Long Black Curl (44 page)
Authors: Alex Bledsoe
He looked down. “I was ⦠well ⦠kinda worried about you.”
“Me? Why?”
He bit his lip, bashful and, to her, adorable. “Well ⦠Bo-Kate and Jeff ⦠they're like us. One from each side. It didn't go that well for them, and there's no⦔
“No sign it'll go that well for us?”
He shrugged. “I've been asking around. Don't worry, I didn't mention your name or anything, just ⦠well, anyway, it's never gone too well. When two sides go to war, like she said, you know? Love and war seem to be an awful lot alike.”
The Pair-A-Dice door opened. Several young men emerged to help the band, followed by Snowy and Tain, who headed for their vehicle.
“It's going well for them,” Mandalay said.
“Wonder what the secret is?”
“He didn't ask her to change for him.”
“Is that important to girls?”
“It's important to anybody.”
He looked down. “Well ⦠I like you fine like you are.”
“I don't scare you?”
“Sure you do. But so did my dirt bike at first, and I love it now.” He blushed, although she wasn't sure if it was because he'd compared her to a motorcycle, or because he'd used the word “love.”
“Well, I like you, too. But I don't know if we'll end up together or anything.”
“Me, neither. I mean, we're twelve, right?” he added quickly. Then he grinned. “Want to dance when the band gets ready?”
“No. Follow me.”
She took his hand and led him around the building.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
Junior watched the others help the band unload, and held the door while they carried equipment and instruments inside. He saw Mandalay and the Somerville boy duck around the corner of the building, and filed that away for future reference. You could never tell what would be important someday.
A flash of reflected light caught his eye. On the ground, in the middle of the fresh blood splatter, something metallic gleamed. He picked it up, wincing as it cut his finger. It was a tiny axe.
At the corner of the building, a lone figure silhouetted by the security light watched him. With a jolt, he recognized it as Rockhouse Hicks, but not the way he'd been the last time Junior saw him. He was younger, with black hair again, and he smiled at Junior with a kind of knowing viciousness. He shook a finger in mocking disapproval, then faded into the darkness.
Goosebumps ran down Junior's spine.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
The icy wind slapped both Luke's and Mandalay's bare faces, and tangled her hair. When they reached the edge of the woods and stopped, she said, “Now we can dance.”
“There's no music.”
She laughed. “Just listen.”
He paused. And faintly, on the wind, he heard the sound of a distant fiddle. It took a moment for him to parse out the song, but then he recognized it from his grandfather's visits: “I'm Nine Hundred Miles from Home.”
She put her arms around his neck. “Put your arms around me now,” she said, and he did. “Do you trust me?”
“Yeah.”
“Then hold on.”
And again, if anyone had been there to watch, they would've seen two people rise into the cold, windy night, carried aloft by first love and half-seen wings.
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Both Tuatha Dea and Fiddlin' John Carson are real.
You can find out more about Tuatha Dea at
Their album
Tufa Tales: Appalachian Fae
is inspired by these novels.
The music of Fiddlin' John Carson (March 23, 1868âDecember 11, 1949) can be found in the excellent Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order series from Document Records:
http://www.document-records.com
.
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Unless otherwise indicated below, all song lyrics are either public domain or original to this work.
E
PIGRAPH
“Appalachia,” written by Josiah Leming. Copyright © 2009 by Josiah Leming. Used by permission.
C
HAPTER
1
“Lord Thomas and Fair Annet,” found on pp 196â197 of
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads,
Vol. 3, by Francis James Child (Houghton Mifflin, 1882).
C
HAPTER
2
“The Snows They Melt the Soonest,” first published in
Blackwood's Magazine
(Edinburgh, 1821).
C
HAPTER
3
“Paranoid,” written by Alice Peacock. Copyright © 2014 by Alice Peacock Music/ASCAP. Used by permission. (The original video for Alice Peacock's song “Paranoid” can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3ZQhVd0xFo
)
C
HAPTER
4
“The Unfortunate Rake,” composer unknown, earliest date 1790.
C
HAPTER
5
“I'm Nine Hundred Miles from My Home,” traditional, composition date unknown. First recorded by Fiddlin' John Carson in 1924,
http://www.secondhandsongs.com/work/29381
.
“Babes in the Wood,” composed by William Gardiner (1770â1853), composition date unknown.
“Across the Blue Mountains,” traditional,
http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/AF014.html
.
C
HAPTER
6
“Home, Sweet Home,” lyrics by John Howard Payne, composed in 1823 for the opera
Clari: Or, The Maid of Milan.
C
HAPTER
7
“The Valiant and Fury Girls,” written by Lou Buckingham. Copyright © 1994 by Lou Buckingham. Used by permission.
C
HAPTER
8
“Engine 143,” composer unknown, based on the true story of the wreck of the FFV (Fast Flying Virginian) near Hinton, West Virginia, on October 23, 1890.
“Johnny Faa,” first documented in
The Tea-Table Miscellany,
1740.
C
HAPTER
9
“Poor Murdered Woman,” first published by Lucy Broadwood in her collection
English Traditional Songs and Carols
(London: Boosey, 1908). Originally collected by Rev. Charles J. Shebbeare from a Mr. Forster of Milford, Surrey, in 1897. Slightly modified by Bledsoe for this book.
“The Curragh of Kildare,” written by Robert Burns (1759â1796) in 1788, based on the stall-ballad “The Lovesick Maid.”
C
HAPTER
10
“Old Dan Tucker,” composer unknown, first sheet music edition published in 1843.
C
HAPTER
11
“Sugar Blues,” lyrics by Lucy Fletcher, music by Clarence Williams (1893â1965), published in 1920.
C
HAPTER
13
“Fire on the Mountain,” traditional, earliest American publication date is 1814 or 1815 in
Riley's Flute Melodies
(where it appears as “Free on the Mountains”), and as “I Betty Martin” in
A. Shattuck's Book,
a fiddler's manuscript book dating from around 1801.
“The Parting Glass,” traditional, earliest reference 1605.
C
HAPTER
18
“Wayfaring Stranger,” traditional. Earliest versions from the early nineteenth century.
C
HAPTER
23
“The Dawning of the Day,” published by Edward Walsh (1805â1850) in 1847 in
Irish Popular Songs
.
C
HAPTER
24
“The Galway Shawl,” traditional, first known version collected by Sam Henry from Bridget Kealey in Dungiven in 1936.
C
HAPTER
25
“Marlborough Has Left for the War,” traditional. First popular in 1780.
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ALEX BLEDSOE
grew up in West Tennessee but now lives in Wisconsin. He is the acclaimed author of the Eddie LaCrosse novels (
He Drank, and Saw the Spider, Wake of the Bloody Angel)
, the Tufa series (
The Hum and the Shiver, Wisp of a Thing
), and the Memphis Vampires (
Blood Groove, The Girls with Games of Blood)
.
His official website can be found at
alexbledsoe.com
. Or sign up for email updates
here
.
    
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BOOKS BY
ALEX BLEDSOE
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