by Celia Roman
I couldn’t get Henry back, but I could have children again. Riley’s children, even. What’d that be like, to have him love me long enough to get me with child? What’d it be like to start a family with him and live beside him ever day whilst our children growed tall and strong and good?
I shook them thoughts off lickety split and dug a ginger ale out for the mama to be. I was never gonna have Riley that way, not ever. Soonest I learnt that, the happier I’d be.
Jazz and BobbiJean lingered for a good half hour, and I was glad for the company. By the time they left, I was tired, but at least I weren’t so knotted up with worry over Fame as I been all day long.
Me and Riley headed up to Fame’s soon as they was in the VW bus and headed home. Riley carried the box of food Jazz throwed together, and me, I kept a sharp eye on the deep wood. The next time I was surprised by something creeping through the trees would be the last, no matter if it was friend or foe. Friends knowed better, for one, and foes? Why, they’d get what was coming to ‘em, that’s what.
At Henry’s spot, I sidetracked and touched a kiss from fingers to the concrete angel I set there to watch over my boy in the hereafter. I been back nigh on ever day since coming home from the hospital and learning my grandma killed him out of spite or mean or some brand of crazy I ain’t learnt yet.
Even my coon crazy mama weren’t so bad off she felt the need to kill an innocent kid.
I hadn’t felt nothing outta the ordinary since the time Teus caught me out here after darkfall. Truth be told, I hadn’t felt hardly nothing at all. Ever once in a while, I got a whisper of Henry’s love reaching out to me, but nothing like before. Once, this tiny little park was a refuge for me, a place to remember my boy and celebrate his short life. Now it was just a spot on the side of the trail, empty of all but the barest hint of other I used to feel.
We hit it on up the hill once I got my kiss in. I knocked on Fame’s front door and didn’t bother to wait for an answer. I opened the door and followed Riley inside, and closed the door on the warming afternoon.
Missy was sitting at the kitchen table. A notebook was open in front of her, and from the looks of it, she already filled a few pages with thoughts.
Trey was passed out on the couch still fully clothed, minus his work boots. Poor thing. He’d had a rough night, he had, and the days ahead didn’t look on getting no easier.
I shrugged off my coat and draped it over the back of the chair opposite Missy. She’d took the time to shower and change into her ever day wear, a worn flannel shirt, one of Fame’s castoffs, and an equally threadbare pair of jeans. Her hair was piled on top of her hair just like normal, thank the good Lord. I didn’t ever wanna walk in on her and see it flying ‘round her head like it done when the Sheriff come and picked Fame up.
Seeing her hair like that shoulda raised some questions in me, but there was only so much of my noggin to go ‘round. Wondering on what happened to her hair that morning was gonna have to wait ‘til I made some room for it.
I pulled out the chair and plopped into it. “Where’s Gentry?”
Missy set her pen down and clasped her hands together on top of the open notebook. “Asleep, I hope. What’s this?”
“Jazz and BobbiJean sent it along.”
Riley set the box on the table, popped it open, and dug out a foil wrapped platter. “Where do you want this?”
“The refrigerator,” Missy said. “It’s getting full, but there should still be room for it.”
“Full?” I asked.
“A few people have stopped by with condolences for the boys and curiosity about Fame.” She sighed, a long, tired whoosh of air, and her shoulders slumped. “Any more news from Tom?”
I shook my head. “Maybe tomorrow. Court’s closed today. He can’t do nothing ‘til it opens, most likely.”
“I know, but I…” She sighed again and picked up her pen. “Tell me what you’re pulling out of the box, Riley, so I can send a thank you note.”
Riley murmured a polite, “Yes’m.”
I let silence take me whilst they sorted which from what and stored it away. This sitting here twiddling my thumbs et at me, but weren’t nothing for it. I done ever thing I could to help Fame. Leastwise, I done ever thing I knowed to do for the non. Only thing left was praying, and I didn’t rightly feel good doing that. Me and the Christ child been on the outs since Henry died. Way I figured, it was gonna take a heckuva a lot more to get me to make amends with Him than Fame landing in jail for murder.
