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

"Shush up, you know what's got to be." This was clearly the man and Hattie heard his heavy footsteps cross the room back towards the couch. "Effie?" his voice was softer now. What Hattie heard next sunk a hard knot into her belly. A screech or maybe a growl vibrated inside the house. A man yelped in pain. "Get back," her Grandmamma cried. There was a commotion that Hattie could not follow and then another growl, lower and meaner this time.

"You! Get that kindling from out back," she heard GG order someone. Hattie heard something heavy being drug from the room. "Don't touch her!" were the last words Hattie heard her Grandmamma say for a while.

Hattie had been alone on the porch with the baby for more than forty minutes before the little girl started to squirm. At first she just shifted positions several times, and then her head bobbed up as she sat upright. Her tiny hand felt for an opening in the blanket above her. Hattie fretted that the child might become afraid and start to cry out. She loosened the blanket from around her and let the small head peep out more. The child stared up at her in amazement. Her small hand stretched out to grab a hunk of Hattie's hair.

"Ough," Hattie complained, pulling the hand away. "No," she spoke to the child, "No." The child seemed content to release the hair and rest against Hattie. "Good baby." Hattie stroked one of the baby's fat checks.

"Goo-ah," the baby imitated.

"Goo-ah," Hattie answered back. They both giggled.

"Gawd, Gawd help us," the voice of the man shot through the house. Hattie jerked upright, clutching the baby to her.

"Goo-ah," the baby cooed into her neck and snickered.

A loud racket shook the house. Hattie turned to look in to the front window. A bright light shone from the open door of the back room. Hattie saw the silhouette of the man as he ran from the room. The flicker of a great light brought Hattie's attention to the back of the shack. Huge sheets of fire lapped up the walls. Hattie struggled to her feet. "Grandmamma," she screamed.

The child in her arms tightened its grasp on her. Hattie pushed up to free herself of this grasp, but the child only held on that much tighter. Now Hattie could hear the baby's gurgling laugh. "Let go of me," she shouted using both hands to fend the baby off of her. She saw the round cherub face smiling up to her mischievously. She threw the baby against the plank front wall and ran from the porch.

From behind her the front door flung open. She turned and in what seemed like two steps she was across the room and staring into the back room.   Like Shadrak, Meshak, and Abindego there was her Grandmamma. Her Grandmamma and the girl's mother were standing around the bed untouched by the fire. The young girl, who had been placed on the bed, roared and crackled like a log on a fire. The smell from the room made Hattie gag.  

"Grandmamma," she choked. The old woman turned and looked at her. Columns of smoke whisked out from where her eyes should have been.   She moved toward Hattie. Before Hattie could even turn around the old woman was upon her. Her fingers singed and hissed where they touched Hattie. The old woman collapsed against her. Her body felt tight and hard like a clump of steel and Hattie had lifted her up before she knew it. She took her Grandmamma and ran towards the front door and into the cool clear air.

Hattie saw the toddler standing on the bare ground supporting herself with the porch steps. She was trying to crawl back on to the porch. Hattie stopped, too scared at first to even approach the child. Then she bolted past the little girl into the front yard. She heard part of the roof give away as she reached the dirt path. Hattie fell back, the staggering weight of her Grandmamma finally catching up with her. She looked back to see the child running towards her in tiny duck steps. The child reached her and held up its arms to her. "Goo-ah," she cooed, "Goo-ah ah." Hattie saw the rest of the house cave in on itself.

GG Murphy did not appear to have any burns from her ordeal. The doctor who examined her pronounced her well for a woman her age and released her to her granddaughter's care. The fact that the woman did not speak or acknowledge the presence of others phased him little in his diagnosis.   "She'll snap out of it in a few days," he assured Hattie. With the now orphaned baby girl still in her arms, Hattie only shrugged in reply. She was too struck by his lack of concern to voice any reply.

A neighbor lady took the three back to her home to feed them and to put them in make shift beds. It was the next day before Hattie learned exactly what had happened to the others. The mother's charred remains had been found in the ruins. No trace or remains were found of the older child. In fact folks just ignored her when she insisted that there had been another child. But it was the father's death that brought the sheriff to see Hattie the next day. He had been found on the riverbank with an ax sticking from his skull.

"You don't know who he was?" The sheriff asked for the third time.

"No sir." She kept her eyes down.

"And you don't know what he was doing at your house?" Hattie was hesitant to bring up the other child since all she had gotten was ridicule over the issue up to now. "Well girl?"

