She was staring at me, but I didn’t dare meet her eyes. “Is there something else, Bekkah?”
“I can’t take Cammie back. Mama Betts will figure out a way to work it out.”
Part of it was pure, raw hope. Mama Betts might tell me I had to take Cammie back too. I heard the car—I wouldn’t have long to wait.
Mama Betts saw Cathi—and Picket. When she got out of the car she called the dog over to her and inspected her carefully. “No permanent damage, but they weren’t exactly careful how they treated her.” She looked at me and then at Cathi.
“I called her and she came. She went down there and made them let Picket go,” I said as I stood up and went to Cathi’s side. Arly came around the car and gave Picket some pets and hugs. All the time he was casting these undercover looks at Cathi.
“The sheriff said if you and the dog were on Redeemer property, we had no right to demand the dog back.” Mama Betts stood very still. “I want to thank you, Mrs. Cummings, for saving Picket. That dog’s a special part of this family, especially to Bekkah.”
“Mrs. McVay, there’re some things happening on this road you ought to know about.” She looked at me, and I knew she was going to tell everything. “I think it would be a good idea if you told all of this to the sheriff. I know I’m going to be doing some investigating for the newspaper. If what Bekkah tells me is true, there are some dangerous people living down at the end of this road.”
They went through the whole thing, and I had to answer questions with Arly listening to every word. After the first five minutes Mama Betts suggested we all go sit on the screened porch, and Cathi consented to that. I was telling the part about Nadine and I sneaking into the church when Arly exploded.
“Good Jesus Christ,” he said, “you’da been better off with Frank Taylor than running up and down the road. Only you could get in so much trouble on Kali Oka.”
“Hush your mouth, Arlington Rich,” Mama Betts warned him. “In fact, take that big mouth of yours out to the yard and finish waxing that car. You drive it so much the wind’s wearing the paint off.”
When I’d finally told everything again, I looked at Mama Betts. “What about Cammie?”
“Mrs. Andrews hasn’t missed the horse yet?” Mama Betts looked down toward Nadine’s like she expected to see her materialize in the driveway, shotgun and rope in hand, ready to lynch me for horse theft.
“She knows I have her,” I said before I realized my mistake.
“You saw her?”
“Well, she’ll see that my saddle is gone.” I was doing the very thing I’d vowed never to do again, sculpting the truth to protect different people.
“Go on down there with Mrs. Cummings. Tell Mrs. Andrews that you have Cammie and that you’d like to buy her. I’ll call the Welfords and make sure you can keep her in their barn for a while, until we can get something built here.”
“Will Effie let me keep her?” I couldn’t believe it.
“When she hears what you’ve been up to, I suspect she’ll want to keep you in the backyard for the rest of your life.”
I grinned. “It’s been a hellacious summer, but if I get Cammie, it’s going to be worth it. And that mean preacherman said everything I loved would be taken from me.”
“He’s a sick man,” Cathi said softly. “Extremely sick to use cruelty to an animal to frighten a child.”
“And to use the name of the Lord as his own personal punishment.” Mama Betts brushed her apron even though it was spotless. “You two go on and get this done. If Mrs. Andrews is going to make trouble, I’d just as soon get it all over at once. Bekkah, if she won’t sell, you have to take that horse back.”
Cathi rode me down to Nadine’s in her car. She kept looking over at me, but I didn’t say anything. The closer we got, the more nervous I got. As soon as we turned in the drive, I saw Nadine’s truck, but my gaze went up to the loft. I dreaded what I might see.
The hay door was pulled shut.
“Bekkah?”
“Nadine can be pretty nasty.” She patted my hand. “So can I.”
She noticed the garbage as soon as we were out of the car. “Good Lord, nasty is right. What nightmares are hiding around here?”
“Nadine used to be rich. She’s not used to taking care of things around the house. She keeps the barn spotless, though.” I remembered Cammie’s stall. “Well, unless she’s mad.”
“Your grandmother’s hair would stand on end.”
