In the Dreaming Hour

by Kathryn Le Veque

  It was the words of both parents that combined to tell the tragic story of a love that never died. Even though Lucy and Bill and Mary were in the room, no one said anything as Ruby digested everything. It wasn’t their right to speak. This was Ruby’s time, coming to grips with her biological parents’ circumstances.

  “I was raised in Cleveland,” Ruby finally said, hoarsely. “I don’t know the families around here, but I taught history at Delta State. I know a good deal about the cultures of this state and the history behind them. I’m not sure ya’ll understand the impact of the relationship between Victory and Lewis. They were literally committing a crime, one of the worst possible crimes around here. Not only would Laveau Hembree have considered his daughter’s relationship a horribly shameful thing, but she was quite literally a criminal in falling in love with a black man.”

  Lucy watched the woman as she looked over the poem again. “I’ve never experienced racism so I’m not even going to pretend I know how you feel,” she said, “but the mere fact that Victory was kept from the man she loved… I do understand that. I understand it all too well.”

  She was thinking of the husband who had left her, the man whose absence in her heart had seen miraculous healing over the past several days. She realized that the event of Beau Meade had healed a lot of things.

  “I think we can all understand what it’s like to be kept apart from those we love,” Ruby agreed. “But this… there was so much more to it. And to think I never knew about this… I’m just overcome, really. Lucy, I’m so glad you came to my house and said what you said to me. You can’t even know how much richer you’ve made my life, just by coming here and knowing my roots. It means so much to me.”

  Lucy smiled faintly. She pointed to the open bedroom door, to the room across the hall. “That was Mamaw’s bedroom as a child,” she said. “I’m guessing that’s the room you were born in.”

  Ruby turned to look at the room across the hall. She sighed. “It seems so peaceful now, doesn’t it?” she asked. “To think of the horror that room has seen.”

  Lucy shuddered. “I can’t even imagine,” she said softly. “Honestly, I try not to think about it. But something good did happen in it if you were born there.”

  Ruby smiled at her as she stood up from the bed and made her way over to the windows that overlooked the front yard. A garden that was run down from neglect, much of it dying just as the house was. She imagined the family that had owned it, the proud Hembree family, now reduced to the memory of a single man and the evil he perpetrated. With a sigh, she turned away from the yard.

  “I believe the memory of Laveau Hembree with fade in time,” she said quietly. “This house won’t be sad and desolate forever. New blood will come into it, filling it with better memories. The evils of the past will fade.”

  “Do you really think so?” Lucy asked.

  “I do. People won’t remember the killing of a young black man as the legacy of this house, but it’s too bad we don’t know what really happened to Aldridge. His is a memory I’d like to honor as a tribute to other young men of color who met their end unfairly.”

  Mary, who had been sitting on the other side of Mamaw’s bed, spoke softly. “I wonder what happened to him?” she asked. “What would they have done with him once he was dead?”

  Lucy lifted her eyebrows, as if she was about to say something unpleasant. “I hate to say it, but maybe he was buried here,” she said. “I had lunch with Beau’s grandmother, Lovie, and she told me that there was a rumor that there are bodies buried all over the place around here. She said Laveau buried the men he killed on his property so no one would dig them up. Then I asked Aunt Dell about it and she said the same thing. In fact, she even suggested that Mamaw’s baby was buried here, but of course, we know now that it’s not true. Still, she said that Dad should till up the entire yard to see who’s buried around here.”

  Bill and Mary instinctively turned to look at the grass outside, Bill going so far as to rise from his chair and go stand by the window. He looked out over the expanse of green.

  “That really wouldn’t surprise me,” he said, disgust in his tone. Then, he turned to Ruby. “You have to understand what a horrible man Laveau Hembree was. I don’t know if you’ve heard anything about him other than what’s in my mother’s letter, but he was a mean son-of-a-bitch.”

  Ruby was still holding on to Lewis’ poem, glancing over her shoulder to the yard again. “I’ve heard enough,” she said. “Maybe someday I’ll know more about him, but right now, I think what I’ve been told is enough. He was the man who changed the course of my life.”

