Tulsa Burning Read Online Free

been living on for almost a week.
    Usually we had stuff Ma had put away from the garden, but last summer's drought pretty much done the garden in. Ma's canned
     goods had only lasted through December.
    Now it was February, and I was sure hungry. I stopped in front of the town's only eating place, Daisy's Café. Pa wouldn't
     be inside there, but I decided to step in, just long enough to breathe some warm air. The smell of beef stew filled the place,
     and I could see a big bowl in front of a man at the first table. My knees went to feeling weak, and I sort of leaned against
     the door.
    The owner, Daisy Harrison, come toward me. "Do you want to order something?" she asked.
    I shook my head. "No money." I mouthed the words, too ashamed to say them out loud.
    "You come with me," Daisy said, and I steadied myself, then followed her through the swinging doors into the kitchen. She
     pointed at a small table with a chair. "Set yourself down," she said, and she dipped up a bowl of stew for me.
    I reckon no food ever tasted so good to me, but I hated to be given a handout. When I left, I muttered a quick "thanks," without
     even looking at Daisy Harrison.
    I got out of the door quick and moved down the street, cussing my pa. I didn't stop until I was in front of the drugstore,
     which was closed. Trying to figure what to do next, I leaned on the building, my shoulder against the pay phone. It wasn't
     long till a man I didn't know stopped his automobile and come toward me. "Would you mind moving, so's I can make a call?"
     the stranger asked me.
    I took a few steps, but I watched as the man dropped coins into the slot. He tried to make a call then, but he ended up pounding
     on the phone. "Dang thing stole my money," he yelled to nobody in particular. "Reckon it's busted."
    I never had really put no thought into how a telephone like that worked. I started to wonder where the money went. I could
     see the box. The money couldn't go through them little telephone lines. No, the money had to still be in that box. When the
     stranger put up that receiver, I went back to that telephone box, and I studied the keyholes.
    I never could have been a telephone thief if what happened next had not happened. Lo and behold, a man in a telephone truck
     drove up just then. I moved on down the street a little so he wouldn't notice me, but I leaned against a door watching him.
     He took the money out of that pay telephone. Then he took it off the wall, put it on his truck, got a new one, and put it
     on.
    When the man went into the Café to eat, I took the phone off his truck, and I run with it. I was scared to death, and I kept
     looking back over my shoulder. The phone was pretty heavy, and I knowed I couldn't run far. I headed for some trees that grow
     around a little creek just back of Main Street. There I dropped down on the brown grass and went to studying that phone.
    It had two locks on it, one back on the side and one in the front. The amazing thing was that in the side lock I found a key,
     a little strip of metal with sort of waves in it. I turned my attention to the front lock, and I got a good idea. In my pocket,
     I had a piece of gum. Cinda had give it to me the day before at school, and I was saving it for when hunger got too much,
     and I just had to have some taste besides my own spit in my mouth.
    I took out the stick of gum, just wet it a little in my mouth, and eased it into the lock. Ever so careful, I pulled the gum
     out of the lock, and I had a great impression of the key. I'd take that key to the blacksmith's shop in town and ask to use
     his tools to make me a real key.
    Then I started to worry about the phone man. When he missed the phone, what if he remembered me watching him? He could ask
     around town and learn my name. Besides, he might figure out what I was doing. He might even take away Wekiwa's one pay phone.
    The man might still be in the Café. I had to see if I could return that phone, minus the key. Maybe he