by Linda Ellen
“Here, sweetheart, let Mama put this ice on it. It’ll help. Hush now, you’ll be all right,” she crooned. Jimmy sniffled and whined in pain as his grandmother scurried around the kitchen gathering what she needed.
Soon Lilly was back with a small bowl, stirring the thick paste with one finger. “Now here, let me see…” Louise moved the towel away and Lilly spread a good amount of paste onto the affected area. Pulling another chair away from the table, she directed, “Now honey, you sit still, right here, and let that paste dry. That’ll pull some of the poison out and make it stop hurting. Once it’s dry, we’ll put on another batch.”
Once they got the boy settled and he seemed to be calming down, Louise stood and gathered her courage. “Buddy, come with me and we’ll see if we can see a nest. We’ll go in the front way.”
Finding a flashlight in a kitchen drawer, the two made their way out the front door and over to the wide opening to the three-sided carport. With no windows, the further back you went, the darker it got. From the front, they couldn’t even see the back wall. They never kept the car inside, as the structure was too full of boxes and all kinds of things they had stored there. There was only a path to the kitchen door.
Peeking inside, they saw no wasps flying around, but they could now hear a constant buzzing noise. Steadying her nerve, Louise exchanged glances with her son, turned the flashlight on and aimed it at the top of the back wall, moving the beam slowly toward the house. Nothing. Then she moved it to the right, and when it reached the corner, both she and Buddy sucked in shocked gasps when their eyes landed on their worst fear – the biggest wasp nest Louise had ever seen – as big around as a dinner plate. There were so many wasps on the paper-like comb; they were scrambling to find room, and even falling off of it. She estimated at least a hundred of the insects vying for space!
“Good Lord!” Louise squealed, nearly dropping the light. Without further adieu, she hurriedly ushered her son back toward the front of the house and they ran inside, slamming the door behind them as if the whole colony was on their heels.
“I told ya! I told ya! Dang, did you see the size of that thing?” Buddy gushed as they hurried into the kitchen.
“Jimmy, there’s a nest all right – this big!” he exclaimed as he held his arms wide. Although he was exaggerating, the size was still monstrous. Jimmy started to cry again.
Exchanging looks with her mother, Louise muttered, “I’m calling Vic,” as she moved toward the phone on the kitchen wall. Absolutely no way am I dealing with that!
*
The phone rang in the station’s glass-sided office. Vic picked it up on the third ring and rattled off his greeting by rote, “Matthews Phillips 66 and U-Haul Rental, can I help you?” Listening for a moment as his flustered wife poured out her fear and frustration about what she termed a huge wasp nest in the corner of the carport, Vic’s face relaxed into his dimpled grin, thinking this was probably one of those “pregnancy exaggerations.”
Nodding, although she couldn’t see the action, he murmured, “Okay baby, I’ll take care of it, don’t you worry. And don’t go back out there, you hear?” He grinned again when she emphatically assured him she would not go anywhere near the monstrosity.
When he hung up the phone, he shook his head with a soft chuckle.
Floyd came through the door from the bay area and reached up on the shelf to grasp a few canisters of oil. He looked over at his boss and smiled when he heard him laugh.
“Who was dat, Chief?”
Vic stood up from the desk and looked across at his employee and friend. Quickly, Vic told Floyd about the situation.
“I gotta get Mr. Dickerson’s DeSoto finished, though. Do me a favor and run over to the house, and take care of it for Louise, all right?” Vic asked, but Floyd immediately began shaking his head.
“Can’t do that, Chief. Remember when we was at the CC camp and I almost died that time from gettin’ stung? The doc tol’ me I was a-ler…how you say dat…?”
“Allergic?” Vic supplied.
“Yep, dat’s the word. He said I was a-ler-gic and if I get’s stung again, dat be all she wrote. Sorry, Chief…” he added.
“No, that’s all right, Floyd. I forgot all about that, and I sure don’t want you to take a chance,” Vic conceded as he smiled at his friend.
Duke walked through the door just then, handing Vic the money for a full tank of gas and two quarts of oil he’d just sold to a customer.
