The Curse of Crow Hollow by Coffey Billy

Author:Coffey, Billy [Coffey, Billy]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2015-05-01T07:00:00+00:00

-4-

It was nearing supper when Bucky finally told Cordelia they had to get on home, and then only because Belle said they all had to get ready for revival. I don’t think Bucky or Cordy much wanted to leave, even if the place they were leaving was the ruined wreck of Foster’s Grocery. Going home meant facing Angela, you see, and having to deal with everything Kayann had said. In a week that had been full of uncomfortable conversations, Bucky didn’t want another. Especially that one.

Sheriff or not, he still went home smelling of filth and sweat. They’d all pitched in that day, though by the end it was plain to everyone the grocery would be closed for a good long while. Cordy had spent much of her time as close to her daddy as she could get, fetching him drinks and a sandwich from the Exxon for lunch. About the only time she drifted away was when Hays sent a text. Cordy checked with Scarlett and Naomi. They’d gotten one too.

Bucky kept the window on the Celebrity down so Cordelia could breathe something like fresh air. The radio played Brad Paisley, pining on the pleasures of country life. Bucky turned it off.

“You okay?” Cordy asked.

“I guess.”

“Ith Mom?”

“Hope so,” Bucky said.

“You know thee loves you, wight?”

Bucky reached over and squeezed his daughter’s knee. He smiled. “I know.”

On and on that went, Cordy slurring her words and Bucky trying to understand them enough to answer right. But all them two did was pass the fifteen minutes between the grocery and their house the same as always, chitchatting away but saying nothing much at all.

It was like that for the other families too—the Fosters and Bickfords and Ramsays. On the surface, Alvaretta’s curse had changed everything. But underneath, things weren’t much different than they’d ever been. The parents still worried of their jobs and the bills past due, the kids still worried how popular they weren’t and how ugly they looked, and nobody really said anything to anyone else of value. No one really said what they thought or felt. And in a way, I believe that was part of the witch’s curse too. It reminded every family in Crow Holler just how thick the walls between them had grown.

Angela had her best I’m-sorry supper waiting on the table. Fried chicken and dumplings, Bucky’s favorite. She spoke nothing of what had happened at the grocery at first, saying only that Reverend Ramsay had called to personally invite them to revival. Angela spoke that bit of news from behind the prettiest smile either Bucky or Cordelia had ever witnessed. Seemed as though Bucky’s newfound prominence in Crow Holler had paid off already.

When the meal had descended into the same awkward silence Angela had sworn would be banished from the supper table, she felt she had no choice but to wade into murky waters and put Bucky at ease.

“You know Kayann, always so paranoid about everything. And really,” she said, “you can’t listen to a word that woman says after all that’s happened.

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