Summer of the Redeemers (26 page)

“Hushpuckena,” she corrected. “Yes, I saw my parents. They disapproved of me going to Pensacola without Phil, just like they disapproved of me going to graduate school. There doesn’t seem to be much that I do that they approve of.” She waved a hand in the air.

“How about some coffee?” Effie asked. “I was just about to brew a pot.”

“I’d really like a drink. Have any bourbon?”

“No,” Effie said, even though we did. “I drank the last bit last night. Meant to go to the store, but it slipped my mind.” She got up to make a pot of coffee.

When I looked up, Mama Betts was standing in the doorway from the hall. She was taking in the scene with another dose of disapproval. I didn’t think anybody had to explain anything to her.

“Mrs. Cummings is a friend of Walt’s,” Effie said. “Mrs. Cummings, this is my mother—”

“Mama Betts,” Cathi supplied, brightening as she stood up. “I’ve heard so much about you from Bekkah’s father. About all of you. Is Arly here too?”

“He went to the baseball field,” Mama Betts supplied. “He’ll be back. How about some supper?” She didn’t wait for an answer, either, but went to the refrigerator and began to put together some leftovers to warm up. Nobody had cooked because we had the hamburgers from Mobile, but there were lots of things in the refrigerator. In a couple of minutes Mama Betts had Indian corn, crowder peas and okra and some pork chops warming with sweet potato casserole.

“That smells wonderful,” Cathi said. She was supporting herself at the table on her elbows. “I shouldn’t have come here. Walt would be very upset with me if he knew. But I just had to see what it is he can’t leave here.”

Her voice caught and for one awful moment I thought she was going to cry. That would be it. Effie might throw the hot coffee on her. I chanced a look at Effie and saw that careful mask still in place. There was no softening.

“Walt talks about you all the time,” Cathi continued. She was watching Effie pour three mugs full of strong black coffee. Mama Betts kept her back to the table. She was stirring her pots with a vengeance.

“He talks about you and Bekkah the most, but he has plenty to say about Mrs. McVay and Arly.”

It was strange to hear Mama Betts called by her formal name. I couldn’t remember hearing anyone do it before.

“And does Walt tell you how much he loves his family?” Mama Betts asked.

“Yes, ma’am, that’s exactly what he tells me. And he tells me that this road here, Kali Oka, has cast some spell over his wife and children and over him. He can’t seem to leave it any more than he could leave
his family. It doesn’t matter that he could have a real future in Columbia.”

Mama Betts filled a plate with food, and Effie pushed a mug of coffee over to Cathi.

“And I’ll bet you tried your best to convince him to stay in Missouri,” Mama Betts said as she placed the steaming plate in front of Cathi.

“I did, which didn’t impress Walt worth a damn.” She laughed, but it had a broken sound. “It seems to be my lot in life to fall for men who always care about something else more than they could ever possibly care about me.”

“Perhaps you should select men who aren’t already obligated,” Mama Betts suggested as she carefully placed a cloth napkin and flatware in front of Cathi.

“Sound advice,” Cathi agreed. “Sound advice. And I’ve given it some thought. You see, I think I fall for these men
because
they care about someone or something else. That was the thing about Walt. He loves his family.” She looked around the kitchen, and her eyes wouldn’t completely focus on me. “Each one of you. And I thought if someone could love me that way—”

“Better drink that coffee before it gets cold,” Effie said. “Bekkah, get your friend some aspirin. Make it three. She’s going to need them in the morning.”

The mannequin face was gone. Behind it was anger, fear, and maybe just a touch of compassion. I did as she told me, unwilling to ignite a scene I knew I would regret.

When I got back to the kitchen, Cathi was sampling the sweet potatoes with admirable appetite. “This is really good,” she was saying again and again. “Really good. I’ve never had this before.”

Mama Betts took a seat at the table. “Eat the food, Mrs. Cummings. You’ve had a bit to drink, and I don’t hold with drinking and driving. You know an awful lot about us here on Kali Oka. Now there are some questions Effie and I would like to ask you.”

Effie waved me onto the porch. I followed her out into the darkness, wondering if I’d be the first to feel the heat of her anger.

“Who is this woman?” she asked.

“One of The Judge’s students. She’s from Mississippi originally.”

“Yes, I’ve gathered that much. What is she doing here in Jexville?
Nobody comes to Kali Oka Road on the way to someplace else. Walt is still in Missouri; what’s she doing here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is she someone you made friends with on your little vacation?” The anger was creeping back into her voice. The dreaded vacation, my week of betrayal, was coming back to life.

