Family Issue

by Nat Burns

  “Like hell they will!” She studied my face, her gaze dropping to my thigh. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded. “I’ll get her.”

  Bone disappeared, and I limped over to the ladder. Using my good leg, I put my foot on the first rung and lifted my weight. I had to use my wounded leg then, and using those thigh muscles was a new level of hell. I persevered, though, slowly, inch by inch, until my head was above the loft level. I saw Kissy then. She was lying on her side with her feet bound and her hands duct taped behind her back. Her mouth was taped as well, and her frightened eyes spoke volumes to me as I tried to figure out how I was going to get to her with my wounded leg. I pulled myself up one more rung and had to cry out from the pain of it. My leg throbbed now, even when my weight wasn’t on it.

  As if sensing my dilemma, Kissy started slithering and rolling across the floor to me.

  “That’s it, baby. Come over here so I can get the tape loose,” I said, nodding vigorously. “I won’t let you fall.”

  It seemed to take eons for her to get across the wide loft floor, and my mind was tortured worrying about Bone. I couldn’t tell where they were or what was happening, and the lack of knowledge was killing me. I tried not to think about that, though, but tried to reassure Kissy with my eyes and my voice.

  “Get back here, you bastard,” Bone yelled. It came from my right, from the forested area. Obviously Rainerd was going to try and escape in the thick tree growth along the tributary.

  “That’s a brave girl, Katherine Grace. You just wait ’til I tell your mommies about what a brave girl you are. They are gonna be so proud of their girl,” I told her, trying to make my voice strong.

  Suddenly I smelled smoke. I twisted and looked below me and saw a most horrific sight. Rainerd was back in the barn and he was lighting hay on fire with a lighter. He looked up at me, panting heavily, and his eyes gleamed with hatred. “You took my sister from me,” he spat out. “I hope you rot in hell.”

  He kicked over a large can of kerosene, and I wasted precious seconds watching in horror as the fluid snaked toward the fire. “Kissy, move faster, baby. Move faster!”

  She reached me finally, and, after removing her gag, I tried to tear the thickly twisted duct tape binding her hands, but it was proving an impossible task. I thought about just carrying her down the ladder still bound but worried my bleeding leg wouldn’t support her dead weight and my own and we’d fall into the fire. Suddenly a lightbulb flashed in my head, and I remembered the blade in the back pocket of my jeans. I had placed it there absently while binding my leg. I reached back and pulled it free and sliced through the tape that was holding Kissy’s wrists. She cried out in pain as the binding came free and blood flooded into her extremities. I cooed reassuring inanities to her as I tried to plan our escape down the ladder. Looking down, I saw another sight that curdled my blood. Rainerd was preparing to mount the ladder. There was a look on his face that I wanted to forget as soon as I saw it. The man had certainly gone insane, and I knew in that moment that he was capable of murder. Smoke billowed up behind him, and I saw the first tentative lickings of flame.

  I was paralyzed with fear, literally unable to move. I tried to suck in air, but even that wasn’t going too well. I shut my eyes briefly and prayed for strength. I knew in that moment what I had to do.

  “Back, Kissy, baby, move back, now!” I cried out.

  Kissy scrambled back, crab walking across the rough, hay-strewn floor.

  Using every bit of reserve I had in me, I hoisted my weight up the last two rungs and knelt on the loft floor. I screamed in agony. Gaining my feet, I threw an armful of hay and dust into Rainerd’s face as it came over the edge of the loft. Then I spun, and, grabbing Kissy’s hand, pulled her to her feet and toward the wide second-floor doors. Scrambling, my hands fumbling numbly, I released the latch just as a gunshot sounded. Oh my god, was he shooting at us?

  I searched the ground below in the slanting, growing sunlight. There was a full hay trailer below the door, but it was not directly below and there was a chance we could not leap far enough. As I contemplated possibilities, I heard a voice calling from below.

  “Denni? Denni, where are you?” It was Bone, and she was trying to breathe in and coughing in the same smoke that was billowing out of the upper doors around Kissy and me, choking us.

