Me and the Missouri Moon

By Nancy Stewart

Scarlet Burnes just witnessed her daddy hit a bicyclist who goes careening down the embankment right into Cottonmouth Creek. Regardless of her pleas, her daddy won't turn around. Instead, he threatens her because he doesn't have any plans to go back to jail, and S

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monarch Educational Services, L.L.C.
• Release date: Jun 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9781957656656

Book preview

Chapter 1

Two nights ago, on Avalanche Road in Piney Mountain, Missouri, my life changed forever. I needed school supplies for the start of fifth grade, and Daddy drove me to Discount Dollar to get them. Truth is, I’d always been scared with him behind the wheel, ‘cause he’d holler at other drivers and act like he was gonna hit them. If that wasn’t enough, rain started pounding down soon as we got in. I asked him to turn on the lights, but he said it wasn’t dark enough and lights robbed the engine of power anyway.

Daddy said he didn’t see it—the dark colored bicycle almost next to my window. Before I could yell, watch out, he’d smacked it harder than hard. I saw somebody go flying into Cottonmouth Creek, the one that meanders alongside the mountain road. Even with the motor running, and rain pelting the car, and Daddy cussing, the whole world went still as stone.

And then, I yelled, Stop the car, Daddy! You gotta stop!

But he just mumbled something and kept on driving.

I rolled down my window, stuck my head out and squinted back to where the bike fell, but it was raining so hard, I couldn’t see a thing. When I listened for somebody calling for help, all I could hear was blood pounding in my ears.

Daddy, Daddy, I wailed.

Hush up now, Scarlet, he hollered. Just hush up. You want your daddy to go to jail for life? That what you want, girl?

No, but⁠—

No buts about it. That’s what’ll happen if we go back. You know I’ve had a couple run-ins with the law. None of it was my fault. So, you tell anybody? Even your mama? I’ll be in the slammer for life. And it’ll be all your doing. Nobody else’s.

But if the person’s unconscious…they could drown in that creek.

Daddy rubbed his chin hard, and the whisker stubble sounded like sandpaper scraping over wood. "Yeah, well that person was stupid to be out in this weather without a light on their bike. Who’d do such a thing? Somebody real dumb, that’s who. This ain’t my fault."

His words ricocheted around the car, loud and clear. I squeezed my seat belt strap tighter than I thought possible. My mouth shut up. But my brain didn’t. And my heart didn’t.

What’s wrong with you? kept playing over and over in my head. But I knew. I already knew. Everybody in town loved to hate my daddy, and he usually gave them good reason. But he was my daddy, and I had to love him. Sometimes he made it awful hard to do.

I don’t know what the heck I got at that dollar store. All I remembered was walking down the School Supplies aisle, picking up pencils and notebooks and pitching them in the cart. I paid no attention to colors or notebook covers. I just walked and pitched.

I didn’t tell Mama about the accident when we got home. Just said I was tired then took the supplies into my room and shut the door. The plastic bag slipped from my hand and slid to the floor when I climbed on my bed. Hot tears started behind my eyes. I hid my face in the pillow and cried, hard at first, then softer. I let the ache in my heart and the anger at Daddy work its way out of me. But the terrible fear stayed, and I couldn’t stop shaking.

My door opened so quiet I didn’t hear it. But suddenly there was Billie, her little six-year-old arms around my shoulders. What’s wrong, sissy? Didn’t they have the stuff you wanted for school?

Uh, yeah, that’s it, B. Just disappointed is all.

Well, don’t you worry, ‘cause Mama said she’s gonna drive me over to Dollar tomorrow ‘cause I couldn’t go today, with getting my booster shot and all. I bet she’ll take you with us. Okay?

Okay, I whispered, and pushed a mass of black curls away from her face.

How could everything go on normal as pie when my whole world had changed forever? I shook my head like that was gonna give me the answer, but I knew there wasn’t one where Daddy was concerned.

I was cold, and my neck ached like anything. When my eyes peeked open, morning looked back at me through the window. I was still in my clothes, on top of the comforter Grandma made for my ninth birthday last year. Even my sneakers were still on. What the heck?

I gave a little moan and sat up. Then, just like that, last night flashed back into my brain. Was somebody dead in Cottonmouth Creek? My heart started pounding so hard, I thought it might fly right out of my chest. Then, my stomach began to ache something awful, and I had to swallow over and over to keep from barfing.

