Lanie had to quicken her pace to stay up with Maeva. Lanie finally said, “I know how much we both miss Mama, but we have to—”
“God didn’t have to take her. I’m mad at Him!”
Lanie had never heard anyone say that they were mad at God, and for her own sister to say it frightened her a little bit. “You mustn’t say that, Maeva.”
“Why not? It’s true enough. You believe in telling the truth, don’t you?”
“Well, sure I do, but it worries me because God loves us so much.”
Maeva shot her a glance and set her lips in a white line, tight and hard. She did not speak, and Lanie said finally, “We’ll see Mama again.”
Maeva stopped, turned, and planted herself as if getting ready for a battle. “I want to see her now, Lanie, not fifty years from now in heaven! Don’t talk to me anymore about it.” She turned and ran away at full speed.
Lanie made no attempt to catch her. “Lord,” she prayed, “don’t let her feel this way. She’s hurt and so am I, but I know You love her, and I’m asking You to soften her heart.” She moved on past the tombstones surrounded by the emerald-green grass, which seemed a strange mockery among the dead stones.
Maeva went to see the fireworks along with the others. The show was exciting enough, but she was still upset over her visit to the cemetery. She wandered away from Lanie and her two brothers, and Ralph Delaughter, the son of the mayor, joined her. “Hi, Maeva.”
“Hello, Ralph.”
“The fireworks were pretty neat, huh?”
“They were all right.”
Ralph was two years older than Maeva, a large boy and not particularly attractive, but he had always been smitten with Maeva. She never offered him encouragement, but allowed him now to follow and chatter, and she made an answer from time to time.
Finally Ralph said, “Have you ever seen the light, Maeva?”
“You mean in church? That’s the way some people ask if you’ve ever been saved.”
“No, I don’t mean that.” Ralph shook his head. “I mean the Phantom Brakeman’s light.”
“Oh, there ain’t nothin’ to that, Ralph!”
“Sure there is!” Ralph nodded furiously. “I know lots of people that have seen it.”
“They’re just talking. There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
“There is!” Ralph insisted. “It all happened back a long time ago.
A brakeman with the Rock Island Railroad had a pretty wife, and one of the other fellows that worked for the railroad wanted her, so he knocked the brakeman off the train and he was run over. Killed him dead.”
“That’ll do it.” Maeva grinned briefly.
“Well, it happened, and he still walks the tracks at night. You can see the light, but when you go toward it, it disappears.”
“You’d better go tell Cody about it then. He believes stuff like that.”
“I’m goin’ out to see him tonight.”
“You won’t see anything.”
“You come with me, Maeva.”
Maeva stopped and stared at Ralph. “Me? My daddy would whip me with a switch if I did a thing like that!”
“Don’t tell him. I’m goin’ late, about midnight. Stay awake and sneak out of the house. I’ll meet you down by the water tower. We can walk out, and I bet you we see the light.”
Maeva ordinarily would have scoffed at Ralph, but suddenly she felt rebellious and wanted to do something to shock God. “All right. I’ll meet you there at midnight.”
Ralph waved her off. “Ah, you won’t come. You’ll be scared!”
“You ever know me to be afraid of anything?”
Ralph scratched his head. “No, I never did. To tell you the truth, I’d be kind of afraid to go by myself. But I asked my cousin to go with me.”
“Who’s that?”
“Phil Dixon. He’s seventeen. He’s seen the light his own self. He’ll be there with me.”
“All right. I’ll see you then,” Maeva said. She left and found her family and was quiet for the rest of the evening.
The stars sparkled in the sky, and the moon was a huge yellow disk as Maeva walked toward the water tower. As she had anticipated, sneaking out was no problem. Her father slept soundly, and so did the rest of the family. Now the warm breath of the summer night was on her, and the water tower stood like a sentinel just ahead. No sign of Ralph.
He’d be just chicken enough not to show after getting me up in the middle of the night.
The thought just passed her mind when she heard her name called.
“Maeva! Over here!”