“Yes, Mama. I met her and she was nice to me. While Daddy was busy, she took me places.”

“Did you invite her here?”

“No.”

“Well, she’s in no condition to drive any farther. She’ll have to stay in your room, since she’s your friend.”

“I’ll make up the sofa to sleep on.”

“Bekkah, what went on between that woman and your father?”

I couldn’t see her in the dark. Was she angry or worried? Judging from her voice, I couldn’t tell. “I think she fell in love with Daddy, but he didn’t love her back. If he did, he’d stay in Missouri, wouldn’t he?”

“Is that what he told you?”

“Not exactly. He asked me a question too.” The anger was like some flower opening up inside my chest. It pushed against my ribs and hurt. It crowded inside me, demanding to get out, to hurt her back.

“What question?”

“He wanted to know why you loved Kali Oka Road more than him, why you expected him to give up his life to live here.” I hit the outside screen door and ran. I heard it slam hard behind me, but I kept running. Picket appeared at my side as I ran harder and harder into the woods toward the spring. I hadn’t asked Cathi Cummings to drop by Chickasaw County. I’d never even told her where I lived. She’d come here on her own. What was happening was between Effie and The Judge and Cathi. I had nothing to do with it. Nothing.

I ran harder along the familiar path, dodging limbs and branches by instinct and memory, but I couldn’t outrun the ugliness. No matter what I told myself, I couldn’t outrun my guilt.

I made it to the spring, each breath a slicing knife in my lungs. Picket was at my side, her breath coming in sharp pants. My fingers found the smooth bark of a wild magnolia that grew beside the little pool of water, and I slipped to the moist, cool earth to catch my breath.

I was ashamed of myself. Terribly ashamed. I’d done the unforgivable, lashing out at Effie with a half-truth to cut her as she was cutting me. I wanted to cry, but my eyes were dry and burning. I reached into the pool to draw some water to my hot face. My fingers caught something in the water, a piece of material.

Involuntarily my fingers closed on it, and I pulled it toward me. It was heavy, something big. As I pulled I saw the familiar material of the white dress I’d buried only ten feet away. But I’d buried it deep, and put rocks and leaves on top of it. It couldn’t be the same dress.

I saw the blood stains all down the front.

My scream echoed again and again on the stillness of the August night.

Twenty-four

C
ATHI
Cummings left in the middle of the night. She came into the living room where I was sleeping and sat on the arm of the sofa.

“I’m sorry, Bekkah,” she said. “I’m sorry and ashamed.”

I pretended to be asleep. I hated her for coming to my home, for bringing Missouri to Kali Oka Road. For hurting Effie. Daddy was coming home in two days, and now she’d ruined it. Effie would be coiled and ready to strike.

“If I could have had a daughter like you …” She brushed her hand over my hair. “There’s something wrong inside, I can’t … Damn!” She removed her hand. “Whatever else happens, Bekkah, know that your father loves you more than anything in the world. Just remember that. No one can ever take that away from you.”

She stood up and I heard her car keys jiggle in her hand.

“Don’t come back here,” I said.

“I won’t. I won’t come here again. I was wrong to come here at all, but I had to see. Now I’m going to try to get a job in Mobile. There’s a paper there.”

“Go back to Missouri. Or go back to your husband.” Mobile was too close.

“I can’t, Bekkah. I can’t go forward and I can’t go back.” She tried for a laugh, but it fell in brittle pieces around her.

“What about your husband?”

“What about him?” She went to the front door, pushed back the
lacy curtain and looked out. In the darkness of the room she was a small silhouette. “If there was ever anything worth going back to there, I ruined it when I drove south and came here.” She sighed. “I know you hate me, but if you ever need anything, you can call on me.”

“I have my mama.” I was hateful, and I knew it.

“Sometimes you can’t always tell your mama everything. I hurt you, Bekkah. And I hurt your father and your family. I’m not a fool. I know that. I’d undo it if I could. But I can’t. So just remember. We’re a lot alike, you and I. We see what we want, and we don’t intend to hurt others.”

“I’m not like you, and I’m not stupid. I know you were nice to me to be with The Judge.”

“You’re wrong there, Bekkah. I spent time with you because I liked you. We are alike. Neither of us are hypocrites. If I hadn’t liked you, I’d have made sure I was busy when you were around. I only like you more because you’re Walt’s child.”

