The Buried Book by D. M. Pulley

Author:D. M. Pulley [Pulley, D. M.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781503936720
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2016-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 32

Were you injured?

Coiled up in the dark between the bales of hay, Jasper thought of his grandmother’s house crumbling in the back field. His mother was to blame. Maybe she’d knocked over a lantern too. Even if it had been an accident, it was clear her brother Leo would never forgive her. He’d never forgive his no-good nephew either.

Down below the hayloft, his uncle set about making his bed. He could hear the cot for the county fair being pulled off the wall. Then the barn door swung shut. More footsteps scuffed across the ground.

“Someone steal your water, Myrtle?” his uncle asked. The sound of a water dish clunked to the ground and was followed by splashing as it was refilled. “You’re lucky you gave it up. Thanks for not kickin’ him, ol’ girl. But you got my permission to bite him next time you see ’im.”

There was a light patting sound and the creak of a stall door. “Stupid son of a bitch is gonna freeze out there, runnin’ around with no britches on,” his uncle muttered to himself. “Ain’t got the sense of a shithouse rat.”

Jasper frowned in the dim light that seeped up through the floorboards. Uncle Leo was right. He was stupid. He couldn’t hide in the hayloft forever. If he escaped to Detroit, his father would just send him back to the farm. A boy his age needs a mother around . . . But it wasn’t just that. He suspected if his father didn’t hate him already, he sure did now. He might just drag Jasper to some orphanage himself. The swelling around his eye had gone down, but it still felt funny when he blinked.

The sooner that boy grows up, the better.

A whisper came from below. “I’m trying, Mother. I’m trying real hard to take care of her like you asked, but she sure ain’t makin’ it easy, now is she? How you found the strength to still care after . . .” There was a long pause as Uncle Leo cleared his throat. “You always said it wasn’t her fault. I want to believe that, I do. Not for her, but for you. I pray for you . . . and Dad . . . may you both rest in peace tonight. Dear Lord, I pray for the strength to forgive the past. I pray for the wisdom to guide us through this storm. Amen.”

The light went out in the barn below.

Up in the loft, the darkness was so complete Jasper could no longer see his own hands in front of his face. His heart beat out the seconds as the minutes passed one by one.

I pray for my uncle’s forgiveness. I pray my father still loves me. I pray that my mother is safe out there somewhere. I pray that she comes back home.

An eternity went by before the sound of his uncle’s snores rumbled beneath him.

He’d never heard the man so angry before. He’d never heard Uncle Leo speak about his grandparents either.

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