“There’s something I didn’t tell you.” As this was his first complete sentence in several days, I encouraged him: “About what?” “About that night.” “You’ve never told me anything about that night,” I said. Jem waved my words away as if fanning gnats. He was silent for a while, then he said, “When I went back for my breeches—they were all in a tangle when I was gettin’ out of ’em, I couldn’t get ’em loose. When I went back—” Jem took a deep breath. “When I went back, they were folded across the fence . . . like they were expectin’ me.”