“Go away from here, Cathi. Leave us alone.”

“If you need me, call information in Mobile and get my number. Then call me collect. I won’t let you down.”

She walked out the door and into the night. I heard her car crank. The lights swung through the open window across the living room ceiling, brushing the portrait of Effie that Mama Betts had had painted when Effie was sixteen, her dark hair in curls about her shoulders and her lips tinted a ripe red.

I had only to wait until morning to see how terrible it was going to be.

Mama Betts woke me and got me ready for the barn with a sack lunch and a cold biscuit in hand. She also woke Arly and packed his lunch for work at the nursery. She was making a fresh pot of coffee for Effie when I opened the kitchen door to leave. Her pale eyes locked with mine.

“Don’t come back until late,” she said softly. “Everything will be fine by then.”

I knew it wouldn’t. “Cathi’s going to get a job in Mobile.”

Mama Betts nodded. “She can get a job in hell for all I care. She won’t be bothering this family.”

“Daddy could have stayed in Missouri. I mean, if that’s what he wanted, he would have done it. Mama ought to know that.”

“I have a lot of respect for your father, Bekkah. You’re preaching to the choir.”

“But Effie’s …” I gripped the door handle. “She’s going to blame Daddy for what happened. It wasn’t his fault.”

“Not entirely.”

“It wasn’t his fault at all.” I made myself slow down. “He can’t tell Cathi what to do or not do. You can plainly see that she does what she wants.”

“Yes, I can plainly see that.” Mama Betts had made up a tray with coffee and toast. “Get on out of here before your mother starts looking for you. Since Walt isn’t here to take the heat, you’ll bear the brunt of it if you don’t skedaddle.”

“Well, The Judge will be here tomorrow. Then everything will get back on track.” Just saying the words made me feel better. Walt and Effie might fight and raise hell, but it would be over and life on Kali Oka would go back to the way it had always been.

“Your father isn’t coming straight home.”

I thought that I hadn’t heard her right.

“Close your mouth, Bekkah. You look like one of those Fairleys from down Wilson Ferry Road.”

“Not coming home? Why not? He has to come home. I need him.”

Mama Betts sharpened her gaze. “What’s going on with you, Bekkah?”

“Daddy’s supposed to be home Friday. He said so days ago. I’ve been waiting for him.” My voice drifted to an end. “He promised.”

“I called him this morning and told him what had happened. He’s going to New Orleans first. I’m sending Effie there to meet him.”

“She won’t go. Not now.” Hell would freeze over before Effie met The Judge anywhere, unless it was a lynching tree or electric chair. She didn’t believe in capital punishment, but she was mad enough at Walt to vote for his extermination. I hadn’t forgotten the way she looked and talked the night before.

“She doesn’t know he’s going to be there. It’s a trick.”

“She’s going to murder you.”

Mama Betts shrugged. “I’m too tough to cook and too old to care. I told Walt everything that happened. When I wake Effie, I’m going to tell her that Rita Sheffield called and wants to meet her for the weekend in New Orleans. Effie will go.”

“She’ll go to spite Daddy.” Mama Betts’ plan might work, but I needed The Judge home with me. I had to tell him about the Redeemers, and the babies, and the white dress and scrap of lace I’d hidden away in the old fort Alice and I had built in the woods two years ago.

“I called Rita out in California. She’s agreed to it. She’ll play along if Effie calls her.”

“I don’t want to be there when Mama sees it’s The Judge instead of Rita.”

“Let them have it out in front of strangers. It won’t do for them to be here.” She looked sharply at me. “There’s been enough dissension in this house to last a good long while.”

“When will they come home?” I felt the beginning of a slow headache. I never had one unless I had the flu, but this one was different. It was dull and slow, letting me know that it was going to get bigger, stronger and meaner as the day went on.

“I’m hoping they’ll stay gone a while. Effie’s ahead on her book. Walt doesn’t have to be in Hattiesburg until late September.”

“That’s a month or better.”

“I see they have taught you something at school.”

“They can’t be gone a month.”

Mama Betts put her hands on her hips, the tray of coffee and toast momentarily forgotten.

“Bekkah, your parents need some time alone. You and Arly can start school without them. I’ll be right here, just like always.”

“Couldn’t Daddy come here first, before they leave?” If I didn’t talk with him soon, it might be too late. The Redeemers might sell another baby. Or something might happen to Magdeline. Or Selena might come after me to retrieve her dress.

“It would be better if they left straight from New Orleans.”

