Read Online Jaded by Varina Denman - Free Book Online Page A

Cunningham was beginning to nauseate me. “This town is obsessed.”
    JohnScott read my thoughts. “It’s sort of nauseating, but I get the feeling they’re good people.”
    He pulled to the curb in front of my house and killed the ignition. We sat in silence while I contemplated the overly friendly behavior of all three Cunninghams and wondered w hy they were so nice to me.
    â€œI like the math teacher.” JohnScott spoke as though he were thinking out loud. “But I can’t figure him being a preacher.”
    I didn’t answer.
    â€œThat bother you?” he asked.
    â€œShould it?” The breeze tossed a strand of my hair across my neck, and I flicked it over my shoulder.
    â€œThat answers my question, I guess.”
    Sometimes it seemed pointless for JohnScott and me to bother speaking. We understood each other without words.
    â€œLittle cousin …” He gave me a reproachful look.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œToday at lunch. Nazis? Really?”
    I examined the house. Momma had forgotten the porch light again. “Nazis, Christians, whatever.”
    He sighed. “Not the same, Ruthie.”
    â€œOkay, but if the Cunninghams are so nice, why do I feel like they’re talking about me?”
    He grazed his palm along the steering wheel. “I don’t know about that. They’re just different somehow, but I can’t decide if they’re different in a good way or a bad way.” He shifted to lean against the door, laying his arm across the back of the dusty seat. “You know, today at practice, Grady paraded around the field house meeting all the guys, even the ones most players ignore.”
    â€œThe kid could talk a hole in a cement block.”
    â€œYeah, but it’s more than that. He was trying to remember everyone’s name and position.”
    The porch light flicked on, illuminating the sparse grass and weedy flower bed, and Momma opened the door, still wearing her brown polyester uniform from the diner. Her long hair was wadded into a messy bun on top of her head, and she wore house shoes. “Is that you and JohnScott, Ruth Ann?”
    The truck sat fifteen feet from the porch, so I answered without raising my voice. “It’s us, Momma.”
    Ambling across the yard, she asked, “You hear about the new folks?” She rested one hand on the rearview mirror outside my window, the other on her hip.
    I grunted. “And nothing else.”
    She crossed her arms, exhaustion showing in her eyes. “You kids be careful with them.”
    â€œAw, Aunt Lynda,” JohnScott teased, “we don’t even know them yet.”
    â€œAll I’m saying is watch out. I don’t want no family of mine getting dragged through the mud.”
    I squeezed the handle that rolled up the window. Even though I agreed with her, I wished she would stop treating me like a teenager. “We know, Momma.”
    She gave me a final lingering look before turning toward the house.
    JohnScott called after her, “Thanks, Aunt Lynda.”
    She paused at the door but didn’t turn around, and then the screen slammed behind her.
    That was Momma. A living Eeyore. Except Momma was beautiful on the outside. She attracted lots of attention from men in town, which only made her more grumpy, since most of them were married.
    I rested my elbow on the doorframe of the truck. “Remember when she was happy?”
    JohnScott reached across the truck to finger a strand of my hair, tugging gently.
    We sat in silence. Moths already swarmed the porch light, tapping against the glass, desperately wanting what they couldn’t have. I took a deep breath and let it out, spying a tarantula picking his way across the yard on rubber-band stilts.
    JohnScott murmured, “Speak of the Devil.”
    I glanced at him questioningly, then noticed Dodd and Grady jogging toward us, running at a steady pace as they talked.
    I reached for the door handle,