The Buried Book by D. M. Pulley Read Free Book Online Page B

we head on over after dinner tonight. I’ll buy you a beer. Lord knows I owe it.”
    “I don’t think he’s seen her, Wen.”
    Jasper pressed his eye to the knothole at the word her .
    “It won’t hurt to ask. Besides”—his father hoisted himself off the axle of the big green tractor—“we could both use a drink.”
    “What are you gonna tell him?”
    “Bradley? Not much . . .” He rubbed his face. “If he ain’t seen her, that’ll be it. Nothin’ else to say.”
    “No. I mean, what are you gonna tell the boy?”
    “Oh, he’ll be fine. Althea’s gonna turn up with her tail between her legs. She always does. Just can’t say when.”
    Uncle Leo pulled himself out from under the tractor and asked the question that had been plaguing Jasper for five days. “What if she doesn’t?”

CHAPTER 8
    Did he drink much? Ever lose his temper?
    It was past ten o’clock when Wayne and Jasper slipped out of the bedroom window, landing on the grass with two soft thumps.
    “Why are we doin’ this again?” Wayne hissed after they’d scuttled away from the house.
    “This Sheriff Bradley guy might know where my mom went.”
    “He isn’t gonna talk to you. He’s liable to just whip us both, or arrest us. The Tally Ho ain’t a place for kids.”
    They scrambled up the two-track drive and out onto the side of the road. The half-moon shone high overhead, lighting their way down Harris Road all the way to Route 25. Uncle Leo and Jasper’s dad had left about an hour before them.
    “You know where it is though, right?”
    “Yeah, it’s just up and around the corner.” Wayne stopped to light a cigarette with a wood match. “I still say this is nuts.”
    He handed it to Jasper. After the last experience, Jasper knew better than to inhale the smoke. Instead, he just sucked it into his mouth and blew the cloud out again. “I don’t want to go inside. I just want to see if we can hear anything.”
    “Alright, but like I told you, anybody sees us, it’s every man for himself. I’m gonna skin out, and I ain’t waiting for you. Got it?”
    Jasper nodded.
    They walked in silence for several minutes until Wayne finally asked, “Where do you think she went?”
    “I don’t know . . . somewhere, I guess.” He didn’t want to say his greatest fear aloud— she must be dead then. He also didn’t want to admit she’d disappeared before. She’d leave in the middle of the night, or sometimes she wouldn’t come home from work at all. But she’d always come back the next day. Her eyes would be red, her hair would be a mess, and she wouldn’t say a word about it. She’d just go to her room and fall asleep. His father would tell Mrs. Carbo that Jasper’s mother was sick or had to work late and ask her to watch him.
    Mrs. Carbo. He hadn’t thought much about the big round woman since he’d come to the farm, but he missed her. Her hands were tough and thick from kneading bread all day, and she smelled like stale cookies. She always had a smile for Jasper, but her eyes went sad whenever she looked at him too long. It made him worry there was something wrong with him. He would go quiet and avoid looking back at her. If he did, she might hug him in her big, suffocating arms until he wriggled free. Mrs. Carbo was probably wondering where he’d gone.
    Hundreds of stars gleamed overhead. It felt as though they were watching the two boys as they made their way toward the main road. If Jasper had been in a better mood, he would have stopped and stared back in wonder at them all. He’d never seen more than three stars at a time through the smog of the city. Even the moon looked brighter, a searchlight hanging over the dirt road.
    Wayne finished his cigarette and ground it under his boot. “You think she’ll come back?”
    “I don’t know.” Jasper shook his head. It had been only five days since he’d seen her, but it felt like years. “She’s never been gone this long.”
    In the past, after his mother would