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Reading Abigail

Can I read Abby? he asked,
a grin spreading across his broad-chinned face.

Yeah, I said, eager for volunteers,
You can read Abby’s lines.

I was a long-term sub
and we were reading The Crucible aloud
taking parts.

He was a high school football player,
wide shoulders but flaxen hair a cherub might envy.

Can I use my deep voice?

Sure, I nodded. A reader is a reader.
And he did, as if channeling Paul Robeson,
the evil of Abigail Williams incarnate
rumbling within her like an earthquake, an avalanche,
a dormant volcano about to erupt,
and the giggles stopped as we listened in awe,
words of witchcraft read at a slant
the power of Miller chilling the room
a crucible, vapors rising.

Bio: Gary Jones is a free-lance writer who lives in Sister Bay and Platteville.