Lightwood

by Steph Post

  Jack O’ Lantern turned away from the trailer and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He shook one out and lit it. Slim Jim watched Jack’s movements and stayed on his bike.

  “Now tell me again, what you think we’re doing here.”

  Jack coughed out a stream of smoke and turned sharply on Slim Jim.

  “Damnit Jimmy, quit talking to me like I got all the answers stuffed up my asshole. I’m doing the best I can here, all right? That okay with you?”

  Jack O’ Lantern’s face was red, but the color came more from a mix of shame and frustration than anger. Slim Jim was unfazed. He shrugged his shoulders, but shifted his gaze away from Jack’s piercing, and desperate, blue eyes. He casually looked off into the woods.

  “What’d that preacher lady’s guy say on the phone?”

  Jack sighed and rubbed his forehead with the side of his hand.

  “He said to meet him out here at nine this morning.”

  “How’d she know bout this place?”

  “I have no idea.”

  Jack O’ Lantern closed his eyes.

  “I have no idea how Tulah knows anything bout anything. But she does. She just does.”

  Jack O’ Lantern opened his eyes and studied the glowing end of his cigarette.

  “Anyway, this guy, his voice sounded something like that crazy old man who brought us the snake, he said to meet him here. He said that Tulah was willing to work out a deal. Taking product in place of cash.”

  Slim Jim snorted.

  “And you believed him?”

  “What else was I supposed to do?”

  Slim Jim leaned forward and hung his long arms over the handlebars of his bike.

  “What the hell is someone like Sister Tulah going to do with a load of crystal meth? She’s a preacher in a loony bin church for Christ’s sake.”

  Jack O’ Lantern’s mouth twisted in a grim smile.

  “Maybe she’s gonna sell it to the church folks. Maybe that’s why they’re always whooping and hollering and acting like they’ve all lost their marbles. They’re all higher than a kite.”

  Slim Jim did not smile back. Jack O’ Lantern crushed out his cigarette.

  “Or maybe she’s got a distributor running it for her, or something. I don’t know.”

  “Seems like there’s a lot you don’t know.”

  Jack O’ Lantern jerked his head up and his face flamed red again.

  “I’d start watching my mouth if I was you, Jimmy. We may go way back, but you’d best not be forgetting what the patches on our cuts say. Got it?”

  Slim Jim glowered at Jack O’ Lantern and opened his mouth to say something, but changed his mind. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned back, deliberately looking away from Jack. They waited, not speaking, for another five minutes. Jack O’ Lantern checked the time on his cellphone and broke the silence.

  “It’s five after nine.”

  Slim Jim slowly turned his head toward Jack.

  “Yeah? And?”

  Jack O’ Lantern stared down at the cellphone in his hand. Deep creases ran across his forehead.

  “The man on the phone. He said exactly nine.”

  “So?”

  “It was the way he said it. Like running late wasn’t an option. And then it’s past nine and he’s not here.”

  Slim Jim gripped his handlebars.

  “This is bullshit, Jack. We gotta go. We gotta get back to the clubhouse. You know Legs and Tiny can’t handle nothing on their own, and those prospects are next to worthless. What if coming out here was just some kinda setup? Some kinda decoy? Think, Jack.”

  Jack O’ Lantern nodded slowly.

  “I am. They’ll be fine. Let’s go check on the crystal, at least. If Tulah’s guy don’t show up in the next ten minutes, we’ll head back.”

  Slim Jim didn’t move and Jack threw his hands up in the air.

  “If we have even half a chance of paying Tulah off this way, and getting her off our backs, then we need to take it. You know that. Now come on.”

  Slim Jim slid off his bike, but still didn’t make a move toward the trailer.

  “Okay. But I mean it, Jack. We can’t just walk up on Long John when he’s working. I did that once and he said I was like to cause him to blow the whole place to high heaven.”

  Jack O’ Lantern started walking toward the trailer.

  “Well, he needs to get over it. I don’t have time to just sit around and wait for him to answer his phone.”

  Slim Jim shook his head.

  “I’m just saying.”

