by Lee Lynch
Berry said, “Must be an alligator returned to its nest.” Allison, she thought, was welcome to try and persuade Gran to sell her land till the cows came in.
Gran said, “I know you’re well-intentioned, Allison, and have the interests of womankind in mind, but this is family land and I intend to protect this little bit of land for the critters. You’d think humans never heard the word share. We’re nothing but another breed of critter. Don’t you think the Lord wants us to respect their right to a place to live? They don’t have grocery stores or houses or cars. I don’t have much to give this world, but I can offer this.”
The engineer was smiling. Berry took Gran’s hand.
“I see your point,” said Allison. “It’s what men do to women, isn’t it? Take what they want from us, do what they want with us, expect us to survive on what they leave.”
There was a splash somewhere behind them. Berry turned in time to see a gator tail disappear underwater in a small pond. Her shoulders tingled at the sense of another presence. Gran held her hand tighter. They both looked around for signs of life.
Songbirds sang and geese squawked in the leafy canopy. Gnats swarmed. No-see-ums bit. Sounds of something heavier moved away from them.
A wind came up. Berry said, “I’m all shivery, like a cow ran over my grave.”
Gran turned toward the road. Behind them, dead tree branches creaked as they rubbed in the breeze. “Haints. Too many haints.”
Allison looked to Berry, eyebrows raised.
“She means ghosts, Allison,” Berry said. “Lost souls. Come on, it’s time to leave.”
Allison followed them toward the road. “You two have your own language. You speak country Southern.”
“Have you had squatters on the land?” asked the engineer. “You might want to keep an eye out. Here and there, I’m seeing little signs of human activity.”
“Upon my word, you can’t keep them out,” said Gran. “Poachers, people dumping their trash, others digging up young trees to sell by the side of the road to trailer tourists. Some of those city people, I swanee.”
“It’s worth protecting.”
Allison raised a fist in the air. “Women as caretakers of the earth. What a concept.”
Berry guided Gran across Eulalia Road. A volley of vehicles sped by, separating them from the engineer and Allison. When the road was empty, they saw Allison point up Stinky Lane.
“Did you see him?” Allison called.
“No. Who?”
The engineer crossed to them. “Ball cap, long hair, carrying a shotgun.”
Berry looked at Gran. “I think you were dead on about haints. That could be Eddie Dill.”
“What a foolish notion.” Gran watched the land, eyes narrowed, and watched Allison who ran up the lane shouting, “Hey.”
The engineer said, “She’s crazy to run after someone with a gun.”
“She is a little bit crazy. Allison. Allison!”
Allison was already out of sight.
“I’ll turn her around,” said Berry.
“No, Berry.” Gran had a hand on her arm. “I don’t know what makes that woman tick, but she wades into any danger she finds. You stay with me.”
There was the sound of a shot. They looked that way. Another shot followed. Berry hotfooted Gran out of range up Pineapple Trail, the engineer after them at top speed.
“I don’t want the police out here again, Gran.”
“We have no choice, child. Your friend is in there. She might be hurt. Or the man with the gun might be a poacher.”
They huddled together behind a fat old oak. The engineer said, “Here comes Allison. She’s fast.”
“Everybody’s fast when they’re being used for target practice.”
Allison was panting. “I lost him, darn it.”
“What about the gunshots, Allison?” asked Berry.
“Once I lost him I wanted out of the woods. Someone may be in there hunting.”
The engineer said, “That wasn’t a rifle. Those were pistol shots. Who hunts with a pistol?”
“You can use one for small game,” Gran said. “Eddie used to bring home rabbits and such.”
Berry made a face. “Ugh.”
“I’ll call the rangers, not the sheriff,” said Gran. “As long as Allison here is safe. Those deputies seem scared of you harmless young women.”
Allison, hands on her bent knees, catching her breath, said, “The last thing I want to be is harmless. The whole sheriff’s department is afraid one day they’re going to have to patrol with women—armed women—as we gain numbers and our demands are taken seriously.”
