by Vicky Jones
“I got good reason to be, ain’t I?”
Shona paused. “Wait a minute. Did you leave David here all on his own? Chloe?”
“Don’t. Please, Shona.” Chloe buried her blotchy face in her hands. “You couldn’t make me feel any more like a failure right now if you tried.”
“Stop it, both of you,” a tiny voice squeaked from the doorway. Shona and Chloe turned to see David standing there in his pajamas rubbing the sleep from his eyes. His little hand clutched at his teddy bear’s brown paws.
Chloe ran over to him and scooped him up. “Don’t worry, sweetie, we were just playing a game. Let’s get you back to bed.” When she returned, she stood three feet away from Shona, eyes fixed on her. “We need to talk this through. We can’t let that happen again.”
All Shona had to reply with was a weak nod.
Chapter 24
“Well, good morning, Shona. How are things?”
Shona looked up from her sandwich to see Eric Everett standing in front of her. He was the image of his father—same handsome face, muscular build and fine sandy hair. It had been cut shorter since the last time Shona had seen him.
“Hi Eric. How’s your father doing?”
“Oh, he’s still caught up with settling Grandpa’s business affairs. He still can’t walk or talk after the accident, so Mom and Pop wanna be close, in case he…” He paused and smoothed down the front of his brand new, perfectly pressed police uniform. “I said I’d stick around here until they get back, hold the fort, you know? And what better job for an Everett to get, huh?”
“The town will be glad to have you, Eric. You want me to look at the car?” Shona nodded behind him.
“Yeah, if that’s OK? It’s making a clunking noise.”
“No problem. Hey, when you speak to your pop next, say hi for me.”
“Will do, Shona. I’ll see you in an hour,” Eric grinned and tossed his keys to her.
As she was closing up the garage for the night, Shona saw Bertie approaching, her expression grim.
“Hey. What’s eating you?” Shona asked as she looped the chain around the garage door handles.
“Didn’t you hear? We were raided last night. That goddamn Lawrence has started throwing his weight around again. Since that riot down at Cooper’s Donuts last year he’d been ordered to stop his men from hassling us too obviously. But it’s starting to creep in again. His men arrested two guys recently on the sidewalk for doing nothing more than being seen coming out of the bar. Said it was for being drunk and disorderly, but I know that’s bullshit. I should know, I was the one serving them.” Bertie looked caught between upset and livid.
“Sorry to hear that,” Shona replied.
“Yeah, so, Dee and Lula are over at the bar now and Edie will sneak over here when she finishes her shift at the store. I came to ask for your help.” She walked up to Shona, looked around them both, then leaned in close. “This situation is getting way out of control now. I’ve tried to play nice and keep things low key, as I was advised to, otherwise I’d go out of business,” Bertie rolled her eyes, “but they hang around most nights and arrest my drinkers on their way home for no good reason at all. Last night, it was my best friend. All he was doing was having a beer after work with his friend. That’s it. I’ve just been over to the cop shop now to ask Lawrence to let those guys go. He’s had them overnight already. What more does he want? He’s got nothing concrete to charge them with and he knows it. But he’s just being a punk ass. Said they were ‘disturbing the peace.’ How, I’d like to know. By putting a tune on the jukebox he didn’t like? No, Lawrence needs to be reminded that he’s only keeping that office chair warm until Everett decides to come back. He wasn’t perfect but at least he kept things civil between us.”
“What do you want from me, Bertie? I got no influence here,” Shona protested, her hands on her hips.
“I need you to join with us. We need to rise up against those bastard cops who think they can push us around. It worked at Cooper’s, didn’t it? People started to listen. We need to show them that we’re people too. Hell, we might even one day get some laws changed. At least get the ones we do have now stuck to. No matter what you seem to think, you are popular with the folks in this town for all you do for them here.”
Shona shook her head. “I don’t want to get involved, Bertie. We already had this conversation. Anyway, I ain’t got no influence around here. Not really. Yeah, I do the cops a favor with their cars, but Lawrence would shut me down in a heartbeat if I start causing him trouble.”
