Billy Read Online Free PDF Page A

him to."
    Lori reached and got another cigarette and lit it, then watched the smoke float up through the tall grass and make its own little clouds above her head. She thinks of her brother David, can see his image · coming into the s moke, can see his rough ways, his cussin all the time, Mama y ellin at him, and that Kathy Weaver with them wimpy wa y s always big-e y ein him, looking like she's ready to cry all the time. "He ain't marryi n her. She's too ugly for David to be marryin. " Lori shouts, then pouts, "She is seventeen already and her boob s ain't as big as mine y et. She goin to be flat-chested just lik e some old bare wall. Besides, David'd drive her crazy. He ain ' t ready for no wife, especially her. Havin kids lookin lik e comic-book pictures. He ' s just     Jenny was a pretty girl. Although a year y ounger than Lori , she was a little taller, had slender ways about her, had a wa y of smiling wi th her eyes as she did when she heard Lori say ing, "Jenny, if I tell you something, you s wear not to tell nobody, ever?" Jenny sits up, scoots closer to Lori, and whi s pers, "What, Lori?" "You got to swear first. You got to sw e a r before I tell you," Lori demands. Jenn y whispers, "I ain ' t goin to tell nobody. I won't tell, I promise." Th e n sh e j e rk s her head and looks away.
    "Lori, Lori," Jenny whispers sharply, tug s at Lori's leg, and whispers again, "Lori , Lori, look down at the pond. Look, someone coming. Look , see?" Lori sits up and brushes th e hair from her eyes, then looks down through th e tall gra ss to where she can see the bluish-gr ee n waters of th e pond. S h e
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    looks for a moment, then says to Jenny, "Girl, ain't nobody over there."
    "Them niggers." Jenny's whisper almost burst into a yell, she poi nts, lowers her voice, saying, "See, see comin in them bushes, see em? See em now, see em?" Lori's eyes widen, she can see the shadowy colored heads and arms wiggli ng through the green bushes on the other side of the pond. She blurts out, "Shit, what they doin down there?," then stills her self and watches the dark figures come into the clearing of the pond.
    "Them just two little boys," Jenny says, sighing. Lori's face tightens, she whispers harshly, "I don't want them around here. That's my pond and I don't want their nigger asses in it." Jenny smiles and whispers to Lori, "Ya want to c hase em?" Lori has a bigger smile on her face as she leans towards Jenny and whispers in her ear, "Let's sneak up and catch em, you want to do that? We can sneak around and get in them trees, then come in the bushes behi nd em, then we can get em."
    Lori had hunted with her brothers, snuck around and chased rabbits their way, followed them after coon and fox, kept up with them too. She could sit as still as a stone, just wai ting till that squirrel'd stick his head around that tre e trunk . She tiptoes through the bushes and small trees. From time to time, she stops and listens lo the sounds coming from the pond, then sneaks on. Jenny follows, but not as quiet. "Shish, shish. You want to sca r e em away? Shish," Lori whis per s . The splashing sounds and boyish shouts are louder now. Lori is crouched and peering through the bushes. Jenn y creeps up behind her. "What ya gonna do with em when we ca t ch em?" she ask. " Hush," Lori whispers over her shoul-
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    der, then hisses, "Look at em, look at em. Got their nigger asses in my pond. Just wait till I catch em ."
    Billy had darted from the bushes and ran towards the pond .
    "Come on, Gumpy, come on. Ya still scared? Ain't nobod y's here, see. What ya scared for? Theys come, theys can'ts catch us. We can runs back the ways we came. Ya chicken, ya still be afraid." Billy yells back to Gumpy, then scampers up to the water's edge. The pondwaters ripple gently, although the y seem still, not moving at all in the center.