The Tale of the Swamp and the Rose (Parker's Bluff) by Jake Williams

Author:Jake Williams [Williams, Jake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jake Williams
Published: 2014-10-13T03:00:00+00:00

A Safe Place

“Pass that joint to somebody else, Foster,” I told him. “I have never, ever, heard of swamp monkeys. So, anyway, after Ty showed me his demon-infested house I was so freaked out I stayed away. I spent some time finishing up the computer project for Bucky, and it was all I could do not to say anything to him about the house down the street. I was walking back from the men’s room one day when Betty popped out of a doorway and pointed at me. ‘Jason, step in here for a minute, please.’

“We went into a classroom and she cut right to the chase. ‘Something, young man, is going on with you. You can’t fool me. And you need to stop this mission you seem to be on. Leave the Parker’s be, your kind has no business getting involved like this.’

“I thought I knew what she was saying and I got a little pissed. ‘Look, Ms. Parker, it’s the 1990’s, not the 1890’s when you were still young. What Jonas and I end up doing, or not doing, is none of your damn business. Nothin’s going on between the two of us, not yet, anyway.’

“Betty looked at me and then surprised me by laughing. ‘You dumb little shit. I meant you being a Rumpholt, not a homosexual. I’m talking about this whole nonsense with the Parker witch story. I don’t buy the school paper or party-costume tales you’re telling around here. Something’s got you digging into that old legend a little too much. And you should leave Ty and Rose alone, as well. You’re walking around here like you’ve seen a ghost, no pun intended, because I think maybe you have seen something. I know you think I’m hard on you, that I don’t approve of you, Jason. That’s not true. I’m not so old that I can’t see the good young man you’re becoming. But you’re a little too wild, a little too reckless, with what you’re getting into right now. This isn’t something you or Bucky should get involved with. Leave it to Ty and Rose to settle.’

“I figured that I was already in the whole thing too far, and I told her so. She raised her hand to shut me up and said, ‘I want to show you two things, two things that will hopefully stop you from getting yourself too tangled up in...events.’ I told her that seemed to be the theme of things around here, and I’d seen shit at Ty’s that had to be worse than anything we were about to look at. She shook her head and actually shushed me and then led me into the gallery room. There were tons of old portraits and seascapes that people had donated or lent to Betty’s museum. She pointed at one and told me, ‘I happened to come across this portrait at an estate sale. This is Elizabeth with her father, a few months before her voyage with Jonas. Her family was wealthy, her father was a duke or lord or something.

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.