Murder at Mabel's Motel by G. A. McKevett

Author:G. A. McKevett [McKevett, G.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2020-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

“Granny! Granny, look! I won again!” Little Alma exclaimed as she bounded off the bus and into Stella’s outstretched arms. “They gave me another blue ribbon! That means I’m the best speller in the whole wide world!”

Stella and her ecstatic granddaughter’s hug was interrupted when Marietta stomped down the bus’s three steps and bumped into them so hard that she nearly knocked her grandmother and sister off their feet.

“She ain’t the best speller in the whole wide world!” Marietta shouted, displaying an unusual degree of agitation, even for her. “Miss Prissy Pants Alma ain’t even the best speller in the school. She’s the principal’s pet, and Miss Richardson gave her the easiest words. That’s the only reason why she won!”

“Marietta Reid!” Stella reached out and grabbed the girl as she flounced past, her chin in the air and the ugliest look Stella had seen in a long time on her young face. “You apologize to your sister this minute, young lady, for those unkind words.”

“I will not! It’s the truth, and everyone there who saw that spelling bee knows it. After it was over, they were all whispering, ‘Alma Reid’s a cheater. She don’t deserve that ribbon. She deserves an ice cream sundae with poop on the top instead a hot fudge.”

Savannah had exited the bus and was standing nearby, listening to the exchange. Calmly, she stepped up to Alma, put her hands on her little sister’s shoulders, and knelt so she could be eye to eye with her.

“Alma, sugar,” the older girl said, “I was there during that contest and afterwards, too. I know exactly what happened. They gave you hard words to spell, and you spelled every single one of them perfectly and you won, fair and square. And afterwards nobody said anything about you cheating. Marietta is lying through her teeth, because she’s jealous of you.”

“That’s right,” Vidalia agreed, as she, too, climbed down from the bus and joined the gathering.

“Marietta don’t like studyin’,” Cordele added. “She won’t apply herself like you do, Alma, but she gets all in a dither when she sees somebody else getting a reward for their hard work.”

Waycross nodded solemnly, like a judge about to deliver his verdict on a federal case. “Yep, that’s the truth of it. She’s just jealous of you, Alma, and all the good things everybody said about you winning, and especially that blue ribbon of yours. She wishes it was hers.”

“I don’t want that stupid ribbon, and I ain’t jealous of the likes of her,” Marietta protested. “Alma’s dumb and ugly, too. Her front teeth stick out so bad she could eat corn off a cob through a fence post.”

In the next three seconds, Stella had removed Marietta from the area and was marching her around the house to the backyard.

She wasn’t exactly sure yet what she was going to do when she got to wherever she was taking her. But this was above and beyond even Marietta’s usual unpleasantness.

“This just can’t be abided,” she said

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.