Night Music by Cammie Eicher

Author:Cammie Eicher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: vampire, kentucky, ghost, surprise, journalists, monster hunt
Publisher: Cammie Eicher

At River’s Edge

They say this river holds secrets in its deep and rapid currents.

Could be they’re right. What I know is that the big stream don’t hold fish anymore, not like when I was a young man. Back before I cared more about holding women in the night instead of a bamboo pole, I’d come out here to this bank when things got too rough at home. That was mostly the day or two after Pa got his pay from the sawmill. He’d take Ma to town to buy what she needed, then go back a little while later to “hoist a few with the boys.”

I didn’t know then that the women who came into that rough workingman’s bar on the edge of Hammertown, what other folks called our neighborhood, were working girls. I expect I wouldn’t have known one of those ladies of the night if she sat down on the bank beside me in her fancy dress and painted-up face. When I got old enough to be thinking about what they were offering, Ma sat me down and told me if I wanted to keep money and my man parts till I was growed and on my own, I best stay as far away from those women as I could.

Ma never lied. So I dreamed about kissing Cynthia Ann, the prettiest girl in school, and spent my time doing stuff Ma would approve of. And around here, that mostly meant buying a cold pop at the store and listening to people talk.

And fishing. Sometimes I fished alone, but most oft I didn’t. Old Man Taylor from down the road would come with his girl Boots, and they’d stake out a place down a little from mine. Their spot was always close enough for us to talk and far enough apart our lines wouldn’t cross.

Boots was younger than me, and a funny little thing. She loved to fish, but she refused to touch a worm. Her granddad had to take the fish she caught off the hook for her, even. Her luck wasn’t good, but sometimes she’d catch a sunfish or a little crappie. She’d pull that pole up, hollering to beat the band, and Old Man Taylor would take it off real careful, so as not to hurt the thing.

Boots would squat down, hold her fish, study the thing real good and toss it back. I never asked why she looked the scaly critter over so good first, but I suppose it was in case she caught it again. Boots was peculiar like that.

She dressed peculiar too, fonder of overalls than girlie dresses. She picked up pretty stones and stuffed them in her pockets, certain she’d got herself a treasure. Once in a while there’d be a buried coin, lost and left until it sank into the ground. Boots would find a stick and dig it out, dip in the river water and crow about her new riches.

As girls are wont to do, Boots grew older and her granddad grew old.

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.