“I seen that Minnie Barker come in here all the time, bringing you coffee and stuff,” Bertie replied, leaning against the wall and picking at her fingernail. “You know who her husband is, right? He may be retired now, and a few marbles short of a set, but he’s still got a lot of friends in high places in this town. And there are quite a few who owe him a favor or two.”
“I ain’t using nobody. Minnie’s a friend of mine. I won’t ruin that.”
“Look, I’ll level with you, Shona. I’m gonna organize something a little stronger than the last piss-poor skirmish we had. I got some contacts of my own, up in San Francisco. The Daughters of Bilitis, they’re called. Some group made up of women like us. They said they’d get the bus in, as many women as we need, to show these cops they can’t keep pushing us around. We’ll be throwing a damn sight more back at them than donuts and paper plates, I can promise you that. Now, I need to know if you want a part of this or not.” Bertie’s eyes fixed on Shona, waiting for her reaction.
“No, Bertie. I don’t wanna fight nobody. I don’t want no part in violence. I’ve seen enough of that in my life already. The way I figure it, we should all try and get along in peace. Or at least try to stay out of each other’s way.”
Bertie looked furious but remained calm. “I knew it. You’re the type who wants everyone to fight so that you can reap the rewards when times change and your life gets that little bit easier because of someone else’s sacrifice. You’re the type to do nothing.” She shook her head with contempt. “You got it all sorted out now, haven’t you? Gorgeous girl at home. Rich too,” Bertie added with a wink, then her head inclined as she thought of another angle. “Say, maybe Chloe could help too. Money always talks.”
“No, I don’t want Chloe involved in anything. She needs calm, rest. We both do. You don’t have the slightest clue what we’ve suffered these last few years. We’ve had our fair share of heartache, Bertie,” Shona replied. “You have no idea what we’ve been through to get to this point.” She slammed her fist into the garage doors, causing Bertie to flinch. “I just wanna keep my head down. For the kid’s sake, you know?”
“I’m sure you do, Shona. But consider this, if we ever do get the laws around here changed then you won’t have to live in secret anymore.”
“And if I don’t help you? Shona asked, folding her arms.
Bertie’s expression hardened. “Well, loose lips sink ships, as they say.”
Bertie left Shona to ponder that thought.
It was almost a week before Shona next went over to the bar, deciding to let a few days pass for Bertie to calm down, but, after the stifling heat of that day, the thought of an ice cold Coke was too much for Shona to resist.
“Bertie won’t be happy to see you in here,” Lula said, uncapping a bottle and placing it in front of Shona.
“She around?” Shona asked, taking a swig.
“Nope.”
Shona scanned the near-empty saloon area, nodding to Dee who was writing furiously in a notebook in one corner booth.
“She’s writin’ a letter to the Chief of Police,” Lula said. “Tryin’ to get Everett back as soon as possible. Oh, there’s talk he’s comin’ back, but no date set yet. Lawrence is out of hand. We need to do somethin’.”
“What about you, Lula? Are you up for a fight alongside Bertie, or up for a discussion alongside Dee?”
“I could ask the same of you, Shona,” Lula replied. She put down her copy of T
he Ladder and leaned her elbows on the bar, her face inches from Shona’s.
“You don’t make change by fighting,” Shona replied in a low voice. “You make it by changing one heart, and one mind at a time. Through educating people that we’re no different than they are. We just love in a different way, no worse, no better. That’s how you get peace.” She paused to swig from her bottle as Lula leaned back from her and smiled.
“I’ll be honest, I’m tired of fighting,” Dee announced as she approached the bar and sat next to Shona. “My family have been through enough already, being black. We have to live on the other side of town, so we stay out of the firing line. But me being the way I am as well as black, well, that’s just way too much for folks around here to comprehend. I agree, Shona. Words will change the world, not violence. I ain’t doing no bad shit. I’ll hold a sign, protest or whatever, like they’re doing down in the South, but no violence. Not from me.”
“Amen to that,” Shona said, clinking her bottle with Dee’s glass.
