Wolfheart

by Hallie Lee

  “I’m pretty lucky, I guess,” she said. “I know my Mamaw Peony wanted this for me. She wanted the whole world for me. Definitely more than life on the creek.”

  Not unlike the moment with Claire, I knew how I responded was crucial. I didn’t want to disparage Bella’s culture, but I wanted to be supportive of the kind of life she sought. “It’s not so bad, is it? Across the creek?”

  “No. It’s not bad. But it could be better.” She pointed at the flyer that glimmered in the wind. “Like your incorporation, for example. I think that would make things better. I also think assimilation would make things better. But our culture is distrustful, and resistant.”

  I thought of Claire and her nasty remarks. Maybe the people on the creek had a reason to be distrustful.

  “My papaw, now he was a line crosser. He was a barrier breaker. He mixed with people from all over, and they loved him. His name was Axe.”

  “Axe? I like that.”

  “Do you know what his name means?”

  “What?”

  “It means Father of Peace. And even though I never met him, I imagine him that way. Peaceful. Easy. Kind. I imagine him just like you do your nana.”

  “I bet he’d be happy to know you think of him that way.” I stopped, hesitating.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Never mind.”

  “Luke, come on. I thought we were being honest.” She pressed. “Come on. Tell me.”

  “It’s just the way everyone talks about Peony, your mamaw, and your Papaw Axe, I guess I just wonder how somebody like Madhawk came into your lives.”

  Bella fiddled with her straw. Uncomfortable, she looked off toward the four way stop sign as a big red truck passed. I’d pushed too far. And on the cusp of her big try out. Why hadn’t I kept my mouth shut? I berated myself.

  “Well, Papaw Axe died,” she said eventually. “And for a long time Mamaw Peony made it fine raising mama on her own. You know, Uncle Wolf was always there. Watching over everything and protecting the family.”

  “So, what happened?”

  “I did. Unexpectedly. Another mouth to feed. More responsibility.” She sighed. “I don’t really know all the whys and whens, just that Madhawk was always there.”

  “I’m sorry, Bella. I shouldn’t have brought it up.” I brushed her hand with the tips of my fingers. “You shouldn’t blame yourself. Nothing that happened was your fault.”

  She snorted. “That’s debatable. Madhawk didn’t like me much, and he didn’t like Mama. I guess he resented us for taking up space in Mamaw’s life. But you know who he really hated?”

  “Your uncle.”

  She nodded, vague suddenly as she looked at her watch.

  “Is it time?” I asked. “Are you ready to go light up the church?” I teased, hoping to ease the heaviness of the conversation.

  “You bet I am.” She rose, collecting the food wrappers from the table. When I took the bag to the trash, Bella closed her eyes, and moved her lips in silence. When I realized she was praying, I dawdled at the trash can.

  An old, beat-up, black truck slowed at the stop sign. I recognized the familiar racket that trailed the ancient clunker. A hole in the muffler made the back-end sound like a bag of rattling rocks. Mama said he’d had that truck since she was in school.

  “It’s Uncle Wolf,” Bella said cheerily. Wolfheart honked, stuck his slender, olive skinned arm out the window. He gave a thumbs up, then took a right toward the Shady Gully Baptist Church. I caught a glimpse of a small head riding shotgun.

  “That didn’t look like your mama,” I said, confused.

  “No, she won’t be coming.” After a beat, Bella smiled. “But my fan club has arrived.”

  •

  I loved walking into church with Bella. The way everyone’s eyes were drawn to us, to her, and I loved the sound of her name as it swelled to a crescendo among the crowd.

  “Bella…”

  “She’s here…”

  The atmosphere was thick with anticipation, and I suddenly felt anxious as I followed Bella up the center aisle. Like a wedding, it seemed that the onlookers had formed sides, and divided themselves accordingly. The pews on the left were filled with the likes of Thaddeus, Big Al, Dolly, and a few scattered ladies from her salon, while the pews on the right overflowed with my family and their large circle of friends.

