{"id":17493,"date":"2009-08-06T15:58:54","date_gmt":"2009-08-06T20:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=17493"},"modified":"2014-10-21T16:04:33","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T21:04:33","slug":"what-the-faulkner-presents-adventures-with-pinecone-by-charles-hale-from-tlv-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/what-the-faulkner-presents-adventures-with-pinecone-by-charles-hale-from-tlv-86\/","title":{"rendered":"“What the Faulkner Presents: Adventures with Pinecone” by Charles Hale (From TLV #86)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pinecone86MIC\"<\/a>I\u2019d seen Pinecone a couple of times since I hung out with his mother and each time I tried to pry information about his parents\u2019 relationship with no avail. If there had been big fights and if Pinecone was walking around with any emotional baggage I had yet to see it. But I was worried about him, worried that a divorce would make little Pinecone grow up too quickly. But when I heard the slight tremble in his voice when he called and asked me to pick him up in front of the library I was expecting to hear about his parents when I got there.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t up to anything important so I got in my car and drove over to pick him up. He was sitting on the steps with his head sagging when I pulled in so I didn\u2019t see the blood that had trickled out of his nose and the quickly forming black eye until he opened the door to my car. The first time I asked Pinecone what happened he didn\u2019t say anything and started making some sounds that made me think he was about to cry. I was heartbroken and did everything I could to remain calm in those first few moments. I counted my breaths and tried to figure out if Pinecone had gotten between his parents or if one had taken out their aggression with the other on their son. I asked Pinecone again to tell me what happened and he started mumbling.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI, I, I,\u201d Pinecone tried to spit something out and I reached over and put my hand on his shoulder. \u201cI was over at the skate park just talking and messing around and this older kid jumped me.\u201d Pinecone didn\u2019t look at me while he talked; his head was hanging almost all the way to his lap. I turned and watched him for a moment. I didn\u2019t know if his family situation had anything to do with this incident but I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it did. He didn\u2019t deserve this, even with his smart ass mouth he didn\u2019t deserved to be beaten like an unwanted puppy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIs he still over there?\u201d I asked as I began to lose my cool. \u201cCause I\u2019ll beat his ass, I don\u2019t give a shit.\u201d When I put the car in drive and put my foot on the gas I noticed Pinecone out of the corner of my eye. He had turned and was staring at me; I couldn\u2019t help but look at him. It was almost as if what I said was making things worse. \u201cPoint him out, Pinecone. What is he\u201415, 16? I got no problem beating down a kid that age.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t Charles,\u201d Pinecone said and I knew immediately that it was a bad idea. \u201cI just want to go home.\u201d He was as somber as I\u2019ve ever seen him. It was almost as if the smart ass little kid I met on the bike path at the beginning of summer wasn\u2019t there any more. He looked defeated and my biggest fear was that it wasn\u2019t just the fight at the skate park that had him down, but he wouldn\u2019t say anything about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the way to his house I asked him if he wanted anything to eat. I was expecting him to ask for a McRib and I was planning to break my rule and get him one, but he shook his head no and I kept driving. When we pulled into his driveway neither of his parents\u2019 cars were there. I got out of the car and walked Pinecone to the door. I was planning to leave a short note for his mother to tell her what had happened, but Shelia, Pinecone\u2019s sister, was home. She saw Pinecone\u2019s face and asked him what happened but Pinecone went straight to his room without saying a word. Then she asked me if I knew what had happened. I started talking and then Shelia motioned for me to sit down. We talked for nearly an hour, first about Pinecone but then about other things. It was an effortless conversation and I wanted to ask her if she\u2019d have dinner with me sometime but it didn\u2019t seem the time or the place. But she was smart and had keen insights about people and what motivated them. And countless other things about her impressed me. Eventually she thanked me for bringing her brother home and I stood up to go. I was disappointed that there was no lingering conversation in the doorway, no comment from her that made me think she saw me as anything more than her brother\u2019s babysitter. And I resigned that it would always be like that.\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/span>
\nThis is part 5. To read part 4, click here.<\/a><\/span>
\nThis article was originally printed in The Local Voice<\/em> #86. (published August 6, 2009).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d seen Pinecone a couple of times since I hung out with his mother and each time I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":17471,"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-17493","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\/PineconeFEAT1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17493","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=17493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}