The Legend of Ghost Dog Island, page 15
I sat there wishing I’d never have to look at Tommy again, but I didn’t want to move either. Snooper would never find his way home. I was sure Tommy didn’t hear my papa talking about moving. The only way to know was to just come out and ask.
I jumped up and stomped into the house.
Papa sat drinking a cup of coffee at the table across from Mama, who was sewing a patch on Jesse’s pants.
“Are we moving again?” It came out kinda loud, probably because I was so mad.
Papa turned to look at me. “Have a seat, Tadpole.”
“Tommy said we were moving. Is that true?” I said even louder.
“Nikki, sit down and respect your father,” Mama said.
I flopped into a chair with my arms folded and my mouth pressed tight, waiting for the news. His telling me to have a seat didn’t sound too promising. I felt my eyes burn.
“Your Uncle Jeb bought himself a shrimp boat. He wants me to come work with him out in the gulf. That way when the crabs slack off here in the fall, we’ll have money coming in for the winter. I gotta do something.”
“But, Papa, I don’t want to move again. I just made new friends.” I bounced up and down in my chair. “And Snooper is still somewhere out there. If we move, he’ll never find me.”
Mama came over and put her arms around me and kissed the top of my head.
“All right ladies,” Papa said. “What do you expect me to do? It’s my job to put food on the table.”
“When…” I sucked in my breath a couple of times. “When are we leaving?”
“I’m driving to Delcambre tomorrow and talk to Jeb. Then, if everything’s a go, we might be pulling up stakes next week, so I can get started learning about the shrimping business.”
I ran into my bedroom and slammed the door.
Jesse looked up from my bed where he’d been napping. “What’s wrong?” He rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
“Leave me alone.” I threw myself next to him and covered my head with my pillow. “I’m not moving to Delcambre. I’ll run away first.”
“Can I go with you?”
“No. You’re too little. But, I have to stay around here until Snooper comes home.”
Jesse put his arm around me. “Where you gonna sweep?”
“I’ll find a place. Don’t worry about me.” I rustled his hair. “And don’t you tell anybody, either.”
We lay there in silence for a coon’s age, until Mama called us for supper.
I sat at the table barely touching my food. Nobody said much.
“Nikki, you should be excited about moving to Delcambre,” Papa said. “You have cousins there to play with.”
I shook my head and kept stirring the shrimp and rice around in my plate.
“Nikki, your father’s talking to you,” Mama said. “And if you’re not going to be respectful, you should go on back to your room.”
I dropped my fork and walked away from the table. I sat on the bed wondering where I could run away to.
Nana—I’ll go to Nana’s house.
The next day, when Papa got back from his trip to Delcambre, I saw him out talking to Tee Joe and pointing west.
It was my last chance. I got a pillowcase from my closet and started stuffing in my clothes and a few keepsakes. I waited until I heard Papa come in the house and wouldn’t see me going down the pier. I dropped the sack out the window, then eased through the opening.
I made my way through the woods to Nana’s house.
“Who’s theah?” Nana called when I knocked on her back door.
“It’s me, Nikki.”
She opened the door. “Come on in, cher. What you doing heah? You brought me more clothes? I really don’t need anything else.”
I stepped into the house, which smelled like pine oil and fried chicken. “Can I stay here for a while?”
“Why sure. You can stay as long as you want.” She pulled out a chair at her table and motioned for me to sit. “But what’s your folks gonna say about it?” She sat next to me. “Don’t you think they’ll miss you?”
“They’re moving to Delcambre. Papa says the crabs are almost done, and now he wants to work on a shrimp boat.” My eyes began to water. “I don’t want to go.” My body shook as I sobbed into Nana’s shoulder. “They don’t care how I feel.”
“I’m sure they do, child.” She ran her hand down my long braid. “But your papa is a fisherman. He has to go where the seafood is so he can make a living for his family. That’s how he shows his love for you.”
“Hmph. I don’t feel very loved at all.” I wiped my face with my arm.