  My parents and Aunt Robin sat on the front row, along with Wolfheart and the young boy, who I now recognized from Peony’s funeral. Behind them were Petey, Violet, Sterling, and Micah. My sister waved when she saw me.

  Max’s wife, Danielle, had also joined the group, as had Bubba and Daryl. I’m sure there were no questions asked when Mama suggested my employees take the afternoon off to attend the Shady Gully Baptist Church’s musical try outs.

  Bubba winked at me.

  “Good luck,” I said to Bella as I moved toward my family. Just as we each took a step in our respective directions, a loud crash echoed from the vestry and church offices. Horrified, we listened as angry shouting reverberated throughout the sanctuary.

  “You broke that! You’ve lost your mind!”

  “Allowing this to take place is a slap in my face!”

  Because it was clear the angry voices belonged to Jesse and James, my gaze naturally drifted toward their younger sister, Dolly. She, however, seemed unfazed by her brothers’ disagreement. Instead, she appeared stricken, and extremely troubled by the sight of Bella. She studied her with an eerie intensity that unsettled me.

  “You’re undermining my authority,” Jesse hissed.

  “What authority?” James countered. “This is my church, and I’ll run it as I see fit. Why don’t you go run yours?”

  As the muffled argument intensified, the gathering perched awkwardly on the tip of their pews, while Bella, obviously the subject of the heated argument, remained frozen in place at the head of the nave. I was struck by her composure, the way she held her back tall and straight, and faced the pulpit with dignity.

  “Just leave, Jesse. Go out the back.” The sound of James’s footsteps grew louder as he trudged down the hall toward the congregation. When he turned the corner, and entered the sanctuary, his eyes widened as he took in the stunned onlookers.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Everyone, I apologize.” Physically, the main difference between the twins was that James wasn’t completely bald, and his choice of spectacles was slightly more fashionable than his brother’s. And he wasn’t as hauntingly thin as Jesse.

  “My. I hadn’t expected such an…audience,” he said clumsily. “Uh, Bella, will you be needing the piano today?”

  She nodded politely, and took one small step toward the stage when Jesse burst through the hallway doors.

  Highly agitated, and encouraged by the presence of his buddies, Thaddeus and Big Al, Jesse seemed intent upon continuing the fight with his brother. “This is an outrage.” He confronted James at the podium.

  “Jesse, please go.” James, equally agitated, met his brother nose to nose.

  As Jesse backed away, he considered the faces in the pews. For a moment, it seemed he’d settled down, but then his eyes landed on his sister, Dolly, who looked pale and distraught as she continued to gawk at Bella.

  With renewed fury he turned once again to James. “You’re disgracing our family. Stop this now.” Although Jesse lowered his voice, a few words, like sister and humiliation, were discernible in his rant.

  James, unhappy with being challenged in front of his flock, grumbled. “You need to drop this. Go home. You’re causing a scene.”

  Jesse moved toward Bella. Gritted his teeth. “I’ve already told you no, young lady. We will not be needing your services.” Utterly enthralled by the disturbing drama at the pulpit, no one noticed how quickly Wolfheart jumped from his seat, and planted himself in front of Bella.

  Wolf
heart clutched Jesse by the shirt, snarled into his ear.

  “That’s enough,” James, attempting to calm everyone down, reached for his brother’s arm. “We can’t have this here. Not at—”

  Jesse wheeled. And threw a punch so severe James’s glasses flew across the stage.

  Pandemonium broke out as Big Al and Thaddeus hoofed it onto the platform. Women gasped as more men eagerly rambled into the mix, further heightening the level of mayhem.

  Daryl and Petey tried to pull Jesse off his brother, but Jesse was so enraged the struggle only escalated. I was horrified when my dad, who’d long since passed his fighting days, lumbered into the jumble.

  Once I made sure that Bella had been safely extricated from the chaos, I latched on to my dad’s arm. “Dad.” At first, he looked at me with surprise, and then reason swept over him.

  Relieved when he joined the rest of the family to tend to Bella, I turned my attention to the thrashing bodies on the stage. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Bubba as he headed into the confusion with a purposeful look.

