Echoes of a Distant Summer

by Guy Johnson

  Jackson was aghast. “What? Attacked? By who? Who would attack women?”

  “El Jaguar. He left his signature on the walls.”

  Jackson could not believe it. “Why? Why would he attack women?”

  “It was a raid on El Negro. The women were secondary. They took Maria because she is the niece of Tigre Melendez. He is one of the Jaguar’s captains and probably the successor to his throne.”

  Jackson looked around and noticed that the men were packing up. “What’s going to happen now?” he asked, knowing the answer.

  “We’re going after them. But first we need to go to the lodge and take care of some business. We’ll probably be on the road by six this evening. I figure that gives them about a six-hour head start. El Negro wants to know if you want to come along.”

  Jackson asked, “Shouldn’t we let the police handle this?”

  “The police will only get in the way! Whether they’ll help depends on who paid them last. The best way is to bury the dead. Then deal out our own justice. Do you wish to come?”

  Jackson said nothing. If he said yes, he would voluntarily be participating in one of his grandfather’s wars, and once he agreed to that, where would it stop? If he said no, he would be abandoning Maria and the likelihood was that he would never see her again. Why would she want to be with a man who didn’t have the courage to try to rescue her? It was this thought which caused him to nod affirmatively.

  Carlos was studying Jackson’s face. “You have proven your courage,” he said with a thoughtful tone. “No one will think ill if you choose not to come. There is a difference between hunting men and hunting animals, and we will be hunting and killing men. If you choose to come along, know that there will be no mercy shown to our enemies. We intend to kill the Jaguar and Tigre, but in the process we will also kill as many of their people as we can.”

  “What about Maria?”

  “She is your responsibility. If in our other efforts we rescue her, good. But that is not our objective. We intend to wipe out the Jaguar’s organization.”

  Jackson sputtered, “That shows no loyalty to her!”

  “She is not family. Her family kidnapped her and took her back with them. She does not expect us to save her, or to risk lives in the search for her. Of course, if she means enough to you for you to join us, we will assist you in every way.”

  “You are extorting my participation! If I don’t help, you won’t seek to rescue her! That’s not right! I expected more from you, Carlos!”

  “I didn’t say that we wouldn’t seek to rescue her, but that rescuing her was not our objective. There is a difference. I don’t feel strongly enough about her to risk my life to find her. But I feel strongly about you! If you are willing to risk your life to find her, I will join you.”

  “Let’s go, men!” King shouted as he led his horse into a clearing. “We got to get the radio workin’ befo’ this storm hits! You comin’, Grandson?”

  Jackson looked at Carlos then answered, “Yes, Grandfather. I’m coming!”

  King mounted the extra horse that Hernando had brought back from the lodge and ordered, “Then let’s get to steppin’! I’ll see you at the house!” He, Hernando, and El Indio rode off at a gallop.

  Carlos and Culio cut down the six pigs that had been gutted and wrapped them in a canvas tarp. The wrapped meat was placed in the back of the jeep. The remaining three pigs were left hanging in the trees. The fire was put out and then they left the grove.

  As Jackson drove away, he glanced back at the grove of trees, heavy with the smell of blood, and wondered what he had thought was so beautiful about the little, depressing stand of trees.

  When he arrived at the lodge Hernando and Culio were erecting a thirty-foot radio antenna. He pulled down to the stable and helped El Indio unload the pigs and hang them on racks in the smokehouse. Then Jackson was sent out to dig a large grave at the edge of the trees behind the outhouses. Hernando joined him and they picked and dug a four-foot-deep trench in the hard-packed red clay. Culio rode up to the grave site with the bodies of three strange men tied to a travois. He had rigged the device to drag behind his horse. He untied them and rolled the bodies off the travois and into the trench.

  “We got four more to bring here,” Culio announced. He rolled himself a cigarette. “They must’ve come with a pretty big party to lose seven!” He lighted his smoke and guided his horse back toward the lodge. Hernando picked up a large plastic container and shook out white, powered lime across the bodies.

