asked.
I groaned in response.
Gertie’s wrinkled face suddenly appeared next to Ida Belle’s. Looking up at them, I thought I was looking at a pair of deflated soccer balls with poodle hair. “What time is it?”
“Almost noon,” Gertie assured me.
“Five AM,” Ida Belle clarified. She threw the covers back and slapped me on the thigh. “Get up. Fortune’s on her way down the Bayou with the airboat now.”
“Are you kidding me?” My jaw cracked on a massive yawn. “It’s the middle of the flippin’ night.” I tried to tug my covers back up and roll over but the glass of water from the nightstand suddenly appeared above my head. I cracked an eyelid at Gertie, who stared down at me with lifted brows.
“Don’t make me do it, Felicity.”
I sat up, sighing in resignation. “Why are we getting up so early?”
“You wanted to visit Number Two right?”
When I nodded, Ida Belle went on. “Then we need to go early, before the heat increases the stench even more than it already stinks and before Carter gets out and about. The last thing we want after last night’s debacle is for him to see us snooping around on Number Two.”
Since her reasoning made a horrible kind of sense, I forced my weary legs over the side of the bed and straightened, groaning as my mid-section screamed at me.
Gertie’s hand appeared in front of my face with two white pills in it. The hand still holding my water glass appeared next to it. “See you downstairs in five.”
I took the aspirin and water from her and downed them. Then quickly took care of business and pulled on shorts and a tank top.
I was trudging down the stairs toward the scent of coffee when a brighter thought hit me. I was going to get to ride in an airboat.
That, at least, put a smile on my face.
A half hour later, the corners of my smile were tapping against my ears as a stinging Bayou wind ripped my cheeks backward on my face. With bugs and god knew what else constantly smacking me in the face, I didn’t want to smile anymore, but I didn’t seem to have control over my cheek flesh.
Ida Belle was driving the airboat. I was pretty sure she’d broken the sound barrier and the bottom of the boat no longer touched water. I was sitting on the bottom of the boat with Gertie, the two of us wrapped around each other like lovers in the closing scene of an end of the world movie. She wasn’t very big but I was glad for her added weight anyway. I was fairly certain that, without her weighing me down, I would have already been sucked out of the boat, sailing all the way back to Sinful.
The way she was holding onto me I assumed she was thinking the same thing.
The roar of the wind suddenly lessoned and my cheeks crashed back onto my face with a moist slapping sound. The boat slammed back down onto the water. Gertie blinked and loosened her hold around my middle, which made the bruise over my ribs very happy. I scrubbed at my eyes, thinking I might have enough sand in them to start my own sandbox in the park. “Well. That was fun.”
Gertie groaned a response that I took for agreement.
I glanced back at Ida Belle and Fortune. Ida Belle wore a pair of goggles and a long scarf around her neck that had been over the lower part of her face when we left Gertie’s. It was currently hanging limply down her front, the edges splayed like they’d been spray starched. With her curly locks standing up around her face, she looked like Snoopy the Red Baron’s poodle cousin.
Fortune sat behind Ida Belle, her white-blonde locks resembling the spokes on the enormous fan behind her. She sat rigid, her face covered in a white frost of saltwater. As I watched, she slowly loosened her grip on the chair arms, her fingers all but creaking as she gradually straightened them.
“Why did we stop?” Not that I was complaining, but I didn’t smell turd yet so I didn’t think we were close to Number Two.
Ida Belle jerked her chin toward the front of the boat. “We’ve got
I groaned in response.
Gertie’s wrinkled face suddenly appeared next to Ida Belle’s. Looking up at them, I thought I was looking at a pair of deflated soccer balls with poodle hair. “What time is it?”
“Almost noon,” Gertie assured me.
“Five AM,” Ida Belle clarified. She threw the covers back and slapped me on the thigh. “Get up. Fortune’s on her way down the Bayou with the airboat now.”
“Are you kidding me?” My jaw cracked on a massive yawn. “It’s the middle of the flippin’ night.” I tried to tug my covers back up and roll over but the glass of water from the nightstand suddenly appeared above my head. I cracked an eyelid at Gertie, who stared down at me with lifted brows.
“Don’t make me do it, Felicity.”
I sat up, sighing in resignation. “Why are we getting up so early?”
“You wanted to visit Number Two right?”
When I nodded, Ida Belle went on. “Then we need to go early, before the heat increases the stench even more than it already stinks and before Carter gets out and about. The last thing we want after last night’s debacle is for him to see us snooping around on Number Two.”
Since her reasoning made a horrible kind of sense, I forced my weary legs over the side of the bed and straightened, groaning as my mid-section screamed at me.
Gertie’s hand appeared in front of my face with two white pills in it. The hand still holding my water glass appeared next to it. “See you downstairs in five.”
I took the aspirin and water from her and downed them. Then quickly took care of business and pulled on shorts and a tank top.
I was trudging down the stairs toward the scent of coffee when a brighter thought hit me. I was going to get to ride in an airboat.
That, at least, put a smile on my face.
A half hour later, the corners of my smile were tapping against my ears as a stinging Bayou wind ripped my cheeks backward on my face. With bugs and god knew what else constantly smacking me in the face, I didn’t want to smile anymore, but I didn’t seem to have control over my cheek flesh.
Ida Belle was driving the airboat. I was pretty sure she’d broken the sound barrier and the bottom of the boat no longer touched water. I was sitting on the bottom of the boat with Gertie, the two of us wrapped around each other like lovers in the closing scene of an end of the world movie. She wasn’t very big but I was glad for her added weight anyway. I was fairly certain that, without her weighing me down, I would have already been sucked out of the boat, sailing all the way back to Sinful.
The way she was holding onto me I assumed she was thinking the same thing.
The roar of the wind suddenly lessoned and my cheeks crashed back onto my face with a moist slapping sound. The boat slammed back down onto the water. Gertie blinked and loosened her hold around my middle, which made the bruise over my ribs very happy. I scrubbed at my eyes, thinking I might have enough sand in them to start my own sandbox in the park. “Well. That was fun.”
Gertie groaned a response that I took for agreement.
I glanced back at Ida Belle and Fortune. Ida Belle wore a pair of goggles and a long scarf around her neck that had been over the lower part of her face when we left Gertie’s. It was currently hanging limply down her front, the edges splayed like they’d been spray starched. With her curly locks standing up around her face, she looked like Snoopy the Red Baron’s poodle cousin.
Fortune sat behind Ida Belle, her white-blonde locks resembling the spokes on the enormous fan behind her. She sat rigid, her face covered in a white frost of saltwater. As I watched, she slowly loosened her grip on the chair arms, her fingers all but creaking as she gradually straightened them.
“Why did we stop?” Not that I was complaining, but I didn’t smell turd yet so I didn’t think we were close to Number Two.
Ida Belle jerked her chin toward the front of the boat. “We’ve got
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