Family Issue

by Nat Burns

  “Thank you, we’ll do that.” I pressed the end call button and took a deep, shaky breath.

  We all turned as one unit when the doorbell rang. I realized then that all seven of us, plus Human, were huddled together in one mass, seeking comfort, I supposed.

  “It couldn’t be them already,” Erica said in a low voice.

  “Maybe it’s Kissy,” Patty cried.

  “No,” Yolanda said regretfully. “She can’t reach the bell.”

  I broke away and walked to the front door. The others moved to stand in the sitting room doorway so they could see the front door.

  The doorbell sounded again just as I opened it.

  Chapter Thirty

  “Hello, Rina,” I said, surprise evident in my voice.

  “Hello…Denni, was it? I’m looking for John Clyde. Is he here?” Rina still had on her waitress uniform, but she wore a long raincoat over it.

  I backed away from the door, gesturing her inside. I turned and looked at the crowd as John Clyde broke free. “Rina. What are you doing here?”

  He hustled her into the dining room, and I moved back to stand with the others. Muffled words reached us, but I couldn’t make them out. A low moan sounded behind me, and I turned to find Patty a quaking wreck. Obviously it had just dawned on her anew that Kissy could be in serious trouble. The other women surrounded her with huge reassuring promises. I looked at Bone, and a sudden thought occurred to me. I pushed toward the group.

  “Yolanda, what happened to Kissy’s birth parents?”

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Bone’s eyes widen and her subtle nod of approval.

  Yolanda looked at me with vacant eyes. I waited while they cleared and she comprehended my question.

  “Her birth parents? No one knows who the father is, but her mother moved north to South Dakota to be with her family. Kissy was in a foster home for a couple years before we got her.”

  “Do you think maybe her mother…or the foster couple could have come after her?” I asked this of Yolanda quietly, but Patty heard, of course. Her eyes rolled wildly and she moaned again. I worried for a moment she might faint.

  “No, no,” Yolanda protested, shaking her head. “They had like a zillion other kids. I don’t think they were too emotionally vested in her. Her birth mother…” She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t really know. I do know the adoption records were sealed. She’d have a hell of a time finding out where Kissy went.”

  I spoke soothingly to Patty to calm her and Yolanda pulled her close.

  John Clyde appeared in the doorway. He looked haggard.

  “John Clyde, what’s happened?” Erica said, gasping at his appearance.

  John Clyde staggered to the sofa and slumped down, head in his hands. “It’s all my fault,” he muttered.

  The room fell silent. Rina appeared in the doorway as huge wracking sobs broke loose from John Clyde. “Oh, Kissy, Kissy,” he moaned.

  Patty cried out in renewed anguish and buried her face in Yolanda’s shoulder.

  I turned to Rina. “What has he done?” I asked.

  Rina, using her palms, swiped at the tears smudging her face. “I think it’s Rainerd…my brother,” she said haltingly. “I don’t want to believe it but…he said some things this evening…”

  “What? What did he say,” Bone asked, pushing her way through the others to stand in front of Rina.

  Rina looked beyond Bone. “John Clyde,” she sobbed. “Tell them.”

  John Clyde sat back, sprawling across the back of the sofa, his face a mass of tears and nasal mucous. He didn’t even bother to wipe any of it away. He rolled his head from side to side, still sobbing.

  Surprising all of us, Patty broke free of Yolanda and leapt upon her brother. She started pummeling him with her fists about the face and shoulders. He didn’t raise his arms to defend himself at all, just sobbed as she rained blows on him.

  “Where the fuck is she, you bastard! What have you done? I swear if anything has happened to that child, I will never speak to you again as long as I live,” she spat out, her face inches from his.

  I rushed to pull Patty back. “Let him talk, hon, let him talk.” I handed her off to Yolanda and Erica, and I sat next to John Clyde. He had rolled to one side and pulled his knees up into a fetal curl. I pushed the knees down. “Talk!” I demanded.

  He pulled up his T-shirt and mopped at his face. He rose suddenly and strode to the bar where he poured himself a healthy shot of whiskey. He downed it, then used his shoulder to mop at his face one more time. We could see him mentally fortify himself.

