A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash Read Free Book Online Page B

making the same noises that we heard them make in the morning sometimes when they didn’t know we were awake yet.
    Stump stood up straight and looked up at the window, and he turned his head like he was trying to hear them better. He tossed his shoes onto the ground behind him and walked up closer to the house.
    â€œOne of them’s going to look out that window and see you,” I whispered. “If they do, they’ll come outside here and wear us out for spying on them.”
    I turned the spigot back on and put my shoe under the water and scratched some more of the mud off the bottom with that stick. Stump walked right up against the house and reached up his hands to the window ledge like he was thinking about pulling himself up to look in.
    â€œYou’d better stop it,” I whispered louder, and I reached out that stick and poked him on the back of his leg. He looked back toward me and stepped away from the window, and then he put his hands flat on top of the rain barrel and grabbed on to the gutter and pulled himself up. I turned the spigot off, and I heard that big bubble inside there float up to the top again.
    â€œStump,” I said, “you’d better get down. That ain’t going to hold you,” but he acted like he couldn’t even hear me. “You’d better get down,” I said again.
    When I stood up, I could feel the mud and wet grass squishing between my toes, and I could hear Mama and Daddy’s bed squeaking inside their room. Stump put his hands on the window ledge and stood on his tiptoes on top of the rain barrel and tried to look in there. I saw the concrete blocks under the rain barrel move just a little, and then it leaned a little to the side like it might tip over. I put my hands on the sides of it to try and keep it from falling, and I felt the water in there roll around from side to side.
    â€œStump,” I whispered. I reached out and tugged at his leg, but he just stayed up on his tiptoes and tried to see in the window like he didn’t feel me pulling on him. “It ain’t going to hold you,” I said. I tugged at his leg again, and when I did all that muddy water on his feet made him lose his balance. His feet went out from under him, and he fell on his butt on top of the rain barrel. It ripped loose from the gutter and tipped toward the yard, and Stump slipped and fell up against the house and landed on top of those concrete blocks. The rain barrel turned over in the grass with its top busted off. Water poured out onto the ground and ran down through the yard, and Stump just laid there on his back on top of those concrete blocks.
    I heard Mama’s voice through the open bedroom window. “What was that?” she said.
    â€œI don’t know,” a man said. I didn’t recognize the voice, but I knew it wasn’t Daddy’s. “I’m going to go see,” the voice said. “You stay right here.” I heard the bed squeak like somebody was standing up. “You stay right here,” the voice said again. I knew whoever’s voice I heard was coming out to find us. I looked down at Stump.
    â€œGet up,” I said to Stump, but he wouldn’t move. I kneeled down and tried to stand the rain barrel upright, but my feet kept slipping in the wet grass and it was too heavy to move. Stump just laid there with his eyes closed like the wind had got knocked out of him, and then he reached around behind him like he’d hurt his back. I heard the bedroom door open.
    â€œGet up, Stump,” I said, but he just laid there and looked over my shoulder at the window above me like he couldn’t move. “They’re coming out here,” I whispered. I reached down and tried to pull him up by his hand. “Get up,” I said again.
    I heard the screen door slam shut around front, and I turned and hightailed it toward the woods beside the house. I ran until I didn’t think anyone could see me, and