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.Can you walk over alone?”“I guess so.If you give me directions.” I was glad he didn’t have to cancel, too, and I wasn’t going to back out because Neal couldn’t go.“It’s easy.Take the path you were on yesterday and keep walking.You’ll come to a fence.Turn right and follow it right to my door.”“How far is it?”“’Bout a mile, I suppose.Too far for a city girl to walk?”“Of course not.I just wondered.”He laughed.“See you soon then.”A mile? And he considered himself a neighbor? Was there no one living closer?Fleecy was a little early, so I left her and Granny digging through a box of material scraps with an envelope of patterns beside them on the kitchen table.Granny had taken a morning nap and was obviously feeling good.Even Fleecy noticed she was more alive and energetic.“The dancing done Annie a heap of good.”“Maybe I’ll get her to show me how and we’ll practice,” I said.“It will do us both good.”We laughed and I set off, saying I’d only be gone till four-thirty.“I don’t like leaving Granny alone, so I’ll get back before you leave.”“Hit’d be all right, Valerie.She just needs someone living with her.Hit wouldn’t hurt none to go off and leave her.You need some time with your friends.”I didn’t mention to Fleecy that someone had come by the one time I’d left Granny.For all I knew it could have been a friend of Granny’s since she never remembered who it was.But I still didn’t like the idea.It was a hot and sunny day, the kind of weather I’d expected in Arkansas.I started to sweat after walking only a short way.I had on shorts and a tank top with little pink flowers on it.I hoped I wouldn’t get wilted.It was strange to walk and not see one person.I felt so alone.The path was well marked, so at least I didn’t have to worry about getting lost.No birds sang.Maybe they’d gotten out of the heat.I was glad for some shade when the path led into a stand of pines mixed with leafy trees of several types.I had stopped for a minute to wipe my face with the bandanna I’d put in my pocket, when a rattle in the underbrush startled me.Looking all around, I laughed at my nervousness.There were dozens of things that could rattle leaves in the woods.A mouse, a rabbit, a lizard, a deer.But I’d see a deer if it were close.I jogged a little.But when the trail started downhill, I ran.At the bottom was a fence.I turned right where the woods were thick and leafy again and the shade felt wonderful.It had been silly to run.I stopped, wiped my face, running my fingers through the short damp hairs that clung to my neck.Rounding a bend I found civilization.There was a parking lot, several cars, and a big sign.Ozark Cave.Tourists Welcome.The building looked like a small store.I pulled open the heavy door and went inside.Post cards, snack foods, soda—everything for the tourist There were even those junky souvenirs you see in the vacation spots.Fake tom-toms, bows and arrows, banners with hillbillies, corn-cob pipes, whiskey jugs — things that furthered the image most people have of the hill people.From a stairway on the right, some people appeared, giggling and laughing.Rick was the last in line.He smiled and waved his flashlight at me.“Be with you in a minute.” He sold pop to two girls, who giggled every time they looked at him, and a tom-tom to a little boy.Then everyone left and I was the only tourist left.“You didn’t tell me I had to buy a ticket and a tom-tom to get in.”“Complimentary tour for pretty girls.” He turned a sign on the door so it read Closed and locked the front door.“Where’s your dad?” I asked.Rick had said he and his dad ran the business.“Who knows? He was here when I went down.I told him I was closing for the day.He probably went home,” Rick finished.“Where do you live?”“Cabin out back.”It was hard for me to imagine growing up here in the woods, so isolated.“Have you always lived here?” I was pretty sure he had.“Since my mom left.I was about ten, I guess.”“Who did you play with?” Maybe I was getting nosy, but I was very curious about Rick Biddleman.“Deer.Skunks.Possums.” He grinned.“Now you’re teasing me.Wasn’t it lonely here?”“I like to be alone.There’s lots to explore here.Bus took me to school.But it was usually boring.Not that I care, but where’s Neal?”“He had an emergency.”“So we’re all alone?” His smile held a sort of arrogance.I didn’t know whether to be uneasy or to think he was teasing me again.There was a wildness in him that I wasn’t sure I trusted.He was the kind of guy I’d have steered clear of in New York.Street smart, maybe a daredevil.Maybe it was that element of risk of being with him that appealed to me.I’d always led a super-safe life.I’d never considered it boring, but now I knew it was fairly uneventful [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]