  It was strange, depressing work burying human corpses. It made Jackson feel queasy, particularly when he threw lime on the face of one of the dead men whose eyes were still open. The eyes stared upward as if there were still a will to see. Slowly, shovelful by shovelful, the bodies were covered with rocks and dirt. Then he and Hernando covered the grave with large rocks which had been originally collected to build a fence. Jackson returned to the lodge with the image of the dead man’s eyes burning in his mind.

  Alma and the three men who had died defending the lodge were placed in graves across the valley from the lodge. It was more difficult for Jackson to see the bodies of people who he knew and liked. Even though they were recognizable, their faces seemed robbed of a vital identifying feature. He was beginning to understand that death was a thief of essence. Their bodies now were merely empty husks, relics of what once was living. They were placed in their separate graves in silence. It seemed a particularly bleak day to die. The sky was dark with nature’s fire and vengeance. Thunder rumbled solemnly while flashes of lightning illuminated the charcoal sky. His grandfather intoned words of prayer over the graves.

  As Jackson bowed his head he thought of Maria. She was gone. Stolen away. Her sweet, wonderful smile was gone. The soft feel of her skin was gone. He felt a hollowness in his stomach then he felt anger. She was a victim in one of his grandfather’s wars. He studied his grandfather’s face and thought his grandfather must have intoned the ritual of last rites many times. He wondered if it mattered whether words of sacrament were said over a grave if the man saying them was a man who having sent so many to a premature death appeared to have little or no appreciation of God.

  Saturday, July 24, 1982

  Serena sat tiredly on an uncomfortable, metal-framed plastic chair in the hospital hallway, watching the white-garbed medical staff walk up and down the halls. She rubbed her eyes. She had just come out of the darkness of Elroy’s room, and the unremitting glare of fluorescent lights in the hall was forcing her eyes to adjust to brightness. If there was anything in the hospital she really disliked, it was the lighting, which seemed to be the antithesis of a healing environment with its cold chemical luminescence. The banks of fluorescent tubes always seemed to bring out the blue-gray pallor of illness even in healthy people.

  A young nurse stopped in front of her. “Mrs. Tremain, why don’t you go home for a while? You’ve been here twenty-four hours a day since your son was brought in. He seems to be resting easily now since his second surgery. I’m sure you’d be more comfort to him if you took care of yourself.”

  Serena looked up into the nurse’s concerned face and shook her head. She thought, I have no place to go and no place where I’d rather be. For her nothing mattered more than Elroy’s health. She felt that if she could right any part of the wrong that she had done, she would rest easier. If she had any doubts, all she had to do was walk down the hall to the elevators and there waiting for her were the ghosts. While she remained in the hospital with Elroy, they left her alone. It was the first peace she’d had since Amos’s funeral. There was no doubt in her mind that if Elroy should die, she would have no respite from the wraiths that now waited for her.

  The nurse, concerned by her silence and the faraway look in her eyes, asked, “Are you sure you don’t want me to call you a cab? If you stay here any longer we may have to hospitalize you.”

  “I’ll be all right, dear, as soon as my son is out of danger.”

  “He’s out of danger now, o
therwise they wouldn’t have released him from intensive care. If he keeps improving the way he’s going, they should release him some time in the next two weeks, provided that he’ll get good home nursing care.”

  “He’ll get everything that money can buy and a supportive family can provide.”

  The nurse smiled. “Mrs. Tremain, I wish all parents cared as much as you do. Your son is a lucky fellow. I may nominate you for Mother of the Year.”

  Serena’s smile acknowledged not the compliment, but its misplacement. “That’s kind of you, but I don’t deserve it.”

  “And humble too?” The nurse shook her head appreciatively. “You’re pretty special, Mrs. Tremain. All the staff on this floor think so. Well, I’ve got to clock out. I’ll see you tomorrow and I hope that you’ll get some rest between now and then.”

