Free This Rock by Robert Morgan

I thought she’d be a heavy woman wearing a man’s hat and man’s clothes. As she stepped closer I seen she was wearing some kind of shiny slacks, and she was slim as a rail. She had short gray hair and there was a pistol strapped around her waist, and she was holding a cigarette between her fingers.
    â€œHoney, I wish I could help you,” she said. “Moody was here last night, but he left.”
    â€œWhen?” I said.
    Some of the men around the table behind me had stood up. I felt like everybody was looking at me.
    â€œSugar, Moody had a little too much and got handy with his knife. I had to ask him to leave,” Peg said. She blowed smoke out the side of her mouth. Her face was wrinkled as an old corn shuck, and her lips was painted red.
    â€œDid he get hurt?” I said. “I’m his mama.”
    â€œNot while he was here,” Peg said. Her smile was easy as a sneer.
    â€œWhen did Moody leave?” U. G. said.
    â€œHow should I know?” Peg said. “It was a busy night.” Shedrawed on her cigarette. “I’d like to help, but I can’t keep track of every Dick and Harry that comes in here.”
    The man at the counter said, “Can I get you all something?” and the way he said it meant it was time for us to leave.
    It smelled like chicken was being cooked in one of the back rooms, chicken with some kind of pepper sauce, and the smell nigh made me sick. U. G. took my arm and we started toward the door. I didn’t want to leave until I found out something about my boy.
    â€œYou all come back and see us,” Peg said. Her voice was hoarse as a growl.
    I seen I wasn’t going to find out nothing from her. Whatever had happened to Moody she wasn’t going to tell us. I let U. G. lead me out into the sunlight. I felt bleached and wrung out, like I hadn’t slept in a week. I climbed back into the truck sad and slow.
    U. G. started the pickup and was about to back into the highway when I looked up at the second-story porch and seen a girl gesturing to us. It was not the same girl I’d seen there before. This girl had short black hair and was wearing a pink blouse. She waved her hand quick and then pointed up the highway.
    â€œWhat does she want?” I said.
    U. G. opened his door and started to say something, but the girl shook her head and put her finger to her lips. She shook her head like she was scared, then she pointed up the highway again.
    â€œWhat does she mean?” U. G. said.
    I watched her point, and the only thing I could think of was that she wanted us to go on up the highway. Did she just want us to leave? She pointed up the road, and then she pointed at her chest.
    â€œShe wants us to meet her up the road,” I said.
    U. G. put the truck in gear and backed around. The girl on the balcony had disappeared.
    â€œWhere?” U. G. said.
    â€œSomewhere out of sight,” I said.
    Two men stood in the door of the tavern and watched us drive away. On the pavement U. G. went slow, looking for either the girl or a place to pull off. Just around the bend there was another spring, smaller than the one at Peg Early’s. It was almost hid by hemlocktrees, and U. G. turned in beside it. A trail come down the side of the mountain to the spring.
    We set in the truck for about a minute, and then I seen the girl in the pink blouse beckoning to us from the shadows of the hemlocks. We got out and followed her into the brush farther up the ridge. The girl was out of breath from running all the way from Peg Early’s.
    â€œPeg would kill me if she knowed,” the girl gasped. “But look for Moody at the spring halfway up the mountain.”
    â€œWhat happened?” I said.
    â€œWhat spring?” U. G. said.
    â€œHim and Josie got caught,” the girl said in a rush.
    â€œWhat spring are you talking about?” U. G. said.
    â€œWhat did they get caught doing?” I said.
    â€œThat’s all I