Read Online A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg - Free Book Online Page B

and hold up the new stuffed dog that Mrs. Tate bought him. A few days ago, I heard Mr. Tate yell at his wife for spending too much money all the time, but if you ask me, buying this dog was worth it. Ralphie loves it!
    Now he grabs it out of my hands and hugs it tight, just as Mrs. Tate comes into the kitchen. She’s all dressed up. Special for the Garden Club meeting, she wears a straw hat with a giant white bow. Her black hair shines flat down her back like the highway after a rain.
    When the doorbell rings, I turn my kitchen chair and peek into the Tates’ living room. And there’s Honey and Jimmy’s mama, Mrs. Worth, strolling through the front door. Laying eyes on Mrs. Worth, I feel a scratch in my throat. A scratch that burns. She’s got on a yellow hat that matches her hair. Today there’s nothing funny about her hat, but even if she had plastic frogs tied to the brim, you could bet I wouldn’t smirk.
    Next Miss Springer arrives. She’s got a newspaper rolled up under her arm, and instead of a hat, she wears a yellow pencil tucked behind her ear. Mama says Mrs. Tate would never be friends with a single lady like Miss Springer if Miss Springer didn’t do so much good. But each year Miss Springer decorates the float for the Thanksgiving Day parade. What’s more, she’s raising money to build a library here in Kuckachoo.
    Mama tiptoes into the living room, sets down a plate of gingersnaps for the prim and proper members of the Garden Club, who act like they’re planning a charitable event—not a cold-blooded crime. Then she hurries back into the kitchen.
    Soon Mr. Mudge comes through the front door. Mama and me, we’re surprised to see him here. He’s a very busy man. When it comes to doing business in Kuckachoo, everyone knows he wears the britches. He not only owns a farm the size of two football fields but also the Corner Store. With Old Man Adams dead and buried, Mr. Mudge is now the richest man alive. At least in Kuckachoo he is. What with the Corner Store being the only grocery shop in town, he’s got what you might call a regular monopoly. And if that’s not enough to put pennies in his pockets, he’s preparing for the grand opening of another shop in Muscadine County.
    Now Mrs. Worth sits on the sofa and asks him all about it.
    “Ain’t Muscadine County an awful far drive?”
    “Ninety miles straight down the highway,” Mr. Mudge says. “But I’d drive a hundred ninety to open my shop there.”
    “Why’s that?” Mrs. Worth asks, and reaches for a gingersnap.
    “All kinds of show business folks are moving to Muscadine County. In a couple years that place will be the new Hollywood. Now’s the time to invest.”
    I reckon that given all his business experience, Mr. Mudge is going to tell folks exactly what to plant on Old Man Adams’s land. But get this: when at long last the meeting starts, he tells the seven ladies and the mayor something else entirely. “Gardens? Who needs gardens?” he says. “Why, if you need a garden, plant one in your own yard.”
    Well, that’s easy for Mr. Mudge to say. The dirt round his house isn’t dry and crumbly like the dirt round ours. Plus, his front yard takes up half the town. He’s got plenty of room to plant a whole variety. And he’s got enough vegetables to eat
and
to sell. Now the rest of the Kuckachookians want the chance to do the same. Folks don’t just want to eat the vegetables they grow. They want to sell them at the farmers’ market in Franklindale. But I reckon Mr. Mudge doesn’t care a hoot about that.
    “Picture this,” he tells the Garden Club members. “That land could be the perfect spot for our new
pri-iiii-vate
high school. You know the Supreme Court is coming down rather hard in the area of integration,” he says. “I don’t have to tell you it’s a dog-eat-dog kind of world.” Then Mr. Mudge starts talking about how folks on my side of town are getting uppity.
    All of a sudden, my breath turns light and stiff like