I hurried up the steps and knocked, hoping Nadine would come outside. I didn’t want Cathi to go inside for a couple of reasons. The inside was as filthy as the outside, and I had no idea where Greg was.
“Come on in, Bekkah, and bring your friend.” Nadine’s voice came from deep inside the house.
“Oh, shit,” I mumbled under my breath. There wasn’t time to hesitate. Cathi pulled the screen open and walked in ahead of me.
“The health department would have this place bulldozed,” she whispered.
“I hardly ever come in here,” I answered.
Nadine was in her favorite pose on the old Queen Anne. One foot tapped the floor lightly while the other was hooked over the back of the sofa.
“Where’s my horse?” she asked, not bothering to sit up.
“At Jamey’s.”
“I suggest you bring her on home.”
“Nadine, Mama Betts said I could buy her if you’ll sell her to me.”
Nadine eased up into a sitting position. Her face was in shadows.
“Could we turn on some lights?” Cathi asked.
I made the introductions and explained to Nadine that Cathi was a friend of my family’s from Missouri who was living in Mobile now. “Those Redeemer people had Picket, and Cathi came over and made them give her back. She’s going to—”
“Bekkah gives me too much credit. I’m not a child, and they couldn’t frighten me with their threats. Do you know anything about those people?”
“Not the first thing, and I want to know less.” Nadine reached over and snapped on a lamp beside the sofa. The glow cast one of her eyes in shadow, and the other was an amber dart aimed at me.
“But you said the preacherman—”
“So you want to buy Cammie?”
I was pulled up short. Nadine obviously didn’t want to talk about how the preacherman might be her ex-husband. At least not in front of a stranger.
“Bekkah would love to have the horse. She’s very attached to her, as I’m sure you know,” Cathi said smoothly.
“I’ve always wanted her, from the first day. Effie said back in August that maybe I could. If we have enough money.”
“How much do you think she’s worth?” Nadine was watching me, but pretending to be disinterested.
I looked at Cathi for help.
“She’s a nice mare,” Cathi said, even though she’d never seen her, “but the Riches aren’t wealthy people. They’ll pay a fair price.”
“I’ve never bought a horse.” I was telling Nadine the obvious. “What would you sell her for?”
“A thousand dollars.” Nadine grinned.
“Oh …” It was so much money. More than we’d ever be able to pay.
“Bekkah’s parents are coming home soon. Since the incident with the dog and the Redeemers, her grandmother wants to keep Bekkah right at home all the time. Would you consider letting her keep the horse in her yard for a few days, until her parents get home? Then they’ll either be able to buy the horse or Bekkah will bring her back.”
“What if something happens in the meantime?” Nadine asked. She didn’t act like she really believed anything would happen. It was some sort of duel between the two of them.
Cathi reached down into her purse and brought out a checkbook. She started writing a check. “It’s Nadine Andrews, right?”
“Right,” Nadine said.
“A-n-d-r-e-w-s,” Cathi spelled as she wrote, like maybe she wasn’t certain how to write Andrews. “Exactly,” Nadine said.
“Here’
s a check for two hundred dollars. Consider it a damage deposit. If the Riches buy the horse, it can go toward the purchase price. If they don’t, you can tear up the check. If the horse is injured, apply it toward the vet bill.”
Nadine took the check. “She’s your responsibility now, Bekkah.”
“Bekkah tells me you’re from up around the Delta,” Cathi said, sitting back in her chair like she intended to visit for a spell.
Everything had happened so fast. There was a current going on between the two women. They were sizing each other up. I knew Cathi didn’t like Nadine. But Nadine had been so much more reasonable than I’d ever expected. I felt like I was swimming way over my head, and I kept trying to touch bottom but could never find it.
“Cleveland.” Nadine’s voice was bored. “Ever heard of it?”
“Oh, yes,” Cathi said. “I grew up around those parts. I spent many a happy evening at the Twilight Café. Best swing band in the state.”
“The Twilight was fun.” Nadine’s gaze never wavered from Cathi. “I spent most of my time in Memphis. I’d do whatever I could to get away from Cleveland. Nothing but cotton and dust.”