"No sir," she answered.

"Then I reckon that's about all I can do." He snapped up the front of his jacket and left quickly. No more questions were ever asked about that night.

Hattie did not see much of the small child again until the day some of her aunties came to take her away. Hattie had barely left the side of her inanimate grandmamma for days, her food was brought to her by the neighbor lady who had taken them in. She assumed this same good soul was caring for the child. She just sat by the bedside watching. No one asked her what she planned to do next.

On the day they came to get the child, Hattie was just coming back in from her first time outside in a week. Three middle-aged ladies filled the small front room in their fineries.

"Hattie, say hello to these nice ladies. They have come to get our little angel. I really almost hate to see her go. She hasn't bin a wit of trouble." The neighbor lady turned to face the guests. "And she never cries."

"Well we are just happy to have our little Viola safe and sound," One of the aunties said. "Yes sir, that Viola Grace is one lucky child."

A shiver ran up Hattie's spine.

_________________________________________

"Looking mighty fine there, Miss Cindy."

"Shuddup and get in the car." Cindy eased to a stop on the gravel drive and waited for Jimmy to crawl in. His door was barely closed before she spun off out of the drive on to the long narrow stretch of highway that led to Rolling Fork.

"Something the matter," He asked warily.

"What do you think?"

"Naw, must be my imagination."

"Okay smart ass," Cindy glanced his way. "This was a dumb idea."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you really want to go to this thing or what?"

"I am here, aren't I?" He reached over to squeeze one of her hands that had a death grip on the steering wheel. "Relax, girl. Tell old uncle Jimmy all about it."

Before she even had time to think she was blurting out all the disturbing events of the last few days.

Emma had called her late Wednesday night, woken up her whole family and scared Cindy half to death. They really hadn't been on close terms since the incident with Carla at the Pizza Hut. Cindy had resigned herself to the fact that she had probably lost a good friend. But when she had called Wednesday night Emma had been in tears and barely able to speak at first.

"I am going to kill myself."

"Oh, geez, Emma, are you out of your mind? No, scratch that. What's happened?"

Sobs broke the flow of conversation for a few minutes. Cindy grew impatient. "Emma, you have to tell me what the matter is."

"Uncle Roy says I can't see him any more."

"Who? Bill? That's stupid. You go to school with the boy."

"I mean date him," Emma cried out emphatically.

"Not ever?" Cindy tried to imagine what could have spurred docile old Roy Wilson into laying the law down.

"No, just not for a while and only one date per weekend."

" You are out of your mind. Emma that is not the end of the world." Cindy was only a bit sorry that her voice did not sound any more empathetic than it did, but she could not help but believe that this was good news.

"Don't you see!!!...I will loose him."

"No, I don't see that. You told me that what yawl have is something very special. Surely, he will understand."

"Noooooo, you don't understand." Emma broke back into sobs.

"Emma, Emma, will you listen to me. You, me, Bill, we are only in high school. I mean I know how much you care for him, but geez, there is nothing that can come of it right now anyway. So just be cool take your time. This might all work out for the best."

"You don't understand."

"How can I understand you behaving like a lunatic? Why don't you just get a good night's sleep? It will all be better tomorrow. Your uncle may even change his mind. Hey, why don't I come get you for school tomorrow? I will come early so that we can talk. Okay, would you like that?"

"I guess so." Emma's voice sounded very small.   Cindy's mother had come into her room to see what the matter was and she stood by Cindy's bed waiting for an explanation.

"Okay Emma, I'll come get you in the morning. Everything is gonna be fine."

"Yea," Emma said as she lay the phone on its cradle, leaving Cindy with just a dial tone before she could even say good bye.

Cindy turned to her mother not quite sure what she should tell her. "Problems, I guess she couldn't sleep," she finally offered.

"Emma?" Mrs. Basset asked. Cindy nodded her head. "Well dear, sometimes there is only so much we can do for our friends, then it's in their own hands."

"Yes mom." Cindy accepted the well-meaning advice and smiled at her mother as she left the room.

But when she turned off her light and crept back into bed she found that now she could not sleep. "What if she really meant to kill herself?" My God, how could I ever live with that?" Realizing the chance she was taking of making a scene by waking the Wilson's up, she pulled the phone up on the bed and dialed Emma's number.

The phone was picked up on the first ring, but Cindy did not recognize the voice. The dry crackly ‘hello’