  Jack O’ Lantern started to take a step forward, but wasn’t able to complete it. In the next instance, there was a deafening roar and a blistering wave of heat and a flash of blinding light. Slim Jim, Jack O’ Lantern and their bikes were blown backwards into the pine trees and shards of glass and tiny pieces of burning plastic rained down upon them. Jack O’ Lantern had squeezed his eyes shut against the blast and when he opened them he saw the dark pine canopy overhead and the deep blue morning sky through the leaves. And then smoke, and glowing cinders caught up in the haze. Jack O’ Lantern couldn’t hear anything, though he could see Slim Jim’s mouth moving, opening and closing furiously as he scrambled to his feet. Jack clapped his hand on Slim Jim’s shoulder to haul himself up as they slowly turned to view the wreckage before them.

  There wasn’t much left. Twisted pieces of scorched metal and melting plastic were strewn through the woods like confetti and where once the trailer had stood there was now only a blackened, hollow shell with a mist of greasy smoke rising from the remains. Pockets of flame were still billowing up in places, but it was clear that nothing was untouched; no one could have survived the explosion. Jack O’ Lantern sank down to his knees in the pine needles and began to understand.

  Benji was not waking up. Judah squeezed his hand awkwardly, unaccustomed to touching his brother in any way other than firm handshakes or slaps on the back. He pressed Benji’s limp, clammy fingers between his own and scrutinized his brother’s face for a response. Benji didn’t flinch. His eyelids didn’t flutter and his lips didn’t curl in that half-smile that made all the girls swoon. Underneath the crusting streaks of healing road rash, Benji’s face was flat and gray. Without his customary grin and twinkling eyes, without movement to make his blond hair flop over his forehead and without ruddiness in his cheeks from continually grinning, Benji too closely resembled the rest of his family members. Bereft of the lightness that was always present in his features and his voice, he had fallen eerily into line with the rest of the grim faced Cannon brethren.

  Judah released Benji’s hand and set it gently back on the edge of the hospital bed. He let his forearms dangle between his knees, but raised his head to look up at Ramey, standing on the other side of Benji, studying the numbers and blinking lights on the respirator.

  “You know what all those lights and beeps and shit mean? Does it tell you what’s wrong with him?”

  Ramey crossed her and shook her head.

  “Not exactly. I mean, the machines say he’s stable, but that’s about it.”

  “What’s stable mean?”

  Ramey blew a stray strand of hair out of her face and turned to Judah. His eyes were desperate, haunted. He needed concrete answers and she had none to give him.

  “It means that he’s breathing. His heart rate is steady. He’s okay for the moment.”

  Judah stood up from the narrow chair and shoved his hands in his pockets. He clenched his teeth.

  “For the moment. Well, when the hell is he gonna wake up?”

  Ramey looked at him sadly, but had nothing to say. Judah wondered if she too noticed how much Benji now looked like the rest of the Cannons. She touched the bandage running across Benji’s forehead, being careful not to disturb the tube snaking down his throat or graze the line of stiches running alongside what was left of his ear and across his jaw.

  “If we wait around long enough, a doctor’s gotta show up. We can ask then.
Get more details.”

  Judah chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment, but shook his head emphatically and rocked back on the heels of his boots.

  “No, we can’t stay here. It was dangerous enough showing up in the first place. This is exactly the place the Scorpions would try to find us if they were looking. We gotta leave now.”

  Ramey nodded and needlessly adjusted the rough hospital blanket on Benji’s chest. She tucked it in under his side and came around the bed. Ramey started to put her arm around Judah’s waist, but stopped herself when she saw Judah’s eyes riveted on Benji’s motionless face. Instead, she ducked her head down slightly and walked past him to open the hospital room door. Ramey stood out in the empty white hallway and waited.

