Read Online Tea Cups & Tiger Claws by Timothy Patrick - Free Book Online

spot next to the house. He turned off the engine and Dorthea looked at him expectantly. He took a wrinkled hanky from the chest pocket of his dirty overalls. Dorthea closed her eyes, leaned against the door, and wondered why, of all times, did he have to do this now? Nobody on earth cleaned their nostrils like Jeb Railer. She listened to the one-note trombone player blow like a maniac and wondered if people sometimes died of misery. Finally, he stuffed the wet hanky back into his pocket and spoke.
    “Now all you gotta do is stand guard. There ain’t nothin’ to it , but you gotta stay close ‘cause when it comes to stealin’, the kids up here are just like the ones down there, only worse, ‘cause to them stealin’ from a workin’ man ain’t stealin’. You gotta keep watch, you hear?”
    Dorthea nodded her head unenthusiastically.
    He got out of the truck and she followed. After piling boxes of liquor onto a cart with wheels, he took a big stick, about the size of a baseball bat, except cut square, and held it against the stack of boxes as he wrapped the cart belt around everything. The stick acted like a brace and locked the boxes into place.
    He scrunched his face as he struggled to tilt the cart back on its wheels . Then he looked at her and said, “It’s gonna take a while ‘cause I gotta haul ‘em down to the cellar. And there are empties to haul back up. Then I’ll be back for the next load. You stick close by and if you do a good job there’s two bits in it for you.”
    Dorthea rolled her eyes. He wrestled the cart out into the gravel driveway before turning and disappearing behind the big hedge.
    Standing out in the open in a rag-a-muffin dress, guarding a broken down jalopy, didn’t interest Dorthea in the least. She climbed back into the truck on the driver’s side and slouched down. “Big deal,” she mumbled, “two bits and five seconds to see the manor. He could’ve at least stopped in front of the gate for a minute to let me look.” She banged her foot repeatedly on the brake pedal. “He knows how I feel about the place.” She looked out the windshield at a big bush shaped like a giraffe and another one shaped like an elephant. A nearby tree had been shaped like a giant umbrella. Even their trees looked different. Probably trimmed by a famous artist. She banged on the pedal and thought about sneaking off to get another look at the manor, then thought better of it. With her luck she’d run into Judith and Abigail and end up looking like Dumb Dora. She banged on the pedal some more and grumbled about her sorry life. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang—. Her leg suddenly froze. She’d heard a noise, laughter, and immediately feared someone had caught sight of her and had busted out laughing. She held her breath and listened, but it didn’t sound close, and didn’t come from inside the house to her left, or from behind the truck. Staying low and sliding over to the passenger’s side, she heard it more clearly, but not well enough to make out any words. She peeked out the window and saw a garden path that led down a small hill before disappearing behind some weeping willow trees. That’s where it came from, down that path, a girl, maybe two, not laughing at her, but probably at some stupid thing that only silly girls laugh at.
    It was Judith and Abigail. She just knew it. Who else could it be? And while Dorthea dreaded being seen herself, she didn’t mind turning the table on her sisters and seeing them, secretly, maybe even when they didn’t want to be seen. That possibility felt especially tempting.
    She briefly thought about the price to be paid if her dad caught her running off, and then she slid back over to the driver’s side, opened the door, and eased out of the truck. She walked along the shrubbery next to the house until coming to the big hedge at the back of the truck. Hugging the hedge, she crept to the end of it, looked around the corner for any sign of her dad, and to make sure