Chapter 6

Johnnie Sue made a bunch of noise about how she had been abandoned up in the ceiling, but they could all tell her heart wasn’t in it. Moses, since he was still up there, went to the hole in the ceiling and she let herself down to stand on his shoulders, jumping on down to the floor from there. Both ran for the staircase.

When they ran into the entry room from the kitchen, Moses was almost tackled by Hilda Mae, who threw her arms around him in a tight grip.

“I thought you killed him, but you saved his life!” she cried.

Moses tried pushing her away from him, automatically in terror that a white girl was pressed against his body. His hands pushed at her waist, but her grip was too strong. She was sobbing into his shoulder. Mixed in with the shock of her hugging him, was amazement at how slim her waist felt, and how hard the flesh was under her shirt. He had expected a girl to feel soft, but her skin was firm. Something else felt soft too, pressed against his chest, and it made his knees go weak.

“It’s okay,” he said, hesitantly. “He’s okay.”

She changed her hug to a grip on his biceps and shoved him back so forcefully that his head snapped forward before he could straighten it back up.

“He’s okay because of you,” she said, her eyes shining.

“Hilda Mae Wilson! What in the world has gotten into you?” came the strident voice of her sister. “You let go of that boy right this instant!”

Her usage of the word “boy” was not misunderstood by any of them present to mean “young man”.

Hilda Mae turned her head, her hands still clamped firmly on Moses’ biceps.

“This boy just saved my brother’s life, and I don’t give a damn if he’s a ... Negro!”

“What do you think Daddy would say if he saw you right now?” asked Bernadette, clearly flustered.

“I know what he’d say, but he isn’t going to ever find out about this, because if he did he’d know we were here, and if he knew that I’d have to admit that it was you that brought us here and almost got Nathan killed!” shouted Hilda Mae.

She turned back around to Moses, who was staring at her, the whites of his eyes bright in his face. She leaned forward until her face was only inches from his.

“I’m not going to kiss you Moses, but I want you to know I feel like it. That’s how much I want to thank you for helping Nathan.”

Then she pushed him away and let him go. The young man stood frozen, his mouth open. Then as he realized he was holding his breath, he let it out in an explosive exhale and stumbled backwards away from Hilda Mae. He bumped into a wall and she laughed.

“You’re supposed to say I’m welcome,” she giggled.

“I’m welcome,” said the boy instantly, and Hilda almost doubled over laughing.

She turned around to find all the others staring at her.

“What are all of you looking at?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

Nathan was staring at her, much like Moses had been staring at her, but he didn’t say anything.

Suddenly, almost as if it was to change the subject, the discussion turned to how Nathan was going to get back home and get his shirt changed without his parents finding out what happened to him. He was in some pain, but it was manageable, now that the pressure was gone. His shirt, however, was hopelessly torn, and bloody to boot.

Johnnie Sue stuck her hand up in the air, like she was at school. When everyone looked at her she blushed and dropped her hand.

“I was just thinking,” she said, still discomfited by what she had done, “Just the other day, Mamma gave me a whipping because I tore one of my shirts on some barb wire while I was climbing through the fence. Maybe you could say that’s how you tore your shirt.”

The merits of that were discussed at length, the group being about evenly divided between those who thought no one in their right mind would believe a shirt could be completely destroyed by a fence, and those who insisted that the scrape along his side looked just like a fence had grabbed him.

They were still talking about it as they left, when Moses suddenly stopped. They all turned around to look at him. He looked at Luthor and said “Give me the hatchet.” Luthor, looking puzzled, handed it over. “Be right back,” said Moses, and he bounded back into the house. The rest drifted back toward the front door, but suddenly the overhanging balcony, with its missing supports, looked more unstable somehow than it had before and they stopped. Sounds of banging and crunching came from the house, and Johnnie Sue started for the front door. “I’m cuu-ming” came faintly from the house and she stopped. Seconds later Moses came tearing out of the house, the hatchet in one hand, and something else dangling from the other. He shoved the hatchet at Luthor and pulled up in front of Nathan.

“Here,” he said, holding out the other object. It was the doorknob, still attached to the metal body of the locking mechanism by a square metal shaft. There was another doorknob on the other side, this one made of some kind of veined blue stone. The lock was fitted to take a skeleton key.

