by Alan Black
They reached the mule corral without incident except for Trance stubbing a toe. LillieBeth was unsympathetic. She wondered if that made her just like the strange man from Chicago, Frank Nitti. He did not seem to care about anyone. Did she?
She knew she did care, but not about Trance and Dangle Braunawall. She would have to try to find some way to keep them from coming back. She could not shoot them, bury them in the woods, or feed them to the hogs. She would if she had to, but she was not sure she could live with herself afterward.
She said, “Since you two are naked, it only seems fair that your mules should be too. Get those saddles and saddlebags off and just toss them on the ground. You be right careful and remember I know you keep an old revolver in one of those.”
It was a few awkward moments for the Braunawalls as they tried to keep their privates covered and get their gear off the mules. They managed it by keeping their backs to LillieBeth, but still keep their hands where she could see them.
After a moment, LillieBeth nodded. “That looks about right. You get to keep the bridles. Now, jump up on them mules, but sit still.”
She looked at the two men. Trance’s face was all bruised from Hoffman’s beating. His ear was bleeding from where LillieBeth’s bullet put a notch at the top. Dangle’s face was turning purple and puffing up. His ear was bleeding, but not from a cut. Blood was dribbling out of the ear hole.
She said, “My, you two are a pair. I think this story is too good to let pass up. It seems that two boys, who think they are tough and strong, got whipped twice in the same week. They got whipped once by a seventy-one-year old man and once again by a twelve-year-old girl. I do not think that will help your reputation as tough men.
“Now, I am going to take this gate down and you two are going to ride away and not come back, ever.”
Trance said, “What about our clothes and gear?”
LillieBeth said, “That is forfeit to me. You get to keep your mules and your lives. Nothing else.”
“That ain’t-”
“Shut up, Trance,” LillieBeth interrupted. “I still have hungry pigs to feed. You have bothered me and mine enough. My Daddy will be home in just a short while. I am going to tell him everything you tried to do to me and to my mama. Then, while he goes hunting after you, I am going to ride down to Oasis and talk to Sheriff Grissom. I will tell him everything and have him arrest you for attempted rape.”
“We did not do it. It is our word against yours,” Trance said unconvincingly, even to himself.
“You forget I have a witness you are not going to be able to buffalo. You grabbed me at his place so you know I was off visiting a friend. You think on that.”
She put her hand on the loop holding the gate closed. “Last thing. I sleep with this rifle. I am going to shoot you dead if I so much as see you passing by on this road. I am going to start shooting even if I see you in Oasis a year from now. You are done in the Ozark Mountains. Leave now or I will kill you, or my Daddy will kill you, or my friend Fletcher Hoffman will kill you.”
She opened the gate and stood back while the two men rode out of the corral.
Sitting on his mule in the road gave Trance a feeling of courage, “We have family and friends too, you know. We have friends in the Klan, you ought not to mess with us.”
“Really? How are your Klan friends going to feel about you when they find out you’ve been going around raping women; and not just any women, but white women?”
Trance lost courage and dug his heels into his mule, racing down the road toward the cut off trace leading to Oasis. Dangle followed.
LillieBeth stepped into the corral and dug into the saddlebags. She pulled out Trance’s revolver and a box of cartridges. She handed them to Mama, forcing her mother to take them.
“You keep these close by for awhile.”
“Elizabeth, I couldn’t shoot-”
“Of course, you could not shoot anyone, Mama.” LillieBeth interrupted. Her mother using her real name startled her, but she continued. “You could not, any more than I could shoot and feed them to the pigs. But, they do not know that I could not really do what I said, and they will not know you could not either. We just have to be ready in case they do come back.”
WEDNESDAY EVENING
LillieBeth looked at her mother. She was surprised at how old Mama looked. She was not quite thirty yet, but there were streaks of gray in her hair. Life was good in the Ozark Mountains. It was good, but hard. The Hazkits did not need the Braunawalls making life harder.
