The Devil You Know Read Online Free PDF

helped to make. She hoped one day to be as good a cook as Grandma.
    After the groceries were put away, Ginny shucked corn for that night’s dinner while Debby smoked in the rocking chair and read a People magazine. Some cars pulled into the lot next door: a red pickup and a silver SUV. The cabin had been rented to lots of different people over the years. Ginny remembered the time the boy with the curly blonde hair had been staying there. He looked like a cherub off a valentine and Ginny had chased him around all weekend playing kissing tag. But these people were all grownups, men with beards and ladies in tight jeans. Mama sat up straighter in her seat and pulled her sweater around her neck. “Hey, I think I know that guy…is that Ed?” She stood up and squinted. “Ed?” she said in a sort of half-yell.
    The man with the biggest beard looked over. He squinted too. “Debby Dunn—is that you?”
    â€œOh my god, I don’t believe it!” Her mother squealed like she only did around boys, and jumped off the porch. Ed bounded across the yard and picked Ginny’s mother up like a sack of potatoes, while she kicked her legs and screamed. He put her down and they hugged.
    â€œWhat are you doing up here?” Debby asked.
    â€œOh, just came up for some hunting with a few friends. I remembered when we booked the place that your folks had a place up here somewheres, but I didn’t think I’d be right beside it.”
    â€œWhat are the odds, huh?”
    â€œSo, your folks are still keeping this place up?”
    Debby nodded. “Still driving me nuts too.”
    â€œWell, what have you been up to all these years?” he asked.
    â€œOh, honey, that’s an awful long story.”
    â€œWell, listen, why don’t you come over tonight for a few beers, tell me all about the last ten years or so?”
    â€œMan, I would love to.”
    â€œAll right then. C’mon over after supper and we’ll tip a few.” He wandered back over to his cabin, where a cooler was already set up on the porch.
    â€œWho was that?” Ginny asked.
    â€œOh, just an old friend from high school,” said Debby. She looked at Ginny as if just remembering that she was there. “Sorry I didn’t introduce you, baby.”
    â€œIt’s okay.”
    â€œI will next time, yeah? Here—you wanna read my magazine? I’m going to take a shower.”
    That night, Ginny couldn’t sleep. The back bedroom was cold and the little wrought-iron bed felt strange without her mother in it to cuddle her and keep her warm. She could hear country music coming from the cabin next door and wondered when Mama would be home.
    When Mama was getting ready to leave after supper, Grandma had told her that the last thing she needed was to get mixed up with another bum. Mama had told her to mind her own business and that it was wrong to judge people Grandma hadn’t even heard tell of in ten years. Grandpa had taken Ginny by the shoulder and steered her out to the porch, where they had played a few rounds of Go Fish and tried to ignore the shouting and the slamming door.
    Ginny crept out of bed and opened the garbage bag with her teddy bears in it. She pulled out Mr. Oatmeal and Floppy Dog and set them on the bed. Then she dug to the bottom of the bag and felt around for the compact rectangle that was her deck of cards. She climbed back into bed and slid the cards under the pillow, but kept her hand curled tightly around them. She thought about how she would surprise her mother by being awake when she came home, and she lay on her side and looked at her teddies and tried not to close her eyes, but she did close them just for a minute and when she opened them again, it was light in the room and she heard the coffee percolator going and Grandma scuffing around in her slippers, and Ginny was still alone in the bed.
    In the kitchen, Grandpa sat at the table with a plate of fried eggs.