He remembered three slumbering Welbys cozied under a blanket. If he rallied a few men along with the Welbys, they might salvage some of the flock and get them into coops. Maybe Will Honeysack would help. This was, after all, his nephew’s deal.
He tried to imagine explaining that to the head deacon before his first cup of coffee. He shooed a pecking hen away from his feet and bolted for the door.
Angel and Willie ran down the aisle waving and yelping like they were herding cattle. Ida May kept trying to gather pullets into her skirt so she could name each one. Will Honeysack and his visiting nephew Herschel held cages open while the women and the Welbys ran the pullets through the church.
“I’m sick as I can be about this whole delivery business,” Herschel apologized. He had expressed his deepest regrets to Jeb for the botched delivery at least a dozen times, if not more. He had paid two teens, one named Red, to deliver the pullets to Jeb, he said. The boys, down on their luck and in need of some fast money, had mixed up the orders—Meet Jeb Nubey at said address and ask him where he wants them delivered. Wanting to be free of the delivery, they had found the back door unlocked, dropped off the pullets, and, just as Herschel had instructed, delivered the cages back to him so they could pick up their money.
“It’s as much my fault as anyone else’s,” said Jeb, trying to ease Herschel’s guilt. “I plumb forgot to ask Ivey about his barn. Then I forgot to look at the note Val handed to me yesterday.”
“Law, they smell like the devil!” said Freda. She and Herschel’s young wife had chased hens and held their noses until they were out of breath.
“So you bought all these chickens, and for what? What’d you think we would do with two hundred of them?” demanded Angel.
“Jeb, the women will finish cleaning up for you. Herschel and I are going to take these out to Long’s barn. We’ll stop him on the way to church and make sure he knows why they’re on his place.”
The sound of car doors slamming outside brought everyone into the aisle.
Willie came running up the pew rows, herding three more pullets ahead of him. “Folks is pulling in to church!” he hollered.
“It smells like a barn in here!” Angel fell back against a pew. “I’m going to become a Methodist. They’re quieter.”
Ida May piped up. “Maybe they’ll think angels has been here.” She blew a handful of feathers into the air.
“I don’t smell anything,” said Jeb. “Act calm, Angel. No one will notice.”
Freda looked worried. Will and Herschel disappeared out the back door.
Angel sat up, picking feathers from her dress. She let out a sigh, grabbed the bucket of soapy water the women had brought over from the parsonage, and shoved it under a pew.
Jeb held out his hand to the first group of women who came through the door. “Morning, ladies! Beautiful day, ain’t it?”
The morning’s sermon went better than Jeb had imagined it might. More than once he witnessed white tufts floating through the air like celestial droppings. Josie Hipps had swatted curiously at them and then gone back to her nodding. Florence Bernard kept sniffing the air but was too polite to comment. Doris Jolly sneezed throughout the entire morning and finally sneaked out the front door altogether until time for the benedictory song.
As Jeb led the congregation in the closing prayer, he heard a clucking sound from the rear of the church. Angel’s and Willie’s heads lifted in unison. A white pullet crossed the aisle between the two last pews and disappeared. Angel said something to Willie.
Jeb raised his voice and tried to drown out the commotion as a wave of muttering shot through the congregation. Eyes peeped open to glance around nervously. As he spoke the final amen, he noticed a few of the women whispering back and forth before politely resuming their forward and genteel postures.
Willie slid out of the pew, the first to hit the aisle. In a flutter of squawking and feathers, he swung the remaining pullet into the air by the feet and then disappeared through the front door.
Jeb quickly descended to the center aisle to draw startled gazes back to the front. “Sister Jolly, lead us as we go, if you will, in a departing chorus. ‘I’ll fly away, oh glory, I’ll fly away . . .’”
Angel hid her face in her hands.
