“I’m fine,” she said lightly, but she didn’t look fine. She looked like she was about to die from heat stroke.
“Here,” said Sally Beth, putting some ice in a bandana and handing it to her. “This should cool you off some.” Edna Mae took it gratefully, pressing it to her neck. She pulled up the sleeves of the sweatshirt and rubbed ice along her arms.
Jimmy Lee withdrew his head from the depths of his engine briefly. “Did you see that place up on the right? Go on up there and cool off. I’ll get this radiator fixed and catch up to you. Let me buy y’all lunch! And I’ll find you some dry ice.”
Lilly’s car failed to start even though she ground the starter several times, pumping the gas pedal. Jimmy Lee looked up. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Car won’t start,” said Lilly, then paused and added, “I smell gas.”
Sally Beth sniffed. “Me too.” She got out of the car to take a look, and to her dismay, saw a puddle directly below the gas tank. “Oh, no!” she cried.
“Oh no!” echoed Lilly, kneeling beside her. “I’m afraid this car isn’t going to make it all the way home.”
Jimmy Lee came over to see. From underneath the car, he called out to them, “Yep. Hole in the gas line. Won’t be hard to replace, though. My truck is nearly fixed, so we’ll just go back to that station and get you a new hose and some gas. I can take care of it. You all want to ride back with me? You’ll stay cool. Just let me fill this radiator up, and we can go.”
Sally Beth and Lilly looked at each other and then cast a glance at the suffering Edna Mae. “Come on, Edna Mae,” Sally Beth coaxed. “Jimmy Lee’s a good friend. We can all cool off in his truck.” Edna Mae shook her head, looking miserable despite her smile.
“No, that’s okay. Somebody ought to stay with the car, and we won’t all fit, anyway. It’s not far down there, and I’ll be fine. You go on.”
Sally Beth hesitated. She was really starting to worry about Edna Mae, but it was clear she wasn’t going to budge as long as Jimmy Lee was around. “Okay, we can leave Lamentations with you, and we’ll hurry back. Here, let me wrap up some more ice and you can put it on your neck, and maybe you can step outside and cool off some, okay? Lamentations? You want to stay with Edna Mae while we go get some gas and a new line?”
To her surprise, Lamentations glanced back at Jimmy Lee once, then scrambled into the back seat to lick Edna Mae’s face. “Yeah, boy, you keep the lady company. We’ll be right back.” Jimmy Lee smiled broadly at Edna Mae. “I never seen Lamentations take to anybody right off like this. You must be real quality, ma’am.”
They returned shortly. After Jimmy Lee slid back under the car to replace the hose, he poured most of the gas into the tank while Sally Beth and Lilly hovered, fanning themselves. After checking his work one more time, he fumbled in his pocket for a package of cigarettes, lighting up before he opened the door for Lilly. “Start her up,” he told her. Lilly inserted the key and cranked the engine. Nothing. She tried again, pumping the pedal a few times. Again nothing. Jimmy Lee took a few thoughtful puffs, nodding.
“I figured this. You were so plumb out we’ll have to prime the carburetor. Pop the hood.”
Lilly released the hood, then turned to Edna Mae. “Hand me that camera, would you? And my purse. Might as well record the bad moments as well as the good ones. Here, Sally Beth,” she said, rummaging through her purse to find a comb. “Comb your hair and stand there beside Jimmy Lee. You’ve got it all blown out sticking your head out the window. Edna Mae, you don’t have to get out. Just poke your head out the window and smile.”
Sally Beth gave her hair a quick comb, then replaced her pink cowboy hat before leaning toward Edna Mae for one still, smiling moment. Jimmy Lee barely looked up. Cigarette pinched between his teeth, he picked up the gas can and carefully poured what was left of the gas into the carburetor.
The sun was high in the sky by this time, and Edna Mae had begun to squirm in the back seat. In this heat, her stamina was breaking apart, especially since the ice had completely melted, and she was steaming in the warm, soggy, sweatshirt. Her hair was wet from sweat, and more poured down her face. She was breathing a little funny, too, in short, shallow gasps that did not seem to draw much air into her lungs. Suddenly, her face scarlet, she ran a hand through her hair, gave a couple more gasping breaths, and said in a panicky voice, “I can’t stand this heat another second!” Flinging open the back door, she jumped out and ripped off the sweatshirt.