  “Bubba!”

  He turned at the sound of my voice. “It’s the kid!” He pointed toward the mayhem and sure enough, the boy had slipped away from Wolfheart, and launched himself into the pile up.

  Essentially flailing arms and legs, it took Bubba, Daryl, and me to extricate his tiny body from the madness. When I finally scooped him up, he continued his energetic floundering to such an extent I nearly teetered over before delivering him to Wolfheart.

  As I caught my breath, I took in the appalling state of bedlam transpiring before my eyes. The sanctuary resounded with shrieks, tears, and disbelief.

  And then, all at once, the noise came to a halt.

  The double doors of the building slammed against the walls as they flew open. The Sheriff of Shady Gully had arrived.

  And he did not look amused.

  Chapter Eleven

  Fresh Box Of Handcuffs

  Sheriff Rick

  I

  forced myself to pause in the foyer of the church. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to send up a little prayer seeing as how I was fixin’ to knock some heads together.

  Getting called to a brawl was one thing, but getting called to a brawl in a place of worship was another thing altogether. I cringed imagining the variety of creative memes the state boys would dream up by day’s end.

  Lord Jesus, help me not throw away the key after I lock all these knuckleheads up.

  A quick reconnaissance of the place told me two things. Number one, nobody was in immediate danger, and number two, the usual suspects were all present and accounted for. Swell.

  I noted blood on the altar, the sanctuary, and the stage, but mostly, on James’s shirt. He appeared shellshocked, as his glasses dangled along his swollen nose.

  His evil twin, Jesse, glared at me from the podium. As usual, he had that sanctimonious look on his miserable face, and I had to remind myself that I was in the Lord’s house. “Quiet,” I warned him, as I could see him revving up for a speech.

  “Max,” I hollered. “Let’s break out that fresh box of handcuffs we got in from FedEx this morning.”

  Max cleared his throat. Leaned into me, all quiet like. “I believe I see my wife. On the second row. She’s wearing the peach shirt—”

  “Max,” I turned to him. “I see your whole dang family. Starting with your sister. Ain’t it interesting how she finds herself in trouble whenever she’s around Desi?”

  “Lenny’s here too.”

  “Yeah well, Desi corrupted him a long time ago.”

  “And the kids—”

  “All right. All right.” I walked up the center aisle, making sure my boots clomped loud enough to discourage the young ones from a life of crime. “While my deputies fetch the handcuffs, I’m gonna take statements.”

  In unison, they all began prattling. When I held up my hand, the racket stopped. “One from each…team.” Good gracious, what a disgrace. Before they could start in again, I said, “Lenny.” I then assessed the opposition, eventually settling on the lesser of three evils. “And Dolly.”

  I didn’t bother flipping a coin. “Lenny, you start.” A best friend trumps a hair stylist all day long. “What happened here?”

  “Well, Sheriff.” I had to give him points for resisting the eye roll. “We all gathered here today for Bella’s singing try out.”

  “A singing try out she was invited to,” Desi couldn’t help herself.

  “By Brother James.” Robin put in, feisty today.

  “James had no right to invite her,” Jesse reared his ugly head. “After I passed on her.”

  Quietdove walked in with a FedEx box of staplers and paper clips. He did a great job setting them down with a clunk, then leering at the crowd in a way that highlighted his dark and menacing side.

  Lenny continued. “Everything was fine until right before Bella went on stage. We, meaning everyone sitting in the pews, could hear Jesse and James having a knock-down-drag-out.”

  DUH—Dum—Dum.

  I never saw Robin’s kid, Sterling, slide on stage behind the electric keyboard, but the low, ominous, base notes he laid down got the young ones to giggling.

  I cleared my throat. Turned to Dolly. “What say you?” In spite of her heavily mascaraed eyes and her perfectly coiffed yellow hair, I sensed something off with Dolly’s usually high and mighty demeanor. “What were they arguing about?”

