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is, and he told me that he knew some “bitchinglife lessons” he wanted to give me about “how the world works.” Then his phone rang and he stopped talking and walked a little bit away and took the call.
    I kept cutting while watching from behind the way his shoulders hunched up as he held the phone between his chin and his neck. I stared at his neck while feeling the big, swinging, easy power of the blade of the scythe in my hands. It sliced easily through the thick grass. It clipped the living green stalks and killed them. I began swinging harder, back and forth, enjoying the feeling.
    â€œLittle lamb,” I thought I heard Mike say into the phone, “I like when you go baaa.”
    He turned back around towards me and gave me a wink as he slipped the phone into his pocket. He was smiling and shaking his head.
    â€œThings just ain’t always how they seem in life,” Mike said.
    â€œNo?” I said, and lowered my eyes and kept the blade swinging.
    â€œTake you,” he said. “Now, I know you got some kind of allergy against me, like I’m born to be bad to you, but I ain’t. Actually, guy, I’m looking out for you.”
    I looked up in time to see him showing the lifted-lip smile.
    â€œWord,” he said.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI’ve got a project that I need your help on.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œHell yeah. That’s what the call was all about.”
    Together we started cutting the grass again. The sounds of the two scythes at the same time are different than one. They make the noise of a large animal eating.
    â€œWhat it is, I’ve gotta see someone right now in Peace Cottage named Greta,” he said. “I’m helping her with her GED which you probably don’t know what it is, but no worries. She’sa little embarrassed about the, uh, tutoring so she doesn’t want anyone to know. I can get behind that. What I was thinking was that you might just keep on working here for about forty-five minutes without me and then I’ll be back.”
    â€œBack?” I said.
    â€œRight where we started, which is clearing the grass. And by the way, you’re doing a slam-bang job, my man, but while I’m gone you just switch to raking, okay? The other thing is to remember that what I’m doing is a secret.” He stopped swinging his scythe and put his raised finger to his lips. “Poor girl would just be mortified if people knew.”
    â€œWhy?” I said.
    The finger went away from his mouth and the mouth frowned. “You see, that’s what I’m talking about. You just mistrust everybody. What was it Annie was saying? Oh yeah, that you have to be less, uh, ‘defended’ I think it was. Well, here’s your chance. You don’t need to know why. I’m asking you to do me a solid for the sake of the community and one person in particular who needs a helping hand, and that’s all you need to know. Stepping-stones, remember?”
    â€œStepping-stones” was something that people at Payton always talked about as part of the larger goal of “crossing the river of life without getting wet.” Mike flicked his moustache with his fingers and made the smile.
    â€œOkay,” I said, lowering my eyes to look down at his boots that were covered with bits of grass.
    â€œYou just took a very positive step,” he said, “and I’ll be letting Annie know.”
    Mike stored his scythe behind a low stone wall and left for Peace Cottage walking fast. Peace Cottage had four girls in it who were the highest-functioning of all the houses at Payton. They worked in real jobs in the real world. They cooked at McDonald’s, or did things under close supervision like restocking parts in a warehouse or they cleaned. A lot of them were cleaners. One of them might even have had a license to drive a car.
    I raked the clippings into piles and as I did I thought of the girl at Peace