Sit! Stay! Speak! Read Online Free Page B

the spots on the dirt are already taken. I hate parking in this grass. It ain’t been mowed in weeks. Watch out for chiggers.”
    â€œChiggers?”
    â€œYeah, you know, chiggers.”
    â€œI don’t know what a chigger is.”
    Wanda laughed over her shoulder at Addie. “I keep forgetting you’re a Yankee.”
    â€œI’m from Chicago. That’s the Midwest.” Addie followed Wanda and Bryar into the throng of people, trying to forget she’d ever heard the word chigger. Ahead of them, the fair stretched out in a hazy display of cotton candy and dirt. Looking down at her shoes, she realized that white had not been the right choice.
    â€œWhat do you want to ride first?” Wanda asked her son, looking down at him as they approached the ticket booth. “Anything but the Ferris wheel.”
    â€œMama! That’s my favorite!”
    â€œNo, sir,” Wanda replied. “You puke every time.”
    Addie scanned the crowd looking for a food cart. The more she thought about eating a funnel cake, the more her mouth watered. There was a white cart to the right of where she was standing. “While you two duke it out, I’m going to go get a funnel cake.”
    As Addie walked toward the cart, she noticed two men standing off to the side. They were arguing feverishly. One of the men, tall and broad, was waving his hands in the air as he spoke. He was bald, and the russet-colored skin on the top of his head was glistening with sweat.
    The other man, the smaller of the two, cowered as the bigger man loomed over him. He had skin the consistency of glue, the liquid kind school children used, and it was about the same color. The closer Addie got to the food cart, the more she noticed the pockmarks covering the second man’s face.
    Addie strained to hear what they were saying.
    â€œYou owe me money,” the first man growled. “You need to pay me my money.”
    The second man rubbed his hands on his filthy jeans and replied, “C’mon, man. You know I don’t have it. I need more time.”
    â€œI don’t got the time you need.” The first man’s voice was low and controlled. “You know better than to come to me making bets your ass can’t cash.”
    The second man dug his shoe into the dirt.
    The first man watched him, wrapping his hands around a packageof cigarettes and then dropping the crumpled package to the ground. He put the last cigarette to his lips and let out a long sigh, and his face relaxed. Then he put one of his massive hands onto the second man’s shoulder. “How about you do me a favor instead, huh?”
    The second man slumped under the weight of the hand. “What do you want me to do?”
    â€œWe’ll talk about that later.” The first man pushed the second man forward, and they began to walk.
    They neared Addie, and they were coming at her fast. The little man knocked right into her as he tried to keep up with the bigger man. “I’m sorry, missus,” the little man said. He glanced in her direction but wouldn’t look her in the eye.
    â€œWatch where yer going!” the big man boomed. He caught Addie’s eye. He kept her gaze but said nothing else. His dark eyes bored into her.
    They were gone before Addie could respond. She waved to Wanda in the distance and yelled, “I thought you said Bryar couldn’t ride the Ferris wheel.” She hurried up to her friend, eager to shake the two men and their odd conversation from her memory.
    â€œHis friend Timmy wants to ride it, too.” Wanda popped a piece of funnel cake into her mouth. “Maybe this will be my lucky year. Let’s walk around for a little while. Bryar’s going to be with Timmy and his mom for a while.”
    Addie followed Wanda as she began to head toward the outline of the fairground, where all the booths were set up. “How can it be so hot at five o’clock at night?” she