Starfish_ A Novel - James Crowley [12]
“Get offa me you no-good lunatic!” the runner screamed.
Lionel got up and brushed the snow from his face. He recognized the voice. It belonged to Corn Poe Boss Ribs.
“Free my hands, I dare ya!” Corn Poe screeched. “Free my hands less’n you’re afraid, afraid to get a whoopin’ you’ll be hard-pressed to ever forget!”
Beatrice rolled Corn Poe onto his stomach and shoved his face in the snow.
“What business do ya have followin’ us?”
Beatrice demanded. “Get offa me you chicken-livered jack—” Beatrice interrupted Corn Poe by shoving his face deeper into the snow.
“You’re gonna freeze me eyeballs right out of my head, you idjit!” Corn Poe’s muffled cries continued. Beatrice rolled him back over. “Why are you following us?”
“I’ll show you if ya just let me up.”
Corn Poe’s face was red and pieces of ice dripped from his hair, mixing with the steady stream of tears that now poured from his eyes.
“Come on, let me up and I’ll show ya,” he cried. Beatrice pulled him to sit in the snow. “Well, come on, then,” Beatrice said. Corn Poe reached into his jacket and dug around.
Lionel saw Corn Poe’s hand flash from his pocket and watched as the little boy scrambled to his feet like a madman. He held a small knife out in front of him.
“I’ll teach ya to mess with Corn Poe Boss Ribs,” he proclaimed and jabbed the knife at Beatrice. Beatrice moved slightly, and Corn Poe missed.
He stabbed with the knife again, and Beatrice caught his wrist. with little effort, Beatrice knocked the knife from Corn Poe’s hand and shoved him back into the snow. Corn Poe collapsed in a pile of tears. He had trouble catching his breath.
“You’re lucky I’m all wet and sluggish or you’d be dead!” Corn Poe carried on, reaching back into his coat.
This prompted Beatrice to kick him, but that didn’t stop Corn Poe, and his hand now emerged holding the severed half of a large hambone. The boy is going to try to kill Beatrice with a hambone, Lionel thought. He couldn’t kill her with a knife, and now he is going to try a hambone. Beatrice and Lionel stepped back, prepared for Corn Poe’s next move, but it didn’t come.
“I was just trying to help. I followed to give ya this here ham, and then I got lost and now I can’t get back, and ya shoved me in the snow!”
Beatrice sat back on her legs, breathing heavily. “You best keep your voice down.”
“Why did ya shove me in the snow? why?” blubbered Corn Poe. “I’m freezing!”
“Hell, you was trying to kill us,” Lionel said.
“Not till this jackass tackled me in the snow!”
Beatrice stood up and offered her hand to Corn Poe. Corn Poe took it, and Beatrice pulled him to his feet.
“I’m sorry I tackled you in the snow,” Beatrice said.
Corn Poe caught his breath. “I’m sorry I tried to kill ya with my folding knife,” he said, holding the hambone out to Beatrice. “I brought this all that way for ya.”
Beatrice nodded toward Lionel, and Corn Poe handed him the hambone. “I figured you was hungry.”
Lionel bit into the salty cold pork and thought that he had never tasted anything so good in all his life. He took a few bites and then handed it to Beatrice, who did the same.
“Thank you,” Beatrice said.
The three stood in the snow passing the ham between them.
“What about you? Ya suddenly gone mute or something?” Corn Poe asked, ripping at the last bit of meat that clung to the now naked bone.
“My name is Lionel. Beatrice is my sister.”
“Beatrice? Your sister?” Corn Poe stopped chewing. “I’d never known that in all them clothes. I hope my pa don’t get wind of it. Knocked down by a girl! He’ll skin me alive!
“Well, girl or no girl, you got lucky on that go-round,” Corn Poe went on between his sporadic gnaws. “Like I was sayin’, my name’s Corn Poe Boss Ribs. That there was our place back in the valley. My father would kill me if he knew I gave you that ham hock. He hates Injuns, despitin’ the fact that he is one.”
Corn Poe handed the bone back to Lionel. “But, I must confess, I don’t care much how mad he gets. I felt like stretchin’ my legs anyhow.”
“Well, thanks,” Beatrice said again