Part 2 (2/2)

”You mean y'all don't say 'y'all'?”

They paused; then Ruthanne answered, sounding kind of disgusted. ”No, we all don't say 'y'all.' That's two words. 'You all.' You might as well get that straight right now.”

I cleared some dust off the floor with my foot. ”Anything else I need to know? For while I'm here, that is?”

Lettie and Ruthanne looked at each other again, probably deciding if they could tolerate me another minute. They must've figured they could, because they sat back down and opened their parcel of sandwiches.

”Well,” Lettie said while Ruthanne popped the bottle tops off with the hammer claw, ”there's a river that when it's in Arkansas, you can say it like that. The Ar-kan-saw Ar-kan-saw River. But once it hits Kansas, it's called the Ar- River. But once it hits Kansas, it's called the Ar-kansas River. That's kind of important.” River. That's kind of important.”

”And there's a woman up the way who sits on her porch and stares. Don't let her look you in the eye or you'll turn to stone,” Lettie said, as if that was on the same level of importance as how to p.r.o.nounce Arkansas Arkansas.

”And you might want to work on your grammar,” Ruthanne added with a mouthful of egg salad sandwich. ”It doesn't bother us any. Fact is, during the summer we all talk however we want. But come fall, Sister Redempta's kinda picky when it comes to 'don't need nos' and 'might couldas.' And as for that la.s.so la.s.so around her waist, it's not a la.s.so. It's a rosary and it's for praying on.” around her waist, it's not a la.s.so. It's a rosary and it's for praying on.”

I could tell it would take a while to learn the lay of the land. But that was okay. Those girls were real friendly, the Coca-Cola was going down good, and come fall I'd be long gone, I told myself, pus.h.i.+ng aside the wobbly feeling I'd been having off and on.

I opened the cigar box. ”You ever seen a spy map?” I asked.

Main Street, Manifest

MAY 28, 1936.

”An honest-to-goodness spy!” cried Lettie as the three of us crouched behind the wooden Indian in front of the hardware store. ”Right here in Manifest! Why, I've never heard anything so exciting.”

I kept the mementos hidden away in the cigar box, but showed them the first letter and the spy map. It might've been a little selfish of me, but I wanted to read the other letters by myself before letting Lettie and Ruthanne see them. Maybe there would be some mention of Gideon in those.

”The Rattler. That sounds as mysterious as the Shadow.” Lettie took on the deep, dramatic voice everyone knew from the Sunday-night radio broadcast. ”Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.”

Ruthanne rolled her eyes.

”In fact,” Lettie continued, ”it's just like that episode a few months ago. A lady, she gets mysterious letters from her dead husband-well, they're not letters really, they're more like notes, because they don't come in the mail, they're just left under her pillow, and right before she goes insane-”

”Not now, Lettie,” Ruthanne said. ”The Rattler, whoever it was, could still be here, spying on us at this very minute.”

”After all this time? The letter was written”-Lettie did the calculating in her head-”eighteen years ago. And I don't see how this map is going to help us.” She looked over the paper. ”It's just a map of Manifest, or at least Manifest as it was back in 1918. See here, that Matenopoulos Meat closed down forever ago.”

The cousins' debate continued. Ruthanne said, ”So, maybe it's a map of likely suspects and places the spy might frequent.”

”Maybe he's dead by now. The Matenopoulos place is on there and Mr. Matenopoulos is dead.”

”Maybe you shouldn't be such a stick-in-the-mud. Come on, let's scout around.”

As we all got up, I figured Ruthanne had won. And from Lettie's skipping along beside us, I gathered she didn't mind.

We looked up and down Main Street, taking in store owners and pa.s.sersby.

There was the butcher, hanging up a big hunk of meat to cure outside his store. He pulled the fleshy meat hook and wiped it on his already b.l.o.o.d.y ap.r.o.n. The iceman whacked his spiky tongs into a block of ice and hoisted it out of his truck. The barber shook out his ap.r.o.n and wiped his razor blade clean. Thinking of spies and people going insane made everyone seem a little frightening.

They were like nameless men in a scary nursery rhyme-the butcher, the iceman, and the barber-until Lettie identified them as Mr. Simon, Mr. Pickerton, and Mr. Cooper.

We made our way into and out of a few stores, asking if anyone had heard of the Rattler. No one seemed inclined to shed any light on the matter.

”The Rattler could be any one of them,” Lettie breathed. ”But I still say the Rattler could be dead and buried by now.”

”Or maybe not,” Ruthanne said with authority. ”Look.”

It was the undertaker, all dressed in black, hauling a slab of granite into the Better Days Funeral Parlor.

”Maybe it's Mr. Underhill,” Ruthanne whispered. ”He's always itching to carve somebody a grave marker. Maybe he even killed a few bodies himself.”

”The letter didn't say anything about murder. We're just looking for a spy, right, Abilene?” Lettie asked.

”Yes, but...”

”But what?” Ruthanne asked.

”Well, say there was was a spy. What do you think he was spying on?” a spy. What do you think he was spying on?”

Lettie and I looked at Ruthanne. She rolled her eyes and gave a sigh, like she was disgusted to have to explain something so simple. I figured she was just stalling till she could think up an answer.

”There was was a war going on, you know,” Ruthanne said. a war going on, you know,” Ruthanne said.

We kept staring.

”And in wartimes there's always secrets that need keeping from the enemy.”

Still staring.

”So what makes you think Manifest didn't have a few secrets of its own that some spy might want to find out about?” Ruthanne asked.

Since Lettie and I couldn't come up with a better explanation, we shrugged and turned our eyes back to Mr. Underhill, who'd come outside. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked up at the cloudless sky.

”Look at him,” Ruthanne said. ”He's sniffing for death in the air.”

A breeze picked up and when Mr. Underhill crossed the street, walking in our direction, I thought for sure he'd pluck one of us for that new grave marker. We backed into an alley and watched as he pa.s.sed by. He hunched forward and his arms didn't move as he walked. They just hung stiff by his side.

”Come on,” Ruthanne whispered, and we all three took off after Mr. Underhill. He headed to the edge of town and skirted around the trees near Shady's place. Lettie stepped on a twig, snapping it in two, and Mr. Underhill turned around. We stayed still in the darkness of a tree until he moved on.

”Where's he going?” I asked.

”Where else would an undertaker go?” Ruthanne pointed ahead to the wrought iron fence that surrounded hundreds or maybe fifty or so graves. ”Come on, there's an opening on the other side.”

This was one of the universals I had so far avoided. In other places, I'd seen kids who followed their leader like blind mice, right into the carving hands of the farmer's wife. Being an outsider, I didn't usually fall under the leader's spell. But I'd never been on a spy hunt before. So here I was, traipsing after Ruthanne, enjoying the excited, scared feeling that made my spine s.h.i.+ver.

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