Mama could not kill them. LillieBeth could, but did not want to. Daddy could and would kill them if he knew, but LillieBeth did not want him to have to kill again. She would have to tell Sheriff Grissom about what the Braunawalls had done to her. It was embarrassing, but maybe it was enough for him to run them off.
She could not tell the sheriff about their rape of Susanne Harbowe. That was not her secret to share. She could tell the sheriff they would have hurt Mama if she had not shown up in time to stop them. The sheriff was a God-fearing Christian man. He would do something.
She tossed the saddles on the rail at the back of the shed where Ruth and Naomi’s saddles usually sat. She grabbed both saddlebags and carried them to the house. She tossed the bags on the table, dumping their contents out; grabbed Dangle’s knife from the floor, adding it to the pile; picked up their clothes and boots, tossing them into the mix; as if she were making a stew of leftovers. She started separating the clothing, going through pockets, feeling edges for hidden goods, checking for secret caches.
She found a total of five dollars, most in coin. She pushed it over to her mother.
Mama tried to pick it up, while still holding the gun and box of ammunition.
LillieBeth said, “You can leave the gun on the table for now, Mama. It is almost suppertime; can you fix us up something? I am not real hungry, so maybe just a little bowl of greens or something?”
LillieBeth checked the revolver. It was loaded. It was stamped on the barrel as a .38 and that was what the box of ammunition said. She pushed them to the side, but kept the revolver within easy reach, as was the rifle. She tossed the clothing on the floor in a pile, finding extra shirts and socks in the saddlebags.
She found a bottle of moonshine. She walked out to the front porch, pouring it out, wetting the rocks below and shaking the bottle empty of its last drop. She re-corked the bottle and put it back on the table. Good glass was hard to find. They would find a use for it somewhere. She found a holster for the revolver, a couple of knives, a can opener, two cans of beans, a can of peaches, an orange tin of pomade, and the most strange thing of all, a small bag of women’s broaches, pins and fancy buttons.
It was getting darker outside. She got up, lit a candle on the mantle and closed all of the doors except the west door. Normally they did not bother putting the brace across any of the doors to lock themselves in at night, but she did this time, tugging on each door to make sure it was secure. All the while, she thought about the bag of women’s things. It did not make sense for two men to carry around such things.
She grabbed her rifle and started to go out by the west door. Her mother was standing there shaking, tears streaming down her face, unable to continue cleaning the pile of greens. LillieBeth put the rifle on the counter, grabbing Mama’s hands, she pulled her in close.
Mama sobbed, “I did not know what to do.”
“It is okay Mama. I have to go put Ruth in her corral for the night. You shut and brace this door. Then you go sit down for a while. When I come back, I will knock on the west door. You just do not open any other door for anyone else until I get back.”
It did not take her long to get Ruth down to her corral. She stripped off the mule’s saddle, putting it on the rail next to the two newly acquired saddles. Ruth had a sweaty patch of hair where the saddle had sat all day. LillieBeth scrubbed the mule down with a handful of straw, rubbing hard behind the ears where most mules like to be rubbed, pressing her face into the mule’s muzzle f
or a sloppy kiss.
Ruth had not been able to do much grazing today, so LillieBeth pulled down an armful of hay, dropping it in the trough and she put a precious handful of grain with it. There was a large trough for water. It was about half full, so LillieBeth closed the gate behind her and went up to the house.
Mama let her in and closed the door behind them.
LillieBeth set the bar tight against the door. The Braunawalls would not get in tonight if they came back. She grabbed the jar of peaches and the can opener. She nodded to herself. It would be a good meal after a day like today. It would almost be like skipping supper and going straight to dessert. She opened the can, pouring and measuring half into a bowl. She took the peaches and two spoons back to the table.
Mama had pulled her parents picture from off the wall over the mantle. She was staring at it in the candlelight, tracing her mother’s picture with her fingers as if trying to touch LillieBeth’s grandmother.
Mama said with a sigh, “I want my Mama.”