  “About…this girl trying out. She doesn’t attend church here. Or anywhere as far as we know, so it’s not allowed.”

  I glanced at Bella, who exhibited great restraint. Probably because Wolfheart maintained a firm grip on her elbow. At first, I was surprised to see him so calm, but then I realized he was playing the long game, which I admired. Wolfheart understood that the more Jesse and Dolly talked, the more their prejudices would show.

  “You and Jesse don’t make the rules at my church.” James stuck his chin out.

  Because I knew the sordid history, I had a good idea what this was all about, but it pained me that my generation was dragging the next into their wretched affairs. While I begrudgingly appreciated James for trying to do the right thing, I suspected his motivation was more about riling up his siblings.

  “You know, I’m just a Shady Gully Catholic from yonder down the road past the post office,” I ventured. “But at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, it’s pretty clear whose church it is. And all these rules you speak of, Dolly, well, that just don’t sit right with me.”

  Everyone pivoted at the sound of footsteps as Patty and her team of paramedics arrived to look over the injured. James, who was beginning to look a little pale, raised his hand. Patty glanced at me in disbelief as she directed her people onto the scene.

  Petey, who normally commanded an audience with his outgoing and gregarious personality, had stayed silent. Until now. “I agree with Sheriff Rick. Think about Jesus, for instance. He didn’t turn people away. He didn’t make rules to exclude people. He associated with lepers, tax collectors and prostitutes—”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake.” One of Dolly’s Diva Dome ladies grew aflutter.

  James winced his agreement as Patty placed medical tape across his nose. “The young man with the hair is right.”

  Jesse grumbled. “This is ridiculous.” He and Dolly grew more and more agitated.

  “I’d like to be a part of the church,” Bella said softly. “If you’ll let me.”

  “That settles it then,” I said. “After Patty and her crew take a gander at everybody, I say we get this place cleaned up, and listen to this young lady sing.”

  “No, I won’t.” Dolly, pale and unsteady, reached for her purse. “May I go? Or am I under arrest, Sheriff?”

  “You can go, Dolly.”

  “Me too. I want no part of this,” Jesse fumed. “I’m going hom
e.” Thaddeus and Big Al bobbed their heads, seething along with their friend.

  “That’s what you should have done to begin with,” muttered James. After he and Jesse engaged in one last stare down, Jesse and Dolly walked out of the church.

  DUH—Dum—Dum.

  Sterling, with a hint of flamboyance, offered a musical perspective to their dramatic exit. A splattering of laughter erupted amongst the young ones, and then they took matters into their own hands. Violet and Petey began to right some of the upended stage equipment, while Luke helped Micah and Quietdove wipe blood off the stage.

  “I really want to hear Bella sing.” A small boy with an earnest expression tugged on my arm. His clothes were rumpled, but he appeared uninjured. “What can I do to help, Sheriff?” He craned his neck to peer up at me.

  I dug a taffy out of my pocket, and handed it to him. “Find us a good seat.”

  •

  It looked to me like Robin’s son, Sterling, knew his way around music. After a chat with Bella, he fondled the headphones around his neck and moved with confidence to the electric keyboard. Or the digital piano. Or whatever they called this millennial child of the ivories. Sterling remained focused as he pressed keys, monitored speakers, and stared at a screen.

  He hit a few notes, traded a few meaningful glances with Bella, and then looked at James, whose nose had grown the size of a small banana.

  “Whenever y’all are ready,” said James, who seemed fine taking direction from Sterling, despite his non-church-member status. “You can begin.”

  “Here we go,” said the boy beside me. His legs dangled from the pew, and his teeth were purple from the grape taffy. “She’s going to be great.”

  But she wasn’t. Bella’s timing was off, and Sterling had to start her over again. And again. “Sorry,” she stumbled. “I…” Bella glanced at Wolfheart, and then Desi and her family. “May I have a minute?”

  “Sure,” James, Mr. Agreeable, squeaked, likely because his nose was swelling.

  Bella lowered her head and silently moved her lips. And then, after she looked at Sterling, she began to sing.