August Moon Read Online Free PDF Page A

just fine until Mr. Johnny Leeson ditched you like a deer carcass. Don’t you know you’re not ever supposed to do anything just because of a man? Don’t stay for a man, don’t leave for a man. You make your decisions for yourself. Chickenshit.”
    I sighed. The door opened, saving me from a chickenshit reply. In walked a woman whose attitude was certainly in its fifties if she was not. Her gray-flecked hair was noosed back in a severe bun, her scraggly eyebrows shot out from her horn-rimmed, bechained glasses, and her nose spread out in an effort to slow its descent into the colorless razor-cut where her lips should have been. Her blouse was gray, as was the sweater tied over her shoulders, the shapeless pencil skirt covering her bony lower body, and her support hose. The only flashes of color were her black, orthopedic shoes. She apparently had not gotten the memo that librarians were cool.
    “You hire her, girl, and I’ll make her life a living hell.”
    I believed Mrs. Berns, and I believed it when she said it before, during, and after the next two interviews, one with a statuesque former ballerina who could no longer dance due to a toe injury, and the other with a shiny-faced boy fresh out of grad school. The spitballs she lobbed at them along with the fake cat turd she pretended to slip on while I interviewed each (“Ouch, my hip!”) cemented their lack of interest in the job. When the fourth woman walked in at noon, I was frazzled, frustrated, and not optimistic. This candidate looked like a brown-haired Shelley Long, circa Cheers , with good posture and a bad perm, and in her early forties. She struck me as one of those women who was so pleasant and average as to be almost invisible. Her name was Sarah Ruth O’Hanlon, and according to her résumé, she had ten years experience as an assistant librarian in the St. Cloud Regional Library system.
    When she shook my hand, her grip was firm and dry. “Welcome to our library,” I said. My eyes furtively scanned the room for Mrs. Berns, who had gone AWOL when she saw Sarah Ruth enter. Lucy was behind the front desk checking out books, a happy smile on her face.
    “Thank you. It’s lovely, as is this town. I appreciate your time.”
    When Mrs. Berns leapt up from behind the giant green dinosaur in the kids’ reading section and popped a couple caps with her fake gun, followed by a hoot, a holler, and a thunderous fart, Sarah Ruth didn’t flinch. “You’re hired,” I said.
    “What?”
    “Your résumé looks impeccable, and the job starts immediately. Are you interested?”
    “Well, I, ah, I guess.” She smiled at me, a little frown line between her eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want to call my references?”
    “Do you think you’d be okay living in Battle Lake?”
    “I imagine so. I grew up in a small town, and I have family here.” She nodded at me, convincing herself as she spoke. “I think I’d love it.”
    “That’s all the reference I need.” I smiled on the outside. “Can you start training on Monday? I’ll stay around for two weeks to show you the ropes, and then you’d take over.”
    “And what will you do after the two weeks are up?”
    I blinked, one eye closing sooner than the other. “I’m moving back to the Cities. I just came here to housesit for a friend for a couple months, and I think my time is up. I’m getting someone else in town to take over her house September first, so I can pick my life up where it left off.” Alone, living in a dreary apartment on a depressing street, drinking too much, and cutting classes. My nose started to run, so I sniffed and held out my hand. “See you Monday?”
    Sarah Ruth gripped my proffered hand warmly, and rested her free one over it. “I’m excited to start, but sad that it means you’ll be leaving. I think you and I would get along great, Ms. James.” I became aware of a tiny silver crucifix on her neck, a miniature version of the one Alicia Meale had been wearing this