Firefly Hollow

Firefly Hollow

T.L. Haddix

Streetlight Graphics Publishing

A division of Streetlight Graphics

Firefly Hollow

Copyright © 2012 by Tabatha L. Haddix. All rights reserved.

First Kindle Edition: September 2012

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Editor: Lynn O. McNamee of Red Adept

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Streetlight Graphics Publishing, a division of Streetlight Graphics.

Also by T.L. Haddix

The Shadows Collection:

Secrets in the Shadows

Under the Moon’s Shadow

Shadows from the Grave

Hidden in the Shadows

In the Heart’s Shadow

Granny Theft Auto (A Leroy/Shadows short story)

Domestic Disturbance (A Leroy/Shadows flash fiction)

For Shirley Crandall

You are missed.

Chapter One

February 1954

Near Hazard, Kentucky

S
ARAH BROWNING HURRIED THROUGH THE halls of C. D. Napier High School, her head down. She was desperate to reach the girls’ restroom before her tears overflowed. With a frantic sob, she pushed open the swinging door and raced into the largest stall, slamming the door shut behind her. Finally, in the privacy of the quiet bathroom, she let herself cry. The bell had rung two minutes earlier, signaling the students to return to class from their break, so Sarah had the restroom to herself. She was going to be late for biology, but she didn’t care. Her sister’s betrayal cut too deep. Kathy had really gone too far.

Sarah had gone into the drama room at break to ask the teacher a question about the upcoming production of
Death of a Salesman
. Kathy was there with her boyfriend and his friends from the basketball team, including Paul Turner. They were all gathered around the stage, joking and cutting up, and didn’t notice Sarah come into the room. To Sarah’s horror, Kathy was talking about her.

“Little Miss Priss. She thinks her shit don’t stink. Paul, you ought to ask her to the prom and then dump her right before. I’d love to see the look on her face.” Everyone laughed, with Kathy laughing the hardest.

“That’s a little mean, Kathy. Your sister’s a nice kid,” Paul protested, but only after he stopped snickering.

“You can’t say you enjoy having her make cow-eyes at you, Pauly,” Randall Begley said. Kathy’s boyfriend was always looking for an excuse to make fun of someone. “Besides, Pauly likes his ladies to have a little more on top, if you know what I’m saying. More like you, baby doll.” He leered at Kathy’s chest.

Kathy squealed, and the group again roared with laughter.

Humiliated, her face on fire with shame, Sarah carefully backed out of the room and ran down the hall. Hiding in the bathroom, she didn’t know how she would ever find the courage to face Paul again.

Ever since eighth grade, Sarah had had a crush on Paul Turner. He was the kindest, handsomest boy in the world, at least to her. She had always admired him from afar, so when she’d been assigned to work with him last week for drama club, she had barely been able to contain her excitement. Those tender feelings had been destroyed today.

After her tears had stopped, Sarah finally came out of the stall and went to the sink. Her face was splotchy, her eyes red and puffy. She splashed cold water on her face, patting it dry as her mother had taught her to do. A few droplets of water fell onto her blouse, and as she blotted them, she cringed. Randall’s words were cruel, but they were also true. She didn’t have much in the way of a bosom. It didn’t seem fair. Kathy’s chest was huge, too big in Sarah’s opinion, but the boys seemed to like it.

She studied herself in the mirror, trying to see her image as others might: straight, dark brown hair, blue eyes, a smattering of freckles. She was taller than some of the girls, and her daddy teased her that she’d soon be taller than her mother. Sarah didn’t think she was ugly, but she didn’t think she was all that pretty, either.

Mama tried to reassure her that she’d blossom, but Sarah was convinced it would never happen. She was destined to be as flat as a board for the rest of her days. She’d die a lonely old woman tucked away in a tiny cottage at the back of her parents’ property with only a herd of cats and a flock of chickens to keep her company.