  “Somebody better start talking soon or I’m gonna start beating some heads,” Ammie growled. “What have you done, boy?”

  John Clyde took a deep breath. “After Mama died, I spent a lot of time in her room. Just rocking and remembering her. One day, when I was in there, I saw an unusual-looking book on her shelf. I looked at it for a day or two, not taking time to check it out. Then one day, I did.”

  “And…?” I asked. I noticed Erica had a funny look on her face. A look of realization.

  “It was her journal. Mama’s journal.”

  Patty gasped. “She had a journal? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  The look that he shot her was pure malice. “Maybe there’s things in there that I didn’t want you to know. Maybe you don’t deserve to know!”

  “John Clyde, stop it,” Erica said quietly. Her head was lowered, and her breathing seemed labored.

  “And you,” he sneered. “How could you lie to all of us this way? Pretend. For her. Or maybe for your own benefit. Does Clayton know? Or are you lying to him too?”

  Erica stepped forward and slapped John Clyde’s face hard enough to send him spinning. “You disrespectful coward,” she said, stepping back and covering her mouth as if surprised by her own action.

  Rina stepped forward and spoke loudly. “You’re adopted, Patty. Erica is your real mother.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Human’s whining yawn was the only sound in the room for more than a minute as we all digested Rina’s words.

  Patty looked toward Erica with wide eyes. “What? What are you all talking about?”

  John Clyde poured another drink. “It’s true, Patty. They’ve been lying to us all these years. They…colluded, the two of them.” He looked at Erica and sneered.

  Patty laid one hand on Yolanda’s arm as if seeking support. “Erica?”

  I reached for Bone’s hand and clasped it tightly. We moved to stand closer together.

  Erica took a deep breath. “I was in college…and we were so in love. Your mother…Megs…we were so close then. She knew everything and then when we…Tony and I had a car accident. A huge truck slid…the driver was drinking.” Her eyes closed. “There was so much blood,” she whispered. “So much. Megs and Dodson came to the hospital and they told me I was pregnant and that Tony, well, that Tony was gone.”

  She paused and sank slowly into one of the easy chairs.

  Ammie strode to the bar and searched through the bottles there, looking for brandy, I was sure. She found the rotund little bottle and poured out a small amount. She carried the glass to Erica and held it to her lips until she took a swallow. Erica sputtered and coughed, but the spirit seemed to revive her somewhat and she nodded her gratitude to Ammie.

  “Ammie knew,” I muttered to Bone.

  Erica cleared her throat and continued as Patty took a seat in the chair next to her. Patty’s face was sorrowful, as if she too were reliving Erica’s pain.

  “After that, life soured for a while, just wasn’t worth living. I couldn’t even find joy knowing I was carrying his child.” Her eyes lifted to Patty as if in apology. “I think I hated you for a while, because I wanted him instead of you.”

  “And Mama? Megs?” Patty asked.

  “She was by my side every day. I dropped out of college, but she came to see me every single day. She brought me groceries and cleaned my apartment. I’d broken my leg in the crash, and she hel
ped me get around. I would have been lost without her. Her and Ammie.”

  All eyes turned to focus on Ammie. John Clyde made a small grunting noise. Ammie’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment, but she held her chin just a little higher.

  “Ammie? You knew?” Patty asked.

  Ammie stirred fretfully and moved back toward the bar. She didn’t say a word, just stared out the window, lost in reverie.

  “So for seven months I lived without living, seeing only Megs and Ammie. And Dodson, sometimes. I never told my parents. I just couldn’t face them so I pretended everything was fine. Toward the end, I just avoided them. Then it was time, late summer, and I went into labor. Megs took me to the hospital, Ammie was with John Clyde, and then there you were, just as pretty as a picture.” She gave Patty a fragile smile. “You had Tony’s face, so dark, so handsome. Every time I looked at you, it hurt me so badly…”

  “So Mama took me home…” Patty mused.