“Hey, I have something to show you.” Nana stood and picked up a newspaper from the sofa.
Right there on the front page was a picture of me and Nana.
Young Girl Rescues Woman from Island
Nana Trahan, who disappeared ten years ago, was found stranded on a swamp Island in Bayou Platte. Nikki Landry is credited with rescuing her and busting the legend of Ghost Dog Island wide open.
“Wow, I’m famous,” I shouted. “I need to show this to Papa.” Then I remembered I had run away from home.
“You sure are. And I’m really grateful to you, and your friends, of course.” She turned the page. “There’s the rest of the story there. How you risked your life in a hurricane to come and find me.”
I read the article…twice, then looked at the next page. There were pictures of ladies in dresses and hats. But at the bottom of the third page, in large letters, I read:
Game Warden wanted for St. Mary Parish. Must be familiar with the waterways and islands and have some knowledge of Louisiana game laws. See Sheriff Bonin to apply.
I held it up. “That’s the job that detective was talking about.” I sniffed.
“Your papa knows these swamps and bayous pretty good, huh?” She handed me a white handkerchief from her apron pocket.
“Yes, ma’am. He’s been hunting and fishing it all his life.” I wiped my eyes with the soft cotton cloth.
“You think he knows all the laws about fishing and trapping and such?”
“I reckon he’d have to. What do game wardens do?”
“Oh, they make sure folks aren’t breaking the law.”
“Like a policeman?”
“Kinda’. But they go out in the lakes, bayous, and swamps.”
A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. “I know my papa could do that. And we wouldn’t have to move, right?” I jumped up and ran to the door. “Can I leave my stuff here for a little while?”
“Why sure, child. But stay for chicken first.”
“No, thanks. Gotta go.”
I stood outside and realized I didn’t have a ride. My bike was locked up tight. I ran toward Patti’s house and knocked on her door. Her grandparents had bought her a bike after Patti realized she could ride one.
“Hey, Nikki,” Patti said. “What’s wrong?”
“Can I borrow your bike for a little while?”
“Sure, but…”
I jumped on her shiny new bright pink bicycle and rode west down the levee toward Morgan City.
When I got to Big Red’s store, I stopped and went inside. “Where’s the sheriff’s office?” I panted.
“What’s wrong?” Mr. Lopez came from around the counter with a worried look on his face.
“Nothing. I just gotta talk to him, that’s all.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
I nodded my head.
“Okay, keep going down this street for about four blocks until you get to the red light. He’s right on that corner.”
Tommy stepped out of the back room. He looked at me then turned away. Maybe he knew I was done ignoring him.
“Thanks, Mr. Lopez.” I ran out of the store.
I stood in the doorway of the office marked Sam Bonin, Sheriff in gold lettering.
“What can I do for you young lady?” The man dressed in a crisp looking brown uniform with a gold badge on it looked up from his paperwork.
“I want you to hire my papa for that game warden job.” I laid the paper, turned to the page with the ad, on his desk. “He knows all the bayous in these parts coming and going. And the laws too. I’m sure of it.”
“Hold on there, ’tite fille. Have a seat.” He stared at me for a minute. “I know you. You’re the kid that found that woman out on the island.”
“Yes, sir, that’s me. I’m famous.” I grinned and threw myself into his big wooden chair. “But what about that job?”
He put his pencil down. “What’s your father’s name?”
“My papa is Jack Landry, and he’d be a perfect game warden.”
“Jack Landry?” He picked his pencil back up and smacked the eraser on the desk a few times. “Jack ‘Possum’ Landry?” He smiled, showing perfectly white teeth. “So y’all live out near Bayou Platte, huh?”
“On Bayou Platte, sir. In a houseboat.”
“Still fishing after all these years, huh?”
“Yes, sir. Do you know my papa?”
He scooted his chair back and stood up. “Sure do. Went to high school with him. He used to trap and fish with his father. Haven’t seen him since graduation though. Think I’ll go out there and say hi.”
