Read Online The Secret Sense of Wildflower by Susan Gabriel - Free Book Online Page B

disgusting, he just did. He stops when he sees us, like a crook caught with the goods in his hands. Melody lowers her head and closes the door softly, as if a sleeping baby rests inside.
    In the distance, Johnny takes a plug of chewing tobacco from his pocket and sticks it in his mouth. He shuffles toward us and works the chew with his mouth wide open. Then he grabs a tin can lying in a junk pile among pieces of plows and broken tools along with discarded scraps of wood and pieces of rusted animal traps.
    Johnny stops when he sees us. The three of us face him, our own version of David facing Goliath. I wish I’d thought to bring the slingshot Daddy made me. I’d aim right for the center of Johnny’s forehead and let it rip.
    When Johnny gets close enough that we can read the “cling peaches” on his tin can, he stops and spits a big wad of tobacco juice three inches from Daniel’s boot. Johnny smiles, as if impressed with his own skill.
    Daniel stays calm, with the exception of one fist that he balls up like he’s ready to use it.
    We stand under the oak tree and I wonder if Ruby is looking down on us. A vibration starts in my chest and I have the secret sense that Ruby wants me to know what happened to her.
    “Johnny, I want you to leave these girls alone,” Daniel says. His voice carries like he is God speaking from Mt. Sinai.
    “I ain’t doing nothin’ to those girls,” Johnny says. He squirts a mouthful of tobacco juice toward the peach can and misses. He snarls, like it is his first miss in years. The lemonade I had earlier turns sour in my stomach. I’ve spent so much time looking at my shoes, I haven’t taken in the full picture of Johnny. His clothes are covered with a month’s worth of dirt. His face is dirty, too. And someone must have used a dull kitchen knife to cut his hair because none of it matches up. When the wind kicks up we smell the stink of sour, dirty clothes and days-old sweat.
    “I know you, Johnny,” Daniel says. “I’m telling you right now, you leave these girls alone or I’ll come after you. You hear me?”
    Johnny spits again, but this time off to the side.
    Daniel narrows his eyes to make good his threat.
    “I hear you,” Johnny says finally. His smile reveals two missing teeth, tobacco resting in the crevices.
    Mary Jane and I follow Daniel down the path. I glance at the oak tree one last time and the vibration in my chest flutters again, as if Ruby is proud of us for standing up to her brother.
    “He won’t be any more trouble,” Daniel says to us. “That boy’s all bark and no bite.”
    I hope Daniel’s right. “Why is he so mean?” I ask. Meanness and goodness are a mystery to me. It seems that everybody has a little of both.
    Daniel holds back a large sticker bush from the path so Mary Jane and I can pass.
    “It’s hard to say what makes a person mean,” he says. “For one thing, I don’t think anybody’s cared for that boy a single day of his life.”
    We step over piles of garbage thrown on the path. A rustle in the underbrush startles us and Mary Jane grabs my hand. Mr. Monroe approaches, cleaning the barrel of his shotgun with a dirty rag.
    “Something I can do for you folks?” Mr. Monroe asks. Arthur Monroe makes Johnny look clean cut.
    “It’s taken care of,” Daniel says.
    “What’s that boy done now?” he asks. He spits in the vines next to him. Spitting must run in this family, like meanness does. Except that Ruby and Melody don’t seem mean at all.
    “Johnny’s been bothering the girls,” Daniel says. “But I think we came to an understanding.”
    “Johnny does have a way with the girls.” Old man Monroe grins and scratches a week’s worth of whiskers on his dirty face and then looks over at me. “This one’s growing up nice, ain’t she,” he adds. He gives me a wink.
    I snap my head in the other direction and try not to gag. Daniel takes my hand and I take Mary Jane’s.
    “We’ll be going now,” Daniel says. “Like I