  “And passed you off as my sister,” John Clyde said loudly. “She lied to everyone.”

  Erica whirled to face him. “She is your sister, John Clyde. Dodson and Megs adopted her legally after about a month. I saw how happy they were. Megs and Dodson had been trying for another child for almost a year but weren’t having much luck.”

  She turned back to Patty. “You made their life complete. The four of you were such a beautiful family, and I was still a wreck. My life was careening out of control, and I knew I needed to leave this area. Megs took me to a new college in south Florida. She had you with us, hoping, I think, that I might change my mind.”

  “Tell about the promise,” Ammie said quietly.

  “A promise?” Patty echoed. “What promise?”

  “That I would always stay part of your life. And I have,” she smiled tremulously. Patty covered Erica’s hands with hers, and they gazed into one another’s eyes.

  “What bullshit!” John Clyde exclaimed. “The fact of the matter is, you and my entire family,” his eyes flicked to Ammie, “have been lying to Patty and me for our whole lives. How do you justify something like that. My mother was a liar…”

  Before he could utter another word, Ammie strode forward and bapped him on the back of his head. She grasped his chin in her palm and I could see white flesh beneath her fingers, she was grasping him so hard. “Your mother was a saint, John Clyde Price. I don’t want to ever hear you say another word against her. Not one word! Ever.”

  She let his face go with a definitive snap. John Clyde had the sense to keep quiet. No one made Ammie mad. He fingered his jaw, eyes downcast.

  “So you’re my mother, my birth mother,” Patty said wonderingly.

  The doorbell rang, stirring us from the realm of the past and back into the present with a harsh jolt.

  “Kissy,” Patty gasped and leapt up to answer the door.

  Officer Buster Seychelles filled the entire doorframe, and he even ducked his head as he stepped inside. “Has she turned up yet?” he asked immediately.

  Patty shook her head in the negative as she closed the door.

  “I shone the spotlight into the brush coming up the road,” he said as he extended his hand. “I found this, on the road. Don’t know if it means anything though.”

  There resting in his hand was a very familiar turquoise bolo tie. I wracked my brain trying to think where I’d seen it.

  Rina rushed forward and snatched it from the officer’s hand. “That belongs to Rainerd,” she cried and began sobbing anew. “How could he do this?”

  I gasped, and Bone touched my arm, watching me with a worried gaze. “That belongs to Solange’s boy toy,” I whispered.

  “Do you think she’s okay?” she asked urgently.

  I grabbed my cell phone and found her number.

  “Is there something you need to tell me about this, miss?” Seychelles asked, watching Rina closely.

  I breathed a sigh of relief when Solange answered. “Denni Hope, do you have any idea what time it is? Why are you calling me, rousing me from my beauty sleep? This had better be important.”

  “It is, Solange. Is Rainerd with you?”

  “Oh no,” she sighed dramatically. “I’ve just decided he is not the one for me. We had an awful fight, and he, well, he hit me, Denni. Now, you know I just won’t tolerate such a thing. I mean a little play slap is one thing but not in anger, no never in…”

  “Do you know where he is, Solange?” I broke in impatiently.

  Seychelles and Rina were watching me hopefully.

  Solange fell silent, as if suddenly realizing my call could be important. “Why, no, I’m sorry, Denni. I just don’t know. He said he lived in a little fleabag place over on Abbott, but I never went there.”

  “Do you know the address?”

  “No, no, I don’t, but Lanai’s Chips is on the corner. That’s where I would pick him up usually.”

  “Okay, thanks, Solange. I’ll call you later.” I hung up on her protestations.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “Hey now, what’s this all about?” Seychelles asked, scowling.

  Rina sighed as if she had accepted that further doubt was futile. “It’s my twin brother, Rainerd. See, sometimes I would tell him stuff John Clyde and I would talk about when…well, when we were together. It was usually to show Rainerd how other people could overcome bad things in their life. He’s had a terrible problem with drugs, and it caused him to do some mighty bad things…when he was younger.”

  John Clyde grunted. “I didn’t even know she had a brother and we’ve been seeing one another since before Mama died.”