The sheriff said something to a lady sitting at a desk, then we walked outside. He put Patti’s bike in the trunk of his car and drove us out to my house.
Chapter Thirty-One
A Visitor
MAMA POURED COFFEE INTO HER TINY CUPS for Papa and the sheriff. She set down a pan of hot oatmeal cookies. They probably hadn’t even noticed I’d run away.
I poured myself a glass of milk, then grabbed a cookie.
“I don’t know about that job, Sam,” Papa said. “I never did like game wardens.” He snickered. “And I don’t like to be tied down in one place.”
“Well, we sure could use a man that knows these parts as well as you, Jack.” He took a sip of coffee. “I remember that time when we were about thirteen, and I followed you and Tee Joe down to the Atchafalaya basin. Y’all took off in your boat and left me out there. I couldn’t find my way out. You had to come hunt me down before dark.”
Papa laughed hard and slapped his knee. “You were scared to death when I found you.”
“Well, yeah, after you’d done told me you’d seen the Rugarou out there.”
“And you believed us.” Papa chuckled.
“And remember that time you tried to catch that mama possum and she ’bout tore your arm off?” the sheriff shot back.
“How could I forget? Got the scars to prove it.” Papa pushed his shirt sleeve up and pointed to a mark on his arm. “The kids wouldn’t stop calling me Possum after that.”
The sheriff laughed so hard he almost spilled his coffee. He set his cup down and stood up. “Nice chatting with you, Jack, but I gotta get on back to the office. I got a case to follow up on. One of our detectives went out to St. Bartholomew’s Convent this morning to check out a lead on some strange happenings out there. He arrested a couple of vagrants. Turns out they’d been living in there for a while now. We really need to get that place torn down before someone gets hurt.”
I dropped my cookie. “What’s a vagrant? Are they murderers?”
“No, Nikki. Just some homeless guys.”
Mama raised her eyebrows at me.
“That game warden job is yours if you take a notion.” The sheriff shook Papa’s hand, then nodded to Mama. “Thanks for the coffee and cookies, ma’am. They were mighty good.”
After he left, Mama glared at Papa. “You really should take that job, Jack.”
“Yeah, Papa. Why not? We could stay in one place. I could keep my friends. Maybe we could live in town even. After Snooper comes home, that is.”
“Sounds good, but it’s not for me. I’m not a town kinda person.” He walked out onto the deck.
I followed him outside. “But Papa…”
“And I don’t want to hear any more about that dog, Nikki.” His voice was grumpier than normal. “He ain’t coming back, ya hear? And you hanging on to that notion is only gonna get you in more trouble.”
“But he is, Papa. I just know it.” Was Papa right? I couldn’t tell him what Nana had said. But was she pretending, like she did about the spell? I couldn’t leave here until I knew for sure.
He scratched his thick hair, then shook his head.
“Mama ain’t happy moving all the time either,” I said in a low voice to change the subject…sort of. “She really wants a place where she can have a garden and some flowers.”
“She told you that?” He rubbed the stubble on his chin. “She is always fussing about moving.”
I nodded. “She gets sad about it sometimes.”
“I can’t make no decision about how to make a living based on gardens and flowers and crying females.” He walked down the dock and headed back to Tee Joe’s house.
It was over. Papa would drag us, and everything we owned to Delcambre before the week was out. I knew he’d mor’n likely find me at Nana’s. No more friends. No more Snooper.
As I turned to go back inside the house, I saw a car drive up. It looked familiar. My mouth dropped open as I stared at the car that belonged to my old friend Lydia’s dad. As I ran down the pier to meet her, she jumped out of the vehicle and ran toward me. We hugged and jumped up and down, holding on to each other and squealing.
“Why’re you here?” I asked. “How’d you know where we lived?”
She looked at her father then back at me. “Dad knew.”
Her father stepped out of the car, then reached into the back seat.