“You, young lady,” said Gran, “have a one-track mind.”
“Isn’t that what we need? Women who devote themselves to the cause?”
“I meant that as a compliment, Allison. I’ll volunteer at your clinic or shelter. Find someplace that’s already developed. As for having women in trouble camping out in this wild space, I think you see that dog won’t hunt.”
“You’ll volunteer, Gran? That’s great news,” said Berry.
“If I live long enough for you to get this show on the road.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. I’m working on some grants,” said Allison.
“What exactly are you planning?” asked the engineer.
“Two things,” said Allison. “A place where women of any income can access health care, whether it be for birth control, STDs, cancer screenings, or information. And a place where women can stay for a while to hide from abusive men and misanthropic laws or to be with one another.”
“You do realize,” said the engineer, cocking an eyebrow, “that’s the work of more than one lifetime.”
*
A wildlife officer came to Rainbow Gap and took Gran’s report a few days later. He went over to Stinky Lane to look around.
Gran wasn’t satisfied and complained at supper that night. “I’ll bet look around is all he did. If they don’t catch poachers red-handed, they don’t sit there and wait till one comes along.”
Berry said, “We’ll call every time we suspect a trespasser. No ghost can shoot a gun.”
“That we know.” Jaudon grinned.
“You don’t think Eddie survived that hole, do you?”
“Aw, heck, Gran, if anybody it would be Eddie, but that’s an impossible if.”
Jaudon wasn’t so sure herself and the thought gave her a fright.
“I heard of a patient who did,” said Berry. “I was talking to the scheduler at lunch one day. She used to work at the hospital in Emergency. A guy came in with multiple injuries. He was working alone on a construction site when the earth disappeared under him. The building materials he was working with fell in too and left him bruised and sore, but also created a breathable underground cave. He was able to wiggle his way to a storm drain and holler for help.”
Gran sopped up the rest of her gravy with a bit of biscuit. “That was a darn lucky fella. No chance it happened twice in a hundred years, Berry.”
“If not, who’s out there?”
Jaudon saw Gran’s nervous blink. “Allison’s description fits a hundred guys around here. A friend of Eddie’s who took over his hunting grounds?” She grinned. “Or one of those skunk apes.”
Berry’s voice grew high. “You have a thing about apes, my angel, but I don’t think you’ll find one shooting a gun over there.”
Jaudon bantered with her as much to unspook herself as anything. “Why not?”
“Every time I hear a hoot owl, I think it’s Eddie risen from the dead,” said Gran.
“We need to post signs so whoever’s in there doesn’t injure himself and sue us, Gran. You have no insurance on that land.”
Jaudon decided to tackle their doubts head on. “I can pick up some signs at the feed store and put them up Sunday. For the moment, I’m putting on my boots. Let’s drive down to July Lake and backtrack to see where somebody might be creeping in and hiding. You coming with me, Berr?�
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“I’ll be darned if you’re going alone.”
“Leave it to the law, girls.”
“The law’s not going to do pea turkey squat. I’m tired of waiting on someone else to help us with every dinky thing.”
“Agreed,” Jaudon said. “We gave them a chance to either fish or cut bait. Let’s get a move on while it’s light out.”
Berry held tight to Jaudon’s arm as they went to the van. “Should we bring Bat’s shotgun? Eddie Dill’s pistol is missing. Bat took it one day and I keep meaning to look for where he put it.”
Jaudon loved being Berry’s protector. “I’m not planning on a gun battle, Georgia gal. Leave the shotgun home. I want to see what we can see and report straight to the wildlife people.”
“Remember when we were small fry and used to go exploring, Jaudon? I’m reminded of those days.”
In the van, turning onto Eulalia Road, Jaudon nodded so hard her neck cracked. She enjoyed the memories as much as she’d enjoyed making them. “Don’t you wish we were discovering the world again? I wasn’t scared of anything but school.”
“Isn’t that what we’re doing, rediscovering our world? We’re not seeing it like six-year-olds anymore. Where’re you heading?”
