The Struggles of Johnny Cannon by Isaiah Campbell

Author:Isaiah Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

CHAPTER EIGHT

LOST THE KEYS

Did you know that when folks ain’t quite sure what they ought to say, they’ll usually clear their throat or cough? It’s like they’re trying to make folks believe the reason their brain ain’t working is ’cause they caught tuberculosis or something. And then maybe folks’ll run off ’cause there ain’t nobody that wants to catch tuberculosis, no matter how nosy they are. Which is also why folks cough so much in church. They’re hoping the preacher will quarantine himself.

I was sitting at the dining room table and Sora was watching me, clearing her throat like she’d just come in from a dust storm. Meanwhile, I was stewing away, trying to figure out how to sneak out and get to Rudy and Eddie before the town posse caught up with them.

Which was stupid, ’cause there wasn’t neither one of them that was a decent enough fella to risk getting grounded for the rest of my life over. But there also wasn’t neither one of them that was bad enough to deserve what Bob was primed to give them. It was one of them moral dilemmas, like when you’re powerful hungry but you just saw Bambi in the theaters, so you can’t bring yourself to shoot the deer in front of you. But then you remember that Bambi’s ma was probably feeding that hunter’s family real good, so you shoot the deer anyway. It was like that.

“You don’t got to watch me,” I said. “I ain’t going nowhere.”

“I don’t mind,” she said. “Pa asked me to, so I’m going to do it.”

So she was going to play the game. Me and Tommy used to play it all the time. We’d know the other one had a secret, and so we’d keep playing dumb to all the lies they’d tell until they was so frustrated they’d finally spill it. But I didn’t have time for that game, so I reckoned I’d just go ahead and put my cards on the table.

“Rudy’s with him, you know,” I said.

She took a quick breath. She wasn’t expecting to hear his name from my lips. That was for darn sure.

“Rudy?” she asked. “Who’s that?”

“Don’t even try,” I said. “You can’t out-lie a liar. I don’t know what he is to you, but I sure know what you are to him. And if Bob finds Eddie with him, he’ll have Rudy’s hide as a rug in his shop. Won’t even think twice.”

She stared at me for a couple of seconds and then she stood up. “Take me to them.”

“Wait, what?”

“Take me to them. We need to warn them.”

She didn’t get no arguments from me, so we got up and headed out. Pa had hitched a ride with Bob, so we took the truck and drove on down to Snake Pond.

When we got to the tent, the campfire was working to get a pot of water boiling. Eddie was tending to it.

“Hey,” I said as I went over to him, “we got—” Then I noticed what was sitting next to him in the dirt.

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