JACK Read Free Page A

staying.”
    “I shouldn’t.”
    “It doesn’t mean you can’t.”
    “He just worries about you.” Because Mikey loved him.
    “I know.” El kissed me on the temple and sighed into my hair. “God, Jack. We’re a messed up bunch, aren’t we?”
    He was right. We were. I stepped off the porch and headed toward the road.

Chapter Two
     
    There was a police car in the driveway when I got home. Lights were on in the living room. Gold puddles spilled out on the gloomy porch. At the end of the porch there was an empty space where momma’s bench swing used to be. All the hanging baskets that used to hang from the roof had been stuffed into garbage bags. Emma left the hummingbird feeder. I didn’t understand how she could have something against flowers and not birds.
    I saw Emma through the door. She was clinging to Jonathan, while Bill Straus scribbled in a notebook he held. Billy graduated the year I started high school and went into the force before the ink dried on his diploma. He was so short and scrawny his uniform looked like a sack on him. Billy was lucky Sheriff Berry let him carry a gun. If Billy ran into any bad guys he’d need it to protect himself.
    The screen door creaked when I opened it and everyone in the living room looked my way.
    Emma made a strangled sound and flung herself at me when I stepped inside, sobbing and petting me. “Oh my God, where have you been? I was about to file a missing person’s report.” She fondled my hair and picked at my shirt. Her eyes flashed and anger made her gaze hard.
    “I assume you’re okay then, Ms. Jacqueline?” Billy said.
    “Jack. And yeah, I’m fine.”
    His smile faltered and his gaze went to Jonathan, who watched me with a mix of boredom and anger.
    Billy closed his note book. “Well, since she’s home, I’m going to head on out.”
    Emma sniffled and wiped away her fake tears. “How can we ever thank you, Officer Straus?”
    He tipped his hat. “I’m just doing my job, ma’am.”
    “Are you sure you won’t stay for dinner?” She didn’t mean it. Emma couldn’t even cook.
    Billy smiled, flashing the gap between his teeth. “No ma’am, that won’t be necessary. I need to get back up the road. Palmer’s cows got out again and are wandering all over the highway.” Billy’s gaze came to where I stood at the bottom of the steps. His grin softened into a smile. “In spite of the circumstances today, I thought you looked very pretty.”
    I stared at my muddy feet.
    “What do you say, Jacqueline?” Emma took a step toward me. I could see her fingers itching with the urge to pinch me good.
    “Thank you, sir.”
    Bill cleared his throat and straightened his hat. “So we’re good then? No more running off?”
    “No sir.”
    “Good girl.”
    Phillip and Emma saw Billy out and I escaped upstairs to my room. I flopped back on my bed, trying to lose myself in the folds of the quilts. I pulled a pillow over and buried my face in it. All I wanted to do was go to sleep and never wake up again. At least in my dreams momma could be alive and well.
    My bedroom door opened and I sat up. Emma walked in and shut the door.
    I glared. “Don’t you know how to knock?”
    “Where is your dress?”
    “I don’t have a dress.”
    “Don’t be smart. You know what I mean. The dress I bought you. The dress you wore to Momma’s funeral.”
    “I took it off.”
    “Where is it?”
    “I lost it.”
    “That dress cost me fifty dollars.”
    “I never asked you to buy it.”
    “I bought it for Momma, not for you!”
    “And Momma would have never made me wear it!”
    I thought for a second or two she was gonna hit me again.
    Emma’s gaze scanned my room. “Maybe we should go to the mall.”
    “What?” It took me a second or two to realize what she’d said. “Why?”
    “You need a new bedroom suite. Something to soften up this space.”
    “I don’t want a new bedroom suite.” I liked my dark blue curtains and mahogany furniture. Momma and me