Bound by Blood and Brimstone (11 page)

feet.

“Let’s move,” I whispered, “but faster.” On shaky legs we resumed walking at a brisker

pace than before. I burned with the need to run, but I knew that would scare Lorrie Beth even

more, knowing she’d never keep up. We’d cleared the cemetery and were nearing a clump of

trees overhanging the road when Lorrie Beth jerked in mid-stride and cried out.

“Something bit me!” She was gasping and trembling with the effort not to cry. “It’s my

leg,” she whispered, looking at me with tear-rimmed eyes. We took a look, all of us breathing

hard. Blood trickled from a gash above her ankle, staining her white sock.

“Okay, Cat, bear up, it’s not that bad,” Janine said firmly. She seemed to sense the need

to protect Lorrie Beth from the blossoming fear we all felt. “Let’s just calm down and see what

we have here.”

With a clean handkerchief she kept in her back pocket, she bent and wiped the blood

from Lorrie Beth’s leg. Clearly, the gash had been made by a rock thrown with considerable

force. Janine’s eyes met mine as she straightened. “It’s time to face facts, Cleo. Somebody’s

been following us. They’re gone now, can you feel it?”

She was right. The chilling sense of being watched was gone, the fine hairs on my nape,

finally stilled. “Yeah, I feel it,” I said.

Lorrie Beth and I were just finishing our pancakes the next morning when I looked up to

see Janine standing on the back porch. She had her nose squashed against the screen door so she

could, in her words, "case the joint.” Since she had no way of knowing how things had turned

out the night before, she’d probably figured it best to see if Momma was in the kitchen before

announcing her arrival.

We’d all feared an interrogation over Lorrie Beth’s injury. Had Momma learned the truth

about our eerie adventure, parental lock-down would’ve been certain, ruining the remainder of

our summer. Fortunately, Momma’s attentions had been averted by news of electricity coming to

Silver Rock Creek.

I washed down my last mouthful with a swig of milk and got up to flip the latch. "You

can come on in," I said, laughing. "The coast is clear."

Even as I spoke, I was aware of the flutter in my stomach at the thought of having the

day to ourselves. It was rare for Lorrie Beth and I to be left alone for more than a few hours, but

earlier that morning, Momma had tiptoed into our room to tell me she and Daddy had "business"

over in Green County and would be gone until after suppertime. With that scant information, a

list of do's and don'ts, and a quick kiss on the forehead, she was gone.

I’d lain there in the dim light of dawn with my racing thoughts of impending freedom.
A

whole day to ourselves!
I knew morning chores would be shorter than usual, leaving us with all

those glorious hours, unshackled and unsupervised.

While Lorrie Beth filled Janine in on the latest developments of the previous night, I

washed up the breakfast dishes and we all dove in to get chores done. In no time flat, we were

ready for our misadventures. I suggested a jaunt into town, but Janine obviously had other ideas.

She had painted her toenails a daring crimson and her cut-offs were shorter than usual.

Even those blue eyes of hers had been given a little extra attention, I saw. In addition to

her eyeliner, she had fringed her long lashes in several coats of mascara, lending a sultry quality

to her bold features. The total picture was dangerous.

"Come on, ya'll, let's go to Jimbo's! I brought enough change for us to get a pop. Maybe

some peanuts, too." Reaching into her back pocket, she pulled out a number of coins and tossed

them on the table in front of us. "We can take a couple of towels with us, maybe head over to

Crystal Creek for a swim afterwards," She said, raking her blonde strands with her fingers.

Lorrie Beth was the first to find her tongue. "Wait a minute. How did
you
know about

Jimbo's? Momma would have a fit if she knew we ever got near that place!”

"Is that right," Janine said, her lower lip twitching. She loved getting a rise out of Lorrie

Beth. "Well, to answer your question, Cat, I know about lots of places around here. This isn't the

first summer I've been here, you know. And as for your Momma having herself a fit, how could

she, if she didn't know ya'll were there? Unless, of course, somebody ratted on us."

She peered at my sister narrowly, as though sizing up her potential to be a successful

gangster. "Now, I can't think of anybody who would do such a thing, can you?"

"No rats around here," I declared pointedly, shooting Lorrie Beth one of our "sister

looks.” "Right, Sis?"

I watched her wrestling with her conscience as she stood there stroking her emerald.

She’d slept in it the night before and treated it with same reverence ancients had given to holy

relics. Lorrie Beth had been outmaneuvered, and she knew it. "Right," she said with a sigh. "I'll

get the towels."

It normally took about twenty minutes to walk to Jimbo's, but on that delicious day, we

got there in only half the time. Jimbo's was a one-room shack situated just over the rise past the

meadow where we played softball. Constructed of rough lumber with its peeling sign that read

Jimbo's Market, it pretended to be a kind of country store.

It was frequented by some of the local high school boys and what Momma considered to

be undesirables but mostly it was a wide place in the road where a bottle of pop or a slab of

pickled bologna could be had. Local gossip had it pegged as the nearest thing Warren County

had to a den of iniquity, full of bootleggers, cockroaches, and women of ill repute. I couldn't

have testified to the truth of that in a court of law, except for the cockroaches.

As the first customers of the day, we sauntered in like we owned the place and walked

straight up to the counter, where the owner, Marcy Conway, sat on a stool, waiting for business.

Marcy was probably somewhere around thirty but looked fifty-five, with deep lines around her

mouth and eyes, and dingy hair. She was puffing a hand-rolled cigarette and drinking out of a

mug when we came in.

The interior of Jimbo's was dim and smelled rank, the plank floor coated with a layer of

grime. When Janine asked for three bottles of pop and a sack of peanuts, Marcy snatched them

from a low shelf without even a sideways glance. "You girls are out early this morning," she

said, reaching for Janine's money and sliding it across the greasy counter. As she took another

draw from her cigarette, I noticed her dirt-caked fingernails.