The timing could not have been worse. Jimmy Lee glanced up just in time to see her struggling to pull it over her head. In her haste, she had grabbed the edge of the tank top with the sweatshirt, and it came off, too, revealing her lacy bra and the whole expanse of her tight, muscular torso. Her breasts, the size of basketballs, strained against the transparent bra. The waistband of her skimpy shorts sat low, several inches below her belly button, while the elastic of her thong panties rode well above, lying just at the place where her hips began to swell out from her waist. As the shirts popped off and her arms stretched high above her head, the front clasp on the bra snapped, releasing her breasts, which bounced, flinging themselves upward with happy abandon.
Jimmy Lee looked like he had been hit upside the head with a tire iron. Stunned, he sloshed gasoline all over the engine block, and then, almost in slow motion, Sally Beth saw his mouth fall into a wide-open gape. The cigarette practically leaped out of his mouth, falling onto the engine, which caught fire with a loud Swoosh! Staring and frozen, Jimmy Lee did not notice the flames leaping up at his face, even after Lilly screamed at him. Sally Beth rushed forward to push him aside and slam the hood of the car down, but her attempt to quell the blaze was too late. Flames roared out of the front grille.
Edna Mae, seeing the conflagration, yanked open the back door to pull Lamentations out by the scruff of his neck, just before the flames followed a trail of gasoline toward the puddle under the car, then up into the gas tank, which exploded into a fireball that blew it apart and flung them all to the ground. They rolled, then jumped up and fled onto the grassy roadside just as the rest of the car burst into flames. Lamentations, terrified out of his wits, leaped backwards and started cartwheeling. Nobody except Jimmy Lee noticed that Edna Mae was topless. On the other hand, Jimmy Lee still seemed not to notice the fire, although his face and clothes were blackened and his eyebrows were scorched off.
Passing cars swerved. One clipped the fender of another and careened toward them. Sally Beth screamed at Jimmy Lee as Lamentations tumbled around his leg, and, confusing his master’s knee with his own rear-end, bit him on the kneecap. Jimmy Lee jerked into action, grabbing the dog mid-whirl and fleeing away from the car skidding toward them. In the melee, Lamentations bit Jimmy Lee again on the hand and the chin.
By the time Sally Beth, Lilly, and Edna Mae thought it was safe enough to disentangle the pair, several cars had wrecked. One had run into Lilly’s car, now totally engulfed in flames, but somehow the driver had managed to pull away and had escaped becoming a part of the inferno. Jimmy Lee bled from his chin, hand, and knee, Lamentations lay limp and quivering, and although Jimmy Lee was trying his best to comfort his helpless dog, he could not quite keep his eyes from straying to Edna Mae.
Sally Beth glanced at her. She blinked and tried to say something, but all she could manage was, “Oh, honey! You’re—you’re…” and she feebly pointed at her until Edna Mae glanced down and noticed her state of dishabille. She ran back toward the car, and, braving the flames, rescued her partially-burned sweatshirt from the road, whacking it against the ground just enough to put out the glowing cinders before she jerked it back on. The back was nearly burned off and the front was full of holes, but at least it gave her a modicum of decency. She reached under the sweatshirt and tried to fasten the flapping bra, but it was hopeless. The catch was broken.
Long seconds dragged by as the cars piled up all around them, until everything but the fire in Lilly’s car grew still. In the long, unbearable
silence afterwards, the wrecked, still vehicles made little ticking noises in the heat.
No one said anything for a long time, until Jimmy Lee breathed softly, “Lord God Almighty. I have ruined you.”
There was another long pause. A motorist opened the door of his bashed-up truck and stood in a daze, staring at Edna Mae, at Lilly’s car, and at his own smashed fender. Slowly, other people began to emerge from their cars and trucks.
“It was my fault,” came Edna Mae’s voice, full of grief and fury. “I am so, so sorry!” She choked back a sob as she turned away. “It was just so dadgummed hot!”
A small crowd had gathered. People spoke in soft murmurs, as quietly as if they were attending a funeral. No one attempted to put out Lilly’s flaming car; it was clearly too late to salvage it. Miraculously, no one other than Jimmy Lee was injured, and the damage to the other cars was minor to moderate.