“To the end of Gran’s property line by the lake. We’ll come around this way and you can be the lookout. I’ll hug the edge of the road so these jackass snowbirds don’t drive inside our cargo door.”
Berry patted Jaudon’s knee. “Language.”
For a second, she was annoyed. She respected Berry’s pet peeves, but hated watching her words. Even more, Jaudon loathed being annoyed with her one and only. She made a U-turn and slowed to ten mph.
Berry leaned out the window. Jaudon squinted into the woods as she drove.
“Nothing so far,” said Berry.
“I wonder if he comes in though the July Lake development. Could be some retiree from up north who doesn’t know any better.”
“The railroad tracks are another way in.”
“Kind of open there for a sneaky person, but I heard tales about people living under the trestle just north.”
“What if we find your skunk ape?” asked Berry.
“Now you’re being silly.”
“I am. But how neat. We should have brought a camera.”
Jaudon raised an eyebrow at her. “You’ve got your very own skunk ape, Berr.”
Berry jostled her arm. “Don’t be ridiculous, Jaudon. You’re much too short to be a skunk ape.”
Jaudon bellowed with laughter and gave Berry’s thigh a light slap. It was a miracle how Berry took the sting out of everything, how Berry, who was darn near perfect, loved her as she was.
They rolled along several yards more. “Wait. Pull over, Jaudon.”
Jaudon started. She hadn’t realized how tense she was.
“Remember where we found that Shaker table for the tree house?”
“That you called a shaky table?” said Jaudon in her teasing voice.
Berry turned and stuck her tongue out. “You didn’t know enough to correct me. So there.”
“Eyes right, Georgia gal. I didn’t know anything about anything outside Rainbow Gap, Florida. I expected the thing to shake, but it never did.”
They laughed, bumping heads. Jaudon touched the back of Berry’s neck, so vulnerable and appealing since Gran gave her this short, bouncy cut full of waves and a few curls. No more braid: here was Berry’s grown-up style.
“This is the Shaker table spot. All the stuff that’s been dumped made a permanent opening, and look, there’s a path.”
“Might be an animal trail, but for something taller than any animal I’ve seen.”
“Can we leave the van here?”
“Let’s take it home first.” Jaudon knew she was being what Pops called a yeller dog.
Berry was already stepping out onto the shoulder. “Catch up with me.”
“Aw, heck, Berry. Don’t go in there by yourself.”
“You’re forgetting I lived on this land, Jaudon.”
Jaudon took off, left the van, and raced her own fears to the path. Berry shouldn’t have gone in without a firearm after the shots she talked about. She climbed down and walked fast, avoiding the mushy spots on the trail. Ahead, in a clearing, she saw Berry bend over to examine the ground.
“Berry,” she said softly, careful not to startle her. She didn’t know if she was more relieved to see Berry or to have made it this far herself.
“The undergrowth’s tamped down through here.”
They looked at each other.
“I haven’t been here in forever. We better turn our pockets out to keep the ghosts from harming us.
“What are you saying?”
“It’s a Georgia superstition.”
Jaudon, arms folded, steeled herself. “I’ll go first.” She had too much stuff in her pockets to wear them inside out, but she went as far as to switch some of it around and left one emptied pocket to hang like a warning flag.
Berry slapped at her arms and face. “Mosquitoes find me tasty today.”
A scrub jay dove at them, protective of its territory.
They pushed through branches bowed down with vines, air plants, and hanging mosses, thickets of low growing palmetto and ferns. A snowy egret lifted from a pool of water and flapped high into a tree. Bullfrogs warned them away. The land here was flat as a floor gradually starting a patient slope upward. The earth got drier after they passed between two old cypress trees, green moss clothing their hoopskirt-shaped trunks. They startled a white-tailed deer.
“This smells to the high heavens,” said Berry.
Jaudon parted the bushes and recoiled. “Armadillo carcasses. Rabbit too.”
“He’s eating armadillo meat?”
“Ugh.”
