Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (14 page)

Suddenly, an old face peered down out of the loft’s opening, but it wasn’t
Grandpa
.
The head was too big and the skin
way too pink
.
He
wore
a
gray
fedora with a white feather on the side
.
Saggy cheeks spilled over his
fleshy
worm
-like
whiskers, while he glowered
at her with black
bottle-cap
eyes.

The man
seemed as
surprised to see
Glory
,
as
she
was to see him
.

Another voice below cried out, “This is the soul
!
This is the soul!”

Glory
looked down and nearly lost h
er
balance
.
The intruder on the floor below looked exactly like the man in the loft
, except in place of the feather in his hat
there was
a curved bone
.
He was squat and short, but his fingers were thick as sausage links. The short old guy
stood at the bottom of the ladder peering up at
Glory
.

“
Oh, crap
!” she cried out. “
Midget bums at 12 and 6 o’clock
!
”

Remembering what they did to the squirrels, h
er
throat
dried in an instant.

The bum below
s
tepped up onto the first rung and grabbed
one of her
ankles
.
She
yelped and kicked him away, then climbed up more rung
s
.
Sh
e couldn’t go up and
s
he couldn’t go down. But
s
he had the rake
.
Glory
swung it up and down to keep them at bay.
“Come any closer ya varmit-munching-bums and I’ll stick ya!
”

The man at the bottom grabbed hold of the ladder and shook it
.
Good thing it was bolted to a crossbeam
.
CRACK! One bolt snapped
.
The wood around the second bolt began to splinter
.

“
Dad
!
”
Glory
wrapped
an
arm around a rung of the ladder and screamed
.
“Anybody! Help!
”

“
Tullah
n,” the man in the loft hissed
.
Glory
’s head jerked up and
s
he swung the rake in h
is
direction
.

The stranger held up his palm and blew
.
A cloud of sparkly blue dust flew at
Glory
’s face. The grinning old bum began to blur
.
Sleep became
Glory
’s only desire
.
Fight it
.
So woozy
...

S
he lost h
er
grip and started to fall.

Glory
woke at the foot of the ladder groggy and disoriented
.
Morning sun poured through the
diamond-shaped
window
way up
under the pitch of the roof.
S
tiff all over, head stuffed with cotton
, she stretched and groaned.
“
How
’d
I
fall asleep in the barn?
”
Oh, yeah, looking for
t
h
e
flashlight
.

A cold draft swept over h
er
feet
, w
riggling
her
toes
,
she
looked down to see they were bare
.
T
he sound of the barn doors creaking open
made her jump
.
A large burly figure stood silhouetted
in
the doorway.
Dad
.

He
snapp
ed
a
leather belt between his hands. “
Glory
Alley
!” he hollered. “Where are you?”

Familiar with that tone
,
and the belt,
s
he knew big trouble
was coming
.
Her insides felt like a rope going taut.

Dad
stopped a couple of paces away to stand over h
er
.
Still in his long underwear, wearing a holey white T-shirt covered by a half-button
ed
flannel shirt,
he
asked
, “What in the blazes are ya doing,
girl
?”

“I-I dunno.
”
Glory
replied confused, too afraid to look him in the eye.

“I-I dunno
?
”
he
mocked
.
“Don’t lie to me
!
You forgot to latch the chicken coop
—
didn’t you?”

“Uh, no
.
I’m sure I locked it.”

“Get up.”

She
rolled to h
er
feet and tried to increase the amount of space between h
er
and the belt.

“
Y
ou remembered you forgot to secure the latch
. T
hen came out here to
cover your
hide
,
thinking
I wouldn’t figure it out.”

He
held up a wad of
white and
brown chicken feathers.

Glory
’s breath caught in h
er
chest.

“An animal got into the coop last night and tore up three chickens!
”
He threw the downy fuzz at
Glory
in
disgust
.

“I
’m positive I locked it
...
”

“Latches don’t unlock themselves,”
Dad
growled
. S
napp
ing
the belt
again
,
he
raised it over her head.

“Wait,
Dad
!
Wait!” the words tumbled out as h
er
mind cleared
.
“Two bums were in the barn last night
.
I
’m sure
they had something to do with it
.
”

“Bums?”

She nodded vigorously. “Yes, and w
hen I came out here to get a flashlight,
‘cause
Brandon threw my stuff out the window, they cornered me on the ladder and I fought them off with the rake. The
n the
one in the loft threw blue dust at me, and the next thing I know, I’m waking up with a giant headache, flat-out on my back right here.
”

She
pointed to the floorboards beneath the ladder. “Honest.”

“Are you sure they weren’t government spies?”

“
Huh?”

Dad
lowered the belt and motioned with a finger. “Come here.”

Glory
wanted to run, but knew better than to disobey
.
Dad
smelled like bourbon mixed with sour milk
.
H
e
gripped h
er
shoulders,
forcing her to turn around
while he
rubbed his fingers through
her
hair
.
She
prayed he’d find
brains
oozing
o
ut or
at least a
grapefruit
-sized lump
.

“You’re fine.”
His cold gaze sent chills down her spine.

“But the bums stole my shoes!
”
Glory
pointed at h
er
feet in a last ditch effort to convince
him
she
was the victim, not the perpetrator.