Turning his attention to his other employee, Vic began, “Duke, the missus just called. Somethin’ about a wasp nest. My youngest boy got stung. But you know how women are, they blow everything outta proportion,” he gave a soft snicker. “I want you to take the pickup and go over to my house and take care of it, okay? That is…you ever been stung by a wasp?” he asked, glancing at Floyd.
“Yessah, when I was jus’ a tad pole. Hurt like the dickens. Sho’ made me re-spec them creatures. Sho’ made me wonder what de good Lawd made such a thang fo’, too…but I’s guess He gots His reasons.”
“Well, I’d ’preciate it if you’ll go take care of it for me. She shouldn’t get upset right now, and I sure don’t want her to get stung,” Vic added, knowing Duke would understand, as both of his men knew that his wife was expecting.
“Yessah, yessah, I sho’ will,” Duke replied, catching the keys to Vic’s old pickup as his boss tossed them his way and told him the address and how to get there. “Yessah. Be back showt’ly.”
So, the little man with a face and physique like Louis Armstrong, but a voice like Andy Divine, clambered up into the truck and headed toward Granvil Drive, singing an old negro spiritual. As he backed up the truck and put it in gear, Vic heard him sing, “Joshua fit de battle a’ Jerico, Jerico, Jerico. Joshua fit de battle a’ Jerico…an’ de wasper nest come a tumblin’ down.” This he followed with his trademark cackle.
Vic and Floyd both shook their heads, chuckling, and went on back to the cars they were repairing.
Fifteen minutes later, Duke pulled into the driveway of the house, and Louise, Lilly, Buddy, and Jimmy came spilling out of the front door, headed his way. He put the truck in gear and turned off the motor as they converged on him at the driver’s door. All of them were talking at once and his eyes were as round as saucers as he tried to make sense out of what they were saying.
“Ho now, ho now, one’ta time. Miz Matt’ews, why don’ you tell me,” he encouraged as he eased his way out of the vehicle and into their midst.
Louise proceeded to tell him where the nest was and how big it was, as she handed him the flashlight. “Go on, take a look if you don’t believe me,” she encouraged as she saw the doubting expression on his face. She pointed toward the yawning opening to the three-sided structure.
Duke, feeling just a bit hesitant, took the light and headed up the concrete driveway as the four scurried toward the front door of the house. Lilly went on inside, taking Jimmy with her. The boy hollered from the doorway, “Be careful, Mr. Duke! Don’t let ’em get ya! It hurts!”
Swallowing, his heart beginning to hammer, the old man crept near the opening and snapped on the light. Louise knew the instant he saw the nest, as his eyes nearly bugged out of his head and he began to stammer, “Oh my my my my my. My my my my my my,” his head shaking back and forth as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“See what I mean?” Louise called, as he headed her way, his expression revealing his shock. She knew he was wondering how in the world he would be able to knock that thing down without getting the life stung out of him.
“What are you going to do?” Louise asked, her arms crossed over her chest, feeling a shiver of fear even though it was a warm spring day and she was totally out of sight of the buzzing menace.
“Lawd Jesus, I gots ta do some studyin’ on dis, now. Yess’m. Lawd hep’ us all,” he mumbled, pacing back and forth. He walked back over, peeped around the corner and shined the light on the nest again, shook his head, and then retraced his steps.
Louise watched him, but truly she had no ideas to even toss his way. She was just glad she wasn’t the one faced with the task. However, she didn’t want the little man to get stung, either.
Finally, he muttered, “Ma’am…I think I’s gonna go over to da haw’dware sto’ and get somethin’ to take care ’a dis. I be back,” he assured. “Now ma’am, Chief said fo’ you ta stay way away from ’dere, alright?”
She nodded and watched him walk to the truck, looking over his shoulder every few steps and muttering to himself in his sing-song voice that he’d never seen nothing like that in all his live long days.
Thirty minutes later, he was back.
The men at the hardware store had listened to his problem and said the best thing they could recommend would be to saturate the nest with turpentine. Lots of turpentine. They cautioned him to take careful aim, let it fly, and then run for the hills.
