Slow Dance in Purgatory(12)

Maggie felt a little shiver in her stomach as she gazed back at Gus’s suddenly serious face.

“Um. Well, I’ve been hearing it off and on since I started working here. It’s always when I’m alone, working separately from you. And it’s always old stuff.” Maggie smiled again, hoping to alleviate the tension that had descended upon them. Gus didn’t smile back.

“I thought you turned it on to keep me company,” Maggie finished in a small voice.

Gus shook his head slowly. “Oh, Miss Margaret. I think maybe you’ve met Johnny.”

***

Gus wouldn’t say anymore as he lifted Maggie’s bike into the back of his truck, and they bounced their way to Aunt Irene’s. When she pressed him to tell her who Johnny was, he simply shook his head and told her that he and Aunt Irene would explain over dinner. Gus and Shad had dinner with them at least twice during the week and always on Sundays. Maggie was always glad to have them, but she didn't want to wait to hear the explanation about this “Johnny.” And what did Irene have to do with any of this? Gus deposited her in front of her house and said he'd be back with Shad in an hour. He drove off without further comment.

It wasn’t until they had pushed their chairs back from the table and sighed in contentment that Gus peered at Irene and asked her if she remembered Johnny Kinross.

“Oh my! It’s been decades since I heard that name,” Irene fluttered and patted her thin chest. “Johnny Kinross!” She sighed a little and shook her head. “He was something else. So handsome and just a little bit bad! He could make a girl blush just by looking at her. I think he kind of liked me. But he sure didn’t like Roger. Not that I blame him. I didn’t like Roger.” Aunt Irene waved a graceful hand at the mention of her dearly departed husband.

“I’m sure he did like you. You were the most beautiful girl in town,” Gus flirted sincerely. “And the sweetest.”

Aunt Irene and Gus smiled at each other fondly.

Maggie cleared her throat loudly. “Um, back to Johnny Kinross, please.”

“Johnny Kinross disappeared more than fifty years ago, and nobody has seen him since,” Aunt Irene declared matter-of-factly. "The whole town was in quite the uproar. The whole thing was such a tragedy. I wonder what ever happened to him." Irene shook her head sadly.

“I’ve seen him,” Gus said quietly. Aunt Irene gasped, and her teacup clattered noisily on its saucer as she attempted to put it down.

“I’ve seen him off and on for fifty years. It’s been a while since I saw him last, but I have no doubt that it was Johnny Kinross.”

“Gus! You've seen Johnny Kinross?! Where?” Aunt Irene blurted out loudly, and then put her hand over her mouth as if she’d burped. “Pardon me, Gus. That was rude.”

Maggie rolled her eyes affectionately. Aunt Irene wouldn’t know rude if it bit her on the butt. She was such a little lady, she even apologized for speaking too loudly.

“At the school. Always at the school. I saw him the first time a few weeks after he came up missing. I thought he’d been hiding out there. He looked right at me, and he knew that I saw him. I could see that he was scared, and I told him not to be.” Gus shook his head, remembering. “I ran all the way to the police station, and I told Chief Bailey – you remember Chief Bailey don’t you Miss Honeycutt?” Gus always called Irene by her maiden name of Honeycutt instead of her married name of Carlton, and he rarely addressed her by her given name.

“I told the chief I’d seen Johnny at the school, and he and his department searched the school from top to bottom. There was no sign of him. They put out a bulletin on him and had posters up in different counties. Never even got a bite, even after they offered a reward,” Gus sighed. “I shoulda never said anything.”

“Why?” Maggie queried, puzzled.

“’Cause his poor mother got her hopes up again. She suffered, wondering where her boy was and why he didn’t come home.”

“Why didn’t he go home?” Maggie wasn’t following the story very well. “Why wouldn’t he at least contact her?”

“He couldn’t.” Gus met her gaze frankly. “He’s dead.”

“You mean you saw his GHOST?” Aunt Irene squeaked and then covered her mouth once more.

Shad yelled, "No way, Pop! You mean I’ve been cleanin' a school that's haunted by a ghost?" Shad danced in his seat like he had ants in his pants. "That is freakin' awesome!"

“I guess that’s what I mean – yep,” Gus declared. “I didn’t realize it at first. He looked like any other kid that got caught being somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be. I didn’t see him for a long time after that.”

“So what made you think he was a ghost?” Maggie interrupted.

“The next time I saw him it was five years later, and he hadn’t aged at all. Then a few years passed, and I saw him again. He looked exactly the same, same blue jeans and white shirt, same everything right down to the 50s hair do with the duck butt in the back. Pardon the language, Miss Honeycutt.” Gus gave a sheepish grin. “I just didn’t know what else to call it.

“I’m well aware of what a duck’s butt is Gus,” Aunt Irene said primly.

"A duck's butt?" Shad hooted. Rising from his seat he squatted down and waddled around the table, shaking his skinny butt wildly. "That's what this move is called, Maggie, a duck's butt."