Join me as I try new restaurants, meet incredible people and explore interesting places!
Update::: Feb 2026:
I did not invent this genre, although I may have named it.
Lucinda Riley invented it, so far as I can tell. Over the past few months I flew through Riley Seven Sisters series. This complex and immersive series is a living example of a Holistory. More specifically a timejump historical holistory.
Let me know if you have ever read a book like this!
More on this later, I just wanted to add that note. Carry on.
HOLISTORY
Are you bored with the worn out selection of story templates that we’ve been stuck with for so long?
Do you have a feeling that there is Magic in the act of writing and you want to dive in the inkwell headfirst as a wizard of words?
Do you love a good mystery but you don’t resonate with murder and violence anymore?
Well, allow me to introduce you to a new genre in the world of storytelling . . .
The Holistory.
What is a Holistory?
In a nutshell, a Holistory is a story that, like a mystery, the author writes backwards with the end in mind for the reader to read forward and pick up clues as they go, leading to a climactic revelation and resolution which bring together all the incrementally revealed pieces of the puzzle.
A Holistory is a Mystery of Miracles.
Here are a couple lists to clarify the nature of the genre. The first list is long (and yearns for your additions).
HOLISTORY DEVICES:
Dreams
Telepathy
Secrets
Lies
Healings
Forgiveness
Animal and plant magic
Reincarnation and kharma
Time travel
Alternative universes or timelines
Numerology
Music, vibrations
Stories
Earth Air Water Fire
Happenstance
Disease and its meanings
Passing comments
Random choice
De javu
Sacred writings, poetry
Prayer
Birth/death
Premonitions
Butterfly effect
Chance meetings
Body holding memories
Symbolism
Car problems
Pre-used items/object magic
Near death experiences
Emergencies
High stakes
Quantum Loom
What is needed is free and perfect or always there
Meditation, epiphanies, visions
Blessings / curses
Superstitions
Legends
ITEMS THAT NEED RESOLUTION:
Guilt
Fear
Loneliness
Something is broken
Disease
Repression
Uncertainty
Abuse
Doubt
Old trauma
Abandonment
Lack of purpose
Close mindedness
Depression
Artists block
Slavery
Infertility
Regret
To live or to die
To stay or to change
Drama
Stagnated mental patterns
Lack
MOVIES OR STORIES THAT ARE ALMOST HOLISTORIES - these works are in the same vein to give you the idea:
A Dog’s Purpose
Cloud Atlas
The Celestine Prophecies
Jitterbug Perfume
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
The Timekeeper
Past Life Regression stories and books
Oedipus Rex
The Butterfly Effect
Many songs
While these stories explore the themes or touch on the structure of a Holistory, most of them lack the identifying feature of the genre which is its clue-based puzzle nature. The closest are the books of Mitch Album.
THEMES
Synchronicity
Things that need each other find each other
Heart/ power of Intuition
Spirit
Time
MOTIFS
Clocks, Timepieces
Fortune cookies
Holistories can be combined with other genres, of course, like sci-fi, romance, adventure, etc.
Please play with this genre format if you - the Artist, the Writer, the Sorcerer of Script - find yourself inspired to create something with it.
I pray it opens new roads in the way we entertain, delight, share and heal.
One Love.
-Amanda
“Soul Religion”
- A simple format for spiritual community -
Free to use by anyone at anytime
BELIEFS
We believe in Ourselves and Each Other and we highly recommend Optimism.
VALUES
Beauty Love (Energy) Freedom Learning Evolving Nature
COMMANDMENTS
1. Love Yourself
2. Love As Much More As You Can
GUIDELINES
Gather every week to give thanks.
Gather outside if the weather is pleasant.
Everyone is a priest / priestess and is encouraged to bring 1 to 3 things to share, such as a story, song, creation, exercise, food, object, idea, knowledge, question, anything.
Four festivals per year.
Jubilee Celebration every six years for all groups to join together. Possibly in the style of a Rainbow Gathering.
Soul Religion can be modified to fit any group, time or space.
“Disciples of Experience and Friends to All”
Suggestions for Human Societies on Earth - 2024
When in the course of human events, murmurings of a great reset begin to rise, well what the hey, let’s reset this thing!
Here are some simple remedies to society’s ills. You are free to use them, share them, steal them, add to them, and think of more and better ones.
Here we go! It’s vengeance and favor time!
1. No more government. That’s the first thing to go.
2. Owners of businesses have one day to step foot in any store if they want to keep it. If they don’t, the manager owns it or it closes.
3. All politicians, gangsters, child molesters, and celebrities board one-way outbound spaceships run by humorless AI.
4. Everyone is terminally healthy because they have access to health machines and reiki masters. Doctors are only needed in emergencies. Hospitals become temporary homes for homeless.
5. Anyone who has killed a person, including police, military, terrorists, CIA, and murderers, go to healing camp until they’re ready for the ferret test. Then they are put alone in a room with a ferret and if they send it only loving vibes, they are free, but if they send it anything shady, they are off to space and the ferret gets reiki for life.
6. To rid ourselves of money and all the problems that go with it, we only need three technologies:
Free Energy Technology,
Replicators for physical goods, and
Crystal Wallets for services.
Replicators create anything you need out of surrounding molecules and molecules from recyclers.
Crystal Wallets are crystals programmed to measure and store personal outgoing energy. Energy is measured in quantity and frequency.
Humans can invent anything, so let’s get working on those three projects asap.
7. Wherever you live now, that’s your house. No rent. No landlords. You can build and trade houses but no buying or selling. If more than one family lives in a house now, they Rock Paper Scissors for who keeps the whole house and who gets a beach house best three out of five.
8. Keep your campers. Traveling is about to become the national pastime.
9. Stop production on everything besides food; we got enough crap as it is. Retail stores become swap-shops and replicator recycling centers.
10. All libraries are run by 70-79 year olds.
11. Marinas become boat libraries and boats can be returned to any location.
12. Factory farms all close. We need a good idea of what to do with all the animals.
13. The only red tape is the grueling paperwork required for approval to cut down a single tree. Toilet paper etc is made from hemp and bamboo.
14. Everybody with taxidermy in their house gets slapped upside the head and they have to bury it with a eulogy.
15. All 15 year olds are competing to invent a car that runs without gas. Winner gets a mansion.
16. There is a bonfire for each menarche where all the women dance to the live band of the girl’s choice.
17. No more American football. God!
18. Artists and parents are the most respected profession.
19. Cell service is off. Walkie-talkies, CB’s and letters are back. No more internet; y’all couldn’t handle it so. Wi-fi towers are torn down.
20. SPCA’s and pounds unlock the animals and play music for a few days. When the music stops, whoever’s yard an animal is in is the new owner.
21. Schooling is only required until the student reads at a third-grade level. All other classes are free, optional, copious and high-quality.
22. Weather machines are owned and controlled by farmers.
23.Girl color changes from pink to red. And we tell the truth that women are more into sex than men are. That should clear up a lot of confusion.
24. All 17 year olds help run a family for three months.
25. All 21 year olds are nannies for nine months and are also the lifeguards at the pools, all of which are free and saltwater.
26. Anyone who has been traumatized by war or abuse gets a house on 30 acres, a horse, a cow, and a monkey.
27. All cars have breathalyzers.
28. All debts are cancelled.
29. No movies or TV; theater and comediennes are encouraged.
30. 14 year olds apprentice in a trade and can do more apprenticing in any trade at any age.
31. All religions incorporate the worship of plants.
32. News anchors and fact-checkers clean public toilets for three years without thanks.
33. We use the thirteen month calendar.
What say ye?
Shall we be anointed and bring good tidings to the afflicted, heal the broken hearted and speak liberty to the captives?
Shall we proclaim The Year of The People?
I say:
One
Two
Free!
Jubilee!
You may want to click on this character list picture and keep it as a separate tab to reference as needed so you don’t have to scroll all over hell’s half acre when you need a reminder of who’s who in Gill City.
Let’s begin.
Who’s the Picasso? (Murder in an island town)
Chapter one
“School’s gonna get canceled. Probably all week I bet.”
“Are you seriously thinking about that right now? We just found our teacher DEAD and we don’t know who killed him or what the freak’s going on around here. Look, guys we got to go tell Robby what we saw right now.” Katie was walking in tight circles and waving her hands up and down while she tried to boss us around as always. School getting called off for a while actually was a huge weight off my mind. I couldn’t get any more absences this year or they might put my Grama back in jail and I knew I wasn’t going to want to go to school now! This was unreal. I’d seen a dead body before but this was a whole ‘nother level. Used him as freaking crab bait. Sick.
Stevie hadn’t said much since she and Katie flew up to me in Casey’s “Sheshell” at a hundred miles an hour and started screaming at me. When they told me what they had just pulled up on the line I told them they were on drugs.
But they convinced me to ride out there with them and sure enough out in the swamp in the full moon light we found Casey’s orange buoy, number 48, and underneath it we found Mr. Watson, our art teacher (he just got here this year), at least what was left of him, stuffed in a square crab trap all dead and soggy. I freaked out for a while; I mean, a certain amount of freaking out is acceptable when something like that happens.
Then we left him out there and rode back to my boat in pretty much silence. Okay, I say “my boat.” Nobody owns it. Nobody knows where it’s from either. It’s just sitting here and has been since I was in like first grade and everybody knows it’s mine.
So here we are, the three of us, on the deck of my “Margaritaville,” not even feeling the mosquitoes eating us, on this, the weirdest night of our lives.
