Read Online The Grave of God's Daughter by Brett Ellen Block - Free Book Online Page B

registered my request as an insult.
    “I’m trying to save up money, but it’s a surprise. For a present, sort of,” I explained. “I don’t want anyone to know what I’m doing.”
    Mr. Goceljak understood. “I won’t tell anybody. But what if the people you’re making deliveries to know you?”
    Anyone who was well-off enough to receive deliveries at home probably wouldn’t recognize me. However, Hyde Bend was relatively small, so there was a chance, albeit slight. “I didn’t think of that,” I admitted.
    “I’ve got an idea,” Mr. Goceljak said, then he disappeared into the store. He returned with a slouchy canvas cap in his hand and a pair of men’s trousers draped over his arm.
    “Donny left the hat here and the trousers used to be mine. I was going to cut them up for rags. You put these on and hide your hair up in the hat, then nobody’ll recognize you, I bet.”
    I took the pants from Mr. Goceljak reluctantly. I was still wearing my school uniform, the sweater and pleated skirt, and couldn’t imagine how this was going to work.
    “You can pull the pants on over that school getup of yours and I’ll get a rope to make a belt.” My face betrayed my doubt as well as my discomfort. “Don’t worry,” Mr. Goceljak assured me. “Nobody can see back here, and I won’t come out until you say it’s all right. Okay?”
    “Okay,” I said, still reticent. Once Mr. Goceljak had gone inside, I opened the pants. They were far too long and the waistband was more than double my size. I put them on over my skirt, which took up a little of the extra room, but not much.
    “You decent?” Mr. Goceljak called.
    “Yes, sir.”
    When he popped his head out the back door and saw me in the trousers, he couldn’t help but chuckle. “A little big, eh? This’ll fix you up.” He produced a long piece of twine. “You put this through the loops and it’ll be like a belt. I had to do it like that when I was a kid too.”
    “But you weren’t wearing a skirt under your pants.”
    “True.”
    I fed the twine through the belt loops, then pulled it tight and tied it into a knot. “What about the legs?” I asked. My feet had completely disappeared beneath the fabric.
    “You got to roll ’em up. I had to do that too. Always had my brother’s hand-me-downs, so nothing ever fit quite right.”
    I turned up the pant legs until I could see my shoes. “I don’t think they’re going to stay like this.”
    “I’ve got just the thing for that.” Mr. Goceljak went inside, then came out again, this time with a roll of butcher’s tape, then he got down on one knee and began to tape up the pant legs. “Now all you need is the hat,” he said, holding it out to me.
    I pulled the hat down to my ears and tucked my hair up under it. Mr. Goceljak studied my face, tugged the brim down farther, and pushed a few stray hairs beneath the brim.
    “There,” he said, satisfied. “I’d barely recognize you myself.”
    The twine was synched so tightly around my waist that it made the pants look enormous and the white butcher’s tape stood out starkly against the dark trousers. Thankfully, the hat hid most of my face.
    “Don’t I look a little strange?”
    “Hell yes, you look strange. Strangest-looking thing I’ve ever seen. But you said you didn’t want anybody to recognize you. Now nobody will. They’ll think you’re, well, a boy.”
    “I don’t know any boys who look like this.”
    “Neither do I, but I certainly don’t know any girls who look like this neither.”
    “Won’t people look at me funny?”
    “I guess. But they’ll just think you’re poor.”
    “I am poor.”
    “Then you should be used to it.”
    From inside came the sound of the shop’s doorbell ringing. “See you when you get back,” Mr. Goceljak said, then he headed inside.
    I was finally alone with the bicycle but baffled about what to dowith it. First, I attempted to hoist my leg over the crossbar while steadying myself against the pipe