Read Online Far Far Away by Tom McNeal - Free Book Online

extending her hand, and his foot wrenched free of both shoe and mud, and Ginger and Jeremy ran for the fence as if chased by demons.
    The baker stood at the leafy window peering out at the yard. But what could he see? In their black clothes, Jeremy and the girls were but shadows.
    Maddy took a running jump at the fence, caught hold of the top, and scrabbled over, but Marjory needed help. Jeremy and Ginger boosted her up and over, then, as Jeremy stirruped his hands for Ginger, she fell back, grabbed at his collar—he would remember later a quick tug at his neck—and she fell almost to the ground before he could get hold of her. At once she was upright again, and this time she stepped back, launched herself toward the fence, and pulled herself up and over.
    The baker opened the window.
“Hallå!”
he called. “Who is out there?”
    Jeremy pulled off his remaining shoe and tossed it over the fence.
    “Hallå!”
the baker shouted. “Stop there! Stop there right now!”
    Jeremy flew for the fence and, springing almost out of himself, caught hold of the fence top and spilled over it, bouncing off clattering trash cans and rolling to the ground on the other side.
    Where, to my utter surprise, he sat up, looked at Ginger, who was standing there with his shoe in her hand, and began to laugh.
    “Code red?”
he said. “I don’t remember anybody talking about
code red.
”
    “Yeah, well,” Ginger said, and now she was laughing, too. “I didn’t think it was going to come up.” She extended his muddy shoe. “Here you go, Cinderella!”
    “Hope it fits,” he joked, stuffing his muddy foot into the muddy shoe and half limping, half loping after her as they all scampered down the alleyway.
    I, however, paused at the fence to look back.
    Framed by the large window, the baker stood talking into the telephone while gazing out toward the yard, the fence, and the unseen me.
    Ein Anruf bei der Polizei
.
    I was sure of it.
    The baker was contacting the sheriff.

    Maddy and Marjory had gone in one direction, Ginger and Jeremy in another. I caught up with them just as they rushed around a corner and
—mein Gott
!—knocked someone down!
    Mrs. Jenny Applegarth.
    In fact, Ginger had also gone sprawling, and Jeremy hardly knew whom to help first.
    Jenny Applegarth, he decided.
    “Sorry,” he said, extending his hand to pull her back up. “Are you okay?”
    They had fallen within a circle of light thrown by one of Main Street’s three streetlamps. When Jenny Applegarth looked up at him, a smile came to her lips. “Is that you, Jeremy—all dressed in black?”
    “Hi, Mrs. Applegarth,” Jeremy said. “I guess we weren’t paying attention.”
    Jeremy did yard work for Jenny Applegarth and had always liked her. Now she was brushing herself off and regarding Ginger, also dressed in black.
    “It’s me,” Ginger said, peeling up the front edge of her black watch cap. For once the girl seemed not to know what next to say.
    Mrs. Applegarth gazed down the empty street for a moment. “I thought I heard someone else, too.”
    The girlfriends, probably.
    “Maybe,” Ginger said, and offered nothing more.
    Jeremy said, “Well, I guess we’d better go now.”
    Jenny Applegarth nodded and then added a small smile. “I’ll let you know if I run into your missing shoe.”
    Jeremy glanced down at his muddy feet and started to offer an explanation, but Mrs. Applegarth held up an open hand to stop him. “The less I know, the better I like it.” Again she smiled. “Night, kiddos.”
    She began to walk away.
    “Mrs. Applegarth?” Ginger called softly, and Jenny Applegarth looked back.
    “If anybody asks—probably they won’t, but, I mean, let’s say they did—could you just forget you saw us tonight?”
    Jenny Applegarth regarded her for a moment. “It depends,” she said, “but maybe.” Her expression softened. “My memory always
has
been kind of dicey.”
    She turned the corner, disappearing from sight, and Ginger said