Stevie stood up finally. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“Yeah.” Kaite said and they walked around the stern toward the shore. I hit the bowl I had packed for Stevie. She had never lit it, just held it in her hand like a baby snake.
“You coming, Tyler?”
“Do I have to?”
Stevie said, “duh.”
Katie said “Of course you do!”
We all sat in the front seat of my golf cart and drove straight to Robby’s house. The police office isn’t open after dark. Or before 11 AM most the time. People kind of set their own hours here. Robby is the only pig in town. I don’t really think he’s a pig. I just say that because he expects me to. He’s my dead step-dad’s brother so we’re cool.
Robby’s daughter, Tara, opened the door. “Hey, what are you guys doing here?” She’s a fourth-grader but we all go to the same school.
“Where’s your dad? We gotta talk to him.” We stepped in the house right by her.
“He’s busy right now so I can take a message, Let me get my pencil.”
“Watch out.” We walked straight toward Robby’s home office and Tara followed us.
I didn’t knock, just opened the door.
“Huh?” Robby was watching fishing videos and sharpening his knives. “What’s the matter? You guys look like you saw a murder or something.”
“We did!” Stevie said.
I didn’t want the girls to have to say it so I told him what happened, what we saw.
“Well I sure don’t want to believe you, but Katie, I know Katie wouldn’t make something like that up. Katie, I’m gonna call your parents and ride out there with them. You three go home. I’ll take you home.”
“I made coffee for everybody!” Tara was standing outside the door. “So what’s going on?”
“Mr. Watson’s dead.” Katie said.
Robby made sure we all got home and in seven minutes every man, woman, and child in town knew that out in one of Casey’s crab traps, the new teacher, Mr. Watson was dead and folded up like one of those Picasso ladies he really liked.
Chapter two
I was right. School was cancelled all week. Robby did tell our principal, Mrs. Hangar, to come into town on the ferry anyway. She lives with all the rich people over on Coral Island.
I didn’t sleep much so at about 7:30 I walked to Casey’s restaurant for breakfast and to see everybody. Most of the whole town was there or at least would be by the time I left. Casey was taking orders and running around. Gina, Katie’s younger sister was cooking everything.
Robby and Tara were sitting at the big table today with a lot of other people. Mrs. Hanger was there. She looked pretty shaken up. Katie’s dad and his wife, Dr. Margerie were there too but they weren’t eating. They had to help Robby get the body and everything last night so I guess they weren’t too hungry. Katie was sitting there too talking with the adults. Everybody was shaking their heads and speculating about what the hell could have happened to the poor guy.
Stevie was sitting with her family. Her dad, Trip, had his arm around Stevie’s little sister. Margot was only seven and she was crying. Her mom, Camden, was looking around and writing fast in one of her notebooks. She’s pretty much known around here as a big nut job.
My twin aunts, Sherry and Cherry, were at a table trying to hear everything people were saying. I guess they were going in late to The Manatee where they work cleaning rooms. Gramma must have taken Sharkbait and Minnow with her to the gas station because Jade sure wasn’t watching them. My sister, Jade, was looking at her phone sitting with some other kids from school. I didn’t want to be near them so I looked around for a place to sit. Stevie waved me over and I sat down with her family.
“Tyler, how you doing?” Stevie’s mom asked me.
“I don’t know.”
“Everybody’s pretty much in shock.”
“Except for you,” Stevie’s dad said to her.
“I’m saving my shock for later. There’s too much to think about right now. I’m going to go grab the coffee pot. You guys want something?”
“More juice?” Margot said.
“Sure, sweety.”
I asked Trip, “You gonna open today?”
“I’ve got a couple full tours already so I better. Stevie, you feel up to taking people out?”
“No way. I was thinking me and Tyler could wrangle Katie and try to find out what happened to Mr. Watson.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, then you better take protection. Somebody’s killing people around here. Stop by the house and get the little one. Make sure its loaded. Tyler, you watch out for them.”
“Yeah.”
Casey poured coffee into to-go cups for me and Stevie and we hollered to Katie. She came over and agreed to come with us today. She said she was already planning on spending the day investigating and had a backpack full of whatever “all the necessities” meant.
“Let’s go sit on the boardwalk and make a plan first.” That’s Katie for you. Gotta have a plan.
“No bugs on my boat.”
“That’s true but I don’t really want to work with you two if you’re just going to be stoned all day.”
“Lets do it on my boat then,” Stevie suggested.
I said, “Oh, so we’re allowed now.”
“It’s an emergency situation so yeah. Just don’t touch anything.”
“Alright let’s go.”
Stevie’s house is next to Casey’s so she just ran in real quick for the gun.
While she was in there, Katie said, “Mom’s doing the autopsy today at noon and Im gonna help or at least observe.”
“Gross.”
Stevie’s boat was docked near her dad’s tour boat company. He called it “Captain Cracker’s Critter Cruise and Kayak Rental” but everybody just called it Crackers. We walked down the road, already more alert than we’d ever been. We were in the zone. We passed The Manatee on our right.
The gas station passed us on our left. Gramma waved at me from the window. She was checking in a load of frozen foods and ice cream. The delivery guy was new. He didn’t look at us. Probably not used to working in a place with no vehicles.
It was high tide as we walked toward the water and saw what I can only describe as a floating festival bobbing in the gentle waves. Stevie’s boat used to be called Bob. She named it when her dad gave it to her right after Margot was born. Then we all called it Bob-ayy for so long and so now it’s Bombay, which is painted on the hull in colorful curly letters.
We climbed through the tapestries to get to the cabin door.
I thought of something and said, “Wait guys. Leave your phones on deck. Just in case.”
Stevie said, “Right.”
Katie said, “what if it rains?”
Stevie had a waterproof box and we put our phones in it and stashed it topside.
The window on Bombay’s door was painted with stained glass looking flowers. Stevie unlocked it and we carefully moved down the dark stairs.
Katie said, “Oh my god, what is that?”
“Sage! What do you think it is? Somebody’s got to clean the energy out! You guys can sit here.” She motioned to jewel toned pillows on a window seat. She pulled up an ancient ottoman.
“I’m going to need a table,” Katie said.
“Of course you are. Here.” Stevie brought over a small torquise painted table after she stacked the deck of cards that had been splayed out on it.
“Okay, brainiacs, what’s next? Where we starting?” I asked.
“How about we make a list of everybody who was in town yesterday. We know Mr. Watson was murdered yesterday since he was in school all day.” I agreed with Stevie’s idea. It made sense to me. But Katie said, “I already did that. First, we need to come up with everything that we know about Mr. Watson and then we might be able to understand why somebody would want to kill him.”
“Fine. You start.”
“Alright,” Katie tapped a pen on her chin. “Where is he from? Do we even know that?”
“That’s all good and well,” I said, “But don’t you think the fact that he was - you know - relevant here?”
“I still don’t really believe it’s even true,” Stevie said.
“What’s not to believe? Science advances ever onward. They put a uterus in him and hopped him up on hormones and there you go! Simple.” That was Katie. “Plus he was starting to show.”
“If that’s where we’re heading, count me out.” I felt like I had to say something and that’s all I could think of. I hope it didn’t sound too judgmental. Everybody was in full support. Church was even planning a baby shower for him. Except Rachael, everybody in town had been real nice about it. Probably because he wasn’t from here.
“So what are you saying about it? Who would want him dead because of that? Or . Did they just want to kill the baby?”
I said, “Maybe it was gonna be a demon baby like in that movie.”
“My mom says it’s gonna come out a monkey kid. She said . . . “
“Your mom says a lot, Stevie.” I shut her up about that real quick.
“We aren’t getting anywhere. What else do we know about him?”
“He was from Chadwick I think. He used to teach at the academy then they sent him here.”
“Who sent him?”
“I guess the district.”
“I wonder why they sent him here.”
“I think he was divorced. Jade told me.”
“She didn’t tell me.”
I shrugged. My sister was too weird to understand. Or to trust.
Katie said, “We need more information. We have to look in his desk at school.”
“Let’s go! I still got the key!”
“From last year? You never gave it back?”
“They never asked me for it.” They really didn’t.
Chapter three
Nobody else was at school so we acted like we owned the place. The girls started opening all Mr. Watson’s drawers and file cabinets. I looked around the room. He was definitely the classiest teacher we had. His taste was straight-up fancy. No academic posters or scholastic primary colors. He had real pictures on the walls from different art periods and styles that he had been making us learn about.
Stevie was trying to guess the password on his computer while Katie pursued the papers in the cabinets.
I walked around the outside of the room thinking that I might actually graduate seeing as how everybody in town would be too distracted by all this noise to notice that I wasn’t doing any work.
I noticed a stack of fresh assignments on the big table under the bulletin board and picked them up. Even though I was relieved that I’d never have to actually work on any more of his projects, I got kinda sad thinking about Mr. Watson coming up with lessons he thought we might like and then never getting a chance to see how little effort we put into them. Maybe we should have tried harder for him. He was actually a pretty cool guy.
The pile of papers were an assignment for his middle school classes, so I wouldn’t have had to do it anyway. He was making them do an art history project. They were going to paint a mural on the side of the Rinkydink all about our town’s natural history and ecology. First they had to research the plants and animals native to the island and water and then practice drawing them. I liked the mural idea. This town could use something like that to jazz it up. Something different. And animals and plants were an uncontroversial subject. I bet everybody would have liked it. I wondered why I hadn’t heard anything about it. Mr. Watson would have had to have run it by the Garbies. The Garbies is the club for all the men in town. They meet in the Rinkydink on Wednesday nights and nobody can skate while they’re in there. They call it The Lodge though. Don’t ask me what they do because they don’t tell anybody what they do.
