Precious Bones (33 page)

“Why, thank you, Miss Bones, I ’preciate them kind words. I always try to do my best. And I want to thank you for your hep. Without that watch it woulda been a harder nut to crack. You are a mighty fine little detective.”

“Thank you, Sheriff.” I watched as the massive man ambled back out to his car, with Nolay by his side. I now had a lot of admiration for pond water and puddles.

When I turned around, Little Man was still sitting on the floor. The question mark was gone, and he was wearing a smile so big it nearly split his face in half. I went over and sat down beside him. “I’m glad you were right, Little Man. I can’t believe my imagination got the best of me. I let my mind go to some places it never should have went.” I looked down at my feet and said, “Little Man, are you mad at me?”

“Course I ain’t mad at you. Why would I be? You didn’t do nothing wrong. It ain’t important that I was right. It’s more important that what you were thinking was wrong. I’m just glad it all turned out this way.”

The two of us sat on the floor and shared our silence. “Little Man, you know that hunting knife that I found that day out in the swamps?”

“Course I do.”

“I’d like you to keep it for your own. It would just remind me of things I don’t want to be reminded of.”

Little Man let out a soft laugh and looked down at the floor. “Bones, I think you should have it. It can remind you of
things you need to be reminded of and to never let your mind go wanderin’ like that again. I’ll bring it next time I’m out here.”

Little Man was just about the best friend a person could ever have.

Nolay walked back in the house and let out a hoot. He sauntered over, pulled Mama off the couch, and swung her around the room a couple of times. Me and Little Man busted out laughing.

Nolay put Mama down and stood in the middle of the living room. “Hallelujah! Ol’ LeRoy pulled it off!” He looked straight at me. “Bones, I’m mighty proud of you. I’m proud of what you did.”

“I’m just glad it all turned out for the good. But you know what, if it hadn’t been for Mr. Speed, I never would have known to go looking for something out in the swamps. I guess we owe him a big thank-you.”

“You’re right about that, Bones. I wish he was here so I could shake his hand.”

Nolay and Mama sat down on the sofa. “Bones, what do you think about that big old slow-movin’ sheriff now?”

“I think he’s about the smartest sheriff I ever did know.”

“You know what I’m thinkin’? I’m thinkin’ we should have us a celebration. What do you say, Honey Girl?”

“That’s a fine idea. We certainly have a lot to celebrate.”

“Tomorrow being Friday, I’m going out to invite everyone I know to come over here this Saturday. We’re gonna have us a cookout and fellowship with each other. It ain’t New Year’s, but I think we just might break out some fireworks and shoot ’em off.”

Nolay stood up so quick it looked like he had springs on his feet. “Come on, Little Man, I’ll give you a ride home. I want to see if your daddy can come over tomorrow and help out settin’ up some stuff.”

That night at supper, Nolay and Mama looked like they were walking through sunshine instead of standing under a rain cloud. I felt like a chameleon that had just shed its old skin and was trying to get comfortable in its new one.

Later, our conversation centered on the return of the bail money. Three hundred dollars. What would we do with it?

Mama said, “It’s just not right for us to keep that money. It should be returned to the people who gave it to us.”

Nolay shook his head. “How do we know who gave us what? It was a gift. It would be durn embarrassing for us to return a gift. That would be like telling someone you don’t like what they gave you.”

“I don’t know, Nolay. It just doesn’t seem right for us to keep it. Maybe we should put it in the bank and save it to help other people in an emergency.”

Nolay stopped eating and cocked his head sideways.
“Helping people, now, that is a mighty fine idea. How ’bout we use that money to buy six telephone poles, have ’em installed, and get hooked up to electricity?” He glanced over at me and winked. “We might even have enough left over to buy you a brand-new refrigerator.”

Mama leveled her gaze at Nolay and said, “And just how would us having electricity and a refrigerator help other people?”

“Anytime someone needed some ice or something cold, we could help ’em out with it.” He turned to me. “Bones, what do you think?”

“I reckon it’s a great idea to have electricity and a refrigerator!”

“Now, see there, Honey Girl? Two out of three agree on it.” Nolay reached over and placed his hand on Mama’s. “I think our friends and neighbors would be danged happy for us to have electricity.”

Mama just smiled and shook her head.

After supper Nolay opened up Mama’s cedar chest to survey the assortment of firecrackers we had been accumulating over the past year. Every trip that Nolay took up to north Florida or Georgia, he came back home with fireworks. There were strings of firecrackers, Roman candles, cherry bombs, and bottle rockets.

Nolay stacked all the fireworks in neat little piles, stood up, and rocked back on his heels. “Yes, sir, we are gonna light up the sky Saturday night.”

Mama walked in and said, “I was just thinking; I have a
bag of marshmallows that needs to be used up. Why don’t you two go out and make a fire so we can roast a few?”

“Honey Girl, that sounds like a mighty fine idea. I’ll get out there right now.”

I followed Mama back into the kitchen and started to help her clear the table, but she said, “Bones, I can wash up. Why don’t you grab our old beach blanket from the closet and go help Nolay? I’ll be out in a few minutes with the marshmallows.”

I went in my room and woke up Nippy. Now that winter was almost here, she slept most of the time. I held her warm sleepy body under my arm. As I grabbed the blanket, Mama called out, “Bones, be sure to rub on some DDT. There’s some in the can right there by the door with a rag in it. The mosquitoes will be out on a night like this. And take some for your daddy, too. I’ll put some on before I come out.”

“Yes, ma’am, I will.”

