Sealed with a promise (29 page)

  Aunt Lilly Hale appeared behind Do-Lord. “Why Charlotte!” She quickly mastered her surprise. “How wonderful you could come. And little Vicky too. Vicky, the children are eating in the family room. Run on back.”

  “I hope we’re not intruding,” Charlotte apologized to Lilly Hale. “I know we sent regrets to your invitation, but we got free at the last minute. Vicky wanted to come so much.”

  Lilly Hale waved that away. “You’re family. Of course, you’re welcome. Let me take your coat, and Do-Lord will show you how to get to the dining room to serve yourself.”

  Vicky looked to her mother for permission and at her nod ran down the corridor.

  “This way,” he said, leading Charlotte into the hall. “With so many tables set up, there’s only one path open to the food.”

  When they were out of earshot, she stopped him. “I’m so grateful you were there this afternoon. I had to come and thank you after Vicky told me what happened. I’m sorry you had a run in with Mr. Fairchild. He wasn’t speaking for me or my husband. You will always be welcome in our house. Vicky is… she’s a handful.”

  Do- Lord shook his head. “She’s resourceful, that’s for sure.”

  “I want to do something for you-”

  “Thank you, ma’am. Nothing is required.” When he saw she was ready to protest he added, “Really ma’am.” He let his voice harden into a command. “The less said the better.”

  Charlotte acquiesced with a nod that said she was only temporarily agreeing. “I hope you will at least come to dinner. My husband never got a chance to speak to you and welcome you into our home.”

  “Thank you for making Charlotte feel at home. She is family, on her mother’s side, and ever since they moved to Wilmington she’s been invited to my Christmas dinner, but she’s never come.” Lilly Hale was in full spate. Do-Lord let the comfortable sound drift around him and didn’t worry about needing to reply. If she wanted him to say something, she’d tell him. “Charlotte told me Vicky insisted they come tonight. I understand that Charlotte and Teague lead busy lives, but I’m glad to see she’s finally taking her responsibility to make sure Vicky knows her cousins seriously. My late husband, Garson, used to complain about all the fuss. And I’d say to him, ‘Garson, a family is not something that just happens, you must build it.’ I started having this party when our children were grown and had moved away from here. I saw that the grandchildren were growing up not understanding how they were related. This is the homeplace.”

  “Are all these people kin?”

  “I always invite some dear friends who have become honorary family members-like Emmie. After all, a family doesn’t
begin
with blood ties. A family starts with ties of the heart.”

  “Aunt Lilly Hale,” one of the women working at the sink called, holding up a bowl and saucer all made into one, “can this gravy boat go in the dishwasher?”

  “Yes, oh, and Grace, be sure to count the silver before it’s put away.” Emmie and Grace, who were drying a mountain of silver utensils, traded a secret smile.

  “I saw that.” The matriarch laughed. “You’re too young to remember the Christmas eve we sifted garbage at 10:00 p.m. looking for one of the silver forks.”

  “Oh, Lord, Mama, I remember.” The fiftyish woman married to the James who had read from the Bible, looked up from the leftovers she was organizing. “It was
cold,
and you made Daddy put the garbage barrels-the humongous oil drums we used back then-on the pickup and drive them up to the house where there was enough light. You made every one of us children spread the garbage out in pans on the porch there. Daddy was cussing a blue streak. But you said the fork was in the garbage, and you were right.”

  “After that I made a rule that no garbage could be carried from the house until all the silver was accounted for.”

  The exchanges had the well-worn feel of a story that had been told over and over. Strophe and antistrophe, everyone knew the words, knew what came next, and the different voices flowed together so seamlessly it was like a story told in chorus.

  “And you made sure you taught all your daughters-”

  “And daughters-in-law-”

  “And granddaughters-”

  “And nieces-”

  “And great-nieces-”

  “And great-great nephews,” said Grace’s son, returning a chair to its place at the kitchen table.

  “Let me show you the we room we added when my mother came to live with us,” Lilly Hale told Do-Lord conversationally.

  “Sit down,” she commanded in a steely tone as soon as they were in a large bedroom. She took a chair and indicated he should sit on the bed. “It’s probably too soon to ask this, but I no longer have as much time as I once did. Old ladies are allowed much more latitude than young women to be rudely inquisitive,” she explained. “I take shameless advantage of it.”

