Read Online Witch Ball by Adele Elliott - Free Book Online

enjoy the attention more than she missed her husband.
    I suppose the local press had to focus on something. This was the biggest story around Columbus since the mayor's sons were arrested on drug charges. That story fizzled out, or was squashed. Apparently, there weren't any new leads in the murder, so Sue Ellen sort of became the story.
    I was dying to know about my Granpa's "friendship" with Clementine. They seemed an odd match. Strange, too, that I knew nothing about it. Friends are people you bring around to the family, or do something with, or have interests in common. I know he loves to hunt and fish. Somehow, I can't see that old lady in camouflage clothes and carrying a gun or a fishing pole.
    Maybe they go to church together. He loves that, too. That's not likely, either. Although everyone around here is very " Jesusy," the races do not even mix in the house of the Lord.
    That evening I decided to gently broach the subject with my parents.
    "Mom, remember telling me about Clementine, Eric's grandmother, the one who used to work for your family?"
    She sat in front of the TV, filing her nails. Dad was dozing in his Barcalounger. The ice in his martini had melted and the glass looked like a small fish bowl. Two olives lay at the bottom like dead green fish with their red tongues limply hanging out. I saw him open one eye with a squint.
    "I remember." Mom began to file her nails with fast, strong strokes. I was afraid she might file them down to the quick and draw blood. "I told you I didn't know much about it."
    Dad's eyes opened all the way.
    "Do you know that they are good friends even now?"
    "That's ridiculous. Mother fired her when I was a child."
    "Well, that may be true. Anyway, I saw them together, sitting in his truck, out by the river."
    "Gertrude! You are mistaken! He hasn't seen her in years!"
    Dad sat up, but didn't say anything.
    "I think I recognize the pick-up. I know every dent and ding on it. He has a bumper sticker from Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign. How could I not identify my own grandfather, or his old truck?"
    She didn't have an answer for that. "I don't know, Gertrude. Maybe they have some business together."
    Really? Even Mom couldn't possibly believe that. What business could they conduct in a truck by the river?
    Now my dad pushed hard on the handle and the chair's footrest slammed down loudly. The mechanism squeaked deep inside the chair.
    "Young lady," he said. "Don't argue with your mother. There is no reason in the world for Hyrum to be friends with Clementine."
    Why should this make them so angry, I wondered?

 
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    I love my parents, and I assume they love me. However, I'm not too sure if they have any affection at all for each other. Once, I actually asked Mom why they stayed together. "Oh, I owe so much to your father," she said, but did not explain what she meant.
    That night, I did something that I have never done. I snuck out of the house after they went to bed. They had both drunk more than usual during and after dinner. I had a pretty good idea that they would be sleeping soundly.
    It was only around 10:00 p .m., still early in any city, except Columbus. The traffic lights were already flashing red or yellow, depending on which side of the intersection you were on. The streets were quiet.
    I walked under a full moon to Aunt Fleur's house. The sidewalk was still warm from the afternoon's heat. I felt it seep through the thin plastic soles of my sandals and radiate onto the bottom of my feet.
    I wasn't afraid of the night. In spite of the unsolved murder of Coach Russell, Columbus remained a very safe place.
    On Fleur's porch I was greeted by Jimmy-James twisting on his back, asking for a tummy rub. I rang the bell, but she did not answer. There was a sort of low singing coming from her back yard. I walked down the row of Oleander bushes to the gate. Through a crack in the fence I saw Fleur and two other women circling a small fire pit.
    "The sun is in