Mama answered the door. Seeing me, worry crossed her face and she leaned past to glance at the yard and drive.
“Come in. Come in quick in case your Daddy comes home. He’s so mad there ain’t no telling when he might show up. Why ain’t you in school?”
Still talking, she tugged me through the doorway so fast that I couldn’t answer. “He’s going to have some of his men from work go with him to Billy’s place. I don’t know if he meant after work or what. He said he’s already found a buyer for the tractor.”
I was glad I’d left the tractor behind the Causley’s barn before coming over.
“He won’t find the tractor there.”
Mama asked me, “That’ll make him blow a gasket. Are you hungry? I can make you a baloney biscuit. That’ll be quick.”
Grandma Sophia was sitting on the living room couch. Laying the book she was reading onto a cushion, she groaned to her feet. “Talk to Tempest, Olivia, I’ll make the biscuits. Bring her with you to the kitchen so I can hear.”
Mama and I sat at the breakfast table.
Knowing why I was there made me see her in a new way. I guess when you’re beholden to someone they somehow seem bigger than they are. Mama wasn’t any bigger than me. Grandma Sophia was smaller.
“I didn’t get on the bus because I quit school this morning. I told Miss Paula to tell the school. Yesterday Daddy threatened to make my life miserable from now on. I decided I’m not going to let him. I’m here to say goodbye.”
Grandma Sophia slammed the knife she used to slice the baloney onto the counter, but didn’t say anything.
Mama asked, “Say goodbye… Where are you going? Will you stay at the Causley’s with Bella and John?”
“No Mama, I don’t want to bring them trouble.”
Grandma brought two thick biscuit sandwiches and a glass of milk to the table and sat with us.
“Where will you go?” She asked.
“I don’t want to say because I don’t want you and Mama to have to lie if he asks you.”
Mama was crying, just a couple of tears running down her cheek. “Then don’t tell us because he can always tell when I hold something from him. You’re doing what’s best. Once Samuel gets a grudge, he don’t let go of it and it’s no secret he thinks you’re the worst of the lot.”
Grandma Sophia didn’t hold her tongue about her son. “Sam’s a mean S.O.B., that’s for sure, always has been. Tempest, I’ll put the sandwiches in a bag for you while you pack some of your clothes. You don’t want him to catch you here.”
I hadn’t thought about packing clothes. Thinking about the hand-me-down rags in my dresser and closet, I knew I wouldn’t be packing them, but I did want my microscope kit, telescope and a few other things I bought over the years with my farmer’s market earnings.
I stood and went to Mama. Bending to kiss her, I said, “I’ll sneak to see you when I can. I hugged Grandma and ran upstairs to the room that was only half mine because the other half was stacked floor to ceiling storage. Our little house didn’t have big closets and we didn’t have any other place to put stuff that needed to be out of the weather.”
Coming down the stairs with my backpack full of books, telescope under one arm and the other arm full of my microscope kit and holding bags in both hands, Grandma met me in the hall. “Out the back door, your Daddy just pulled into the driveway.” Tucking the baggie with the sandwiches with the rest of the things and hustling me to the back door, she said, “He’s got a couple of men in the truck with him and a hauler hooked to it. He must’ve gone to Billy’s place already and found the tractor gone.”
From the back door, I ran straight to the woods and then deep enough into them that Daddy wouldn’t see me when I turned toward the Causley’s.
Daddy wasn’t at home long. When I reached the barn, I heard his truck drive up Bella and John’s driveway. I raced through the open back doors of the barn to peek through the crack between the two front doors.
Daddy didn’t get out of the truck, but he laid on his horn. I couldn’t see her, but Bella yelled, “Why are you out there raising a ruckus, Sam Fuller? What’s so all-fired important you can’t knock on a door like a decent person?”
Then Daddy opened the truck door and stood beside it. “The tractor and truck and the rest of Billy’s belongings are gone. I think we’ll drive back to your barn and see if Tempest has them hid there.”
Then I could almost picture John coming out onto his porch to join Bella because Daddy said, “What the hell you planning on doing with that shotgun.”
John hollered, “You’re threatening to trespass my property. If that truck moves one inch toward my barn, I’ll blow the tires out from under it. I’ve already called the police.”
Daddy hollered back. “Yeah, I guessed right, the bitch moved them over here. John Causley, you and your degenerate sister-wife have been my neighbors since we moved here and we’ve never crossed, but you’re making an enemy of the wrong person. Be reasonable and let me get what’s mine. I’m paying those boys on the truck by the hour.”
John wasn’t yielding, “Then that’s money you wasted. Not on inch, further. Get off of my property.”
Daddy shouted, “This ain’t the end of it, you perverts.” He climbed back behind the steering wheel and shouted once again, “This ain’t the end of it. The new laws that’s making at the state capitol will see to you. People like you, and all the queers.”
