Magnolia's Fall From Grace

by Zara Teleg

  “I was just thinking, if I turned hard enough, maybe you’d slide closer.” Maggie’s eyes grew wide, then without saying anything, she scooted closer to me. Her blonde hair whipped around her heavenly scent, drowning me. I placed one hand on the wheel and the other over her hand.

  The Golden Arches were the first place we came across. We cruised into the drive-through, and everyone took turns shouting out their orders. “I’ll have a cheeseburger, fries, Coke and—” I looked at Maggie.

  “Vanilla shake.”

  “And a vanilla shake,” I finished.

  “Sorry, sir, we just closed our shake machine. You’re our last customer.”

  “I’m fine,” Maggie waved it off.

  I was not going to disappoint her. I hopped out of the running vehicle and went to the open takeout window. A nerdy guy popped his head out. “Sir, what are you doing?”

  “Hey, buddy, can you help a guy out? My girl,” I pointed to Maggie, “had her heart set on a shake. How much to get you to open that machine for me and make one more?”

  He poked his head out, eyeing the rowdy bunch.

  “Ten bucks,” he said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes, reaching deep into my pocket.

  “It better be the best shake she ever had,” I growled, slapping the cash in his greedy hand.

  “Vincent, what did you do?” I came back to the truck, pulling it around to the window where we were handed our food and a large vanilla shake.

  “Aww, thank you.” It was like music from her lips. She sipped her shake and leaned her head on my shoulder the whole way back.

  “See you in the morning?” I asked as I walked Maggie and Shannon back to their door.

  “Yep.” She offered a shy smile.

  All I wanted was to kiss her again, but then she climbed the steps and closed the door behind her.

  When I walked back to our cabin, Viper was smoking a cigarette outside. “You’re into her?”

  “Who?” Like I didn’t know.

  “Maggie Grace. You seem into her.”

  “I mean, I like her, but I don’t know. I promised her, as a thank-you for rescuing Mongo, that I’d show her some parts of life she’s been missing. You know she went to an all-girls Catholic boarding school?”

  “Tara told me that. Could you imagine all those good girls who could use corrupting?” He grabbed his crotch.

  “She ain’t like that. She’s real smart, going to college to be a doctor.”

  “I think she’s hot.” Viper sucked in a long drag off his smoke.

  “There’s no denying that,” I agreed.

  “Did Vicious talk to you about a job next week?”

  “Keep it down, will ya? Yeah, he did. We gotta make a visit to the old man.”

  Viper flicked his cigarette to the ground before stomping it out and opening the door to the cabin. “You know you have to be the one to talk to him. He still likes you.” His boots thumped to the floor one after the other, then he lifted his shirt and threw it in his ball of laundry.

  “Paw-paw still cares about all of us. You just choose to hold a grudge since he moved away.” My brothers could never understand Paw-paw taking off after Mom did. They held so much anger toward him.

  “You think Voodoo would ever leave us behind if he didn’t like what we were up to? No, he always has our dumbass backs, always.” Viper roughly pulled the sheet over him. “You know, we were just kids—he was our grandfather. He should have stayed, no matter how angry he was with Voodoo. He knew what would happen when he left.”

  I went to bed thinking about all those times I had spent with Paw-paw Virgil when I was growing up. For some reason, the two of us had a special bond he didn’t have with my brothers, even with Viper, who was named after him.

  It tore me up inside when he and our mother, Esmeralda, disappeared from our lives the way they did. But just like everything else, I held it in. Because what else was I supposed to do? Express my emotions? Share my feelings? No, not when you were in the baddest motherfucking MC this side of the Mississippi. Suck it up—that was what Voodoo had taught us growing up. Showing affection, compassion, or any of those “weak” emotions had only gotten us beaten with a switch—and crying only made it worse. He wanted us to grow up men, not some soft sissy flakes. He always told us that we were Kings meant for glory, destined to carry on the great legacy of Cajun Kings when he no longer could. And I was determined to make him proud, to show him I had what it took to be a King.

