Read Online Brightleaf by Raleigh Rand - Free Book Online Page A

right up sayin what he was sayin and turns to Eleanor in a doctor-like way and says, “Well, hello Eleanor. How have you been feeling lately?”
    Eleanor says she’s doing okay and tries to hang out and be a part of what we were doin. She fixes a cup of coffee and tries to look casual and all. She sits down at the table like she’s sayin, I’m cool to hang out with . But Dr. D usually turns toward her like she’s a patient, and he’s waitin to hear her tell what all she’s ailin from so he can write her a prescription. Doc means well, but Eleanor don’t like to be taken like a science project.
    The thing I find strangest, Mary Beth don’t never come into the kitchen and chat with me and Doc. And he has plenty of questions about her.
    “You need to ask Mary Beth them questions.”
    Winslow coughs and pants his way into the house. I can hear him clear from the kitchen. I walk into the livin room and behold him in his tan joggin outfit, sweat rollin down the sides of his face, chokin like he’s fixin to pop a hairball. He holds up a hand and motions for me to hold on till he catches his breath. Then he reaches in his pocket with the other hand and pulls him out a cigarette.
    I cross my arms and wait for his coughin to die out. Then he lights up. Mary Beth don’t like people smokin in the house, but I ain’t the smoke police.
    “You better quit that before you have a heart attack.”
    He takes a drag and shakes his head.
    “I ain’t talkin about smokin. Quit that joggin.”
    “I need to do it,” he says after blowin out smoke. ”Keeps my heart and lungs strong.”
    “Hmpf. Smokin and exercise don’t mix.”
    “Actually, Mavis, you ought to seriously think about going out for a jog yourself.”
    “I suspect you’re thinkin more about how my girls here would look bobbin up and down in a tank top than my general health.”
    “It would be a pleasure to have a jogging buddy,” says Winslow. “Especially an attractive older woman like yourself.”
    “Older woman, my ass,” I says ”I ain’t got but fifteen years on you.”
    Winslow laughs and jerks into another fit of coughin.
    Most everyone is startin to trickle in the house for the sharin time. The ones that didn’t come for supper is settlin themselves down, includin Doyle.
    Doyle! It’s his first time, and he just sorta slipped in without anybody seein him. But here he is, lookin like he’s gettin ready to do somethin otherworldly. I’ve only met the man one single time in my life, but I feel like he’s one of the most unusual people I’ve ever met. If he had him a fan club, like Michael Bublé, I’d be his biggest fan.
    I says, “Why Doyle Stubb, you sly thang. How’d you get past the security?” I point at Floyd, who’s prancin around the inside of the circle gettin friendly with everyone. It’s a joke about Floyd being security.
    Doyle smiles with his tiny lips and looks at me real cheerful outta the good eye and says, “Perhaps the dog is more selective than you think.”
    I swear, that man is cool as all get-out.
    “Doyle, what do you mean by selective ?”
    “Have you ever seen the dog shy away from anyone?” he asks.
    “Come to think of it, Floyd won’t go near Manchild. What are you gettin at? Floyd reads people like you read them groceries?”
    “Dogs are quite different. Their animal instincts work constantly, which humans, although we possess them, don’t normally allow to operate.”
    “So you think Floyd’s got ESP? ”
    Everybody, except Mary Beth, who’s in the kitchen, quits talkin and listens to Doyle.
    “When I approach a home,” says Doyle, slowly movin his hands like he’s touchin an invisible wall, “I prepare myself for the possible presence of an animal by letting my defenses down and opening my senses up to them.”
    Now he’s usin his hands to stir the air, and he’s sniffin like he’s a hound dog, his mustache twitchin.
    “Your Floyd accepted my spirit and was immediately aware I was no threat to