Turning quickly, Maeva saw Ralph step out with a boy she had not seen before. He was taller than Ralph and had a cap pulled down over his face. “This here’s my cousin Phil. Phil, this is Maeva Freeman.”
“Hello,” Maeva said.
“I never thought a girl would come out to see a spook.” Phil moved closer and shoved the ball cap back on his head. The moonlight revealed a freckled face and loose, smiling lips.
“I ain’t afraid of any ghosts because I don’t believe in such things!”
“You will after tonight.” Phil pulled a flat bottle from his hip pocket. “Got a little somethin’ to give us some nerve.”
“Is that bootleg liquor?” Maeva said.
“Sure is. We make it at our place. Good stuff too.” He took a swig and shoved it out toward Maeva. “Try a sip.”
“I don’t want any!”
“I’ll try some,” Ralph said. He took the bottle, tilted it, then went into a fit of coughing.
Phil grabbed the bottle to keep it from falling and laughed. “Why, you’re no man, Ralph! I should have brought me a drinkin’ buddy instead of a guy that can’t hold his liquor and a girl that’s afraid to try it.”
“Who said I’m afraid?” Maeva said. She had never tasted liquor, and now she was feeling rash and restless. “Give me that bottle!” She took the bottle and sipped. It burned all the way down, but she forced herself to hand it back, saying, “I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”
“Well,” Phil said in surprise, “I’ve known grown men that couldn’t do as good as you done, Maeva.” He took another drink and considered her. “Of course I wouldn’t want to get you drunk. That might get us in trouble.”
“I’m not getting drunk!”
“That’s the way to talk.” Phil laughed. He took another sip and handed it to Maeva. She had hated the taste of it but drank anyway. She suppressed the shudder that went through her and handed the bottle back. “Let’s go see this famous ghost. You say you’ve seen it, Phil?”
“Sure have. Me and my brother Amos came out about this time last year. We seen it too.”
“Let’s go,” Ralph said. “We can’t stand here all night.”
The three turned and started walking down the tracks, which made for difficult walking. The ties were too short for a single step, but too long for a double. Maeva tried walking on the rail awhile, for she had good balance, but it was difficult. Phil talked constantly, taking sips out of the bottle and insisting that Maeva join in. He even got Ralph to take a few sips.
A burst of delight grew in Maeva for her daring in stealing out of the house and then in drinking whiskey. She knew Lanie had never done anything like this, and that gave her a sense of pride. She’s older than I am, but she ain’t got my nerve.
They walked for fifteen minutes until finally the faint lights of town had almost faded. Maeva found herself feeling quite able to do anything. She nagged Phil about the light, accusing him of making it up, and twice more she sampled the raw white lightning from the flat bottle.
Phil shook his head with admiration. “I never saw a girl could hold her liquor like you do! You’re some punkin’, Maeva!”
“Well, the punkin’ wants to see the light!”
“I reckon we’ll see it any minute.”
They walked along another five minutes and then suddenly Maeva said, “Look, what’s that?”
All three of them st
opped dead still, and there far off in the distance was a light of some sort. It was dim and had a bluish quality to it.
“That’s it!” Phil whispered. “That’s the Phantom Brakeman!”
“What we do now?” Ralph said.
“Why, we go try to catch him.”
Ralph looked with alarm at Phil. “I don’t want to catch him!”
“I didn’t figure you would.” Phil laughed. “What about you, Maeva?”
“You won’t have to wait for me if you want to catch some old haunt.”
Phil laughed. “All right. One more drink and we’ll catch him.” He and Maeva shared another sip. By this time Maeva’s legs were tingling. She took two steps, but her legs would not go where she wanted them to. She tripped and went down. The rocks between the ties should have hurt, but she felt numb. She suddenly found it terribly funny that she had fallen down.
Phil was laughing too, and Ralph joined them. “Here, help me pick her up, Ralph,” Phil said. “Can you walk?”
“’Course I can walk! Where is that brakeman? I’ll take his durn lantern away from him!”
They staggered on down the tracks when suddenly Ralph cried out, “That ain’t no brakeman! That’s the incoming freight!”
