Chapter 4Saturday afternoon, I was out in the backyard with Johan Lund.
“All right, that’s good,” Johan said, putting his big gloved hands on his haunches. Every fall, he’d stop shaving his face, and by mid-winter, be sporting a thick reddish blond beard. Nick’s father was the most agreeable man I’d ever met. Nothing seemed to get him off balance. He was a locksmith and worked hard to support his family.
Secretly, I wished he were my father.
“Put those over there, Red.” He lifted his scrubby chin to the corner of the yard.
Clutching the wood planks, I was puffing hard, trying not to look too tired. I’d been helping Johan with taking down the old shed in the yard, hoping not to have an asthma attack in front of him. I stumbled to the corner and dropped the planks on top of the pile. I h