Then I saw him. “Snooper!” I let go of Lydia and ran for my dog. I dropped to the ground and hugged my dog tighter than the lid on a canning jar. Snooper’s wet tongue lapped my face, while I giggled. “Where were you, boy?” I looked up at Mr. Hebert. “Did you find him?”
“Dad found him over at the dock in Belle River where he works,” Lydia said.
“He’d been hanging around there for a while. The guys at the dock sort of adopted him, feeding him and such,” Mr. Hebert said.
“I went to the dock with Dad one day and saw him,” Lydia chimed in. “I knew it was Snooper right away.”
“How did you get all the way to Belle River, Snoop?” I half scolded him. “Do you know how much worry you caused me?” Then I knew how Mama and Papa felt when they couldn’t find me.
Lydia and her father stayed for supper. After we ate, I took Lydia to my room and filled her in on all the adventures I’d had since moving to Bayou Platte. She wanted to know all about the island and the witch, who turned out not to be a witch. I told her about the strange happenings at the convent and how Nana believed Snooper would come home all along.
“Do you think that voodoo woman’s spirit is still living out there? At that convent?” Lydia asked.
“I don’t know.” I twisted my braid around my fingers. “The sheriff said it was some men called vagers or something living in there, and I ain’t got no call to go back now that Snooper is home.” I looked down at my dog, who was snuggled up next to me.
Lydia fiddled with her tiny purple handbag. “I got your letter.”
“I, uh…Sorry it took so long. I guess I was still mad for a while. It was a silly thing anyway.”
She reached into the little purse. “Here, I got your arrowhead back for you.”
I held it in my hand for a minute, then handed it back to her. “Keep it to remember me by.”
“I don’t need this to remember you by. Best friends are forever, Nikki.”
“I know that now.” I hugged her.
“Sounds as if you like it here, though,” Lydia said.
“Oh, it’s not as bad as I thought it’d be.” I shrugged and stroked Snooper’s floppy ear. “Besides, we’re gonna be moving to Delcambre soon anyway. I’ll always miss you and the tree house.”
“It sure ain’t the same since you left.” She patted my dog on the head. “I still can’t figure out why Snoop walked all the way to Belle River.”
“Me neither. He turned up missing the day Jesse got hurt, and I went to stay with the LeBlanc’s.”
“Do you think he ran away because no one was home?” Lydia asked.
“I think he’s too lazy for running away.” I scratched my head.
“Hey, maybe you can come and spend a few days with me before y’all move. It’s really not that far of a drive.”
“I think we’re leaving in a few days.”
“Well, write to me then, and give me your new address in Delcambre.”
“Okay.”
“Lydia, you ready to go?” Mr. Hebert called from the kitchen.
I hugged my forever best friend goodbye, then followed her and her father to the front door.
Tee Joe came up the ramp and took off his hat. “Jacques, I put yo’ stuff there on the deck that I borrowed, so you don’t run off and forget it.”
“Thank you Tee Joe.” Papa slapped him on the shoulder. “I’m gonna miss you, buddy.”
“Oh, and Tee Joe,” Mama said. “I can’t thank you enough for closing my windows back before that hurricane. Because of you, nothing got wet inside the houseboat.”
“So, that’s who closed my window,” I said.
“What?” Lydia asked.
“Uh, nothing,” I muttered.
“Not a problem, Rose.” Tee Joe nodded. “Oh and, Jacques, I brought yo’ tarp back. The one you loaned me a while ago to cover my baskets of bait wid. I laid it on the back of yo’ truck where you had it.”
I grabbed Lydia’s arm. “Tee Joe went to Belle River to get bait the day Snooper came up missing.”
Lydia made her mouth into an O. “You think he went with Tee Joe?”
“I didn’t see yo’ dog.” Tee Joe stroked his long beard.
“Snooper rode under that tarp to town with us one day,” I said. “If you had that tarp in the back of your van, Snooper could have jumped in there and rode under the tarp all the way to Belle River, then got out looking for me.”
“It’s possible,” Papa said. “He’d have never found his way back home.”