  Serena thanked the nurse and watched her walk down the hall toward the nursing desk. She had no doubt that if Elroy’s full story were known, the nurse would think differently. She stood up slowly and discovered that she was stiff from sitting in the uncomfortable chair. She walked back to Elroy’s room and entered into the welcoming darkness. She heard intermittent snatches of speech coming from his bed. She crossed over to him and stood beside the bed in the semidarkness, watching him. Elroy seemed to have fallen into a delirium again. In the past few days he’d had several bouts of semiconsciousness in which he often mumbled and sometimes shouted. As far as Serena could tell, most of the time he was remembering some military or police-related experience. The nurses had told her that these bouts were nothing to worry about unless they were attended by a fever. He was tossing and turning as much as his injuries would permit. She leaned down to feel his forehead as he began muttering.

  His voice was whispery and emotional. “Papa! Papa, why is them white men burning down our house? It’s burning to the ground! Mama got out, didn’t she? Oh, God, Papa, is that Ruthie all burned like that? She smells like barbecue, Papa! Please, God, don’t let that be Ruthie! Judah, Papa been shot! Oh, no! No, please, God, don’t let him be dead! What we gon’ do? Don’t hit me, Judah! I’m running for all I got! I hear them bullets whistling! Which way, Judah? Judah?”

  Serena watched as Elroy’s voice tapered off, but she saw that he was still deep in his delirium. His head twitched back and forth on his pillow and he began panting loudly, making a gurgling sound deep in his chest. Serena was alarmed. This was new behavior and it didn’t look good. She moved to the head of his bed and searched for the nurse call button. Elroy did his best to shout in his whispery voice, “Judah? Judah, don’t play now! Please, don’t be dead. Oh, God! Please, God! Don’t let Judah be dead!” The force with which he spoke caused him to cough and gasp, but still his words were distinct. Serena heard them clearly; each word burned through the casing of her heart, striking deep within her, like molten metal falling onto solid ice. She was beginning to have trouble breathing. She traced the call button’s wire, finally locating it under his pillow, and pushed it.

  She stepped back away from the bed. Was there no escape? Was she going to be continually confronted by her crimes? Serena sat down in a chair to catch her breath. She knew the story of the Caldwell family. She had been contacted by the nuns when they were first thinking of adopting Elroy. Using the mother superior as her go-between, Serena had sent a message to the Caldwells through her attorney that she would assist in the education of all their children should they decide to adopt Elroy. The Caldwells declined her offer, saying that they chose Elroy because of what was in his heart. At first, Serena had thought her worries were over, but Tini’s subsequent death and Della’s continued miscarriages eradicated that presumption; then four years afterward, the orphanage contacted her again and informed her of the circumstances surrounding Elroy’s return. Now, forty-nine years after the fact, she was hearing his firsthand account of the tragedy.

  The nurse, a stocky Filipino woman, pushed open the door and entered the room. “Something wrong, Mrs. Tremain?”

  “Well, he’s in some sort of delirium and he’s moving pretty wildly!”

  The nurse walked over to Elroy’s bed and reached down and grabbed Elroy’s hand. She said firmly, “Push the red emergency button!”

  Serena did as she was bidden. She asked anxiously, “He’s not in danger, is he?”

  “No, he’s torn out his IV and it’s making a bit of a mess, but I think we want to sedate him right now before he does any more damage to himself. I need some help. Your son is a big guy. Might be better for you to wait outside when the other nurses get here. We’re going to need to change the linen on this bed.”

  Serena stepped out into the hall as the reinforcements arrived. The brightness of the corridors accosted her eyes once more. She returned to the same uncomfortable chair that she had sat in before. She inhaled deeply. Her chest had gotten tight as she had listened to Elroy’s memory of the Klan attack. Serena put her head in her hands and began to cry. There was no sound, the tears just began to flow. They dripped down her face leaving the streaks of their passage. One of the nurses stepped out of Elroy’s room and saw her. The woman came quickly to her side.

  “You shouldn’t worry, Mrs. Tremain. Your son is all right. It was just a bit of thrashing. Why don’t you go and rest. We’ve replaced the cot you’ve been using with a real bed. Why don’t you go lie down. We’ll have someone check on him every hour. I wish all our patients’ families were as supportive as you are.”

  The nurse helped Serena to her feet and guided her back into the room. Serena lay down on the bed provided and she remembered no more until she awakened in the wee hours of the morning. Restless dreams and a full bladder caused her to get up and make her way into the bathroom. On her way back she stopped by Elroy’s bed and saw that he was sleeping calmly. In his face at rest, Serena again saw traces of King. There was no doubt it was predestined that he would be a part of her life. She felt abashed and humbled by the forces which had caused her to finally accept him.

