What Gets Into Us

The Odd Fellow

The Odd Fellow Tim Carter It was the first day at Fayton High in 1964. The dark-eyed boy in homeroom seemed to know him. "Youthe one Mrs. Sender took in? The orphan? What's that like?" he asked. "I alwayswondered." Eventually, Tim told Bit Cobb all about the Clarksboro Home where he was raised. The children had to wear white shirts to public school, so they were marked, called "the odd fellows." The Odd Fellows were like the Elks, just ran the place, but people over in Clarksboro could never remember that. Bit, who was really Benedict , told him he knew the difference between Odd Fellows and orphans. Then he wanted to know if Tim was going out for J.V. Tim said yes to Bit because he liked him. He didn't know what sort of family he came from. • • • After practice a week later, a burgundy Cadillac drove up and stopped for the two of them. A beautiful brunette was driving. Bit called her Mamma. Tim said she looked too young to be that, and Bit said, "Everybody thinks so, but her most of all." She seemed to know Tim's widowed aunt, Olive Sender, whom he was living with now. After asking after her, she suggested Tim come for a swim. 89 9O THE ODD FELLOW Tim thought theymeant the Y, but Bit said, "Myhouse," as they turned into Cobblee Acres, named for Bit's father who had built the entire subdivision. Soon Tim was wandering in Bit's huge yellow brick colonial. He'd never seen such a house. There was a color TV and the refrigerator made ice. Bit came out in regular canvas trunks. He gave Tim an electric blue swimsuit that hardly covered his parts. His mother had bought it—Bit said he hated it, but it washis only spare. Tim tried to be grateful, although he did feel naked out by the pool. He thought Bit's mother would make some joke, for he was as white as a flour biscuit, but she said, "Look at his feet." They used to call them hooves at the home. His arches were so high shoes hardly fit. But Mrs. Cobbcalled them "beautiful." Nobody had ever called anything on him beautiful before. His head, he knew, was wide. His eyeswere very pale green. Bit's chubby little sister, Dora, was there. His daddy, a big man with a mustache, called Tulip, showed at six. When Mrs. Cobb pointed out Tim's feet, Mr. Cobb's answer was to show his own, flat as flippers, and say, "Army sent me home over these." "He wanted to be an officer, think ofthat," Mrs.Cobbsaid, as if it were a joke, slapping her husband's wide thigh, so it turned bright red. Tim wondered why she'd do that in front of him. Mr. Cobb said to Bit,"Come here, son." Bit dragged himself over, the picture of reluctance. Tim was surprised. "How waspractice?" Bit said he got cramps running twenty laps. Then his father punched him in the stomach right where he said it hurt—it wasa roughhousing punch, friendly, Tim thought. "Coach going to teach you something?" THE ODD FELLOW gi Tim saw Bit should answer, but Bit didn't see it. Mr. Cobb said, "Say, YesSir.11 Bit answered, and then ran and jumped in the pool, coming up to Tim to whisper, "You smoke?" and Tim said, "Of course." "Let's get out of here," Bit said. "Now?" Tim asked—he'd just gotten used to the blue-green water, its silkiness. He'd never had a pool almost to himself before. • • • Tim was happy enough once he'd put his pants back on, and was walking. The subdivision was a wonderland. The houses were brick—not sorrywoodthe waytheywere in Clarksboro. Some had steep roofs, others, high porches with columns. Bit asked more questions about Tim's life in that tobacco town. Tim described bright-leaf auction time, when the nicotine in the air made your brain feel sweet and stocked up. He told Bit about the boys at the home who wailed at night, about the dirtywalls, the babycollie he sneaked home once, that ended up suffocating under his bed. Tim left some parts out—he didn't think Bitwould understand what it was like to live your life knowing it was all borrowed, or secondhand , like the half-busted...