  That was quite true and Bill nodded his head to acknowledge that. “I think he changed the course of a lot of people’s lives and not for the better,” he said. “But we can talk about him another time. I don’t want to bring that evil into this room right now.”

  It was an understandable statement. For the first time in many decades, the house didn’t have that dark feeling. It was difficult to describe but, somehow, it seemed that some of the sins of the past had been righted over the past few days. The darkness was being pushed out by the light. Laveau didn’t have a grip over the house or the family as he’d had all of these years.

  When Ruby entered the house, the tides seemed to change.

  “Oh, my God,” Lucy suddenly exclaimed. “With all of this talk about Mamaw’s letter and Lewis’ poem, I’d almost forgotten the most important piece of all.”

  She quickly went to the chifforobe and opened the top drawer, pulling out the wooden box that she’d put back after her visit to Ruby a couple of days ago. She had put the box in there thinking it would never go to the rightful person. But now she was excited about it, excited to see that lovely locket finally where it belonged. She opened the lid as she went over to Ruby, extending the small box to the woman.

  “This is the locket Mamaw wanted you to have,” she said. “It’s the one she mentioned in her letter, the one that Lewis saved his money for.”

  Ruby stared at the jewelry, her eyes moist, before gently pulling it from the box. Carefully, she turned it over in her hands, reading the inscription on the back.

  “In The Dreaming Hour,” she murmured. “Lord… look how beautiful it is.”

  Lucy lifted her hands, silently offering to help her put it on, and Ruby handed her the necklace and turned around so Lucy could lay it on her neck and close the clasp. Ruby kept fingering it before going to look at her reflection in the mirror of the old chifforobe. There was magic in that moment.

  “How many times did Victory look at herself in this mirror, looking at the same necklace I now wear?” she asked wistfully. “A young girl, full of hopes and dreams and love, standing here looking at her reflection.”

  Lucy felt a lump in her throat as she watched Ruby admire the necklace. “You look a lot like her,” she said. “Everyone says I do, but I can really see her features in your face. I wish so much that she was here to see this. It would have made her so happy.”

  Ruby looked at her. “But she is here,” she said. “Can’t you feel her? This is the first time I can recall being in this house, but I was born here… somehow, it’s part of me. I know that sounds odd, but that’s the way I feel. And I can tell you that Victory is all over this house. I’ve never even met her, but I know her. I know that I feel her right now.”

  Lucy’s eyes filled with tears and she went to take a tissue from the bedside. As she wiped at her eyes, Bill walked up behind Ruby, seeing his reflection over her shoulder.

  “Look at us,” he said, smiling when she made eye contact with him. “I think Mama would be very proud to see us together like this. I never had any siblings, so this is pretty special to me.”

  Ruby turned to look at him. “I hope so,” she said sincerely. “I know we had a rough start, Bill, but I don’t even think of that anymore. I hope that you and Mary and I can get to know each other well. I want to hear about this side of my family that I never knew about. But you know what e
lse I’d like?”

  “What?”

  “I’d like to see where Lewis Ragsdale lived. Now that I’ve discovered Victory, I very much want to discover Lewis, too. There’s something in me that just needs to know about him, this man who wrote such beautiful poetry.”

  Lucy was wiping at her nose. “I haven’t had time to go look for him or his family,” she said. “I was really only concerned with finding you. Mamaw mentioned a town called Rose Cove in her letter and from the way it sounded, I think that Lewis might have lived there.”

  Ruby nodded. “Yes, she did mention the coloreds from Rose Cove,” she said. “There were a lot of shanty towns back in that era and that was probably one of them because I’ve never heard of an established town called Rose Cove.”

  Bill stepped away from the windows. “I’ve never heard of it, either,” he said. “Lucy, maybe Beau knows of it. Isn’t he coming back here tonight?”