“And the prison.”
“And the prison,” Nadine agreed. She smiled. “It’s funny to come from a place where everybody knows it by a prison.”
“Well, the entire state has a reputation, doesn’t it?”
“So now you’re living over in Mobile, Alabama? Do you find it any different?”
“Not as many strange characters to write about in Alabama.”
Nadine actually laughed out loud. “I like that.” She picked up the check off the coffee table and read it. “Cathi Cummings. I don’t know the name.”
“I was a Newman. I married a Cummings.”
Nadine nodded. “I know that family.” Her gaze intensified. “The Newmans were a big family. Lots of different branches.”
Cathi stood up. “Bekkah’s grandmother is probably worried to death. We’d better get on home. It was nice to meet you, and I’m sure the Riches will be in touch with you in the next three or four days. Bekkah’s told me how much you’ve taught her, so you can rest assured that she’ll take good care of that horse.”
Nadine stood up too. “We’ll work out something on the saddle if you want. I don’t really need it anymore.”
“Thanks.” I couldn’t believe Nadine.
“Maybe you’d want to get Cammie’s blanket and grooming kit from the barn.”
I looked at Nadine then. I saw it in her eyes. She was deviling me. She knew I’d seen her and Greg in the barn, and she was dangling it right in front of Cathi.
“Bekkah?” Cathi said. “Why don’t you get the kit and stuff? Since I have the car you can take it home now.”
I couldn’t look away from Nadine. She was dying with laughter, but it only showed in her eyes. “Okay.” I broke the look and hurried out the back door.
The barn was shut tight. Just as a double check, I looked in every horse’s stall. They had water and hay and the shavings were clean. Even Cammie’s empty stall had been thoroughly cleaned. I wondered if Greg or Nadine had done it.
The thought of Greg made me look up at the loft. I didn’t want to see him. Not ever again. He and Nadine could do whatever they wanted to do. I had Cammie and Picket, and Cathi was going to look into the Redeemers. I was finished with it all.
I gathered up Cammie’s stuff as fast as I could and ran out of the barn. Cathi was waiting at the car. There was no sign of Nadine, and we drove out of there.
“She’s a very interesting woman,” Cathi said. “She knows better than to live the way she does. Either she doesn’t care, or she’s making a point.”
“What kind of point?”
“That’s what’s so interesting. By the way, I asked her about the Redeemer boy, Greg. She said he hadn’t been around since the beating. Do you think he actually went back there?”
“No, he isn’t there. When I was down there today, Magdeline, the girl I told you about, she was asking for him. All the Redeemers think Greg is at Nadine’s.”
We pulled into my driveway. “Get your things and jump out. I’ve got to get back to the office before I’m canned.”
“Thanks, Cathi. I’ll call Daddy tonight.”
“If you could leave my name out of it, I wouldn’t mind. I didn’t ask for his telephone number to call for myself, Bekkah. I wanted him to know what’s going on. He needs to come back here. He and your mother both.”
“I’ll tell him. And you can bet that Mama Betts will too.”
Cathi reached over and gave me an awkward hug. “Friends?”
“Sure.” I hugged her back. “Thanks, Cathi.” I got out and got my stuff. Cathi backed up and drove away.
When I went into the kitchen, Mama Betts had some fresh greens cooked and cornbread. “I was going to fry some chicken, but I got sidetracked by a trip to the sheriff’s office instead.”
“Greens are fine.” I wasn’t hungry, but I wasn’t going to chance trouble over supper after everything I’d been into.
“Gus said they’d keep the horse, but you need to go over and help fix up a water bucket and feed trough. She’ll have to get by tonight on hay. Gus didn’t have any sweet feed.”
I didn’t want to say it, but I knew I had to. “Nadine wants a thousand dollars for her.”
“Isn’t that a bit pricey? She’s a pretty mare, but she’s not—” She stopped in mid-sentence. “We’ll see.”
“Cathi gave her a check for two hundred as a down payment.”
“If we get the horse, Walt will send her a check for that amount.”
