Mystery on the Bayou

                                                                                       Chapter 17

                                                                                              Title

     "Yes Ron.  Yes I'll marry you!" Grace said excitedly, as Ron put the pretty diamond ring on her finger.  Then he picked her up and twirled her around.  "Let's go tell everybody!" Ron said exuberantly.   "It's  still pretty early," Grace told him, looking at the clock on the side of the bank building across the street, which marked the time as 8:32.

     "Oh, you know Jessie is always up at seven o'clock," Ron reminded her, "Esther is too.  Especially when she's spent the night with Jessie.  And the sheriff is at work by now, "Ron rambled on, "and I'm sure Grant too is up, and...."  "Catch your breath Ron," Grace told him through her laughter.

     "I'm just so happy," Ron started, "I don't know what to do with myself," he told her, spinning her around again.  "Well, I can tell you what do right now.  Isn't it customary to seal a promise as we've made with a kiss?"  Ron gave her a mischievous grin and took her in his arms pressing his lips to hers.

     "How's that?"  he asked when they broke apart.  Grace laughed again and said, "I didn't know you'd want a rating."  Ron laughed now too.  But then quickly said, "Can you give me one good reason why we shouldn't tell Essie and our friends the good news right now?"  Graced smiled at him and said, "No.  I guess I can't."  "Whoopee!" Ron said, twirling Grace around one more time, then grabbing her hand and running toward the main street.

     The couple reached Jessie house in a relatively short time.  Essie spied them coming up the porch steps from the living room and hurried to get the front door.  She was still in her rainbow striped pajama outfit.  "Did you guys have a nice breakfast?" Essie asked them looking at the big smiles on their faces.  "We had a lovely time," Grace said, bending down and kissing Essie's forehead with her left arm behind her back.

     "Hi kids," Jessie said, as she exited her bedroom with Cocoa on her shoulder. That day, she wore a long dress of bright mixed colors; her usual tiny sparkles did just that, throughout her dark brown dreadlocks.  "Have a nice breakfast?" Jessie asked, taking a seat in her living room rocking chair and setting a bag of Ritz crackers on her lap and then feeding one to Cocoa.

"We had a lovely breakfast," Grace said, looking over at Ron, who had just pulled his cell from his pocket, as Grant walked in the front door.  "Hi all," he said with a grin.  "Breakfast is coming up in a minute," Jessie told him, walking into the kitchen.  Ron was now on the phone with the sheriff.  "Hey Frank," Ron said.  "Hi Ron.  You need something?" Frank asked him.

     "No.  I'm gonna put you on speaker, okay?" Ron asked.  "Sure," Frank said with a curious look at Deputy Clark Cruise who was sitting at his desk drinking his first cup of coffee.  "What's going on?" Clark asked.  Frank shrugged at him.  "Okay Frank," Ron said, "Can you hear me?"  "Yep.  Clark's here too.  Is that alright?" the sheriff asked and then laughed.  "Ha. Ha," was Ron's response, and then he said, Jessie can you come in here for a minute?"

     Jessie set the frying pan down on the stove top, that she'd just taken out of one of the bottom cupboards.  Then she took her place in her rocking chair once again.  "Okay Ron, what's going on?  I've got some hungry people here you know."  "Okay Jessie...." Ron started, but was interrupted when Doogie and Floyd walked in.

     "Hi guys!" Jessie said, "Ron's got something to tell all of us.  So just have a seat and then you can have breakfast with the rest of us after we here this earth shattering news."  Ron laughed again and then turned to Grace and took her hand.  Suddenly Jessie saw her engagement ring gleaming in the sunlight coming in from the living room window.