Serialization: "Hawkins County" is a Nostalgia Trip back to the 1970s, Chapter 1 (continued)

"Hey Pat, you need to build a tree fort up here." Earl "Toke" Watson sat next to his dirt bike ten feet away. Although only five-foot-seven, a glandular problem caused Toke to swell to a massive 235 pounds. He hated how he looked, so besides his weight, he carried all the insecurities that went along with a teenaged fat boy. Twirling a dandelion flower between his fingers, he placed it under his chin and turned sto pat could see the yellow reflection. "See, I like butter."

For an instant, Pat was irritated with Toke. When everything's so cool out here, why do you have to spoil it all by blabbering? However, the irritation passed, for after all, Toke really was his best friend. The two boys grew up together along the river and had known each other forever.

Even though he wasn't looking at his companion, Pat reflected on Toke's comment and knew the boy was doing the old dandelion under the chin routine again. He wondered why Toke had turned into a burglar, while he had never stolen anything in his life. Toke also was a boozer and a pothead, but not him. About a year back, when he got so dizzy off his dad's whiskey that he puked his guts out and got a throbbing headache to boot, he decided booze was not for him. He never got into smoking dope, either.

Pat's biggest flaws, as he saw them, were that he had a hot temper that got him into fights a lot, and he refused to go to school. Those flaws were enough to get him labeled as a juvenile delinquent, however, putting him in the same category as Toke, but he and Toke were different in so many ways that how they ever became friends was a wonder. Toke lived a half mile downstream in a ramshackle house not unlike Pat's own, and both their dads work at the stone quarry; that was about all they had in common. He broke his gaze  with the eagle, stood up, yawned, and stretched. "Nah, tree forts are for kids. Now, a raft with a tent on it like Huck Finn had, maybe." (to be continued)

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