Dark Heat by J. M. Taylor

Author:J. M. Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Genretarium Press
Published: 2021-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

T

he sheep and goats at Nephele Farms had been evicted from their pasture. Their angry bleats echoed in the great red barn, but no one heard them over the amped-up bluegrass music. The mucked-out field had been converted to a parking lot, and Cuthbert High students waved orange flags directing cars into irregular rows. The aroma of grilling burgers, hot dogs, and fried dough overwhelmed the rank farm odors.

Huge tents covered the lawn between the barn and the apple orchards. Inside the largest one, hundreds of Cuthbert’s citizens sat at folding tables and paid homage to the great alderman Winter Wyman.

Jase stood in line in the smaller food tent with men in hiked-up shorts and sandals, shouting wives, and bored kids who nevertheless knew better than to skip this. His black pants and shirt contrasted with everyone else’s neon and patriotic stripes.

Strolling along the buffet line, he served himself a pair of burgers, some of Jules’s pasta salad, and chips. Hoping to avoid the hot air inflating the central tent, he wandered outside looking for a table. He skipped the beer tent, saving Terry’s baleful eye for later, and took instead bottled water from an ice-filled galvanized tub. He cut through the makeshift midway, dodging knots of gabbing neighbors and high schoolers who were making balloon animals in stalls made from cardboard boxes. He arrived at a sea of outside tables.

Most were full, or had folded chairs leaning against them to save seats, but one mother, her blond hair as short as Jase’s military cut and wearing a track suit zipped to her tiny chin, shooed her youngest away and waved Jase to sit with her.

“Thanks,” he said. The kids, a teen-age girl and two round-faced boys, ignored him, concentrating on their food.

The woman beamed, as if she had just performed the kindest act in history. “Well, I could tell you aren’t from around here, so I thought I’d show you that we’re friendly folk in this town.” Her voice had the strained hollowness of a life-long smoker, made worse by hollering after her children. But her smile was sincere.

“It’s such a beautiful day,” she continued. “We always have good weather for this.”

Jase gave her his best down-home grin, all teeth. “How long have you been coming here?”

“Right from the beginning, back when this one was still in her carriage.” She gestured to her daughter, whose hair was shaved on one side, the other dyed red.

He barely noticed the piercings under her lower lip, but did recognize the humiliation of being singled out by her mother. How often had he slunk away from his own mother’s care and attention? Like the time she had dragged him to a bully’s house and demanded the two settle it right there on the front lawn. Or when he’d lost his lunch money and she made him wear a sign the rest of the week that said, “I’M TOO STUPID TO EAT.” Maybe this mother would never be so outwardly cruel, but nevertheless,

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