Miss Julia Hits the Road Read Free Page B

Lillian’s desire for privacy. That worried me. I thought that Lillian and I had no secrets from each other. At least, she knew all of mine.
    But what did I know of hers? Very little, if the truth be known. Oh, I knew that her nephew had been arrested a few times and was now serving time for theft. And I knew both of her daughters had had children out of wedlock, then had left the grandbabies for her to raise while they went up north to find work. And I knew that Lillian’d had at least two husbands, but that neither of them had stayed very long. From what I’d gathered, one had taken off years ago without a word to her, and she’d kicked out the other one. And, wouldn’t you know, but the one she’d sent on his way was the one she talked about and still longed for.
    I knew, also, that Lillian was strong in her faith and within herself. She’d lived her life pretty much on her own, raising two daughters and two granddaughters with hardly a lick of help from anybody, and without one word of complaint. Furthermore, I knew that I had her to thank for keeping me on the straight and narrow every time I was about to bounce off the ceiling. And I knew that I respected and admired her for her sense of fairness and for her honesty, although on occasion I wished she would keep her opinions to herself, and let me do what I wanted to.
    But I didn’t know a thing about any legal problems. Even more worrisome was why she’d want to talk to Sam about them. Sam had retired from the practice of law a few years back, so he couldn’t give her any official help. And if his current interests in motorcycles, flowers and poetry were any indication of the way his mind was working—or not working—he could even give her bad advice. And Lillian would follow it because she thought the sun rose and set on him.
    The fact that she hadn’t confided in me could’ve hurt my feelings if I’d let myself stew over it. The thing to do, I resolved, was to find out just what was going on that worried her enough to turn to a lawyer who I had plainly told her was more than a little addled in the head. And without saying word one to me.

Chapter 3
    By the time Sam came back into the living room to say that he wasn’t giving up on me as his backseat partner and I’d told him his foolishness was giving me a headache, I’d decided to tackle the immediate problem that he presented before dealing with Lillian’s legal concerns. First things first, I always say, and my fear for Sam was more pressing than the nagging worry over Lillian.
    I stood on the porch watching as Sam switched on that monster, revving it up and raising so much Cain that the noise reverberated up and down the street. When he got it going to his satisfaction, he guided it, wobbling as he went, out on the street. I gasped as he sped up, overtaking a car, then whipping back in front of it.
    “He’s going to kill himself,” I said, biting my lip as the roar of the motor diminished in the distance.
    Shaking my head in dismay, I wondered how much he was going to enjoy the great outdoors when he was laid up in the hospital in a full-body cast.
    The thing to do, I determined, was to get somebody to talk some sense into him. It was a settled fact that he wasn’t going to listen to me. All he’d done was laugh at my concerns, which was one of the few normal things he was still doing.
    The first person I could turn to was Deputy Coleman Bates. Sam might listen to him and take heed, since Coleman had honored Sam by asking him to be the best man at his wedding to Binkie. And, besides that, Coleman was a law enforcement officer who could warn Sam in ways that I couldn’t. Maybe describe some accidents he’d seen; tell him what happens to a rider when there’s nothing between him and the pavement or a logging truck. Lord, Sam would be nothing but a greasy spot if he had a wreck on that thing.
    With such worrisome thoughts in my mind, I went upstairs to use the telephone by my bed, not