Phantom of Riverside Park Read Online Free PDF

Woolworth’s Five and Dime and bought a
little medallion of ivory lace for a nickel. Sewed it in the center
of the bodice, right over my heart. Two weeks later I walked down
the aisle at First Baptist sweating like a horse, but Thomas said I
was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen. That was good enough for
me.”
    “Where did he get the curtains, Mae Mae?”
    “I never asked and he never said. Don’t ever
look a gift horse in the mouth, Elizabeth.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you’re liable to get bit.”
    Nicky finished his doughnut and the screen
door banged shut behind him as he raced toward his tire swing. It
was attached to the only tree that had the audacity to grow in
their neighborhood, a spindly sweet gum that clung stubbornly to
the red clay soil beside their back door.
    “Come push, Papa,” Nicky yelled.
    “As soon as I wash the dishes. And don’t you
go doing anything foolish like trying to climb that tree till I get
there. If you do I’ll skin your hide.”
    Nicky giggled, and so did Elizabeth. Her son
didn’t believe Papa any more than she had when she was four years
old. With his competitors and business associates he was tough as
nails, but when it came to his grandchild, he was all bluster and
no bite.
    There’d been that time in January when
Elizabeth had defied Papa’s and Mae Mae’s orders and gone wading in
the icy pond behind the barn. She’d stepped into a hole and
wondered whether she’d be dead by drowning before she froze to
death. Then all of a sudden she decided she was too young and too
mean to die, and she’d finally floundered backward to the safety of
the pool bank.
    “I’m going to skin your hide,” Papa had said,
then he’d built a big fire, wrapped her in towels and sat in a
rocking chair holding her till she quit crying.
    Mae Mae was mad as an old wet hen. “I
declare, Thomas Jennings, you’re too soft when it comes to
her.”
    “Now, Lola Mae, she was just trying out the
boots Santy Claus brought her.”
    He hummed “I Dream of Jeanie with the Light
Brown Hair” while the rockers squeaked on the worn oak floor, and
Elizabeth knew, even then, that as long as she had Papa nothing bad
could happen to her.
    “You let her get away with murder,
Thomas.”
    He hadn’t, though. It was her grandfather who
had taught her thrift and responsibility. And honesty.
    The only time he’d ever been really angry at
her was the Sunday she’d kept the quarter he’d given her for the
Sunday School collection plate so she could buy some candy for
herself. When Papa discovered the stashed loot, he’d made her sit
in the corner and think about what she’d done.
    “You don’t take what doesn’t belong to you,
Elizabeth, and that quarter belongs to God.”
    Since nobody had ever told her Heaven had
five and dime stores, she’d wondered what in the world God was
going to do with her quarter. But she hadn’t wondered aloud so Papa
could hear.
    He was as tough on blasphemers as he was on
thieves.
    The check in her pocket felt like stolen
goods. Elizabeth set it down where it put out roots and sprouted
tentacles that covered the whole kitchen table. Something ripped
inside her, and she was split into equal parts of fear and
hope.
    “I guess I know what you’re thinking,” Papa
said.
    “I guess you do.”
    Neither of them had to say more. It was Nicky
they were thinking of, Nicky with the sunny personality and the
sweet disposition, Nicky with the bright smile and the questing
mind, Nicky with the cherub’s face and the monstrous upper lip from
surgery gone wrong.
    Through the back door came squeals of
laughter. How long would that last after Nicky started
kindergarten? How long before that single incident of bullying in
the park became such a part of his life that he started believing
he was the monster other children labeled him?
    “You could have his surgery done just like
that.”
    Papa snapped his fingers, and the sound
exploded like firecrackers in the room.
    They stared at