  Lucy could hear the hope in her father’s voice, but not about Lewis. It was about Beau. Please say this wonderful man is coming back and that you’ll marry him someday! She had to chuckle inwardly because she was sure that was exactly what her father and mother were thinking. In spite of everything that had happened that day, they still were concerned for their daughter’s romantic life.

  “He said he was,” she said. “He had to go back to the station after he dropped us home to take care of some paperwork. Look, the man has hardly worked at all since I came to town. He’s been driving me all over the place in the hunt for great family mysteries, so he should probably put some time in at his job.”

  Bill grinned at her. “I was just asking. No need to get defensive.”

  Lucy rolled her eyes. “He’s a very nice man, I will admit. He’s pretty great, in fact.”

  Mary was thrilled. “He seems to like you, too.”

  “How do you know that?” Lucy asked.

  It was Ruby who answered. “You didn’t see the way he looked at you earlier today like I did. After I knocked that man off of you and called the police, he was one of the first ones to come. You should have seen the way he looked at you when he came in the door. He likes you a great deal, honey.”

  Lucy turned away, blushing, as her parents laughed at her. Ruby, sensing that this budding romance was meeting with parental approval, put her hands on Lucy’s shoulders.

  “Leave it to me,” she insisted. “I made sure that all of my nieces and nephews got married and I’ll make sure you do, too. I won’t let him get away from you, honey. Trust me.”

  Lucy laughed softly, unwilling to elaborate on anything. She didn’t want her nosy parents and her newly-found aunt to know what she was feeling, or to know what really happened between her and Beau, so she simply grinned.

  “I appreciate your concern, but I’m not ready to talk about my love life right now,” she said. “So let’s go back to the subject of Lewis Ragsdale. I’m more comfortable talking about him.”

  Everyone was grinning. “We’ve still got some leftovers downstairs,” Mary said. “Why don’t we talk about it over some supper?”

  Lucy was very happy to have the distraction of food but she waved everyone on ahead of her so she could at least change out of the clothes she was wearing. Other than a jacket her parents had brought her at the hospital, she was still wearing the yoga pants and tank top that Clyde had touched. She needed to get them off.

  As Bill and Mary and Ruby headed down to the kitchen to eat, Lucy quickly changed into something more appropriate to have dinner in. She was just brushing her hair into a ponytail when she heard a car pull up the driveway. Peering from the bathroom window, she caught a glimpse of a black Ford Explorer.

  Grinning, she felt giddy, like she was a teenager waiting for her date to show up. She’d gotten used to Beau coming around. She was actually coming to expect it now, knowing that if he never came back again, she would have been horribly disappointed. But he seemed to be just as interested in her as she was in him, so that was a good thing. She was happy for a good thing or two in her life these days.

  As she headed down the back stairs towards the kitchen, she could already hear Beau inside the house. She could hear her father talking to him, offering him some of the taco pie casserole, which made Lucy shudder just to think about it. Last time she was interested in that casserole, something terrible happened, so she was pretty certain she didn’t have an appetite for it.

  She entered the kitchen in time to see her mother hand Beau a plate of something steaming. Beau took the plate but his focus was on Lucy.

  “Well,” he said, looking her over in a way that made her heart leap. “You look better than you did the last time I saw you.”

  She batted her eyes at him obviously. “You sweet talker.”

  “I guess that did sound kind of bad,” he said, chuckling. “How do you feel?”

  “Okay,” she said, meandering over to him. “My head hurts, but the doctor said it will for a couple of days. And it’s sore to the touch where he hit me.”

  Beau’s gaze was appreciative on her. “You really don’t look bad. I didn’t mean what I said.”

  “I know.” She smiled, catching movement out of her the corner of her eye and noticing that her mother was handing her a plate of something, too. She took it gratefully. “So what’s going on with Clyde? Is he still in the hospital?”

  “The prisoner is still there,” Beau said, reverting to a more formal manner. “Ms. Ruby did a number on him. She fractured his skull, so he’s going to be there for a long while. When he gets out, he’s facing a lot of serious charges.”

