by Sharon Sala
Lewis was upset but tried to hide it as he took off his shoes.
“You can keep the shoes. Daddy will buy me some more,” he announced loudly. “I don’t want anything with that skuzzy kid’s blood on it. He’s nothing but white trash.”
The Buckleys were tight-lipped and red in the face.
Lon kept his focus on Lewis, who seemed to be the ringleader of the four.
“Who is white trash?” Lon asked.
“Beep Pine,” Lewis said. “Everybody knows it. Daddy says their family is white trash.”
“How did the boy’s blood get on your shoe?” he asked.
Lewis shrugged. “His nose popped when I kicked him. I guess it happened then.”
Carl Buckley went numb. Hearing the casual manner in which his son had just spoken did not bode well for the outcome of this meeting. His wife put a hand over her mouth to stifle a moan. She was both horrified and ashamed.
“Are you the only one who kicked him?” Lon asked.
“No,” Lewis said. “Kevin and the twins kicked him too.”
“You kicked the most!” Kevin argued.
“We only kicked his legs and belly,” the twins said.
The parents couldn’t look at each other and wouldn’t look at Lon.
Lon just kept pushing. “Exactly why did you kick him? Why would any of you boys want to hurt him?” Lon asked.
“He had ringworm!” Lewis yelled.
“He had cooties!” Kevin Sharp added.
The twins ducked their heads. They were already aware that they’d crossed a huge boundary. Their mother had already called both of them bullies earlier. They were screwed.
“I didn’t want to do it,” Billy Ray said.
Kevin elbowed him in the ribs.
“Ow! That hurt!” Billy Ray cried.
Kevin glared. “Don’t lie. You were laughing when you kicked him.”
Lon held up a hand and elevated the tone of his voice.
“Boys! Keep your hands to yourself. And by the way, did Brooks Pine tell you he was hurting? Did he ask you boys to stop?”
Lewis shook his head. “No, he didn’t—”
Bobby Jay interrupted. “Don’t tell another lie, Lewis. We’re already fucked!”
Sally Rankin inhaled so loudly both boys actually ducked their heads, expecting her to grab them up by their shirt collars and wash their mouths out with soap.
• • •
Ruby Dye was cutting Rachel Goodhope’s hair when Vera Conklin came in the back door of the Curl Up and Dye. She’d gone out to get lunch for herself and the girls, but she had come back with more than their food. She set the sack down on the table in back and hung her wet raincoat on a hook as she headed toward the salon.
She raised an eyebrow at her sister, Vesta, which was part of their twin-speak for “boy, do I have something to tell,” smiled at Ruby’s customer in the styling chair, and pointed at Mabel Jean, who’d just finished doing Rachel’s nails.
“Mabel Jean, your salad is in the sack on top. Vesta, your club sandwich is probably on the bottom. Ruby, your burger is in there somewhere, and if it’s squished, it’s not my fault. They pack up to-go orders at Granny’s Country Kitchen like they’re running out of sacks. Hi, Rachel. My goodness, that new haircut is going to make you look ten years younger.”
Rachel beamed.
Then the ladies watched Vera take a step back and put her hands in the air, somewhat like Preacher Lawless down at the Freewill Baptist Church right before he called upon the good Lord for forgiveness of their sins.
“Ladies, I’m about to bust with my news. I just heard about the most horrible thing.”
Ruby stifled a smile. Vera was all about the drama.
“What happened?” Ruby asked.
“The youngest Pine boy got beat up by a gang of older boys at school this morning. They said his nose is broken and he’s bruised and bloody all over. They also said when Johnny Pine came to get pick him up, he read them the riot act and then took the little guy to the ER.”
They looked at each other in mutual horror.
“Good Lord! What is this world coming to, anyway?” Ruby muttered.
“Who would do something so awful to a little kid?” Rachel asked.
“If gossip is correct, it was Coach Sharp’s son, Carl Buckley’s son, and Sally Rankin’s twins.”
Ruby shook her head. “Considering two teachers and a banker are the parents, doesn’t sound like the little Pine boy is going to see much justice.”
“I don’t know about that,” Vera said. “After Dr. Quick treated the Pine boy, he called the police. Something about a legal responsibility to report assaults on children, I think.”
Vesta glanced at the clock. She had almost twenty minutes before her next appointment.
“I’m calling Junie down at the police station to see if they arrested those kids.”
Ruby frowned. “No, don’t! Whatever’s happening, we’ll find out soon enough. Better to leave gossip alone when kids are involved.”
“She’s right,” Vera said. “Besides, Lisa George teaches fifth grade math, and I’m doing her hair after school. She’ll talk. She can’t keep a secret for beans.”
Rachel Goodhope frowned. “How old is the Pine boy?”
“They said he was in second grade,” Vera said. “There are just the three Pine boys left, you know. The older brother, Johnny, is raising his two little brothers, and this probably hit him real hard, him being the only one responsible for them anymore.”
“Why is that?” Rachel asked.
Ruby patted Rachel’s shoulder. “Because their daddy is in prison and their mother overdosed two years ago and died. Johnny came close to losing the boys to Social Services then, and if they want to, they could make this an issue and take the boys away from him by claiming he’s not a responsible parent.”
