Member-only story
Life Becomes Harder
Vulnerable children can be targeted
This is the sixth in a series. Read the previous chapter here.
Jimmie was now eight years old. Great-grandad had died. Jimmie’s family had to move from the farm to a rental house in town. Playing on the farm was infrequent, and Jimmie Dee missed the freedom and the work on the old homestead. He missed the chickens and horses and sheep. He missed everything about that life.
The school changes had been difficult. First grade was a disaster. The family had moved five times during that school year. The first two weeks had been wonderful and then the first move came. Then the second. Then the third.
All of this moving and new schools were so disturbing that Jimmie did nothing at school but cry and then have to go home. He was sure the family would move while he was at school, and they wouldn’t be there when he got home. A serious bout of whooping cough put him further behind.
By his third-grade year, Grandma had come to live with them in town. She was Jimmie’s savior. Like on the farm, she made time for him, and they were best friends. She helped him learn to read by having him read the paper to her while she crocheted or knitted. He was finally catching up in school.
Paul, Jimmie’s dad, was now gone all during the week as an over-the-road trucker. He…
