Read Online Taking Care of Moses by Barbara O'Connor - Free Book Online

“Especially Maddie Shadd.”
    â€œYou’re just mad ’cause you lost that Bible drill,” Jaybird said.
    â€œI am not.”
    â€œYou are too.” Jaybird poked Randall. “I guess she ain’t as smart as she thought she was, huh, Randall?”
    Althea lunged at Jaybird and swiped her marker
across the front of his T-shirt, leaving a squiggly purple line. Jaybird yanked the marker away from her and tossed it up on the roof of the house.
    â€œEverybody knows what the longest chapter in the Bible is,” Jaybird said.
    Althea chose another marker and began coloring her fingernails again. Orange.
    â€œPsalm 119,” she said.
    â€œToo late, dumbo,” Jaybird said. “You should have said that in the Bible drill.”
    â€œSo, who cares?” Althea said. “Not me.”
    Randall drew in the dirt with a stick. A cat. A bicycle. A wheelbarrow.
    â€œChurch is boring without you,” Randall said to Jaybird.
    â€œYeah,” Jaybird said. “And we gotta ride all the way over to Duncan Springs with a bunch of people I don’t even know to go to a church that ain’t even got an organ.”
    â€œYeah,” Althea said. Then she jumped in the middle of Randall’s dirt drawings and shuffled her feet around, sending dust swirling in the air around them.
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    That Sunday, Randall sat in church and drew a flock of geese flying in a V shape across the page of his notebook. Preacher Ron preached and the Celebration Choir sang and folks hollered out “Amen” and “Praise be.” Randall just kept on drawing, even when Smokey
Dobbins got dunked in the baptismal pool and came up sputtering and coughing and carrying on.
    Every now and then, he looked back at the sixth row on the left, but the Gilleys weren’t there. He watched a fly settle on the shoulder of the lady in front of him. He counted how many times Arthur Bennings blew his nose. He tapped his pencil in time to the hymns. Then he glanced out the window, and his heart dropped clear down to his stomach.
    He sat up straight and craned his neck to see better. Maybe he was just imagining things.
    Nope. He wasn’t. A woman sat on the curb across the street from the church. A woman wearing a floppy straw hat.
    Randall jerked his head around to see if anybody else was looking at the woman in the hat. No one was. Everyone else was singing or yawning or whispering to their squirming kids.
    Randall felt his heart bumping inside him. He looked out the window again.
    The woman stood up and stared over at the church. For a minute, Randall thought she was looking right at him. He looked away. He joined in the singing. “Yes, we’ll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river …”
    When he looked out the window again, the lady in the straw hat was gone.

12
    R andall and Jaybird each held a handle of the laundry basket as they headed toward Thomas and Sons Insurance Agency. Althea trotted along behind them.
    â€œLet’s see if we can take Queenie somewhere,” she said.
    â€œLike where?” Randall said.
    â€œTo the Winn-Dixie to buy Hershey bars with almonds. That’s what she likes.”
    â€œOkay.”
    It was past suppertime, and the insurance agency was closed. Randall, Jaybird, and Althea headed around back to the alley. The back door was propped open with a milk crate. Just as they got there, Mr. Avery came out carrying a wastebasket.
    â€œWell, hey there,” he said. “What y’all doing?”
    â€œWe brought your laundry,” Randall said.
    Mr. Avery shuffled over to a nearby Dumpster and
emptied the wastebasket. His baggy pants hung down so low they dragged on the ground as he walked.
    â€œI appreciate that. You thank your mama for me, Randall,” he said. “Let’s go in. I bet Queenie would like to see y’all.”
    When they stepped inside the back door of the office, they could hear Queenie singing