MemorialDay Read Online Free Page B

seems he was responsible for ending the lives of many people.
    Anyway, when Mother returned from Kentucky, she had gravestones for Roger and Houston put in this graveyard. We decorated them with flowers.
    According to Mother, she could trace our family tree further than the Civil war, to the founding fathers on the East Coast during the 1600’s, and even to the battle of Hastings in 1066. Still, I suspect that everyone can claim nearly the same thing. About a dozen feet away, I see a tombstone that is not only badly worn, it also has moss growing on it, which is strange, considering the neat condition of all the other gravestones within my eyesight. Curiosity makes me walk to it. Looking closely, I notice it still has a few readable letters showing through the moss. C-O-R-R-E-G—Corregidor! Excitement smacked my gut. I got down on my knees and began scraping away the moss with my hands, looking for a name. Slowly, one came into view. Marie Jo . More scraping and I saw another word. Nurse… and finally, WW II…
    I stood up. Yeah, my tears started flowing. I started to hear whispering in my right ear, telling me that I was supposed to find this gravestone and to know that a World War Two nurse named Marie was laid to rest here, and to make her place presentable for others to see and to decorate.
    I don’t know a great deal about the battle of Corregidor. I know nurses were there, along with a lot of service guys. I know the Japanese took Corregidor during that war.
    Marie Jo. Was she killed during that battle, and later somebody found her remains and brought her back to the states? Or did she come home and die of old age, or what? I knew, without actually meeting her, or even knowing about her, that she was extremely brave and courageous—a heroine that should always be remembered.
    I made her gravestone neat and legible without using the tools in my car’s trunk, stood up, left a few flowers, and said, “Rest easy, Marie Jo. You deserve everything heaven can give you.”
    I wiped my eyes and walked to where Mother was talking to a group of people that turned out to be a few members of her social group.
    Yeah, you guessed it, and probably, before I did. I saw a raven-haired beauty staring in my direction as she was talking to Mother. If her name isn’t Starla, I’ll give you a dollar, which is all the money I have in my wallet. Ah, yes, her smile was friendly and luscious looking, her dark brown eyes compellingly sending out invitations to me. Maybe I should melt into the ground. Mother, no doubt, set this meeting up. How she managed to do it, I’ll never know because she’ll give me an innocent look and say her usual thing, Why, whatever are you talking about, Sonny ?
    “Sonny, I’d like you to meet Starla. Starla this is Thanet, my private detective son.”
    Starla came real close to me. Her scent and body heat entered my nostrils and swarmed around in my soul. Swarmed around, like hell! She came damn close to incinerating my soul! I have to admit her being close enough to rub my clothing with her body was great—sensational, fireworks exploding all over me and the whole damn Thanet Blake universe! Wow, did she ever do some arousing where arousing shouldn’t be happening at the moment.
    “I’m pleased to meet you, Thanet. Your mother has told me many things about you.”
    How do you interpret that? Her voice was a soft whisper—a quiet symphony you wanted never to stop hearing. Good Lord was I ever in trouble! Mother, I’m going to get you for this. I looked at my wedding ring for marital strength and managed to speak in a voice that struggled to sound hardboiled.
    “I’ve also heard a sentence or two about you. I understand you’re quite psychic.”
    “Yes, that’s why a few of us are here today. We’re trying to see if we can sense some spirit activity in this graveyard.”
    Her warm compelling breath on my lips tasted of mint. “You and I should have a séance together, and most certainly all