Nancy Long

Spit! Nancy Long

Guided by whoops and shouts, Nancy finds a footpath and runs into the high, dry woods. A half block in, trees and brush give way to a natural clearing bedded with sparse, short grasses. Straight ahead lies a swath of bare, gray dirt, and sweeping over it, a truck tire with Frankie sitting inside it and Benjy atop, straddling the thick rope holding the tire! Up, up, Nancy traces the thick rope, looking like many ropes twisted together, to where it is tied to a high horizontal limb branching from the arched oak. The tire returns to the tree; a third rider jumps on! When the swing loses height, the riders drag their feet and dismount, barely visible in a cloud of dust. From the highest board step up the tree, Buddy grabs a thinner rope tied above the tire, pulling it to bring the tire, and hands the source of their fun to Shorty. Grabbing the big rope above the tire, Shorty jumps, swings his legs through the tire in midair, and sits inside! The swing swoops down and down-across-up, and up to its farthest and highest point away, to come sweeping down, down-across-and up, up-back to the tree! Nancy holds her breath. The tire and Shorty are gonna hit the tree! Oh, the curved trunk, the swing doesn't quite reach hit! Alan lunges from a lower step, mounting the top of the tire; two others start up.