  Lucy’s smile faded. “Good,” she said, gingerly touching the back of her head. “Attempted murder ought to put him in jail for several years.”

  “Most definitely. His days of terrorizing women are over.”

  “You make sure you keep us posted about him,” Bill said. “I want to keep tabs on that boy.”

  “Don’t worry, I will,” Beau said. “Lucy will have to testify at his trial, as will Ms. Ruby, so you’ll definitely be in the loop about him.”

  “You sure I can’t have five minutes alone with him in his hospital room?”

  Beau grinned at the still-enraged father. “If you do, you’ll have to get in line behind me and a few others who’d like to get their hands on him.”

  “I don’t doubt that in the least.”

  A silence settled in the kitchen, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Mary was hustling around making sure everyone had something to eat, as Lucy spoke again.

  “We’ve been talking about a place called Rose Cove,” she said to Beau. “I don’t know if you remember, but Mamaw mentioned it in her letter.”

  Beau spooned some cooled taco pie into his mouth. “I remember. What about it?”

  “Have you ever heard of it?”

  He looked thoughtful and Ruby spoke up. “We think it’s a shanty town. There were a lot of those work camps back in Lewis’ time and shanty towns sprang up around them. We think Lewis lived in Rose Cove.”

  He swallowed the bite in his mouth. “I think it’s around here. I seemed to remember when I was a kid, my dad helped put down some sort of riot or protest or something in a local shanty town and I think the name was Rose Cove. That had to be back in the nineteen seventies. I was pretty young, but I remember my mother being scared for him. There was a series of riots there and it became a hotbed of crime, so I think the cops went in and dismantled it.”

  Lucy was interested. “Where is it? Do you remember?”

  He put more food in his mouth, chewing as he thought. “As I recall, it’s over on the west side of Martin Luther King Boulevard. That whole area over there was the poor side of town for a lot of years. In fact… hold on a minute….”

  He pulled out his phone and started messing with it, clearly looking for something on the internet. Lucy looked over his shoulder curiously, seeing that he was looking at the maps feature. After a moment, he began to nod his head.

  “I thought that name sounded familia
r,” he said. “There’s street over in that area called Rose Cove. I’m guessing that’s in the general vicinity of the shanty town the Ragsdales lived in.”

  “How far away is it?” Lucy asked.

  “Not far. Maybe a couple of miles, as the crow flies.”

  Lucy looked at Ruby. “It’s still light outside. Do you want to go for a drive over there?”

  Ruby had a cup of coffee in her hand. “Yes, I do. I’d love to get a look at the area.”

  “It’s not a very good area,” Beau warned.

  Lucy looked at him. “We’d be safe with a police escort.”

  “How did I know that was coming?”

  Bill shook his head as he set his coffee cup down. He put a hand on Beau’s shoulder. “You stepped into that one. You’ll learn.”

  Beau wriggled his eyebrows. “I’m going to have to if I’m going to hang around with her much longer.”

  Mary started to open her mouth but Bill put a stop to it with a hand gesture. He just knew that look on his wife’s face, that eager “my daughter is single” expression. So Mary reluctantly shut her mouth as Beau and Lucy continued that easy, funny repartee they seemed to have, something they’d had since the beginning. Now, others were starting to see it.

  It did Bill and Mary’s heart good. In fact, this trip to Mississippi, which had taken place under the most sorrowful of circumstances, was starting to become a positive experience. With new family members discovered and old secrets well on the way to healing for the most part, the icing on the cake would be if Lucy could come away with a renewed sense of hope and a healing heart.

  Maybe this trip would have a silver lining, after all.

  * * *

  Rose Cove was still a shanty town.

  That’s what Lucy thought as they drove through the residential streets with poor to moderate housing. The houses were spaced fairly far apart and everybody had very big yards, most of them fenced, keeping in a variety of dogs and livestock.

  The population was African American, concentrated in the northwestern part of Pea Ridge. The poverty was pretty shocking in some instances, with homes that had plywood doors or no glass for windows, people sitting out on their leaning porches in plastic lawn chairs.