  Serena had been a churchgoer, but had never spent much time in prayer. She had always been more concerned with the appearance and impact of her own presence rather than devotion. However, she felt this was a good time to reestablish her relationship with the Almighty.

  Serena got down on her knees and began to pray out loud. “Lord, I know it’s been a long time and maybe I don’t have the right to ask, but I’m asking you to help this man back to life. I don’t know whether he’s a sinner or a saint, whether he’s lived a just life or not. But I’m asking you to lighten his load and help him to heal because I’ve sinned against him. I’ve wronged him and I’m asking you to help me right that wrong. I can’t undo the bad that I’ve done and I know there is no atonement for me, but maybe you can do something to put a smile in his heart and a spring in his step. Help him find joy in life.” Serena fell silent as she pressed her face against the cold metal of Elroy’s bed rails. She began praying once more. “I know I’m a sinner, Lord. I’ve done terrible things to people that I loved. I’ve stunted the lives of my sons and destroyed my family’s ability to bear children. I look back on my actions now and there seems no justification for them. I know that hell awaits me and I do not seek to turn away from it. I ask nothing for myself. I ask only that you look kindly on the family that I have nearly destroyed and help them find peace and joy—” Serena heard movement in the bed and looked up. Elroy was lying on his side, staring at her. She was embarrassed, as if she had been caught undressed. She dipped her head to him and said, “I’m sorry if I awakened you.”

  Elroy said nothing, he just looked at her. Serena exhaled slowly and began to pull herself to her feet. As she stood up, Elroy asked in his whispery voice, “Why did you leave me in that orphanage?”

  Serena looked down at the floor and shrugged helplessly. “I was a petty, jealous woman. I was afraid for my oldest boy, LaValle. He wasn’t tough like his brother Jacques, like you. He was a weak boy who, through my ignorance, I helped turn into a weaker man. I knew it was wrong, but once I got
on that road I couldn’t get off. I know you can’t forgive me and I won’t ask you. But I will ask you to get well and not waste your life like I have. Don’t waste time hating me. The Tremain family is your family and they need you. They need someone to help pull them together. I can’t do it, but you could do it. You’ve always been part of this family; I was the one who prevented you from being included. Now I’m begging you, please come and help us. Help us be a family.”

  “Is that why you’re here? To ask me this? Why now? Why after all this time?”

  Serena started to cry again. “I’m so sorry for the wrongs I’ve done you. I needed to apologize to you in person and be of assistance to you in your recovery. I just want to do anything I can that will be of help to you. I’ve ruined so many people’s lives. It’s hard to live with the weight of it.”

  Elroy didn’t reply immediately. He was silent for almost five minutes. Serena began to fear that he would ask her to leave. She started to turn away when he began to speak. “I know that you’ve been here all the time. I remember seeing your face each time I woke up. The nurses told me that you brought in a surgeon from Johns Hopkins to operate on me. I guess I owe you something, maybe even my life.” Elroy paused to catch his breath. When he continued his voice was a bit stronger. “I say, let the one without sin cast the first stone. Sorry is all you can say to God. I accept your apology.”

  The tears welled up in Serena’s eyes. She reached hesitantly for his hand and gripped it lightly. “Oh, thank you. Your willingness to forgive me means so much. I can’t tell you. Thank you.” Serena stood in silence by the bed, gratefully holding Elroy’s hand. The irony of the situation was not lost on her. She was receiving comfort from the original one she had wronged so long ago and out of all of her family, he was probably the only one who would accept her apology. She squeezed his hand gently and asked, “Can I stay here with you?”

  Elroy nodded, closed his eyes then said, “I thought I wanted revenge. I thought killing those responsible would make me feel better. That’s why I went to the DuMonts’, but when I saw him I knew I could kill a million like him and it wouldn’t change a thing in my life. The cruelty was committed a long time ago and the years have covered it with dust. It’s time now to leave all that behind and leave the dust undisturbed.”