and Dash and headed deeper into the lobby, past the dusty concession counters. The carpets were littered with dirty popcorn boxes, candy wrappers, and mouse droppings. The auditorium was no better. The mice had taken over. They’d chewed through the ornate carpets and nested in the seats. She would need to fumigate the entire place. Soap-and-elbow-grease wasn’t going to cut it. Everything had to be replaced.
They headed upstairs and discovered that the apartment was uninhabitable, and the projection equipment had been attacked by the rodents.
Savannah’s dream was never going to come true. It wasn’t just the rodents, either. The roof was bad. There was water damage and mold. And bats had created nests in the rafters.
She surveyed the disaster, and her eyes began to itch. Not just from the dust, but with tears she refused to shed. She’d been through more than her share of heartbreak in the last few years, but for some reason this blow seemed harder than all the others. She’d dreamed about reviving the theater for years.
But it was impossible. You can’t bring the dead back to life. And The Kismet was dead. The wonderful show palace of her younger years was gone. It would never light up Palmetto Avenue again.
“C’mon, I’ve seen enough. Let’s get out of here,” she managed to say. Her voice hardened with the strength it took to keep from crying.
She turned and headed toward the stairs that would take them back to the lobby. “C’mon, Todd, let’s go.”
“So, I reckon you’re going home then,” Dash said, no doubt gloating over his victory.
“Yeah. I guess so. You win, Dash, the theater is a lost cause.”
Zeph Gibbs tucked the sleeping puppy into the folds of his old flannel shirt. The critter snuggled there, soft and warm. The pup was much healthier than he’d been a week ago. He was fully weaned now.
It was time to pass him on.
Zeph got out of his old truck and ambled up the street. He stopped for a moment at the intersection of Palmetto and Chancellor. His feet wanted to turn right, but his heart said no. It was Wednesday evening, and the ladies of the book club were meeting. There were too many people in the library.
And besides, someone needed this pup more than Miss Nita.
He walked on past Chancellor Street and into the main business district. The days were getting longer, but dusk had finally settled. That was good. During the day, he could see his reflection in the shop windows out of the corner of his eye. And Zeph’s reflection was a little bit scary. It wasn’t his overalls or the flannel shirt, or even his gray hair that was frightening. No, the scary thing followed him like a shadow.
So Zeph always looked down when he walked through town. And he didn’t have any mirrors in his house out on Bluff Road.
He turned left onto Baruch Street and walked a block until he ducked into the strip of pines that separated Miriam Randall’s house from the sidewalk. He stood in the cool shade of the pine trees. Miz Miriam was sitting on the porch. She looked tired and sad. He’d been watching her at Mr. Harry’s funeral yesterday. Her and her niece and nephew.
And the boy.
Zeph reached into his shirt, put the sleeping puppy down on a soft bed of pine needles, and took a few steps deeper into the woods. The wind rustled in the pines, and Zeph could almost hear the shadow speaking to him. He halfway recognized the voice.
But he didn’t speak to it. He never spoke to it. He fought the shadow with all his strength, but he always ended up doing what the shadow wanted.
He hunkered down and waited for the puppy to wake. He wouldn’t leave until he knew his mission was accomplished.
“I don’t really read all that much,” Savannah said as Rocky hauled her down Palmetto Avenue in the direction of the Allenberg County Public Library where the book club met the first and third Wednesdays of every month. “And besides, I haven’t decided to stay.”
“Oh, honey, don’t worry about the reading. We let Nita pick the books. They’re always kind of boring, so naturally we don’t spend a lot of time talking about them. It’s mostly a social club. And you can’t go back to Baltimore. You have to stay and fix up the theater.”
This was not the time to tell Rocky that she had abandoned her half-baked plans. So Savannah clamped her mouth shut and followed