“Even Eddie didn’t eat them, though he dried the shells to sell. Armadillos carry leprosy.”
Jaudon moved away, holding her breath. “Can you catch leprosy by breathing the germs?”
Up on a hillock a flutter of green caught Berry’s eye. Most of the cypress trees had trunks that were whole, but one had a wide gap between its aboveground roots. Inside was that flutter of green. She should have told Jaudon to go after the shotgun. She didn’t like it in the house, what with her recent low moods, which was one reason she hadn’t searched hard for Eddie’s pistol. Still, a gun might come in handy about now.
“What is that?” she whispered.
Jaudon turned to her, a hand behind her good ear.
Berry tiptoed closer. Jaudon looked.
They walked toward the tree, stooped over, peeked inside. There was a green mat hanging at the opening, woven with palm fronds, moving each time a tiny breeze bumped it. Inside, a blanket, somewhat worse for the wear, covered padding.
“Someone’s made a cozy campsite here.”
Berry poked a cigarette butt with her toe. “Someone who smokes.”
“Jiminy. Did Eddie Dill smoke?”
“No. His church didn’t allow smoking, drinking, or cussing.”
Jaudon raised the blanket. “This bedding is made of palm fronds over Spanish moss.”
“I see that. What’s behind there?”
Jaudon climbed inside. “It’s another palm mat, with loops at the corners.” She looked at the entrance to the hole. “Whoever it is carved wood pegs around the opening to seal it. Aw, heck, Berry. He’s got a pistol hanging up in here.”
“Must be the one Gran and I heard the day we came out with the engineer.”
“We should take it.”
“May I see it, Jaudon?”
Berry turned it this way and that. “I swear, that’s Eddie Dill’s pistol, the one I thought Bat misplaced. See? It has a gouge where his did.” She checked for bullets, but the gun was empty.
“Now we know where his gun went, but who stole it?”
Berry walked around the tree, holding the gun. “There’s a mirror hung on the tree and a half-rotted wood milk crate with stuff in it.”
Jaudon went to look. “A hair brush?”
“With long dark hairs. We’re not looking for Eddie, Jaudon. This is young hair. A woman’s hair.”
“Or a long-haired man.”
“True. We better leave these things alone. They’re someone’s personal property.” Berry made to close the box, but Jaudon stopped her.
“At the bottom, Berry, in the plastic box. See those packs of cigarettes and matchbooks? That’s the kind Lari smokes.”
“Is this where she disappeared?” Berry squinted to make out what was printed on the matches. “This is crazy. We need to get away from here.”
“Finally, you’re talking sense.”
“It was your idea to look.”
“It was my idea to drive by.”
“The matches? They’re from the bar Rigo took us to.” Berry pulled her away from the box.
“Where Lari hangs out.”
Berry tucked the gun under her blouse and they hurried home the way they came.
“Can you think of anything scarier than Lari with a pistol?”
Chapter Thirty-seven
“Berry, honey, we need some sleep.”
She was so darned tired and Berry was flouncing onto her sides or her belly or flipping her pillow every few minutes. This new thing with Lari—if it was Lari—was weighing them down and interfering with work.
Plump-sounding raindrops slugged at their roof and poured down the gutters.
“I’m trying, Jaudon.” Berry plumped her pillow again. “I can’t face tomorrow.”
“Telling the doctor about Lari?”
“I’m full of guilt both ways. If I stay quiet she’ll die in the swamp of giardia or another infection, if I turn her in she loses her freedom.”
“Her freedom to what? Hunt down your beloved critters? Start a fire? Keep sneaking over here to spy on us?”
“If that was her, Jaudon.”
“That was her all right. She can walk to Stinky Lane from her aunt’s place without using Eulalia Road once.”
“But why? She has everything, a nice car, her slick clothes. Did Eddie Dill’s spirit get into her and take her over?”
Jaudon scoffed at her. She’d never been spooked on Vicker land before Lari. “We have our bottle tree and Rigo’s protection stones.”
