The Stars of Locust Ridge by Craig Moody

Author:Craig Moody [Moody, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781732896017
Publisher: Vivid Imagery Publishing via Indie Author Project
Published: 2018-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

***

Momma showed up on Sunday evening. I was still swarming in my emotional spin regarding Kenneth and his marriage demand, let alone proposal, so I was certainly not prepared to face Momma. Not yet anyway, and not right now.

It didn’t take her long to suspect something unusual in the air.

“What’s the matter?” she finally asked after she had concluded her dinner. Ms. Edna and I barely touched our food.

“Well, Momma,” I finally broke the silence, cueing Ms. Edna to leave the room, “there’s somethin’ I gotta tell ya.”

Momma cried as I spoke, the truth falling from my lips nervous and heavy. To my surprise, she didn’t get upset. She didn’t yell, and she didn’t strike me. Instead, she moved from her chair and to my side, pulling me toward her in a tight and consuming embrace. We stayed that way for quite a while, both crying, neither speaking a word.

Eventually, she moved back to her seat at the table, and the real discussion ensued.

“Does Kenneth know?” she finally asked, her eyes red and swollen from crying.

“Yes, he knows. He just found out on Friday.”

“Dr. Reynolds told him?”

“No, I told him.”

She stared at me curiously.

“How’d he know you was here?”

I hesitated, suddenly nervous to respond. There was no sense in playing dumb or acting clueless, so I told her the truth.

I could see her eyes change from sympathy to pain.

“There’s somethin’ we gotta discuss regardin’ your Uncle John,” she sighed. “Let’s go for a walk.”

Circling the farm property in nearly the exact same path Kenneth and I had taken just two nights prior, Momma and I moved along the backside of the yard toward the tree line. In the distance, Janice’s wall torch illuminated the interior of the barn.

“A big part of the reason I moved ya here is because I don’t fully trust your uncle,” she stated, keeping her eyes focused on the ground in front of her, the world around us darker and less visible than it had been when I was out here with Kenneth.

“Now, I want to be clear that he denies this, and I’m not insinuatin’ anything,” she continued, stopping in her tracks and turning me toward her.

“Your Uncle John had some issues when he was younger, issues that I’m afraid may still haunt him to this day.”

I could feel her searching my face for an expression, but the shadows of the slow-moving clouds above prevented any celestial light from finding us. Unsure as to where she was going with this conversation, I simply stared back at her, waiting in breathless anticipation for the rest of what she was about to reveal.

“When we was kids, perhaps eleven and fifteen, he being fifteen, of course, somethin’ happened.”

I could feel her begin to shake slightly in the small space between us.

“Your uncle touched me, Gen,” she said softly. “He touched me in a way a brother should never touch his baby sister.”

Even in the darkness, I could sense her tears.

“So, I was afraid, with what ya say ya been experiencin’ with your night terrors and all, that he may have had somethin’ to do with it.

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