Also on the table there were encyclopedias, really old looking ones. They were full of faded pictures of trees and flowers and all kinds of animals and every left hand page had maps that were colored in where the stuff lived and grew. Sort of cute, him making the kids look in books. Old-fashioned and classy.
Our class had been working on dream catchers for the whole quarter. Me and a couple other guys had been acting like we couldn’t figure them out just to prolong the start of our next project - self-portraits.
“What was that?” Stevie asked.
“Somebody else is here.” Katie answered.
“Probably the killer!” I said.
We heard two sets of footsteps walking down the hall next to us. And we had left the door open.
“Hide!” I told them, diving under the table.
It was too late.
“Who’s in there?” Mrs. Hanger stepped in the classroom door with Robby right behind her. “Katie. Stevie. What’s going on?”
“We are trying to find a murderer. What are you doing here today?”
“I asked Mrs Hanger to meet me in her office so I could get a little information about our victim,” Robby told us.
“Tyler, you can come out,” Stevie said, “It’s just Robby and the principal. Not the killer.”
I crawled out and stood up, still holding an encyclopedia.
“Tyler with a book. I thought I’d never see the day,” Mrs. Hanger said.
“It’s not what you think. It’s an assignment Mr. Watson had for his middle schoolers. Did you know they were going to paint a mural?”
“Yes I did know about that. I was just telling Katie’s dad about the project yesterday on the ferry.” In addition to being Gill City’s mayor, Katie’s dad also drove the ferry twice a day for Mrs. Hanger to get to school and go home and whenever somebody called him because they had to go to town for groceries or when tourists needed a ride onto the island. The ferry was the only way on or off. Except your own boat, of course.
“Your dad couldn’t believe Mr Watson found those old encyclopedias. They’ve been in the music closet since I started here.”
“So you all are snooping around, trying to solve a murder, huh?” Robby said. “Getting anywhere yet?”
“Not really,” Stevie said.
“It appears that Mr. Watson really liked his donuts. There are three on his plate here,” Katie apparently thought donuts were important.
“No, no. All the teachers got those yesterday for Teacher Appreciation Day. Looks like he never touched his. He was trying to eat healthy, organic, no fish, no caffeine for the baby. He was really taking it seriously. Poor man.” Mrs. Hanger told us.
“Yesterday was Teacher Appreciation Day? That’s ironic.” That was me.
Chapter four
We left school and walked toward the dock near my boat.
“Look what I found.” Katie said.
“What?” Me and Stevie said.
“Divorce contracts.” She pulled out some papers from her backpack.
“So what? We already knew he was divorced.”
“Yeah but look at this!” Katie shuffled to page three, item eighteen. It said ‘On the occasion of either party’s demise, their assets and holdings will be transferred to the living party unless the deceased party has parented a child, in which case this clause is null and void.”
“So . . . ?”
“So his ex-wife gets his money!”
“Yep. And Stevie found something else interesting. Show him.”
Stevie pulled a greeting card out of her back pocket. “This is a sympathy card.”
“Can I see?”
“Go ahead.”
I took the card and read it out loud: “ ‘Dear nephew, I am so very sorry for the loss of your mother. She will be dearly missed. It was nice to see you at her service. I wish you all the best and want you to know that I am here for you if you need anything. Betty.‘ Who the hell’s Betty?”
“Mr. Watson’s aunt obviously.. His mom just died. That card was sent last month. She might have left him money or something.”
“Oh . . . “ I said, “And if she did, his wife gets it all now, right?”
Stevie and Katie nodded. Katie said. “Maybe it was enough to kill him for. Let’s go see if she’s here staying at the hotel. Im sure robby would have called her and tld her what happened. Her name is Michelle Lightfoot.”
We walked around the road to The Manatee. My aunt Sherry was outside sweeping the walkway.
“What’s cracking ’ kids?”
“Hey Sherry, you know if there’s somebody named Michelle staying here?”
“You know I’m not supposed to give out guest information. I told you that last year when you had the hots for that Sweedish girl.”
Stevie raised her eyebrows at me. I shrugged. “Okay,” I said, “Where’s Cherry?”
“She should be testing the pool water, but it’s hard to tell.”
“Okay, thank you. Bye!” I said and started walking around the building. The girls followed.
The pool had a fence around it but we’d all been jumping over it since we were ten. This pool was way nicer than the one at The Rinkydink. It was a natural looking swimming hole with a huge rock wall fountain. The best part, though, was the view. You could see to the mainland on a really clear day. And a lot of times you could see dolphins playing in the sunset. The view from the hotel was the main draw of tourists to our island.
When Cherrie saw us, she put her phone in her pocket and picked up a water test tube.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey,” she said back.
“We were wondering if you knew of a guest named Michelle.”
“Michelle Lightfoot,” Katie added.
“Hmmm. I might. One of y’all got a smoke for me?”
I shook my head. Katie scrunched her face. Cherry just stood there tight-lipped. “Fine. I got one but it’s old,“ Stevie said, digging in her shoulder bag.
“Thanks I’ve been out since ten. I’m dying out here.”
“What time is it now? I gotta go soon!” Katie exclaimed.
“Quarter to twelve,” Cherrie clicked her lighter.
“Guys, I got to go help my mom do the autopsy at noon. I’ll meet you where? Where should we meet?”
“Let’s meet at Margaritaville at 1:30.” I said. I was getting a little antsy to smoke myself. This was a long day.
“You mean Marijuannaville,” Katie said, “Okay fine. I’ll see you guys there. Bye Cherry!”
“See ya.” Cherry said as Katie hopped over the fence, her backpack bouncing on the way down.
“Anyway, about this Michelle. Is she here?” Stevie asked.
“Indigo’s ex-wife. Yeah, she’s here. What do you want with her?”
“Indigo?” I asked.
“Mr. Watson’s first name was Indigo,” Stevie informed me.
“Really? I never heard anybody call him that before. What room is she in? We need to talk to her.”
“She’s in room five but you didn’t hear it from me. And just so you know, she is not a nice person.”
“Thanks a lot Cherry. See you at the house,” I said. My aunts had been staying with us for a while. Long story.
Stevie and I walked into the hotel and knocked on the door of room number five.
“Yes?” Said a voice from inside.
“Michelle? Michelle Lightfoot? We were your husband’s favorite students. Can we come in for a minute?” Stevie called.
The door opened. Mrs. Lightfoot was a thin, beautiful woman in expensive clothes. She had clearly been crying.
“I’m so sorry. This is terrible for all of us,” Stevie said. “We were wondering if we could ask you some questions. Trying to help the police chief figure this thing out. We’re his, uh, deputies.”
“Come in. Sit down,” She motioned to the end of the bed and we sat down. She perched on the luggage rack. “I just can’t believe it. It’s too awful. I loved him so much.” She started crying again.
I handed her a tissue from the box on the nightstand.
“Just a couple questions and we’ll be out of your hair,” Stevie was in charge now that Katie was gone. “You live in New York, right?” Mrs. Lightfoot nodded.
“Did you come down here when you heard Mr. Watson was dead?”
“No. Actually I flew in last night. Hated to have to wake the mayor to bring me in but Indigo needed me.”
“What do you mean?” Stevie asked.
“He called me yesterday.”
“What time did he call you?”
“Around seven.”
“What did he say? Why did he need you?”
“I don’t know. He sounded frantic. It scared me. I never heard him sound that way before. He was talking fast and had a lot on his mind.”
“What was he talking about?”
“Everything. He was all over the place. He had ideas for school projects. He was talking about how he was going to decorate the nursery. He said he had a situation with some students that he didn’t know how to handle. Wanted to know what I knew about potty training. If he should buy a boat and what kind. I didn’t know what to think. I figured it was the pregnancy getting to his brain. They say that can happen. Pregnant women - I mean people - go off the deep end all the time. I knew he doesn’t have anyone here to take care of him, so I flew in right away. Even though we’re divorced, we’re still close.”
“And you don‘t have any kids of your own?”
Mrs. Lightfoot’s eyes changed.
“No.”
I changed the subject, “So you got here and then what? Did you see him?”
“No I didn’t. I went to his apartment but he wasn’t there. And his phone was dead so I walked around the island a couple times but never saw him and then I came back here and went to sleep.”
“When did you find out what happened?”
“This morning. I went back to his apartment to try to catch him before school but he still wasn’t home so I went in the restaurant downstairs.”
“Casey’s.”
“Yes. To get a tea. The police chief was there with the mayor and a doctor. I had met the mayor last night and he introduced me to the others. They told me what happened and said I had to stay in town until they find out who killed him.”
“So you didn’t kill him?”
“of course not! I loved him! Very much.”
“Then why did you divorce him?”
She was quiet for a moment, then she said, “I think I need to be alone now.”
Stevie and I looked at each other and stood up.
“Okay. We’re sorry to bother you.”
“It was lovely to meet you,” I said and picked up her hand and kissed it. She was such a lovely woman. I wonder why Cherry didn’t like her. Probably jealous.
When we were outside, Stevie said, “What was that? You kissed her hand?”
“She’s from New York. It’s their culture.”
“No it’s not.”
“You don’t know. You’ve never been anywhere either.”
“I will! I know I will. As soon as I save enough money I’m outa here. Wait and see.”
Chapter five
“So you think she did it?” Stevie asked me on the short walk to Crackers.
