Taking Care of Moses by Barbara O'Connor Read Free Book Online Page B

and laughed so loud her mangy old hound dog scurried out from under the shrubbery and stared at them. She put her arm around Randall and squeezed him against her. She smelled like bacon grease and talcum powder all mixed together.

    â€œI swannee, Randall Mackey,” she said, “you’re about the most serious child I’ve ever seen in all my born days.”
    Randall put a smile on his face and made himself let out a little chuckle.
    Miss Frieda jiggled his shoulder. “Seems to me like we need to get our lives back to the way they supposed to be instead of all fired up at each other every dang minute of the day. Maybe I ought not to be making such a fuss. I know Charlotte wants a child of her own. But that child’s not hers, and—”
    T.J. burst through the screen door and grinned at Miss Frieda. “Cora Lee spilled a whole bag of flour on the kitchen floor,” he said.
    â€œYou think that’s funny, Tyrone Jamal?” she said, grunting as she pushed herself up off the steps.
    T.J. wiped the grin off his face real quick. “No, ma’am,” he said. “Can I go now? I finished them chores.”
    Miss Frieda flapped her hand at him and said, “Go on,” before disappearing through the screen door.
    â€œWhat you wanna do?” T.J. said to Randall.
    â€œLet’s go over to Jaybird’s.”
    They raced up the alley to the Gilleys’ house. Jaybird sat on the edge of the porch, dangling his legs over the side. Althea stood on top of two rusty tin cans with a
long loop of string tied to each one. She held the strings and took high, jerky steps up and down the sidewalk. The cans came down with a clank.
    â€œWhat y’all doing?” Randall asked.
    â€œI got stilts,” Althea said. She held up a foot and showed Randall the can. “And Jaybird has to help me win the Bible drill.”
    Jaybird waved a piece of paper at Randall and T.J. “I’m asking Bible questions and then she’s gonna get me some more firecrackers.”
    â€œI might get firecrackers,” Althea said. She took a few stiff, jerky steps on her tin-can stilts. Clank, clank, clank.
    â€œAsk me another one,” she said to Jaybird.
    Jaybird studied the paper in his hand. “Okay, say that Proverbs verse you kept missing last night.”
    â€œAw, that’s easy.” Althea jumped up and down on the tin-can stilts while she shouted, “‘He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.’”
    â€œBetimes?” T.J. said. “What’s that?”
    â€œHush up, Tyrone Jamal,” Althea said.
    â€œWell, what is ‘betimes,’ Miss Bible Queen Genius?” Jaybird said. “You’re supposed to know what all the words mean.”
    â€œBe-TIMES,” Althea said, “means like there be-times
when you want to chasteneth and there betimes when you don’t want to chasteneth.” She glared at T.J. “Any idiot knows that.”
    T.J. grinned and poked Randall.
    â€œThen what does ‘chasteneth’ mean?” Randall said.
    Althea galloped away from them on her tin-can stilts. When she got to the end of the sidewalk, she turned and said over her shoulder, “If you don’t know, I ain’t tellin’ you, Randall Mackey.”
    Just then Miss Frieda came storming up the walk toward them. Her fists were balled up at the end of her big, stiff arms, and her shorts went swish, swish, swish as she came closer.
    T.J.’s eyes widened. “Uh-oh,” he said. “What’d I do now?”
    But Miss Frieda swished right past T.J. and Randall. She nearly knocked Althea plumb off her stilts. She stomped up the steps without even looking at Jaybird and banged on the Gilleys’ screen door.
    Mrs. Gilley came to the door wiping her hands on a dish towel. Before she could say anything, Miss Frieda said, “That gol-dern church has got some kinda