Grim's Cliff

Part Two

The day continued to pass with J.D. and Charlie working on the race car while Ash, Bobby, and Leyna found various ways to entertain themselves. One popular mode of entertainment was seeing who could throw a rock the farthest. Each person experimented with different methods of tossing. Over-handed, under-handed, tosses with a spin, they tried all of them. After lots of rocks had been hurled across the yard and plenty of smack talk had been spoken, the ultimate winner was determined to be Ash. He managed to get the furthest overall distance with his advantages being his muscle mass and his arm length. Leyna somehow came in a close second with her under-handed method of pitching. This left a scrawny and defeated Bobby in third. When the competing had finished, the guys took to telling fishing stories and wives-tales. Bobby claimed to have seen some sort of huge alligator emerge from the lake across the field from his house, even though everyone had told him that there were no alligators in Oregon. Charlie claimed to have dated a ghost girl, telling the story of how she dissolved into thin air. We all knew at that point that Charlie had just been high as a kite and the girl had ditched him for another guy, but what kind of story would that make?

After listening to the guys try their hands at retelling some of their famous stories, Leyna decided to read aloud to them. She had picked up a book of scary bedtime and campfire stories from the used bookstore for five cents. When their stories began to run dry, she would read to them like children. They all loved it when Leyna read, as if it were making up for absent memories. In turn, she enjoyed reading to them. Whether it made her seem tough or not, Leyna couldn't help but enjoy a good book. It was one trait she had that those spreading rumors around town never knew or cared to know about her. She had read "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn" a total of three times to the boys. It was a favorite among the group. She could never tell the others, but J.D. always loved when she read Shakespearean sonnets to him. He could never admit it to anyone, not even himself, but J.D. was super smart. He could understand and follow along with Shakespeare better than the average student. For her birthday the previous year, J.D. got Leyna a big book of Shakespearean works that she kept in his car to read whenever she was watching him work on something. It usually helped him to keep calm if things weren't working as he wanted them to.

With the distraction of Leyna's stories, the passing of time seemed to quicken. The sun dissolved behind the trees and with it went the heat. After the light had left the junkyard, the boys piled into Charlie's car and headed back to town and their respective houses. J.D. continued to work on the car, getting progressively more stressed. The moon was just bright enough for them to make out silhouettes in their surroundings. Leyna found their lantern that they kept in the junkyard for late night occasions and lit it for J.D. She hung it up on the open hood above his head and illuminated his work area. She knew he didn't really need it though; the boy knew cars like he knew his own face. He could disassemble and reassemble his own car blindfolded and still be back before dinner.

Leyna sat on the car beside him and observed as he got more frustrated with whatever wasn't working properly. She didn't want him to worry so much about one little thing, so she attempted to convince him to call it a night.

"Johnny, it's getting late. We can come back first thing in the morning and you can figure this out. Let's call it a night." She ran her hand over his shoulder, but he didn't rise.

"I really need to get this done. I've almost got it."

She sighed, "It'll still be here tomorrow."

"And tomorrow there will be something else to work on." His voice was still calm, but she could tell he was getting irritated.

She hopped from her seat on the hood and walked back to J.D.'s car. She took her book of Shakespeare's works from under the seat and slipped one of J.D.'s long sleeve shirts on as the air had become chilly. She then returned to her spot beside him and found a sonnet to read.