Miss Julia to the Rescue by Ann B. Ross

Author:Ann B. Ross [Ross, Ann B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780670023387
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

For the rest of the day I had a sense of impending doom hanging over my head—all because there’d been no word from Sheriff McAfee. What was the man thinking? What would he do? Surely he’d do something. I didn’t think he was the type to take an escape from isolation or protective custody or witness protection—whatever he called it—lying down.

But I decided not to dwell on it if I could manage to put it out of my mind. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, I always say, although I couldn’t always put it into practice. I understood the admonition against worrying about the future because there’s always enough to keep us busy in the present, but what about the past? I couldn’t get the previous day out of my head. Why, only twenty-four hours before, Etta Mae and I had been in one of Pearl’s bleak cabins recovering from that church service and making plans to liberate Mr. Pickens. It all seemed so long ago, for here I was back at home going about my daily routine, broken only by the presence of a hymn-singing carpenter and a prissy, ear-studded architect.

All I’m saying is that it makes you think—how quickly circumstances can change and how disconnected it can make you feel. But a phone call late that afternoon began to put me back in focus.

“Sam? Is that you, Sam?” I wasn’t sure at first who was calling, expecting a West Virginia twang, if anything. But the voice was Sam’s even though it wavered through the line, fluctuating over a roaring sound in the background. “How are you? Where are you? Are you having a good time?”

“We’re all fine,” he said, his voice suddenly loud and clear. Then as he began telling what they’d been doing, I could catch only a few words—Tel Aviv was one, the Wailing Wall another, then something about Emma Sue and the Dillards. “How’re things there? Everybody okay?”

“Why, we’re just fine,” I said, images of Mr. Pickens’s peppered posterior, a long night drive, an angry backwoods sheriff and snakes wrapped around an arm flitting through my mind. “Nothing unusual going on, just the same-old same-old. I can’t wait for you to get back. Oh, Sam, I really miss you.”

“… miss you too,” he said, then spoke a jumble of words, of which only a few came through clearly. But I heard enough to assure me that Sam’s being half a world away had not dampened his ardor.

I hung up the phone, my heart lightened just from hearing his voice. I’d longed to tell him all that had happened, but it would’ve worried him and spoiled his trip, which I didn’t want to do. There was nothing he could do from such a distance, and he’d be home soon enough. I’d wait and unload it all then. Besides, the connection hadn’t been good.

Just as I turned away, the phone rang again. Still half expecting to hear Sheriff McAfee’s voice, I gingerly answered it.

“Julia?” Mildred Allen said.

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