“I can’t see her killing anybody. But she did have a reason to want him dead with the money and everything.”
“Yeah, she’s the only person who had a reason to kill him. I just can’t see her lifting his body, stuffing it and throwing it off the side of a boat. What’s she weigh, a hundred pounds soaking wet?”
“I didn’t even think about that. Whoever killed him has to be pretty strong, huh?”
“I would think so. Me and Katie could barely pull him up last night.”
“Yeah but he was waterlogged by then.”
“Don’t remind me.”
When we got to the dock of Stevie’s dad’s business, he was just bringing in a small group of excited tourists. Margot was on the boat too and waved at us. As the group unloaded, they handed him twenty dollar bills and told him they had a great time. One older couple passed us and asked us why we weren’t in school.
“I’m nineteen years old, thank you very much!” Stevie lied.
I just told them to piss off. You get tired of the same old questions.
Margot hopped off the boat humming a little tune. I smiled at her. Stevie walked over to her dad. “So I guess you aren’t telling them about the dead teacher.”
“You know me, it was hard to keep my mouth shut, but I thought it might ruin their tour experience. We just saw three manatee right beside the boat. They loved it!” He jumped on the dock holding the line. “Hey Stevie, tie this off for me, would ya?” He handed Stevie the rope. “Tyler, can you get this one please?” He handed me the other one. I tied mine to the cleat and Stevie tied hers. We could both do it in one quick fluid movement since we’d been tying off boats our whole lives.
“That’s what I thought,” Trip said.
“Let me do one! I can do it!” Margot said and Trip untied one of the lines and handed it to her.
“What did you think?” Stevie asked.
“Number three over there,” he pointed to one of his clear-bottom boats, “this morning it was tied down with a, like a shoelace knot.”.
“What?”
“Yeah, what do you think about that?”
“I think it’s pretty suspicious.”
“I do too. Your mom’s coming over on her break and we’re going to look around to see if there’s anything weird onboard. Oh, here she comes!”
Camden was jogging toward us from the gas station where she worked behind the pizza and sandwich counter. She waved at us.
“Hey guys!” She picked Margot up and swung her around then put her down with a kiss. “How’s the detective work coming? Anything interesting?”
“A couple things,” Stevie said, “but nothing solid yet. So we’re checking out number three?”
“Yeah, I only got about ten minutes. Let’s go!”
“That’s the boat the monkey’s in.”
“What monkey, Margot?” Stevie asked her sister.
Trip said, “She’s been talking about the monkey all day.”
“Maybe it’s her coping mechanism,” Camden said.
The five of us got on the number three boat after Camden took a picture of the stupid-looking knot.
We were looking around the boat when I saw a folded paper tucked in between the cushions on the back seat. I pulled it out and unfolded it. It was a kid’s version of Starry Night done in colored pencils. It said “You are my favrit teacher.”
“Look at this,” I said.
“What is it?”
“That’s mine!” Margot exclaimed. “I made it for Mr. Watson.”
“Huh,” Trip said.
Camden rubbed her chin and scrunched her eyebrows.
We walked across the street with Camden to the gas station. I was getting hungry. Gramma was behind the counter selling Rachael (our youth leader) a ham sandwich and then Katie’s dad a can of snuff. I asked if she had anything for us to eat.
“Go to the house. Take Stevie with you. There’s plenty of food in the fridge.”
“What time is it?”
“Almost one.”
“Okay we will, but we got to hurry. We’re meeting Katie at 1:30 and none of us have our phones today.”
“That’s a real good idea. A murderer running rampant and you have no way to call for help.”
“Gramma. This town’s so small if we yelled from anywhere on the island somebody would hear us.”
“Alright. I’ll see you tonight. Love you. Bye, Stevie. Love you too.”
Stevie blew her a kiss and we speed walked to my house.
Max was home watching the twins. Max is my half step cousin, Sherry’s ex-husband’s son. He lives with us too. The twins are almost two years old and they are Cherry’s. The little girl is Minnow and her brother is Simon but we call him Sharkbait.
“Jade’s not here?”
“Nope.”
“Thank God.” I looked in the refrigerator. “Stevie, whatchu want?” I told her what we had and we decided to heat up some leftover spaghetti and eat it real fast and pack a bag of fruit and bread and cheese for later. I thought about drinking one of Cherry’s wine coolers but decided against it. Katie would know.
The twins were fighting over the tv remote and Max was tying a fishing fly.
“Hey Max,” Stevie said, “Did you see or hear anything weird last night? We’re questioning everyone in town.”
“Hmm.” Max wasn’t a big talker and he wasn’t a snitch either. In fact, nobody in town was a snitch so this might be a tough case to crack unless somebody knew something that they didn’t think was important and they tell us because everybody in town besides Max also has a really big mouth. Gossip is our number one pastime.
“Last night I helped your dad fix a boat until about 6:30 and then I came home and read. On the way home I stopped by Casey’s to get a plate of fries but she was closed. That was weird, I guess. She usually doesn’t close til seven or eight. Guess she had to do something.”
“Interesting.”
“Very interesting,” I said.
“Alright Max, we’ll see you. Have fun.”
I told him bye too and ruffled the kids’ heads. Then we hustled over to my boat. When we were almost there, Katie came running up behind us.
“Hey! Hey!”
“Katie. You sound like you got something juicy for us.”
“Do I ever!”
Chapter six
We waited until we were inside to talk about our findings. Like I said, there are ears everywhere around here.
Margaritaville looks rough on the outside but it’s perfect for chilling, fishing and drinking beer with Max in the sun. The cabin is dope for sure though. It’s still got tropical colors painted on the walls and cabinetry and parrots raising their drinks and winking at you from every angle. I got my pirate flag and my Bob Marley tapestry in the sitting room and the big bed is super comfortable. I sleep here most nights. Stevie comes over and smokes with me sometimes.
I switched on the air conditioner to get a little breeze going.
This was Katie’s first time coming in. She took a quick look around then sat on the bench and unzipped her backpack. She pulled out a notebook, a pen, and a manilla envelope.
Stevie opened her bag, pulled out some pears and cheese and a knife and set out a little spread for us. We munched as we talked.
“So how was the autopsy? Did you throw up?” Stevie asked.
“No. I’m used to it. Alright, I have two things to tell you guys. I think you will find them very fascinating.”
Stevie asked, “How‘d he die?”
“Mom won’t know cause of death until later. She wants to be sure before she says anything. I’ll go to the office and ask her in a couple hours. Alright, first, Did you talk to Mr. Watson’s ex-wife?”
We told her everything about meeting Michelle Lightfoot and what she told us. We also told her about boat number three and Margot’s drawing.
“Good work guys! I’m impressed. Now check this out. Look what these divorce papers say here.” She pointed to a line that said ‘REASON FOR DIVORCE: impotence.”
“Well that makes sense,” Stevie said, chewing a piece of pear and sounding disappointed, “We told you Mrs. Lightfoot sounded like she wanted to have kids but she couldn’t. I don’t think it’s that fascinating. Mr. Watson wanted a kid and she couldn’t have any. Big deal. I hope the other thing you got to tell us is better than that.”
“First of all, it is. Second of all, this isn’t saying she couldn’t have kids. It’s saying Mr. Watson couldn’t have kids. And that’s why she divorced him!”
I grunted, “And then he got pregnant. It’s a miracle.”
Katie said, “Wouldn’t that really get under your skin if you were her? He can’t give her any kids, then they divorce and he goes and gets this procedure so he could have a kid without her. I’d want to kill him after that.
“Okay, Columbo. That’s pretty good. What else you got?”
“Okay, are you sitting down?” She knew we were. “Okay. Get this. Mr. Watson’s body showed huge amounts of . . . methamphetamines!”
“What!?”
“No way!?”
“Yep. Turns out he was a big ol tweeker. Mom said it was a lot too.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Stevie started. “I never would have guessed that. He never seemed like he was on drugs. And I think we would know. Half the town does it.”
I remembered something from earlier. “Wait, remember when Mrs. Hanger said he was eating so healthy and everything? This doesn’t make sense. He wouldn’t want to hurt the baby. You sure your mom’s right?”
“I saw the report. It’s true.”
“That’s just crazy.”
“He wasn’t the type, I’m telling you,” Stevie shook her head.
We sat there for a few minutes thinking. Finally I asked Katie if she got to see the dead baby.
“No, mom took it out before I got there. She said it would be too disturbing for me to have to see something like that.”
“Oh and cutting open your teacher’s body isn’t disturbing?”
“Yeah I don’t know why she did that. But anyways, don’t you think we’re getting somewhere? Who do you think we should question next?”
“I got two more hours with you guys. Then I got to go to youth meeting.”
Katie and Stevie were the only kids at school that didn’t go to church on Tuesday nights. I did. Sold a lot of weed there. And played some good basketball.
Chapter seven
Since Mr. Watson was smoking meth, we figured we’d better go talk to Casey and find out what she knew about it. Casey owned and ran the restaurant but she also sold crystal to anybody who asked. Everybody knew that if you went in and ordered “the soup du jour” Casey would put a little baggie on a plate, top it with two coconut pancakes and whipped cream. The whipped cream was usually shaped like a smiley face unless she was mad at you. Then you left her a big tip. She paid a lot of that money to kids in town for checking her crap traps, like Katie and Stevie were doing last night. Tourists love crabs.
None of the high schoolers messed around with the hard stuff. We’d all seen what it did to people. Plus Casey would have killed us if she found out.