That day was one of the longest of my life, and that’s saying something. Folks drifted by in clumps ‘long and along, and I done my best to help Missy where I could. Fame’d been as much a father to me as my own daddy in the past decade or so. The least I could do was stick around and lend a hand, ‘specially since nothing else occupied my time.
I shooed Riley home in mid-afternoon. He had to get ready for work the next day, and besides. His mama needed a visit from her only boy. He was a mite reluctant to go ‘til I promised to meet him for the noonday meal tomorrow. Even then, he dragged me outside and kissed me senseless.
‘Course, me and common sense weren’t always on the same level as each other, so that weren’t a’tall hard to do. ‘Sides which, I kindly liked having him wrapped around me, so I couldn’t hardly complain when it happened, could I?
Gentry shambled outta his bedroom right after Riley left and plopped down at the kitchen table, looking more like his usual self than he had right after the Sheriff carted Fame off. I fried up some of the ham Jazz cooked and paired it with a heap of fixings for my cousin, then we all sat down at the kitchen table and played a game of cards, me and Missy against the boys, whilst him and Trey eat.
I didn’t care what nobody said. Them two was always gonna be boys in my mind.
The trailer was silent in between visitors. None of us had too much to say beyond cutting cards, dealing ‘em out, and tallying scores. ‘Long about midnight, Missy done to me what I done to Riley and shooed me home. I shuffled down the trail ‘twixt Fame’s and the trailer yawning something fierce.
Riley could keep his night owl habits, thank you very much. I was happy being the early bird.
The critter was waiting for me when I got home. I shut the door behind myself and eyed the dented bird cage it sat in.
“You ready to talk now?” I asked.
It blinked them huge eyes at me, and that was the only reaction I got.
“Suit yourself,” I muttered.
I peeled off my jacket and hung it up beside the door, then wandered weak and weary toward my bedroom. When I passed the critter, I stopped and considered it again. Poor thing’d been cooped up in that cage for ages now, waiting for me to figure out what it was. I had a good idea now, thanks to my grandpa’s broad hints, but that could wait for morning.
In the meantime, weren’t no reason a’tall for the critter to be stuck inside that cage when it didn’t have to be. I flicked the lock up and opened the door wide. “Be good now, ya hear?”
The critter sniffed its bulbous nose, reached forward polite like, and slammed the cage’s door shut.
I reckoned that was answer enough.
With a tired laugh, I cut the lights off, adjusted the heat, and got ready for bed. If the critter was determined to stay, it needed a name.
Later.
I flopped into bed and pulled the covers up to my shoulders, and fell into a deep sleep haunted by the ghost of futures unlived.
Chapter Seven
A persistent buzzing dragged me kicking and screaming outta sleep into the harsh daylight shining through bare windows. Hang it all, I forgot to put down the blinds and draw the curtains before I went to bed last night, which is what I got for staying out so late in the first place.
That buzzing sounded again, and my brain finally woke up enough to recognize a call coming in to my cellphone. I rolled over and smacked around on the nightstand ‘til I found it, grumbling the whole time, then flicked the call open and barked, “What?”
“Sunny?” a familiar male voice said.
I flopped back into my pillow and squinched my eyes shut against the sunlight. “Hey, David. Time is it?”
“Eight thirty.”
My eyes popped open. “What?”
“Did I wake you?”
It was hard to ignore the smug humor tingeing his voice. I tried anyhow. “Something wrong?”
“It’s Monday. The grand jury convenes today.”
My brain worked on adding two and two together for a minute and finally come up with four. Formal charges against the Greenwood Five for a laundry list of crimes was being presented to a federal grand jury down in Gainesville, including David’s boyfriend Gregory Hightower and Harley Jimpson, the Five’s accomplice. If I’da had my way, Belinda and Harley woulda gone to jail without a trial, but the Constitution being what it was, they was getting as fair a one as criminals could get.