22
The chimneys puffed with hazy gray and black smoke, mixing with the late October air. The hollow was cold, and few families had the good fortune to smoke a wild turkey or a goose for a Thanksgiving that was only several weeks away. The Bluetooths had stopped selling their soap and leather along the roadways due to the cold, and most of the merchants had more to sell than the locals were willing to buy. But the pinch of the last two winters was easing, and more families than not were chatting up the need for a Christmas social in the hollow come December.
Jeb could hear Florence Bernard and Freda Honeysack above the din of women who had gathered in the church to plan the festivities. He closed the door to the study and returned to finish the church books. When Gracie had pulled away with his children the church had scarcely had two nickels to rub together. But the past several Sundays’ offerings had brought in some hefty donations from Ace Timber. Jeb studied the signature on the most recent check but did not know the benefactor—a man whose surname was Farnsworth. The first name he could not decipher.
He recorded the check along with the usual dollars, dimes, and pennies given by the Church in the Dell flock. In spite of the increase in attendance, the fact that so many were still out of work while waiting for Ace Timber’s full operation to move in had not increased the giving. Without the Ace Timber donation, Jeb might not have had enough to pay himself or keep the lights on.
He breathed a prayer of thanks and tallied the bank deposit. He still had not made mention to Mills of no longer acting as the deliveryman for the bank, but the banker had not brought up the matter, either. Bringing it up over dinner with Mills as he courted his daughter would have been nothing short of ill-mannered. Besides, the pastorate had begun to fill every minute of the day with house visits.
The raucous laughter out in the sanctuary indicated the committee women were in good spirits. During his two and a half months in the pulpit, Jeb’s approval among the Church in the Dell elect had risen incrementally day by day. He stuck his head out the door and said, “I think that in keeping with the Christmas observance, ladies, we should plan on enjoying a smoked ham from Smithfield’s farm.” A few ladies voiced approval.
“True, Reverend. Best hams in the state,” said Freda.
Florence said, “He’s not a member of the church. I doubt he’ll take much off his price.”
Jeb pulled a couple of bills out of the bank bag and said, “We had a good week. Here’s two dollars to put down on it. Order the ham.”
The ladies cheered.
As Jeb walked the deposit out to his truck, he heard two women conversing in the sunlight near the church drive. One planted pansies near the churchhouse sign while the other complimented her work. She turned in time to see Jeb.
“Morning, Reverend,” said Winona.
Winona had found numerous reasons to visit the church over the last few weeks. She had shown up at the parsonage and enticed Jeb out onto the porch in spite of the cold on many a night after the Welbys had fallen asleep. This morning she held out a bag to him that smelled of things fresh baked. “Momma baked biscuits this morning. I thought you’d like some.” She wore a yellow dress with cherries dancing along the collar. The color made her face sallow. She had always looked fresh from the department store, but today crescents of blue under her eyes made her look as though she nursed a cold.
Jeb thanked her. He accepted her gift and was excusing himself to leave when she said, “We’re still on for Friday night, aren’t we?”
Jeb said, “Of course, just like every Friday night. Willie’s been sick with something, but I figure he’ll be on the mend by Friday.”
“His sister sees to him.”
“Influenza’s going around. Can’t be
too careful these days, especially with youngens.” From the looks of her, he half-expected Winona to say that she had been fighting the flu as well, but she changed the subject.
“Looks like you’re going to the bank,” she said.
“Appears I am.” Jeb smiled.
“If you don’t mind my suggesting that I give you a ride, we can ride together. I’ve been wanting to share something with you. But with all the goings-on at the church, we’ve had little privacy lately.”
“Long’s I can drive. Don’t look right for you to be driving me around.”
They had driven within a mile of Marvelous Crossing Bridge when Winona leaned toward Jeb and kissed the side of his face. Then she said, “I saw Fern Coulter at Honeysack’s at the crack of dawn. She scarcely said two words to me. Have you noticed she’s been acting kind of funny lately? Not to gossip, but she’s never been the most friendly person in Nazareth.”
Jeb had noticed Fern leaving church earlier than usual the last couple of weeks. “Fern’s got her own ways. I quit trying to figure her out long ago.”
