I gripped him by the front of this shirt as he hollered at the horses.
The balloon loomed overhead when the horses finally stopped, its shadow falling over us as my hands moved to Otis’s throat. He bared his teeth in a struggling grimace, and the two Washington boys hopped on board the wagon and pried me away, each hooking around my shoulders and pulling. These boys were young and strong like when Leroy first arrived in town.
“Control yourself, Mr. Biddle,” Otis shouted as I found myself pulled off the wagon. I fell backwards and the air rushed out of me as I landed on the two boys. We lay there in the dust, their arms around my arms and shoulders like shackles. I pulled and pulled to sit up, but they gripped me good. Then they each wrapped a leg around one of mine and I was rooted to th
