I recognized the man almost instantly, but it took me a second to place him. And when I did, my heart began to dance. It was Ace Watkins. I’d known him for what seemed like all my life as the oldest man in town at what had to now be almost a hundred. He was famous for handing out sticks of Juicy Fruit gum to the children around town, and if he hadn’t been so charming and so gentle, he probably would have scared a lot of parents in this age where it seemed we were expected to guard our children from even the most innocent of potentially dangerous experiences.
But today, he didn’t look like his genial, kind self. Today, he looked outright mad, and I thought I knew why. Word must have reached him about the body in the privy, and now he was here to stop me from running my mouth.
I was corner
