Swygert

Every ten feet along the fence, a fence post stuck up above the top board by about four inches. Those four inches proved to be quite an obstacle. The first time Jeny made it past the first fence post we both cheered. Of course, on the very next step, she lost her balance and had to hop off, but it was a great achievement. I think I finally got past the first fence post also, after a lot of practice and some good coaching from Jeny. At first, we challenged each other by counting to see who could take the most steps without falling off. This method of scoring proved to be rather dubious. We both began taking tiny steps in order to improve our score. In addition, when we felt ourselves begin to lose balance, we'd quickly take two or three more steps on the way down. After a while, we changed our scoring method to count distance rather than steps. That proved to be a better measure of success. As the summer days went by, Jeny began saying that she wished she could walk the entire fence from end to end without falling off. I thought it was impossible. Neither of us had managed to walk more than a couple of fence posts. Jeny said she needed a lot of luck to do it. She began to search our yard for four-leaf clovers. She heard somewhere that they bring luck. Country folk don’t bother to fertilize the yard, so we had plenty of dandelions and clover in amongst the grass. It was very easy to find three-leaf clovers, but it took a tremendous amount of searching to find a four-leaf one. I remember seeing Jeny hunched over a patch of clover slowly examining each one. I tried to help her with her quest, but my patience only lasted ten or fifteen minutes. Jeny had a longer attention span. After investing three or four hours, she actually found one. When she showed it to me, I examined it carefully to make sure that she hadn’t glued an extra leaf onto a three-leaf one. It looked genuine to me, and I congratulated her. She carefully pressed it among the pages of her white Confirmation Bible that she received from the Odell United Methodist Church. Girls got white Bibles and boys got black ones. The next day it rained in the morning, and the fence was a little slippery. Jeny thought that she should wait a few days for the good luck to take hold before making any more fence walking attempts. Instead of walking the fence, we started messing around in the ditch in front of our house. We were both barefoot, and I slipped on a little patch of mud. Jeny scoffed at me and called me a Reject, which was her favorite insult-of-the-month. I crossed my eyes, made a goofy face, and tried to look like a reject. It made Jeny laugh, and I liked to make her laugh. Jeny heard a car approaching, and she told me to do it again. Just as the car was passing our house, I stuck my heel in the mud, slid down the side of the ditch, and made a goofy face. Jeny yelled, “REJECT!” and pointed at me with both hands. The driver of the car turned her head and gave us a very strange look. We both thought that was hilarious. We spent the rest of the day doing it over and over again each time a car went past. After a few days, when Jeny thought that the good luck from her four-leaf clover had sunken in, she decided to make another earnest attempt at walking the fence. I remember seeing some extra concentration on her face. There was something different about the way she approached the fence that day. She seemed to be absolutely determined to conquer the challenge. That four-leaf clover gave her a big boost of confidence. She began at the ash tree like always, and then, with both arms outstretched for balance, she began to slowly take steps along the top rail of the fence. She got to the first fence post and crossed over it. She kept going to the next fence post and crossed over it as well. I was amazed. I had never seen her do so well. She was making continuous balance adjustments, and she never looked down at her feet. She focused her eyes straight ahead. At one point, I saw she was close to falling, and I drew in a big fearful breath. Jeny scolded me with a loud “SSSHHH,” but she kept her eyes focused like a laser beam straight ahead. She crossed over the third fence post and then the fourth. I kept my mouth shut tight, but I was mentally cheering as loud as my brain could cheer. Jeny kept going and going. She was operating on the ragged edge of balance, making slow deliberate steps and quick continuous balance checks. When she came within grabbing range of the young maple tree near the other end of the fence, Jeny didn’t hesitate to grab onto a branch as she walked by. For about two seconds, I wondered if using the maple tree was against the rules, but then I realized that there were no rules. Jeny didn’t want to leave the comfort of the maple tree, but she still had a few feet of fence left to go. She reluctantly let go of the branch and continued on. Step by step, she was determined to make it to the end. When she was within a few steps of the end of the fence, she knew it was in the bag. She threw caution to the wind, took three quick steps, and hopped down to the ground. I cheered and Jeny’s face lit up. She looked at me and yelled, “Did you see that! I can’t believe it! I made it! I made it!” I joined in with her celebration. We were both jumping up and down with glee. We ran in the house to tell anyone who would listen. The first person we found was Mom. She was sitting at the kitchen table breaking a bucketful of green beans from the garden. We both were out of breath and trying to talk at the same time. We tried to tell Mom what happened and how amazing it was and what a tremendous achievement it was. Mom was confused. She didn’t understand what all the excitement was about. Jeny told her that she found a four-leaf clover and, “It worked! It really worked!” Mom's face showed that she wasn't following us. I was still panting, but I made an attempt to help Mom understand. “It's true! I saw the four-leaf clover! She smashed it in her Bible!” Mom was having trouble connecting this four-leaf clover with the fence that we kept talking about. We finally managed to impress upon her that after an entire summer of trying, over and over, hundreds of times, Jeny had finally walked the entire fence from end to end. I told Mom that her daughter was the new undisputed champion fence-walker of Swygert. I finally saw it register on my mom’s face. She was starting to understand. As she broke off and discarded the rusty end of another green bean, Mom said, “You found a four-leaf clover,” (we said “Yes,”) “and it brought you luck,” (we said “Yes,”) “and you walked the fence from end to end.” We said, “Yes. Yes. Yes.” Mom finally got it. We were sure that she'd be impressed with this amazing feat. We wanted her to laugh and shout and shower Jeny with congratulations. We wanted her to hoot and holler and jump for joy with us. We thought she might give Jeny a special treat or a reward for her accomplishment. Mom began to make a comment. Jeny and I watched her lips moving, as if in slow motion, as we anticipated her reaction. Then I felt all the blood drain out of my face. The only thing Mom said was, “You better stay off that fence. It's dangerous.”