Blossom Promise Read Online Free

a double accusation—she made Michael feel bad for giving the answer and Vern for somehow inspiring it.
    “Michael,” his mother prompted.
    She took off her glasses. This was even more ominous. Vern felt she could see directly into their minds without the protective tinted glass.
    Slowly Michael brought the paddle out from behind his back.
    “That’s the paddle to your father’s pontoon boat, isn’t it?”
    “Yes.”
    “What were you planning to do with it?”
    Both of the boys were watching the floor now. Michael did not answer.
    “Look at me, Michael.”
    Vern was glad he didn’t have to look at her. Even if she had demanded that he do so, he wasn’t sure he could.
    “You boys were not planning to put your father’s boat in the creek, were you?” There was genuine horror in her voice now.
    “No, ma’am!” Michael said emphatically. He met his mother’s look with equal horror. His voice rose with shock and relief. “Dad told us never to use the boat without him.”
    “Yes, but—”
    “I would never take the boat without permission. I promise. I only wanted the paddle. Mom, that’s the truth. I would never—”
    “I believe you, Michael.”
    There was another silence. Vern waited, shoulders hunched tensely for the next question. It would be, “Then what were you going to do with the paddle?”
    When Michael answered it—and Michael didn’t lie to his mother—then the trip down the river would be over. Michael would not be allowed to go, and neither would he.
    Michael’s mother often said, “Now, Vern, your mother would not want you to do that.” Vern had stopped saying, “She doesn’t care what I do, Mrs. McMann! Honest!” because that answer seemed especially displeasing.
    “Vern,” Michael’s mother said.
    Vern shut his eyes. His shoulders got ready to take a hard blow.
    “What have you got behind your back?”
    “Me?”
    He looked up, as surprised by his question as Michael had been.
    “Yes.”
    Vern brought out a can of Mello Yellow. He had instinctively hidden it because he and Michael were going to use it to christen the raft. Vern knew Michael’s mother would somehow sense that this was not just a normal can of pop, that it was going to be used for something she would not approve of.
    To his surprise, Michael’s mother actually smiled.
    “Can we go now?” Michael asked quickly, seizing the opportunity of a lifetime—that was how it seemed to Vern anyway.
    “Yes, you can go.”
    Both boys turned to the door. Vern’s muddy fingers curled around the doorknob.
    “Only, Michael—”
    Both boys stopped.
    “Put the paddle back where you got it.”
    “Yes’m.”
    “I’ll wait outside,” Vern said quickly. He rushed out of the house. He stood in the middle of the yard, gulping in the clean, fresh air like a man just out of prison.
    Vern was still standing there, breathing through his mouth, when Michael joined him. “Anyway,” Michael said, “we can get along without the paddle. All we really needed it for was to make sure we ended up on your side of the creek. Boards will do. I mean, we don’t have to paddle our way down the creek or anything. That’s what floods are for.”
    Vern turned to Michael, and he used an old expression of Pap’s. “I thought we were goners,” he said.

CHAPTER 6
The Floating Shoes
    “Mud, now that’s what I call a flood,” Pap said.
    Pap was standing at the edge of Snake Creek, watching the water sweep around the grove of willow trees.
    “Right over there is where you and me sit and fish.” He shook his head. “Only our rock is five feet under water. No telling what the fish think about all this.”
    Pap turned to look down the creek. Again he shook his head.
    Beyond the willow trees, the creek left its banks entirely and took a shortcut through the Edwards’ field. The whole pasture was under water. Only the tips of the fence posts stuck up, and the barbwire between was strung with trash. The Angus cows had been moved to higher