Edge of Dark Water by Joe R. Lansdale

Author:Joe R. Lansdale
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Published: 2012-03-27T03:00:00+00:00

16

We drifted for a long time, me and Terry using the poles to keep the raft in the middle of the river. Jinx was still at the rudder, and she was beginning to get the hang of it. The reverend had done a fine job building the rudder, and it heaved easy and gave the raft better direction and kept us from swirling.

Reverend Joy hadn’t moved from where he lay. Fact was, I thought he might have died, but Mama checked on him. She grabbed him by the feet and pulled him out of the hut. He drawed his knees up and put his hands under his chin, one of them still hanging on to the pistol, which was slightly unnerving. Mama sat by him, put a hand on his arm, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“I feel certain we can navigate a good distance downriver,” Terry said, poling the shallow bottom with his long pole. “Then we need to find a place to tie up, and go back for the money and May Lynn’s ashes. Fact is, I think we could just take the ashes and leave the money. It’s nothing but trouble.”

“I don’t like that,” Jinx said, calling from her place at the rudder. “May Lynn’s dead, but that money is still green as grass. I done ran off from home and been threatened with all kinds of mean things, and had rocks thrown at me, and now you’re saying leave it. I ain’t all that much for going back, but if we go back for May Lynn’s burnt-up ass, I say we get that money.”

“We could take enough to continue our trip and leave the rest,” Terry said. “Maybe if we do that, Constable Sy will be satisfied with the bulk of the money. We could just leave it on the table. He may decide to stop bothering us, especially if we are far away and are not causing him concern.”

“There’s still Cletus and Skunk,” Jinx said. “And maybe Don.”

“There isn’t anyone called Skunk,” Terry said. “He’s nothing more than a story people tell to scare their children.”

“He’s a story that will chop off hands, you can bet on that,” Jinx said. “I come out of this, I’d just as soon not have to ask someone else to pick my nose and wipe my butt.”

“If he’s real, you’ll not only be missing hands,” I said. “You’ll be dead.”

“I take to that even less,” Jinx said.

“I tell you again,” Terry said. “There is no Skunk.”

“There are a lot of folks who believe in Skunk,” Mama said. “I’ve heard about him all my life.”

“Have you seen him, Mrs. Wilson?” Terry asked.

“Well, no. But I know people who say they have.”

“There are people who have told me with considerable conviction that they’ve seen snakes that can grab their tails with their teeth and roll downhill like a hoop, or snakes that can suck a milk cow dry, but with all due respect, ma’am, I don’t believe it.”

“I ain’t no believer in snakes can do that,” Jinx said.

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