Dreamtimereaders presents
LITTLE ADELINE KINDER
Chapter Two
Copyright June 19, 2011 By L. E. Leonard
Available on Amazon, Kindle and
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Chapter 2
The postman Bill Hearty stood by a little
white schoolhouse relaying his tale of one very bad delivery to the teacher.
School was out due to summer break and a great deal of young adults had
gathered for the afternoon ball game at the baseball diamond.
“I
tells ya, was the scariest day of me life. There was a hurricane fast
aproachin’ an I was needin’ some shelter. Since them Kinder’s were out-o-town,
I didn’t figure they’d mind if’n I’d wait out the storm in their house.”
“I musta been there fer about twenty
minutes or more drying off when there was some huge crash. Scared the living
daylights out of me it did and sounded as though a whole cabinet full o dishes
had fallen over. I could hear the glass shatter an even the sound of tin pans
and lids spinnin’ an making that clattering noise.”
“So what did you do Bill? …Dale, stop
trying to look up Alice’s knickers before I tell yer pa.”
“Well I went to see what-in-tarnation had
happened an…”
“Yes”
“The house was in order. No broken dishes
an nothing out o place, just some squeaking varmint runnin’ across the hard
wood floors. O bout the same time them horses of mine started whining. I’d
always thought them Kinder’s moved in too close to that cemetery across the
way. My beating heart couldn’t take too much more o’ that so I scurried on out
of there. Hurricane or not my horses got me and the mail wagon clear across the
county in less than a half-an-hour.”
“That’s very amusing Bill but please
remember, the proper term for those kind of storms are tornadoes and not
hurricanes.”
“Ever since my family settled here it’s
been called a hurricane an I’m not changing it now.”
Frantic an out-of-breath, Delphine Kinder
ran up to the teacher interrupting their conversation. She was sweating from
head to toe and was obviously concerned about something.
“Teach, teach, ma’s going to jail an pa’s
out of town. What are we gonna do?
“Calm down Delphine, you need to calm
down.” After letting her catch her breath she continued even though the tales
were a little out of the ordinary today. “Now tell me what happened.”
After grabbing a handkerchief and wiping
her moist and dirty face she added, “Ma got into an argument with our neighbor
yesterday an went an threw a rock at her. I’m guessing she cracked one of her
ribs. I don’t think our neighbor appreciated it all that much cause she done
went an told the sheriff on Ma.”
Over by the baseball diamond, three more
shadowy figures emerged at the top of the hill. Geraldine, Laura Ada, and
Adeline Kinder were making their way to town as well. Adeline who was seven at
the time had been walking slightly lopsided. She was carrying her sister Lourie
the baby.
Laura Ada had been sobbing as Geraldine,
the oldest of the girls called out to the clustered group and waving. She was
flashing a crisp sheet of paper as she called. “We need to get a hold of Pa
Mrs. Harris, it’s an emergency.”
Clearly agitated by now, Mrs. Harris
slapped her hand on her hip and protested. “You mean to tell me that our new
sheriff dragged your momma away and left you girls to fend for yourself?”
“Can you call our pa for us?” Adeline
pleaded while whipping strawberry curls from her eyes and bouncing Laurie on
her hip.
Geraldine
added “he’s somewhere in the next state over working but he left a phone number
for emergencies. Ma told us where to find it before being dragged away.” Laura
Ada held back another sob and wiped her nose with the sleeve of her dress.
“I’ll
be happy to help and while you girls are waiting, you should go back home and
clean up. I can stop by tonight to check on you but only after the sheriff and
I exchange a few words.”
“Are
you gonna yell at him for us?” Laura Ada added.
“Don’t
you worry about that just head on home and take care of each other till you dad
gets back.”
Geraldine indicated that they should take
the short cut through the woods.
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