She wadded up the paper towels and threw them away, then gathered her books and headed for the door. She wasn’t going back to class, not with humiliation still stinging her cheeks. She decided to go to the school nurse’s office and see if she could stay there until the final bell rang in a couple of hours. The nurse was stern, but understanding. Sarah would say that her stomach hurt, which wasn’t a lie. Hopefully by the time she had to come back to school and face Paul again on Monday, she would have an idea of what in the world to do.

The bus ride home was tense, but Sarah avoided Kathy easily enough. She secured a seat near the front, where she usually sat, and held her breath. Kathy flipped Sarah’s hair as she went by on her way to the back of the bus, but that was all. As one of the older, more popular, students, Kathy always sat with her friends. Sarah figured the half-mile walk up the holler to their house was going to be trickier to manage, but to her surprise, Kathy only teased her once or twice when they first got off the bus. She seemed lost in her own thoughts, for which Sarah was grateful.

Once home, Sarah quickly finished her chores. With an hour left before supper, she asked her mother if she could take a walk.

Eliza Browning studied her carefully and reached out to push back a lock of Sarah’s dark hair. “You okay, baby girl? You’ve been awfully quiet tonight.”

Sarah shrugged. “Just had a bad day at school.”

“And you want to go clear your head?” Her mother’s smile was sympathetic, full of warmth. “Of course, sweetheart. Keep an eye on the time and be back in time for supper.”

Sarah gave her a quick hug and headed out the door. She’d changed into an old, sturdy pair of pants when she got home, and with her walking shoes on, headed for the path that led around the ridge to a rocky outcropping. The ledge was Sarah’s thinking place where she went when she needed to get some time to herself.

Growing up in a place filled with such natural beauty as eastern Kentucky, Sarah had an inkling of an idea of how lucky she was. Situated in the heart of central Appalachia, Perry County was one of the more populated areas of the region. It wasn’t in the low foothills of Appalachia, nor did it have the soaring ridges and deep valleys of Virginia. Craggy, folded hollows peppered the landscape, looking like nothing more than a green blanket that had been crumpled up by God himself.

As she approached the rocks, she paused to let the brisk wind carry over her. Though only late March, the warm weather had come earlier than normal. The breeze almost tasted like summer, and Sarah felt a calm start to steal over her.

A noise came from the underbrush, and she turned to watch a cardinal fly away, chirruping at her in irritation. The bird veered off to fly along the old deer path that wound around the side of the mountain. The trail traversed the ridge that made up the property line dividing the Browning’s land from that of their neighbors, the Campbells. The Campbell family owned most of the mountain, top to bottom, encompassing at least three hundred acres. Their homestead was clear on top, accessed by a road from the other side. For as long as Sarah could remember, her parents had warned her not to cross that line.

“They’re not bad people, Sarah, but they keep to themselves, and they expect others to let them be. So you need to respect that line.”

She was curious, avidly so, but she had resisted the urge to explore. She knew there would be consequences if she broke her parents’ rule, and more importantly, they’d be disappointed in her. If nothing else, Sarah was a good girl. As she thought about that, Kathy’s words from earlier came back to haunt her.

“Little Miss Priss,” she muttered. Arms crossed, Sarah looked back through the woods toward her own home. The house was out of sight, around the curve of the mountain. Biting her lip, she turned back to the deer trail.

“It isn’t like there’s anyone who’d see. Even Daddy admitted that the Campbells don’t come down this way much.”

She brought her hand up and nibbled on her thumb. Thinking once again about Kathy’s words, she squared her shoulders. “I’m going to do it. So what if I get into trouble?”

The decision made, she started toward the deer path, marching steadily. She was about a hundred yards past the property line when a twig snapped in the woods up the hill. Jumping, Sarah turned. On a flat bench of land above her, a nearly grown deer stood, staring right at her. The deer was immobile, as though thinking if it stood still long enough, she wouldn’t see it and would go away.