  He didn’t like the feeling that he was being called to account for his actions. He didn’t like it one bit. Still, Do-Lord had to smile at her charm.

  She folded her hands in her lap and leveled him with an uncompromising look. “How serious are you about Emmie?”

  “I’m ready to be as serious as she wants me to be.”

  “And Emmie?” she prodded. “How does she feel?”

  Do- Lord decided to push back. “Why don’t you ask her?”

  “Because I’m asking you.” She tapped the upholstered arm of her chair with one gnarled finger. She relented a little. “Emmie is sensitive. I don’t wish to embarrass her or make her self-conscious.”

  She had given a little. He could give a little. “I haven’t won her over to my way of thinking yet. But I’m going to try.”

  She digested that without comment. “Do you have a family?”

  “My mother is dead.”

  A trace of sympathy flickered in her eyes, but her expression didn’t soften. “And your father?”

  “Was never in the picture.”

  “He was not married to your mother.”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “And you were raised without a father’s guidance.” He’d never thought of it in exactly that way. There was no need to reply. The facts spoke for themselves.

  “People who have been raised without family ties do not always grasp family values. I suspect that new husband of Pickett’s doesn’t. However, Pickett is quite strong. She understands how a family functions and dysfunctions.” Lilly Hale smiled at her little joke. “She’ll set him straight.”

  Do- Lord was suddenly confused. Unless he was mistaken, Pickett’s sister Lyle was a lesbian. Jax didn’t have a problem with that. “Do you mean like trying to keep homosexuals away from kids?”

  “Pshaw!” Do-Lord hadn’t heard the old-fashioned exclamation since he was a kid. It made him feel connected to the old lady-like she was somebody he’d known a long time. “Some people act like homosexuals only recently moved into society. They have
always
been among us. Always been one of us. Let me tell you, if congregations eliminated their homosexual members, the music programs of three-fourths of the churches in this state would collapse. It was true seventy years ago, and it’s true today.”

  “So, which family values do you mean?”

  “Kindness, devotion to one another’s well-being, respect, and responsibility for teaching the children as well as guarding them from harm. And heaping amounts of forgiveness and tolerance. Especially the last. Families are made up of human beings, not saints. We are weak, selfish, and shortsighted much of the time, and we make mistakes as often as we get it right.”

  Lilly Hale came out of lecture mode and gave him a weary smile. “You are close to the height of your physical and mental powers with the natural arrogance of youth. You don’t believe me. You think you’re different. My boy-” On her lips the words sounded like a real endearment. “There will be times when you fail the people you love most.”

  Against his will, he thought of how he had endangered Jax and his team. And of his mother, lying so still, so silent, so beautiful, where the red light of the setting sun touched her hair.

  “The values that I’m talking about demand we search our own conscience, not the conscience of others. These are the values that constantly invite us up to a higher standard. And forgive us, and comfort us when we inevitably fail. These are the values that nourish love. They will allow a family to flourish in the good times and survive the bad times.”

  She had gone back into lecture mode. Still, he was listening. Against his will, but listening. He thought of what he had promised Emmie. “What about fidelity and loyalty?”

  “They are good to have,” she allowed.

  “But?”

  “In the bad times, they will not be enough.”

  They were silent a minute. “We’ve been absent a long while,” she said at last. “Give me your hand. This chair is too low. Always was.”

  She didn’t release his arm even after she was standing. Instead, she leaned on it as they made their way back to the noise and crowd. She halted him in the hallway, behind the stairs. “What is your given name?” she asked out of the blue.

  “Caleb.”

  “What did your mother call you?”

  “That. Caleb.”

  “It’s a good name. Caleb was one of the two Israelite spies who told the truth. All the other spies lied because they didn’t have the courage to go forward. They didn’t want to face what must be faced to reach the Promised Land.

  “Caleb,” she said as she resumed walking, “I imagine Pickett’s mother will want Emmie to come home for Christmas, especially if Pickett doesn’t come. If she does, why don’t you plan to come and stay with me? My children are all middle-aged and dull and mistakenly believe they’re supposed to raise me now. I’ll enjoy having a young person around.”

