Free That Night at the Palace by L.D. Watson Page A

though the cop clearly understood. It was Jewel who caught on and broke the ice. She spotted a pregnant woman with two kids and picked out one of the biggest melons and took it over to the woman, broke it open, and began handing chunks to the two kids. The little ones scarfed the melon down like it was the best meal they had ever eaten. As the children finished it up, the girl went back to the truck and grabbed another melon and took it to the lady.
    “Have it for supper,” she said as she handed her the melon.
    By this point a few of the other homeless men and women began walking over to the truck, and the two boys handed out melons. The police officer simply stood next to his truck and lit a cigar.
    Soon three lines formed, one in front of Cliff, one in front of Jesse, and a third in front of Jewel. Shakes Blankenship was in Jesse’s line.
    When he stepped up to the boy, Jesse handed him a melon and turned to grab another. As Shakes started to walk away, Jesse said, “Hold on, take another one. We have plenty,” and handed the former stockbroker a second melon.
    Shakes looked at the boy who only the day before he had contemplated killing and said, “Thank you,” and turned and walked away.
    Jesse watched the man walk off into the woods as he continued to hand out melons to the hungry people.
    #
    MCALISTER’S FARM
    7:00 a.m. June 28, 1936
    Jesse, Cliff, and Jewel were all three standing in one of Jeremiah McAlister’s fields, each with a burlap sack of seed hanging off their shoulders and a hoe in hand working their way down a two acre stretch. When Mr. McAlister saw that his field had been raided, he didn’t bother to go to the police station. Instead he went directly to Cliff’s father. Ned Tidwell didn’t bother listening to any of Cliff’s claims of innocence; he simply searched out his son’s two accomplices and took them all to Mr. McAlister and worked out a deal.
    McAlister, in reality, wasn’t all that angry but would have preferred the kids asked rather than just stealing from him. If he had known they were taking the melons to the poor people down at the shantytown he would have given them all they wanted. It was Cliff’s dad who insisted that the kids work off the price of the watermelons. Had McAlister shown up at Jesse’s house, Murdock would have simply handed the old pig farmer twenty dollars and sent him on his way. But Ned didn’t have twenty dollars, and more importantly, he wanted the kids to know just how hard old Jeremiah McAlister worked to plant those melons. So for the next week or so the kids would, as Ned Tidwell put it, “become re-acquainted with the fine art of planting watermelon seeds.”
    Cliff was angry. He had a well-planned and, quite frankly, foolproof alibi that would prove there was no possible way the three were involved in the disappearance of old man McAlister’s crops. Unfortunately his own father refused to even hear his defense.
    Jewel was, in all honestly, pleased that her involvement in the caper was assumed, making her feel like a real part of the gang and not just a sidekick. She would have preferred that if she had to get caught it could have been for a less strenuous infraction, though.
    Jesse had no doubts that the three would get caught from the very beginning. Being friends with Cliff Tidwell, he had long-since learned, was often adventurous, but those adventures almost always had a price tag.
    “Jewel,” Jesse began, “have you noticed that every time we get into trouble it’s because of something Cliff got us into?”



Chapter 4
    301 RED OAK AVE., ELZA, TEXAS
    10:45 a.m., Sunday November 16, 1941
    There are few people in this world with the patience of Murdock Rose. Twenty-five years in the oil fields will do that to a man. Contrary to popular belief, you won’t get oil by simply stabbing a pipe in the East Texas soil. Sometimes it takes weeks and even months of drilling to get anything up, and that’s if you’re lucky. More often than not you