Read Online Miss Dimple Disappears by Mignon F. Ballard - Free Book Online Page A

“Now, Willie, did you actually see anyone snatch her? Did she cry out?”
    The child switched the jawbreaker to the other side of his mouth. “No’me, but I’m as good as sure it was her. It ain’t my fault nobody will believe me!”
    Charlie shook her head as she watched him walk away. She knew exactly why nobody would believe Willie Elrod. Back in September he had terrified half the girls in the class by telling them a dragon lurked in the drainage ditch that ran behind the school, and only a few weeks ago Froggie had whaled the daylights out of him for reporting there was a big fight out on the playground. Turned out it was pudgy fifth-grader Amelia Fite, who had to wear her mother’s altered dresses because she couldn’t find children’s clothing to fit.
    *   *   *
    Jesse Dean, who was straightening shelves of canned goods, hurried to the front counter when Charlie entered the store.
    “And what can I get for you today?” he asked, resting scrawny arms on the glass-topped showcase.
    The bell jangled as she closed the door behind her and Charlie smiled. “Let’s see … I need a couple of pounds of White Lily flour, and I hope you can sell me a little butter if you have any. My mother was supposed to call and ask Mr. Cooper to set some aside.” The store smelled of stale peppermints and pickles, and faintly of the live chickens that were kept in crates in the back. Even if she were blindfolded, Charlie thought, she would know exactly where she was.
    “I believe he did,” Jesse said. “Just let me go and check.”
    Charlie took out her precious ration book, noticing again his peculiar gait, as he hurried to the refrigerated section in the back of the store. He took short galloping steps, pumping his arms up and down like a child riding a stick horse. Although Jesse Dean had been a few years ahead of her in school, Charlie knew he had suffered from a lot of cruel teasing, especially from other boys, and she had hoped he might overcome his awkwardness as he got older. Instead, it seemed to be getting worse.
    “Miss Phoebe called earlier and said if you or Miss Gardner happened to come by, would you please bring her some baking powder and a bunch of bananas? That is, if you don’t mind. She said to just put it on her bill.” The young man flushed as he spoke and his hand trembled slightly as he put Charlie’s purchases in a bag.
    “Well, sure, Jesse Dean. Annie—Miss Gardner—is just down the street at the post office. I’ll be glad to take them to her.” She watched him tear the stamps from her book and was paying for the groceries when her aunt Louise practically blew in with a gust of wind.
    “Jesse Dean,” she began, “tell Mr. Cooper I want a small, plump hen, not like that tough old sister he sold me last time.” She parked her worn black handbag on the counter and gave Charlie’s arm a squeeze.
    “Tell me, sugar, what’s the latest on the evasive Miss Dimple?” Louise Willingham was as large as her sister Jo was small and her sizable bosom now rested on the counter alongside her purse. “First that poor Malone fellow, and now this! I’m just waiting for the next shoe to drop. Don’t suppose there’s any news?”
    Charlie didn’t even try to figure out the analogy of somebody with three feet. “Not much,” she said, shaking her head. “They’re trying to locate her brother.” If she told her aunt about the newly discovered phone number, she was sure an entirely different version would be all over town by morning.
    “From what I heard at choir practice last night, the woman was afraid for her life.” Aunt Lou waited until Jesse Dean went to see about the hen and dropped her voice. “Ida Ellerby—you know Ida—lives in that little yellow house on Melrose Street out past the cotton gin …”
    Charlie nodded. She was almost certain, though, that Mrs. Ellerby’s red brick was one block over on Settlemyer.
    “She told us that Dimple Kilpatrick pounded on her door one