Read Online Shine On by Allison J. Jewell - Free Book Online Page A

walk with me a minute?” he said, glancing at Will and Mr. Thomas through the shop windows. “I need to tell you a couple things.”
    Emmie fell into step with him as they headed out of town. When they had walked past a few shops he started speaking again.
    “I’ve been thinking about what you found. You don’t need to be stuck with that stuff in your house. Part of me hopes maybe you’ve had the good sense just to pour it down the sink.” He looked at her for an answer. Her eyes let him know the jars of moonshine were still there in the pantry. “That’s what I figured. Well, the bigger part of me thinks that would have been a waste of money anyway,” he said.
    “I guess I’ve been having the same battle. I don’t know which it is,” she started.
    “Just hear me out.” He stopped walking and turned to look at her. “If I had the money outright I’d just buy that ’shine from you and give you your money so you could get yourself into that school and outta thinking of all this mess. But here’s the kicker—I ain’t got it and I ain’t got no way to get the money quick neither. I’ve been thinking about it since you showed me them jars.”
    “Really it’s fine, Walt. I should have thought before I asked you. That would be a lot of ’shine for you just to sell all at once. You can just have it. I can move it to the cave for you. It’s probably yours anyway, right? I mean you and Ronnie worked this thing together.”
    “See that’s the thing Emmie. That’s why I ain’t got no way to unload ’em. I got a few folks on my list. That’s how I got into doing this, just a few friends that like to wet their whistle every now and again. That’s pretty much all I been making for these last few months,” Walter explained.
    Emmie nodded trying to understand where he was going with telling her all of this.
    “See, I ain’t got no way to get money or sell all them jars because I don’t know who we was selling ’shine to. Ronnie liked to drink but he didn’t take all that you found for himself. He’d always hide a big mess of it, sell it, and then come back for more when the next batch was done. Ronnie didn’t want me to know who he was selling to; said that wasn’t how our business was gonna work. His job was to sell and my job was to make. To tell ya the truth I never had no reason to question it. I figured if he ever got busted by the revenuers the less I knew about any of it the better. And then last spring when Cliff’s barn got burned down—well, I figured all the better that I didn’t know nothing about it.”
    “Cliff Harris’s barn? What’s that got to do with you and Ronnie making ’shine?” Emmie asked, thoroughly confused.
    He swore under his breath. “I shouldn’t have said that. I thought everybody knew Cliff was making money on the side with the revenuers. He was a fool bragging about it to everyone… Making ’shine, used to be about tradition. Family heritage. Now, I don’t know… I didn’t want no part of those moonshine feuds.”
    “Walt, the only thing I knew about ’shine until a couple of weeks ago was that Ronnie was as mean as a snake when he drank it,” she laughed then thought a moment about what he’d just told her. Her brain was trying to fit all the pieces together. “Wait, Walt, are you telling me you think Ronnie had something to do with Cliff’s barn getting burned? Was he involved in these ’shine feuds you mentioned?” she whispered.
    “No, no. I ain’t saying that. They already laid blame on the Johnson’s. They are saying that old man is the one that burned his barn,” Walter said, looking off in the distance.
    “Johnson. You mean Bo’s folks? Are you saying his family is mixed up in all this too?” Emmie asked, trying to piece it all together.
    “I don’t know what I’m saying. More than I should, I guess. I just know there is stuff going on that I don’t want no part of… and I sure don’t want you to have no part of,” he said.