Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea (9781101559833) Read Online Free Page A

help,” I said.
    â€œHelp me make up something to tell them first,” Glen said.
    I said, “They know you set the fire.”
    â€œDid not,” Glen said. “That kid, Andy, lit a firecracker with a candle, and when everything got to hissing, he threw the candle and ran like hell, the bastard.”
    â€œWe got to get home,” Bud said. “We got to beat Parker.”
    But we were too late. When we scrabbled over The Cheeks, and down the path that led to my yard, our folks, along with Parker, were already there.
    Parker went off with Glen and Ray. Bud and Dottie got hauled off by their own parents. I was left with Daddy and Carlie.
    â€œWhat the hell were you thinking?” Daddy asked.
    â€œHow’d you get so wet?” Carlie asked, touching my shirt, and then she smelled her hand. “Did you roll in pee?” she asked. “Lee, smell her.”
    â€œI can smell her,” Daddy said. “You’re in big trouble, Florine.”
    After Carlie had scrubbed the pee out of my hair and thrown away the clothes I’d been wearing, we all sat down at the kitchen table.
    â€œIt wasn’t our fault,” I said. And then I asked, “Will I go to jail?”
    â€œMight be best,” Daddy said.
    â€œDon’t scare her,” Carlie said. “She’ll go to jail over my dead body.”
    The next morning, Sam and Ida Warner with Bud; Bert and Madeline Butts with Dottie; Ray Clemmons and Glen (his mother, Germaine, lived in Long Reach and was seldom seen by any of us); and we Gilhams formed a caravan and drove up to apologize. Our fathers set the rules. We were not to look at each other. We were to face front and speak only when spoken to except for the apology each of us was to give to Mr. Edward Barrington, the owner of the cottage.
    We took the road that joined The Point to Route 100, turned right, went three fourths of a mile, turned left onto a dirt road, bumped along, then parked in the driveway where we’d hidden the night before. We got out and Ray knocked on the back door.
    A woman the color of Grand’s cherry headboard swung open the screen door. Her nametag read L OUISA . She said, “Can I help you?” through her milk chocolate lips.
    â€œWe brought our kids to apologize to Mr. Barrington,” Daddy said.
    Louisa walked down the steps and looked us over as if we were yesterday’s fish. “So, you’re the ones?” she said and she frowned. “Come with me,” she said. We all trooped around to the side of the house and stopped in front of the lattice. It was black where the fire had licked up it. A porch screen was scorched, as was some of the wood over it.
    Louisa pointed to a tangled mound of shriveled branches. “Look what you children did to Mrs. Barrington’s rose bush. It grew the biggest, yellowest roses. She cared for that thing like it was a baby. Dead now, just gone. How you gonna be sorry for that?”
    â€œJust tell Mr. Barrington we’re here,” Ray said.
    â€œOh, I’ll tell him,” Louisa muttered. She climbed up the porch steps and went inside.
    â€œJesus,” Ray said to Glen. “This is going to cost us some bucks.”
    Glen muttered something.
    â€œShut up,” Ray said and cuffed him one up the side of the head.
    Mr. Barrington came to us by way of the screened porch, with Andy following him. In the daylight, Mr. Barrington was tall, with the same blond hair and dark eyes as his son, and although he was a handsome man, his face looked as if it could go from sun to squall in a split pea second. Andy looked down at the ground. His fingers curled and uncurled as he stood beside his father.
    â€œGood morning,” Mr. Barrington said in a deep, soft voice. He stepped back and looked at us. Daddy pushed me forward, as I was first in line.
    â€œYou got something to say to Mr. Barrington?” he said.
    I looked at a spot on Mr. Barrington’s chest and