Read The Summer We Lost Alice for Free Online Page B

doesn't mean they're dead." She's trying to make it sound not so bad. We already heard her tell Uncle Billy that Perla Ingram was murdered, even if they never found the body.
    "But probably," Alice goes on. "Why does God hate kids anyway? If they're good kids, I mean."
    "God does not hate children, good or bad. God doesn't hate anyone."
    "Then why does He kill them?"
    "That's the evil of men, not God," Aunt Flo says.
    Alice is persistent. "But God lets it happen, doesn't He? He could stop it if He wanted to, but He doesn't. So He must want it to happen. Why would He want somebody to kill good kids like that?"
    Aunt Flo has been washing the same dish through Alice's speech, rubbing the plate in tight circles like the circles Alice talks in.
    "Because God gives Man free will," Uncle Billy says. He has come in to get a beer. "God lets us decide for ourselves if we want to be good or bad." He opens the refrigerator and reaches deep inside. Aunt Flo makes him keep his beer in the back where she doesn't have to look at it every time she opens the refrigerator door. The beer is in a bottle. In Wichita, my dad's beer comes in cans.
    "But when men decide to be evil," Alice says, "why doesn't God smite them? I mean, after whoever it was killed Perla, why didn't God say, 'Okay, you had your chance' and wham , drop a rock on his head or something. Then Martin Dale would still be around making May baskets in the middle of summer."
    Catherine snickers. Aunt Flo shoots her a look that would knock a picture off a wall.
    "God loves little children and He loves having them around Him in Heaven," Aunt Flo says. Catherine hums softly, "Jesus Loves the Little Children." Aunt Flo's ears are turning red. Her teeth are clenched tight and there's a vein on the side of her head that I think must be about to bust.
    Uncle Billy says, "You're going to scrub the shine clean off that plate, Mama."
    "Well that's just selfish," Alice says. "I sure hope God doesn't take a liking to me anytime soon. I've got plans."
    "Right," Catherine snorts. "Big plans."
    Aunt Flo spins around and grabs the dish towel out of Catherine's hand. "I'll finish myself," Aunt Flo says. "You two go on. You, too, Bill." Uncle Billy slips from the room, hunching his shoulders as if a flying dish might follow him through the door.
    Alice and Catherine smile and Alice says, "Let's go!" She grabs my arm and we're out the back door. Boo is jumping all around us. Aunt Flo appears in the doorway.
    "Stay in the yard," she says. "I mean it. Catherine, you keep an eye on your little sister."
    Catherine makes a face. "I'm meeting Sammy," she says.
    "You can have him over. There's a killer on the loose and you don't let those children out of your sight, you hear?" She lets the door bang as she goes back inside. Aunt Flo never lets the door bang.
    "Did you hear that?" Alice says. "She said 'killer.'"
    I look at her, not understanding.
    "She does think that Perla Ingram and Martin Dale are dead," she says. "That proves it."
    * * *
    Aunt Flo pulls open the drawer under the oven and digs through the pans, practically tossing them over her shoulder, until she reaches the roasting pan on the bottom. She throws the other pans back into the drawer and tries to slam it shut, but the pans bang against the oven and she has to slow down and stack them just right. I get the feeling that she'd as soon throw them out.
    She won't say it, but she's mad at Alice for talking the way she did about God. And she's mad at somebody, probably God, for letting two kids go missing. And she's mad at Uncle Billy for not being as mad as she is about these things.
    When she's finally able to shut the drawer, she picks the roasting pan off the floor and slams it down on top of the stove.
    She pulls a plucked chicken out of the refrigerator. It still has its head and feet on. She scrubs it mercilessly . She whacks off the head and feet with a meat cleaver, slices it open, and scoops out the insides.
    Alice and I have wandered