Lula rolled her eyes. “Well, I’ve had enough of this shit too, you know. I wanna fight, even if you two don’t. We should let the bastards know who they’re dealin’ with, arrestin’ our friends like that. They hate the way I dress, the way I look. Just because all their wives and daughters can’t help but stare at me,” she added with a glint in her eye. “No, Bertie can count me in for a fight, no question.” The buckles on the wrist of her leather jacket clanged on the bar top as she banged her fist down on it.
“Well, good for you, Lula, but not everyone in this town wants a riot,” Dee replied, then turned to Shona. “Say, can I read you my letter, see if it sounds OK?”
“Sure,” Shona smiled, glad that there was at least one person in town who thought like her.
Shona returned home that evening with Lula’s words still ringing in her ears.
“I don’t care what they say to you, what they threaten you with, I don’t want you joining this riot,” Chloe said after Shona had filled her in over dinner on her conversation with Lula, and the threat she’d received from Bertie last week. “There’s too much to lose and nothing to gain. We came here in peace, not for more fighting, remember?”
“Of course I remember,” Shona replied, reaching for her hand across the kitchen table.
“Good, because I’ll be honest with you, Shona, I just don’t think I can take any more. You know how much I’m struggling. I need you more than ever, Shona. We both do.” Chloe’s face was pale, the dark circles still prominent underneath her dull eyes.
“I ain’t got any intention of doing anything to ruin what we got here. We’ve been through enough. I was thinking, maybe we could speak to Doctor Thomas. See if he can prescribe you something to help with when you’re feeling down? Or maybe just be someone you can go talk to?”
“I think that would help me. I’m due to see him again soon. I’ll ask.”
Bertie sat forward in her booth as Dee and Lula filled her in on their conversation with Shona, each giving different opinions on Shona’s stance on the matter.
“Well, the way I see it she’s an important ally to us. She could make the difference. I need to make a few calls, I think.”
Lula noticed Bertie’s furtive grin. “What are you cookin’ up?”
“If she won’t come willingly, maybe she needs a reason to hate Lawrence more than the rest of us put together,” Bertie replied, rising out of her seat.
Chapter 25
With the weather so blissful that Friday afternoon, Shona and Chloe had taken a picnic down to the beach. They lay there on a towel looking on as David and Cooper splashed about on the shoreline.
“This is exactly what I needed,” Chloe gushed as she breathed in the salty sea air.
“I know. I never want anything to change ever again,” Shona replied, stroking Chloe’s hair. “I don’t know if I could take it.”
“I went to see Doctor Thomas this morning. He said I can go and see him any time I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by my emotions. He seemed to actually understand.” There was a light in Chloe’s eyes as she spoke, like a weight was starting to lift from her shoulders.
“That’s really good, honey. I’m glad.” Shona wrapped her up in an embrace and kissed her forehead.
As the afternoon turned to evening, they began packing up the hamper and set off back up the boardwalk to the beach house.
“I’ll get started on dinner. Can you put David in the tub for me?” Chloe called out as she put the sandy beach towels in the laundry hamper, then headed into the kitchen. She looked out of the window that faced out on to the driveway and froze. Sheriff Lawrence was getting out of his car with Barnes. Out of the second car stepped two other women, one dressed in a formal looking two-piece navy blue suit. The second woman was Marion, wearing her crisp white nurse’s uniform.
“Shona!” Chloe yelled, then went to the front door, ripping it open before the sheriff could knock.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Clark. I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced. I’m Sheriff Lawrence. That there’s my deputy, Barnes, and of course you know Marion over there.” He motioned his hand towards his wife who stood looking stony-faced by the car she’d arrived in. The suited woman faced Chloe, her arms folded.
“I know who you are, acting Sheriff Lawrence. Shona, can you come out here, please,” she yelled again as calmly as she could muster.
“What is it?” Shona replied, flustered. In her arms she held David, who was still dressed in his bathing suit and tee shirt, his toes sandy. “What the hell’s going on?” Shona gripped onto David tighter as she glared at Lawrence.
