Decoration Day Read Online Free

to your house.”
    Marsh nodded. “His family has been servants to my family for centuries.”
    “Centuries?”
    The other man finally looked at him. His eyes studied him. “Yes.”
    “You don’t find that weird?”
    A disquieting smile stretched across Marsh’s lips again. “Not really. It is our way in this town. We keep the old traditions and hold family very important.”
    “To the point of keeping families as servants?”
    “Yes. Thomas’s family came over from England as servants to the Marshes. When we moved from New England to Tennessee, the tradition continued. It helped to keep us from that horrible exercise of slavery that destroyed so many powerful families.”
    David looked out the window as they passed through the town. A few people walked the broken sidewalks in the misty morning. Most looked short and stocky like Thomas and Thomasine. The small café served a few of the dumpy people. The car turned and headed up the mountain toward the church.
    “Everyone looks alike,” David said without thinking.
    “Only the servants. They marry within themselves, so there are a lot of similarities. You will notice that none of the elders look alike.”
    “Is the town population just your servants?”
    “We have few outsiders now that the road has been all but forgotten.” Marsh looked out the window into the swirling fog. “It is better that way. My beloved Louisa was an outsider. She came to an unfortunate end.”
    “Do you mean that she was murdered?”
    “No.”
    David wished that he hadn’t come to the town, but when they stopped before the church building, he felt the tug of God’s hand on his heartstrings. His faith seemed to fill him again when he saw the place. A few men dressed in raincoats and large-brimmed hats milled around the graveyard. Despite what Marsh had said, they all looked very much like soggy brown sacks.
    “The elders,” Marsh said as Thomas opened the door. “They are checking on their ancestors. It is something we love doing. Our past is very important to us.”
    Marsh stepped into the mist. David got out of the car and walked to meet him at the opened gate. They walked in side by side. The other men turned as soon as they crossed into the churchyard as if the elders had sensed them crossing that line.
    “Gentlemen, may I present to you Reverend David Stanley? He wishes to pastor our congregation,” Marsh said.
    The first elder walked to him. Beady eyes stared from under the brim of the hat. A piggy nose that showed too much nostril turned up to David. The second elder stepped over, examining him from behind round glasses perched on a thin nose. All took their turns looking him over.
    “I am Horace Stovall,” the pig-nosed elder said.
    “My name is Ebenezer Hollingsworth,” Eyeglasses said.
    “Dmitri Covington,” the third, bland-looking elder said.
    “I am Nahum Fernwell,” the final elder said.
    Of all the elders Nahum appeared the oldest, but with the garb the men wore, it was hard to tell.
    “I have made the reverend aware of a few things, like the importance of family, but I have left everything else to be discussed today,” Marsh said.
    “How did you gentlemen get here?” David asked.
    They all looked at each other as if they had been asked the dumbest question imaginable.
    “They were driven here by their drivers, just like us.” Marsh pointed to the road. The Lincoln was gone. “The road is not wide enough for our cars to stay parked on the shoulders. A gas tanker is due any time now. We wouldn’t want our cars or gasoline destroyed.”
    “I understand. I met the truck when I came in yesterday. It was an antique.”
    The elders murmured to themselves. He didn’t like the sound. They seemed bothered. David decided he needed to be more careful if he was to get the pastorship of the church.
    “Since you hold family in such high honor, I think that the first thing I should do for services Sunday is have a decoration,” he said. “Why not celebrate