didn’t recognize the name. Still, again, he looked like someone I’d seen before. But where? I shrugged the question off. Old men. They all looked alike.

The cards were set down on the table. The four of them turned and looked at us. “Don’t know,” said the one of them that had yet to say anything.