Jack In The Green Read Online Free PDF

the light. Across the yard, a small sea of glass pebbles shimmers between the wash where they stand and the bottle man's shack.
    Even after all these years Maria is pretty sure she remembers the general area where the tin would be—if it's still there—but she needs to gather up her nerve to actually enter the yard to look for it. She takes a breath, but before she can take that first step, Jack puts a hand on her arm.
    "Wait," he says. "I've seen places like this before. Well, not exactly like this . The ones in the green wood were mostly stoneworks, half covered by forest growth. But this feels the same."
    "How so?"
    "Prickly. Full of magic. Protective magic. We should ask permission before we enter."
    Maria bites her lip. She doesn't like this place any more than she did the last time she came.
    They hear a soft scuff in the dirt behind them.
    "I was wondering when one of you would show up," a gravely voice says.
    Maria turns to find a stranger standing on the bank of the wash. He's an old man wearing raggedy cotton trousers and a flimsy grey T-shirt that is so tattered and faded, its logo is no longer recognizable. His hair is grey, too, and hangs in long thin ropes on either side of his dark brown face. It flows down his back like strands of mistletoe falling from the branches of a palo verde tree. He has more wrinkles than sun-baked mud, and his eyes are so dark they seem black. His mouth is a straight line, neither smiling nor frowning.
    This can only be the bottle witch.
    Maria starts to say something, but her throat has gone completely dry. Jack gives her fingers a light squeeze.
    "Wh-what do you mean?" she finally croaks.
    "Did you really think I wouldn't know when something new is added to my collection?" the bottle man says. "The only reason I let it remain is that I like the taste of your magic." He runs his tongue over his lips and leers at Maria.
    "Can I please get it back?" she asks. "I need it to help my friend."
    "What if I say no? Did you bring these caballeros to make sure you get your way? To keep you safe from me?"
    "Oh no," Maria says.
    "Why?" the bottle man says, edging closer so that she can smell his foul body odor. "Don't you think I'm dangerous?"
    Maria feels like she's stepped into quicksand. That no matter what she says, she will sink.
    "Everybody knows not to bother you," she tells him. "My friend and I meant you no harm when we buried the tin box here, and I mean you no harm now. I only came to get it back."
     "And why should I trust you—an intruder who travels with a pack of foreign foxes?"
    Maria can only stare at the bottle man in confusion.
    "I'm not sure what you mean," she says.
    "He means he can smell the green wood in us," Jack says.
    "And," Ti Jean adds, stepping up beside them, "he's working up to telling you what he wants in trade for having stored that box of yours for all these years."
    The bottle man nods toward Ti Jean and a slow smile creeps across his face. His whole body seems to vibrate with anticipation.
    "But I don't have anything to trade," Maria says.
    "That's not true." Jack says, "but what you have, I won't allow him to take. Neither your body nor your soul."
    The bottle man spits on the ground and scowls at Jack. "She's not yours to bargain with, fox."
    He turns back to Maria, the smile returning. "Come inside. I merely want one night with you and then you can take the box."
    Maria cringes in horror. "Never," she says.
    Jack put his arm around her shoulders and juts his chin toward the bottle man. "You heard her. So why don't we wager, you and I? Some contest of skill to decide how this will go."
    The bottle man shakes his head. "I know a marksman when I see him. I don't have such skills."
    "Then appoint a proxy."
    The bottle man shakes his head again. "I have a better wager. Tell me my name in three guesses or less and you can have that box. If not, it stays with me."
    He looks at Maria and licks his lips again. "Unless you'd like to change your mind, chica