Boondocks Fantasy by Jean Rabe

Author:Jean Rabe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2011-03-27T21:00:00+00:00

“I don’t much like our neighbors,” Little Mams admitted, once Big Mams was settled into the spare room. “More to the point, I don’t think they like us.”

“Why not?” She didn’t argue with Little’s feelings. Never had, never would.

“When we first got here, no one said hello. No one came over while we moved in, nothing. After a couple of months, the folks across the street came by and said howdy, and so did the widow-lady next door. After that, some of the others a few houses away would speak to us.”

“Sounds normal for city folk,” Big Mams offered.

“That’s what I thought, too,” Junior said. “But then it got kind of strange.”

“The widow-lady next door gave us this,” Little Mams held up a horseshoe. “She said it was ’cause this neighborhood used to be a big horse ranch.” She sounded uncertain.

“You hang it up?” Big Mams asked.

“Not at first,” Junior admitted. He looked a little sheepish. “But it’s the city.”

“Best reason to hang it up,” Big Mams said, though she made sure her tone didn’t chide too much.

“We have it over the front door now, on the inside,” Little Mams pointed to the nail. “Junior just thought you might want to look at it.”

Big Mams examined the horseshoe. “Looks like a shoe for a horse. Made of all iron, though.” She shook her head. “What else?”

Little Mams shot an uncertain look towards Junior. He took her hand in his and nodded. “Tell your momma, Little. It’s OK, I’m not arguing any more.”

Little Mams gave Junior’s hand a squeeze and took a deep breath. Big Mams noted that Junior’s eyes went right to her chest and stayed there, pride and pleasure both in his expression. Big Mams felt a little worry abate—it wasn’t marital problems of any kind. That was good. But they were both scared, and that was bad, because Junior and Little Mams didn’t scare easily. No one from the Neighborhood did.

“First,” Little Mams said, “the neighbors on the corner, on the other side of the widow-lady, their kids started acting strange. And then, the mother left with the little girl in the middle of the night. At least, that’s what the neighbors across the street said they were told happened. The boys acted more and more wild, and the father he just seemed tired and a little scared. Then they disappeared in the middle of the night, too.”

Big Mams nodded. “Go on.”

“People keep on leaving in the middle of the night. The moving trucks come after, but we never see the people again,” Little Mams told her. “New people move in, but we never really see them out and about, at least, not during the day. We weren’t too worried, but then the neighbors across the street left in the middle of the night, too.”

“Seems like the way they do it here,” Big Mams offered.

“No,” Junior said. “We were real neighbors with them. We watched their kids when they wanted to have an evening out, they’d have us

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