THE STATE OF THE ESTATE by Melody Scott
Prologue
He slammed the shovel into the earth and tossed the rich loam over his
shoulder like his daddy taught him, though that shoulder ached something awful.
Sweat plastered his worn plaid shirt to his body this hot and humid July
afternoon and was now threatening his eyes. His exertion for the last two hours
was almost too much for his eighty-four year old body, and he knew he wasn't
finished yet, not by a long shot.
Thoughts ran frantically around in his mind as he dug deeply into rich
Georgia soil so dark it seemed like night was escaping from it. Nerves stretched
taut, he stopped once more to look around and listen to see if anyone was
approaching
Not yet. I'm too danged old to be doing this much longer. I guess I'll
have to take the boy with me when I go, or they’ll lock him away where he will
never see daylight again. Not much use to ask for forgiveness, that chance
was passed up forty-some years ago. Just got to stay away from them church
people. They'll guess it if they get around me very much, like this little missy
here.
Hadn't he told her to leave him be? She wouldn't listen, would she?
Lucky he’d found that discarded mattress wrapping, otherwise this nosy woman
would have nothing between her and nature. He couldn't spare a bed sheet, as he
only owned one and he needed it more than she would now. But his mama would
blush to think he hadn't laid her out proper.
"Shoot, nobody'll see her anyway, Mama," he mumbled out loud.
Dang it, just dig, old man, quit frettin' cause it don't do no good anyway, and
Hell at least is warm in the winter.
The boy's put up in the old shack again and it will hold him awhile, 'till I
find another place for him. Leave him there and he'll find a way to get out. He
ain't got nothing else to do, does he?
When the hole was filled in, he patted down the earthen cover with the back
of the shovel. With his ruined right shoulder, it was even more work, left
handed. He’d no sooner started that than he heard movement off in the woods
ahead of him. Alerted by the footsteps crunching toward him, he cocked his head
to hear them better with his good ear. He flicked the sweat out of his eyes as
he wondered who in the world it could be. While he was sure he hadn’t been seen,
there were snoopy people everywhere who couldn’t let anything rest, who
persisted in poking around until there was nothing private left in the world.
Oh, my, he must have been seen after all and they were after him. He slipped off
downhill further into the woods until he could make himself invisible by
burrowing under a hillock of leaves like the scared animal he was.
