The Buried Book by D. M. Pulley Page A

looked up at me with his fat, stubbled face and didn’t say a word.
    “I’ve got a delivery from um . . . Mr. Hoyt.”
    Big Bill smiled with these big yellow teeth biting a cigar and asked, “You got a name, cupcake?”
    Cupcake. How do you like that? I didn’t know if I should tell him my name. I would have given him a fake one if I could’ve thought that fast. “Althea,” I said, dumb girl that I am.
    “Nice to meet you, Althea.” Then he shook my hand like I was an actual grown-up and not a cupcake at all. “Let’s see what you got.”
    After he unloaded the jugs and placed them in the back room of the restaurant, he did something absolutely shocking. He gave me ten one-dollar bills like it was nothing. “You tell Hoyt I said hello.”
    “Yes, sir!” And then I just hightailed it out of there before Big Bill could change his mind. I had half a mind to just drive right on past Hoyt’s farm and head to the next town with the cash. I played the fantasy out in my head the whole ride home. I’d get a room in a boardinghouse. I’d say I was fifteen and looking for work. Maybe I’d get a job with a seamstress or at a diner. If anyone asked about my family, I’d say I was an orphan.
    It was a good plan, but I couldn’t seem to keep the horse on the road to Croswell. Instead, Old Josie found her way back to Hoyt’s barn, and I gave him his ten dollars. I nearly fell out of my shoes when he handed one of the dollars to me. It was the first whole dollar of my very own.
    “See, now that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
    I just stared at that green paper.
    “I’m sure you understand that I’d like to keep this little transaction between us. Don’t you, Althea? Can we make this our little secret?”
    I didn’t say nothing. I was too busy calculating. The dollar in my hand was enough to buy a new dress.
    “You keep that dollar for yourself. You earned it. Now here’s a dime for the housework you did for Alice. Go and give that to your daddy, alright?”
    And that’s just what I did.
    “Jasper? Is that you down there?” It was his aunt standing at the entrance to the barn.
    “Uh. Yeah.” Jasper turned toward her, stuffing the book down into the hay behind him.
    “What are you doing back there?” She walked over to him with an empty milk bucket in each hand.
    “Oh . . . I . . . uh,” Jasper scrambled for an answer. “I thought I heard a rat rustlin’ around. I really wanted to catch one.”
    “Good God. Why?”
    “I thought . . . it’d make a fun pet?” He didn’t mean to make it a question. It just came out that way.
    “Nuh-uh. Not in my house.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Well, since you’re out here, might as well make yourself useful. Here.” She handed him a bucket and pointed him to a stool near one of the cows’ gigantic pink udders. He settled down next to the animal and began pulling milk until his aunt went back to the house.
    The minute her white apron turned the corner, he rushed back to the book. He read the entry again, letting his eyes linger on the words Big Bill for a moment before tucking it back in its hiding place.

CHAPTER 15
    Did you do well in school?
    “Hey! What’s your story, shrimp?” A huge sixth grader named Cecil Harding shoved Jasper in the shoulder that day at school. They were outside in the yard for recess.
    Jasper didn’t answer. He scanned the school yard, hoping someone would intervene. Miss Babcock was still inside grading papers. The door to the school was open, but her head was down. All seven of the girls had gathered at the fence to admire Lucille’s new dress. The boys were scattered about playing games. Wayne was at the far corner with his buddy Mel, practicing walking on his hands.
    Cecil pushed him again. “You deaf, boy?”
    Jasper shook his head.
    “Why don’t you talk? You stupid or somethin’?”
    “No,” Jasper said softly. In fact, he was quickly learning he wasn’t stupid at all. Miss Babcock had already bumped him up to