Dancing with Murder
Page 25
All through the audience, people whooped and danced and waved hankies and ribbons. As I watched them three-stepping and spinning in circles, I realized I was okay with it. Back at Dad's wake, I'd hated the partying so soon after his death; it had seemed disrespectful. But here was another party on the heels of death, and it didn't bother me. If anything, I was glad to be a part of it. Maybe fending off the greatest grief, closest to the point of losing someone, wasn't so wrong after all.
And maybe I'd changed enough to see it. Which made me wonder. And worry, to be honest.
How much more was I going to change, anyway?
Heck, I was already so far gone, I danced around the stage with Peg without giving it a second thought. That was something I wouldn't have been caught dead doing a week earlier.
And a little later, when Eddie brought up the bet we'd made, I even played a number on accordion. Years ago, I'd sworn never to pick up a button box again, yet there I was, playing it in front of thousands of people.
But don't get the wrong idea about me. I'm still the same old Lottie in lots of ways. I played the heck out of that accordion, it's true. I won the bet with Eddie, and he handed me fifty bucks on the spot.
But does that mean I liked playing that song? Does it mean I love polka again? Will I be a good little polka chick from now on, always trying to fit in, never making any waves?
Don't bet on it.
*****
DEATH BY POLKA
Copyright © 2012 by Samantha Shepherd
Published in May 2012 by Pie Press by arrangement with the author. All rights reserved by the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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