“She’s not from around here and that may have something to do with it. Oklahoma people have their own ways. We have ours.”
“I don’t suppose you drove all the way over from your place to talk about Fern Coulter.” For some reason, Winona’s questions about Fern irritated him.
“You’re starting to know me better than myself, Jeb. I have a letter here with some news about that family in Pine Bluff.”
Jeb could not recall what family in Pine Bluff, but his irritation kept him from commenting.
“Now all of this came about after I had scarcely mentioned to my friend from out of town that you might be looking for a home for the Welby children. I hadn’t even thought of it at all myself because that’s your business, and you clearly said you weren’t interested. And that’s final as far as I’m concerned. But yesterday this letter came, and this family is looking for a little girl Ida May’s age. They are willing to take all three children just so they can have a little girl like Ida May.” She waited a moment as if for Jeb to comment and then added, “I think that speaks well of them.”
“Winona, I know Angel’s had her problems, but with the Hopper boy out of the picture, she’s settled down a tolerable amount. Packing her and Willie and Ida May off with strangers might upset the applecart for these kids, so to speak.”
“I knew you’d say that. But you’ve not exactly been yourself, what with taking over the minister’s role here at Church in the Dell. Who can blame you for not being able to think straight? You look worn out all the time, up at dawn visiting sick people. Up at all hours with farmers and sick cows and women in labor. Then to have to take care of someone else’s children on top of all that. I mean, if they were your own, then certainly I could see you doting on them. But that oldest girl shows little respect for you, and don’t think these loose-tongued women don’t notice it. She doesn’t understand your role like Emily Gracie understood her daddy’s place in the community. You’d never hear her up at the town Woolworth’s spouting off about her daddy.”
Winona covered her mouth with her hand. The longer she spoke, the more the momentum of her subject carried her further into a kind of unwitting anxiety.
“Angel’s been spouting off at the Woolworth’s about me?”
Winona fell as silent as snow.
“You already told me, Winona, so you may as well spill it out.”
“To hear her tell it, you conspired against the Hoppers.”
“Angel said that in front of everybody?”
“If everybody is the town mayor, the school headmaster, the man that sweeps up the streets, and the apple hawker on the corner near Woolworth’s.”
Angel had been so polite of late that Jeb thought she had finally let go of the Hoppers.
“It wasn’t my intent to tell you all that, just the part about the Pine Bluff family. She’ll hate me now more than ever. You can’t tell her, Jeb.”
“Angel doesn’t hate you.”
“Last Sunday she sidled past me down the church aisle and the look she gave me would melt nails.”
Jeb had believed that things between them were on the mend. He also thought of how he could have left her behind in Little Rock to be pecked on by the hungry buzzards devouring her Aunt Kate and her wretched brood. Angel had yet to appreciate the life he had given her. “Let me see that letter from Pine Bluff, Winona.”
Winona pulled the letter from her handbag, but then hesitated. “I feel awful about all of this.”
Jeb slid the letter out of her hand. “What time is dinner again?”
“Friday night at seven. Unless sooner is better.” She slid out a stick of gum and snapped her bag closed.
“The sooner the better,” said Jeb. It seemed easier to embrace the new life in front of him than to try to keep piecing together the mess from the past. “We’re driving to Hope, if that’s all right with you. There’s a new place that’s open for dinner. I’ll pick you up Friday night at six.”
A logging truck hugged the side of the road. The driver caught sight of Jeb and Winona approaching in the rearview mirror and then, letting out a gaseous stream from the growling engine, rolled forward. Jeb saw the three newly employed men sitting on top of the freshly cut timber like monkeys with their cups full of pennies. He laughed. “There’s a sight for sore eyes.”
He’d deal with Angel tonight.
Angel had settled back into the parsonage as though she’d never left it. She had pinned up magazine pictures of movie stars in a frame around the window. She leaned against a picture of Claudette Colbert. She closed her eyes and held her breath.
