On Emma's Bluff by Sara Elizabeth Rice, edited by davebccanada (comprehension books txt) 📖

black population. There was many a story of his narrow escape from a cuckold husband. Emma sometimes smiled to herself thinking about Eddy being such a 'ladies man'. After all to her knowledge he more often smelled of fish than not.

But the only smile she could offer this morning felt strained and forced on her lips. She kept walking across the road, down the bank, and through the trees to the river. The bank was covered in braided undergrowth and damp cypress. Emma kept to the muddy footpath that was narrow and slippery. She had not considered before just how close this path came to the river. She and Barbara Lee had played upon it as children, pulling down low hanging tree limbs to take turns catapulting each other over the murky waters of the Sunflower River. It seemed so much more ominous now.

Emma's pace was rhythmic and pounding like her heart. Her destination was cloudy. What she sought was a clearing of her mind. Had she or had she not encountered an old woman last night? Obviously not, at least not Viola Grace. Okay so what was the explanation? May be there were more than one old colored woman with the name Viola Grace. This did not seem likely. Maybe the old woman she had seen had been off her rocker and had just given her dead friend's name. This was more likely. Then again, she had never smoked a regular cigarette before much less marijuana. Maybe she was just hallucinating.

The gulps of air Emma found herself taking in did not seem to help focus her mind at all. When she finally rounded the bend of the path and could see the trestle before her she decided to turn back. For only the briefest moment did she stop, her hands on her knees, staring at the posts of the trestle breaking through the murky river water. Then she finally turned and started back toward her latest home. She never saw the brown upturned face that rose from beneath the surface of the river, like a dark moon. The face which no longer resembled life, yet with eyes still held in this world. These eyes followed Emma's retreat around the bend.

 

 

Chapter 3: part 2

Emma recognized the jeep just as soon as she turned the corner. It was Cindy. What was Cindy doing here?   For just the briefest moment Emma had forgotten the fine camaraderie she and Cindy had shared the night before. Then it all came back to mind.

"Gee, I guess I have a friend now," Emma realized.

"Well you young ladies today, just don't know how much nicer it was when girls looked like girls and.…" This was Liz's voice.

"So, look what the cat drug in," Cindy interrupted, racing the ten feet across the room to stand face to face with Emma. Her face conveyed a ‘get me out of here before your aunt drives me up a wall’ expression.

"As I was telling Cindy here, Emma, you young ladies don't know what you are missing. I mean there is nothing more attractive than a young girl in a pretty dress. No wonder you two don't have boyfriends."

"Ah, Aunt Liz," Emma started, ignoring the assertion her aunt had just made," I think Cindy came over to study."

"Lord no," Cindy refuted her, "On a Saturday? I thought Emma might need rescuing. I never see her hanging out at the Baptist's Teen Center on the weekend with everyone else."

"Yes, Emma, that would be a lovely thing for you to do. Get out and socialize." This brought a gleam to Liz's eyes.

Well that was that. She was stuck. Liz followed on Emma's heels as the two girls made their way to the jeep. "Now Cindy, why don't you go on and inform all the teenagers there that Roy and I would like to give a little bar-b-que party next Saturday night. I have been trying to get Emma to invite everyone over for a party, but you know how she is." When the three reached the jeep Liz proceeded to brush Emma's hair back from her face.

"Now darling, remember your posture. Don't be a slouch."

As they left her waving behind them Cindy looked over at Emma and said, "Lordy, you live with that everyday?"

"Oh, she's not so bad," Emma felt the need to defend, "she just thinks she knows what I need." Cindy's eyebrows shot up.

"And that would be...."

"Pop-u-lar," Emma said emphasizing each syllable to a ridiculous degree. This made them laugh.

"Here, you need some of this." Cindy pulled the twisted smoke from her sock.

 

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Well there was something about being high at the Baptist Teen Center on a Saturday afternoon that made Emma want to just giggle. There was a large group, mostly guys, playing volleyball on the inside court. Several others just sat up in the bleachers and watched. "What's that?" Emma asked eyeing two seniors hastily spinning knobs at a table.

"Foosball." Cindy answered incredulously. "They don't play foosball in Jackson?"

"They play video." Emma retorted finding the word vid-e-o to be a most comical sounding word. "E-O", she repeated.

"E-O", Cindy chimed back even louder.

Suddenly with the volleyball still in his hand, Bill Simmons was leaning over them. " He's sweating," was Emma's first thought. "Oh, and he is looking right at me."

"What's up with you guys, Cin, smoking a little...."

"Shhh, Bill, get back to your game. We will take care of you later." Cindy tossed back at him.

