On Emma's Bluff by Sara Elizabeth Rice, edited by davebccanada (audio ebook reader txt) 📕

strips at the hem that fell about mid calf. But if was the boots that really set the outfit off.

She saw the car lights turn in so she wasn't surprised by her aunt's booming cry, "Emma, your young man is here."

Taking one last look at herself in the mirror she curled her top lip into a sneer. “I've got you now," she said to the reflection. A small chill ran down her spine as she hurried from her room.

A black cat was chasing Elmo around the bleachers, a group of fifty's greasers were hanging out at the concession stand. Cindy Basset in her fake leather jeans and ripped T-shirt was walking about with a cake she had won.   Bill had shown up at Emma's with no costume. Emma had asked him about it in the car. He said jokingly he was just going as a horny teenage boy. Emma hadn't laughed. Standing beside him in the gym she felt a little uncomfortable.

"Well seeing you with Simmons, makes me wish I had won a pie instead of a cake." Cindy hurried toward the couple with a devilish grin on her face.

"Love the safety pin," Bill complimented Cindy's earring.

"You must wear it sometime." She turned her dilated eyes toward Emma. "You do look like a witch."

"Why thanks," Emma responded, "I see by your eyes you started with out us. You got any Halloween Voodoo out in the jeep for Bill and me?"

"Only four fat numbers." She held up four fingers.

"After you ladies." Bill gestured toward the double doors.

Fifteen minutes later they all sat slant eyed inside the jeep. The pot had put Emma at ease and she now stroked Bill's hand lovingly. Bill sat wedged in the space between their two seats. Emma held the joint for him as he took in the smoke and exhaled it seductively toward her.

"So, I said fuck you man." Cindy was recounting a run in she had with a teacher back in the ninth grade. It had cost her three days suspension.

"I remember that," Bill coughed, "You were such a smart ass in the eighth and ninth grades. I was actually scared of you for a while. You were such a tomboy."

Emma found herself envious of their memories. She wished for someone with whom she could laugh about the past. But then her past had never held many laughs.

"Bill, you were a dip in the eighth grade. You thought you were hot stuff in the back of the bus with Joy Hutchinson."

"Don't bring all that up," Bill whined. "Did you ever tell Em about you and Bobby Hartford?" He knew this would get a rise out of Cindy and divert the attention away from him and Joy.

"No, you dated ‘big bad Bobby’?" Emma shrieked with laughter.

"Oh, he was smitten with her," Bill kept on while Cindy struggled to get a word in edge wise.

"It wasn't like that all and you know it," she said slapping playfully at Bill.

"When was this?" Emma asked.

"Ohh, ninth grade," Bill offered.

"It was just that one time," Cindy argued.

Bobby was on the football team. He played offensive tackle. He was one of the biggest and definitely shyest boys in the academy. People referred to him as ‘big bad Bobby’ only because of his awesome appearance. He kept his hair shorn down to the scalp. His deep set eyes and low slung brown hair gave him a sort of Neanderthal look. He did not socialize with the rest of the class. Emma could not imagine him and the gregarious Cindy having anything in common.

"Why haven't you ever told me about this, Cindy Lou?" Emma wanted to know.

"Not much to tell. He took me to the state fair in the ninth grade. That's all there is to it." Cindy told them. "We had a nice time. Then he asked me to a school dance. But he got teased so much about having a girlfriend he never asked me anywhere else."

"That's sad," Emma sighed. "You didn't pick on him did you, Bill?"

"Not me, baby" he said making a cross over his heart.

"Drop it, Emma, it's no big deal." Cindy pleaded.

Lacey sat at his post wondering why the sheriff had asked him to stake out such an uneventful site. He was in the field outside of the Tanner's house at the end of the Bluff's main street. He had been there almost two hours and no one nor nothing had stirred. "Now ain’t this a hell of a howdy do," he told himself. Surely there were more active places the sheriff could have positioned him. About the most he could hope for in the way of action was some kids out with eggs and toilet paper rolling yards. That was the sort of shenanigans he had gotten into as a kid.

But as he thought about it he had not even seen one group of young ones out and about. It didn't seem right. Maybe things were too quiet. "I need a drink," he thought in his boredom. The stark stillness of the night was getting on his nerves. Lacey debated with himself the risk of sneaking off to procure a bottle of booze.

He wondered when or if the sheriff would be showing up to check on him. It wasn't a long trip up the highway to Mike's Package Store. But if he was going to chance it he would have to go now, Mike's closed in twenty minutes. He licked his lips as he thought about getting some whisky and a cola. He could drink part of the drink and then refill it with the whiskey; nobody would be none the wiser. This was getting to sound like an excellent idea to Lacey. Lacey shifted around in his car rationalizing to himself, "I just need a little something to calm my nerves." He cranked up the old wreck and head toward the highway.