I opened the door, and Nippy and I walked out into the moonless night. It was like stepping into a bottle of black ink. I whistled, and Pearl, Harry, and the dogs ran to me. They led me to the small pile of wood that Nolay had just set on fire. He stirred the embers with a stick and watched as a cluster of cinders raced each other up into the darkness. He pointed to one side of the fire and said, “Bones, put the blanket down over there, out of the breeze, so the smoke don’t make us cry.”

We sat down; the fire came to life and bathed us in a warm orange glow. Paddlefoot and Mr. Jones curled up as close as they could to the blanket. Silver lay down on the other side;
like a small sphinx, she stared into the fire, her front paws crossed and resting on the blanket’s edge. Pearl grunted as she plopped down and made herself comfortable in the back, away from the heat. Harry laid down behind Pearl and rested his head on her plump belly.

Nippy curled up on the blanket between us for a few minutes, then got up and stretched. She looked at me, then scurried toward the darkness. I called out to her; she stopped and looked back at me, then turned and melted into the night. I started to go after her. Nolay placed his hand on my arm. “Bones, you gotta let her go.”

“But she might run away, and I don’t want to lose her.”

“She’s a wild critter; you can’t take the wildness away from her. You gotta let her go find that part of herself.”

I stared out into the blackness. “Yes, sir, I will, but I don’t want to.”

Nolay placed his hand on my head and said, “Let’s me and you lay down on the blanket and see who can count the most stars.”

So me and Nolay lay down and looked up into the black sky.

“There must be a zillion stars up there. The angels are working hard tonight, pouring out all those bushel baskets of miracles.” I pointed to a huge star that stood out from the rest. “Nolay, you see that star over yonder? I think that one belongs to Mr. Speed. I think he’s up there with God, looking down on us right now.”

“I’m sure he is, Bones. If I know Speed, he’s busy helping the angels pour out all those miracles. He poured one down on us, that’s for sure.”

“Yes, sir, I think he did, too.”

“Bones, the last three months has been a whirlwind learning lesson. I learned I got to take my actions a little more serious. I got you and your mama to look after. You can’t stay a kid all your life. But you can still enjoy life like you’re a kid. I intend to change some of my ways.”

“Yes, sir, that makes sense. I intend to change some of mine, too, like keeping better track of my thoughts so they don’t go wandering away someplace they shouldn’t.”

The dogs stirred as Mama walked up and joined us on the blanket. “It is such a beautiful night.” She lit up a Lucky Strike.

Nolay and I sat up; he gave us each a sharpened stick. Mama opened the bag of marshmallows, releasing their sweet scent into the night air. Pearl grunted in anticipation. “Wait till I roast one,” I told her. “You know you like the roasted ones better than the raw ones.” Her shiny black eyes followed every move I made as I slid a sugary blob on the stick and held it over the fire. The flames licked up and turned the white ball into a glazed marble. “You know,” I said, “life sure can be confusing. I mean, I’ve lived here all my life, but it seems like lately I’m meeting people I didn’t even know. Or I knew ’em, but I didn’t know who they really were.”

Nolay looked over at me and smiled. “Bones, life can be as mysterious as one of them puzzles in a box. You know the kind with them little pieces you put together to make a picture?”

“Yes, sir, a jigsaw puzzle. I don’t know why they’re called that, but I’ve played with ’em at school.”

“Well, the way I figure it, every one of us is just a puzzle
being put together. Nearly ’bout everything we do is a little piece of us that gets stuck together to make up the whole picture of who we really are. You understand what I’m sayin’?”

“Yes, sir, I reckon I do.”

Mama let out a little laugh. “Nolay, you do have a way with words.”

I looked at Nolay and Mama and realized what huge pieces of my puzzle they were. Mama’s piece nestled perfectly into its own snug little space, but Nolay’s was like looking at the sun through a silver of broken glass, a mixture of soft jagged colors bending and blending, trying to mix together.

As the fire crackled and popped, I thought about how exciting Saturday night would be. We were going to light up the sky with fireworks. Little Man and everyone would be here, celebrating together.

Nolay looked over at me and Mama. “Next year this time we will be hooked up to electricity. Might even have us a television set. What do you think about that, Bones?”

“A television? Why, that would be about the grandest thing I could ever imagine!” But I wasn’t going to count on that to happen anytime soon. Nolay was just having some fun. After all, I couldn’t expect him to change overnight.

The darkness closed in around us and came alive with the familiar voices of frogs and crickets. Our little family sat on the blanket in a pool of amber light, roasting our marshmallows. Bullbats swooped down and gobbled up bugs on the edge of the fire’s light. A white sliver of moon peeped over the horizon and smiled down at us sideways. Pearl nuzzled close to my leg and grunted in contentment. I reached down and
scratched behind her bristled ears. “Nolay, do you think we could take Pearl out to visit Miss Eunice? You know how much Pearl loves to ride in the back of the truck, and I know Miss Eunice would enjoy meeting her.”

Nolay smiled and nodded. “Of course we can, Bones. That sounds like a mighty fine idea.”

Friday when I got on the school bus, Little Man was still grinning from ear to ear.

I sat down next to him and said, “I am so happy all this is over with. I have to admit, Sheriff LeRoy sure knew what he was doing.”

“Me too. I’m glad Mr. Nolay got his name cleared.”

“I’m just happy my daddy is never going back to jail.”

“Bones, after school today, why don’t me and you go for a hunt out by the swamps? Now that everything has been cleared up, it’s safe to go back out there. Maybe we can scare up something for the cookout.”