Sarah gave a startled laugh. “I’m sorry,” she told the deer quietly. “I’m trespassing, I know. But I had a really bad day at school, and… I don’t mean any harm.”

The deer flicked its ears back and forth, then raised its nose as the wind shifted, but it didn’t take its eyes off of her. When she realized how ridiculous she was being, having a conversation with a deer, she shook herself and started walking again. To her surprise, the deer only hesitated a moment before cautiously following her, albeit on a different track.

Checking back over her shoulder after a few steps, Sarah frowned when the deer continued to mimic her path. Dismissing the incident as the curiosity of a wild young deer that hadn’t yet learned humans were the enemy, she let her mind drift. Before long, she heard the sound of water trickling rapidly over rocks, and as she rounded a curve, she saw a small stream curving through the mountainside. The branch of water cut into a shallow hollow, one side protected by a higher ledge of earth that was full of mountain laurel.

Sarah stopped to take in the sight and drew in a cleansing breath. As she looked around, she realized the deer had followed her and stopped a short distance away. The bench of land it stood on converged with the deer path alongside the stream.

If Sarah hadn’t known better, she would have sworn the deer wore a look of consternation. The animal bent its head to nibble at some greenery on the ground, but kept its eyes on her. It almost seemed to glance between her and the water, as though weighing the danger of coming closer for a drink.

“Maybe if I turn away, you’ll feel bolder.” The deer path crossed the branch at a narrow point, and she decided to go a bit further. The water cascaded down a small waterfall above the narrow point, pooling in a shallow area that would be the perfect spot for a thirsty deer to get a cooling drink. Hopping across the water, Sarah followed the trail. To her surprise, the path didn’t continue to the flat bench on the other side of the small ridge, but climbed up and around the rocky outcropping. Curious, she climbed the incline. The sight took her breath away, and for a moment, she didn’t believe what was in front of her was real.

The rocky outcropping the water cascaded down was a sort of natural dam. On its other side, a large pool of water had collected. Fifteen feet across and nearly that wide again going in the opposite direction, the pool was surrounded by sloping granite on all sides except the front, where the water dropped over the edge. The water was blue-green, going from light aqua to deeper cobalt, and the banks of rock and earth protected it on all sides.

On the opposite side, a craggy granite cliff rose about ten feet out of the water, overhanging slightly to form a shallow cave. The mountain seemed to curve around the pool and, mesmerized, Sarah continued around, crossing the branch once more at a point above the pool. From there, she was able to climb on top of the granite boulder that created the cliff. Easing to the edge, she carefully sat down, her legs dangling over the side.

When the curious deer appeared at the edge of the pool below, Sarah laughed. The deer gave a small jerk at the sound, eyeing her warily.

“I’m sorry.” She felt utterly insane, carrying on a conversation with a deer, but it had followed her like a curious puppy. Sarah realized that keeping quiet would feel even more absurd. “It’s so beautiful here. I had no idea any place like this existed.” She looked around, noticing that the trees didn’t arch out over the pool the way she thought they would have.

“I’ll bet it’s really hot here in the summer, and that water feels so good and cool. Or does the pool dry up, I wonder?”

For a while, she just sat, braced back on her hands, her face lifted to the sky. The peace imbued in the place washed over her. When she felt ready, she let herself remember Kathy’s words to Paul, and their laughter. The memory made Sarah sad and still made her cringe with embarrassment, but she realized that she didn’t feel quite as angry about it as she had.

“Thank you, God, for letting me hear that today. At least I don’t have to face Paul until Monday,” she said to the sky. “And… and maybe, if that’s what he likes, then maybe he’s not as special as I thought he was. Let him have his buxom girls. At least I don’t look like a milk cow, unlike someone I could name.”

A snort came from below, and Sarah jumped. She’d forgotten the deer. Looking down, she saw that it had moved to the edge of the exposed granite and settled down on a soft patch of leaves.