Cheating for the Chicken Man Read Online Free PDF Page A

J.T.’s case was over, Kate and her uncle waited outside the courtroom in the hallway. When a
clanging
noise startled them, they turned to see J.T. coming out of the nearby men’s room in the shorts and T-shirt. Kate smiled, figuring the prison uniform had been chucked into the metal trash can, which was fine with her.
    Her brother had a funny grin and a soft twinkle in his familiar brown eyes, but his joy was mostly silent. After setting down a lumpy, black plastic bag full of his belongings, he gave his sister a hug, although not the crazy big one she had imagined.
    When he stepped away to embrace Uncle Ray, Kate sawit: the electronic ankle bracelet, a short black leather belt wrapped around J.T.’s ankle with a little box attached. While it wasn’t a complete shock—he’d worn one before his trial last summer—it bothered Kate to see it again. Maybe because it was a reminder that J.T. was still perceived as some sort of a criminal. Back at the house, a unit was already connected to the telephone line so it could communicate with the ankle bracelet and monitor J.T.’s movements, twenty-four hours a day. He’d be allowed to go to doctor appointments and meetings with his probation officer, but only certain times that were cleared ahead of time. If he didn’t “honor” the perimeter, an alarm would go off, and the police would come.
    J.T. saw Kate staring at his ankle.
    â€œJust for two months,” he said.
    She propped up another smile. At least it would be gone before school started.
    A woman approached with paperwork in her hands. “Hi there, Jeremy,” she said, extending her hand to J.T. “I’m Miss Hatcher. I’ll be your PO.”
    Right away Kate liked Miss Hatcher because she said “PO” instead of “probation officer.” It didn’t sound so official—or so mean.
    â€œIs this your family?” Miss Hatcher asked.
    â€œIt is,” J.T. said. “This is my uncle, Mr. Ray Tyler, and my sister Kate.”
    Miss Hatcher shook hands with them. Then she turned back to J.T. “Welcome home,” she said. “I’ll be out to your farm tomorrow morning to see you, and we’ll have us a talk, okay?”
    Kate watched J.T. swallow and nod. She knew he wasnervous. Maybe tomorrow, when he and Miss Hatcher had their talk, he could ask her to call him J.T. and not Jeremy. Maybe that would help a little.
    J.T. picked up the black garbage bag.
    Uncle Ray said, “Thank you kindly, ma’am.”
    When his uncle put his baseball cap on, J.T. noticed and said, “What? You think the Nationals have a chance this year?”
    â€œDarn right I do,” Uncle Ray said. “It’s a new year, a whole new ball game.”
    J.T. started to smile, and Kate beamed.
A whole new b
all game
. She liked that phrase. Uncle Ray put one arm around J.T.’s shoulders and his other arm around Kate, and they headed for the door.
    Kate wrote in her journal that night.
    W
e three squished int
o the front seat of
Uncle Ray’s truck.
It was a long ride hom
e for such a short d
istance. Uncle Ray d
oesn’t have AC, and
it was raining, so m
aybe the heat and hu
midity tamped us dow
n. Plus those windsh
ield wipers thumping
made a lot of noise
. Uncle Ray would as
k a simple question,
like “How you feeli
n’?” or me, “Are you
hungry?” and J.T. w
ould just mumble a q
uick answer like “ok
ay” or “not really.”
Then we’d hear thos
e windshield wipers
thump back and forth
again.
    Pausing with her pen poised over the journal page, Kate looked back at a word she’d just used—
tamped
, a recent vocabulary word. She knew it meant “to pack or push something down, especially by tapping it repeatedly.” Which was exactly how she felt. All those weeks of joyous anticipation and crossing the days off on her panda calendar had collided with a cold courtroom where she