He was so mad it took him three ‘back-and-forth’s’ to back the trailer onto the gravel road. He went to the main road and turned in the direction for town.
I waited a few minutes and then went to their back door and knocked. John opened it for me. I wasn’t expecting him to be smiling.
“Come in, come in. You were at the barn so you heard all the shouting.”
“Yes sir, I did. I’m sorry I brought trouble to your house.”
“Don’t let that bother your head.” He motioned me past him, “We’re about to have a cup. Bella’s in the kitchen.”
Entering the kitchen, Bella was just placing two cups onto their table. John said, “Tempest was in the barn during the ruckus. She heard it all.”
Bella smiled and said, “Sam was fit to bust, that’s for sure. Do you think you’d like a cup, Tempest?”
“Yes man, if you don’t mind. I was telling Mister Causley—.”
“Call me John.”
“Yes sir, er, John. I was telling John I’m sorry I brought my troubles to you.”
“You didn’t bring any trouble that wasn’t already brewing. If you heard, then you heard what he said about John and me. Your father’s been spreading that rumor about us nearly since he moved in over there. He has that sort of mind.”
John chimed in, “As far as trouble with him, I was glad to have an excuse to confront him. He is right about those morality laws the state legislators will vote on. There’s not a lick of truth to the lies he’s spreading, but that’s all it takes to get a bunch of uneducated trash riled and lord knows there’s plenty of them around here.”
I thought about the times he’d mentioned it at our dinner table. “Yeah, he’s says you and sister live like husband and wife and that such sinners will burn in hell.”
John nodded as I leaned back so Bella could set a cup in front of me. “Bella and I were both married at one time. Her husband died and I caught my wife cheating on me. That happened back… lord, over forty years ago when we were in our thirties.
“I lived in Franklin back then. She and her boy Jimmy moved in with me. Jimmy had Downs Syndrome. It worked out well for us. Jimmy needed someone with him all the time and it was handy having her take care of the house and cook.”
There was silence that lasted for a while. I knew their thoughts were in the past. I asked, “Where is Jimmy,”
Bella smiled a smile that wasn’t a smile. “My precious boy died two days after his thirteenth birthday. I took it hard, but John… for years and years I’d find him in tears. He loved my boy as he would his own.”
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br /> Looking at John, I asked, “You and your wife didn’t have any children?”
“No, thank the lord. After Jimmy died, well, Bella and I had grown accustomed to each other.”
Bella laughed, “You had a few years of gallivanting and chasing women.”
John laughed in turn, “That I did, old girl, but none of them took. Looking back, I’m glad none did. We’ve had a good life. Comfortable you might say.”
I knew what they meant because I sure felt comfortable being with them. I blew across the top of my cup as they’d taught me, took a sip and said, “I went by and told Mama I was moving out. I’ve just about moved everything of value from Billy’s, I think one more trailer load will finish that part.”
“You can stay here tonight. We have—.”
“No mam, but I thank you. I brought Billy’s camping gear over. I’ll set up a tent back in the woods. Tomorrow morning I’ll take down his shed and us the tractor and a trailer to haul it far enough onto the WMA that no one can see me. I figure I can rebuild it in two or three days.”
I thought of my clothing situation and altered my plans. “No, tomorrow I need to hitch hike to town and buy clothes. I left all my ragged ones behind. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll tear down the shed.”
John cleared his throat, took a swallow of coffee and said, “I need to go to Henderson tomorrow to buy a tune-up kit for my truck. I’m leaving at eight. You’re welcome to ride with me.”
“Yes, thank you. I can hitchhike home.”
John shook his head. “I’m not on a time clock. I reckon I’ll wait and drive you back.”
************
At Billy’s, I boxed and bucketed loose tools and other items I might find useful. Then I roamed the RV, taking out furnishing I could easily handle; a folding table and two chairs for it, a small chest of drawers that I emptied onto Billy’s bunk. I loaded that stuff and then went behind his RV to tackle disassembling the array of solar panels I helped him setup two years ago.
Billy liked to brag that he had twelve hundred watts of free power. His free power was enough to run the refrigerator and a few lights in his shop.
He wanted more solar power, but the trade wars with the Chino-Philippine compact and with the Russo-European Alliance made the cost way higher since he first bought his panels. American made panels, due to a lack of optimum minerals were less efficient at nearly twice the cost of the Chinese product.
The sun was lowering by the time I had the twelve panels loaded. I hurried back to the barn, grabbed a tent, a sleeping bag and three cans of Vienna Sausages. Billy loved those things; I counted six flats of them among the canned goods from his place.
I’d already scouted a place for the tent, a small clearing by a spring about a quarter mile back in the trees. I set up the tent and then sat on a fallen log to eat all three cans of the mushy little weenies. As the sun faded, I went into the tent and unrolled the sleeping bag.
