Slow Dance in Purgatory by Amy Harmon Read Free Book Online Page B

ever happened to him."  Irene shook her head sadly.
                  “I’ve seen him,” Gus said quietly.  Aunt Irene gasped, and her teacup clattered noisily on its saucer as she attempted to put it down.
                  “I’ve seen him off and on for fifty years.  It’s been a while since I saw him last, but I have no doubt that it was Johnny Kinross.”
                  “Gus!  You've seen Johnny Kinross?!  Where?”  Aunt Irene blurted out loudly, and then put her hand over her mouth as if she’d burped.  “Pardon me, Gus.  That was rude.” 
                  Maggie rolled her eyes affectionately.  Aunt Irene wouldn’t know rude if it bit her on the butt.  She was such a little lady, she even apologized for speaking too loudly.
                  “At the school.  Always at the school.  I saw him the first time a few weeks after he came up missing.  I thought he’d been hiding out there.  He looked right at me, and he knew that I saw him.  I could see that he was scared, and I told him not to be.”  Gus shook his head, remembering.  “I ran all the way to the police station, and I told Chief Bailey – you remember Chief Bailey don’t you Miss Honeycutt?”  Gus always called Irene by her maiden name of Honeycutt instead of her married name of Carlton, and he rarely addressed her by her given name. 
                  “I told the chief I’d seen Johnny at the school, and he and his department searched the school from top to bottom.  There was no sign of him.  They put out a bulletin on him and had posters up in different counties.  Never even got a bite, even after they offered a reward,” Gus sighed.  “I shoulda never said anything.”
                  “Why?”  Maggie queried, puzzled.
                  “’Cause his poor mother got her hopes up again.  She suffered, wondering where her boy was and why he didn’t come home.”
                  “Why didn’t he go home?”  Maggie wasn’t following the story very well.  “Why wouldn’t he at least contact her?”
                  “He couldn’t.” Gus met her gaze frankly.  “He’s dead.”
                  “You mean you saw his GHOST?” Aunt Irene squeaked and then covered her mouth once more.
                  Shad yelled, "No way, Pop!  You mean I’ve been cleanin' a school that's haunted by a ghost?"  Shad danced in his seat like he had ants in his pants.  "That is freakin' awesome!"  
                  “I guess that’s what I mean – yep,” Gus declared.   “I didn’t realize it at first.  He looked like any other kid that got caught being somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be.  I didn’t see him for a long time after that.”
                  “So what made you think he was a ghost?”  Maggie interrupted.
                  “The next time I saw him it was five years later, and he hadn’t aged at all.  Then a few years passed, and I saw him again.  He looked exactly the same, same blue jeans and white shirt, same everything right down to the 50s hair do with the duck butt in the back.  Pardon the language, Miss Honeycutt.” Gus gave a sheepish grin.  “I just didn’t know what else to call it.
                  “I’m well aware of what a duck’s butt is Gus,” Aunt Irene said primly.
                  "A duck's butt?"  Shad hooted.  Rising from his seat he squatted down and waddled around the table, shaking his skinny butt wildly.  "That's what this move is called, Maggie, a duck's butt."
                  "Shadrach, sit down."  Gus smiled to soften the reprimand. 
                  Maggie tried not to laugh and ended up snorting instead.  Aunt Irene looked at her sharply, and Maggie quickly changed the subject.
                  “So the music?  You