Four and Twenty Blackbirds Read Online Free PDF

more than the dozens of appraising eyes, all of which were pointed at me.
    "And then he what?" the lawyer pressed.
    My eyes lurched around the room and caught Dave, who flashed me a wink and a lopsided grin of sympathy. I sat up straighter. "Then he lifted up the gun and he started shooting at me."
    "What did you do?"
    "Well, mister—I ran like the devil knew my name."
    The defense attorney also asked me a round of questions about my early "episodes" in school, trying to convince the jury that I might have provoked the assault, or even imagined it. But my family's lawyer had bullets dug out of trees and rocks waiting in a sealed plastic bag, and the other guy couldn't much argue with those .
    I indignantly related the rest of my testimony while the defendant, Malachi Dufresne, sat dourly silent with his hands twisted into a pair of knobby fists. He never looked at me once. He never raised his eyes, not even when his great-aunt took the stand to tell the courtroom what a nice boy he was.
    She said it in a mellow accent that sounded like his.
    "He's such a good boy. Always has been. Ever since he was a small thing and his parents used to leave him at my home for the summers. He was always so kind to the horses. He's nothing but gentle. I'm sure there's some good reason he came after that child, or at least he thought he had a good reason. My poor nephew needs a doctor, not a prison. If y'all would just let me have him I could get him the best money can buy."
    Dave leaned over and whispered in Lulu's ear, mimicking the old woman's scratchy southern voice. "I'm filthy rich. Don't you dare send him to jail."
    Lulu nudged him in the ribs and whispered angrily, or maybe fearfully, back. "You stop that. She's got money enough to see it done." And she was right. When the end finally came a few weeks later, the man in charge of jurors' row announced that Malachi should go to a hospital to be evaluated.
    Dave shot to his feet, nearly jerking my arm off as he rose. "That's not enough!"
    The judge clapped his gavel down and pointed it at Dave's head. "Contain yourself, sir. It is my ruling that Malachi Dufresne be remanded to the Moccasin Bend mental health facility for psychological evaluation, and then he will be returned to court for sentencing in sixty days' time." He dropped the gavel again and stood.
    The rest of us rose too, and people began to mill about the courtroom, draining gradually through the exits like a congregation slipping out of church after services. A bailiff came to escort my assailant back into state custody. Lulu put an arm around my shoulder and guided me towards the aisle. "They'll keep him," she told me, squeezing me quickly. "They won't let him go for a long time. Don't worry."
    Just then the white-topped aunt came thrusting her elbows forward through the crowd. She knocked aside a middle-aged man talking to a boy about my age and did not even turn to acknowledge them. Instead she turned sideways to pass us by, glowering over her shoulder with chilly blue eyes. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but Lulu cut her off.
    "Keep on walking, Tatie."
    "I was just going to say—"
    "I said, keep on walking, Tatie Eliza. You will leave this child alone."
    The crone could not disregard the giantess Lulu, but she was not afraid of her. "Blood will tell," she said, her voice reeking with contempt. "That's all I was going to say."
    "And now you've said it, so you keep on moving."
    But the little old lady blocked our escape. She dropped her gaze from Lulu to me. Lulu tried to push me back behind her, but I wouldn't go. I wanted to look at this ancient matriarch who refused to stand aside.
    She wanted to look at me too. "They haven't told you, have they girl? Not half the truth, I bet they haven't."
    I shifted to dislodge myself from Lulu's sheltering grasp, but she wouldn't have it, so I stayed put whether I liked it or not. I craned my neck around her waist and inquired across the aisle. "What . . . what are