Eden Hill by Bill Higgs Read Free Book Online Page A

with a softer plop, slower than before. The reverend twisted the knobs on the carriage and took out the last sheet. Done at last! It wasn’t as elegant as he would like, and there were a few smudges where he’d used the little round eraser and the brush, but it was a sermon, and he was pleased.
    He’d called it “Turning Points.” Yes, change was good.

“N EIL, YOU’VE barely touched your breakfast.”
    JoAnn was right. He’d eaten only a single piece of toast, and hadn’t even bothered with butter. She’d eaten several slices as well as an apple and a bowl of Cheerios.
    “I’ll finish it.” He scribbled a couple of notes on the yellow legal pad between his plate of fried Spam and his glass of Tang before looking up. “Breakfast is tasty, thank you.”
    Cornelius Alexander rearranged the papers and writing tablet, wishing he had a real desk instead of a cluttered folding table. Their tiny quarters at the Sleepy Head Tourist Court in Quincy were sparse, but would do for now. The little apartment featured a saggy bed, a kitchenette with a small but noisyrefrigerator, and a single light bulb, which dimmed and brightened along with the blink of the aging neon sign in front. The bathroom walls were missing a few of their plastic tiles, but the water was hot and it was only fifteen dollars a week.
    “Look at this, JoAnn. We have over an acre to work with, and the lot slopes off to one side. Good drainage. With the station here where it’s already been leveled   —” he pointed to a rough rectangle scribbled in blue pencil on the lined paper   —“our home will fit nicely right back here. There’s already a well for our water.”
    “Neil, right now the whole thing is nothing but a vacant lot. Just when do you expect to build this new home?”
    “Soon, JoAnn, soon. Once the station gets up and running and the profits start accruing. Why don’t you see if Queen for a Day is on TV?”
    “What TV? It quit this morning. Right during the Today show.”
    “Our dream house will have a good television. Maybe even color!”
    JoAnn bit her lip, then reached across the table to snag Cornelius’s uneaten Spam.
    He’d rented the little efficiency cabin a couple of weeks before. Far from ideal, it was still the closest thing they could find to Eden Hill, some twenty minutes away. Since the site of his new business was currently a small plot of bare land that had once been a feed store, much needed to be done. With so many things to arrange, he’d worked out a deal with the motel’s owner to use the telephone in the office. Few wanted to stay here anymore, so it was little used anyway. The eightother units were temporary homes to traveling salesmen and farm workers passing through. By late November, the place housed one Fuller Brush distributor and the Alexanders.
    Over the last week, he’d contracted for a concrete slab to be poured for the service station building, scheduled excavation for the two gasoline tanks, and lined up the electrical work. His bulldozer man agreed to level off another spot for their home, for only a few extra dollars. Deeds had been executed, permits secured, promissory notes signed, and the first shipment of building materials for the Zipco Super Service was on its way.
    The figures were scary. Two pages of proposals for the concrete work, and a frightening dollar amount. A handwritten estimate from the backhoe operator, with another jaw-dropping number. The blacktop company had provided yet another. Of course, there were all the franchise costs from Zipco to consider. He added up the sums on a second sheet of yellow paper, comparing it against his line of credit with the company. It could be done, but barely.
    Yesterday had been a holiday, so the Zipco offices were closed all day. It was just as well   —his wife had insisted he put his paperwork away and celebrate Thanksgiving. She’d made something called a turkey loaf, and heated up a can of cranberry sauce. When she’d asked what