Flashback [antikvár]

< PROLOGUE >January 10thTwo . . . three . . . four . . .Toby Nelms lay on his back and counted the lights as they flashed past overhead. He was eight years old, but small even for that age, with thick red-brown hair, and freckles that ran, across the tops of his cheeks and over the bridge of his nose. For a time after his fathers job relocation from upstate New York to the T.J. Carter Paper Company of Sterhng, New Hampshire, Tobys classmates in the Bouquette Elementary School had called him "dot face," and "shrimp," and had pushed him around in the school cafeteria. But things were better now, much better, since the day he had held his ground and absorbed a beating at the hands of Jimmy Barnes, the school bully.Five six . seven . . .Toby rubbed at the lump at the top of his leg, next to his peenie, where the pain had started and still persisted. The doctors had said that the shot would take the pain away, but it hadn't.The music that the nurses had promised would relax him wasn't helping, either. The song was okay, but there weren't any words. His hand shaking, Toby reached up and pulled the padded earphones off his head.Eight . . . nine . . . The lights turned from white to yellow to pink, and finally to red. Ten . . . eleven . . .Following the fight with Jimmy, the kids had stopped pushing him and had begun asking him to walk home with them after school. They had even elected him to be the class representative to the student council. After months of inventing illnesses to stay home, it felt so good to want to go to school again every day. Now, because of the lump, he would miss a whole week. It wasn't fair.Twelve . . . thirteen . . . The red lights passing overhead grew brighter, more intense. Toby squeezed his eyes as