Allie's Moon Read Online Free Page A

now sat in as he let
Farley ramble on. He’d worn the same silver-star badge, and a
long-barreled revolver strapped to his thigh. That had been another
life. Another Jefferson Hicks.
    Finally Sheriff Mason leaned back in his
chair and turned a wry gaze on Jeff. “Well? Is this just about the
way it happened, Jeff?”
    Hearing his name, Jeff dragged his attention
back to the moment and shrugged. “I guess. I left a penny in one of
the nests to pay for the egg.”
    “ A penny!” Farley exploded. “By God, I
don’t know where you’ve been, boy— Well, yes I do—you’ve been
chasing the bottom of a whiskey bottle. But I get more than a penny
for my eggs, and on market day—”
    Sighing, Will lifted his hand and motioned
Farley to silence. “Hold on, now, let’s stick to the subject. Do
you want to sign a complaint?”
    The farmer drew himself up as straight as a
rake handle and adjusted his one suspender strap. “Hell, yes, I’ll
sign! If that’ll ship Jeff Hicks off to Salem, I’ll sign a whole
pile of complaints.”
    “ Jesus, Farley, we don’t send men to
the state penitentiary for stealing an egg. I’ll just keep him here
for a while.” Will sat up in his chair and rummaged around in his
desk for several moments before bringing out a big key ring. “Come
on, Hicks.”
    While old man Wright grumbled on about
justice, Will Mason led Jeff to the back of the building that
contained two jail cells. He unlocked one of the cell doors and
opened it.
    “ Turn around,” Will ordered, and Jeff
turned his back to him. Following a faint sawing noise and a slight
tug, Jeff felt the rope around his wrists fall away. “All right,
get in there.”
    Jeff walked to the bunk and sat down on the
same stained tick he remembered from his days on the other side of
the desk. Behind him, the door clanged shut.
    Will folded his pocket knife and turned it
over in his hands while he studied it. Then he gazed at Jeff
between the bars. “What the hell are you doing to yourself? You
look like something the dog puked up and you smell just as bad. And
stealing eggs, for chrissakes?”
    Jeff hunched forward, his elbows on his
knees, and stared at the gouged plank flooring between his feet.
The last thing he wanted to hear today was another lecture. And he
sure didn’t want to hear one from the man who had succeeded him in
his own job.
    Apparently realizing that he wasn’t going to
answer, Will Mason sighed again. “I’m going to let you sit here for
a few days to sober up and think about things.”
    Jeff lifted his head, surprised. “A few
days—” His voice came out as a croak. He wouldn’t have kept someone
longer than a day for such a paltry offense, if he kept him at
all.
    Will turned to leave, then said over his
shoulder, “At least you’ll get fed, courtesy of Decker Prairie and
Elmira’s Café.” Then he was gone, pulling closed a heavy oak door
that separated the office from the cells.
    Jeff stared blankly at the bars and the brick
wall beyond. If he’d had any humor left in him, he might have
laughed at this turn of events. He could even envision the
newspaper headline: Former Sheriff Jefferson Hicks Jailed For Egg
Theft.
    He’d lost count of the number of times he’d
cursed himself for taking the damned job in the first place, for
coming to this town. Nothing about his life had been the same
since. And while the days and weeks now blended together into a
dateless, unchanging blur, he remembered with exquisite detail the
moment when his life had turned. The fourteen-year-old boy with a
gun . . . the deafening blast when he had
pulled the trigger . . . the bullet nicking
Jeff’s chin . . . the following events that had
snowballed in a roaring avalanche, engulfing all the good things in
his life and finally consuming him . . . 
    He sighed and cradled his tender head in his
hands. A few days in this place? Hell, what did it matter? It
wasn’t as if he had somewhere important to go.
    He didn’t