Disappearance at Hangman's Bluff

Disappearance at Hangman's Bluff — page 5 — JUDGE GATORS HOUSE ABBEY'S HOUSE REWARD PLANTATIONS ONE ARM POND FELONY BAY LEADENWAH ISLAND SINNER'S POINT BISHOP'S POINT HANGMAN'S BLUFF

Disappearance at Hangman's Bluff — page 6 — One If you hurt a horse puppy dog or pony I will hurt you back I am only a twelve year old girl but I will hurt you really really bad That's a promise Now that we have that straight I should introduce myself My name is Abbey Force My best friend is Bee Force We share the same last name but we're not sisters We aren't even cousins and we certainly don't act the same Long story short I am usually the one who gets us into trouble and Bee is almost always the one who gets us out of it My real name isn't Abbey It's Abigail but my teachers and my father are the only ones who can get away with calling me

Disappearance at Hangman's Bluff — page 7 — that and even they do it only when I'm in trouble Anybody else if they don't want a bloody nose calls me Abbey In case you don't get it I hate the name Abigail Bee is the same Her name is Beatrice Call her Bee or get ready to take your medicine Like I said our last names are the same but the way in which we are related could only happen in the South in what used to be called the Confederate States of America before the Late Unpleasantness The Late Unpleasantness is how some of the really old white people in South Carolina still refer to the Civil War Either that or they call it the War of Northern Aggression It's obvious to me that they have totally forgotten who started the shooting Bee's family would most definitely not call it the War of Northern Aggression If they had a name for it that was different from the Civil War they might more likely call it the War That Got Us Out of Chains That's because way back then Bee's family members were slaves on my family's plantation The reason our last names are the same is that slaves didn't have last names and when they were freed they often took the last names of their ex owners You'd think a history like ours might have kept Bee and me from being friends but fortunately a lot of things have changed in the past hundred and fifty years For example Reward the plantation my family owned for three hundred years ever since my distant ancestors fled from France now belonged to Bee's family How all of that came about is related to a mystery Bee and I solved when we first became friends Anyway all that badness between our ancestors has actually made Bee and me close We were so close we called ourselves

Disappearance at Hangman's Bluff — page 8 — histers It was a word we made up and it was a combination of history and sisters It meant that we were related by things that happened many many years ago that we had nothing to do with but which had a lot to do with us and who we were All that past history bonded us together Almost like blood kin Adding to that the fact that we were also best friends we figure that makes us histers Everything I'm about to tell you followed on the heels of the first mystery that Bee and I solved in May of the year we first met First off in June Daddy finally opened his eyes and woke up from the coma he'd been in for over nine months The doctors had told me that waking up from a coma is a lot different than waking from sleep but I had always dreamed that Daddy would just open his eyes and jump out of bed like he used to when I would wake him up on Saturday or Sunday to go fishing That wasn't at all how it happened It actually took about a week for him to get to where he could talk and sit up in bed and then it took another week for him to get out of bed When he finally did get up he had to hobble around all slow and bent over like a very old man It made me happy but it also made me afraid because I wanted my father back and because the person who had opened his eyes seemed almost like a stranger and not at all like the person in my memories But it was Daddy and after those first two slow weeks he got to be more like himself almost every single day He stayed in the hospital most of July in order to do physical therapy and make himself stronger When he finally came home to Reward Plantation on Leadenwah Island he and I moved into the old tenant house right next door to Bee in the big house

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