Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Author:Susan Beth Pfeffer [Pfeffer, Susan Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780547855066
Publisher: Graphia
Published: 2010-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

"GET OUT OF THAT room right now! Do you hear me? Get out!"

I couldn't move. The music box kept tinkling "Edelweiss." The footsteps got louder and closer to the door.

"Out! You got no right being here."

I stared, paralyzed with fear, at a young man, not much more than a boy, really, in tight jeans and a white T-shirt, a tattoo of a dragon reaching from his neck all the way down his left arm. In confusion, I thought, Budge didn't have a tattoo, not when he was that age, when my mother loved him enough to make his baby.

Then I understood. "Trace?" I choked out. "You're Trace?"

He looked at me, Budge's daughter, his sister. As much a Coffey as he was.

"Willa?" he asked.

I managed to nod.

"I heard you was in town," he said. "Granny heard talk."

"I didn't know you were," I said. I took a deep breath, trying to stop my body from shaking. "I ... I'm sorry. I don't want to be here. I haven't taken anything."

"Not much to take, most likely," Trace said. "Except for his guitar. I came to get his guitar."

Everything was swirling. Out of nowhere, I remembered Daddy playing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" on his guitar, teaching me its words, laughing with me as I danced to the music.

"Oh, God," I said. "I'm going to be sick."

"Bathroom," Trace said.

"No," I said. "Not there." I raced through the hallway, the bloodstained kitchen, and out the back door. I made it to the tiny backyard just in time. The swing set swayed almost playfully in the tannery-scented breeze.

Trace followed me out. "You okay?" he asked.

"No," I said. "I mean, yes, I guess so. My heart's stopped pounding."

"Sorry," he said. "I didn't know it was you. Can you go back in? The living room's not bad."

I nodded. We walked down the driveway to the front of the house. Trace opened the door.

"Everybody's watching," he said. "The whole town probably knows by now that we're in here talking."

"I don't care," I said. "I'll be gone in a couple of days."

Trace laughed, and when he did, I heard another of Budge's echoes. "No one stays in Pryor if they don't have to," he said.

"You didn't," I said, sitting on the plaid sofa, the kindly face of Jesus staring down at me.

"Well, I don't know how much of a choice I had," Trace said. He sat on the easy chair, picked up the ashtray, then pushed it away. "Crystal and me had a big fight and Granny wouldn't let me stay with her neither. No one else was much interested, so I took off."

"To where?" I asked.

"Austin first," he said. "Then Memphis. I've been thinking maybe I'd try Nashville next. I could use a good guitar, so I figured I'd help myself to Budge's. You don't want it, do you?"

"I don't want anything," I said. "How did you find out?"

"About Crystal and the girls? I saw it on TV. How about you?"

"Faye Parker called the police," I said. "After Budge took Krissi. She was worried about Mom and me.

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