When the police arrived, it took quite a bit of explaining to sort out what had happened. Lilly took a deep breath and slowly related the bare bones of the story, leaving out the parts about Jimmy Lee’s cigarette and Edna Mae ripping her clothes off. Sally Beth, afraid of saying the wrong thing, busied herself tending to Jimmy Lee’s injuries with supplies from the policeman’s first aid kit.
“It’s okay, Sally Beth,” he said, waving her away. “He’s had his shots, and I’ve been cut up worse than this.” The misery in his eyes belied his cheerful tone. Edna Mae stood despondently on the far side of his truck, trying unsuccessfully to make herself look small. Lilly sat on the gate of the truck, mumbling something about the heat and the gas container to the state patrolman, darting her eyes to Sally Beth, pleading for her to come rescue her, but Sally Beth wasn’t about to. Lilly was doing just fine all by herself, she reckoned.
It took a long time, but finally everything was sorted out to the satisfaction of the trooper. No one wanted to press charges against Lilly; no one wanted to admit they had lost control of their vehicles because they had caught sight of a near-naked giantess standing beside a flaming car, so they did not mention Edna Mae’s strip show. At last, after an hour of filling out reports, exchanging insurance information and soothing Lamentations, they found themselves alone and staring at the blackened hulk of Lilly’s car.
“Oh, noooo!” wailed Lilly. “Both my guitars. And my new boots.”
“Mine, too,” Sally Beth commiserated. “But look, Lilly, you at least have your pocketbook, and your camera. And Edna Mae saved Lamentations.” She touched the top of her head. “Oh—I still have my princess hat!” This made her feel infinitely better.
Edna Mae picked at one of the holes in her sweatshirt and fought back tears.
“This is all my fault,” said Jimmy Lee miserably from his blackened face as he brushed away some ash that used to be his eyebrow. He took a deep breath before adding, “And ma’am, I am eternally beholden to you for saving my dog.” He was looking somewhere in the vicinity of Edna Mae’s feet, but, with effort, managed to drag his eyes up to her face. “I don’t know what I’d do if I’da gone and killed poor Laminations. He’s the best dog I ever had.”
He brightened a little as he knelt to stroke the dog’s back. “But don’t you worry none. I’ll buy every one of you all new things. I’ll buy you a new car, too, Lilly.” He paused again, thinking. “It’s Sunday, so everything’s closed, but we can head on to Dallas today. I’ve got a cousin has a dealership there, and he’ll give us a good deal on a new car. Tomorrow, I’ll make all this right.”
Lilly looked dumfounded. She stared at Jimmy Lee, who, frankly, was about the sorriest looking thing imaginable. His bandaged hand stood out starkly white against his sooty clothes. His face was unrecognizable: blackened, bleeding, and bald. Standing beside his rusty, beat-up old pickup truck, cradling a pitiful excuse for a dog in his arms, promising to buy them all new clothes and a new car was just too much for Lilly to handle. She snorted with disgust and looked away.
Sally Beth put her arm around her sister and said gently, “Come on, honey, let’s not make him feel worse.”
Lilly crossed her arms. “Sally Beth, Jimmy Lee doesn’t have two nickels to rub together. How’s he going to replace any of this? And a car? Come on! He’s crazy.”
Sally Beth was about to agree that Jimmy Lee had probably taken leave of his senses when she suddenly remembered the last time she saw his cousin Howard, and what he had told her about the reason Jimmy Lee had come out West. She turned to Lilly thoughtfully. “He might not be as poor as we think he is.”
“What do you mean? Just look at that old truck! Just look at him!”
Sally Beth looked. Jimmy Lee—and his truck—did look poor, but the tires were new Michelins, and earlier she had noticed that the interior of the truck had been nicely repaired since the last time she had seen it. There was a new floorboard and a newly-upholstered seat. Upon a closer look, she noticed that his cowboy boots looked new. A silver and turquoise belt buckle gleamed through the soot.
“Let me talk to him for a minute.” Approaching him cautiously, she laid a hand on his arm and spoke softly. “Jimmy Lee, I know you feel responsible for this, and I know you want to make it right, but you don’t need to go buying anything, at least until you talk to Howard.”
“What do you mean, Sally Beth?”
“I mean, I know he has come into money, and he probably would tell you to go ahead and get us home, but I think you should check with him first.”
Jimmy Lee narrowed his eyes. “What are you talking about?”
She was taken aback by the suspicion in his face. “Well, I don’t think this is a secret or anything. I mean, he told us how he sent you out here to check on his oil well, and I know he’d loan you the money and all, but…”
“Oil well?” He looked genuinely puzzled.
