A Glimpse of Grace

Chapter 2

With the opening of the month of October came the beauty of fall, and the leaves on the trees had shed their common green hue to don scarlet reds and pumpkin oranges. Soon they would be hunching over their gnarled limbs and freefalling to the dry ground.

In the meantime, their beautiful colors rolled over the hills and woods of Franklin, North Carolina underneath the infinite blue sky. The sun hovered above the treetops, its dull rays gently warming the two boys who crunched beneath the overhanging branches.

As they trekked through the woods toward their fort that they'd made when they were younger, they talked and joked around, shoving each other and laughing the whole way.

"Gosh, you're so clumsy, Sam," Caleb joked as Sam tripped over seemingly nothing, crunching leaves and snapping twigs in his wake. With Caleb's wavy brown locks framing his forehead, the boy's chocolate eyes grinned, and his lips turned up in a smirk.

Ignoring his best friend's jest, Sam paused thoughtfully and peered inquisitively at Caleb, his pupil's dilated and his irises grew very blue. With a frown, his eyes refocused and he continued shuffling through the leaves and straw. "You lied to your mama about doin' your homework, didn't you?" he guessed quietly.

Shaking his head in feigned surprise, a little taken aback, Caleb denied, saying, "Why would you think that? I wouldn't lie to Mama."

Unconvinced, Sam stared at him, his gaze piercing through Caleb's poor denial. Eyes flitting everywhere except on Sam, Caleb shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked a pinecone unhappily, convicted of his obvious guilt.

Silence reigned until they reached the fort and pulled aside the hole-filled brown tarp that served as the door. Crawling inside on their hands and knees, they ensconced themselves into the tipi-like shack made of leaning branches around the large trunk of a tree. Seating themselves beside each other, their backs against the tree, they both tugged on two hanging strings that opened up two windows out of the fort, letting the crisp air and golden light filter through. Now in the security of their fort, Sam spoke.

"Why did you lie?" His tone of voice slightly condescending, Sam glanced over at Caleb through his round glasses, waiting for his friend's response.

Brow furrowed and mouth curved downward, Caleb's eye twitched ever so slightly as he fumbled with the leaves on the ground beside him.

"Ouch!" Sam yelped. "Golly gee, Caleb, if you're gonna punch me, at least have the decency to do it right. It ain't fair you usin' your power all the time when I can't do nothin' but look at you." Rubbing his arm ruefully, he glared at Caleb.

Caleb, sighing in exasperation, threw a glance at Sam and smirked. The dimple in his cheek peeking out, he reached over and punched Sam in the arm again, this time with his fist.

Jerking his head towards Caleb, Sam yelped again and narrowed his eyes angrily. But upon seeing the dimple in Caleb's cheek, his face relaxed. Grinning impishly, he punched him back. Before long, an all out war was ensuing on the ground inside the fort as the boys wrestled and tackled each other, leaves crackling noisily and the walls of branches shuddering dangerously. Laughing and sweating, with perhaps a few more bruises than they had beforehand, they settled down in the leaves, again in their sitting position with their backs leaning against the tree.

Seriously, Sam restarted their previous conversation, still panting from their exertion. "But really, Caleb, it's cheatin'. Usin' your tele'nesis like that. I can't do nothin' but see things, while you get to do whatever you want."

"Yeah, I suppose Tracy would like you a whole lot better if you had my power," Caleb teased, his hands resting in his lap as he gazed intently at the hanging string of the window. With his eyes glued to it as they trembled ever so slightly, the end of the string lifted daintily into the air and wrapped around and through a loop it had created out of itself, tying into a knot. Sam watched, bored, as the string commenced to loosen its knot and hang freely once again.