I tried hard to calm down, and finally I did. At least enough to change my clothes so Mama wouldn’t know I didn’t really go to bed. Somehow, I needed to find out what happened and decided to ride my bike to town. Do some listening to folks. After all, according to my grandma, Piney Mountain’s where gossip was invented.

I told Mama a lie about me going to the library. I needed a book anyway with school starting. Heck, it was such a little white fib, it wouldn’t even register on my Invisible Lie-O-Meter, the one I made up in fourth grade.

I headed on around back to our rickety garage to get my bike. After looking both ways at the driveway, I coasted down the hill and turned left on President Harry Truman Street, making sure to stay on the sidewalk. I pedaled past the Dairy Swirl and Woody’s Bar and Grill. The New-to-You Thrift Shop was across the street next to DeVan’s Drugstore, where I was going. You could get a weekly paper on Friday, and I took some of my allowance money along to buy one.

Sunlight bounced off the metal rack when I put my bike in the second-to-last empty slot in front of the drugstore. Soon as the door opened, a whiff of fingernail polish remover reminded me of my promise to stop biting my nails. Someday.

The second I saw that stack of Piney Mountain Gazette newspapers, I could have sworn a big spotlight was on my head, and folks were saying, Yep, just what I thought. That girl’s guilty of a hit and run accident, ‘cause she didn’t make her daddy stop the car and tend to that poor injured person. Or worse, I thought with a shiver, that poor drowned person.

I decided to walk around the drugstore and listen to people talking to each other before buying the paper. I was scared to death I’d hear them going on about a terrible tragedy on Avalanche Road last night, but holy baloney, I had to find out.

Sure enough, I spotted two ladies about my grandma’s age leaning their elbows on the make-up counter, gabbing away. I almost fainted when I heard the one with piled-up blond hair and too-thick lipstick say, and nobody in this town can figure out what happened to him.

I took in a sharp breath and wondered if that was my last one. I couldn’t put one sorry foot in front of the other, so I stopped and pretended to look at a lipstick only a vampire would use.

Well, the other lady answered, it’s too bad, but you just never know how any surgery’s gonna go, Rose.

Phew. I’m buying a paper and going home.

When I reached the newspaper rack, only one was left. What did that mean? Had everyone bought a paper to find out about the mysterious hit and run victim? Who maybe drowned?

Last paper in the bunch. Been going like hotcakes, the tired-looking lady said, as I paid her.

Yeah, must be real interesting news, I said, hoping for some last-minute information.

But she just shrugged and started checking Rose and the other lady out with their new lipsticks.

I walked outside and ran my eyes over the first page. When I saw the small headline right under the fold, my breath had a hard time coming again.

Police Investigating Leads on Hit and Run Case

Daddy and me? We were in terrible trouble.

Chapter 2

My sneakers felt like they’d turned to led, as I slogged from the garage to our back door. It didn’t help that the newspaper kept wanting to tumble out of the back of my shorts for all the world to see.

I caught a little bit of luck in the kitchen because Mama was nowhere to be found. But when I tip-toed down the hall to my room, that luck ran out.

Back so soon? she asked, laying some folded clothes on my bed. Find what you wanted?

Yes ma’am, I did, I said, my mind in a panic, hoping she wouldn’t ask me what library books I got.

She smiled and pushed back her hair. Mama’s black curls bounced like Billie’s, but they were shorter. And her nose turned up like Billie’s, too. Pretty soon I was gonna be tall as my mama. At least, that’s what Grandma said.

Uh, where’s Daddy?

Oh, he’s gone fishing with Earl. It was a hurry-up trip. They planned it all this morning. She shrugged. Hope he’s got enough dry ice. I’d love not to buy meat for a couple of days. It would save a few dollars.

My temper flared white hot. The one Mama said I need to control. Grandpa thought it was because of my wild red hair, and maybe it was. But temper or not, I knew for a fact if Daddy could hold down one regular job, Mama wouldn’t have to work at two of them. Between cashing out folks over at Discount Dollar and waiting tables at Mick’s Pizza Palace, she was tired all the time.

The only work Daddy did was fish at the Lake of the Ozarks. He hunted when he could and sometimes took on odd jobs down at the lumber yard. But that didn’t bring in much money. Heck, that little bit was spent so fast, it never even got to the bank.

Daddy needs to find a real job, I told Mama for about the zillionth time, so you won’t have to work so hard.

Scarlet, she said, her voice a warning not to bring Daddy and work up again.

Well, it’s just not right, I said, as something shifted behind my back.

The paper!

I reached around and pretended I had an itch. My shirt had come untucked, and the paper was falling out.