  But Paw-paw hated the club and what his son had become because of it. They fought about it all the time. In fact, they hadn’t spoken since Paw-paw left, which was why the club was sending me to go talk to him. He had warned that my father had been taking things too far, driving my mother away and tearing our family apart, but no one could have convinced Voodoo to change his ways.

  Viper and Vicious hated her for leaving, but I understood why she had to go. I knew the pain my mother had gone through. While other kids got bedtime stories, we listened to our parents’ constant arguing. It wasn’t hard to hear everything through mobile home walls. “You’re going to get yourself, your men, me, or, God forbid, one of our boys killed. Victor, you are taking too many chances,” she would tell my father, often while she cried.

  I remembered my mom crying a lot. And also waiting a lot. I used to see her sipping wine while she waited until all hours for my father to come home. There were nights I would crouch hidden in silence and find her sitting alone in the dark sobbing. Sometimes I’d see my poor, beautiful mother pacing or rocking like a madwoman, sick with worry.

  My father was such a fool. If I was ever lucky enough to have someone like our mother, I’d never let her go.

  Voodoo had never acknowledged our mother after she left. She was dead to him, and he had told us as much. He had also said that we were better off without Paw-paw, that he’d done nothing but fill our heads with useless fantasies. A practical man full of pride and ambition, my father never understood how Paw-paw could be satisfied with a single shrimp boat and a business selling his wood creations. Feared and respected, Voodoo ran the whole Louisiana Bayou, where he was born and raised, and many of the surrounding areas. He kept his club safe and provided them all homes in the trailer community he had bought before I was born. He was a towering six foot, six inches, with black hair and nearly black eyes, and many were easily intimidated. People moved when he walked in their direction.

  But Voodoo hadn’t always been the cold and ruthless man he was now. He used to be much gentler and softer, especially with my mother. She was so radiant and warm, she could make even the coldest, meanest sonofabitch smile. He had met her on a trip to New Orleans in the sixties. She was a gypsy and moved from place to place, and her gypsy family was furious when she fell in love with Voodoo and decided to settle in Cajun Country. She was wild, with long, wavy mahogany hair that smelled of flowers and enchanting amethyst eyes. She loved to dance. She was always dancing around the house, spinning in her long skirts, her jewelry dripping off her and jingling as she moved.

  My father could never get the gypsy out of her, and when he wasn’t around, she would laugh and sing and dance with us and teach us her traditions, against his wishes—he thought those things weren’t good for boys, made ‘em soft.

  People said I looked like my mother. Which was probably why my father treated me differently, more harshly, because he saw her in me. Perhaps I reminded him of her betrayal, and worse, of what he had lost.

  Voodoo, no doubt, had thought they would be together forever. Family legend had it that the Landry men had a voodoo curse upon them, causing them to lose any woman they loved. It had happened to my great-granddaddy and to Paw-paw. So when my father had met my mother, he had chosen Voodoo as his road name to mock the curse, believing that with Esmeralda by his side, they would rule the Bayou. And for many years, they did. Until she disappeared. He had grown hungry for nothing other than power that it drove them apart. She wanted love, he wanted power. One day, I woke up and she was gone. Paw
-paw left not long after, said he didn’t want to witness the self-destructive path Voodoo was on.

  I shifted in my bed and punched my lumpy pillow a few times to fluff the miserable thing. Damn, I had to get off this memory lane. The past was in the past, no sense thinking about it. But I guessed some things you just couldn’t escape. Like Maggie.

  I had a feeling Paw-paw would like Maggie. I saw some of my mother’s spirit in her. She might not be wild, but she had fierce courage that was unwavering. She was the kind of girl who would stand by you. That was what I found most attractive about her. I couldn’t figure it out at first, but then, just like with Sissy and Viper, I saw it the moment she swam across the black water to save someone who she didn’t even know. I’ve never known someone to be so selfless.

  Chapter 9

  Magnolia

  “She thinks she’s hot shit working with the sexy doctor and hanging around the biker boys. But she ain’t nothing.” Tara sprayed her hair again. “I’ll make sure by the end of summer she knows who’s the queen bee around here.” Tara’s cloud of Aqua Net had DeeDee coughing.