  Judah ground his teeth together and felt his jaw popping with the force. He wanted to say something out loud to Benji. To tell him that he was going to make them pay. Make them all pay. He wanted to tell Benji that he was sorry he hadn’t been there to protect him this time. And sorry that he had been the victim of a crime he had nothing to do with. He wanted to tell Benji that he had screwed up in the quarry, but that he wasn’t finished. He wasn’t giving up. He was going to make sure that no one would ever mess with him again; no one would ever dare go after another Cannon again, not after he was finished with them all. Whoever they might be. But he didn’t. Not because Ramey was only a few feet away, or because a nurse or doctor could walk in at any moment, but because he didn’t know how to say it. He didn’t know exactly how to put words to the anger and frustration and helplessness raging around inside him in a muddled storm of emotions. And he was pretty sure Benji couldn’t hear him anyway.

  Judah turned on his heel and joined Ramey in the cold hallway. They closed the door behind them and navigated their way through the twisting corridors and reception areas, all the while keeping an eye open for people watching them. No one seemed to notice their presence, though, and they slipped quietly through the sliding glass doors of the Emergency Room exit. The noonday heat radiated up from the black pavement of the parking lot and blasted them as they crossed to the line of cars shimmering in the hazy air. Judah scanned the parking lot for motorcycles and was just about to tell Ramey that it was all clear when a high-pitched voice rang out behind them.

  “You one of the Cannon brothers?”

  Judah whirled around, ready to fight even though it was clearly a woman’s voice calling to them. He cautiously eyed the tall blonde leaning up against one of the hospital’s sandstone pillars. The woman was dressed in a tight denim miniskirt and hot pink tube top that needed to be yanked up a few inches higher. She was wearing strappy, high heeled sandals and her thick, bright makeup was beginning to ooze through the sheen of sweat on her forehead and upper lip. She crushed out her lipstick smeared cigarette beneath the No Smoking sign and crossed the pavement to Judah and Ramey. Judah could see a slick of sweat on her sunburned chest and across her collarbone. She stopped about two feet away from them and adjusted her leopard print purse on her shoulder. Ramey immediately crossed her arms in hostility against the woman. Judah looked her up and down, noticing her long legs and sagging, but full, cleavage and narrowed his eyes. The woman appeared to be waiting for answer, but neither Judah nor Ramey spoke.

  “Fine. You don’t gotta answer me. It don’t take a rocket scientist to know who you are. You might not be as good looking as that Benji kid, but you still look like him.”

  Judah stiffened and clenched his fists at his side. He took a step toward the woman.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  The woman ran her hand up and down the strap of her purse nervously.

  “Not that it matters to you, but my name is Shelia. Now, you gonna tell me yours or what?”

  “No.”

  Shelia glanced at Ramey, but saw that there was no sympathy on that front, either. She took a deep breath and held her head up higher.

  “All right. You can be that way if you want. I didn’t come here looking for trouble. I ain’t aiming for a fight.”

  Judah looked over his shoulder at Ramey, whose stony glare was fixed on Shelia. He turned around and eyed the woman again. Her words countered it, but he could see that she was scared. She carried herself like a woman who was used to speaking her mind, but was always braced for the resulting blow. She kept her arms in close to protect herself. Judah sighed.

  “Well, then why don’t you tell me what you did come here looking for. Shelia.”

  She twisted her hand around her purse strap.

  “I been waiting out here.”

  Shelia looked around the parking lot, as if unsure how to explain even to herself what she was doing.

  “I been waiting, thinking maybe there was a chance I’d run into one of Benji’s brothers. I heard he was laid up at this hospital. I knowed that he had two brothers, so I thought, maybe, I’d find one of em here. You know, visiting him like. And I guess it worked.”

  Judah nodded and relaxed a little.

  “It worked. So what are you, one of his girlfriends or something?”

  Her eyes shifted again.

  “Kinda. Something like that I guess.”

  Behind Judah, Ramey huffed.

  “But you ain’t from round here, are you?”

  Shelia looked at Ramey and then lowered her gaze again.

  “No. Not exactly. I been through Silas a couple times. I been around.”

  “I bet.”

  Shelia jerked her head up and she and Ramey eyed one another. The last thing Judah needed was a cat fight, so he quickly drew the woman’s attention back to him.

