Of Sea and Cloud (12 page)

Erma Lee Carver?

Virgil's eyes crimped and his face went suddenly red. When he spoke his voice had turned hard. Shut up, Jonah. I'm trying to teach you something but you're too goddamned foolish. Your damned father's dead and you still sit there making kid jokes. Get yourself together.

Fuck, said Jonah and lit another cigarette. His chest began to lurch and his knees shook and he felt as though Virgil had sucker-punched him. It took a while for him to respond and even then his voice wasn't as strong as he wished. Together like you, Virgil? Drunk by dawn type of together?

Okay, Celeste said. Tell him what you want to tell him, Virgil. And Jonah, he's right. It's high time you took something seriously. And Virgil, he's right. You've been nothing but drunk and mean lately. And you are worrying me.

Jonah watched the grease-blackened etchings on his own thumb and forefinger as he twisted the brown cigarette filter back and forth. He drew on the cigarette and concentrated. He felt a choking in his throat and heat in the backs of his eyes. His face burned with embarrassment. He knew Virgil was right but still wanted to say,
You don't know me
, but if he spoke his voice would fall apart.

He began to push his chair back but Virgil sighed and dropped his shoulders and spoke. I'm sorry, Jonah. It's fine. This is hard on all of us. We all have to deal with our pain. I drink and you make jokes. Finest kind. Virgil cleared his throat and held his drink up in a short silent toast. What's going to happen is this. Jason Jackson and Osmond Randolph are going to buddy right up. Mark my words. Jason's bought from the pound for years now. He's going to drop the money and buy out Benji so they'll have the wharf and pound both. You wait. They'll run this harbor and it won't be long till they get even bigger.

So if Jason Jackson and Osmond work together, they're not going to want Bill around, is that what you're saying? That's what you keep worrying about?

Virgil's eyes narrowed and his voice turned low. The price of lobsters goes up twenty-five cents in Japan and your father gets killed is what I'm saying. Some clamfuck restaurant chain in Tokyo decides to put lobster on their lunch menu and our world shifts like someone slapped the Jell-O is what. They call Jason Jackson, he sees an opportunity and he calls Osmond and Osmond sees an opportunity. But your father doesn't like that shit so all of a sudden he's in the way. Bam.

Killed? Christ, Jonah said and looked away from Virgil but something slowly dawned on him. There was a moment of silence before he spoke. You think Osmond killed the old man?

Virgil stared like a snake black-eyed.

You think Osmond wanted to go into business with Jason Jackson but the old man didn't? So Osmond killed him for the pound? That's fucking crazy, Virgil. Osmond's a asshole but he ain't that bad. Besides, the Captain's gonna get his half of the pound and he wouldn't go for something the old man wouldn't of gone for anyway.

Osmond ain't that bad? He thinks he talks to God.

Celeste turned to Virgil and her face was filled with disgust. Well you think you are God. Lots of people think they talk to God. That doesn't mean they're murderers. And the price of lobster in Tokyo, Virgil? My God.

She squeezed her fingers together with her hand as if she'd lost the flow of blood. She said, You may think all of the insane thoughts you want, but do not, and I mean do not, speak them out loud.

Virgil ignored her but he looked pained. He said, Osmond damn near killed his brother and would've if I hadn't of caught the sonofawhore.

That's not true and if it was true it's still irrelevant, she said.

The hell it's not true. Virgil turned to Jonah. I told you before, about Osmond and Laura. She was his brother's wife. Julius's grandmother.

I remember.

Celeste spoke up. Osmond isn't such a bad man, Jonah. He's just different, and maybe a little creepy, but that's not for us to judge. He's good to his grandchildren, and I promise you that there are plenty of men around here that would not be so good to theirs. Anyway, Osmond fell in love with Orrin's wife while Orrin was over in Korea. Orrin is his brother. Osmond left the church for her but she went back to Orrin when Orrin came home. Orrin had been injured in the war.