Alleged criminals, I shoulda said, though seeing as how Belinda and Harley was responsible for throwing me to a monster and giving Riley a concussion, I reckoned I could be forgiven for dropping the alleged.
I shut my eyes and curled up on my side, my back to the uncovered window. “How’s Gregory? You hear from him of late?”
Static flickered in the long pause following my questions. After a minute, David said, “I haven’t spoken with him since my trip to Atlanta a few weeks ago.”
“I’m sorry, hon.”
“Yeah. Me, too.” He sighed heavy into the phone. “I could use some company, if you’re up for it. We could plan that party we’ve been putting off. I was thinking we could hold it on New Year’s Eve?”
I chucked ever chore I had planned for the day right out the window. Friends was friends, wasn’t they, ‘specially when times was tough. Me and David had that in common right then, more’s the pity. “I got a lunch date with Riley and I need to check in with Missy sometime. Is this afternoon soon enough?”
“This afternoon is great. If you stay for supper, I can preview the party’s menu tonight.”
Oh, boy, was I ever up for some of David’s home cooking. “You mind if I bring some company?”
He laughed, and when he spoke again, his voice was the most relaxed I heard it in a while. “Ranger Rick is always welcome. The rest of your family, too. I heard about Fame.”
I near about rolled my eyes behind my eyelids. Gossip run thick through the Georgia pine. Fame’s notoriety’d give it a good headwind. Chances was good half the county heard about Lily and Ferd before the Sheriff hauled Fame away in handcuffs.
“I’ll ask Missy and the boys,” I said, “but I can’t promise nothing.”
We chatted a minute more, then said goodbyes, and I forced my lazy butt outta bed and got on with my day, the way the good Lord intended a woman to do.
Tom called as I was stepping outta the shower. I ‘bout tripped over the side of the bathtub scrambling to answer my phone, only to learn what I already knowed: the DA was taking his sweet time figuring out what the charges against Fame was gonna be. Tom blamed it on the lack of investigation, but even he believed the Sheriff had a hand in the delay, though he was smart enough not to say so outright.
I weren’t so cautious. Maybe if I hadn’t lived under the prejudice the Sheriff doled out along with the law, I coulda give him and the DA the benefit of the doubt.
Riley texted not long after to arrange a lunch meetup, then I dressed and give the trailer a quick once over before hoofing it up the hill to Fame’s. I carried the critter with me, cage and all. Let Gentry coax it out. It’d give him something to think on ‘sides current family events.
Trey and Gentry was gone when I let myself in to Fame’s. Missy was standing in front of the stove, facing it with one hand on her hip and the other palm flat against her wild sable curls. She whirled around when I opened the door, and heaved a relieved sigh soon as she saw me.
That give me pause. Far as I could remember, nothing’d ever threatened Missy. She was well liked by all what knowed her, like as not ‘cause she was also one of the kindest women around. If she’d ever harmed a fly, it’d surprise the life right outta me, and that was the God’s honest truth. Fame worshipped ever step her pretty feet trod. So did Trey and Gentry and a whole lotta other folks besides. There was a reason Fame was tolerated in polite society, and it sure weren’t ‘cause of his ‘shine.
Though come to think on it, that didn’t hurt matters none a’tall.
I eased inside and closed the door tight. “You ok?”
“Yes. Of course.” She laid her palm over her heart and let out a breathy sorta laugh. “You startled me.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Truly. I wasn’t expecting Trey and Gentry home from the grocery store so soon.”
I relented and set the critter’s cage on the coffee table right where Gentry’d see it soon as he walked in. Missy’d had enough trouble for one day. No need for me to add salt to the wound.
“How’s tricks?” I asked.
“It’s settling down,” she said. “The phone’s been ringing off the hook all morning long.”
Since Fame still had one of them ol’ rotary dial phones, I reckoned she meant that literally. Bless him, my uncle really needed to wander into the twenty-first century ever once in a while.
“Anything interesting?” I said.
“Curiosity, mostly.”
I grunted under my breath. She could call it curiosity all she wanted. I called it plain nosiness. “You wouldn’t happen to know where Fame keeps his legal papers, wouldja?”
