Free Georgia Boy by Erskine Caldwell

that she had on a long bright red dress and a lot of bracelets on her arms. The other gypsies all fell back when she walked up to Pa, and all the arguing stopped right away.
    “Who’re you?” Pa asked, looking her up and down.
    “I’m the Queen,” she said.
    The Queen picked up Pa’s hand and looked at the palm. Pa backed up against the stable door while she ran her fingers over his hand as if she was trying to find out something.
    “You have a good hand,” she said. “You have a strong life line. There is a good future ahead of you. You are a lucky man.”
    Pa laughed a little and looked around to see if anybody else had heard what she said. All the other gypsies were backing away towards the wagons. The women on the porch left, too. They went through the house towards the front door, but Ma followed them to make sure they didn’t touch anything else on the way.
    While Pa was thinking about what the Queen had told him, she took him by the arm and led him inside the woodshed. They went in and closed the door.
    Handsome went around to the front to make sure the gypsy kids didn’t try to come back and take something else from under the house. I could hear Ma walking around inside as if she was looking to see what was and what wasn’t missing. I was standing by the bedroom window when Ma leaned out.
    “William!” she said. “Go get your Pa this instant! The sheriff is going to hear about this! I’ll have those gypsies arrested if it’s the last thing I do! I’ve already missed your Grandpa’s picture from over the mantelpiece, and I can’t find my best Sunday dress that was hanging in the closet! Goodness knows what else is missing! Go get your Pa this instant! He’s got to notify the sheriff before it’s too late!”
    I went around to the woodshed where the Queen and my old man were, and when I tried to open the door, it was locked, I started to call Pa, but just then I heard him giggle as if he was being tickled. In a minute the Queen began to giggle, too. Both of them were giggling and saying something I couldn’t hear. I went back to the window where Ma was.
    “Pa’s in the woodshed,” I said, “but he didn’t hear me.”
    “What’s he doin in the woodshed?” Ma asked.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “He and the gypsy woman who said she is the Queen are both in there.”
    “Then call your Pa out of there this instant,” Ma said. “There’s no telling what he’s up to.”
    I went back to the Woodshed door and listened. I couldn’t hear a single sound, but when I tried to open it, it was still locked. I waited a little while and then called my old man.
    “Ma wants you right away, Pa,” I said. “You’d better come.”
    “Go away, son,” Pa said. “Don’t bother me now.”
    I went back to tell Ma, but when I got to the window she had left. On the way back to the woodshed, I heard Ma come tearing out of the house. She came as far as the back porch.
    “Morris Stroup!” she yelled. “You answer me this instant!”
    There wasn’t a sound anywhere for a long time, and then I heard the lock on the woodshed door rattle. In a minute or two the Queen stepped out. She took a good look at Ma, and then she hurried around the corner of the house towards the teams and wagons. As soon as she got there, all the men whipped up the horses, and the wagons rattled down the street out of sight.
    I looked around, and there was my old man peeping through a crack in the woodshed door. Ma saw him, too, and she hurried across the yard and jerked the door open. My old man was standing there with only his underwear on, and he looked like he didn’t know what to do.
    “Morris!” Ma yelled. “What on earth!”
    Pa tried to duck behind the door, but Ma caught him and pulled him back where she could get a good look at him.
    “What does this mean?” Ma said. “Answer me, Morris Stroup!”
    Pa hemmed and hawed for a while, trying to think of something to say.
    “The Queen told me my fortune,” he said,