Optical Delusions in Deadwood Read Online Free PDF Page B

marrying Kelly’s dad. Get that through your head right now.”

          “She’s never marrying anyone.” Layne faced down his sister with me, standing shoulder to my ribcage. “Right, Mom?”

          Well, I wouldn’t go that far.

          “But I need stuff.” Addy’s whine made my lower back tighten.

          “Like what?”

          “Candy.”

          “You have plenty of candy.” I didn’t even know where she found half of it. I swore there was a candy fairy who stopped by Addy’s pillow nightly.

          “School clothes.”

          “Your stuff from last year still fits fine.”

          “A new bicycle.”

          “Your bike has a couple of broken spokes; that’s no big deal.”

          “Some glasses.”

          “Your gl—what?” Glasses? “What makes you think you need glasses?”

          “The eye chart back by the pharmacy at Piggly Wiggly. When I stand behind the red line like the instructions say, I can’t read the bottom three lines.”

          “Really?” At her nod, I sighed. This wasn’t going to be cheap. With no vision insurance to help me cover costs, I was probably looking at shelling out close to five hundred bucks.

          “If you had a husband, you could afford me better,” Addy explained.

          That stung clear down to my toes. “Sweetheart, I can afford you just fine without a husband,” I lied.

          If only I had some kind of child support coming in from the kids’ father. But as soon as he’d heard I was pregnant, he’d hightailed it out of town never to be heard from again. Such was my luck with men since I started stuffing my bra and wearing lipstick back in eleventh grade.

          I could borrow money from my parents or Aunt Zoe—again—to pay for the glasses, but I was tired of mooching off family.

          As soon as my commission from Doc’s house purchase came in, I’d have a bit of cash to refill my bank account’s sparse coffers, but I had other bills to pay, too. Plus, Layne’s toes were beginning to push out through both pairs of his tennis shoes. I couldn’t expect him to wear his big snow boots to school every day. He’d be the laughing stock of the school.

          Sheesh! I had to get some fresh air before I cowered in the corner, hyperventilating. I gulped down the rest of my lemonade and set the glass on the counter.

          “Don’t worry, honey.” I squeezed Addy’s chin as I passed. “I’ll take care of everything. See you guys tonight.”

          Ignoring the concern creasing Aunt Zoe’s mouth, I kissed her cheek and practically ran out the front door.

          I needed to find where money was growing on trees around here, and fast.

          But with my luck, I’d discover a foot or hand hanging on the tree with it.

           

          * * *

           

          I found the money tree.

          It was sitting next to the Carhart house, which shined with Gothic-Revival-style finery, from its steeply pitched roof and even steeper cross gables and point-arched windows. While it could use a coat of paint, if the inside was in as good a shape as the outside, this place would have buyers reaching for their checkbooks.

          There was just one tiny problem.

          Well, maybe not so tiny.

          The house overlooked one of Lead’s current claims to fame—the remnants of Homestake Mining Company’s vast open-cut gold mine.

          The huge hole in the ground had always struck me as odd, not due to its manmade immensity but rather the way it seemed plunked in the middle of the small town, located at the corner of Main Street and Gold as if that were perfectly normal.

          The Open Cut’s edge was not a hundred feet from the Carharts’ side porch. An eight-foot chain-link fence topped with razor wire acted as the dividing line between land and no man’s land.