{"id":17293,"date":"2009-06-11T15:50:33","date_gmt":"2009-06-11T20:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=17293"},"modified":"2014-10-16T17:10:28","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T22:10:28","slug":"what-the-faulkner-presents-adventures-with-pinecone-by-charles-hale-from-tlv-82","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/what-the-faulkner-presents-adventures-with-pinecone-by-charles-hale-from-tlv-82\/","title":{"rendered":"“What the Faulkner Presents: Adventures with Pinecone” by Charles Hale (From TLV #82)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pinecone82\"<\/a>I saw the bike before I saw the kid. It was lying in the middle of the bike path like it had just been thrown down. I thought about trying to bunny hop over it, but then I saw a scrawny kid standing off in the grass with his arms crossed in front of him and a scowl on his face. I slowed down as I reached the kid and continued to survey the scene. I wasn\u2019t sure if he was trying to block the entire bike path but he was doing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d I asked as I came to a stop with my foot down and pulling the water bottle out of the rack.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGoddamn flat tire,\u201d the kid said and I tried not to laugh. He looked like he was ten, maybe eleven years old and said it like he was trying to sound like a grandfather, but then I reminded myself that in situations like this I should try to be the adult.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDoes your father hear you talk like that?\u201d I asked. The kid hadn\u2019t moved since I pulled up and thus the bike was still in my way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy daddy don\u2019t come home until after dark and when he\u2019s home he don\u2019t care what I do as long as I stay away from him,\u201d the kid said. \u201cNow this stupid bike don\u2019t work and I don\u2019t want to push it all the way home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I guess it was the beautiful weather or the bike riding that made me ask the kid if he wanted me to patch the tube over at my buddy\u2019s house, but I didn\u2019t know at the time that I was essentially adopting a little brother for the summer. Especially one that when I offered to fix his flat he said, \u201cyou\u2019re probably trying to get me over there so you can touch my no-no parts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re too funny, kid,\u201d I said hoping that by taking it as a joke it would mean that he meant it as a joke. \u201cWhat\u2019s your name?\u201d I asked as he walked over to his bike and picked it up. I got off mine took a sip of water from my bottle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPinecone,\u201d he said and started pushing his bike. The back tire made a flapping sound and I couldn\u2019t figure out if he was kidding about his name but I was glad he had let all that child molester stuff go. As we walked toward my buddy\u2019s house on MLK I learned that Pinecone was nine and had just finished the third grade. He was a pretty funny kid who paid attention to stuff around him. He made a joke about car\u2019s paint job and pointed out a dog owner trying to not watch his dog taking a poop on the grass in front of the middle school. I wanted to tell Pinecone how I was also fascinated with watching a pooping puppy but I didn\u2019t think the kid would believe me and I wanted him to keep talking about himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe McRib is back,\u201d he said and I looked up from what I was doing. \u201cThe McRib is back,\u201d he said again probably because I had a dumbfounded look on my face. \u201cYou know, the barbequed nectar of the gods.\u201d I stopped working on his bike just to look at this kid. I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d ever see him again after today but I couldn\u2019t wait to get to the bar to tell people about him. \u201cMy sister said she\u2019d take me to get one when she gets home from college. I pushed the front wheel of Pinecone\u2019s bike while he talked. The tick tick tick of the wheel going round sounded like the only thing that made any sense that afternoon but Pinecone talked with such authority for a ten year-old that it was hard not to believe him. \u201cI buy you a two dollar sandwich if you give me a ride up there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSorry dude,\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019ve got stuff to do and I don\u2019t think your mom would like me taking you through the drivethru.\u201d I finished plugging up Pinecone\u2019s bike tire and reattached it to his bike. Then Pinecone rode off down the street. I\u2019d never met a little kid like him. Summer was all around, traffic moved slower and people were generally in a better mood.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later that evening I drove to the Square and parked in front of the bar. I didn\u2019t know who would be inside, but I was sure I would know a few of them and I had a story to tell. I wondered if I would see Pinecone later in the summer hanging outside of the candy store or throwing rocks at a church window but I was keeping my fingers crossed.\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/span>
\nThis article was originally printed in The Local Voice #82 (published June 11, 2009).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw the bike before I saw the kid. It was lying in the middle of the bike<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":17321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/PineconeFEAT.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}