Read Online Fireflies in December by Jennifer Erin Valent - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jennifer Erin Valent
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never really taken to it before. So she was sleeping soundly and snoring in the bed near mine.
But me? I’d close my eyes and toss and turn; then I’d hold my clock up to the moonlight to find that I’d wasted only ten minutes. I’d get up, wander the room awhile, trying not to squeak the floorboards and wake Gemma, and stick my face against the window screen for a little fresh air. Then I’d get back to bed and try again.
It was no use. I wasn’t sleeping that night.
By four o’clock, I knew I couldn’t take it any longer. The plan had been that I would wait outside for Luke to come by and pick me up at five o’clock, but I decided that since I was already awake, I’d head on over to Luke’s and wait outside his house instead. The walk through the fields would spend a good twenty minutes of my time, and I thought it was easier to go to the lake from his house because he was closer to it than we were. Seemed to me I was doing him a favor.
When I set out at quarter past four, I had made a pretty good case to myself that I was doing the right thing. I grabbed my pole and some bait I’d gotten ready the day before and walked off through the darkened fields. I cut through the corn crop to save time. It took me about a minute to get my eyes used to the dark, but I managed to find a good path in the middle. The corn rustled and whacked my face as I went, but I ignored it, breathing in the early morning air and daydreaming about my day with Luke.
It was as still and quiet as could be once I came out on the other side of the crop, with only the crickets and frogs to interrupt, and I slowed my pace to enjoy the peace of it.
I passed Herschel Jode’s house, climbed over the fallen tree that belonged to Lyle Bowman, and splashed through the creek that ran across the back section of Tyrus Black-well’s farm. Just five minutes from Luke’s house, I started to think it wasn’t so peaceful as it had been, and I slowed down. I knew I heard something, but I couldn’t figure out what, so I stopped altogether and tilted my head to one side to get a good listen.
It seemed to me there was some sort of buzzing noise, and as I crept farther, I realized it was whispering I was hearing. Not really whispering, though, it was more like what Ginny Lee’s little sister called whispering, which was really just yelling in a hoarse voice.
That’s what I heard as I continued to move closer to Cole Mundy’s property. I knew that property well because all of us kids used to climb on the big magnolia tree there. But when Cole bought it, he caught us playing on that tree and raised a ruckus, swinging his big rifle around and yelling at us to get off his land. I never went near it anymore, but I was feeling that curiosity Daddy had always told me would get me in big trouble one day, and I went even closer until I reached the magnolia tree. It was there that I hid, practically holding my breath as I peeked through the split in the trunk.
I could see a dozen men standing around a fire in a pit, all of them wearing white robes. I shivered the minute I caught sight of them and ducked further down behind the tree.
I knew who they were. Maybe not their true names, but I knew what my daddy had told me about those men who wore the white robes and what they did.
“They’re cowards,” he’d told me when I asked who they were as they held a small parade through town. “They’re cowards, plain and simple. That’s why they wear them hoods. They like to push around people they’re afraid of, and they hide their faces to keep from lettin’ on who they are.”
He’d told me that they didn’t like colored people or Jewish or Catholic people, either. They only liked people like themselves. It frightened me to see them this way, standing around that fire in the dark, sparks from the flames floating on the breeze around them. One of the men was praying in a strained voice, and the others were nodding in agreement I wanted nothing more than
But me? I’d close my eyes and toss and turn; then I’d hold my clock up to the moonlight to find that I’d wasted only ten minutes. I’d get up, wander the room awhile, trying not to squeak the floorboards and wake Gemma, and stick my face against the window screen for a little fresh air. Then I’d get back to bed and try again.
It was no use. I wasn’t sleeping that night.
By four o’clock, I knew I couldn’t take it any longer. The plan had been that I would wait outside for Luke to come by and pick me up at five o’clock, but I decided that since I was already awake, I’d head on over to Luke’s and wait outside his house instead. The walk through the fields would spend a good twenty minutes of my time, and I thought it was easier to go to the lake from his house because he was closer to it than we were. Seemed to me I was doing him a favor.
When I set out at quarter past four, I had made a pretty good case to myself that I was doing the right thing. I grabbed my pole and some bait I’d gotten ready the day before and walked off through the darkened fields. I cut through the corn crop to save time. It took me about a minute to get my eyes used to the dark, but I managed to find a good path in the middle. The corn rustled and whacked my face as I went, but I ignored it, breathing in the early morning air and daydreaming about my day with Luke.
It was as still and quiet as could be once I came out on the other side of the crop, with only the crickets and frogs to interrupt, and I slowed my pace to enjoy the peace of it.
I passed Herschel Jode’s house, climbed over the fallen tree that belonged to Lyle Bowman, and splashed through the creek that ran across the back section of Tyrus Black-well’s farm. Just five minutes from Luke’s house, I started to think it wasn’t so peaceful as it had been, and I slowed down. I knew I heard something, but I couldn’t figure out what, so I stopped altogether and tilted my head to one side to get a good listen.
It seemed to me there was some sort of buzzing noise, and as I crept farther, I realized it was whispering I was hearing. Not really whispering, though, it was more like what Ginny Lee’s little sister called whispering, which was really just yelling in a hoarse voice.
That’s what I heard as I continued to move closer to Cole Mundy’s property. I knew that property well because all of us kids used to climb on the big magnolia tree there. But when Cole bought it, he caught us playing on that tree and raised a ruckus, swinging his big rifle around and yelling at us to get off his land. I never went near it anymore, but I was feeling that curiosity Daddy had always told me would get me in big trouble one day, and I went even closer until I reached the magnolia tree. It was there that I hid, practically holding my breath as I peeked through the split in the trunk.
I could see a dozen men standing around a fire in a pit, all of them wearing white robes. I shivered the minute I caught sight of them and ducked further down behind the tree.
I knew who they were. Maybe not their true names, but I knew what my daddy had told me about those men who wore the white robes and what they did.
“They’re cowards,” he’d told me when I asked who they were as they held a small parade through town. “They’re cowards, plain and simple. That’s why they wear them hoods. They like to push around people they’re afraid of, and they hide their faces to keep from lettin’ on who they are.”
He’d told me that they didn’t like colored people or Jewish or Catholic people, either. They only liked people like themselves. It frightened me to see them this way, standing around that fire in the dark, sparks from the flames floating on the breeze around them. One of the men was praying in a strained voice, and the others were nodding in agreement I wanted nothing more than
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