"Where's your horse?" Mule," said Annie. "Man stole it las' night. Jus' walked it off, jumped on 'er back and rode away. Black feller."I wondered if i... had been Joe. "I doubt we can fix it," I said. "Maybe." I spent the rest of the day whittling out two new spokes and putting them down in the ditch to soak. Then I carved back the end of the axle and worked on boring a new hole for a pin. The women got their belongings shifted to the far side of the wagon and then broke away the floorboard on. At16 years of age, I was sorry to admit that I was an alto. I wouldprobably always be an alto. It was another reason I was hesitant to letpeople hear me sing. I was hoping to get up here and sing a song thatwouldn't show the audience how high my pitch was, but Emily made sure tokeep that possibility from happening. I would have to kill her for this.A prelude to a Hannah Montana song started playing. While I must admitthat she has some very good songs, they don't often get sung by guys! Icould. Even though veni gave me so much solace, I still felt uneasy deep inside. Guilt was dominating my conscience.I didn’t bother about what chinni was thinking or doing at that moment. I was feeling nervous just lying next to veni now. My back was towards veni. Out of great curiosity I turned facing her to see if she was keeping an eye on me by any chance. Veni was lying flat on her back, relaxed as always.I felt extremely restless and kept moving from side to side, avoiding any physical contact. The stairs ended in the gloom at one end of the basement with the family area and bar at the other end. Around the corner from the door was a half-wall bookcase where you could see half of the pool table the bar beyond it and the couch but not the TV which was in the far corner. I sauntered into the room. "Hey guys!" I said brightly. Everyone greeted me. I got a beer and stood around watching Chris and Sammy take on Brent and Landon. I was the only one without a pool table so they were the best.