Indeed it was!
“I’ll tell you what,” Phil said. “It looks like the brakeman ain’t walkin’ tonight. Let’s hop this freight and ride it back to town.”
“Hop it! What do you mean?” Ralph said.
“It always slows down about here. All we have to do is catch the ladder on the side and pull ourselves onto one of the flat cars. Get us a free ride. Are you game?”
“Sounds dangerous to me,” Ralph said.
“I’ll do it,” Maeva shouted. “Where is that dadgummed old train?”
“Now wait a minute. You got to be careful, Maeva,” Phil said. “If you miss, you could fall under the wheels. That wouldn’t do you no good. You’d be the Phantom Schoolgirl then.”
“I’m ridin’ that train back. You two do what you want to.”
“That’s the way to talk,” Phil said. “It’ll be movin’ pretty slow when it gets this close to town. They will probably want to stop for water. We have to get out of sight though so the engineer don’t see us. Let’s get over here on this side of the tracks. The fireman, he won’t be lookin’.”
Sure enough, when the train approached, it was moving very slowly. They waited until the engine passed, and then Phil shouted, “Look, there’s some flat cars. Let’s go!”
Maeva started running. She was filled with excitement, and when the front of one of the cars was close by, she made a wild grab and caught it. It pulled her off her feet, but she was able to hoist herself on. She shouted, “Come on, get on this here train!”
The two boys ran hard, and both of them jumped on. They sat down beside Maeva, and Phil said, “Ain’t much left in this bottle. Might as well finish it.” He took two swallows, and Maeva took a sip and then Ralph took some. “That’s all she wrote,” Ralph said. He threw the bottle out and laughed.
“You shouldn’t of did that! We could have filled it up again.”
The three of them sat there thrilled with their accomplishment. Finally the train slowed further. Phil said, “We’d better not ride ’er all the way into town. We better jump for it.”
“Not me. I’m goin’ all the way in,” Maeva said.
The three sat there in the moonlight, the wheels clanking over the rails rhythmically. They pulled by the water tower and then into the siding. They heard the brakes being thrown, and then the clanging as the cars began to bang into each other. Maeva was caught off guard and fell flat, but she only laughed.
She heard Ralph shout, “Look out, there comes the brakeman!” “Come on,” Phil said, “we’ve got to get out of here!”
Maeva tried to get up, but her legs wouldn’t work. She saw the two boys leap off the train, and as the train moved on, they were lost in the darkness. A dark form swung aboard the car, and then she heard a voice and felt a strong hand grab her arm. “What are you doin’ here, girl?”
“Turn loose of me!”
“I’ll turn loose of you! I’m gonna turn you over to the sheriff is what I’m gonna do! You crazy kids! You could have been killed. Your daddy oughtta be whipped for lettin’ you out like this.”
“You shut your mouth about my daddy! He’s worth ten of you!”
The brakeman guffawed. “Well, I like a kid that stands up for her family, but you’re goin’ to see the sheriff anyway. He’ll probably put you in jail.”
“No he won’t! He’s a friend of mine!”
“He’d better be.”
The sound of a car pulling up to the house awakened Forrest. He rolled out of bed, and by the time he got his pants on he heard a knock on the door. He moved out barefooted and found Lanie already there, holding Corliss. “Who is it, Daddy?”
“I don’t know who it could be this time of the night.”
Cody and Davis emerged in their underwear. Forrest hesitated, then flipped on the porch light and opened the door. “Why, Sheriff, what are you doin’ here?” Then his eyes fell on Maeva. Pardue was holding her lightly by the arm, and he said, “Had a little trouble here, Forrest. Need to talk to you.”
Unable to speak for a moment, Forrest finally said, “Sure. Come on in.” He kept his eyes on Maeva as the sheriff led her inside. “Come on into the living room,” he said, leading the way. “What’s all this about, Pardue?”
