Long Holler Road - A Dark Southern Thriller Read Online Free PDF

had once had about hunting, fishing and football changed dramatically. Now all they wanted to talk about was the last time they’d been to Madge’s or what they were going to do the next time they went. Or hoping one day they would be able to find a steady girl who was as much fun as Madge.
      The fact that Madge was married didn’t slow her down one bit. That’s right, Madge was a married woman. Her husband, Carl, was gone a lot, but you didn’t have to worry about him showing up unexpectedly. He welcomed the young boys, or men, or whoever wanted to come. He got some kind of twisted pleasure out of watching old Madge and other men. The few boys I knew that were adventurous enough to visit Madge when Carl was home, said he would take pictures of Madge and the boys. He would even tell them what positions to pose in and whether or not to smile. Like he was some kind of photographer for one of those erotic magazines.
      When they had finished their business, Carl would make them hang around and drink a few beers, or maybe have Madge fix them all something to eat. They said Madge was a hell of a good cook, besides her other obvious talents.
      Given the circumstances, you might think Carl was abusive and treated Madge badly, but you’d be wrong. Carl doted on that woman like you can’t believe. He was always bringing her gifts when he’d come home from one of his many trips. And I don’t mean little knick-knacks either. I’m talking expensive gifts, like jewelry and even a new car about twice a year. Nice cars too. Carl was supposedly a truck driver, or something, but the truth was, nobody knew exactly what he did. Whatever it was, it had to have paid well.
      Of course some of the Old Guard in Long Hollow had their suspicions about Carl’s money. There are always those who believe anyone who is doing better than them financially must be doing it through some nefarious way like bootlegging or bank robbing or something even darker. Especially when they were transplants like Carl and Madge. They had only moved to Long Hollow about ten years before. But try as they might, they couldn’t find anything out of the way about Carl’s business. Neither could the sheriff, who was as big of a busy-body as the rest of them. The harder they tried to expose him as a gangster or even the devil himself, the more he’d kill them with kindness by giving a big chunk of money to one of the churches or bringing someone in need a weeks worth of groceries. He even gave most of the money to have our courthouse remodeled.
      The next night after our bountiful fishing trip, me and Glenn were once again at our usual spot at the cemetery. Out of nowhere, Glenn told me he believed the perfect way for us to cure ourselves of our fear of girls our own age would be a visit to Madge’s house. He deemed fifteen years old to be the appropriate age for such an endeavor, and since his fifteenth birthday was only two weeks away, we should start making plans.
      “But I won’t be fifteen ‘til February, Glenn,” I reminded him.
      “That’s okay,” he said. “You’ll be with me and I’ll be fifteen. It will be sort of like havin’ a learners permit to drive a car. As long as you’re with somebody whose got a license, you’re alright.”
      Well, that made perfect sense to me. Apparently Glenn had given this a lot of thought. The one thing he hadn’t accounted for, however, was the cost of the ass transplants we’d need once our parents finished wearing ours out. And they would find out. They always did. Nell Fuller lived right on the corner of Long Hollow road and the old grist mill road that you turned on to get to Madge’s house and she didn’t miss anything, day or night. Glenn, always the believer in the super-natural, said she had some sort of special seeing powers, like a witch or something. When I told him of my concerns he scoffed at me for having no imagination whatsoever.
      “We don’t have to walk up the road, you