Read Online Arly by Robert Newton Peck - Free Book Online Page B

All I done was kick at the letters with my toes until every word I’d wrote got destroyed.
    â€œIn our shack,” Essie said, “I can’t seem to breathe no longer. There’s only your pa and you in your place,but us Cooters got six. Ain’t even room to turn over, on account if I do in the night, I’ll wake up little Florence and she’ll wail. Soon, I got to have me a room of my own.”
    â€œIs that what Miss Angel promised you?”
    Essie May nodded.
    Seeing her do such was so hurtful I couldn’t hardly abide it. Yet I was afraid to run away, recalling the night a picker runned off. Before sunup, Roscoe Broda and some other men on horses had rope-dragged Mr. Yurman all the way back to Shack Row. He was nothing but earth and blood. And then, as if’n that weren’t enough punishing, Clete Yurman sweated a week on no wages. Broda had even worked him on a Sunday.
    â€œI can’t live in Shack Row no longer,” Essie said. “A body can’t stand to stay where there ain’t enough space. Huff’s fixing to scamper off some night.”
    I looked at her. “He say so?”
    â€œNot actual. He knows they posted guards down the road. Jailer Jim Tinner’s men, carrying guns, and with tracker hounds. Huff claims he can swim across the lake.”
    â€œHe’ll drown. Ain’t nobody about to swim across Okeechobee. All he’ll be is gator meat.”
    Essie May nodded. “Huff says it’d be better to die free than live a whole life in Jailtown. All I know is, Huff fixes to go his way, and I’m near ready to go mine. And I reckon my only chance is …”
    She couldn’t seem to say
Lucky Leg
. All she done was turn about and hug the trunk of the custard apple tree. “I been a mother to Jackson and Delbert seems like forever. And little Flo about thinks I
am
her ma. I love her dear. But sometimes I know I can’t stay in our shack no longer. It’s like I’m counting days. I telled it all to Miss Angel and she understands.”
    Standing up, I walked quick to Essie, and rested my hand light on her shoulder. But instead of stretching up on my toes, to be as tall as Essie May, I just stood up straight, to be honest. “We got a school now,” I said. “We can learn stuff. Miss Hoe says she’s our ticket out of Jailtown.”
    â€œIt’s too late, Arly. Maybe not for you, but for Huff and me. The teacher didn’t come soon enough. I ain’t a child no more. I’m a woman. Miss Angel Free told me so, but I already knowed it. For most of a year.”
    â€œYou can’t, Essie. I won’t let you.”
    Her hands clawed at the bark as if she was trying to climb the tree. “Can’t you see it’s the only road I got. For me, it’ll be either the Lucky Leg or Shack Row. And it sure ain’t going to be here. You claim Huff’ll drown in the lake. Maybe so. But I’m already choking in our shack … us Cooters sleeping like fingers. Well, I ain’t a finger much longer. At the Lucky Leg, I can salt away money, and maybe Florence won’t have to … social dredgers.”
    Essie May pulled a twig off the tree and was ripping its leaves away, one by each, until no pretty green leaves was left. All of them scattered all twisted and tore at our feet, like a flock of little green birds that once could fly, but wouldn’t fly no longer.
    Bending, I picked up one of the leaves, trying to smooth it right again, back to how it used to look, fresh and green.
    â€œThis ain’t the right way for you to end up,” I told Essie. “They got a fancy front door at the Lucky Leg. But there’s no back door.”
    She give me a empty look.
    â€œWhat I mean is this, Ess. It’s simple easy to parade inside. Maybe dress fancy. But beyond that, there ain’tno escaping. You’ll never come out that door again. Papa said that one time, like the Lucky