Out at the street, he poured the liquid from the containers into a metal bucket, nearly filling it to the top. Louise could hear from the doorway that he was mumbling prayers as he worked. She was saying a few as well. Then, once he was ready, he hollered for them to go inside and shut the door. The four inside the house ran to the kitchen door and Louise pushed the curtain aside and snapped on the outside light. The glow didn’t even reach halfway to the corner, which was why they had never noticed the threat before, but it helped some.
From inside, they watched as little gray-haired Duke, who seemed half scared out of his wits, but steadfast and determined nonetheless, inched his way inside. His lips were moving in what Louise figured was continuous prayers sent up to God. The watchers all held their breath. Louise prayed for Duke’s safety, and for a miracle, half wishing Vic had come himself or sent Floyd, as she wondered how this wiry little man could handle such a job. Goodness, I hope it doesn’t give him a heart attack!
He got as close as he dared, the flashlight trained on the menace. The buzzing of the predators nearly dissolved his courage. His hands were shaking as he hummed the Joshua tune. Then suddenly, he squared his shoulders, positioned the flashlight on a box so it was pointed at the structure, and began to take his aim. He eyed the nest, and with both hands firmly on the bucket, carefully swung it up and back…once…twice…three times…and then with a shout as if he pictured the walls of Jericho falling down, he let the turpentine fly.
Louise couldn’t believe it – a direct hit! As if guided by the Hand of God like David’s Goliath-felling rock, the gargantuan nest was instantly saturated with the potent solution, along with every single wasp on it except one! The lone survivor zoomed toward the man with the bucket, but he knocked it out of the air and stepped on it, squishing it with his shoe.
The four inside the house erupted with shouts of triumph.
His grin and swagger returning in full force, old Duke cackled and stopped outside of the carport just as the others spilled out the front door again.
Buddy ran up to him, “Wow, what a shot! That was sure something, Mr. Duke!”
“I wouldn’t have believed it without seeing that for myself. That was amazing,” Lilly complimented.
“Oh Duke, thank you!” Louise gushed, reaching out to lay a hand on the man’s arm. “You couldn’t have done a more perfect job. One whoosh! I’ve never seen anything like it. How’d you DO that?”
He laughed as he set the bucket down on the sidewalk and took a rag out of his back pocket, using it to wipe the sweat off his face and neck.
“Ma’am, I do b’lieve de good Lawd had His hand on mine. Shucks, you know’d I was ready ta run fo’ de hills if’n I missed.” He grinned and cackled again. “But, de Lawd is faithful. I figga’d if’n He could help David kill ol’ Go-liath with jus’ one little rock, dis here wouldn’t be too hawd. Yes, indeed. De Lawd is faithful.”
“Yes He is,” Louise agreed, looking toward the opening to the carport and shaking her head in wonder.
“I’d say, Ma’am, dis’ll be a story you’ll be a tellin’ yo grand chil’un someday. Fo’ sho, fo’ sho. I’d say you won’t forget dis day.”
“That I will, Duke. That I will.” Looking back at the friendly little man with the big wide, gleaming smile, she opened her mouth to add something else, when they heard through the screen door an ominous hissing sound coming from the inside of the house. Wide-eyed, Louise met Lilly’s eyes, and then the older woman let out a screech.
“The pressure cooker!” she exclaimed, and turned to hurry to the door.
“Oh no!” Louise gasped. As one, they all began to run, trying to fit through the front door at one time, Duke right on their heels.
When they reached the kitchen doorway, the five stood still, looking like the cast of an Abbott & Costello movie, mouths open, eyes round as golf balls.
Little Jimmy was the first to utter a word. “Ewwww!”
Indeed, it was the pressure cooker. In all the excitement about the wasp sting, and then the huge nest, and the turpentine adventure, Lilly had failed to secure the top on the device and hadn’t realized she had turned on the burner. Dark blue goo had spilled out from the pot and onto the stove, running down the front and pooling onto the floor in an ever-widening puddle. Drops had also splashed on nearby surfaces, and the air was full of heavy purple steam.
It was actually only seconds before the two women rushed forward to corral the mess, and Duke reached for the boiling pot, managing to move it off the fire and into the kitchen sink out of harm’s way.
