Mudsills & Mooncussers (#multimedia)

Chapter 11

ILLUSTRATION:  A dairy goat.  Many families on Key West kept goats in the back yard, for milking and to consume the household garbage. There was not enough dry land on the island to support cattle; the milkman had one or two, and he went door-to-door selling milk straight from the animal.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Aaron has sneaked into Joe's room to find himself held at gunpoint by her angry mother. Looks like he is one spy who has picked the wrong house in which to rent a room!

Enjoy the newest chapter of MUDSILLS & MOONCUSSERS.  :)

Iris

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Aaron recognized the voice but dared not turn to look. "You mistake me for someone else, Miz Alyce," he said. "Matthews is the name."

"The only person I might mistake you for, Aaron Burgess Matheson, is your father when he was thirty years younger. You have your mother's eyes, though. You may turn around ... slowly. I am an excellent shot, by the way."

Aaron turned very carefully to face her, and she backed up out of his reach, still pointing the gun at his middle.

"I don't understand," he said.

"Of course you do. Charleston. We all used to be back and forth almost every month, before the war—visiting and shopping. I was at the very cotillion where your mother met your father. I know very well who—and what—you are."

Aaron looked around the room as if expecting Joe to step out of a shadow at any moment.

"She is not here," Alyce said. "A neighbor with a sick baby. I sent Joe over there with our milk goat. She'll stay the night."

"Away from me," he said.

"Very much away from you," she agreed.

Aaron leaned back against the bedroom door, taking in all the ramifications of what Alyce had told him. Alyce, deadly calm, kept the pistol leveled at his chest.

"Does anyone else know who I am?" Aaron asked.

"I don't know. I didn't tell them."

Silently they studied one another. Alyce put the pistol down on the dresser and folded her arms. "Did you know your brother joined the army? The Confederate Army?" she asked.

Aaron nodded, a bit sadly.

"Do your parents even know if you are alive or dead?" Alyce asked.

"I don't know. I didn't tell them."

They exchanged a wry smile.

Alyce's eyes changed as she looked into the past. "I haven't seen Melinda Burgess since we were girls." Then she pulled herself back to the loathsome present. "Wouldn't it be ironic if Richard and your brother became friends in the army! We can all laugh about it when they come home." She paused. "Please, God."

"Amen," said Aaron.

Alyce picked up the pistol and brought it to him, pressing it into his hands, and stepped back. "You will stay away from Josephine Marie, Mister Matheson."

"And if I can't do that?"

"Then you will become porch gossip: 'a Yankee spy from a good family in Charleston, isn't it sad?' And one morning they'll find your body on Tift's Wharf with a sailor's bootknife where your heart should be."