Read Online Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood - Free Book Online

bracelet she’d just clasped around her wrist, then flipped it toward me like she knew how much I’d love my own silver bracelet filled with little charms. After she set her dish and iced tea glass in the sink, she dabbed at her bright lipstick. Then she shut the front door and half skipped down the sidewalk toward wherever it was she claimed she was going.
    Emma called after Jesslyn, “Watch yourself, girly!”
    But Jesslyn was long gone.
    “Something not right with this so-called shoppingtrip,” Emma said. “That child’s been acting strange lately.”
    It wasn’t easy to get anything past Emma. That’s why the lie I was about to tell came out of my mouth slowly, carefully.
    “Emma, I forgot to tell you. Miss Bloom asked me and Laura to help with the little kids’ story program over at the library,” I said. “All afternoon.”
    Emma put her hand on my shoulder to stop me from running off the way Jesslyn had just done. She was looking at me hard. She must’ve still been thinking about Jesslyn — and Jesslyn’s skirt.
    “Just a minute, young lady. All afternoon?”
    When I looked right back at Emma, I didn’t blink. It was hard to lie and not blink.
    “Miss Bloom needs me. Plus, I have to drop my book off.” I took a deep breath and told my heart to stop beating so fast. I shook loose from Emma’s hand. She’d never come looking for me at the library. Come to think of it, Emma had never set foot in our library.
    “Gotta go.” The screen door slammed behind me. “Sorry about the door,” I yelled back.
    Whew. I’d escaped without Emma figuring out I was not going to be spending the day at the library.
    I looked up and down Church Street. No Jesslyn. Then I caught a glimpse of a red plaid skirt sashaying down the shady side street by the library. Jesslyn was prissing like she owned the world. I ducked behind a wide pecan tree and watched a gold Plymouth station wagon stop in front of her. A black wavy ducktail haircut and an arm hanging out the window told me what I already suspected.
    Jesslyn was running off with Robbie Fox!
    He opened the car door, big as you please. But something must’ve changed his mind because the next thing I knew they’d disappeared into the Piggly Wiggly grocery store across the street. I raced to that station wagon and peered in the back window. A picnic cooler, a blanket, an old football jersey, and the spare tire were inside.
    When I heard Jesslyn back on the sidewalk, yakking nonstop, I didn’t have but a minute to decide.
    I jumped in the wayback of the station wagon to hide under the blanket. Wherever we were going, I hoped it didn’t take long. This was the scratchiest blanket ever. And I couldn’t hardly breathe.

W e were riding fast. The radio blasted that new Elvis song Jesslyn had played a zillion times on her record player, something about suspicion.
    I kept quiet and rested my sweaty forehead against the picnic cooler.
    I heard Robbie say, “Glad you thought of getting something cold to drink for the ride. I brought my camera, to take your picture in front of the house.”
    But I kept still, barely breathing.
    “I saw you practicing football,” Jesslyn said after a while. “Everybody’s saying you were the star back where you moved from. Why’d you leave?”
    “It’s complicated,” he said. “And private. Promise you won’t tell?”
    I got a worried feeling in the pit of my stomach like I’d eaten something rotten. Then somebody must have clicked the radio off because all I heard was the sound of wind whooshing through the windows and them shaking the ice in their Cokes.
    I managed to hear Jesslyn say, “I’m good at secrets. Preachers’ kids hear a lot of stuff. Daddy has taught us not to gossip.” Yeah, well, he might have taught Jesslyn, but I still had work to do on that lesson.
    At first, Robbie didn’t answer. I listened hard into the whooshing wind and rattly Coke ice. Then Robbie’s words tumbled out, loud enough for me to hear.