LillieBeth wrapped her arms around her mother. “I know. I wish Grandma were here too. But, you have me and I have you. Soon enough, Daddy will be home.” She squeezed her mother. She took her grandparents’ picture and set it on the table where they could both see it.
Mama took a spoonful of supper and almost spit it out. Her eyes grew big in surprise. The sweet peaches seemed to wake her up. She chewed slowly, swirling the smooth, syrupy fruit around her tongue. She sighed and licked the spoon clean before scooping another spoonful from the bowl into her mouth. It was almost as if her mother was surprised with each new spoonful, waking her further, widening her smile, bringing a twinkle to her eyes as if she were an oil lamp slowly being filled with fresh kerosene.
LillieBeth watched her mother, matching her spoonful for spoonful, digging peaches from the can. She tried to match Mama for pleasure, but it was just food. It was only filling to her hungry belly. She wanted to smile, but she could not. She was even grateful Mama was not talking, as their normal meals together were a chat-fest, as if they were each trying to use all of the words they had stored up since the last meal.
Mama unashamedly picked up and licked the bowl clean. It was something LillieBeth was not allowed to do.
Mama sighed, “That was so wonderful. Peaches are my favorite. Where did we…?” She let the question fade; glancing at the pile of goods on the table they had taken from the Braunawalls.
LillieBeth said, “Supper was on Trance and Dangle tonight. I think this stuff is the least they can give us for the trouble they have been causing.”
Mama grabbed her hands. “You did not really shoot a man today, did you? You would not have shot the Braunawalls, would you? Certainly, you were bluffing when you said you would feed them to the hogs, right?”
LillieBeth said, “Mama, I did shoot a man today. He shot at me first so I shot back. I did not kill him. He was wounded and his friends took him away to find a doctor. And yes, I was bluffing with the Braunawalls. I am glad they did not call me on my bluff.” She knew it was not a bluff, but it would not hurt Mama to think it was. It hurt to lie to her mama, but she was more than willing to carry the hurt if it meant sparing Mama more pain.
Mama asked, “What are we going to do with all of this?” She spread her hands at the goods on the table.
LillieBeth pointed to the money. “That is for you and Daddy to spend. Maybe we can sell their saddles, and maybe the boots too, for a few dollars more to help us move into a new house.” She held Dangle’s knife to the candlelight. “I think I am going to keep this. It is certainly a better knife for skinning squirrels and rabbits than the old one I have. She slipped the revolver into the holster. “I am going to braid a twine belt and keep this for myself. Daddy likes the .45 he brought home from the war, so he will not mind if I keep this.” She pushed the pomade to the side. “That is too smelly for words, but the tin is pretty. Maybe we can throw the goop out and keep the tin for pins and needles or something. I say you should take all of the clothes, wash them real good in lye soap, and cut them into pieces for your quilt. That way someone will get something good out of them.”
Mama dumped the little bag of women’s things out on the table and spread them out. “What unusual things for men to be carrying ab…” Mama quit talking. She picked up a broach. It was silver with an ivory silhouette of a woman. It still had a small piece of blue cloth attached to the pin, where it had been torn free. “I know this broach.”
She looked at LillieBeth and said again, “I know this broach. Susanne Harbowe used to wear this every Sunday, but she said she lost it about two years ago. How did the Braunawalls get…?”
LillieBeth reached across and gently took the broach from her mother. “She just lost it and they found it. That is all. I will give it back to her and that will be that.”
Mama said, “Those animals raped her, just like they tried to do to me and they tried to do to you. She is your friend who was raped, isn’t she?”
“I cannot say and you cannot ask. Please leave it be, Mama.”
“I can’t leave it be. Susanne Harbowe has been my friend for much longer than she has been yours. When we were in school, we used to pretend she was my baby sister and I was her big sister. She was about six when I was your age, but she is the closest thing to a real sister I ever had.”
“But I promised to never tell. She will think I told you. And she will be ruined if word gets out she was raped.”
Mama nodded, “Of course, but you and she can’t carry this burden alone. We will talk to her together on Sunday.”
