That Night at the Palace by L.D. Watson Read Free Book Online

merchants. As a result the boys started their day at eight in the morning at Washington’s Feed Store sweeping and stacking sacks of feed. Then they went to McMillan’s store where they swept floors and stocked shelves. Washington gave them five cents each but from McMillan they didn’t get any cash but they got two RC’s each a day and a Moon Pie each. George Henry McMillan, who had spent his entire life in the mercantile business, often remarked that he had never had to negotiate so long or so hard as he did with Cliff Tidwell, especially for a service that he really didn’t want or need.
    Nevertheless, the two boys spent their mornings working at McMillan’s then would make their way down Main Street with ice-cold RC’s in hand and usually a Moon Pie or some peanuts. Generally by mid-morning they would meet up with Jewel, who spent the morning doing chores for her mother before joining the boys on the curb across from Anna-Ruth’s.
    “What are we goin’ to do today?” Jewel asked as if they were loaded with options.
    “We can go fishin’.” Cliff replied as if it was an entirely fresh idea.
    Jewel rolled her eyes. “How long’s it been since the last time one of you caught a fish?”
    Cliff and Jesse looked at each other and shrugged. “A couple of weeks.”
    “You know why?”
    The two boys looked at one another and again shrugged.
    “You two are morons. It’s too hot. They don’t bite when it’s hot. Even I know that. If you went in the mornin’ you might get somethin’, but not now,” Jewel replied somewhat smugly.
    “We gotta work in the mornin’s. Otherwise we couldn’t buy the RC’s.” Jesse responded.
    Jewel shook her head, “I know you have to work, and I appreciate you bringing me a RC every day. I’m just sayin’ that it’s dumb to go try to catch a fish every afternoon when there isn’t a chance on God’s green earth that you’re gonna catch one.”
    “Yeah, I know. It’s kind of like us sittin’ here every day when we know good and well that Romeo’s not going to go over there and talk to Gemma Crawford,” Cliff joked, causing Jewel to laugh so hard soda came out her nose.
    “Sorry, Jesse,” she said once she regained control.
    Jesse scowled at the two, “So what else is there to do besides fishin’?”
    Cliff took a long sip of RC. “You guys want to go see a ghost town?”
    Both Jewel and Jesse perked up.
    “What ghost town?” Jesse asked, somewhat suspicious.
    “There’s a ghost town north of the highway.”
    Jesse and Jewel looked at one another and laughed.
    “Honestly,” Cliff argued, “My pa told me about it. Back in the old days there was a mining town called New Birmingham.”
    “What did they mine around here?” Jesse asked, sure Cliff was pulling one of his stunts.
    “I think it was iron ore.”
    “So what happened to it?” Jewel asked, becoming convinced.
    “Pa said that the ore played out.”
    Jewel’s smile grew wide with excitement. “How long will it take us to get there?”
    “I don’t know, an hour or two. We follow the tracks to where they curve by the shantytown and then follow that old road ‘til it plays out.”
    “My mom doesn’t want me to go out by the shantytown.” Jesse interjected, looking for a way out of following Cliff on another one of his adventures.
    “We’ll cut through the woods?”
    #
    Southern Hotel,
    New Birmingham, Texas
    June 26, 1936
    Darnell “Shakes” Blankenship was two weeks and a day past his thirty-seventh birthday when he moved into his “summer home” in the Southern Hotel in New Birmingham, Texas. The Southern was a fine hotel in its day, but unfortunately it had fallen into some disrepair as of late. The roof, for example, had fallen in twenty or thirty years prior, and the three floors of guest rooms had long since collapsed into the lobby, leaving an enormous hole. Shakes liked to think of it as his own private solarium. His room was what he assumed had previously been a kitchen behind