Defiant Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

then admitted, “No, not a lot. But I’m a fast learner and a hard worker.”
    “At least you’re honest,” the big man said. “Say, you’re not from town are you?”
    “I am. I moved here a few weeks ago. I’m living with my grandmother, Marvella Wilson.”
    “You’re Ernie Wilson’s grandson? Well, that’s gotta be worth something. Ernie, he was a regular in here. You know,” he said with a smile, “your granddaddy was something else. If it was broke, he could fix it. I never saw nothing like it. I asked him once how he did it. You know, how he could fix something he never even seen before. He says ‘Walt’‌—‌Walt’s my name‌—‌‘You know how you got to know how something works before you can fix it, right?’ Well, to tell the God’s truth, I didn’t know that then. Course, now I do. So, anyway, he says, ‘I don’t know how it happens, but if I look at something long enough, I can figure out how it works.’ He could just see it. You ever heard of anyone who could do that?”
    Jon shook his head, truthfully.
    “Me neither. It was the damnedest thing. You remember,” he began, then amended, “nah, you’re probably too young to remember, back when refrigerators first started comin’ out.”
    Actually, Jon remembered the old ice box that his family had before they purchased their first refrigerator when Jon was about eight. Before then, the iceman would make deliveries, and Jon had fond recollections of retrieving ice chips from his wagon on hot summer days.
    “Refrigerators was suddenly a hot item. I’d say in one year, half the town went out and bought one. Now you talk about your technical things. Even Ernie had a hard time understanding how they worked. And, of course, they started breaking down, just like everything does.
    “Well, Ernie writes away to the folks at General Electric, and they was nice enough to send him a manual. Seems the guys they trained to fix the things was stretched to the breaking point. So they was happy to have someone learn on his own how to fix ‘em.
    “And then, sure enough, one day, Ernie says to me, ‘I got it now.’ Just like that.”
    At that moment, the front door opened, the tinkling of a small bell announcing the presence of someone new. They both turned as a woman Jon had never seen before entered the store.
    “Oh, hey, Mrs. Cartwright,” Walt called, cheerily.
    “Morning Walt,” she said. Then she turned and strolled up the first aisle.
    “Well,” Walt said, turning back to Jon, “I guess maybe I better let you go. Mr. Dahlgren should be here this afternoon. You wanna come back then?”
    “I will.”
    “OK, see you later. Say, I enjoyed the conversation.”
    That struck Jon as funny. To his recollection, he hadn’t contributed anything to the conversation. “Me too.”
    #
    Jim Dahlgren returned to his hardware store in the late afternoon. As the mayor of Jackson, he would be presiding over the city council meeting later that evening. He had a number of things on his mind, so he didn’t respond when his assistant, Walt, called out, “Hey boss, you’re back early.”
    With a cursory wave of acknowledgement, Dahlgren headed straight for the narrow stairs leading up to the second floor office he maintained above the original section of the store. Before he could ascend, however, Walt said, “Say, I got good news.”
    Dahlgren turned and looked at Walt.
    “I think we maybe found a guy to replace Bobby. You’ll never believe who it is, either. Ernie Wilson’s grandson. We had a nice chat today. He’s a hard worker and a fast learner. And he’s honest,” he added.
    Dahlgren nodded in a distracted way. “Well, tell you what. If you’re happy with him, then it’s fine with me.”
    And with that, Jon had a job.
    #
    To Jon, Dahlgren’s Hardware offered more than mere employment. It was a refuge from the cold environment of his grandmother’s home. And it came with the first person Jon could call a friend in Jackson.
    Walt