Nathan accepted the gift, a look of wonder in his eyes.

“Since you got hurt and all,” said Moses in unneeded explanation.

“Thank you,” Nathan said quietly.

In the end, Nathan had the barbed wire story well-rehearsed as he tried to sneak into the back door of the house while Bernadette and Hilda Mae went in first to distract their parents. They needn’t have bothered. Both adults were engaged in watching television, and paid no attention to any of their children. Nathan stuffed the shirt under his mattress and put on a new one. The door knobs were bulky, and the only place he could think of to hide them was in the top of his closet, under some extra pants. Then he went out into the living room as though nothing had happened.

The only response the Wilson children got from their parents concerning their outing was from Harvey. When, during the commercials that ran at the beginning of the Ed Sullivan Show, he noticed his children, he informed them that if they were so rude as to miss supper, then they could just go without.

None of them complained. Their parents didn’t notice that either.

It wasn’t until the next evening, when Johnnie Sue, Luthor and Jesse got back together for the first time since the trip to the mansion, that Johnnie Sue was able to tell them her secret.

Once they had gotten the Wilson children back to town, all the others had split to the four winds to run home. All had missed supper which, on a Sunday, wasn’t all that unusual, but all were nervous about the events of the day. Johnnie Sue was worried that the nail might give Nathan lockjaw. Curtis Lee insisted that, before the nail had been exposed enough to break Nathan’s skin, it had been embedded in wood, and was therefore not dangerous in that way. In all the talk about that, she had forgotten that she had seen something while she was in the ceiling of the mansion that she intended to tell them all.

So, when the friends got together, this time with Moses invited, she was anxious to tell them about it.

“I saw something in the mansion!” she said excitedly as Moses and Jesse walked up to complete the group.

She expected them to be excited with her, but they just looked at her. Then she realized that her words had not conveyed anything in particular.

“Up in the rafters,” she added, not actually telling them anything more. They still just looked at her expectantly.

Finally she calmed down enough to speak plainly.

“While I was up there I saw a wall, way back in one corner of the house. I think there is an attic up there. It can’t be very big, but it was definitely a wall. I meant to say something, but in all the excitement I forgot.”

She got a lot less enthusiasm than she expected. In fact, she got almost none. Jesse smiled, but that was it.

“Aren’t you excited?” she asked, temper creeping into her voice.

“I don’t think there’s anything exciting about that place,” said Luthor firmly.

“Oh, come on,” yipped Johnnie Sue, stamping her foot. “Who knows what might be up there?”

“Nothing is up there, Johnnie Sue,” said Luthor patiently. “You saw that place. There’s nothing left.”

“We won’t know that until we actually look,” she said stubbornly.

“You actually want to go back there?” asked her friend, looking amazed. “You’re starting to sound like that Hilda Mae!”

“She hugged me!” blurted out Moses.

To be truthful, all of them realized the import of that hug, but as for Johnnie Sue, all she could think about was that Moses’ comment was distracting them from what she wanted to talk about. She went to him and hugged him herself, squeezing him gently and then letting him go before he could react.

“There ... I hugged you too. Now, can we talk about the attic?”

Moses was round eyed. He had gone to bed the night before, thoughts of the feel of Hilda Mae’s waist and breasts uppermost in his mind. He had gotten hard thinking about that. He couldn’t do anything about it, because his younger brother was in the bed with him. Sleep had come with difficulty. Now he had felt another pair of those soft breasts being crushed into his chest. He found himself staring at them, pushing out Johnnie Sue’s shirt.

Johnnie Sue was looking at Moses when she made her not-so-veiled suggestion that they should be talking about the attic. When he didn’t answer, she noticed where his eyes were staring, and looked down. As she realized what he was looking at, a wave of heat started, just above those breasts, and crept upwards to stain her cheeks red.

“You’re looking at my titties!” she gasped.

Moses’ eyes jerked up, and a look of horror came over his face. He covered his eyes with his hands.

“I’m sorry!” he yelped. “I couldn’t help it!” He moaned and went from peeking through his fingers to closing them tightly.

Luthor laughed, breaking the tension. Johnnie Sue glared at him and he doubled over, laughing even harder.

“What are you cackling about?” she shouted.