  “Bone! Get out…there’s kerosene! Get out,” I yelled. “Get out…we’re jumping.” As I finished the warning a small explosion rocked the barn as if there had been a huge earthquake. The timbers groaned and a horrible smell filled my nostrils, threatening to smother me.

  I grabbed Kissy up without thinking more about it, held her tiny body close to mine and launched us both into the morning sky.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The hospital was a noisy place with a cacophony of squeaking shoes, odd beeps, patients crying out in pain and doors constantly whooshing open. I opened my eyes and sighed as the pain medication kicked in. It was about time. My small room was deserted, and so I let the tears fall unabated. Some were self-pity, I admit. I had been that close to finding love again, and then she was ripped from me. I was angry at the universe. Angry at all that was holy. I wanted to become an atheist. I was an atheist for a few moments. I saw Bone’s beautiful, fragile face in my mind. I felt her slimness under my hands, and I cried ever harder, sobbing into my pillow.

  How could life have dealt me this blow? Was I so undeserving? My thigh hurt, my back hurt, my spirit hurt. I could find no joy in the fact of Kissy’s rescue. The fact that we had hit the wagon and emerged unscathed, except for a few cuts and bruises, that alone was nearly miraculous, but I no longer believed in miracles. I wept for what seemed like hours, and when I could cry no more, I fell into a deep, drugged sleep.

  I woke sometime later, my mouth cottony and a warm, slim arm wrapped around me. I enjoyed that dream state for a moment, then blinked open my thick eyes and stared at the window. My head felt numb, sinuses heavy from crying. I moved to turn over and a startled cry paralyzed me.

  “Ow, damn it, that hurts!” Bone said next to my ear. “Give a gal some warning, why dontcha?”

  Heart soaring, I painfully moved back, turning my body over so I could look at her, could verify that it was really her. Yes, it was Bone. Broken, bruised, scraped, but my Bone. New tears welled in my eyes and spilled out to run down and tickle my ears. Bone watched me with those laughing blue eyes.

  “Just stop that, you silly goose,” she said, leaning to lovingly kiss them away. She leaned back to study me. “The doc says you’re okay. It’s just a flesh wound, a deep one, but they’ve packed it and bandaged it and they’re gonna let it heal from the inside out.”

  “And you? I was sure the explosion had killed you.”

  “Nope, I was running out, thanks to you, and was blown into the trees. That’s how I broke this.” She indicated her arm. I now saw that it was in a bright green cast and cradled in a dark blue sling. That’s what must have hurt when I rolled over on her. I smiled. Hell, I bet everything both of us had would hurt for a while.

  “Oh, you think that’s funny,” Bone asked, her expression astonished.

  I laughed and caressed her thigh. “No, babe, I was just thinking about what a long strange week we’ve had.”

  She sighed and shifted to get more comfortable on the narrow hospital bed. “You can say that again. This won’t be one vacation I forget anytime soon.”

  I watched her, adoring her sweet face, even scraped and spotted with purpling bruises as it was. Even her bottom lip was busted. “No, I won’t let you forget it. I’ll be there every day as a constant reminder.”

  She smiled and kissed the tip of my nose. “You will, huh? You moving to Richmond?”

  “You never know,” I replied. “You never know.”

  “Hey, what happened to Rainerd after I threw stuff at him?” I asked after some minutes had passed. “Did he die in the explosion?”

  Bone grimaced and shut her eyes as if pained. “No, I shot him w
hen he was up on the ladder. He won’t bother the Price family ever again.”

  * * *

  They released us later that evening, and Patty came back to the hospital to pick us up. Kissy had been examined earlier and, as she had not been harmed in any significant way, had been allowed to go home at lunchtime. They’d kept Bone and me a little longer.

  As we made our slow way to the kitchen door, John Clyde and Erica came out to greet us.

  “Denni, Bone, I’m sorry,” he said as he held the door for us. “I was so wrong to react that way.”

  I nodded and maneuvered my crutches around so I could look at him. So I could stare at him a long time, even though I was making Patty and Bone wait behind me. “Are you grown up now?”

  He hung his head in shame. “Yeah.”

  “He’d better be,” Erica said, giving me a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek. “I have a direct line to Megs, and I’m gonna keep him in line for her.”

