Read Online Death by Deep Dish Pie by Sharon Short - Free Book Online Page B

I refocused on Trudy, who was saying, “I’m excited to announce that my dear Uncle Cletus, in honor of the newly renovated theatre, has rewritten the standard play, A Little Taste of Paradise, to more accurately reflect our charming—” again that sarcasm, again the teenaged twitters—”town’s history. I’m not sure what all is in the play, as Uncle Cletus has kept its content a secret, but he assures me that there will be parts for fresh new actors and actresses!”
    At this, the teenagers cheered. And the adults gasped, then fell silent.
    â€œI was nervous Uncle Cletus wouldn’t make it tonight, but I’m glad to see he’s here! Let’s hear it for Uncle Cletus!”
    Scattered applause and exchanges of confused glances among the adults; more whooping from the kids. Alan’s face was now mottling from red to purple. Dinky, on the other hand, was examining his nails, and the man I guessed to be Todd had a bemused expression on his face.
    Cletus went to the center of the stage. “Thank you, Trudy. I almost didn’t make it—somehow, my brother left without me.” I could hear where Trudy had learned her sarcasm. “But fortunately, Josie Toadfern gave me a ride to town!”
    At that, everyone turned and looked at me. I slunk farther down in my seat. Oh, Lord. This was turning into a nightmare. My Uncle Otis had botched the renovation. The Breitenstraters—at least Cletus and Trudy—were taking over the one part of the Founder’s Day celebration that had been untouched by Breitenstrater self-promo ting, and they were thanking me for helping. At this rate, everyone would be buying washboards at flea markets and dragging their laundry down to the stream that feeds into Licking Creek Lake instead of visiting my .
    â€˜As Mrs. Beavy can tell you,”—everyone looked at her now, and I saw poor Mrs. Beavy’s dandelion-puff of a head bobble in confusion—”I have been working long and hard on researching Paradise’s history, and I can tell you, the new play will be quite revealing, quite a shocker to everyone!”
    Now Trudy took over again. “To give you a little taste of the new Paradise play,”—the teenagers chortled at her twist on the play’s title—”the play will be retitled . . . The Curse of Paradise !”

5
    At that, a stunned silence fell over the crowd. Not even the teens made a peep.
    The Curse of Paradise is another one of those Automatically Known things to the natives of a small town.
    But as I’ve said before, in telling about a small town, some things just have to be explained.
    The Curse of Paradise is only talked about among younger people, one generation whispering the tale down to the next, only to stop murmuring about it upon reaching adulthood. The “Curse” comes from an unknown source, so the story goes, but everyone believes something terrible must have happened early in our history, because despite our town’s name, it seems to have a lot of bad luck.
    For example, a long time ago, Paradise was supposed to become the county seat, but that honor went to Masonville. And a century-and-a-half ago, the canal system was supposed to come through Paradise, but at the last minute, that also went to Masonville. Then, when trains came along, Masonville had the foresight to build a much larger depot, and Paradise didn’t, so Masonville got a lot more business.
    Add to that the fact that Mason County East High School, which serves Paradise and a few other small towns and unincorporated townships, has never beaten Mason County West High School, which basically serves just Masonville, in football. Or soccer. Or volleyball. Or baseball. . . although it came close, in the game that everyone blamed Chucky/Charlemagne for losing.
    So, for Trudy to announce that her Uncle Cletus had rewritten the annual play about the town’s history—and renamed