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.I was glad Dad came just then, hooking the last strap of his striped overalls.We started into the barn together.I looked back at Thaddeus.He apparentlyfigured he'd need his little finger on the next load, so he was squatting bythe wagon, absorbed with a piece of flimsy red Christmas string.He had twisted one end around his wrist and was intent on tying the other tothe handle of the little red wagon.It wasn't so much that I avoided Thaddeus after that.It isn't hard forgrownups to keep from mingling with kids.After all, they do live in twodifferent worlds.Anyway, I didn't have much to do with Thaddeus for severalyears after that Christmas.There was the matter of a side trip to the SouthPacific where even I learned that there are some grown-up impossibilities thatare not always absolute.Then there was a hitch in the hospital where I waitedfor my legs to put themselves together again.I was luckier than most of theguys.The folks wrote often and regularly and kept me posted on all the hometalk.Nothing spectacular, nothing special, just the old familiar stuff thatmakes home, home and folks, folks.I hadn't thought of Thaddeus in a long time.I hadn't been around kids muchand unless you deal with them, you soon forget them.But I remembered himplenty when I got the letter from Dad about Jean's new baby.The kid was acouple of weeks overdue and when it did come a girl Jean's husband, Bert, wasout at the farm checking with Dad on a land deal he had cooking.The baby cameso quickly that Jean couldn't even make it to the hospital and when Mom calledBert, he and Dad headed for town together, but fast."Derned if I didn't have to hold my hair on," wrote Dad."I don't think weABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlPage 42hit the ground but twice all the way to town.Dern near overshot the gate whenwe finally tore up the hill to their house.Thaddeus was playing out front andwe dang near ran him down.Smashed his trike to flinders.I saw the handlebars sticking out from under the front wheel when I followed Bert in.Then Igot to thinking that he'd get a flat parking on all that metal so I went outto move the car.Lucky I did.Bert musta forgot to set the brakes.Derned ifthat car wasn't headed straight for Thaddeus.He was walking right in front ofit.Even had his hand on the bumper and the dern thing rolling right afterhim.I yelled and hit out for the car.But by the time I got there, it hadstopped and Thaddeus was squatting by his wrecked trike.What do you supposethe little cuss said? 'Old car broke my trike.I made him get off.'"Can you beat it? Kids get the dernedest ideas.Lucky it wasn't much downhill, though.He'd have been hurt sure."I lay with the letter on my chest and felt cold.Dad had forgotten that they"tore up the hill" and that the car must have rolled up the slope to get offThaddeus' trike.That night I woke up the ward yelling, "Come on, Wagon!"It was some months later when I saw Thaddeus again.He and half a dozen othernephews and the one persistent niece were in a tearing hurry to be somewhereelse and nearly mobbed Dad and me on the front porch as they boiled out of thehouse with mouths and hands full of cookies.They all stopped long enough togive me the once-over and fire a machine gun volley with my crutches, thenthey disappeared down the land on their bikes, heads low, rear ends high, andevery one of them being bombers at the tops of their voices.I only had time enough to notice that Thaddeus had lanked out and was just oneof the kids as he grinned engagingly at me with the two-tooth gap in his frontteeth."Did you ever notice anything odd about Thaddeus?" I pulled out the makin's.Page 45 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Thaddeus?" Dad glanced up at me from firing up his battered old corncobpipe."Not particularly.Why?""Oh, nothing." I ran my tongue along the paper and rolled the cigarette shut."He just always seemed kinda different.""Well, he's always been kinda slow about some things.Not that he's dumb.Once he catches on, he's as smart as anyone, but he's sure pulled some funnyones.""Give me a fer-instance," I said, wondering if he'd remember the trike deal."Well, coupla years ago at a wienie roast he was toting something aroundwrapped in a paper napkin.Jean saw him put it in his pocket and she thoughtit was probably a dead frog or a beetle or something like that, so she madehim fork it over.She unfolded the napkin and derned if there wasn't a biglive coal in it.Dern thing flamed right up in her hand.Thaddeus belleredlike a bull calf.Said he wanted to take it home cause it was pretty.How heever carried it around that long without setting himself afire is what gotme." "That's Thaddeus," I said, "odd." "Yeah." Dad was firing his pipe again,flicking the burned match down, to join the dozen or so others by the porchrailing."I guess you might call him odd.But he'll outgrow it.He hasn'tpulled anything like that in a long time.""They do outgrow it," I said."Thank God." And I think it was a real prayer.Idon't like kids."By the way, Where's Clyde?""Down in the East Pasture, plowing.Say, that tractor I got that lastChristmas you were here is a bear cat.It's lasted me all this time and I'venever had to do a lick of work on it.Clyde's using it today.""When you get a good tractor you got a good one," I said."Guess I'll go downand see the old son-of-a-gun Clyde, I mean.Haven't seen him in a coon's age."I gathered up my crutches.Dad scrambled to his feet "Better let me run you down in the pickup.I'veABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlPage 43gotta go over to Jesperson's anyway.""Okay," I said."Won't be long till I can throw these things away." So wepiled in the pickup and headed for the East Pasture.We were ambushed at the pump corner by the kids and were killed variously byP-38s, atomic bombs, ack-ack, and the Lone Ranger's six-guns.Then we loweredour hands which had been raised all this time and Dad reached out and collaredthe nearest nephew."Come along, Punkin-Yaller.That blasted Holstein has busted out again
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