  Patty paused and gave Erica a big hug before passing through the doorway. I looked back to see how John Clyde had reacted to it. He was watching with tolerance, if not outright approval.

  Ammie met us in the kitchen, and she pulled me close, her arms trembling. She pulled back and looked at me but was so emotionally wrought that she couldn’t speak. I patted her cheek with one hand.

  “Man, something smells good!” I said, looking around the kitchen, hoping to give her time to get her emotions under control.

  “It’s your favorite,” Yolanda said, striding into the kitchen, Kissy on her heels.

  “Mine too,” Kissy added. “Macaroni and cheese!”

  She raced forward and wrapped her arms around my legs, pressing her cheek firmly to my belly. “Thank you so much for coming to get me, Denni,” she said. “MomPatty told MomLanda I’d be dead if you hadn’t come to get me and pulled me out of that barn.”

  I smiled and caressed her tousled curls. “I don’t know about all that, but I do know I was mighty glad to see you when I did.”

  I turned to Patty as Kissy ran into the dining room. “Was Taylor involved? Was he working with Rainerd?” I asked quietly. “He was in his barn.”

  She shook her head. “No. Rainerd was on his own. Taylor just wanted to buy us out and John Clyde was putting him off. Seems John Clyde had a suspicion about the oil. He’s been testing the land for months. So when we called Taylor and told him what happened to his barn, he was okay about it. We’re gonna help him rebuild it, even though he doesn’t want us to.”

  “So Rainerd did all this…just so Rina could have a music career?” Bone asked, looking into some of the open pots on the stove and peering in the oven door. She must have been hungry. I smiled as I watched her.

  Patty nudged me playfully. “Yep, that’s why. Though John Clyde says she gave up on that dream a long time ago and has no plans to pursue it.”

  “She might just want to be a farmer’s wife,” John Clyde added, smiling a big goofy grin.

  Ammie groaned low in her throat. “Oh lordy! Look, let’s get you all fed,” she continued briskly. “I know hospital food wouldn’t keep a bird alive. Y’all go on in and set yourselves down. Buster’s already in there, reading the paper so y’all act proper now. Don’t embarrass me.”

  I looked at Bone. “Buster?” I mouthed. She shrugged.

  We moved en masse into the dining room. Sure enough, Officer Seychelles was sitting in the middle of one side of the table, a newspaper open on the polished surface before him.

  “Well, look what the cat done drug in,” he said, laughing in a low chuckle. “Y’all are certainly a sight to see. I am so glad none of y’all winded up dead. The paperwork woulda kept me busy for days.”

  John Clyde groaned at the poor joke and sobered. “Yeah, we were lucky. Rina not so much.”

  We fell silent, thinking about her loss.

  “He had a death wish,” I said finally. “Otherwise he would have gotten out of the barn before it exploded. That, or he was just so mad at me, at us, that he plain didn’t realize. Maybe he wasn’t thinking right.”

  “Rina says he’s been in trouble off and on his whole life,” John Clyde said. “You ever think that just some people are born bad? I actually think she might be just a little relieved to not have to deal with any more of his crap.”

  The doorbell rang and John Clyde moved into the foyer. “Speak of the devil,” he muttered.

  Moments later, he was back with Rina. This was the first time I’d seen her in regular clothing, and she did look fetching in her jeans and blouse. I could tell she was upset, that she had been crying. But I could also see an air of fatalistic acceptance about her. She’d be all right. She handed a small paper bag to John Clyde. “This was all they had left,” she said. “It’s mostly there.”

  John Clyde kissed Rina’s cheek and handed the bag to Patty.

  “Mama’s jewelry,” he said, his eyes lowered. “What they didn’t sell.”

  He stood, head bowed, as Patty upended the bag into one palm. Megs’s pearls spilled out, followed by her wedding band set and several brooches that I remembered her wearing.

  Patty, eyes gleaming, looked up at her brother. I think words failed her. She opened her mouth a time or two but said nothing. Finally, her fingers curled around the jewelry and she pulled him close.

  I had to look away from the tender scene as my eyes filled. I heard a few suspicious sniffles behind me.