  Do- Lord put the truck’s wipers on their lowest setting to deal with the heavy dew that kept condensing on the windshield. The foil-covered leftovers he’d placed on the floor behind his seat filled the cab with fragrant reminders of the feast they had left.

  “Did you and Pickett get to talk?” he asked Emmie.

  “Uh- huh. We crept upstairs by ourselves for a few minutes. It felt good to talk. How about you? I saw you and Aunt Lilly Hale go off together,” she teased. “Did she manage to have her wicked way with you?”

  “I fought her off. Told her I’d promised to be loyal and faithful to you.” He took one hand from the wheel to squeeze her shoulder. “Hey, I didn’t know you could sing.” Do-Lord cut off her disclaimers. “One of Pickett’s sisters told me you’d never been willing to sing before. Why tonight?”

  “Aunt Lilly Hale is so thrilled to have two greatgrandchildren who are musical. I knew she wanted them to perform, but they’re both at awkward stages. So I said I would as a gift to their great-grandmother and asked them to help me. And, of course, they
wanted
to-if someone would make it legitimate.”

  “If someone would assume leadership.”

  “Have you ever seen such gifts? Aren’t they incredible? Hannah’s voice hasn’t matured to its full resonance yet, but when it does…”

  “Is that why you had Hannah sing the last verse solo?”

  “Not entirely. I can’t sing the last verse. Literally. When I come to ‘Be near me Lord Jesus/ I ask Thee to stay/ Close by me forever/ and love me, I pray’ I start choking up-” Her voice cracked. “-just like now. By the time I get to ‘Bless all the dear children/ In Thy tender care’ I can’t croak out a note.” Emmie sniffed and laughed self-consciously. “I can’t believe I have such a sentimental streak, but there it is. My guilty secret.”

  Tender laughter threatened to stop his heart. She was so courageous, so unwilling to complain, he doubted if she knew what she had just revealed. She had laughed earlier about wanting her missionary parents to be dedicated to her, not to God. Emmie had been the twelve-year-old exile who begged for someone to stay with her forever and love her. With one hand he stroked the silken softness of her wet cheek.

  Emmie laughed again and rubbed away the evidence of her vulnerability.

  “Did you see the dishes set on the warming tray?” She changed the subject. “They were all gluten-free dishes prepared for Pickett. Dressing, rolls, gravy, everything! Pickett and I almost had a meltdown over that. We couldn’t look at each other, or we’d start bawling.”

  “How did that happen?” Do-Lord thought he knew. He’d have to ask Jax the next time they popped a beer or two.

  “I don’t know whose idea it was. Several people said they had brought a dish and asked her how she liked it.”

  “Okay,” Emmie asked after awhile. “Are we going to talk about Charlotte and Vicky showing up tonight?”

  “Don’t think so.”

  “Right.”

  After that they talked about the food. Do-Lord asked about people he had met. Together they wondered about relationships, retold funny incidents that had happened.

  Sessoms Corner was about twenty miles off the interstate that would take them back to Wilmington. Theirs seemed to be the only car on the two-lane country road. The heavy moisture in the air thickened to patches of swirling mist and then to a drizzle, and their voices rose and fell against the slap-swish backbeat of the windshield wipers.

  A fantasy stole into Caleb’s mind. He was driving through a rainy night, driving home with Emmie, sleepy children in the backseat, talking about the party at Aunt Lilly Hale’s… suddenly, not five feet from the car, there was a deer in the middle of the road-

  He could see the upright ears and wide staring eyes of the deer so clearly. He braked hard enough to cause his shoulder harness to tighten. Time slowed. He felt the antilock brakes sense each wheel’s traction on the wet surface and send more or less brake fluid. Things slid around on the backseat.

  “Wha- ?” Emmie said.

  
There was no deer in the road.
For as far as the headlights could penetrate the silver curtain of rain, there wasn’t any hazard on the shiny blacktop. But the feeling of time split in two continued. He ignored the inner voice (that was in what he knew was real time) yelling at him for letting his imagination run wild. He was in the
other
time. No power on earth would have made him let up on the brake, until the truck was stopped.