time went by.
the kindergarten year was over. lily mae could have chosen to keep lucas in “summer school” , preparatory to entering first grade, but she had mercy on him and did not do so.
for this, lucas would always be grateful.
lucas spent the summer mostly hanging out with joe.
they went for long walks together into the abandoned lots of the town, sometimes even approaching the city limits.
there was a little hill at the entrance to the interstate highway, and lucas liked to stand or sit on it and watch the traffic, especially the big rigs, go by. but joe would get bored, and express his desire to get away.
one day, an old bum, or maybe he was just a slobby old man wandering around loose, saw lucas and joe hanging around on the little hill.
“you better keep an eye on your dog, young fellow,” the old man said. “plenty of dogs get excited and run out on to the highway and get pulped. you better keep a good eye on him.”
no one had ever suggested before that joe belonged to lucas. joe did not seem to mind.
“he’s not the excitable type,” lucas told the old man. the old man nodded and went on his way.
on some days, joe was not around for whatever reason, and lucas would wander off by himself.
one day he was mooning around in an abandoned lot that was so overgrown with scrubby grass and plants that it could almost qualify as a “woods” - when he saw a rabbit!
it was the first one he had ever seen in real life, although they had been common in the picture books in school.
the rabbit stared at lucas for one and a half seconds and bounded away.
lucas was intrigued by the encounter and resolved to return the next day.
the next day he filled his pocket with some stale fruit loops, which he thought he might offer to the rabbit.
accompanied by joe, he went back to the little abandoned lot/woods the next day. but the rabbit was nowhere to be seen.
the next day it rained, and joe was not to be found. but lucas, who did not mind rain, and actually enjoyed it except that lily mae made him change his clothes when he got home - even if she were not there, she made it clear he was not to hang around in wet clothes and get other things wet - went back to the lot alone.
and the rabbit was there, scrunched up inside a broken wooden box.
it froze when lucas approached it.
lucas took some of the fruit loops out of his pocket and tossed them on the ground in front of the broken box.
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