A Boy a Girl and a Ghost by Robert J McCarter

Author:Robert J McCarter [McCarter, Robert J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781941153222
Publisher: Little Hummingbird Publishing
Published: 2019-10-10T23:00:00+00:00

A green show is kind of like an Elizabethan equivalent of a warmup act, a kind of a variety show. There is music and dancing and general bawdiness, often performed by some of the actors in the upcoming performance. In the old days, it was all the same troupe, I think at the Shakespeare Festival it’s a bit of a mix.

There are four men and four women on the small stage on the lawn of Southern Utah University, with large fur and spruce trees providing shade for the audience that is either sitting on the lawn or standing. There’s a mandolin, a flute, a little drum, and a few other instruments. They wear colorful costumes and it’s slap-sticky and funny, but I’m not paying much attention.

Billy is there and we’re sitting a bit away from our respective families, whispering to each other. I bring him briefly up to speed. He interjects his favorite curse word at appropriate intervals.

“What now?” he whispers when the brain-dump is over.

I shrug. “It’s the weekend. We won’t hear from the doctors until Monday at the earliest. As far as the family goes… I haven’t the slightest clue.”

I worry a bit about how Billy will take the “gay” thing. Christianity, in all its forms, is notoriously intolerant of it. I swear him to secrecy before I tell him.

Another part of the green show is women roaming the lawn in period costumes (skirts and bodices that show off a lot of cleavage) selling tarts. “Buy a tart from a tart,” one says in an English accent as she passes by. She’s practically spilling out of her top and smells of pie and cheap perfume. Billy’s eyes follow her hungrily.

“And Helena actually said that,” he whispers. “About caring more for you than she wants to?”

I nod. The tart selling tarts has distracted Billy in a rather predictable way.

“Dude,” he says, “you gotta make a move.”

I just stare at him. With a murder to solve, my family in shambles, and the threat of Cancer on the horizon, he wants me to make a move on Helena. I laugh. I love Billy, and his predictable teenage-maleness is refreshing. Of course it’s the girl I should be focused on in his world.

“A move. Like what?” I ask.

He shrugs. “Kiss her, man. Just grab her and kiss her. Find out if there is something there or not.”

The thought terrifies me and I’m sure that terror shows on my face.

He bangs his elbows into my ribs. “You gotta know, don’t you?” he asks. “I mean, if there is one thing in this world you gotta know, that’s it, isn’t it? I mean, shit, man—”

Billy is interrupted by one of the tart sellers. “Would you gentlemen like a tart?” she asks.

With our eyes locked, we didn’t see her walk up, but as she squats down in front of us, the strange minty scent of her quickens my pulse and I know who it is. Helena.

She’s smiling big and pulling some warm tarts out of her basket.

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