“In the safety deposit box. Why?”
“Might need his deeds to secure the bond, whenever the DA gets around to charging him.” Which I completely forgot to tell her yesterday. Hey, my noggin only holds so much. “David invited the lot of us over for supper tonight. Me and him’s planning a New Year’s Eve gala.”
Her mouth twitched into the barest hint of a smile, the first one I seen her wearing since Fame’s arrest. “You’re helping him plan a fancy party?”
“Shoot, no,” I said right off. “We’re doing gumbo or some such and beer. Rock and roll.”
“That sounds more like it.” She patted her heart again, then dropped her hands and eyed the critter. “I thought you hadn’t figured out what that was.”
“I’m close to an answer.” Or would be soon as I dug through my books again. “Far as I can tell, it’s harmless enough. I thought Gentry could use the company.”
“Of course, darling. It was thoughtful of you to bring it along.”
I shrugged off my jacket and set to cleaning. Time flies when your hands is busy. Before I knowed it, Trey and Gentry was back, and it was time for me to leave to meet my feller. When I walked out, Gentry was sitting on the couch talking soft and sweet to the critter, and it had its unusually large nose pressed against the cage’s thin, metal bars, like it was hanging on ever word my cousin spake.
Chapter Eight
I parked in front of the Sunday Diner at five minutes after noon. Riley weren’t there yet, so I went on in and sat down at the only free booth in the joint. Eight minutes later, his work truck passed in front of the restaurant’s plate glass window and veered into a parking spot across the street.
Not that I was keeping an eye out for him or nothing.
I flagged down the waitress and ordered sweet tea for both of us, and accepted an apology and a kiss on the cheek from Riley when he moseyed inside and reached the booth.
“Sorry,” he said as he slid into the padded seat opposite me. “I got a call from a friend. Somebody found Lily’s car.”
The guy behind Riley cocked his head toward us, more subtle than I woulda been if I was scratching for gossip. I shook my head once, and bless him, Riley caught the hint and changed the subject.
Now, the thing I liked about the Sunday Diner was, it’s one of the few meat and threes in Rabun County. Sure, you could go to Dillard and eat at the Valley Café or the Cupboard Café, or even the Dillard House, but why drive all the way u
p there when the next best thing to home cooking was available fifteen minutes closer?
Riley didn’t rightly agree. Soon as we finished a meal accompanied by amiable conversation, none of it touching on Fame or Lily or Ferd, he led me outside away from prying ears and said, “Your meatloaf beats theirs by a mile.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Then why do you keep eating it?”
He grinned down at me and tugged me into a hug. “Because mediocre meatloaf is better than no meatloaf at all.”
I laughed into his chest, the way he intended me to. “Smarty pants. Is that your way of hinting around for me to cook meatloaf on Wednesday?”
“Well, if you insist.”
“Hardy har.”
I turned my face real subtle like into his work polo and breathed him in. Sawdust, forest, and a hint of sweat mingled with his laundry detergent. They was becoming familiar smells to me, comforting even. Maybe I depended on ‘em a mite too much.
I eased away from him on the pretext of meeting his gaze. “Where was Lily’s car found?”
“Popcorn.”
Our neck of the woods, then, and not too far from Cemetery Hill as the crow flies. “Deputy Franks call you?”
Riley’s hands slid down my back and landed on my hips. “Yeah. I owe him a lot for keeping me in the loop.”
“I owe him,” I corrected, gentle and firm. “You reckon he needs a monster chased down or what?”
Riley throwed his head back and laughed hard, and I admired the glimmer of sunlight along his auburn hair. It was redder under the sun, more golden, too, without the darker hints of brown I was used to toying with when we was inside watching TV.
Lordy, I loved that boy’s hair. Always had.
“David invited us to dinner tonight,” I said. “I’m on my way over there now.”
That sobered Riley up right quick. His hands tightened on my waist and them hazel eyes of his glinted something fierce. “You tell him to keep his hands to himself.”
