Caleb is on a farm. Five acres of woods, fences, and buildings. He’s six years old. He’s got a lot of time on his hands. He climbs on top of every building, and invents obstacle courses to run. Climb the outside of the ‘train car’, a rectangular hay barn, then jump into the hay. Roll down, climb the pig pen, jump off the side, do the same to at the chicken coop. Run along the top of the fences surrounding the barn. Stuff like that.
The farm is in northeast Colorado. The closest neighbors are the Hoppels, an elderly couple living in a run-down shack, a mile away. He has a bicycle. He doesn’t visit him, his mom told him not to ride that far way.
There are books. The Bible Story, a series of books that follow the story of Jesus. There is an illustration of Jesus, coming down from Heaven through the clouds. And this is Northeast Colorado. It’s flat, and the sky is immense, and beautiful. Sometimes he stares up at the clouds, and they look just like that illustration. And he stares at them, and he thinks that Jesus is coming for sure, right now, and he will be the first person Jesus sees. He’s a good boy. He knows what sin is, and he’s never sinned. He knows the ten commandments. He will sin soon, it’s impossible not to. Some of the sins are just thinking the wrong thought. But right now, he’s waiting on Jesus, staring into the clouds, on a dusty farm road. His mom says, until he sins, he’s the same as Jesus. He expects that he and Jesus will be great friends.
Caleb doesn’t have a television. He has two toys, both of them hand-me-downs. A little orange Tonka truck, and a green John Deere tractor. He’s got a lot of time on his hands.
Caleb is cold at night. The only heating in the farm house is a wood stove. It doesn’t do much. One day, his dad buys baseboard heaters, but they don’t do much. Caleb practically hugs them at night. His dad teaches him how to wrap up in blankets, so that nothing but his nose pokes out.