"Yes, Ma'am," Janine responded brightly. "We just had a craving for some of your

roasted peanuts."

"Yeah, it’s always good to satisfy a craving,” Marcy mumbled into her mug.

Back outside in the sunshine, we all let out a pent-up breath and sucked in the fresh

mountain air to cleanse our lungs of smoke and God knew what else.

"Phew, something must have crawled in there and died," Lorrie Beth said as she turned

up her bottle for the first sip.

"Or someone," Janine muttered. "Here, let me show you how this is done," she said,

grabbing Lorrie Beth's pop and stuffing leftover change in her pocket. As we watched, she

cracked open several peanuts and stuffed them down the neck of the bottle, giving it a couple of

shakes. "Now try it. Get your mouth full of pop, but make sure there’s some peanuts in it to chew

up before you swallow."

I decided to wait on the outcome before trying it myself, and when Lorrie Beth smacked

her lips and sighed, that was enough for me. We were savoring our feast and the joys of being

young and female when a coarse voice shattered the moment.

"Well, well, if it isn’t Gimpy." I nearly choked on my mouthful of Coke and peanuts.

What almost stopped my heart was seeing Caleb Jacobs standing there so close, in all his rotten-

toothed glory, his pallid face wearing a smirk.

Lorrie Beth drew in a sharp breath and took a step closer to me. What’s he doing all the

way out here this time of day? I wondered, nausea rising in my throat.
He almost looks like he’s

been expecting us, or maybe he knew we’d be here because he followed us
.

Of course, it wasn't the first time the thought had entered my mind, and since I’d revealed

my suspicions to Janine along with a full description of Caleb, there was little doubt she’d cut

him any slack. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her spine stiffen and her chin go up slightly.

"Somebody better call the zoo," she said loudly as she popped a peanut in her mouth and

met his eyes. "Looks like one of their baboons escaped.” Needless to say, introductions weren't

necessary at that point.

Caleb's smirk drooped, and his face flushed an angry burnt orange. His eyes glazed and

then deliberately raked the length of Janine's body, lingering on her long legs before finally

settling on her defiant face. The hair on the back of my neck prickled. I saw Caleb's nostrils flare

before he took a step closer. Both his hands were in the pockets of his overalls, fidgeting with

something.

"Anybody ever tell you that black stuff around your eyes makes you look like a tramp?"

Lorrie Beth reached for my hand, her palms slick with sweat, her fingers icy. She stood so close

to me now I could smell the rosewater she'd rinsed her hair in.

Instead of stepping back as Caleb would have expected, Janine planted her bare feet

squarely apart, and with her eyes boring into his, said, "Anybody ever tell
you
about a little thing

called a toothbrush? No, I guess not; if they had, you wouldn't look like you had a mouthful of

turds."

It took about three seconds for that remark to hit home, approximately two seconds

longer than it would’ve taken for anybody else. Caleb's mouth snapped shut and flopped opened.

One hand came out of his pocket, closed in a fist. His blood pressure must’ve been nearing

stroke-zone, judging by the nasty purple blotch blossoming on his neck.

“You little bitch,” he said, tensing to step forward.

"Don't you dare touch her, Caleb Jacobs!" Gentle, soft-spoken Lorrie Beth had taken

center stage in defense of her friend, pushing Janine aside. Through a haze of shock, I saw her

standing toe to toe with Caleb, her two small fists clenched at her sides, her eyes shooting

emerald fire. With the flush of rage in her cheeks and her wild hair damp with the sweat of fear,

I’d never seen her look as beautiful as she did at that moment.

"It's me you're mad at. It's always been me. From the first day of school, you've picked on

me, tormented me, just because I'm different. Look, I'm sorry for what I said that day. I didn't

mean anything by it. Now if you want to go ahead and beat me up, then go ahead. But don't you

dare touch one hair on her head, or so help me Caleb Jacobs..."

"You'll what, whip me?" Something was different about his tone. His words were

menacing, but the bite was gone from them. The leer had disappeared from his face replaced

with something new I couldn’t quite put my finger on, and as Lorrie Beth stood there pale and

trembling, racking her brain for a finale to her threat, it dawned on me.

Had I heard an inkling of respect in his voice? Was it possible that this waif of a girl

could make a lunk-head like Caleb Jacobs back down? That thin ray of hope was dashed as

cleanly as breaking surf with my sister’s next words.

"I'll tell everyone I know that you’re so dumb and stupid the only girl you can get to like

you is your own sister!” Time was suspended as the world waited to see what Caleb Jacobs

would do with that. My fists clenched as I waited for the shoe to drop. Janine’s eyes narrowed to

slits.

Instinct told me that what Lorrie Beth had said was an insult to the highest degree, though

I had no idea how it was so. I didn’t think any of us did, except maybe Janine. I’d not understand

the full implications of Lorrie Beth's threat until years later, but at the time all that mattered was

whether or not Caleb got it. As might be expected, he didn't.

The next thing I heard was his braying laughter. He was doubled over, holding his

stomach, chortling, incapable of speech, while Janine and I broke our paralysis long enough to

exchange a look.

"Is that the best you can do, little girl? You think you’ll just badmouth me to death?”

Suddenly, he raised his head and gazed at all of us with deadly calm. "I could put a hole between

your eyes before you could blink.” He was pulling something out of his pocket.

It must be whatever he was fidgeting with earlier
.
Dear God, has he got a gun? Is he

going to shoot us dead in broad daylight?
My heart skidded, my galloping thoughts nothing

more than broken prayers. With a flourish, he revealed his weapon. It was a slingshot.

"What, you think you're King David now, ready to bring down Goliath?" Janine burst