The Talented Ribkins by Ladee Hubbard

Author:Ladee Hubbard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melville House
Published: 2017-08-08T04:00:00+00:00

8

THE SHIELD

Johnny and Eloise walked out into the yard while Jeanette parked Bart’s chair on the porch and then followed Bertrand back inside. Truth was Johnny was glad to be out of the house. He was worried about Bart’s voices getting too creepy and knew from experience it was never a good idea to let the old man go on for too long. But his uncle had gone back to the birdcalls almost as soon as they were outside.

Johnny got a shovel from the shed and held it up to Uncle Bart.

“I’m going to dig a little hole. That all right with you?”

The old man clucked his tongue.

“Miss Janice don’t like folks messing in her yard, now,” Bertrand’s ex-wife Janice’s voice rang out. “What you want to do that for?”

“Don’t worry. We’ll cover it back up when we’re done.”

“Well, just see that you do.”

Johnny shook his head.

“How does he do that?” Eloise asked.

“He just does,” Johnny said. He was relieved when, a minute later, one of the girls came running out of the house and reached for Eloise’s hand.

“Come play with me, Cousin.”

Uncle Bart clapped his hands excitedly. “Yes, we gonna have us a tea party,” he said, in perfect imitation of the child’s voice.

“Go on ahead.” Johnny smiled. “You can help me later.”

He watched Eloise run off toward the shed with her cousin. Then he turned around so he was facing the driveway and took ten wide steps to the left. He hoisted the shovel and started digging.

After a few minutes, he heard his father’s voice call out: “Johnny? You still mad at me?”

Johnny spun around. “Now, Uncle Bart. Don’t start that.”

The old man pursed his lips together and stared straight ahead.

Johnny turned back toward the road. He knew the man couldn’t help it, that the voices were a compulsion. Just as he knew that, as disorienting as they sometimes were, they emanated from something protective and fiercely loyal to family. Mac had told him many times that he would have never survived his youth were it not for his younger brother. Where Mac was always small and timid, Bart was always scary—the one who wouldn’t hesitate to threaten to kill somebody for looking cross-eyed at his nervous older brother. Yet, as an adult, Mac knew enough to keep Bart at a distance and had advised his son to avoid him altogether after dark.

It was a warning Johnny had tried to pass along to his brother. He glanced back at his uncle, trying to remember what it was he’d said to Franklin the night they headed out to steal those pictures for Dawson.

Just keep going.

Uncle Bart, as he recalled, had been on a nasty tear from the moment he found out why they had come and whose house they were planning to steal from. It turned out Bart knew Dawson’s former employer well. The man came from one of the most prominent families in the county, owned a large agricultural concern, and just about every black man who lived

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