The Rock Hole

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The Rock Hole Page 28

by Reavis Z. Wortham


  The fire was once again out when Cody finished. He knelt beside Hootie and gathered him in his arms. “Let’s go, little buddy. And remember, Hootie, Raymond got away.”

  ***

  Rain fell for days. For the first time in over twenty years, the Red River broke free of its banks and spread across the bottomlands, inundating Sanders Creek and submerging the Rock Hole under nearly ten feet of water. When the flood receded over a week later, the bank was as pristine as the day the first Indians found the deep hole.

  The flood completely obliterated Raymond’s grave, rendering it impossible to tell the young tree hadn’t grown there from an acorn. It was as if the good Lord swept his hand across the creek bank to forever seal their secrets from prying eyes.

  Chapter Forty-five

  I was good as new when Grandpa’s term as constable ran out. He didn’t run again. Folks had finally quit talking about the flood and Raymond Chase, and went to talking about Uncle Cody and Norma. Her divorce from Calvin finally came through and she married Uncle Cody. After the ceremony, they climbed on a plane at Love Field in Dallas and flew to Las Vegas.

  The new constable took office when he came back from his Vegas honeymoon.

  The FBI finally gave up and left when they couldn’t find hide nor hair of Raymond Chase. They worked on me and Pepper pretty hard, but for all they knew, we told everything that happened. I don’t mean they weren’t suspicious. Those old boys knew the truth and a couple of kids weren’t going to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. But they never got us to say what they wanted to hear, because either Grandpa or Mr. O.C. kept a tight rein on our answers.

  Cody’s name never came up at all, and they never knew what happened that night, because Uncle James carried him up to our house the morning after Raymond took us. Cody kept apologizing as soon as he got out of the car about not being there because, truthfully, the flood covered the Sanders Creek Bridge and folks had to drive clear around to Forest Chapel to come in the back way.

  He had Hootie with him and told how he’d found him walking down the highway. “He must have run off in all the excitement.”

  I broke down and cried and cried when he jumped up on the bed with me the next morning. I’d seen Raymond kill him, but when he licked my face, everything seemed like a horrible nightmare.

  It was funny. The FBI never did ask Miss Becky any questions about that night. If they had, she wouldn’t have lied, because she’s not like that, and they’d have gotten everything they wanted.

  Pepper went through a long, hard spell. For a while she wasn’t herself and didn’t have much to do with anyone. From time to time Miss Becky would find her standing in front of the dresser mirror, looking over her shoulder at the scar shaped like an arrowhead.

  A year later Pepper and I decided to finally go swimming at the Rock Hole with Uncle Cody. I found her in her bathing suit just before we left, looking at the scar in the mirror again.

  For some reason it seemed like the time to ask what Raymond whispered in her ear that night. Staring at her scar, I just had to know. “He said some things to me that I didn’t understand, about rain and looking inside things. He was gonna brand me, too. That feller was nuts.”

  She wouldn’t give me a straight answer and didn’t take her eyes off the mirror. “You ain’t a-woofin’. He was talking nasty and saying other stuff too, about everything being full of Irish ’taters. Full of ’taters. Shitfire, that man was crazy. If I’d remembered my knife that night I’da cut Raymond’s throat and this never would have happened.”

  But it did happen, and now it’s over except for our scars, inside and out.

  Today Grandpa and I went down to the river, and the water was flowing calm, strong and thick, but I knew that depending on her mood, the Red can turn mean. That old river has a hold on us and is part of who we are. These bottoms are our home, and we take care of ourselves here.

  You see, we’re from up on the River.

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  Table of Contents

  Contents

  Dedication

  Author Note

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Chapter Forty-five

  More from this Author

  Contact Us

 

 

 


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