“Yeah. He told a bunch of us how they found oil on the land his granddaddy gave him in Oklahoma. How you were out here checking on it? And how he’s probably going to be rich?”
Jimmy Lee thought a moment, then slowly looked back at her, his eyes glimmering with caution and something else she could not understand. “Oh. He told you about that?” There was another long silence before he spoke again. “Well, yeah,” he said, his voice halting and careful. “And there is a lot of money coming out of that dirt. But… Howard has made me a… partner, and I do my share of the work. I got a bit of cash, too.”
She glanced at the truck thoughtfully. Despite the new interior, it was the same, beat-up old wreck he had always driven. When he saw her looking at it, he moved a little closer to her, speaking softly but earnestly. “We decided not to go showing off none. You know, get above our raisin’. But believe me, Sally Beth, I could afford to buy a new one. I can afford to buy Lilly a new car, and I’m derned sure I can afford to buy you all some new clothes. Let me do this, please.” He looked at her, pleading.
She nodded. She was certain Jimmy Lee was exaggerating about how much he could afford, but she would die before she poked any holes in his pride. “Okay, Jimmy Lee. But we have to tell Lilly and Edna Mae about the oil well and all, okay? They have to know this won’t hurt you.”
She turned to tell Edna Mae and Lilly about the sudden windfall that had befallen the Knight family, explaining that Jimmy Lee felt that he could easily afford to replace their belongings. Lilly perked right up, and a bright gleam came into her eye, but Edna Mae shook her head defiantly. “Huh-uh. This was mostly my fault. I was stupid and crazy from the heat, and if I’d kept my clothes on, this never would have happened.” She blushed violently. So did Jimmy Lee, and there was a long, awkward silence while Sally Beth and Lilly tried to ignore their flaming faces. Jimmy Lee finally spoke, and there was a kind of dignity in the way he stood, his hat in his hands, his head up, and his eyes direct.
“Ma’am, I got eyes, but that don’t mean I got the right to go crazy just ‘cause I see something beautiful enough to knock them out. It ain’t your fault I acted a fool. It would ease my conscience greatly if you would let me make this r
ight. My mama and daddy, they would be disappointed with me if I was to let you suffer for what I done.” He blushed again.
A surprised look bloomed on Edna Mae’s face. She looked at him, then took a breath and suddenly smiled, not exactly at him, but beyond him, as if she were thinking a very pleasant thought. Sally Beth realized that Edna Mae had probably not met many real gentlemen before.
She amended her thoughts. Jimmy Lee would never be classified as a gentleman, exactly, but he was, indeed, a gentle man, and she was proud of him, proud of the people of her home, proud of the way they raised their children with dignity. Jimmy Lee may look like a raggedy old hillbilly, but she knew he had a chivalrous heart.
He cleared his throat, and looking at the ground around Edna Mae’s dirty, bare feet, manfully offered, “I reckon you might want to put some different clothes on. I got some pants and a shirt…” he trailed off, his face scarlet.
Edna Mae looked at his feet in return. “I would appreciate it, Jimmy Lee.” Neither of them moved.
Sally Beth figured she’d better step in before one of them burst into flames. “That’s real sweet of you, Jimmy Lee. Edna Mae, you can change in the truck. I’ll help you find something.”
Sadly, and much to the embarrassment of both Edna Mae and Jimmy Lee, nothing fit, except Jimmy Lee’s socks and shoes. His pants wouldn’t go over her hips, his shirt wouldn’t button. Edna Mae fought back humiliated tears while Sally Beth did her best to sooth her. “Your shorts are fine, and the front of your sweatshirt isn’t burned too much, and it’s so long you don’t see the shorts anyway. Look, I’ve got some scissors in my pocketbook…” She trailed off. Her purse was a smoldering lump in the back seat of Lilly’s car.
“Jimmy Lee, you got a knife?” He handed Sally Beth a pocketknife. “Thanks. Let’s just cut off the sleeves, so you won’t be too hot, and you can put a shirt on over it. That’ll cover the back. Tomorrow we’ll get you something real quick.” Edna Mae took a deep breath and nodded, then looked down while she brushed at her sweatshirt and tugged at her shorts.
The Women of Jacob’s Mountain Boxed Set Page 55
