Read Online Man in the Blue Moon by Michael Morris - Free Book Online Page B

side of the wagon and brushed his hands against his overalls. Crickets began to break the silence. “He’s right,” Samuel said. “We’re in just as deep as him.”
    “He’s blackmailing us,” Narsissa shouted.
    Samuel shrugged. “What you want us to do? Give the place over to the bank? My daddy ain’t coming back home and finding out that I let the place go on my watch. No, ma’am.”
    Narsissa picked up the axe she had been using and slowly wiped the blade on the side of her denim work pants. The blade left a gluey smear of pine tar on her leg that shimmered in the fading sunlight. When she swung the axe over her shoulder, Lanier stepped backward. She never said a word as she walked back to her cabin.
    Samuel continued stacking the equipment and didn’t notice Lanier unfastening the mule from the wagon. “I’ll water the mule,” Lanier said. Samuel gave no indication that he heard him. It was only after Lanier had watered and fed the mule that Samuel offered his opinion. Walking past the sunflowers that had begun to unwind their petals for evening, he spat a stream of tobacco at the nearest bloom.
    “She’s wrong, you know,” Lanier called out.
    Samuel stopped and turned. The light from the barn caused Lanier to seemingly glow.
    “Hear me out. I’m not blackmailing anybody. Family is family. I want this just as bad as y’all do.”
    Samuel pulled out a pocketknife, examined the tip, and flung it at the water pump where Lanier stood. The knife stuck out of the side of the water bucket like a wild hair. “You ain’t no family of mine. I just want to keep my property.”
    Yanking the pocketknife from the wood, Lanier folded the blade up and tossed it back to Samuel.
    Samuel caught it with one hand and spat a line of tobacco juice from the side of his mouth. “And hear me when I say I’m gonna be watching you,” he said.
    Around bedtime, Ella stood in the doorway of her bedroom with drips of water falling from her dark, wet hair. “You’re going to skip school, you say?” Ella said after Samuel had informed her of his decision.
    “Either me and Keaton stay out of school and help, or we’ll all go to the poorhouse. You said as much.”
    “Don’t you sass me.” Ella closed her eyes, wishing she could take back her moment of weakness when she had let the fear manifest itself in front of her sons. “Skipping school is not an option.”
    “There’s no option to it,” Samuel said. “There’s only two weeks left till school lets out for the summer anyway.” Muscles flinched in his forearms and beads of dirt dotted his neck like a necklace.
    Ella no longer saw a boy. The thought scared her just as much as Samuel’s ability to convince her that he was right. She stammered the words. “You will go back to school after summer. Promise me that.”
    From her bedroom, Ella could hear Samuel explaining his plan to Keaton and Macon. His words were low and hushed as if a secret were being offered.
    Not wanting to hear any more, Ella followed the sounds of the clock and walked into the dining room. She stood in the spot where her cherry buffet had once sat. The one that had been taken away in Mr. Busby’s wagon after the picture taker had found a buyer for it in Albany, Georgia. She tried to think of happier times, of holidays when the family sat alongside the dining room table decorated with branches of holly berries. But all her mind would play was the scene from the day when Samuel was forced to become a man.
    It was the night before Harlan left. Ella had met Clive Gillespie at the store earlier that day. In ignorance and desperation, she had tried to sell him a new derby hat when he walked through the door of the store.
    “No, I’m afraid I’m not here for shopping,” Clive had said. “Is Harlan here?”
    Ella fiddled with the edge of the derby hat and then placed it back in its proper place on the shelf. “No, I’m afraid he’s off . . . off picking up new merchandise.” She couldn’t