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Chapter 5
Sydney and Broots had spent a few hours dropping into various businesses and learning more bits and pieces of what Jarod had been up to in the pleasant little town of Mayberry. Juanita at the diner spoke approvingly of his big tips and gentlemanly manner. The boy at the drugstore had awe in his voice when he told them about how Jarod had won an ice cream soda-eating contest and always treated the school children. A woman in the grocer’s gave them a long lecture on how he had saved the moral fiber of the town when he ousted the false policeman. None of it was newsworthy or helped them know where he was going next, but Sydney liked to hear all these little details of Jarod’s life, and Broots thought about what a nice thing it must be to live in a place like this, where almost nothing happened.
In the late afternoon, they turned back toward the courthouse, agreeing that Miss Parker was going to have their heads for not having checked in before. On the sidewalk outside, however, they were confronted by a little boy with bright red hair and a round face that ought to have been cheerful and instead was pugnacious.
“You’re the strangers from Delaware, aren’t you?”
“Yes, we are,” Sydney answered, smiling.
“Why’re you going around asking questions about Jarod?”
“How’d you know we were?” Broots exclaimed.
“I bin following your trail. I’m a good tracker, just like my Paw.”
“Your father?” Sydney asked. “Who is your father?”
“He’s the sheriff, Andy Taylor.”
“Then you must be Opie.”
“Yeah, I am. I’m going to be a lawman like him someday. He’s the best sheriff in the whole state!”
“I have heard that he is indeed excellent,” Sydney said courteously, which softened the boy’s face.
“I guess you heard of him way up in Delaware?” He sat on the bench outside the courthouse, and they sat on either side of him.
“No, not so far as that, but we know Jarod certainly heard of him before he came here. Jarod always wants to help people who are most deserving of it.”
Hero-worship for two very different figures struggled in the boy’s expressive eyes. Filial loyalty won out. “Oh, my Paw woulda had those fellows sooner or later. But you shoulda seen Jarod! He run them out of town on a rail! That’s what Paw said anyway. I don’t know how you can run someone out of town on a rail. Unless he made them run down the railroad tracks. That woulda scared them good, if a train was coming!”
“Sounds like something Jarod would do,” Broots grinned.
“If you know him so well, why’re you asking questions all over town about him?”
“We haven’t seen him in some time,” answered Sydney. “We’ve been playing a sort of hide-and-seek with him all over the country. It’s good to hear what he’s been up to, if we can’t actually find him.”
“Fellows who can’t be found don’t usually want to be found,” was Opie’s next startling statement. “That’s what my Paw says. What if Jarod doesn’t want you to find him?”
“Then he shouldn’t leave us clues,” Sydney said softly.
“Opie Taylor!” An angry Barney Fife was bearing down on them. “You know your pa said you wasn’t to hang round here today!”
“I’m not hanging round, Barney, honest! I’m just talking to the strangers.”
Barney’s voice became shrill. “Now, Opie, don’t you try to find loopholes in the law! You go on home now!”
“Aw, Barney!”
"Go on!”
“Oh, all right.” He got down from the bench reluctantly, then turned and faced Sydney. “I guess you haven’t played hide-and-seek recently. A fellow plays hide-and-seek to play, not ‘cause he wants to get caught.”
Barney stared after him as he marched away down the sidewalk. “Hide-and-seek?”
“That’s an intelligent young man,” Sydney said.
“He oughta be. He’s Andy’s son.”