Casey’s kids, Billy and Shelby, were our age. Billy was in my class, twelfth grade, and everybody liked him. There’s nothing bad I could say about Billy. He was always the leader. He was good-looking I guess. He life guarded at the pool and pitched for our baseball team. He would never hurt a fly but if you were picking on a little kid, he’d kick your ass over it. And he got invited to Garbie meetings, mostly just when they needed heavy stuff moved around, but still, nobody else got invited until they were old.
Shelby was in my sister’s grade. She was tough and thought she was all that because she was the catcher for the girl’s varsity. Her big thing, though, was getting some. She’d been out with all the boys in school, half the boys on Coral Island and now she was turning her flirting on older guys.
On our way to the restaurant, we passed Tara riding her bike to the pool. Since she was Robby’s daughter, we stopped and asked her if she had heard anything.
“I bet you didn’t know that Dad went and got Billy and Shelby last night because they probably killed him.”
“What are you talking about, they probably killed him?”
“They were out messing with that trap when he got dropped in. Dad saw them.”
“He saw them put Mr. Watson in the water?”
“No. But he saw them put a trap in the water and it was probably him.”
“So he arrested Billy and Shelby?”
“Yeah, but he had to let them go this morning. The doctor said they couldn’t have killed him. They were still at the baseball game when he died.”
“What did they have to say about it?”
“They said they don’t know anything about it. They were just out crabbing.”
Stevie said, “But me and Katie were on crab duty last night. They didn’t have to do it.”
Katie said, “True. And all the other traps we picked were full of crabs. That means they weren’t crabbing last night. They were doing something else.”
“Like what? Like killing Mr. Watson?”
“I told you! They couldn’t have killed him because he died before eight and the game wasn’t over til after eight!” Tara said, “So how do you think they did it?”
“Obviously they didn’t do it,” I said. “But then why did they have his body and why did they put it in their mom’s crab trap? I’ll ask them tonight at church.”
“They won’t tell you.” Katie said.
“Sure they will,” I said.
“Mom speculates time of death was after 7:30 because he had fresh no-see-um bites on his arms and no-see-ums don’t bite dead people.”
“And they’ve been coming out about 7:30. So he was murdered between 7:30 and eight,” Stevie said.
Katie said, “I meant to tell you guys that earlier. Whoops.”
“I’m going swimming for a while. I’ll see you at church. Maybe I can help with your ‘teragations.” Tara said to me as she walked her bike away.
We entered the restaurant. It was empty after lunch. Most people sat at home or work in the AC this time of day and rested their eyes. Gina looked up at us from a table where she was rolling silverware. “What are you guys doing?”
“Finding out what’s going on around here. Did you talk to Mom yet?” Katie asked her sister.
“No, why?”
“The autopsy showed Mr. Watson was on meth,” Stevie said. Like I said before, nobody can keep a secret around here. There’s no use in even trying.
“Huh? Mr. Watson was on meth? This town is such a sinkhole. Nobody can escape it. We’re doomed. We’re all doomed. I give up. Casey, I’m going home. Mental health day. See you guys around.”
I asked her if she was coming tonight.
“I got to. God’s the only one who can save us now.” Gina left.
Stevie’s mom was sitting at a table with Casey. They were the only other people in there now that Gina went home. Camden was drinking coffee and had a notebook and pen. She was listening to Casey very attentively. I could’s see Casey’s face.
“Mom’s already here. Wonder what they’re talking about.”
“Or how your mom’s gonna spin it tonight,” Katie said.
Most nights Camden blasted herself talking through the airwaves. She had a small radio tower hooked up on her boat “Pleades” and she circled the island for an hour or two. Tune your channel to 101.1 The Word for news of the New World Order, stories of the bizarre from around the globe and on Wednesday nights, “Gill City Sus,” where she talked about what she thought was really going on on the island. That was mostly her spying on the Garbies, speculating about tunnels under the town, and a critical review of Sunday’s sermon. As I already mentioned, she’s mental.
“Hey Mom. Casey. Can we join you? We’re trying to find out everything we can. I think we’re getting somewhere,” Stevie said to Camden.
“Or maybe nowhere,” I said. None of any of this was making sense. They more we found out, the more confused I was getting. It was like one of those dreams that keeps skipping from scene to scene and none of them connect.
“Have a seat.”
Casey eyed us warily. “Y’all want something to eat?”
“No thanks. We just wanted to find out what you know and maybe it’ll help us get closer to solving the crime,” Katie said.
“I’ll tell you what I know but it isn’t much.”
“Do you know what Billy and Shelby were doing last night on your boat?” Stevie asked her.
“Who told you they were out last night?”
“Tara said Robby saw them out where the body was.”
“Oh. Um. I think they were just riding around. They didn’t kill him. That’s already been proven by the time of death. Somebody else killed him. It wasn’t them,” Casey said.
“So you don’t know how a body ended up in your crab trap?”
“No I don’t.”
“Did you know Mr. Watson did meth?”
Casey looked shocked. “Where did you hear that?”
“Autopsy report.”
“So did you give it to him?”
“Of course I didn’t, geez guys,” Casey looked straight in my eyes like a lifelong liar does.
Camden said, “If that’s the case, I wonder where he could have gotten it. You’d think he’d be a little more discreet being a teacher. Not going around town picking up drugs. Being pregnant does make you tired, I will say that. I bet he needed it to grade papers and stay awake in class. I remember when I was pregnant, I couldn’t even . . .”
“I don’t think he did it, Mom. I think somebody drugged him,” Stevie said.
“Hello. Stevie. If you wanted to kill somebody, meth is the last thing you’d drug ‘em with. You ever fought a tweeker? They can pick up an engine and throw it across the swamp. Methhead strenghth is no joke.” They couldn’t argue with me on that.
Katie asked Casey, “Where were you last night from 7:30-8?”
“Not that’s it’s any of your business, but I was at Robby’s house. He’ll tell you that. I did not kill the man if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“What were you and Robby doing?” Stevie asked.
“Don’t worry about it. We were talking, okay.”
I said, “Why’d you close the restaurant early? Where were you before you went to Robby’s?”
“I was watching Billy at the game.”
“No, you weren’t. I was at the game,” Katie said. “You came over in the second inning, handed Billy a Gatoraide in the dugout and then you left.”
“Fine, smarty-pants. I wasn’t at the game. I was indisposed with a personal matter. Which has nothing to do with you. Girl stuff. Don’t worry about it. You already know I didn’t kill the guy, so who cares?”
“Alright. You don’t have to cooperate with us. But just know, the truth always comes out!” Katie said. Stevie and Camden raised their eyebrows at her. Katie has always said she’s going to law school one day and she was taking this detective work way seriously.
She turned to Stevie‘s mom. “Camden, where exactly were you last night between 7:30 and 8 oclock?”
“I took Margot to the game for a little while and then we went home and had pizza with Trip and Stevie. Then we watched Muppets Treasure island. Margot went to sleep around nine and then I recorded a show, which I’m going to scrap as this murder is taking center stage for “Gill City Sus” this week.”
I rolled my eyes.
Then she said, “If you all need help sorting out your information, come over to the house tonight. I’d love to help.”
Katie rolled her eyes then. “I think we can handle it.”
Stevie told her mom, “I’ll tell you everything at supper after Tyler goes to church. Katie, you want to come over and eat with us?”
“No thanks.”
“Okay, Stevie, see you at home in an hour,” Camden said.
Stevie, Katie, and I stood up to leave.
“I might not have killed him, but I’m glad the bastard’s dead,” Casey said.
“What? Casey! He was a great teacher,” Stevie said, speaking for all of us.
“That’s what you think. Get out of here. Go!”
We left not knowing what Casey could possibly have had against Mr. Watson.
Chapter eight
We had another hour before I was supposed to be at church. The pool was open so we decided we’d go talk to Billy while he was life guarding and find out what he was doing near buey 48 last night.
It was hot. A lot of the kids and some adults were swimming. I looked up at the big osprey nest above us on the top of a telephone pole. All the baby ospreys were asleep now, but in the mornings and evenings they got really loud. I don’t know how the birds could sleep over the rucus all the kids were making. Tara was standing on the side of the pool holding a volleyball trying to decide who was the most deserving of her to throw it in to. Billy was on the lifeguard stand scanning his eyes back and forth for dangerous situations.
We walked over to him.
“Hey Billy,” I said, “Can we talk to you for a minute?”
“What’s up?” he answered.
Katie said, “We’ve been looking into the Mr. Watson situation and we know you might be involved.”
“I’m not involved,” Billy responded.
Katie continued, “We know you and Shelby were out last night and we know you dropped his body in the water. We also know you didn’t kill him. So if you wouldn’t mind telling us what you were doing with an art teacher in a crab trap, we would be very appreciative.”
Billy just sat there.
“come on, Billy just tell us what happened. Please.” Stevie said.
“Okay. I’ll tell you what I know just to get you off my back. I don‘t think it’ll help you find the killer though.”
He went into his story, never taking his eyes off the pool: “Last night, after the game, I walked home. Me and Shelby got into a fight at the house so I went outside to get away from her. You know the boardwalk behind my house?”
“Yeah.”
“I started walking down the boardwalk to look at the moon, okay, and then I saw Mr. Watson laying out there. I ran up to him to see if he was alright and he was dead. I tried CPR but he was really dead so I ran back to the house to get Shelby. Then we picked up his body and put it on mom’s boat.”
“Why? Why didn’t you go get Robby?”
“Yeah, what the hell were you thinking?”
