Discovering Tim

  The fence posts flew by like fan blades as young Tim Johnson looked out the window of the moving van, as his father drove. He hadn't wanted to move because he had made friends with several of the guys he went to school with. He knew his home town and loved it, and now they were on their way to the back woods of Tennessee, where everyone he would meet was going to be a bunch of rednecks and hillbillies. His dad’s company had decided to move them because they hated him and wanted to get rid of him. Or maybe it was because that Tim had started to pay more attention to his dad’s boss’s daughter. That was it, because he had really liked Emily his family had been forced into exile. Never to be seen again. In reality, Tim’s father had received a promotion and had to move to be the plant manager in a small city called Morristown.

  Tim had never seen a place like this, the farther they got away from Indiana the more mountainous the world became. He had heard all the stories about moonshiners shooting you for just walking through the woods. And everyone lived in trailers with several junk cars on the lawn. He wondered what kind of cars they would have in their yard.

  As the shadows from the west began to grow long, they found themselves driving by a huge lake. Tim took extra special note of this as he had always wanted to learn how to fish. But he still didn’t say a word to his father he wanted him to think that he utterly hated this place. When they arrived at the entrance of the neighborhood that their new home was in, Tim noticed that these were very nice homes and there were no cars in the yards. And for the most part everyone’s homes and lawns were very clean and nice looking. Not at all like what he had imagined.

  As the movers began the task of carrying their furniture inside the house, Tim noticed the neighborhood kids riding their bikes and watching all the commotion with earnest. Not wanting to be a spectacle, Tim went inside to see the rest of the house. As he crossed the foyer, he noticed the winding stairway. When he reached the top he saw that the hallway lead out to a deck. He walked to the door and stepped back into the sunlight. What he saw then took his breath away, the lake was right in his back yard. This sight made his heart skip a beat, he had loved going to the pool back home but this wasn’t like that at all this was something that he could get used to in a hurry. With the sun sinking low in the western sky, Tim's mother called to him. "Timmy, the pizza is here get washed up and lets eat." Tim hated being called Timmy it made him sound like a child not a boy of twelve years, he was virtually a grown up.  After the feast was finished, Tim went up the winding staircase and chose for himself the bedroom at the end of the hall. The door to the deck was just a few steps down the hall. Tim could see purple lights out on the lake in different spots, he had no idea what these lights were for but he imagined that they were there so other boats could see and not have an accident. Tim also noticed that temperature had not cooled down at all with nightfall, but it seemed to be just as hot as it had been when he first climbed out of the air conditioned moving van several hours earlier. Luckily he had a ceiling fan in his room and the air conditioner was in good working order. Sleep came easily for Tim even though he thought he would never be able to sleep in this strange land.

Tim awoke early the next morning he could hear his mother and father in the kitchen discussing picture placement over a warm cup of coffee. As he slid out of bed it dawned on him that there was no noise from outside the only sound that he heard was a couple of birds singing on the branch of the rather large oak tree near the fence that separated their back yard from their neighbors. Tim stepped to the window, looked out over the lake and noticed that the sun was just starting to peak over the hills to his right. From this vantage point, Tim could see a rather large chain of islands out in the lake his imagination ran wild with the thought or buried treasure and pirates. He then collected himself together and thought how stupid, pirates on a lake in Tennessee. But still the thought of getting out and exploring this new territory was very appealing to him.

  After getting dressed quickly, Tim headed for the stairs. He studied sliding down the handrail but thought better of it. Down the stairs and into the kitchen he went quickly, wanting to get outside as soon as possible. But his mother slowed him down with egg sandwich on toasted bread. “You have fun today Timmy, but please be careful and stay close to the house.” Said his mom,” it will be easy to get yourself lost here.” She knew that her Timmy had pretty good head on his shoulders especially for a child. But he was growing up and needed to get out and check out his new surroundings and meet the neighborhood kids.

  With sandwich in hand and bottled water in each pocket of his cargo shorts Tim stepped out in to the morning sunshine. It was just after nine in the morning and the heat of this new place was already unreal. Tim had lived through some hot summers back home but this was definitely different. It was almost like the heat was sticky and it just laid on you. Munching on his sandwich, he walked down the sidewalk looking at the perfectly manicured lawns of his neighbors. As he walked along he noticed the farther he looked in all directions he could see forest. Trees everywhere not just clump of trees here and there but everywhere he looked he could see what he thought was endless woods.

  He also noticed that other than a loud truck somewhere in the distance and the birds chirping this place was quiet. Back in Indianapolis there was constant noise. But here it just seemed so peaceful. Just then he heard a girl laughing, suddenly he became very aware of himself and nervousness washed over him. He kept walking forward looking at the houses that were on the other side of his neighborhood. Now he could distinctly hear two girls laughing. That turned his nervous feeling up a couple more notches. A bead of sweat rolled off his temple and down the side of his face. As he walked closer to a large hedgerow, a pair of white tennis shoes popped out from behind the bushes. He knew the confrontation was about to happen. The shoes moved again as she stood up and stepped out onto the sidewalk just in front of him. She let out a loud gasp when she noticed him. She jumped so hard that it scared him too. “I’m sorry” Tim stated,” I didn’t mean to scare you.” She was smiling when she said “that’s okay.” “My name is Tim. I just moved here.” He spoke quickly trying to cover the shake of his own voice. “Good morning Tim I’m Carrie and that’s my big sister, Jennifer. But we just call her Jen”

Carrie was a rather skinny but still quite pretty girl of about nine years old. Tim noticed that her blond hair seemed to shine in the bright morning sunshine. Tim stepped forward and peered around the hedgerow and seen her, Jennifer was a thing of pure beauty. Tim had never seen a female like this before, she took his breath away. He suddenly felt like his clothes had magically disappeared, and the whole world was staring at his fruit of the looms. He could feel his face glowing bright red. But Carrie didn’t notice, or maybe she just didn’t say anything about it. He leaned back quickly before Jennifer got the chance to see him. He tried to collect himself as he heard her beautiful voice almost singing the phrase “Who you talking to squeak?” her pet name for her younger sister. Carrie smiled as she spoke back to her sister “His name is Tim he just moved in.” “Hi” Tim barely got the word to leave his mouth as the loveliest creature he had ever seen stepped around the hedgerow. “Hi, Tim is it? I’m Jen. It’s Nice to meet you.” Her voice sounded like it came from heavens choir. Tim so desperately wanted to grab his emotions and stifle them and play it cool in front of this young lady. Tim could not even begin to guess her age, her beauty staggered him. And to be completely honest Tim didn’t like this feeling of total helplessness, even though he didn’t know that yet. Jennifer noticed the awkward silence and asked “so where are you from, Tim?” It took him a couple of seconds but he formed the word “Indianapolis”. She smiled at him and asked another question? “What grade will you be in, when school starts back?” Tim had actually begun to come back to himself as he replied “I am going to be in the eighth grade.”  Her smile broadened as she said “Wow, me too, maybe we’ll be in the same classes.” That would be great he thought. I might get to see her every day for years. The thoughts were pouring into him. Even though he had enough control of himself to say “that will be cool, I know someone.” She laughed at this and that made his feet leave the ground a couple of inches and he would walk like that for a couple of days.

Carrie stepped in and asked “Tim, Jen and I were thinking about taking a walk would you like for us to show you around the neighborhood?” Tim, still looking at Jennifer’s face, said “Yes Carrie I would love a tour.”