“Left! For where?”

“Maybe California. Your mother would love to see Rita. It’s been seven years. Effie and Rita used to be best friends, like you and Alice. You were only five when Rita was home the last time, and you know Effie isn’t one to travel.”

“What makes you think she’ll go now?” Effie didn’t travel. She hated leaving Kali Oka Road.

“She loves Walt a lot.”

“Grandma?”

Mama Betts looked closely at me then. I hardly ever called her that, only when I was very upset.

“What’s eating at you, Bekkah? You’ve been odd for a day or two now.”

“Can I call Daddy before he leaves?”

She picked up the tray. “You can call him in New Orleans tonight. He’s already gone and you have to scat. Effie’s coffee will be cold and I want everything perfect.”

She disappeared down the hall, coffee cup rattling in the saucer as she carried Effie’s tray. The image brought back a long-ago memory of the time that Effie had been very sick. Dr. McMillan had come to the house every day to check on her, and she was too weak to get out of bed. The doctor had told Daddy out in the front yard that Effie should never try to have another child.

For weeks Mama Betts had prepared food for Effie and helped her eat it. Not since she’d recovered had I seen a tray of food going down the hallway. It wasn’t a good sight.

Even though it was early morning, the day wrapped around me like a damp wool blanket. The grass was soaked with dew, and the air wasn’t much drier. August, the month when south Mississippi returned to the tropics. Steam and heat. The possibility of hurricanes. In a few short days school would start.

Alice was excited. Jamey Louise was torn between desire to show off her tan and new curves to the high school boys we’d see every day and the knowledge that she’d be separated from Greg. At Chickasaw Consolidated grades seven through twelve were housed in one building with three wings. Effie said it looked like a chicken hatchery. She said it was an architectural blight, and that if children learned anything it was a miracle.

I dreaded school, the changes, the boredom and the confinement. But then I dreaded the idea of spending every day on Kali Oka Road too. This summer I had lost every safe place I knew. As I walked along, kicking the large rocks that showed up in the loose red dirt of Kali Oka, I felt the pull of the Redeemers and Cry Baby Creek. As much as I was afraid, I also wanted to go there. Since The Judge wasn’t coming home right away, what was I going to do? What had happened to Magdeline? Maybe if I could just see her and know that she was okay, I wouldn’t feel so guilty and worried. I had to get Greg alone and ask him a few questions.

The weathered sign at Nadine’s driveway moaned even though not a leaf or blade of grass moved in a breeze. The air was perfectly still, yet the sign groaned again. The sound sent a shiver down my spine. I was being silly about that dress. But how had it gotten in the loft?

There was an unearthly stillness about the barn as I walked beneath the chinaberry trees toward the rusty gate. I was a little early for work, but normally Nadine and Greg were already around. There wasn’t a sign that anyone was there. The barn door was cracked open, a violation of the rules that Nadine had imposed. We were either to open or shut the door, not halfway in between.

The wind whispered through the chinaberry leaves, a feather-light touch. I stopped at the gate, all senses alert. Picket clung to my leg, her ears forward and her mouth open, panting. There wasn’t a sound except the mournful sigh of the sign on its rusty chain.

Truck and horse trailer were in place. Garbage spilled out the back door of the house and down the steps. I stood in the sunlight-dappled driveway, afraid to go forward. Something was wrong. Something terrible. Something even worse than that bloody dress I’d found.

I considered for a moment going to get Alice. She could help me tell the story of what we’d seen. But Alice hated Nadine. And there was a good chance Nadine would tell Alice about what we’d seen in the preacherman’s house. I forced my fingers to the latch on the gate and then walked through.

I heard the tiny rocks scrunch under my feet and the call of a single crow. I saw the bird, big and glossy, sitting on the telephone wire to Nadine’s house. Mama Betts said one crow was a sign of death. I looked for another, but the blue-white sky was empty.

My hand was on the barn door, and I listened. Inside, there was the sound of faint sobbing. My own breath caught in my throat, a painful knot.

The door moved beneath my hand, frightening me so that I jumped back. Jamey Louise stepped out of the darkness, pushing me roughly back.

“Don’t go in there,” she said harshly. She put her hands on my shoulders and pushed me away.

“What is it?” I looked beyond her shoulder but could see nothing. There was only the sound of broken sobbing.

“Bekkah, stay out!”

I looked at her face and saw it was streaked with a dried brown
substance. Her blue-and-white-checked sundress, her favorite, was soaked in sticky blood.