Whatcha got back there, sissy? You hiding a present?

Oh, no. Billie.

Scarlet? Mama’s voice meant business. Nothing to do but show her.

I shrugged. It’s just a newspaper. This week’s paper. I thought maybe I was old enough to be interested in town news. You know, going into fifth grade tomorrow and all.

That’s fine, but…why’d you hide it?

I…I figured you wouldn’t want me spending my allowance on a paper.

Mama put out her hand. Let me see.

Here. Like I said, it’s just the paper.

I turned and gave Billie a major stink-eye.

Usually she’d yell for Mama to make me stop, but this time she put her head down like she’d discovered the floor was made of gold. I almost felt sorry for her.

Mama glanced over the front page. I swear, Scarlet. Sometimes I can’t figure you out. But I’m glad you bought one anyway, because Grandma just called and said there was a terrible hit-and-run accident on Avalanche Road last night. She tapped the frontpage article. It’s right here in the paper, and I want to read about it. Now go get your school clothes together for tomorrow morning.

Yes ma’am.

But all I could think of was reading that story about the hit-and-run victim.

Mama looked at Billie. Scarlet’s gonna help you get yours ready. I have to leave for work in a minute. Grandma will be here soon.

Okay, Mama, I said, hoping she couldn’t hear my heart trying to beat itself clear out of my chest again.

I walked down the hall to my room, just itching to get that newspaper away from Mama. Finally, when I heard the back door slam, I walked to the kitchen. Sure enough, it was laying on the table, and Mama’s coffee cup was on the sink—a sign she was finished and doing something else.

Snagging the paper, my eyes hit that article so fast, I had to slow down to get what was written. Even though the paper said nobody was killed, someone got hurt bad. A concussion, a broken leg, and a broken arm. It didn’t mention who the victim was, but the police were asking anyone who might have seen the accident to come forward. Maybe not giving a name meant the person was a tourist. Lots of them were around until after Labor Day.

I kept going back to that article and reading it over and over. Heck, for once I didn’t worry too much about school starting tomorrow, if I’d like my teacher and that kind of stuff. All I could think of was the accident and what the kids would say.

Finally, right at bedtime, I hid the paper at the bottom of my dresser drawer. I snuggled under my comforter and peered out the window to the back yard, then up at the mountains. Darkness had swallowed everything except for half a moon shining down. A soft breeze drifted through the screen and cooled my face.

Squeezing my eyes tight shut, I tried to keep tears from coming, but that didn’t do a bit of good. I wiped them away with my arm and looked outside again at the half-moon. My grandma always said that old Missouri moon held magic for folks who believed in it. And if you believed hard, it would grant your most longed-for wish.

So, I crossed the fingers on my right hand, ‘cause that’s the one you’re supposed to use for a serious wish. That is, if you’re right-handed like me. Then I stared at the moon, held my breath, and wished harder than anything for help on what to do about Daddy leaving someone out there hurt bad or maybe even dead. But, deep down inside, I already knew what was right. It meant telling on my daddy. And I didn’t have the courage to do that. Not sure I ever would.

Chapter 3

Abig banner floated above our door with the words, Mr. Reynolds Welcomes You to Grade Five . If that was supposed to make me calm, it didn’t work. My heart pounded, my breath came in big gulps, and my face broke out in the kind of sweat you’d only get in a rainforest. One scene played over and over in my head like a nightmare video: The accident on that rainy road. And in it I heard the same two questions: Did anybody know about Daddy? And me?

The kids were bunched up in little groups bragging about what they did this summer. I sucked in a deep breath and searched for my desk, hoping I looked too busy to talk to anybody. Problem was, I pretended so good, Becca Gaffney’s back got smack-dab in my way.

Oof. Oh, hey, I’m sorry, I said, pretty sure my Lie-O-Meter had hit the jackpot when I told that whopper. Becca was one of the kids who made fun of my daddy.

She wheeled around, her face scrunched into an ugly frown. "Don’t you ever look where you’re going?"

Anger walloped me fierce as lightning zapping the ground. Not at you, that’s for sure, I said and mashed the purple-polished toenails sticking out of her sandal with my sneaker.

Ouch, she hollered. You did that on purpose. I’m telling Mr. Reynolds. My daddy is on the school board, and he helped hire him this summer.

You go ahead and do that, I said, right back at her, proud of myself and scared at the same time.

But then I thought about that person on the bike the other night, and a chill shot right through me. Becca’s family pretty much ran this town. They were rich, and her grandpa was the mayor. I bet he knew stuff