...continued...see the small children...

Now Herman Miller, as I sort of mentioned before, was I thought, kinda shy. He had big blue eyes, that when you looked into them, sort of reminded me of the creek in our neighborhood. Sometimes you would look in his eyes and they would be shining; they would sparkle like the reflection of the sun upon the water on a sunny day, and other times those eyes looked like there was a storm brewing in them, just like the creek did when the winds blew and the thunder and the rain came.

We all lived pretty close to the creek. Momma and daddy told me growing up that we lived in a really old neighborhood; a neighborhood that had a lot of history. We lived in what they called a mill town, daddy use to say. All the men back then went to work at the mills. I think daddy said there was a yarn mill and a woolen mill.

Now we didn't live by the creek or the mills, but we lived closer to Mr. and Mrs. Cumberlink's which was over by the railroad trussell, which ran over top the creek and on either side of the baseball and football field. Mama said we lived in a nicer part of town because daddy had a little bit more money than the others; not that we were rich she'd say, just made better use of our money, didn't waste it on anything that wasn't a necessity. I could never figure out why she didn't think Mr. Cumberlink had a respectable job, or that they were respectable people when the Cumberlinks lived so close to us.

Well anyway, one hot July, not that long after the fourth of July, not that long after the fourth of July parade, the parade that ran all through the towns, so as we could have a party to honor the birthday of the country; well this particular fourth of July was when ever thing started gettin real uncomfortable.

See Emily Anne, she went to some fancy dancin school classes and every year the teachers that ran the school had a big float all decorated with ballerinas and fancy dance shoes, the kind with those pieces of metal on the bottom. Well she was at the top of the float, just sittin up there like a fairy princess. She had a sparkly crown on her head and one of those fancy ballet costumes with lots of puffy net attached to it. That float ran all the way down the main street of the town and when you got to the end there was free ice cream, lemonade and soda just waitin for ya; and in Emily Anne's case there was also Jimmy and Herman waiting for her.

...to be continued...