Free Precious Bones by Mika Ashley-Hollinger Page B

mo-chine.”
    Little Man’s eyes sat in his round face like shiny moon pies as he stared in disbelief. That familiar question mark started wiggling up between his eyebrows. Little Man’s mama, Miss Melba, walked down the steps, wiping her hands on one of her ever-present flour-sack aprons. Her plump face and arms were covered with brown freckles. Miss Melba was like a second mama to me. I spent nearly as much time out here as I did at home. Sometimes she would run her hands over my hair and say, “Bones, your hair is the perfect color of sweet-corn tassels, it’s just lovely.” Normally I would not be real happy about someone calling my hair corn tassels, but the way Miss Melba said it, it made me feel good.
    Miss Melba came up to Mama’s side of the car and said, “Oh, my goodness. Why, Lori, I have never seen anything like this before.”
    “Melba, I just never know what Nolay will bring home next. And I hear you have a new gas stove. I would love to see it.”
    “Y’all get out and come inside for a spell. I’m just finishing up some jars of guava jelly.”
    Me and Mama followed Miss Melba toward the house while Nolay showed Mr. Cotton and Little Man all the wonders of the Champion.
    Inside, the house smelled of old wood and sweet, ripe guavas. A huge wooden table sat in the middle of the room. On one side of the room was Mr. Cotton and Miss Melba’s bed; on the other side were three beds where Little Man and his two older brothers, Earl and Ethan, slept. Above the wooden table, hanging from the high ceiling on a long wire, dangled a single lightbulb.
    Me and Little Man had spent more nights than I could count curled up on the floor in a thick pile of quilts and feather pillows. In the dim room, we would lie in our beds and listen to the soothing voice of Miss Melba as she read from the Bible, or to Mr. Cotton telling stories of his childhood in the swamps when they were wild and untamed.
    At the far end of the house, the kitchen area consisted of a long, rough-hewn countertop, a deep sink with a hand water pump, and an assortment of pots, pans, and cast-iron skillets hanging along the wall. By the open door, where the hulking wood-burning stove once stood, sat a shiny white enamel gas stove.
    Mama stood in front of it with her hands on her hips.“Melba, this is so beautiful, and it must be a treat for you not to have to haul firewood anymore.”
    A light flush of pink crept up between the brown freckles on Miss Melba’s face. She ran her hand gently across the stove’s glossy surface. “I sure am proud to have this. It has been a pure luxury not having to chop and tote firewood. The good Lord provides all we need and more.” Mama and Miss Melba gazed at the white enamel stove as though it were a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
    As the two women stood admiring the new stove, I asked, “Mama, can I go out and see if Little Man can come for a ride with us?”
    “Of course you can.”
    Outside, the Champion’s hood was open like a giant mouth. Nolay stood on one side; Mr. Cotton, Little Man, Earl, and Ethan were on the other side admiring the powerful engine.
    As I walked up, I heard Mr. Cotton telling Nolay, “Yesterday Jakey Toms stopped by. Said Sheriff LeRoy hired him and his hound dogs to go lookin’ for that Yankee’s body.”
    Nolay said, “Sure don’t make sense why that man would have been out there.”
    Mr. Cotton shook his head. “Wadn’t they the same ones that came out your way and y’all had a little run-in with?”
    “If it was the same two, me and Bones saw ’em the next day out on back of my property with the Reems brothers.”
    “The Reems? What was those scallywags doin’ out on your property?”
    “No idea, but I can pretty much guarantee they wadn’t up to much good.”
    I looked up at Mr. Cotton and said, “Can Little Man come for a ride with us? We’ll bring him back shortly.”
    “I think that would be all right,” Mr. Cotton said. “Ethan and Earl can help me