Virgin Soul by Judy Juanita Read Free Book Online Page A

tell them they can kiss it where it’s red and bitter. Ain’t no problem getting off the phone after that.”
    Allwood let out a hearty laugh, far from his snide whistle. He continued laughing while he spread his long legs out in her tiny living room. He didn’t realize what a different signal he was sending her. When the cousins came, we did hit and run: hit the kitchen; run some green under the sugar bowl; split. But Allwood and Goosey hit it off like a ball and bat. Knowing Allwood was there to swing the bat, she threw more curveballs.
    â€œOla say you two keeping company,” she said, with more of a question mark on her face than in her voice.
    â€œWe’ve been seeing a little bit of each other, yes I’d say,” Allwood said.
    â€œDo you live at home with your parents?”
    He nodded vigorously. “Home, nowhere else,” he said, slapping his knee. “I like my own bed, my own bedroom, in fact, my own house.”
    â€œWell, there you go. You know they used to call me a nervous Nellie, I was such a hard one to sleep next to.”
    I started to say that’s not what he meant but had to consider maybe that was exactly what he meant.
    â€œNobody sleeps in my bed but me so nobody to please but me.” Goosey got up and started toward the bedroom, laughing. “A bird don’t dirty his own nest. Why should I?”
    Allwood started looking at the pictures on her mantel.
    â€œAre you looking for me?” I asked.
    â€œI saw you when I first sat down,” he said, pointing to my high school graduation picture. “I want to see what you looked like when you were little.”
    â€œI got you some here.” Goosey hobbled back in with pictures and her letters.
    She showed him the one with me howling my head off. The boy was getting RBIs without even looking.
    â€œThat Niecy’s like a cat: hates to get her feet muddy and don’t like rain.” Allwood studied the picture and turned to me. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”
    â€œYou couldn’t tell?” I was surprised.
    He shook his head.
    For Goosey this illustrated everything about men. She started clapping her hands and sat on the sofa between us, too through.
    â€œDidn’t I tell you? Boys get hog wild and pigtail crazy. Can’t see but one thing. I was a girl, few years older than Niecy in that picture, and there was this boy lived down the way from me. We couldn’t been but twelve and thirteen. He used to tell me he had a frog in his bedroom and didn’t I want to see his frog. Well, after he had gone on bout this frog every day, I wanted to see it. But I never went to his house, even though he come play at mine. Folks strict like that back then about girls.
    â€œOne day, he came up to me in the school yard and said he had the frog. But he couldn’t take it out or else somebody might try to kill it. He said if I promised not to tell anybody about it, I could feel it. So I put my hand in his pocket and, sure enough, I felt his frog jump when I touched it. After that, every day, he would call me over and let me touch it.”
    Goosey edged up on the sofa cushion.
    â€œIt happened this one afternoon, we were walking home from school and we stopped by the creek. I told him he needed to let that frog go. I didn’t think I could keep the secret any longer, and I didn’t want the frog to get kilt. That’s when he told me, ‘Lindella, you got a little frog too.’ And he pressed my underdrawers till he found my little frog, and showed me how to make it jump. So then we played frog every day until he asked me, ‘Lindella, can my little frog come over and visit with your little frog?’
I didn’t see it was any different from plain visiting. Then my grannie saw one day that my stomach was hard and poked out and she said, ‘Come here, Lindella June, let me examine you.’ They found out that I was pregnant. But I hadn’t