  “Look, I ain’t got time for this. Tell me what you want and be on your way, all right? If you want to see Benji, go on in. No one’s gonna stop you.”

  Shelia bit her lip.

  “I said I ain’t exactly Benji’s girlfriend. Truth be told, I just met him one night. This past Monday night.”

  Judah opened his mouth, but Shelia rushed through what she had to say.

  “I was with the Scorpions. I got Benji to come outta that bar so they could grab him. I ain’t seen what they done to him, but I know it had to be bad. I’m sorry.”

  She flinched right before Judah grabbed her by the throat. She put her hands around Judah’s wrists, but didn’t put up too much of a fight. He dragged her behind the closest vehicle and slammed her against the side door of a Ford Econoline. Her head banged dully against the door, but she didn’t make a sound. He jerked her body again and she instinctively let her limbs go slack. She knew she would sustain less bruises that way.

  Judah brought his face down close to hers, forcing Shelia to look at him, and began to squeeze her throat. Ramey’s voice, sharp, but calm, cracked behind him.

  “Judah.”

  He didn’t let her go, but he didn’t squeeze any further.

  “This piece of trash might not look like much, but I don’t think she’s stupid neither. She’s gotta have a reason for showing up here, more than just a guilty feeling in her heart.”

  Judah considered this for a moment and then slammed Shelia once more against the side of the van before letting her go. She started to drop to the ground, but Judah grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to her feet. He stepped away from her and watched her gasp and clear her throat. He didn’t take his eyes off of her.

  “She better be right about you. You better have something more to say than a sniveling apology. Otherwise, I think she’s gonna be just as unforgiving as I am.”

  Shelia picked her purse up from where it had fallen to the ground and hiked it up on her shoulder. She caught her breath and nodded fiercely.

  “I do. I do, I promise.”

  Judah stepped back next to Ramey and crossed his arms, waiting.

  “I didn’t come here just to say I’m sorry. I am, I mean it, but that’s not why I come. I know you think it was all the Scorpions fault. What happened to Benji. But you need to know that there was someone else. Someone who had em do it. Honest, I swear.”

 
Judah shook his head.

  “Wow. They send you down here to tell me that? Try to whine their way out of it? Man, they are a sorrier bunch of pussies than I thought.”

  Shelia gingerly felt the back of her head and looked at her hand for signs of blood.

  “No. They ain’t know I’m here. And they didn’t tell me nothing when they asked me to get Benji outta that bar Monday night. I didn’t know nothing bout that woman Tulah til this morning. I swear.”

  “Tulah?”

  Judah glanced sharply at Ramey and she shrugged in reply.

  “Who’s Tulah?”

  Shelia started to comb out her mussed hair with her fingers.

  “Just listen to me for a second, okay? I swear, it’ll make up for what I did to Benji. I know your daddy don’t want to get no revenge, but I figured one of Benji’s brothers might, so that’s why I’m here. But you gotta promise me you’re not already working with Sherwood and Tulah. Otherwise, I might as well start digging my own grave. Promise me.”

  Judah stared at Shelia.

  “What’d you know about Sherwood?”

  “Promise me.”

  Judah nodded slowly. Shelia tossed her hair back over her shoulder and began to tell her story.

  “Now, just listen. I come down to Silas because, well, it’s a long story with the Scorpions. But anyway, I come down here cause I was feeling terrible about Benji. I mean it. Sincerely. I had to know what happened to him.”

  Judah shifted restlessly and Shelia spoke faster.

  “Anyway, this morning I was in this breakfast joint I always go to when I’m down here. Over on Central. They got this two ninety-nine special that ain’t too bad. ”

  “The Mr. Omelet?”

  Shelia bobbed her head.

  “Yeah. So I was in there just having some coffee. I was bored, so I was listening to conversations around me. Comes kinda natural. Never know when you’re gonna pick up something useful. I heard the name Cannon pop up, so I started paying attention real hard. Thinking somebody were talking about Benji and I could find out if he was okay. Turns out it wasn’t just somebody. It was your daddy. And this other woman. He called her Sister Tulah.”