Billy opened his mouth and then shut it again. Then he quietly said, “We thought mom killed him. But she didn’t! She was at Robby’s when somebody else killed him. Robby knows it wasn’t her!”
“Okay, but you thought Casey killed him. And so what did you with the body?”
“We were going to dump it somewhere. We were trying to decide where when Marshall Becky started pulling up on us.” Marshall Becky is Robby’s police boat. He does a safety lap around the island every morning and evening.
“He was coming up to us and we freaked out. We couldn’t throw the body overboard or he’d see the splash. We had to do something fast before he got to us. Shelby decided to make it look like we were out crabbing and before I could stop her, she pulled up the trap, cut it open, and shoved his whole body in it. She did it fast. You know how strong she is.”
“Yeah,” I said, “she can kill somebody in basketball.”
“Nice choice of words,” Katie said. “So then what happened?”
“Since it was dark out, Robby couldn’t tell what we were lowering into the water. He just thought it was a trap. But it wasn’t easy making him look light. Thought my arm was going to fall off.” he paused and blew his whistle. “ten minutes!” he yelled to a chorus of “awww!”’s.
“I’m sorry it had to happen like that but now you know,” billy said, “and now you can leave me alone and go bother somebody else.”
“not so fast,” Katie stopped him. “theres one more thing.” we all looked at her, wondering what the one more thing was. “Why did you think your mom killed him?”
Billy glared at Katie. She stared him down. Finally he said, “ask Shelby. Or your sister,” he looked at me.
“Jade?” I said.
“how many sisters you got? Now get outa here. Pool’s closed.” Billy blew his whistle.
Chapter nine
Katie said her mom probably had the cause of death figured out by now so we headed over to the Town Hall to talk to her. Dr. Margerie had her office on the first floor of the Town Hall beside the library/DMV. Taxes, water and town services were also on that floor. Robby’s police office and the social services area were upstairs and the morgue was in the basement. My house was across the street from the Town Hall and we saw Max and the twins walking home. I waved and sped up to see them.
Max was holding each of their hands as they crossed the road. Even though we don’t have any cars on the island, by this time of day people have already started drinking and driving their golf carts around so you got to watch out.
“Tywer!” Minnow said. I bent down and hugged my little cousin.
“You’ve been watching them all day?”
“Yeah but Sherry just got home so I’m handing them over.”
“Where’s their mom?”
“Haven’t seen her.”
Stevie and Katie caught up with us.
“What’s up, Max.” Katie said, “We’re looking for Mom. You know if she’s in her office? You seen her?”
“Yeah but she’s on the phone.”
“How do you know?”
“Well. We were playing on the green and all of a sudden these two started running up the steps. They kept saying ‘kunky’ like they saw somebody they knew. So I chased them in and when I was in the hallway I heard your mom talking on the phone. It sounded serious. She was telling somebody not to worry. That she disposed of it. What do you think she disposed of? The body? What’s going on?”
“I wouldn’t think she’d dispose of the body. Even if she did, she wouldn’t say ‘disposed of,’” Katie said.
“Weird,” Stevie said. “Who’d you say the kids saw?”
“I don’t know. They kept saying ‘kunky.’”
“Kunky,” I said, “that’s how they say ‘monkey.’” I’d watched enough movies and read enough animal books with them to know what a kunky was.
“Huh.” Stevie said, “remember earlier Margot was talking about a monkey too.”
“That’s all we need right now, a monkey running around loose in town,” Katie said.
“How would a monkey have gotten here?” I asked.
“The only monkey I ever saw around here was Miss Cleo and she died last year.” Miss Cleo was Stevie’s mom’s sugar glider.
“Miss Cleo was a sugar glider,” Max said.
“Well she thought she was a monkey.”
“Anyway!” Katie said, “I’m going in. y’all coming or not?”
“Yeah. Max I’ll see you at church.” I said.
“Maybe. I might be about done for today.” I couldn’t blame him. the twins can really wear you out.
When we got to Dr. Margorie’s office, she was typing something on her computer.
“Hey mom. What’re you doing?”
“Emails. What’s going on with you all?”
“We came to see if you know how Mr Watson died. Anything conclusive?” Katie loved using words like conclusive.
“Actually yes. He was suffocated.”
“Suffocated? I thought he would have been shot,” I said.
“But before he was suffocated he was hit over the head with a flat sided object which more than likely knocked him unconscious.”
“Yikes,” I said.
“God, this is horrible,” Stevie said, “who would have done that? He was such a sweetheart! And to kill his baby too! That’s just evil.”
“Yes, it’s a shame about the fetus. I was actually pretty invested in the results of his procedure,” said Dr Margorie.
“Oh yeah?” I said.
“My colleague, Dr Steiner, and I were writing a paper on it. It was going to be published by Johns Hopkins. The global medical community is very excited about the possibilities of uterus transplants. A lot of money to be made in the conception industry. It‘s a shame. We would have written a chapter of history.”
“Where’s his body now?” Stevie asked.
“It’s downstairs in a drawer.”
“So you didn’t dispose of it?”
“Of course I didn’t dispose of it. His next of kin is responsible for the burial and funeral arrangements. And his next of kin is already here. At the Manatee. His ex-wife. She’s planning on taking him back to New York tomorrow.”
“Can I use your bathroom?” Stevie asked.
“Uh, the toilet is broken right now. I need to get it fixed.”
“I just need to wash my hands. Fish guts,” Stevie said as she walked into the bathroom. Dr Margorie moved her body as if to stop her but then held back. She didn’t know Stevie well enough to know that she was a vegetarian and never would have had fish guts on her hands.
“Katie, why don’t you go home and help your father with dinner. I’ll be home shortly.”
“Well . . . “
“It’s okay, I got to go to church now anyways. We’ll meet back up at seven?”
Stevie came out of the bathroom. “Yeah let’s meet in Bombay at seven! Adios, doctor!”
“Bye kids. Be good.”
Chapter ten
We split up. The girls went to their houses and I headed over to church. As I was passing the gas station, Rusty called out to me. Rusty’s an old guy who’s always standing in the shade under the roof of the station. He lives in our shed when he’s not sleeping on his johnboat, “Wanda.”
“Hey, Rusty. How’s it hanging?” I asked him as I approached the store.
“Good good. Seen all them tourists?”
“Are there a lot in town today?” I hadn’t seen more than normal.
“Always is. Not like it used to be.”
“What, back in the day?”
“When I was lil’ it wasn’t like this you know.”
He had told me that before.
“Oh yeah, what was it like?”
“Different. Locals. Just locals. ’Fore they built that hotel.”
“When was that?”
“72.”
“Uh huh, look I gotta go. I’m gonna be late.”
“Used to be trees all around.”
“Okay, Rusty. Catch ya later.” I jogged across the street to church.
I wanted to talk to Shelby and Jade but we were about to get started and they were sitting with some other girls and Rachael didn’t put up with us talking while she was talking. Rachael was our youth leader and she always began meetings with a little sermon kind of thing. We might not pay attention but we sure didn’t interrupt or look at our phones. I knew Jade found that part almost impossible. Gave her the shakes. But when Rachael was talking, God was talking through her. And He was usually upset with us.
She greeting everyone and gave some announcements. She prayed for Mr. Watson’s soul as he transitioned out of this world and she prayed for the soul of the person who killed him, that they might seek forgiveness in Jesus’ name amen. Then she read a few Bible verses. Tonight, unfortunately, it looked like she was going to talk about sexual purity again. Great. I wouldn’t be able to touch myself for days now. On nights like this, she always told us: “you can wait, don’t masturbate.” We never talked about stuff like that with anyone and I wasn’t sure why she felt like she had to but I guess it bothered God something awful and she had to keep reminding us. I felt pretty ashamed thinking about all the times God had to watch me doing that.
I half-listened while I thought about the day so far. There was a lot to process: a stolen boat with a drawing on it tied up by someone who couldn’t tie a knot, a beautiful ex-wife who wanted a kid, a secret I had to talk to Shelby and Jade about, and a possible monkey sighting. Wait a minute! Did the monkey kill Mr. Watson? It could have if it was a big monkey.
“Your body’s a temple,” Rachael was saying, “a sacred gift for your future husband or wife.” I tried to nod at the right times as I imagined Mr. Watson’s last moments on the boardwalk. He was probably just trying to feed that monkey and then it went bananas and punched him upside the head.
Now Rachael was warning us about the dangers of sexting. Like any of us were doing that. I was lucky if a girl even texted me back. I did have a girlfriend on Coral island but her dad made her break up with me. That’s what she said and I guess it was true.
Oh yeah. And Mr. Watson was doing meth. I pictured him lighting a glass bowl for the monkey. I probably wouldn’t be mentioning this theory to Katie.
Rachael’s face was red now. She was really religious. “Vanity vanity all is vanity. I feel sorry for you pretty girls - “
Stevie burst in the door. “Margot’s missing! Come on everybody! We got to find her!”
Everybody stood up and scrambled out of the church. Stevie told us that Margot was last seen in their yard, reading a book. And that her parents were looking in the Town Hall and the Restaurant first. Rachael had run outside with us and now she quickly split everybody up and told us where to look. When a little kid goes missing on an island, it’s a serious issue. Rachael and Shelby were gonna circle the island on Sheshell. Billy and his team were to knock on everybody’s doors. Other people had other assignments. I stood near Stevie so we would get grouped together and we did but we also got stuck with Tara. The three of us were supposed to look in and outside the church.