Jeb pounded against the door. It was only a matter of minutes until he dismantled the lock from the outside and threw open the door. “Angel, you may as well unlock the door! Hiding yourself won’t help matters!”
Angel huffed and finally marched to the door and turned the lock. She kept her back to Jeb as he marched in behind her. “You aren’t listening, so what’s the point?”
“In front of the mayor, the whole town, you trashed my name. I’m the preacher of these people, and you go off half cocked because of some silly boy crush. This is serious, Angel. I shouldn’t have to explain about reputation to you. You’re old enough to know better!”
“I barely said anything at all and to one person. If it was carried further, is it my fault?”
“So you mouthed off down at the Woolworth’s?”
“I know you think things is going right for you, Jeb. But you’re just blind to matters. The Hoppers are gone, and now you don’t have to see the hurt in Mrs. Hopper’s eyes or think about the way she feels when she can’t feed herself or her kids at suppertime. You don’t see because you made it all go away! I remember a day when you saw people like the Hoppers as humans instead of trash.”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but things have gotten better for Church in the Dell, not worse, and not just for us. This town’s lumbermill is up and working. They’s a whole new timber operation settling down right here in Nazareth and I for one am proud to be part of it. The Hoppers were in a fix, yes, but Asa had too much pride to let anyone help. Now he’s in prison, and his family’s been put out, but I didn’t put them there. You’re taking on confusion like a leaky boat takes on water, Angel.”
“Beck told me he’d write when they settled, and it’s been a whole month. If they’ve broken down along the road somewhere with no one to help them, we’d never know.”
“What do you expect me to do? Go driving up and down the road hollering out Hopper’s name and hope to find them?”
“You shouldn’t have let them leave, Jeb.”
“None of this matters a hill of beans anymore, Angel. Some people are beyond help. I have a church to run, bills to pay, and a flock that needs tending. This church was dying when we came. Remember? Now it’s a fine little place with a congregation and respectability.”
“Maybe I don’t know much about preacher
ing, but this kind of respectability don’t sound like something God would take to.” Angel fell back onto her bed and brought her hands up over her face.
“Angel, I need to tell you something. I know we’ve had our differences, but I’ve always loved you, Willie, and Ida May.” He hesitated, not knowing if he should deal the next hand.
Angel sat up and at once read his expression. He saw anxiety suddenly wash over her face. She pulled her knees against her chest and swallowed hard. “If it’s an apology you’re wanting, I’m sorry for what I said at the Woolworth’s, Jeb.”
“They’s a family in Pine Bluff that’s been looking for a little girl to call their own. A girl Ida May’s age—”
“You’re not sending Ida May off, Jeb, without me! She’d be scared to death.”
“They’re willing to take all three of you.” Jeb pulled the letter from his trouser pocket.
She stared at him for the length of time it would take for a trapped bug to measure the marvel of a web and then said, “You can’t throw us out!” She wiped the tears from her cheeks, angry. “If this is the way it is, Jeb, then why didn’t you leave me in Little Rock?”
“This will give you the momma and daddy you been needing. I can’t do for you in the manner you need anymore, Angel. You’re bullheaded and I just keep giving in. I don’t want you to end up like your cousin Effie.”
“I hate you!”
“Why you want to make me feel like a louse? I’m trying to do right by you. Thousands of youngens are out wandering the roads, and you got a family that wants you, Angel. They can care for you and make sure you stay out of trouble. With a good family you can make something of yourself.”
“If I won’t go, neither will Willie or Ida May. They do as I say.”
“Ida May needs a momma, not a dictator.”
“You was mean when I met you, and you’re mean still! Nothing’s changed about you, Jeb Nubey. You might wear better things now or part your hair different, but you is still the same mean man that crawled into Nazareth rain soaked and looking for a free meal ticket. All you’ve done is trade people like the Hoppers like you’re trading a mule. You get respectability and anyone in your way gets the boot!” She hid her face in her pillow and sobbed.
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