Mama Stalks the Past Read Online Free

from his eye. He turned his palms up.
    “M-my Mama wasn’t crazy,” Nat stuttered. “All of you are in this together, trying to steal my land!”
    “Nat, please—” Mama began.
    Nat wailed, “You’re a thief and I’m going to tell the whole town what you are!”
    That was too much for Mama. “Shut up and let me finish talking!” she snapped. “I’ve never had one conversation with your mother. How could I have
talked
her into
anything
?”
    But Nat wasn’t convinced. He started shaking his finger at Mama again. “You think I’m stupid!”
    Mama’s eyes widened. “Don’t you point that—”
    “You’re not going to get away with this!” Nat yelled, jumping out of his chair and towering over Mama.
    Daddy’d had enough, “ NAT ,” he shouted, “ SIT DOWN! ”
    Nat, who had swollen up like a bullfrog, looked into Daddy’s glaring eyes. Then he sat down.
    Calvin took a deep breath, glad that things seemed temporarily under control. He moved the marble pen holder another half inch to theleft. “There it is,” he said. “Oh, yeah, Abe called me Friday afternoon and—”
    Mama shook her head, signaling Calvin not to mention what the sheriff had told him. I realized that her question to me on Friday night had been answered. Abe Stanley did know about the will and its strange provision before he had called Mama two days ago to tell her that Miss Hannah had been poisoned.
    Daddy scratched his head. “This is crazy,” he muttered.
    “Nothing about this whole thing makes sense!” Mama said softly.
    Nat was breathing heavily. He shot a look at Mama, one that made her reach over and touch his arm. “I don’t know why your mother did what she did,” she told him firmly, in the tone of voice you use when you talk to a bad-tempered child.
    “Ain’t nothing but you talked her into doing something against me,” Nat insisted.
    “I never spoke once to your mother.”
    “Yeah, right!” Nat said sourly.
    “I’ll prove that I don’t want your land. I’ll sign it over to you right now!” Mama turned to Calvin.
    But Calvin shook his head. “Can’t do that, Grace. Not for five years.”
    Nat growled deep in his throat.
    There was a look of determination in Mama’s eyes that I knew very well. “There must be a way to get around that stipulation,” she said.
    “I’ll check into it,” Calvin told her, “but Judge Thompson doesn’t like breaking wills.”
    Nat’s mouth formed a grudging line. “I’ve got obligations,” he said bitterly.
    “Use the insurance money you’ve got,” Daddy snapped. “Sell the house if you have to.”
    “Nat,” Mama said, sounding a little embarrassed. “
Please, don’t tell people that Hannah left me that land!”
    Nat’s eyes moved around the room. His breathing rasped. He shifted in his seat.
    “If you tell anybody … 
one soul
that Hannah left me those two hundred and fifty acres I won’t give it back to you,” Mama said, probably reading his mind. It wasn’t hard to see that Nat Mixon intended to make trouble.
    Nat’s eyes narrowed. There was an ugly light in them.
    “I’m not kidding,” Mama continued. “If I hear a
whisper
from one person in this town that Hannah left me that land I’ll call Calvin and tell him to stop trying to break the will … I mean it!”
    Nat pouted.
    “Boy, if you keep this thing quiet,” Daddy said, “you’ll get your land soon as Calvin talksthe judge into breaking Hannah’s five-year stipulation. I’ll see to it personally.”
    Mama looked at Calvin.
    “I’ll start working on it today,” Calvin promised, and I knew he would.
    Nat stared at Mama, as if he’d never seen her before. Then he muttered reluctantly, “Okay, I won’t tell nobody.”
    So, why didn’t I believe him?
    Daddy leaned back. “Then we understand each other, don’t we?”
    Nat got to his feet, rubbing his forehead with the heel of his hand, as though wiping away sweat. Today he had replaced his shabby clothes with a somewhat