“Mama Betts, we can’t spend money like that on a horse.” It almost killed me to say it, but it would hang there, unspoken, if I didn’t.
She sighed. “Bekkah, your father is making a lot of money in California. I think maybe he can get that horse for you.” She sighed again. “The horse is the easy part. It’s the rest of it that’s worrying me to death. I wonder what’s become of the Redeemer boy, Greg. I’m worried sick about him. And that Magdeline child too. What will become of them? And I’m concerned about what you’ve seen and learned, and what you’ve gotten into.”
“Are you going to call the sheriff?”
“I’m going to talk to Walt first. Then well see. That Joe Wickham,” she sighed for the third time, and she wasn’t given to sighing. “He’s a decent man, but he doesn’t want to take on any church groups. He didn’t say it, but I know he’s thinking if he takes after the Redeemers, then some of the other churches are going to get worried.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why should the other churches care?”
“They get touchy about rights. See, if Joe Wickham starts to look into one church, then he just might decide to look into another one. There’re a lot of little churches scattered all through this county, and they aren’t much more sophisticated than the Redeemers. They all think non-members are out to persecute them.”
“Joe wouldn’t do that.”
“Well, come election time, if the churches go against Joe, he’s out of office, and he knows it. And we both know the ministers carry a lot of sway on who votes for who in Chickasaw County.”
It was too much for me. “Mama Betts, if an older woman …” How was the way to say it?
“Well, go on.” She stopped cleaning the top of the stove and waited. “If an older woman what?”
“Gets involved with a younger boy, is it against the law?”
“How young?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Fifteen or sixteen.”
Mama Betts looked over her glasses. “There’s no law protecting young boys in Mississippi, but public opinion would go a certain distance to putting an end to such a thing. Now, is there a reason you’re asking this question?”
She suspected. The way she held her hands so still told me she was putting two and two together, and it was adding up to trouble.
“Do you think your friend Greg is being abused by some of those Redeem
er women?” she asked. The idea troubled her a lot. “Did he ever insinuate such a thing?”
“Not really.”
“Bekkah, physical abuse is one thing. Sexual is another breed of cat. Those people can be in very serious trouble.”
“He never said such a thing at all. I was just wondering. Because of the selling babies and all. And I was thinking about Magdeline and if she’s really pregnant, and if she is, who it belongs to.”
“You’ve been doing some grown-up thinking for a thirteen-year-old girl.”
“I’m not a baby anymore, Mama Betts.”
“No, child, you’re not. And that breaks my heart. This summer you’ve grown up, and what you’ve seen is the ugly side of what people can be. That’s the worst of growing up.”
“Greg said I lived in a fairy tale.”
Mama Betts picked up my empty plate. “And his life has been a living hell. I’m hoping we can change that for him.” She put the plate in the sink and turned to me. “If Greg wanted to come here to live, how would you feel about that?”
The question took me so completely by surprise that I must have shown my shock and disapproval. After what had gone on with Nadine, I never wanted to see Greg again. I didn’t think I could face him. But where would he go?
“Not a good idea, huh?”
“I don’t know. I mean, well, it’s just out of the blue.” I had to be careful because I didn’t know what I felt. “What would Arly say?”
“I’d say I’m not sharing my room.” Arly walked into the kitchen. “Can I go down to Rosie’s house to work on my algebra? She said she’d help me, and she makes the best grades in the class.”
“For two hours. Then home.”
“Bekkah’s the one you’d better keep home. I haven’t been in half the trouble she’s been in. Not in my entire life.”
I thought about rubbing a piece of cornbread into his just washed hair, but I knew Mama Betts would tear my butt off its hinges.
“Arly, I suspect your folks will be coming home soon. That algebra grade better be up from a C, or you and Bekkah both will spend the rest of the year in your rooms.”
When the car had cranked and left, Mama Betts wiped off the table for the second time. “I wanted Arly gone,” she said. “It’s time to call your father, and I think it might be easier for you if Arly wasn’t hanging around.”
Summer of the Redeemers Page 38