"Oh my god," was all Emma could say.

"Oh give it a rest, gee, Emma, he ain’t that great."

But Emma could not help but glance back over her shoulder at the court. There he was and there was Joy Hutchinson handing him a towel. "Oh, yuk, he is going to kiss her." Emma saw.

"Let's see if we can get a pool table." Cindy dragged Emma across the wide expanse and up a flight of stairs.

When it came to pool that Cindy really shined. She would hike herself up on one foot, her butt sticking up as she bent over the table to make her shot. This, of course, was too tempting for the teenage boys standing around also playing pool. They would act as if to pinch her and Cindy, in her bigger than life way, would squeal, and threaten and even chase some with her pool cue.

Emma merely stood back leaning on her pool cue watching. Her mind drifted somewhere off in left field, until her ears finally registered what Cindy was saying.

"Yeah, its gonna be real cool. Well you know she lives all the way at the end of that gravel road. I mean it's like make-out heaven down there."

"Oh gee." Emma realized that Cindy was inviting all these guys to the party her Aunt Liz had talked about. "Oh gee wiz."

"Isn't that right, Emma," Cindy was asking, "Maybe your Uncle Roy will let us take some of the boats out, huh?"

"Ahh, well I will have to ask him," Emma noticed that all the eyes were on her, "and sure, I bet he will." She smiled and then reminded herself, 'Stand up straight!'

They were just pulling out of the gravel parking lot when they heard a loud thump on the back of the jeep.

"Hey, you two, I thought you were going to take care of me later." Bill Simmons was leaning in the passenger side window.

"Oh yeah, just wanted to tell you about the big party at Emma's place next Saturday night. It's gonna be a blast." Cindy answered smacking her gum loudly in Emma's ear.

"A blast? The little city girl knows how to throw a blast. So there will be a keg?"

"Is that all you think about?" Cindy retorted.

"No, actually I think about...."

"Well do us a favor," Cindy interrupted him, "And don't bring Joy with you."

"Wha?"

"Just don't. What are you dumb?" With that said Cindy pealed out of the gravel leaving Bill just standing there.

Finally Emma said, "I think I am going to kill you."

"Well, can you hold off till after the party?"

When Emma walked into the house she heard her aunt call to her from the back porch. Reclining with her feet propped up under her on the glider, Liz was stirring a lemon into her iced tea. Emma could still hear Uncle Roy and the men working in the side yard.

"Have a seat, sugar." Her aunt smiled easily at her. " I've been considering making a trip to Memphis in the next couple of weeks. I was thinking it might be nice if you came along with me. We could shop for you some new school clothes and if we took off Friday and went, maybe even something pretty for the party." Well it seemed Liz was holding on tight to that party idea. It was going to happen.

Emma found that her face did light up with the idea of new clothes. Aunt Liz had come home on several occasions from shopping with Barbara Lee in Memphis with some little article of clothing for Emma. It was just that Emma had never been invited to come along.

"I figure we will get up to your closet sometime this weekend and take a look at what sort of pieces you need to really fill out your wardrobe. And a dress or two wouldn't hurt you."

Emma noticed how Liz's eyes danced with the thought of doing an ‘Emma make over’. This was the sort of activity Liz loved the best. To Liz, dressing her daughter and now her niece in the trendiest clothes of the season was her way of playing a grown up version of ‘dress up’. The pride she took in their appearance, Liz felt, reflected her own good taste and style. Emma had always considered her older cousin's attire to be a bit flashy, but she was willing to allow her aunt a chance to buy her some new clothes.

At once Liz was sitting up in the glider and opening magazines, Bazaar, Vogue. "Now look at this," Liz instructed, "I think you would look just darling with….”

 

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As Emma climbed the cedar stairs to her room later that evening, she noted how relaxed she once again felt here. She let her hand glide along the polished pine paneling, tracing the circles of the knots. Her bedroom was the only one located upstairs and she loved having the area to herself. Her ceiling was low and the sidewalls slanted down with the windows extending outward from the gables. Though the upstairs was actually partitioned into three rooms, she occupied the middle and the largest room.

As she rounded the landing on the stairs she noted absently smudges of what looked like mud on the paneling. "Now when did I do that," she wondered. "Better clean it up before Aunt Liz sees it." It was not until she was completely in her room that Emma noticed her bed. It was unmade and quite rumpled. She was certain she had made that bed this morning. Perhaps Aunt Liz had come up for a nap. But that seemed unlikely. Aunt Liz would never leave a bed like this. She went on and dismissed the idea and began to pull the sheets back from the bed. Emma's skin chilled as she realized the sheets were damp and streaked with mud and leaves.