by C.L. Bevill
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Epilogue
The Legend of Bubba
A few weeks later
“It turned out that Noey Wheatfall did roll over on his partner, the lovely Miss Donna Hyatt of Spokane, Washington. He spilled his guts. Then he spilled a little more,” said Lloyd Goshorn, who was a consummate gossip. He stood at the bar of the Dew Drop Inn while a tourist from Dallas bought him all the whiskey he could drink. As a matter of official Pegramville history, Lloyd could drink quite a bit of whiskey before he dropped, and he had proven it on several occasions. “The Major went back to the military and buried his poor wife with full military honors. She had been in the service, too.”
“And Bubba Snoddy?” the tourist asked, a man in his late thirties, with a paunch and a Dallas Cowboys cap perched jauntily on his head. He looked at Lloyd as if the other man were speaking the gospel.
“As clean as a brand new washing machine,” Lloyd said with a smile. “As innocent as a newborn baby.”
“So everything went back to normal?” the tourist’s wife asked, sipping on a beer herself. She was a short, fat woman with long brown hair, and her blue eyes were fixed on Lloyd as well.
Lloyd Goshorn shook his head. “No. I didn’t say that. Bubba got the girl, the beautiful Willodean Gray, the most beautiful Sheriff’s deputy this side of the Mississippi River. They’re planning on getting married next spring. They’re going to have ten bride’s maids, no, maybe twelve and the biggest wedding cake in the history of Texas. Bigger than a car even. They fell in love that very night. They found the gold in the potato cellar, mind you. When it was weighed, it was three hundred pounds of the purest gold on the market today. They dug it all up one night soon after, and sold it on the international market. They say it was worth over seven million dollars because the bricks was all stamped ‘Property of the United States of America, 1860.’ So they had to sell it in secret. Miz Demetrice Snoddy is fixing the Snoddy Mansion up like when it was brand, spanking new.”
“Boy, that’s something,” the man commented with awe in his voice.
“Sure is,” Lloyd replied, finishing off a shot of whiskey. “Another?”
“Bartender,” called the man. “Another round here.”
“But here’s the funniest part,” continued Lloyd as they waited for the bartender to bring them the drinks. “Colonel Nathaniel Snoddy is no longer haunting the Snoddy Mansion, rattling chains, and coming through the secret door in the living room.”
“No?” breathed the wife.
“He’s over at the bordello, only it ain’t a bordello no more, the Red Door Inn,” Lloyd was sincere. “It’s a bed and breakfast with Miss Doris Cambliss running the place. That’s where you can see the Colonel waiting for his one and only true love, Miss Annalee Hyatt, the savior of Pegramville from the rampaging, murdering Union troops. He waits for her in front of her portrait, a full-length one of the lady in all her wonderful glory, in the living room of the Red Door Inn. Maybe when she comes to him, he won’t haunt the place no more. So there he sits, waiting for her, all ghostly like, pale, and agleam, only seen in the latest hours of evening with an eerie greenish glow as if from the gas lights of the late 1800's. People have been seeing him for weeks. On nights like this one, with the moon shining through the lead glass windows, so you don’t even need a light to walk through the house at midnight. The night as calm and silent as can be. You’ll see.”
“That’s where we’re staying,” the husband whispered excitedly. The pair of them was wide-eyed, mesmerized with the intricate story of murder, mayhem, ghostly hauntings, and stolen Union gold. It would make a fantastic movie, but it was a great tall tale.
Lloyd nodded, smiling to himself. So what if he aggrandized the truth a little. He considered, Well, a lot. What were some colorful, trumped-up additions to a good story? What difference did it make if the story got longer and more embroidered each time he told it and got some whiskey in him?
Maybe that wasn’t really the way it happened. But it was the way it should have. It should have.
The End
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Look for more Bubba in Bubba and the 12 Deadly Days of Christmas.
Bubba Snoddy’s got some problems. His family has descended for the Christmas holidays and not in a good way. His cousin wants to own the Snoddy Mansion, decrepit, falling-down columns, termites, wood rot and all and isn’t above using manipulative behavior to achieve his ends. Miz Demetrice is up to nefarious and illegal activities while trying to entertain relatives. His cousin’s ten-year-old son is the personification of a demon and has hobbies of looking at medical photographs, making stun guns from scratch, and causing havoc wherever he roams. The woman of Bubba’s dreams, Deputy Willodean Gray, is still evading his romantic pursuits. Patients from the local mental institute are wandering over the town, ostensibly assisting with the Christmas Festival thanks to a program established by the mayor to cut costs. And Bubba has just found the dead body of a man dressed as Santa in the Christmas scene at City Hall. Oh, Pegramville, Texas is just the best place to be at Christmas if a fella has a bullet proof vest and a linebacker’s helmet. All the folks think Bubba might have done did it…again, even though it was proven that he didn’t done did it the first time, and Bubba has to move quickly in order to catch a murderer.
About the Author
C.L. Bevill has lived in Texas, Virginia, Arizona, and Oregon. She once was in the US Army and a graphic illustrator. She holds degrees in social psychology and counseling. She is the author of Bubba and the Dead Woman, Bubba and the 12 Deadly Days of Christmas, Bayou Moon, and Shadow People, among others. Presently she lives with her husband and her daughter and continues to constantly write. She can be reached at www.clbevill.com or you can read her blog at www.carwoo.blogspot.com
Other Novels by C.L. Bevill
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Mysteries:
Bubba and the Dead Woman
Bubba and the 12 Deadly Days of Christmas
Bubba and the Missing Woman
Bayou Moon
Paranormal Romance:
Veiled Eyes (Lake People)
Disembodied Bones (Lake People)
The Moon Trilogy (Novellas):
Black Moon (The Moon Trilogy 1)
Amber Moon (The Moon Trilogy 2)
Silver Moon (The Moon Trilogy 3)
Cat Clan Novella:
Harvest Moon
Blood Moon (Coming Soon)
Shadow People
Sea of Dreams
Suspense:
The Flight of the Scarlet Tanager
Black Comedy:
The Life and Death of Bayou Billy
Missile Rats
Chicklet:
Dial ‘M’ For Mascara