2| Billie-Bob

They say a man ain't a man till he's shot his first hawk.

I've shot two so far and ain't nobody called me a man yet. Maybe it's 'cause I really didn't shoot 'em, but kinda just ran 'em over with that old rusted tractor out back behind Gene's house. Saw 'em I did, snooping 'round with their fancy guns and shiny helmets. So I hopped on in that tractor and kicked the engine on and ran 'em over.

Splat they went, yes they did. And now their bones and dusted guts cover this fall's harvest. Gene left 'em out there like that as a sign of good luck. Said that Dream Weaver gonna reward us with good crops that way.

Got a nice old pat on the back, but never got the title as man. Maybe I did, but nobody bothered saying anything 'bout it. Just kinda left it up for me to decide if I was a man, so now I just call myself Man Cub.

Maybe Man Cub can be as free as Dream Weaver.

But 'em hawks showing up more and more now a days, looking 'round for 'em untagged boys and girls. I got my tags long ago, 'fore mama even gave birth to me, like most folk 'round here. The men in white go in and tag the baby all up while it's still sleeping in a mother's belly. Mama once told me that she thought I could be one of 'em men in white; thought I was awfully smart.

But they work for 'em hawks and Man Cub just don't do well with hawks.

Some of the boys and I go looking for 'em at night; it's always safer at night. We know the dark. And that's what we're doing right now, the mighty three of us.

Peter Bradley one of 'em boys who likes the films, as they call it. Liked 'em so much that he trying to go by Eastwood, 'cause that was some big time cowboy man from long 'fore the third world war. Peter trying to get us all into it as well, but I think 'em moving pictures is too fancy for Man Cub. And the people inside 'em flat screens dress awfully strange.

Kory is Peter's cousin and he a dick.

We out in the hay fields, where the whale-moose goes to graze. A lot of folk love whale-moose, calling her Lady 'cause she just as classy as any whale-moose gets. And she got some good milk to give too.

Lady sleeping right now though, so I'm gonna let her be.

We creep 'round a bit, each of us going in each owns direction, and Kory says, "How come the small moon there stays up in that one spot? Why doesn't it move around like the big one?"

"Because," Eastwood tells him as he kicks at some hay, "it ain't got no gravitational pull."

"Why you go on and using 'em big fancy words again?" I hollers at him from my spot. He thinks that since he watches all 'em films he can talk like 'em and act smarter than anybody 'round.

Kory laughs the laugh of a cackling wolf. "Just 'cause you is too stupid to know big words don't mean you can go 'round bitchin' like a woman."

I turn to face him and raise my fists up high for him to get a good look. "I don't need no big words when I got these here to beat your face in." He backs down. I win.

"LIKE I WAS SAYING," Eastwood says real loud as he rests his shotgun on his shoulder, "the small moon there ain't got a gravitational pull like the big star. So the old moon and Earth don't go revolving 'round it and it sits up there to watch over us."

"Dream Weaver sits up there," I tell 'em all.

"Shut up with that Dream Weaver crap," Kory snaps. "He ain't real, so he can't possibly be up on that moon."

"Dream Weave is real, though," Eastwood says. "Don't you listen to those songs?" He always good for backup.

Kory shakes his head at his cousin and says, "Those just songs mamas be telling their babies to get them to sleep. Dream Weaver just like a dead god, you know? Ain't real, but people still celebrating his meaning."

"So you is saying that all these years that people claim to have met him is all bullshit?" I asks.

"Yes, sir, it is. Remember when in school they told us that people use to believe in that Jebus fellow? Dream Weaver just a figment of our minds to make life better." Kory pulls his trousers up and kneels down to pick at some grass. "Don't go chasing no dream."

"Don't matter if he real or not anyways," Eastwood says pointing his gun at Kory. "We out here looking for hawks, and ain't no hawks gonna come our way if we out here hollering 'bout Dream Weaver."

"How many we got so far this season?" I ask. Some big group told us last year that if we collect enough hawk bodies, they'd give us a diamond. Diamonds mean we can buy a one way ticket up to small moon and live with Dream Weaver.

"Two," says Eastwood. "We need five. Each."

Kory groans and falls back on his ass. "That's damn impossible! How we gonna collect ten in time when they is never here?" He pulls his smelly cap off and throws it on the ground.

Silence. We all know that there ain't no hope, but nobody wants to admit it.

"Every night we come on out here looking for one of 'em hawks, and every night we don't find none," says Eastwood. "Maybe we should just give up?"

"I can't give up, though, you know that!" Kory whines. "The diamond was gonna take me and Jess up to small moon and we were gonna get married up there!"

"There's other ways," Eastwood says mighty quietly and we all stare at him with wide eyes.

"What you mean?" I asks him, hoping he wasn't talking 'bout what I thought he was talking 'bout.

He shrugs his shoulders and glances away. "Maybe we just fighting on the wrong side."

My stomach turns and my fists ball up. "You shut your mouth, Peter!" I yells at him. "Ain't got no right talking like that!"

Kory throws his cap at his cousin. "Stop talking stupid, stupid!"

"My name is Eastwood!" Eastwood screams. "And I just speaking the truth 'cause somebody here needs to! We ain't gonna get that far in life if we fight the fire when we ain't meant to fight no fires. But if we join the military, and serve our time, we granted straight passage to small moon!"

"You'd be some hawk bitch then?" Kory yells with his face beat red. He stands up and now he's balling up his fists.

Two against one. Peter better back down.

"Rather be a hawk bitch then a dead farmer's boy!" he says, clutching his gun tightly. His knuckles are white and his gun is pointed directly at Kory.

"You is just worrying," I tell him, in a calmer voice then before. Gotta keep him cool. Gotta keep him straight thinking. Gotta keep that gun under control. "Just calm on down, we can talk this through."

"I am calm though," he says louder than any calm person I know. "I'm just speaking out my mind here and you two the ones getting ruffled up over it."

"We ain't mad no more, see?" I tells him as I place my hands up forward in a friendly way. "You mad, Kory?"

"No," Kory answers. "Just put the gun down, yeah Pe—Eastwood?"

Peter stares at us for moment, quite all throughout, and finally lowers his gun. "I'm just saying that maybe the only route we got to take to small moon is under the rule of the hawks. I ain't telling ya that you gotta go do it, I'm just listing out our options here."

"Let's just continue looking 'round," Kory says, turning his back to us and leaving his cap behind. He walks off towards the taller patches of grass.

Eastwood sends me a look, but I don't return it. I shuffle off in the opposite direction. It's hot and sticky and the air smells of smoke. Man Cub is too tired for all this hawk talk.

It's the perfect moment for a hit, so I pull out my orange bottle with no words on no label and pop the lid back and dump one little green pill into my palm. The pill is fat and has one yellow stripe cross its underbelly. A big old letter H is on it and the H stands for hope. I swallow hope and close my eyes and just wait for night to pass on by.

I'm gonna leave Tennessee for California in the morning to find Dream Weaver's people.

They gonna get me to small moon.

Yes, sir, they is.


A/N: Just some questions I'll list out here. You don't have to answer them (or some of them) if you do decide to review, but they will be helpful. Thanks. : )

-Did you not like the different tone structure in this chapter when compared to the previous one/prologue?

-Is Billie-Bob's and the boy's accents (or the writing of their accents) too much? Did it distract you from the reading? Or did you enjoy it? Or are you neutral?

-Was the references to the hawks and the small moon confusing? Should more be written into it to clarify them some more?