So Osmond goes ratshit batshit, Virgil said and fluttered his fingers in the air. He gets thinking the heavenly Lord's sitting on both his shoulders, and he beats all hell out of Orrin and takes baby Neveah Elaine for his own. Beat the shit right out of his own fucked-up war vet brother. I mean beat him to a pulp, Jonah. So I'm over buying boat parts when Laura comes screaming that Osmond killed Orrin, Osmond killed Orrin. And I end up damned near breaking Osmond's neck so Laura can take her kid back. The only reason I got the drop on the big bastard is he was holding that baby Neveah so tight with both arms that I could just latch myself right around the bastard's neck. And he was big then but he was damned close to unconscious by the time he started struggling. Hell, I was only a teenager or something and that there's why me and him don't take to one another. I'd of killed him too and I well should've.

Why didn't you? Celeste said but she didn't want an answer.

Mercy. That's why. I had mercy on the whoreson.

Celeste turned back to her cookies and no one spoke. The deep thrum of the cello on the radio filled the room. Virgil made circles on the table with the condensation from his glass. Everything that had been said slopped around the room like tank water and every once in a while the water overtook Jonah. He tried to follow Virgil's logic but all that he could believe was that his father had been pulled overboard like thousands of fishermen before him and thousands of fishermen after him and of course it was tragic but tragic was all it was. Anyone who paid attention knew that big business was taking over fishing just like it had everything else. But to think it was worth killing someone? They weren't dealing with cocaine or diamonds. They were dealing with lobsters. Bugs that crawled around the seafloor and hid in mud holes and rock caves and ate each other or any other piece of sea rot they could find.

Celeste interrupted his thoughts. Jonah, do you want to use the shower?

I washed up some earlier.

Use the shower, Jonah. It's nice to have a hot shower once in a while even if you don't need it. Dinner's not for a while yet and Virgil needs to cool down.

Sure, Jonah said. Sure.

You know where it is.

Is Charlotte up there?

Virgil turned. In the shower?

Upstairs.

She's not here, Virgil said. Just go on the Christ and take a shower.

I'll get you a towel, Celeste said.

Jonah followed her up the stairs. She set out a blue towel for him and paused in the hallway. The space was shadowed and her face was half lit by the bathroom light and her hair was tucked behind her ear.

Jonah, she said. Don't think about that stuff with Osmond and lobster prices. You know how Virgil gets. He doesn't deal well with things, especially death. He needs to blame someone and losing your father has been very hard on him. He doesn't have many real friends—not that any of that is an excuse for the things he said.

I know it, Jonah said. Osmond was good to the old man. No one else, but he was good to the old man.

Celeste closed her eyes then opened them. Yes. Yes, he was.

Jonah hesitated then spoke in a hushed voice. Virgil doesn't look too good, Celeste.

He's drinking more than ever and he won't sleep. I don't think he's slept since you moved out of the trailer.

Maybe I should come back. For a while or something.

No. She shook her head from side to side. You take care of you. He just drives around and watches the harbor like he's waiting for your father to come home. He says he's looking for whales is what he says. And yesterday after they brought your father's boat back, he wouldn't come home. He just sat in his truck down at the wharf looking at Nicolas's boat.

She turned to go but stopped. She took a moment as if deciding whether or not to speak. Then said, Yes, I am worried about him, Jonah. He's been acting—I don't know how to explain it. He's not himself anymore, and I don't think it's all because of your father's death. I don't know what's happened. And now this conspiracy theory of his—.

Her voice trailed off. She bit her lower lip and Jonah thought she would cry. He gripped her hands in his and they were cold and dry.

He'll be fine, he said.

She pulled her hands free and hugged him. It's good to have you here. If you get tired of being alone, stay here as long as you want. There's the extra bedroom and no one will bother you. Just come in and make yourself at home.

I'm fine, Celeste. I like it out there. It's quiet. He paused. Then, Where's Charlotte? I haven't seen her in a long time.

Celeste didn't answer at first. She gave him a sympathetic look. Maybe she'll talk to you. She always wanted a big brother and you and Bill were like that for her.

He watched her walk down the hallway. He shut the door and turned the shower on.

• • •

Virgil shook his head slowly. I don't know what the hell that was. I shouldn't of told him that shit about Osmond and Jason Jackson. Now I lit a fire under his highliner ass. I got blathering like the Captain.

