The Keepers of Secrets

Five | Good News

"Was not! I was just playin' with you!"

"No, you were actin' like a little kid."

"You say that like you're an adult or somethin'."

"That's 'cause I am."

Sally Jean laughed. "No, you ain't! You're eleven!"

"That's pretty much an adult," Jory said haughtily.

"Clyde!" Sally Jean called out towards the coop, catching the little boy's attention through the chicken wire. "Jory just called himself an adult!"

She watched as Clyde laughed and dumped the rest of the food before slipping out of the coop. "Nah! He ain't no adult!" he exclaimed. "He's a big ole baby!"

Jory frowned. "Oh, yeah? Well, if I'm a baby, what does that make you? You're younger than me, remember?"

Clyde ignored the logic, as a seven-year-old normally did. "You're just mad that you're a big ole baby!"

Sally Jean giggled at Jory's angry face. "Yeah, you big ole baby!"

Jory snapped his attention toward her, scowling. "Least I'm not an ugly little girl like you."

His words struck her like he'd hurled a brick at her. She suddenly didn't want to be around him any longer. Her chest hurt, and her throat and eyes felt prickly with sadness.

"Jory Samson Mayberry!" a voice shrieked, Mrs. Mayberry stalking out of the barn closest to them. She pointed a finger at her son, eyes bright with anger. "Tell me I didn't just hear what I heard. Tell me you didn't just call Sally Jean ugly. I know I raised you better than that!"

Sally Jean watched as Jory's face grew red in embarrassment, the hurt in her chest not feeling so bad anymore.

"I—uh—I didn't mean it. It was just—" he fumbled to say.

"You know not to call people names! Especially not ladies!" Mrs. Mayberry hollered.

"But Sally Jean and Clyde were callin' me names—"

"They're seven, Jory. You're eleven. You know better than to do that!"

"But that's not fair—"

"Apologize."

Jory's shoulders slumped as he huffed out a frustrated breath and turned toward Sally Jean. "I'm sorry," he said in a strained voice.

Sally Jean looked down at her feet. "It's fine," she said, but it didn't feel like it. She still didn't feel good. She didn't like thinking that Jory thought she was ugly.

Was she? Sometimes she felt like it, especially when she would look too hard at Mama or catch sight of her reflection in the mirror that hung in the Mayberry's sitting room.

Her hair was always unruly with frizzy curls, and her eyes were too big, and she didn't think she looked all that nice since she lost her two front teeth and the boys started teasing her about how she said her 'S's.

Was that why he thought she was ugly? How could she fix it?

"Good," Mrs. Mayberry said tightly. "Now, I never want to hear you call her—or any other girl—that ever again, you hear me?" She lifted her chin, crossing her arms and shaking her head as she stared down her nose at Jory. "You oughta be ashamed of yourself, sayin' that to Sally Jean. She's an awful pretty girl, and she'll grow to be a beautiful woman one day." Her lips pulled into a smirk. "Heck, son, one day, you might try to make her your own."