We decided to look outside first as it was more dangerous and it was going to be dark soon. We hurried down to the shore. We called for Margot and looked everywhere. We even looked in Jolly Rodger’s lair. He himself was lurking near the boat ramp. Jolly Rodger is a humongous alligator. He liked to stash his collections inside his lair. He had all kinds of stuff in there like beer cans and buoys and a big stash of oyster shells. I saw that he also had a leather bound book now. Wonder where he got that. I knew Stevie was afraid he ate Margot but I told her that he had never gotten near a person. Ever. I mean, he was still an alligator, but I didn’t verbalize that just then. We looked all over the graveyard and then we went inside.
Tara said, “Did you guys know Rachael had a monkey? I didn’t know that. When’d she get him?”
Stevie and I ignored her.
Tara checked all the Sunday school rooms while Stevie and I searched the sanctuary and balcony.
“I got something crazy to tell you but I will after we find Margot.”
“Okay,” I said.
Trying to take her mind off of it, I asked, “What was going on at your house?”
“Mom was spying on the Garbies. They were all going in the Lodge. Except Dad. He was upset he wasn’t invited. He said it’s because of Mom’s radio show. She said it’s because he’s not from here.”
“He goes to most of their meetings, though, right?”
“Yeah, usually.”
Just then we heard the bell ringing at the town hall.
“Thank God! They found her!” Stevie said. She started running out the door.
“I’ll catch up with you in a minute,” I said, “Go ahead.” I wanted to stop by my boat real quick. On the short walk there, I saw Sheshell pulling up to a dock behind the school. Rachael jumped out and Shelby handed her the line. Rachael tied her off in one quick fluid motion.
“Hey Shelby,” I said, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Why?”
“I got to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Would you just come on?”
“Rachael, I’ll see you in a minute. Apparently Tyler has to talk to me right now.”
“Alright. Be careful. Remember what I said.”
“You got it,” Shelby said. We walked toward my boat. The no-see-ums were starting to get bad, so we went inside.
“Mind if I smoke?” I asked her.
“No,” she said like it was a dumb question.
“So I was talking to Billy - “
“What’d he tell you?” she cut me off.
“Everything. He said you guys thought your mom killed Mr. Watson so you loaded him up and when Robby came around you stuffed him and dropped him.”
“Okay. So? What do you have to talk to me for then?” Dang, this girl was sassy.
“Billy said to ask you why you thought your mom killed him. He said you and Jade knew.”
“So ask Jade.”
“I’m asking you.”
“You’re just trying to impress Stevie.”
“Whatever. Just tell me, okay?”
“Fine. I’m only going to tell you once so listen close. Mom was mad at Mr. Watson because she thought he was flirting with me.”
“Was he?”
“Yes! No. Maybe. No. But me and Jade. We just thought it would be funny. But mom caught us.”
“Caught you what?”
“Sending you know, pictures to him.”
“What, you mean like dirty pictures?”
“Yes that’s what I mean.”
“Ew. Of yourselves?”
“Yes Tyler.”
“Good lord. No wonder he killed himself. Nobody should have to see that.”
“He killed himself?”
“No he was murdered. Let’s go. I’m all freaked out now. You guys are disgusting.”
Shelby said, “Glad that’s over with.”
Chapter eleven
On my way to the Town Hall, I realized everyone was in the Rinkydink, which in addition to being the Garbie’s Lodge, was also the Communtiy Center since it was the only building big enough for everybody in town to fit inside. Unless you wanted to sit in the school auditorium but we saved that for Christmas Pageants and the talent show.
I entered the skating rink. It was bursting with sound and energy. Margot, Stevie and their parents were in the middle of the floor smiling and talking to people. I walked up to them and hugged Margot and told her I was glad she was alright. Then I gave Trip a man hug and asked him where they found her.
“She was in the museum, hiding.”
“Hiding, huh? Margot, were you playing a game? Who were you playing with?”
“I wasn’t playing a game. I was really hiding.”
“What were you hiding from?” I asked her.
“He tried to take my book.” She was holding an encyclopedia like the ones I saw earlier in Mr. Watson’s class.
“Who did?” Camden questioned her.
“Ted.” Ted was the Mayor, Katie’s dad, the guy who drove the ferry. Also head of the Garbies. It didn’t seem likely that he would be chasing a little girl around trying to get a book. She must have meant somebody else. Or maybe she made the whole thing up.
Camden seemed to believe her, at least partially, and she called Ted over from where he was talking with a few other men.
“Yeah?” he said as he approached us.
“Ted, Margot says she was hiding because you were trying to take her book. Do you have any idea what she might be talking about?” Camden asked.
“Oh, it’s no big deal. She didn’t have to run away and hide from me. I just need that book. It’s Garbie property. She can’t keep it. I’m sorry.”
“No! you can’t have it! Mr. Watson gave it to me. It’s the only thing I have left of him!” Margot clutched the book to her chest and looked pleadingly at her mom.
“You can keep it, baby.”
“No I’m sorry but she can’t.”
“What do you mean she can’t? What’s your problem? It’s a book. Wait. Is that what you Garbies were burning earlier? Books? You fascists. What could possess you idiots to burn old encyclopedias? What is really going on here?”
Ted reached for the book and pulled it out of Margot’s hands. She looked shocked and like she was about to cry. “Stevie!” she called to her big sister for help.
Before anyone knew what was happening, Stevie had pulled the gun out of her bag and now she was aiming it at Ted’s face. The whole place got quiet then erupted in sound as people hurried out of her line of fire.
“Leave her alone!” Stevie said. “Give her the book and call your wife over here,”
“Stevie what are you doing?” Katie screamed as she came over with her mother, the doctor.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Katie, but your parents are up to no good. Your dad won’t leave my sister alone and your mom killed Mr. Watson.”
“What?” Katie said.
“How dare you!” Dr Marjorie said.
“Put the gun down,” Ted said slowly and calmly.
“Tyler, come here,” Stevie said and I did especially since she had that gun. As I did, Camden smoothly took the encyclopedia out of Ted’s hand and opened it toward the end of the book.
Stevie instructed me, “take my bag off my shoulder.” I did. “Now open it and pull out the red package.” I opened her bag and saw a red plastic bag. I pulled it out. Whatever was in it weighed about a pound and seemed squishy.
Stevie said loudly, “somebody bring a table over here. Now!” People scrambled and a small table appeared beside us.
“Stevie . . . “ Trip started.
“Dad, I got this.”
“You got this, baby.”
“Hey hey!” Camden said, “Lookee what we have here!” she held the book up. Every eye was on the group of us in the center of the rink. Jade was filming it all with her phone. I saw my gramma. She smiled a nervous smile at me.
“According to this book, published in 1965, Gill City used to be called Mangrove Isle. And I ask you, where did all the mangroves go? Did they just disappear into space? Do trees do that? Or did somebody cut them down and dispose of them like trash. If I recall, and Ted, you tell me if I’m wrong here, but if I recall it is against federal regulations to cut down a mangrove tree. Much less a whole island of them.”
Ted lowered his head and closed his eyes.
“Speaking of disposing of . . . Stuff.” Stevie said.
“Just a second Stevie,” Camden said, “let’s clear this tree thing up before you show everybody that monstrosity.” Camden sounded like she already knew what was in the bag I was holding. I was pretty sure I knew what was in it too. I shuddered.
“So when did this happen, Ted? Let me guess. 1971? The founding of the Garbies, am I right? It couldn’t have been your idea. You were just a kid. Your dad probably. Your dad and his friends destroyed the mangroves to make the view! To bring in the tourists. That’s it, isn’t it? And when you heard Mr. Watson was having the kids research the history of the island you knew this would come out and everyone would know what they did. What they did for money. So you killed him to keep it quiet!”
“What! I didn’t kill anybody.”
“Dad?” Gina said, “Is she right? Did grampa cut down the mangroves?”
“Your grandfather put this town on the map! For his children and grandchildren! For all of us! Everybody in this town, in this room, makes their money off that view! He was a genius and I won’t have his name slandered by you or by anyone.”
“Dad, you killed Mr. Watson?” Katie asked, disbelieving.
“No I didn’t kill Mr Watson. I didn’t want him painting that stupid painting but I did not kill him. My god!”
“Your mom did!” Stevie said. “Tyler, open the bag and lay the contents on the table please.” She was still holding the gun and now she turned it toward Dr Margerie. “Don’t even think about stopping him, doctor. Everyone’s got to see this.”
The whole town gathered around to get a good view of the table. People held small children up for a better look. Jade was still taking video. My aunt Cherry walked up front with Michelle Lightfoot on her arm. They were acting pretty friendly. Sounded like they’d been drinking.
“What are you looking at?” Cherry said to Rachael who gave them a scoff.
“I see you bimbos are having a good time.” Rachael said to Cherry and Mrs Lightfoot.
“What did you say?” Cherry looked like she was about to start something.
“Everybody look at this!” Stevie called the attention back to her and to the bag I was holding. “Tyler, take it out and put it on the table.”
I carefully unzipped the bag and gently emptied its contents onto the table. There were ew’s and ahh’s all around as people stepped closer to see.
“What is that thing?” Tara asked the question on everyone’s minds.
At that moment I started getting a very strange feeling inside me like nothing I had ever felt before. A warm sensation crawled up my arm from the table and hovered around my chest. It felt tingly and intense.
Margot said, “There’s the monkey!”
Camden said, “yes, everyone look at this fetus. It was removed from Mr. Watson’s body this morning. Now does that look like a human baby to anyone? Anyone? Dr Margerie, in your expert opinion, what does that look like to you?”
“I couldn’t say.”