“Well, Maeva here—”
“I’ll tell ’im my ownself!” Maeva said. “I snuck out and went to see the Phantom Brakeman.” She glared at Lanie and her brothers and then faced her father. “And I drunk some whiskey, too—so go on and whup me if you want to. I don’t care.”
“She was with a couple of others, boys I think, but she won’t tell who they are.”
“You say you’ve been drinkin’ whiskey?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Well, I’ll leave you folks. This ain’t no arrestin’ matter. I just wanted to be sure she got home. I know you’ll take care of it, Forrest.”
“Sure, and thanks a lot, Pardue.”
“It’ll turn out all right. Kids do foolish things. I did, and I expect you did.”
“I’m not sure I ever did anything this foolish,” Forrest muttered. He watched as the sheriff left. Then he turned around and said, “All right, tell me all about it.”
“There ain’t nothin’ to tell except I snuck off and went to see the Phantom Brakeman with two boys. One of them had some whiskey, and I drunk a little of it. We hopped a freight, and the brakeman caught us. The boys left, but they caught me and took me to Sheriff Jes-sup. That’s all there is to it.”
Forrest stared at this daughter of his so unlike either him or his wife or any of their other children. He saw these four all staring at her. “Well, the rest of you go back to bed. I’ll need to talk to Maeva.”
Without a word, but with backward glances, the three left.
“Sit down, Maeva, we’ll talk.”
“I don’t want to be talked to. You get your belt and whup me. I know you’re going to.”
“I don’t want to do that, Maeva. I just want to talk to you. Now sit down.”
Forrest did not know how to begin. He wished that Elizabeth were there, for she would know. He asked God to give him words, but even as he spoke, he saw the hard glint in Maeva’s eyes. After a time he said, “I love you, Maeva, and so do your brothers and your sister. Now go to bed.”
“You ain’t gonna whup me?”
“No, I’m not. I’ll give you some kind of punishment, maybe doing extra work, but I don’t feel like taking a belt to you.”
“I wisht you would. I know I deserve it.”
“I guess I deserved lots of whippins I didn’t get.” Forrest put his arms around Maeva. She stiffened, but he kissed her cheek. “Go on to bed, honey. It’s not the end of the world.”
He watched as she went upstairs and thought he saw a sign of remors
e in her face, but he couldn’t be sure. He went back to bed, but did not sleep. All he could do was pray, “Oh, Lord, what am I going to do with this girl?”
Day after day, Forrest grew more morose. He became short-tempered and irritable with his family and with the crews that worked for him. Everyone was aware of it, and one man said, “Better stay away from the boss man. He’s touchy as a bear with a sore tail.”
Perhaps if Forrest had been in a better mood the thing would never have happened, but when he went out to check on the Biggins brothers and found that they were gone yet again, he blew his stack.
“That’s it!” he said aloud, his face twisted with anger. “I won’t put up with those worthless Bigginses any longer!”
He got into his truck and went on a hunt for the brothers. He went first to the Green Door, where Clara Richter, who owned the place, was wiping down the counter. “Clara, have the Biggins boys been here?”
“Sure were, Forrest.” Clara was a big woman with a rough voice and a face that spoke of hard living. “I threw ’em out, dead drunk. Duke an’ Alvin had to carry that cousin o’ theirs. I hope they don’t wreck your truck. You don’t need that kind workin’ for you, Forrest.”
“They won’t be anymore. I feel like I could shoot ’em both!”
“Well, they’ll probably wind up in somebody else’s place until they get so drunk they can’t drive.”
“Thanks, Clara.”
Forrest drove to the Bigginses’ shack not expecting to find them and was surprised to see his truck parked in front. It was jackknifed in front of the house, half-loaded with logs.
Forrest jumped out of the car and went to the door. He was furious, as angry as he had ever been in his life. He banged on the door, and there was no answer. He continued to bang and shout and eventually heard someone cursing from the inside. “Get away!”
“Open this door, Duke!”
There was talk inside and then the door opened. Duke Biggins wore a pair of overalls but no shirt. His eyes were red with drinking, and he smelled like a brewery. “What do you want?”
THE HOMEPLACE Page 12