“But he’s not to blame,” Rachel said.
Ruby shrugged. “Since when has that mattered?”
“Well, I think that’s terrible,” Rachel said.
Ruby nodded. “So do I,” she said, then gave Rachel’s hair a last squirt of hair spray and spun the chair around. “All done. What do you think?”
“Good,” Rachel said, eyeing her new cut. “I like it a lot. Thank you, Ruby.”
“You’re welcome, sugar. Let’s go up front and get you down for next week, okay?”
Rachel gathered up her things, making sure to get her umbrella. She didn’t want to mess up her new hairdo before she sported it around a little. She thought about the school incident again as she was driving through town, which reinforced the decision she’d made years ago not to have children. Rachel Goodhope would always be a work in progress.
• • •
Dori had managed to eat most of a grilled cheese sandwich between emptying and loading the dishwasher and was taking a breather to ease her aching back when one of the waitresses came in to get a refill on corn bread muffins for one of her tables.
“You won’t believe what I just heard. A gang of older boys beat up the youngest Pine boy at school this morning. His brother took him to the ER and the doctor called the cops to report the assault. Shit is hitting the fan, big-time.”
Walter the cook looked up as he refilled the bread basket.
“Who were the kids who beat him up?” he asked.
“Coach Sharp’s boy, banker Buckley’s kid, and Sally Rankin’s twins.”
Dori was horrified.
“Why would they do something so awful?”
“They didn’t say, but you know how mean kids can be. His last name is Pine, which automatically makes him a target.”
A wave of heat washed through Dori so fast, she felt faint. She had been so busy trying to survive her personal mistakes that she had never thought about Luther’s life that far into the
future, but now she was realizing what he had in store. He was a bastard child, and there was nothing that would ever change that fact. By virtue of birth alone, he would become a target. Sick to her stomach, she tossed what was left of her food in the garbage. She remembered Johnny Pine as a quiet, good-looking guy who always seemed too serious. Now she knew why. Her heart hurt for Johnny’s little brother, for her little guy, and for all children who become victims of someone else’s ignorance and rage.
Now that she’d delivered her gossip, the waitress grabbed the bread basket.
“Thanks, Walt. I gotta get back out on the floor, but I’m making a prediction now that nothing happens to those boys. When power and money is involved, it never does.”
Dori thought of Johnny Pine’s lot in life as she began scraping plates. He’d been a couple of years ahead of her in school, but she didn’t remember him ever having a girlfriend or being involved in many school activities. With parents like his, he must have felt like he had a lot to live down.
And then her shoulders slumped. Her parents had been decent people, just like her granddaddy. They had good names and good reputations. She was the one who’d messed all that up. The only thing she could do was never make that mistake again.
Her steps were dragging by the time her shift was over, and it was still drizzling when she left the restaurant. She could call her granddaddy and have him come pick her up, but it was more trouble than it was worth for the time it took to get Luther bundled up and buckled into his car seat. Besides, it wasn’t far, and walking back and forth to work was the only time she had left that was her own.
She sidestepped puddles as she walked, trying to stay beneath the overhangs of various businesses as she headed home. The wind was just strong enough to make holding on to the umbrella difficult, and so she kept it clutched tightly in her hands and pulled close to her head. Someone honked as they drove past, and she started to wave until she realized they weren’t honking at her and kept walking.
A gust of cold wind blew rain against her pant legs. They would be soaked by the time she got home, but getting wet was not a problem, just a situation easily remedied. She thought of the little Pine boy again and wondered if Johnny was as afraid of his responsibilities as she was of hers. Luther meant the world to her, but he’d already started life with one strike against him. She had to find a way to make sure that her mistakes did not hold him back. She put her head down and kept moving at a fast clip, and by the time she got home and walked in the back door, she was both cold and wet.
The house was quiet except for the television she could hear playing in the living room. She left her raincoat, umbrella, and wet shoes in the mudroom, and as she went to change clothes, she saw Granddaddy and Luther asleep in the recliner. When she saw the show they’d been watching, she smiled. Watching people hunt alligators was one of Meeker Webb’s favorite pastimes, and it must have agreed with Luther. He was sprawled out in his grandfather’s lap, relaxed as a cat sleeping in sunshine.
She hurried to her room to change into something dry and then began gathering up a load of clothes. There were always clothes needing to be washed. As she worked, she added items to the growing grocery list, and then decided to run the dust mop on the hardwood floors. It was a quiet job, and one that needed doing. By the time she had finished, both of her guys were waking up.
When Luther saw her, he let out a squeal that woke Meeker. After that, there was no containing Luther. He wanted his mama, which meant whatever else she needed to do, she would be doing it with Luther riding shotgun on her hip.
Order Sharon Sala’s next book
I’ll Stand By You
On sale June 2015
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About the Author
Sharon Sala, who has also written under the name Dinah McCall, has more than eighty-five books in print, published in four different genres—romance, young adult, Western, and women’s fiction—and her young adult books have been optioned for film. She has been named a RITA finalist eight times by Romance Writers of America and in 2011 was the recipient of RWA’s Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. Her books are New York Times and USA Today bestsellers and published in many different languages. She lives in Oklahoma, the state where she was born.