Staring at the mess on the floor and contemplating how best to start the cleanup, Louise placed her fists on her hips with a frustrated sigh.
“You’re so right, Duke. This will be a day I’ll never forget!”
‡
CHAPTER 14
We’ll Be Seeing You, Billy Boy
The whopper of a wasp nest became the fodder for many jokes and comments. Duke told the story to anyone who would listen, and each time Vic overheard a telling, the nest got bigger…and bigger…and bigger.
The task, of course, had fallen to Vic to get the dead nest down to toss in the garbage can. What a monster! Privately, he conceded that if he’d been the one to sling the turpentine, he might embellish the tale a bit himself, although the reality was frightening enough on its own.
That summer wasn’t all fun and games, however.
Two months later, on what promised to be a hot day in July, judging by the temperature during the night, Louise awoke with a deep feeling of dread. She tried to look around, but the room was pitch dark except for a tiny sliver of light seeping past the edge of the curtain, owing to the streetlight out front.
Lying in bed beside a sleeping Vic, she pressed one hand to her chest, and laid the other arm over her eyes as another wave of fear swept through her. What is wrong? Something bad is going to happen today…I just know it. Oh, please God, don’t let anything happen to the baby…or Vic, or the kids, or Mama… She lay there for several minutes with her heart pounding triple time before finally deciding to get up and go splash cold water on her face. Maybe I’m just too hot. Or that fish we had for supper last night was bad…
Swinging her legs out of bed, she padded out to the hall and across to the bathroom.
Moments later, toweling her face dry, an image of her brother, Billy, came into her mind so clear, it was as if he was standing right beside her. He gave her a tiny smile, but his eyes looked sad and sort of empty.
Billy? Louise stood still, wondering if something might be wrong with her brother. Could he be in some kind of danger? Searching her mind, she realized it had been quite a while since she had seen him. She knew he rented a tiny room somewhere downtown and had been getting by playing drums and sometimes piano – which he had taught himself – in a little joint in the West End. She smiled at that thought, wondering from whom she and Billy had gotten their musical talents, because neither one of their parents could carry a tune in a bucket.
However, with a cringe, she thought about the fact that Billy had been drinking…whiskey…a lot…ever since he h
ad returned from serving in the Army during the Korean War. She had remained very concerned about him after his discharge, when the family found out about an incident on board the ship returning from overseas. He had been minding his own business, standing at the rail, when a fellow soldier on the deck above dropped a helmet – and it had hit Billy in the head, knocking him out! He had been unconscious for several minutes and suffered a mild concussion. Louise suspected the injury probably caused him recurring pain, although for reasons of his own, he never mentioned it.
Between that and his horrific experiences in a cold, wet foxhole in Korea, Louise felt that her dear brother had turned to the bottle for solace he couldn’t seem to find elsewhere. All the family knew of his time in Korea was from a photo he had shown them of him and his foxhole mate, a large black man by the name of John Barrow. She had a feeling his war memories were worse than anyone could imagine, but he would never tell them any specifics of what he’d gone through during those dreadful months.
Thinking back, she tried to remember the last time she had seen her youngest brother. Her older brother, Sonny, had been out to their Buechel house at least a dozen times since they had moved in, but Billy hadn’t. Come to think of it, not even during the holidays, as he’d been working and couldn’t get off, but he had called and wished everyone a Merry Christmas. So, how long has it been since I saw him… Oh yes…that time he came to the house on 38th…in a taxi…and asked if he could borrow some money. Pressing her lips together, Louise remembered how bad she had felt telling him she didn’t have any to give him. Lilly had searched her purse and come up with a lone quarter, which she had handed to him. Dejected, he had looked at the coin, then back up at the two of them and mumbled a soft, “Thanks,” kissed each one on the cheek, and went back out to the waiting cab. She hadn’t seen him since.
I hope he’s all right… Louise returned to the bedroom and focused on the clock on Vic’s side of the bed. 4 A.M. When I get up, I’ll try to call down to where he works and see if I can find out if he’s okay. What was the name of the place? Mmm, I can’t remember. I’ll ask Mama, she’ll know.
