Three

THREE

July, 1992

“What’s that smell? Geez. That’s nasty.”

Bobby Simmons stopped on the well-worn path in the woods behind Tahawus First Methodist, tripped his inhaler and sucked in a wheezing breath. I stopped and sniffed, grimacing at something that smelled sour, like a bag of week-old fried chicken I’d once found in our fridge. That, however, didn’t begin to match this stench, especially on a warm July evening. Whatever we smelled had been rotting all day in 70-degree weather. It was just off the path to our right, in the brush somewhere.

Bobby took another wheezing hit from his inhaler, then a swig of his Dr. Pepper. He swallowed and squinted through fish-bowl glasses into the woods. “Wanna check it out?”

I shrugged, following his gaze into the undergrowth. We were skipping Sunday evening church, like always. We’d slipped from the balcony during opening prayers, then cut through the woods behind First Methodist along a path to the gas station on Wolton Road. There we bought sod