“We got a call down at the station ‘bout an hour ago confirmin’ suspicions we’ve had for a while about you two and the boy there,” Lawrence began, looking up at Chloe and Shona from his position at the foot of the porch steps. The woman in the suit strode over to him. “This is Barbara Haskins. From the Children’s Bureau.”
“Children’s Bureau?” Chloe gasped, then looked in horror at Shona who remained outwardly cool.
“What suspicions?” Shona asked through tight lips.
Lawrence smirked and looked back at his wife who nodded. “Well, Marion here heard you two talkin’ a while back, outside your garage. She’s concerned for the boy’s safety. Reckons there’s somethin’,” he paused, as if searching for the right word, “improper goin’ on here.”
“Well, she heard wrong, didn’t she? We were talking about a couple of friends of ours, that’s all,” Chloe said, sticking her chin out.
“You ain’t got no right coming here, Lawrence. You know it. We ain’t done nothing wrong,” Shona spat back.
“You’ve been seen on numerous occasions goin’ into that queer bar in town. Don’t try to deny it now.”
“By who? Anyway, there’s no law against going to a bar.”
“Barnes, hand me that there notepad from Walker.”
“Here you go, boss,” Barnes piped up, passing the notepad to his boss.
Lawrence opened it up, his evil stare not lifting from Shona. “Jerry Stone, Dee Francis, Edie Foster, Lula Bell, Jimmy Anderson, Ronnie Becker, Shona from the garage…” He grinned as he read the last name. “Chloe Clark.”
Shona and Chloe stared at each other. “That night I freaked out and came to find you,” Chloe whispered as a sinking feeling churned in the pit of her stomach.
“So what?” Shona said. “Lots of people go in there for a drink after work.”
Lawrence smirked. “Come on now, miss. We all ain’t stupid around here. You can try and talk your way out of all evidence we’re buildin’ on you two, but there’s one thing you haven’t thought of.” He flicked his head towards the beach house. “The whole town knows beach houses like this only have two bedrooms. So…if the kid has one room, then where do you two sleep? And…where did she leave the kid that night at the bar?” Lawrence added before flicking his hand to his deputy who stomped up the porch steps with intent. The suited woman followed him, as did Marion.
“What are you going to do?” Chloe exclaimed, blocking the entrance to the house with her body and shielding Shona and David.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the suited woman said, not sounding in the least bit sorry. “But in the interests of the child, and his safety, we have to take him into the care of the state until we can determine the facts of the case. We cannot have him exposed to dangers of this type of lifestyle.” She held Chloe back, while Marion barged past her and reached out for David.
“Over my dead body you will,” Shona raged, turning her back to Marion until she almost wrestled David out of her arms.
“No! Momma, no!” David screamed, tears gushing down his face. Cooper barked, gripping his jaws around the hem of Marion’s tunic.
“Get that mutt off my wife or I’ll have it shot,” Lawrence growled. Barnes reached for his revolver.
“No, wait!” Chloe shouted, looking at Shona. She grabbed Marion’s free arm. “Please, don’t do this, Marion. You know I’m a good mother. You’ve seen how happy David is. Please, I’m begging you, please.”
“It’s not right for the boy, Chloe,” Marion hissed back. “You can’t bring up a healthy minded child in this,” she paused, a look of revulsion on her tight face, “relationship.” David screamed in pain from his arm being pulled. Shona let him go.
“No, Shona, don’t let her take him,” Chloe wailed, but Marion had already whipped David away and was halfway to her car.
“We’ll be back to question you both later,” the suited woman said. “For now, rest assured the boy will be well looked after.”
Lawrence climbed back in his car, Barnes in the driver’s seat. David sat in the back of the second car on Marion’s knee, the woman in the suit driving. Both cars pulled away slowly as if elongating the torment for both Chloe and Shona who stood watching as David tapped his tiny palms on the window and screamed. Chloe sank to the ground, inconsolable. Shona, in complete shock, stood watching the cars disappear, all sounds around her muffled, her vision blurring.