  Rina nodded and looked at him, eyes pleading for understanding. “I’ve been a little ashamed of him but, well, I didn’t want him to affect our new relationship. I wanted to see where it was going before I told you about him, John Clyde. That’s all. I wasn’t really hiding him from you.”

  “So what did you tell him and what happened after you told him these things?” Seychelles asked, bringing Rina back to her original topic.

  “Well, John Clyde had been really upset about finding out his sister was adopted and said he hated the fact that she got just as much of the property as he did, a full half, when Mrs. Price died. He was all tore up about how everyone had lied to him. He went on and on about it one day, and I asked why he didn’t just sell out and move away.”

  She paused and her eyes filled with tears. “I think Rainerd may have heard us because that’s when all the bad stuff started happening. John Clyde would tell me about it and it sounded like someone wanted to make him sell out or make his business fail, so I had my suspicions. When I told my brother what had been happening…well, he looked kind of…I don’t know, excited, maybe.”

  I stepped forward. “So you think maybe he was the one sabotaging everything, writing on the vault, attacking Kissy, sugaring the tractors, poisoning the goats, burning the shed?”

  She nodded, wiping tears away.

  “I wrote on the vault,” John Clyde said dully. “I was drunk and angry. I did that and…” He took a deep breath and his eyes flicked to Patty. “I pawned away Mama’s jewelry so Patty wouldn’t get it. But nothing else.”

  I closed my eyes. How convoluted could this get?

  “So, wait. Do you think he would hurt Kissy again? Do you think he has her?” Patty asked, running forward and pulling Yolanda behind her. “We need to find him. Take us to him.”

  Rina shook her head. “I went by there, where he lives. He wasn’t home.”

  Seychelles sighed and pulled out a small notebook as his radio squawked. “Where does he live, miss? And tell me your full name.”

  Rina complied as I studied the faces around us. Ammie was hugging herself and looking out the window. I thought she might be praying. Human had curled up in a little ball in one corner and was watching all of us with questioning eyes. Patty and Yolanda stood in the middle of the foyer, grasping one another’s hands, their faces sorrowful and afraid. Erica sat in an easy chair, studying her hands and spinning her we
dding ring, and Bone stood behind the sofa. She was watching John Clyde. He was drinking again, sitting on one of the barstools. Rina and Seychelles stood in the doorway talking quietly. The image of this room, this tableau of misery, would be forever burned into my memory.

  Suddenly, without warning, Patty erupted again. She stepped over and slapped the tumbler from John Clyde’s hands, and it flew across the room, turning end over end but not spilling any of its amber contents until it crashed into the wall next to the heavy draperies covering the huge picture window. Golden whiskey and glass shards rained down the wallpaper.

  “Why can’t you be a man?” she hissed. “Go on out there and find your niece instead of sitting here getting drunk again. I swear, John Clyde, I’m beginning to be glad there’s none of your genetic material in me. I’ve never known you to be so weak. So, so pathetic!”

  “Here now, that’s not gonna help anything,” Officer Seychelles said in a low, sympathetic voice. “My men are pulling in the drive now, and we’re gonna start looking for your little girl. She’s probably just wandered off. Kids do that all the time.”

  “Not at night,” Patty said tearfully. “Not Kissy. She sleeps with a nightlight on all the time. She’s…she’s a-a-afraid of the dark!” She and Yolanda sobbed together quietly as they held one another.

  “So, how do we find her? What’s the procedure here?” I asked Officer Seychelles.

  He straightened his uniform tool belt and sighed. “Well, when the men get here, we’ll search in three-foot grids all across each acre. Only the ones around the house here. She’s a bitty thing and couldn’t have wandered very far. We’ll concentrate on the river and the bayou too. In case she wandered in there.”

  “What about Rainerd? What will we do about him? Suppose he took her off somewhere?” Bone asked.

  Officer Seychelles shook his head. “We’ll search first, then cross that bridge when we have to. You’ve got no real proof he took her. Miss Beaudreaux is not even sure.”

  “What about the tie?” I asked.