She looked at Jesse, who was looking up at the trees above them.

“Well?!” she shouted impatiently.

Luthor got his breath and grinned. “Of course he’s looking at your titties. All of us look at your titties!” He started laughing again.

Johnnie Sue tackled him with a growl, taking both of them to the ground. She rolled with him until she was on top of him, sitting on his stomach. Luthor kept laughing as she pummeled him with her fists, and did nothing but try to ward off her blows. Finally she grabbed both of his wrists and put her weight on them, leaning over to put her face right in front of his.

“You take that back!” she demanded.

Instead, Luthor dropped his eyes to her chest, and stared at it pointedly. Johnnie Sue was almost incoherent as she realized her shirt was hanging open at the collar loosely. It was one of her father’s old ones, and she liked it because it was loose and comfortable. But, sitting like she now was, it gaped open and her breasts, unfettered because she hated bras, hung in plain view as she looked down the open collar ... just like Luthor was looking down the open collar.

She sat back up and raised her butt six or seven inches off of Luthor’s stomach. Then she dropped with every ounce of weight she could bring to bear. Luthor’s breath exploded from his lungs and she bounced again, taking great joy in the look of panic that came into his eyes as he couldn’t draw a breath. She put her hands on his chest and raised herself for another drop. His hands scrabbled at her arms.

“Just because I have ‘em, doesn’t mean you get to stare at ‘em,” she said, and dropped again.

Luthor was wheezing weakly now, his face turning blue, and she stood up suddenly, one foot on either side of him, looking down.

“You hear?” she snarled.

He nodded and rolled to curl up, just trying to get air into his lungs. She whirled to find Moses and Jesse staring at her, their mouths open.

“And you two mind where your eyes wander too ... got that?”

“Yessum” gasped Moses automatically.

Jesse, though, knew her better ... had known her better for a lot longer ... and he was able to make a grin come to his face.

“You goin’ to sit on me like that too?” he asked.

“I’ll neuter you like my pappa neuters a pig!” said Johnnie Sue, her voice heavy with scorn.

“Awww, come on Johnnie Sue,” pleaded Jesse, still smiling. “We didn’t mean nuthin’. You are a girl, after all.” Unconsciously, though, he cupped his hands over his groin.

It was seeing her friend protecting his ... manhood ... that caused the mood to lighten for Johnnie Sue. He looked funny, cupping his privates like that, and she suddenly laughed.

“Look at you!” She pointed to his hands. Luthor was still just trying to breathe, but both Jesse and Moses looked where she was pointing. “You actually think I’d hurt you!”

Jesse jerked his hands away from his crotch, and his already dark skin got a shade darker.

Johnnie Sue laughed some more. “What a bunch of sissy boys you are! Scared of a pore old little girl!” She thought that was hilarious, but was the only one laughing. She stopped as the uncomfortable mood made itself plain.

Luthor sat up, finally able to breathe normally.

“You didn’t have to do that,” he complained.

“You were looking at my titties!” she exclaimed. “What’s the big deal anyway?” she snorted. “So I got titties. Every girl has titties. Why are they so fascinating to boys?”

“If you think I’m going to talk about your damn titties when you just done that to me, you must be crazy!” panted Luthor, getting up and dusting off his clothes.

Johnnie Sue felt this new and sudden, but obvious, rift in their friendship in a way that was painful. Her feelings were conflicted. She had been mad that her friends would look at her ... that way. It was like a trust had been abused. And now it looked like all this was going to cause problems between best friends. That made her mad too. She couldn’t help it that the damn things grew on her chest. And lately they had grown so much that her mother was starting to insist that she wear a bra. She only had one, and it was way too small now. It was like her life was being taken away from her somehow, and she was helpless to do anything about it.

“Answer my question!” she demanded, frustrated so much that she almost danced. “You stared at them. You owe me an answer!”

“Moses stared at them too,” grumbled Luthor. “Ask him.”

Johnnie Sue whirled to confront Moses, who was edging backwards.

“Don’t you go anywhere Moses Finshaw!” she snapped. “You started this! You answer my question!”

“You hugged me!” babbled Moses, scared so much he started looking gray.

Johnnie Sue realized how frightened he was, and held up her hands. This was getting worse and worse, instead of better.