“I’m sure Sharon would have loved to see her,” Selene told Mickey.“I am glad to know that someone in the swamp was kind to her at one time.”
Mickey stayed silent for a couple of minutes so that she could compose herself.
Chapter Nine
“Tell me something,will you?”Mickey asked finally.“After Grace died, did Jed ever visit again?”
Selene nodded.“He came nearly every week and brought us food.”
“Then he knew about you being there?”Mickey wanted to know.
Selene nodded.“Yeah, he knew about me.I was still a kid but he knew.”
“Then why didn’t he ever tell anyone about you?”Mickey asked angrily.“No one ever knew you were there.Hell, we never knew Sharon was there either.”
“I think that was Grace’s plan all along.Sharon embarrassed her by being different and she couldn’t stand it.”
“That difference wouldn’t have mattered to anyone here.And Grace knew that after she lived here for a while,” Mickey insisted.“She didn’t have to hide her cousin away like that.”
Selene shook her head.“She couldn’t admit Sharon was her cousin either.I mean what if one of her children was born to look like Sharon?Grace had more pride than that and she did not care about others like she should have.”
Mickey shook his head.“Grace was a fool.”He ran his fingers through his hair.“So you came to warn us?About Jude and Jasmine being here and that they were looking for something Leroy might have left behind.”
Selene nodded.“Yeah, I've been watching them and they’re desperate to find something.They have been out looking for it but they can’t find it.It’s a good thing too.”
“Why is that?”Mickey asked.
“Because what they are looking for would kill a lot of people and that’s what they plan to do.You can’t kill people.That’s just plain ole wrong.”
Mickey just stared at her then he asked, “Do you know of a place they call Shimmer Valley?”
Selene froze and stared at him.“What do you want with that old place?People around here think it's haunted.”
Mickey tilted his head in curiosity.“People think it's haunted.Do you think it is?”
She shrugged.“Yes, because it is always covered in fog.They think that is to hide the ghosts that live there.It isn’t really.Even though it is spooky.My grandma explained to me that it was because the valley is so far under sea level that it’s almost unknown and that it’s another place here.She told me she’d been down there and the place is really beautiful when you get through the fog that hides it.Like the place was our favorite because we are sort of like that.We were also misunderstood and people thought we were ghosts.She took me there a few times."