From a boarded up window above the old hardware store Harvey Johnson watched Lacey's departure. He radioed the patrolman out on the highway that the "suspect" was headed that way. Harvey was beginning to have grave doubts about this plan of Red's. He tried again to radio the sheriff, but still there was no reply. It seemed a bit foolish to ask a murder suspect to watch over a small town on a carnival night, kind of like the fox and the hen house. When Harvey had first heard Red's plan he assumed that Red had planned this well enough that there was going to be more than this little coverage. But with Red insisting that he alone would keep the surveillance on Lacey's house, and now with Red not answering the radio, Harvey felt a twinge of apprehension.

He went back to the window to watch the street. At first he thought it was still deserted and then he noticed the old woman making her way up the street. Well it looked and walked like an old woman, but with the carnival and all Harvey figured it could be just about anyone in costume. Then the figure stopped directly before him and looked up in his direction. He took a step back from the window. Surely it was too dark for anyone to see in through just the slits in the boards. But at that moment he could have sworn the small colored lady was looking right at him.

"Here take one of these for later." Cindy handed a well wrapped joint to Emma as they re-entered the gymnasium.

"Thanks." Emma searched for a place to hide it. Bill took it from her and placed it carefully in his coat pocket.

There were even more people in the crowded gym when they returned. The air was heavy and warm.

"You know we really ought to check out the fortune teller's booth. Aunt Liz sure did a lot of work on it." The three of them made their way amiably through the crowd to the decorated tent.   Emma was thinking how nice it was that the three of them were all getting along so well.

Although they were still half a court away from the booth, Emma could make out the shrill voice of her cousin, Barbara Lee. Her stomach pitched slightly. She spotted Barbara Lee outside the tent with her arms around her mother.

"Now, momma, don't be saying that." She raised a raspberry red nail to point at her mother. "You know I do no such a thing."   Emma was beginning to wish that they were not headed that way. Then it was too late. She watched Barbara Lee's eyes widen as she took in her cousin. "Emma, who did that to your hair?"

"I did." Cindy took an aggressive step closer to Barbara Lee and lied. "You want to make something about it?" Barbara just sucked in her bottom lip in mock offense.

"Nice to see you, Barbara Lee," Bill said trying to diffuse the situation.

"Nice to see you too, Bill."   Barbara Lee made a point of looking all around. "Where's Joy?"

"I told you, Barbara Lee, Bill is Emma's date for tonight," Liz cut in sharply. She was aware that her only daughter could be cruelly catty at times.

"My goodness." Barbara Lee's attempt at pleasantness only came across as a sneer.

"What are you doing home," Emma asked.

"Didn't you know that Denise Tanner invited me to her party. She is always trying to get in good with me. She really wants to pledge KD next year. She's been up to the campus a few times to visit me."

Emma was mildly irritated at her cousin's flippant manner. Barbara Lee always considered herself the toast of any event. Emma had not realized that Barbara Lee and Denise Tanner were friends at all.

"Oh yes, Denise was broken hearted when Barbara Lee went off to college without her. But you know, well her family has a hard time with money and they simply told her she would have to work a year before she could enroll in college." Liz rambled on all about the Tanner's personal affairs. Emma tuned her out.

"How much to have our fortunes read?" Cindy was asking the teenager at the front.

"A quarter."

"Can we go in together?" Cindy ventured to ask.

"I don't know. I will have to check and see." This clearly perturbed the attendant. He paused for a second and when Cindy did not retract her request he flipped back the curtain and went in to inquire.

"Okay, you can go in together," he relented.

The three of them entered the tent and stood in front of a small round table. There was only one vacant chair and Bill pulled it out and offered it to Emma.

"So you've come to visit you future," Mrs. Garth spoke in a weird affected accent. She was really convincing.

"Yes ma’am," Cindy said boisterously.

"We shall begin." She cut the cards and began to lay them out in front of the three.

"Two bits to tell me that I am going to flunk earth science if I don't shape up. What a rip off." Cindy was bitching over her fortune.

"Well how about me. She told me nothing. ‘You're life shall hold great mystery’ what is that suppose to mean," Emma complained.

"Chill out," Bill told them, " I think she did a great job."

" You say that because she told you that you were destined to be remembered for generations." Cindy rolled her eyes. "What? Have you been doing extra credit for her class?"

Barbara Lee had entered the tent after them and now they heard her cry out. "That's a terrible thing to say." The tent shook as she left in a huff. Emma, Cindy and Bill all stopped to look at her.

"Whoa, what's the matter here?" Cindy was the first to speak up.

"That woman should be fired." Barbara Lee shouted.

"She's not that bad of a teacher." Emma would have defended Sadam Hussein against Barbara Lee.

"Teacher? I never saw her before when I was here."

"Well she does teach here," Emma spoke up defending Mrs. Garth.

"Emma they don't allow black teachers in white academies,"   Barbara Lee spoke as if to a child.

The