“I could!” Stevie said “it looks like a half human half monkey baby, just like my mom said it would be!”
Katie said, “Mom, did you know about this?”
“The experiments looked promising. We were all expecting a perfect baby. Then the first births in Russia and then in Italy produced these. We tried to keep it quiet. I hoped it wouldn’t happen again.”
“It’s just what I’ve been telling you all on my show. Monkey babies!” Camden said.
“No, not that monkey,” Margot said, “the one hugging Tyler.”
Everyone looked at me. I looked down at my chest.
Slowly, as if on a dimmer switch, I began to see the face of a monkey smiling at me. I felt its arms and legs wrapped around my body.
“Where did that come from?” Cherry said.
“What are you all talking about?” Dr Margerie said. As people began talking to each other, it was clear that some could see the monkey on me and some could not. It was a confusing moment for everyone, especially me. Then the monkey crawled up to my shoulders and wrapped its arms around my head, resting its little paws on my forehead.
Suddenly, I had an epiphany, a moment of clarity where I saw the events of last night unfolding in front of my inner eye. I took in a sharp inhale.
“I know what happened!” I said.
Everyone got quiet and looked at me.
“I know how Mr Watson died.”
Stevie lowered the gun for the first time and looked at me. She grinned up at the monkey on my head. I can only assume it grinned back.
Chapter twelve
It was so clear in my head now. It all came together in a linear story of the day before. Everything added up.
With the fetus of Mr. Watson’s dead monkey-child on the table in front of the whole town, and with its spirit on my head, tail curling softly around my neck, I was ready to tell everyone what had really happened.
Margot was looking up at the monkey and all other eyes were on me. I opened my mouth and let it flow:
“Yesterday after school, Mr. Watson was in his classroom putting grades in his book.”
Even though I could see that he had been watching Sweet Home Alabama at the same time, I left that out. Respect for the dead.
“He got up to pee and while he was washing his hands, his phone dinged twice. He looked at the text messages and saw something that he immediately wished he hadn’t. They were half-naked photos of two of his ninth-graders.” I looked at Shelby. She shook her head. I gave her a look that said, sorry but I have to.
“The pictures were sent by Shelby and Jade.”
“Tyler!” Jade yelled at me right before Gramma hit her in the back of the head with an open palm.
“Shelby and Jade were at Casey’s when they sent the pictures to him. They were laughing so loud about it that Casey came over to see what they were up to. She saw the pictures over their shoulders and dragged them both into the kitchen. Casey made Gina leave and grilled the girls about what was going on. They told her that Mr. Watson had been flirting with them and they were flirting back. They were lying. Mr. Watson would have never done anything like that. But Casey believed them and she went into a rage.”
I looked over at Casey. She looked sorrowful and scared. Robby put his arm around her. I think he knew what was coming next.
“As you all know, Mr. Watson lived in the apartment above Casey’s. On his way home, he went into the restaurant. He had thought about it and decided that the best thing to do was to talk to Casey about the texts. When Casey saw him, she was furious. She could have killed him then, but she didn’t. He asked her if they could talk. He ordered a tea like he always did. In her anger and desperation, Casey drugged his tea. She mostly did it without thinking, but she knew that while methheads often lie, the effect of meth on a sober person can be like a truth serum and she wanted to hear him say that he had taken advantage of her sweet little Shelby. Mr. Watson drank the tea and told Casey what Shelby and Jade had done. Not hearing what she wanted to hear, Casey invited herself to join him upstairs, thinking he would admit his crimes in a more comfortable environment. She closed the restaurant and they went upstairs. By this time, Mr. Watson was starting to feel funny. He was excited and full of energy. He started asking Casey if she wanted to help him paint his nursery right then. Once Casey realized that she wasn’t getting anywhere with the confession, she left, stopped by the baseball game and told Billy what was going on. Billy stayed and played the rest of the game.
“Then Casey walked to Robby’s and told him that Mr. Watson was a pedophile. Robby tried to get the story straight but he couldn’t and they ended up getting high together while Tara was still at the game.”
No one was surprised at that. Everyone already suspected that Robby relied on Casey for his mood enhancement and probably more.
“Meanwhile, Mr. Watson, in his elevated state, didn’t know what to do with himself. He was so excited about life. He didn’t know he had been drugged and thought it was the energy boost that comes with the second trimester of pregnancy.”
I was talking about things that I didn’t know about myself. But here it all was, coming out of my mouth as I listened with the rest of the town.
“He was so high that he wanted to drive a boat. So he went to Crackers. Trip had already left for the night, though, so Mr. Watson borrowed one. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he did it anyway. Once he was out on the water, he called his ex-wife just to talk to somebody. They talked for a little while and then he just enjoyed being out there, on the water and the waves and the setting sun. He saw dolphins playing close to him and had a sort of religious experience. He felt better than he’d ever felt.
“At around 7:30 the no-see-ums started eating him, so he drove back and docked the boat where he got it. He didn’t feel like going home yet. He really wished he had somebody to talk to. Normally he would talk to Cherry but she was off the island last night picking up Gramma’s stuff in town.”
Gramma was the weed queen of Gill City and Cherry went and picked it up for her. Most people knew that. I didn’t realize until now that Mr. Watson had been seeing my aunt Cherry.
“He walked down the road, his head spinning in circles. Rachael was out on her evening stroll and he sparked up a conversation with her. He knew she was a woman of God, so he poured his guts out. Rachael invited him back to her camper to continue the conversation. What Mr. Watson didn’t know, but all the rest of us do, is that you can’t talk to Rachael about what’s really happening in your life. All she sees is sin. But Mr. Watson went on and on like a Catholic at confession. He told her about the texts and asked that she didn’t spread that around town. He talked about how he was sleeping with Cherry and how he loved her, but how he also still had feelings for Michelle, his ex.”
Cherry and Michelle were holding hands and silently crying. Rachael was watching me in shock.
“Hearing that Mr. Watson was receiving dirty underage texts, even though he never asked for them, and that he was sleeping with two different women at once, neither of whom he was legally married to, and also knowing that he was sinning against nature by trying to have a baby, well all that sent Rachael off the deep end. She couldn’t handle it. While he was standing at her window admiring the view - “
Camden looked over at Ted who shook his head at her.
“She came up behind him and whacked him in the side of the head with her Bible. You guys know her Bible.” The kids all nodded at me with open mouths. “It’s a big one.”
I thought I’d recognized that Bible in Jolly Rodger’s lair earlier but I couldn’t place it until now.
“Still overcome with disgust and sexual frustration, Rachael put a pillow over Mr. Watson’s mouth. He had been knocked unconscious by the Bible already and the killing was easy.”
Rachael had started slinking toward the exit. “Hold it.” Stevie raised the gun at her. Everybody ducked. Rachael put her hands above her head. “Get back over here, you murdering hypocrite,“ Stevie said and Rachael rejoined the group, a blank expression on her face.
“Then what happened?” Gina asked.
“Rachael quickly realized that she had no where to hide a body so she decided to just leave him out in the open and let God handle it. She dragged him out to the boardwalk between her camper and Casey’s house. Nobody was home at Casey’s and nobody saw her do it. Then she went home, asked God for forgiveness and tried to read her Bible. She kept seeing blood on it though, even though there was none, so she took it out to the water and tossed it in. Jolly Rodger picked it up this morning.”
Robby was putting Rachael in handcuffs.
“So how’d he get in the crab trap?” Michelle Lightfoot asked me in a soft voice.
“Some of you already know this part and some of you don’t. Billy and Shelby got home after the game and Billy yelled at Shelby for being stupid enough to send a nude text to her teacher. Then he walked out and found the body. He and Shelby both assumed that it was their mother who had killed him and they took the body out to dump it to save their mom. When Marshall Becky was coming around the island, they panicked and shoved Mr. Watson in a trap so Robby wouldn’t find the body. And that’s where he stayed until Katie and Stevie found him later last night.”
“Wow,” Stevie said.
“This is ridiculous,” Rachael said, “You can’t prove it.”
Robby said, “I’m sure after a search of your camper we’ll have more than enough evidence.”
“Take her away!” Katie said and all the kids cheered and booed as Robby led Rachael out the door to the museum/jail.
Chapter thirteen
“Well that was a day and a half!” Katie said as she ran both hands through her hair. She was sitting with me and Stevie on the deck of Margaritaville. It had been about forty-five minutes since the truth had come out, just like Katie had said it would. Probably not the way she pictured it coming out, though. The little monkey ghost was still with me. It sat on my lap while I scratched its head.
“You did good, Tyler, you really did,” Stevie said.
“Couldn’t have done it without this little guy,” I said. “What do you think I should call him?”
“Hmmm.” The girls tried to beat each to a good name.
“Look! Dolphins!” Stevie pointed out to the water.
They were jumping and playing with each other. They were beautiful. Magical. Free.
Before I had a chance to stop him, the monkey jumped off my lap, scampered to the side of the boat, and dove in. The next thing we knew, he was way out there, jumping out of the water, spinning in the air, and hopping from one dolphin’s back to another’s.
“Awww. I’m gonna miss that little dude.” I said.
“I’m gonna miss Mr Watson,” Stevie said.
Katie said, “Me too.”
The little monkey-man-spirit looked back at us, gave us a grin and a wave, and swam toward the horizon.
“Life’s weird, huh?” Katie said
“This town’s weird.” Stevie said.
“You guys are weird.” I said . “Hey, no school tomorrow!”
“Yay!” Stevie said. “We’re free!”
The end