Celeste held a star-shaped cookie cutter in her hand and she pressed it into the sheet of dough. She didn't want to look at her husband. She'd always had absolute faith in him but that faith was fraying. You got blathering all right, she said without looking up. I haven't got any idea if what you said has any grounding in reality or not, Virgil, but if it does—if it has any grounding at all—then you need to go to the police right now. And whatever it is that you did that's made you go insane, I don't know. Just fix it for crying out loud.

Virgil didn't appear to hear her. Now Jonah's up there thinking all the things he's going to do to Osmond Randolph and what he's going to do is get his highliner self killed if he does anything but set his ass home. Now I got to watch over him.

Yes, you do have to watch him. What were you thinking? What are you going to do if he starts making accusations? Or worse? What's going to happen when he tells Bill? Don't you have any idea that he listens to you?

Virgil stood up and rounded the table and took Celeste in his arms. She held her dough-covered hands out to the side and moved her head away from his but still she breathed his brandy breath.

She stepped from his grip and squared herself in front of him.

Virgil's hands hung at his sides. He spoke in a feverish voice. Trust me. Just trust me. I know I'm coming off crazy but goddamn it, Celeste, trust me. Jonah won't do anything stupid, but don't you go talking to the Captain about this. He'll come off pissing fury and we don't need him on the warpath. I'll make sure the Highliner don't open his mouth.

Celeste leaned against the counter. Jonah's fine and the only one thinking about Osmond is you and you had no right whatsoever telling him that his father was murdered. Do you have any idea how crazy that is, Virgil? Any idea whatsoever? You just told a young man that his father was fucking murdered. I can't even believe it myself. I just can't fathom it. We're lucky he's more worried about Charlotte right now than he is about all your talk.

Christ. I am too.

Celeste turned and stamped a few more cookies and moved them onto a tray and they were perfect. Neither spoke for a moment then without facing her husband Celeste said, What happened that night, Virgil? That night you came home so late and you couldn't stop shaking? What did you do? I need you to tell me.

She heard him breathing.

He stood up and circled the kitchen like a nervous dog then stopped in front of the window and gazed off into the night for so long that she wondered if he intended to answer her or not. Then he spoke. Remember when we got married?

Of course I remember.

He cleared his throat and swallowed. Well you said that you'd share everything you possibly could with me.

He turned to her and she to him and she nodded.

And you said that sometimes there would be some things that would be impossible for you to share. Well, this is one of those things right now for me.

She studied his face with its drooping cheeks and clear sad eyes then nodded again and turned back to her dough.

After several minutes passed Virgil sat back down on his stool and said, I figured the Highliner was over all that Charlotte stuff.

Celeste paused and looked at the wall and held her breath for several beats and said, He's in love, Virgil. He's not going to get over it that easy.

Charlotte met Julius at the Irving station. He went inside while she waited in the truck. She examined her fingernails and tried not to think about Jonah. A part of her wondered what she was doing with Julius but since the moment she'd discovered that it was he who'd left the flowers she'd wanted to find out who he was for herself. She'd met Osmond and she'd met the twin girls but she'd never actually met Julius. She'd heard rumors around the school and the wharf but that's all she thought they were. Rumors. Julius was a drug dealer and Julius tried to drown his sister and Julius's father was in prison and Julius should be in prison too.

She didn't believe the worst of it but if she was wrong then she'd handle him just like she'd handled everything else in her life.

Julius returned with a bag of hard candies and a twelve-pack of colas. They crossed the river and he sucked on a candy. The tide was ebb and slabs of salt ice broke free of the frozen river and floated downstream to the bay while the rocks and seaweed along the shoreline stayed wrapped in the smooth ice sheets. Snow lined the banks above the high water mark and geese fed in the field and the coastline spread like a hand with its fingertips pressing deep into the gulf.

They drove in awkward silence along the knuckles of land and came into a town that lay at the crux of two peninsulas separated by a river and bay. They turned down the western peninsula. Julius ran his thumb and forefinger over his arrowhead patch of hair and glanced at Charlotte out of the sides of his eyes. He grabbed a cola and opened the can and drank long but he did not speak.