  After some time, John Clyde took Patty’s hand and led her to the table.

  “Sorry I’m so late,” Rina said as she mopped her eyes with a tissue. “I hope I didn’t hold up dinner.”

  John Clyde ushered her to a seat, as Patty reached over and patted her hand. “Not a bit, sweetness, not a bit,” she said. “Now that everyone’s here, Kissy, will you say grace for us?”

  Kissy’s prayer was long, rambling and heartfelt as she gave thanks for several members of the police force for keeping her warm with blankets after the fire and for me, because I had rescued her from the fire. She did not mention anything about the bad man, Rainerd, and I thought that was pretty astute for a four-year-old.

  After the prayer finished, I noticed that there was a worn leather book, a journal, in the center of the table, dishes of food reverently surrounding it as Ammie and Erica brought them in. I knew immediately what it was, and tears welled in my eyes anew. Patty had laid Megs’s jewelry on top.

  “Denni, we sure are gonna miss you and Bone when you fly off tomorrow,” Patty said as she dished up salad and passed the bowls along the table.

  “I don’t think I’ll miss being here much,” I joked as I dabbed at my eyes. “At least in Virginia no one expects to be rescued. And I don’t have to jump from burning barns on a regular basis.”

  “Yet,” John Clyde added.

  The entire table joined in the laughter, and I began to sense the extent of the healing that had come over Fortune Farm. I looked at the beloved faces around the table—Megs in the center, then Kissy, Patty, Yolanda, Officer Seychelles, Rina and John Clyde. And seated on the other side were Erica, Ammie, Bone and me. A perfect family.

  DAY SEVEN

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The Lake Charles airport seemed to be asleep early Saturday morning when Patty parked in front of it. We’d said our goodbyes to everyone else back at the house, and I had, packed in my carry-on, a full basket of fresh strawberries, Ammie’s payment to me for vanquishing the evil that had befallen the family. I wasn’t quite sure how I would get them through security, but Bone promised that as a cop, she’d get them through or we would eat them…very fast.

  I glanced over and watched Bone as she hugged Yolanda and Patty, saying further farewells. God, she was a gorgeous woman. I was very proud to be flying back to Virginia with her as my love. We had already gone online and changed our seats so we could sit next to one another, and I was looking forward to the time alone with her in the cocoon of an airplane. In addition, we could help one another navigate airports—her with a broken arm and me still
on crutches. We were the walking wounded. I didn’t mind at all. It could have been a whole lot worse.

  Then Patty was standing before me. “You guys gonna be okay from here, or do you need us to help you inside?”

  “No, we’re good. Give Kissy and Ammie each one more kiss from me, okay?”

  “I sure am gonna miss you,” she said as I drew her into my arms. “I’m glad we’re friends,” she added against my ear. I nodded, feeling tears well and not trusting my voice to speak.

  Yolanda came over and pulled me into a big hug, tighter than I would have expected. “Thank you for saving our baby,” she said. “I can never repay you, just know you will always have a home with us. You hear me?” She speared me with a hawk-like glance and I smiled widely. Now that’s what I’m talking about, I thought. Maybe there was more to Landa than met the eye.

  I held her shoulder and nodded as I returned her look. “You take care of that family, now. I’ll be checking in by email and phone,” I said with an elbow shove so she’d know I wasn’t criticizing in any way.

  “Hey, Denni, did you hear about the oil?” Patty called as she was preparing to get into her car.

  “No, what about it?”

  “Instead of selling out to Taylor, John Clyde and me are gonna arrange to have some wells put in down in Southland. We’re gonna be rich.” She and Yolanda looked at one another and broke into spontaneous laughter. They were still guffawing as they got into the car and drove away.

  “You already are,” I whispered to the disappearing vehicle.

  “Indeed,” Bone said at my side.

  I turned to Bone and stared into her eyes, losing myself in their mesmerizing depths. “Hey, you remember that decision I told you that I had made? Whether to get on with my life or simply decide I couldn’t live without Patty?”

  “Yes. Yes, I do. And what did you decide?” she asked, tilting her head to one side in that adorable way she had.