  I winced as the bathroom door closed, not making a sound. I moved as far away from the area as I could get, so Tara wouldn’t know I heard every nasty word she said about me. Queen bee? Who talks like that?

  “I thought you were showering? You’ve only been gone like ten minutes?” Shannon swung her towel over her shoulder.

  “It was occupied.”

  Shannon shrugged her shoulder and turned up the music as she plopped next to me on the bed.

  “What are you doing?” I asked as her arm came around me.

  “Waiting. You said it was full. I’ll go with you. You don’t have to tell me, but I know something is eating you.”

  Shannon was a good enough friend to know whenever something was wrong. I was glad I had her.

  “So, where do you think we are going tomorrow night?” Shannon pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

  “I’m not sure, but Vincent assured me we were going to have fun.”

  My Friday morning didn’t get any better. The air had conked out in the medical tent, and it was as hot as I imagined hell would be. Drenched in sweat, I swirled my hair into a high bun and was fanning myself with a first-aid brochure when Alcide walked into the tent, shirtless.

  Mother of all that is holy, I tried not to look. But I couldn’t help watch the tan Adonis as sweat dripped down his body, covering his thick, deep abs like rain running over rocks.

  “Sorry, Maggie Grace, I thought you were at lunch.” He quickly opened the drawer to find a new shirt. “Are you okay?”

  I stood frozen as he toweled his sweat off. “Uh, yes, sorry, it’s the heat. I can’t think in this heat.”

  “One of the boys from the work tent is coming over to switch out the generator and get some air in here.”

  I was still nearly drooling at the man who could have been carved from marble when the tent door opened. Vincent stepped in, smiling at me in his signature way before he noticed Alcide stretching his shirt over his muscled arms and chest.

  Good lord, what has happened to me? I couldn’t drag my eyes away. I guess I stared a bit too long, because when I turned my attention back to Vincent, his smile was gone as he looked from me to Alcide.

  Alcide was clueless. “Oh, hey. You here to fix our generator? Poor Maggie has been melting here all day.” Alcide laughed as his arm went around me playfully. I could see the tick in Vincent’s jaw. He looked like his eyes were trying to beam lasers to cut Alcide’s arm from my shoulder.

  “Yes, you’re probably making her even hotter by being so close,” he said with gritted teeth. Alcide’s eyebrow cocked as he took a step away from me but looked at us, studying the situation. Vincent ignored him and me and began tinkering with the machine.

  Alcide instructed me on using the IV we would need to hook up if anyone was dehydrated and needed fluids intravenously. I could feel the anger vibrating off Vincent while he worked. About an hour later, he was done and the tent was beginning to cool down.

  “Maggie Grace, can I speak to you alone for a minute?” Vincent asked as he held the door to the tent open.

  “Um, sure.” I began to follow him outside when Alcide tapped my shoulder. I looked back at him, seeing the concern in his eyes.

  “I’m fine. Vincent and I are good friends,” I reassured him. “Nothing to worry about.”

  “Okay, but if he does or says anything—”

  “I’m fine, Alcide.” I offered him a grateful smile as I joined Vincent outside.

  “Thanks for fixing that. You’re a real lifesaver.” I nearly melted as the heat hit me.

  “Yeah, I’m a lifesaver, just like the half-naked doctor you work with.” Vincent crossed his arms and leaned against the light pole.

  “What?”

  “Maggie, I saw the way you looked at him.” He pulled out a cigarette, lighting it as he waited for my response.

  I let out a huge sigh. Did he really think I would like Alcide like that? Sure, he was super attractive, but not for me. My cheeks flamed as I shook my head in denial. “I work with Alcide. He’s my friend too, and there’s no reason for you to be acting this way.” I placed my hand on my hip, trying to act confidently.

  “Yeah, sure.” Vincent picked up his work bags. “So just Alcide, no ‘doctor’? I get it, just friends. If you still want to hang out with us little people, Sissy wanted to come get you and Shannon tomorrow afternoon, around two.”

