Shine On Read Free Page B

person. Stumbling around the leaves she could see the faint glow of an old lantern coming from inside the dark entrance.
    She’d never been so relieved when she smelled the familiar scent of Walt’s sweet pipe tobacco and heard him whistling “Old Dan Tucker.” He looked startled as she stepped into the mouth of the cave. Spotty ran right up to him, wagging his tail. Emmie wished she felt that at ease.
    “You better get back to ya house. It ain’t right for you to be walking around here at night. There’s wolves in this forest, girl,” Walter scowled.
    “There are no wolves in my woods, Walt. You sound like that grandmother in Little Red Riding Hood,” Emmie said, squaring her shoulders for the fight. Walter slowly closed the distance between them. The uncomfortable silence that passed almost made her lose her nerve.
    “Does this look like a fairy tale to you? There ain’t nothing for you in this cave,” he said.
    “I know what’s been going on. I put it together. Ronnie’s moonshine, all those late nights out here on the farm, with nothing ever to show. This is a still isn’t it?” Emmie asked. When he didn’t answer she continued, “You’re gonna need help now that Ronnie’s gone. You can’t do all this by yourself. The way I see it you need help and I need money. Done deal.”
    “Emmie, I’ve known ya for a lot of years. You should know better than to walk up on a man’s still. If it weren’t me, you might be leaving with a hole that God didn’t give ya,” Walter started.
    Emmie cut him off, “Walter, this is my land. This is my cave. That is my water you are pumping through that barrel. Part of that ’shine is mine the way I see it.” She kept her shoulders square and looked him right in the eye and hoped he didn’t see the way her hands trembled when she balled them up into a fist at her side.
    “What do you know about ’shine?” Walter adjusted his pipe in his mouth.
    Well, he had her there. She only knew three things about moonshine:
    1. It was illegal.
    2. It made Ronnie as mean as a snake.
    3. It made fast money.
    And none of those things she could say out loud. Well, maybe she could tell him the last one.
    “I need the money, Walter,” she mumbled relaxing her shoulders a bit.
    “Emmie, you don’t want this money. It’s not clean. Ain’t you working down at the shop sewing stuff?” he asked, pulling a long draw from his pipe.
    “I can’t make a living on that. I’ve been trying. I just need to build up a little money, then it’s all yours again. I swear it,” she said.
    “You hungry, girl? Cause you know you are welcome at our table any time. I thought Mae done told you that?” He stood and started working on some copper pipe that was losing steam, only half paying attention to her. He didn’t have time to be messing around out here with some half-grown kid.
    “Besides, I hear Mr. Thomas has been trying to catch your eye. Why don’t you just let him? You could do worse than a storekeeper,” he added, never looking at her.
    Great. As if this conversation wasn’t bad enough now she had to talk about Mr. Thomas.
    “No, Mae invited me for supper anytime I wanted. I appreciate it, really. I make enough money to eat. And I don’t want to depend on Mr. Thomas anymore than I already do. He pays me for sewing and that’s all I need,” Emmie answered.
    “You’re talking out of both sides of your mouth girl.” Irritated he started putting some goop on the pipe to no avail. It just kept running right down the side of the curved copper. “Ya say you got all the money you need from Thomas and ya got food. What do you wanna work out here with me and Ole Maizy for?”
    “Maizy?” Emmie looked around. Was there another woman here?
    “My still, Ole Maizy,” he said with an odd sense of affection, like it was a pet.
    Emmie blinked slowly and nodded. Had the old man gone off his rocker? Her face must have asked the question she held inside her mouth.
    “Maizy’s been