LillieBeth echoed her mother’s nod, “Before we tell Daddy and Sheriff Grissom about the Braunawalls?”
Mama said, “Agreed.” She gasped and grabbed an ornate pin. “Oh! I know this too. It is, no. I shouldn’t say.”
LillieBeth said, “Mama, I have already figured out that this is a bag of items Trance and Dangle stole from the women they raped. Each and every piece here belongs to a woman in the Ozark Mountains. Each piece holds a secret for each woman. I think getting this broach back to Miss Harbowe may bring some comfort to her. If getting another piece back to the rightful owner helps, then we should do it, if we can.”
Mama held up the ornate pin. “This belonged to your friend Pearl’s mother.”
LillieBeth said, “Pearl’s mother died about a year ago in a hunting accident.”
Mama said, “That is what we told everyone. She shot herself. She committed suicide. No one knew why. I think finding this pin in this bag tells us why.”
LillieBeth wanted to be shocked. She wanted to cry, to rage against the Braunawalls, to hug her friend Pearl and comfort her, to hug her mother. She simply took the pin from Mama. She held it to the light and set it next to the broach.
She said, “I will give this back to Pearl on Sunday. I will tell her, I found it at the edge of the churchyard under some leaves and you recognized it as her mother’s. She need never know how I really came to have it.”
Mama said, “Are you sure you are good about lying to your friend?”
LillieBeth said, “Mama, I shot a man today. I threatened to shoot two more and feed them to the hogs. I wanted, yes, I really wanted Trance and Dangle to try something so that I could do more than just threaten. I have been angry and had evil thoughts about Mrs. Bailey. I do think, in all of that, God will forgive me a little lie to spare a friend some needless pain.”
THURSDAY - NOON
LillieBeth stopped Ruth in front of the gate to Hoffman’s Lane. It was unwired, held closed by the customary loop around the gatepost. She knew he had not been trying to keep her out. He must have wired the gate shut to keep out the moonshine buyers.
She slid off Ruth, opened the gate and closed it behind her and her mule. The day was a little cloudy; a spate of spring rains was not far off. She could smell the moisture in the air. At every break in the trees, she could see the storms approaching far off to the south. The mountains on the other side of the White River Valley were hazy with
mist. It was almost as if the hills were tucking themselves into their raingear, getting ready for the storms.
Earlier Mama said the trees were showing their silver underbellies, meaning a short line of storms was coming. It was a ways off yet, but it would be a good wetting down for the next couple of days. Mama said the way the squirrels were acting it would not be more than two days of rain. Saturday and Sunday would be pretty days, the rain clearing and cleaning the air, washing the dust off the Ozark Mountains and preparing it all for when Daddy was home.
LillieBeth frowned thinking of Daddy coming home. They had so much news to share with him. There was so much bad news, she was almost unsure of whether she wanted him home or not. She wanted to slap herself for thinking that way. Mama needed Daddy. Mama needed him more than normal. LillieBeth needed her father too.
She shook her head. She was going to have to be tough enough to sit down and explain all that happened to Daddy. Some things he could help with, some he could not. She would accept his help where it was needed. The rest she would take care of herself.
How could Daddy help her with the anguish in her soul for having shot a man? She would have to ask Sheriff Grissom what to do. Not only was he a lawman who had shot men in the line of duty, he was a Methodist lay minister. Maybe he could help her understand her mixed feelings about the sorrow of having done it, but the lack of remorse for doing it. She did not understand how she could be both sorry and not sorry at the same time.
Whether the rain was coming or not, she was not going to pass up today. She had another stone to give to Fletcher Marlowe Hoffman. She hoped he would not throw this one away. She was sure he had not given in to her friendship, but she had to keep trying.
Instead of riding Ruth up the lane, she led her. She was once again thrilled by the pretty meadow opening up before her. Her heart leapt at the beauty, but she could not bring a smile to her face. She stood just past the gate near the end of the lane and watched the rain off in the distance. The clouds were pushing the storm her way, but they were moving at an opossum’s pace.