  “Two? I thought we were going somewhere at night?”

  “We are, but she wants time to prepare you girls, whatever that means.”

  “Okay.” Now that concerned me a little. “I guess I will see you in the morning?” I asked, wondering if he was too mad to want to have our morning chat.

  “Maybe I’ll catch you there.” He shrugged and began to walk off.

  Venom

  “What’s wrong with you?” Viper asked as I slammed down the tools and stomped around the work tent. The smell of oil, gas, and heat, giving me an instant throb in my head.

  “Nothing.” I pulled so hard on the rope of the machine I was supposed to fix that it ripped out.

  “Well, I can see that.” Viper pushed me out of the way and grabbed the rope and screwdriver.

  “It’s that fucking doctor. I walked in to fix the generator, and there was Maggie, mouth open as he was shirtless. I could tell he didn’t like her hanging around me. He acts all nice, but he’s just like the rest of them and thinks we’re dirt.”

  “You want me to threaten him? I’d be happy to show him exactly who we are.” Viper patted the knife strapped to his leg under his pants.

  “NO! That’s all we need to get kicked out. That’s just what people like him want.”

  I flipped open the tarp window facing the medical tent. Maggie was holding a little girl’s hand, walking toward it. She knelt in front of the crying little girl. Maggie wiped the tears from her eyes and stayed at her level while she spoke to her. I could see the girl shake her head yes before she outstretched her arms and placed them around Maggie Grace’s neck. Her arms wrapped around the kid who I now recognized as Anabelle, Catherine and Paul’s daughter. Maggie scooped her up, and the still-crying Ana placed her head on her shoulder. Patting her back, she soothed her and had her calm in moments. Maggie would be an excellent mother someday. I let the curtain drop when Viper called my attention.

  “So we still on for tomorrow? I have Forge getting us all we need,” he said while cleaning his workstation. “Sissy can’t wait to get her hands on Shannon and Maggie. Mongo said that’s all she talks about. What the hell did those two do before we came?”

  “I could get used to living in these parts. I like the peace out here.”

  “You sound like the old man. Next thing you know, you’ll be selling carved wood and leaving the club behind.” He threw a grease-stained towel at me.

  I wasn’t going to meet her this morning. I was still stewing over, watching her dro
ol over the doc. I stood far enough away and watched her. I tried to control myself, walk away, but I couldn’t.

  The flapping wings of the egret zoomed over my head. Traipsing through the dewy ground, I watched the sun’s golden rays dance through the tall cypress and land on Magnolia, who looked like a goddess sitting on her blanket with her eyes closed and hands together, praying. I wish I knew what she said to her God. Who did she pray for?

  Her eyes flitted open, and she scanned the area, her long hair touching the blanket as she turned her head, looking around. When her eyes fell on me, relief was in her smile. She waved me over.

  I sat but didn’t say anything.

  “Are you still mad at me?” She hugged her knees to her chest and tried to study my face.

  “Vincent, come on. You cannot seriously be mad.” She placed her tiny hands around my bicep and tugged.

  I rolled my eyes, and just as she let her guard down, tugging harder on my arm, I quickly threw my arms around her waist and swung her back, laying her back across my legs. She laughed until she was breathless.

  “I’m not mad at you, Maggie Grace.” I swiped my finger over the tip of her nose. “I just don’t like the doc. He was just too friendly and casual with you. You’re naive if you think he or any other man in the community hasn’t noticed you.”

  Her eyes widened as she shook her head. “You’re crazy, Vincent.”

  “So where were we yesterday?” I asked, settling in close to her. I enjoyed the blush that colored her cheeks anytime we got close.

  “I was telling you about the Commandments.” She raised an eyebrow as if she was checking to see if I had been paying attention.

  “Right, the rules that were written in stone,” I recalled her explanation. “You really believe you are going to hell if you don’t live your life perfectly?”

  “It’s not about perfection, Vincent, it’s about intention.”

  That was something to ponder. “So, if my intention is to protect what is mine, is it wrong to hurt someone who is threatening it?”