Mighty Old Bones by Mary Saums Read Free Book Online Page B

house.”
    “I did. My flighty sister dumped this fleabag on me.”
    The little dog was adorable, even in its present state. He reminded me of another dog, though I couldn’t remember where I had known one like him. Someone close, though I was too scatterbrained at the moment to think. The dog’s hair, normally long, silky, and flat against its body I presumed, now stood on end, thick and fluffed out. It looked as if it had been styled into a red-and-white Afro. I presumed Phoebe had just given it a bath from the citrus and lavender scents that hung in the air.
    “It’s certainly clean,” I said.
    “I’ll give him this, he didn’t mind taking a bath a bit. Though I’m afraid I might have put too much styling gel in his hair. All I had was a thickening formula.”
    Loud sheets of rain lashed the roof. “Phoebe, please. Do come home with me. You and…em…”
    “Rowdy.”
    I arched an eyebrow. “You and Rowdy would be most welcome.”
    She shook her head. “We’re fine. But if you intend to get home, you better go on. It’s looking bad out there.”
    “Yes. All right. I’ll call you a little later tonight, okay? If the phones work.”
    “I’ll be here.”
    Once again braving the rain with my plastic grocery bag as umbrella, I hopped in my car and closed the door with relief. The rain beat steadily on my way home, pounding the car and the streets until I reached the outskirts of Tullulah. Then the wipers that had worked so feverishly to keep the windshield clear were suddenly scraping across almost dry glass as I passed through spots where no rain fell at all.
    The road to my house cut through a flat area with fields on the left and a marshy bird sanctuary to the right. Its waters drew close and almost as high as the road. Ahead, black clouds loomed over the forest in disturbing, striated patterns that moved more swiftly across my view than any I had ever witnessed. Just as disturbing as their color and speed was a sudden realization. They traveled north to south, when normally they should be going west to east. Their fast churning terrified me.
    Though I traveled in a rainless pocket at the moment, I could see a wide gray swath of dark clouds in the distance, striped with white and silver from cloud to horizon that looked as if it now stormed beyond my property. Perhaps if it stayed there a little longer, I’d get inside the house without getting drenched after all. Now if only Homer was near enough to hear me when I drove up, all would be well.
    The column of rain and the foreboding striations of fast-moving clouds mesmerized me as I drove toward them. Deep darkness lurked behind the silvery sheets of rain. Between watching them and trying to keep my eyes on the road, I almost missed an even more unusual sight off to my left.
    I’d passed the edge of the marshes and now drove up through a series of small hillocks. They were bright, almost emerald green in the oddly green-tinged air, due to shafts of the burnished late-afternoon sunlight peeking through on my far right. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of something moving. I turned to see what it was, and had to do a quick double take to be sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me.
    It was a man, walking in a field beside the county road. The rain flattened his dark shoulder-length hair. Water dripped off the long tunic he wore and soaked his brown boots. He carried something on his back, a cylindrical bag of some kind. When he turned, his eyes dazzled me, for they were young, yet deep, as if an old soul peered out of them.
    I braked and stopped to offer him a ride. Just as I motioned through the window, a crash of thunder deafened me and a brilliant light split the sky. A second crash, louder and more resonant, followed immediately with another blinding flash of light. I looked up and to the left. Both lightning strikes still etched jagged lines of light in the dark as I watched. They and numerous other bolts struck from a whirling mass