I woke groggy, cold and hungry. My watch said it was six-forty a.m. too late to start a fire and warm any of the canned goods. I washed my face and hands in the cold water of the spring and then went to the barn. There, I found out that cold spam was horrible. To save time, I ate another two cans of Vienna Sausages, but ate em with crackers to give em some texture.
At seven-thirty, I knocked on the Causley’s back door. Naturally, I joined them for an obligatory coffee before John and I climbed into his pickup for town.
His truck was an old Chevy. The paint had faded and rust holes were seeking to devour the body panels. It needed more than a tune-up. The exhaust was so loud it was hard to hear each other without shouting, but shouting wasn’t a hold back for John.
“Bella and I talked last night. We want to apologize for speaking ill of your father. We were out of line.”
“That’s okay. Do you know what he said to me when I told him I was keeping what’s mine? He said. “I think your mama screwed around on me because there is no way you’re the get of my loins. I hope it’s true. I’d rather not be his get.
“Another thing he told me was when I turn eighteen he’d kick me out with just the clothes on my back. Well I left with just the clothes on my back. That’s okay because I need decent work clothes. Heavy-duty pants and shirts for heavy duty work. I need boots worse of all.
“You may want to rethink waiting for me. I’ll probably be two hours or more shopping at the thrift stores. Besides that, I need to pick up essentials from the grocery. Billy had canned goods, but he didn’t tend to eat regularly or healthy. I can find someone to drive me home for twenty bucks or so.”
“Tempest, Bella told me to stick with you and bring you back. I reckon that’s what I’ll do…. That is unless you have business you want to keep secret.”
“To be honest Mister… John, I feel uneasy imposing on you.”
“You didn’t impose, I volunteered. We’ll stop at the parts store and then you tell me where to go. If you feel like you’re obligating yourself to us, get it out of your head.”
That’s what he did, drove me place to place. As I said, Henderson is a compact little town. One of the thrift stores was across the street from my lawyer’s office. Coming out the door with my bags, I had to duck back in because I saw Daddy coming from there. Watching through the store window, from the way he walked, stiff legged but fast, I could tell he was mad, that whatever passed between him and James Hecht didn’t set well.
I waited for him to walk out of sight and then went to where John parked to wait.
“I saw Daddy come from my lawyer’s office.”
John nodded, “I saw him. You should go see what he was doing there.”
“I should just go in there and ask him?”
“Sugar, he’s your lawyer. If you want, I’ll go with you. I know James Hecht. He’s the attorney we used when Bella and I bought our place.”
John went with me. Inside James Hecht’s reception room, we only had to wait a minute before his clerk told us to go into his office.
James stood to greet us. “Tempest, how odd… your father was just here.” Then a look of recognition made his hand reach to John. “John… John Causley. Mister Fuller didn’t mention a name, but you must be the neighbor who has him in such lather.”
Shaking hands, John said, “Yep, and proud of it. We saw Sam leave and wondered if as Miss Fuller’s lawyer you might tell us what he wanted with you.”
“Let me speak frankly to that. He is a very unpleasant man. His goal was to convince me to misdirect Tempest as regards her legal rights and standing concerning her inheritance of Mister Westover’s estate. To be blunt, he attempted to bribe me.”
“What did you say to him?” John asked.
“I told him that my duty in this matter was strictly to protect the rights of my client. I suggested if he wanted to contest any part of the will, he should hire his own lawyer. I also told him he would waste his money.”
We were still standing. I said, “I moved out of my home yesterday and I quit school. Am I breaking any law?”
“No, but that does change your legal standing. Let’s sit. Would you care for something to drink; Coke, coffee?”
We both accepted a Coke. Mister Hecht had his handsome clerk bring it.
Hecht asked, “Have you moved in with the Causley’s?”
“No, and I’m not going to. I’ve made other living arrangements until I’m eighteen. When I am, I plan to buy some land and build my own house.”
Hecht shrugged off a puzzled expression. “That’s… that’s… Well okay, let’s go from scratch. You’re sixteen. Legally you can quit school. Your age also allows you to leave home. Where you live or how you live is no business of anyone but yourself, so I won’t address that.
“However, having left the domicile of you father in effect means that he no longer has obligation to you, and the opposite is true. You become two separate entities. As such, he has no claim whatsoever to your privately owned property.”
That sent a thrill of relief through me. “That’s
good. I’m glad I left.”
My attorney nodded, but said, “I get the feeling that your father is not going to let this matter go. He feels you have somehow cheated him. Tempest, I’ll give you a warning. Your father is an ambitious man. There is an unsavory element active in the county’s governance and he is part of it. I’m not saying he will, but I want you to call me if he threatens you in any way. If needed, you can acquire a restraining order against him.”
John said, “I’m sure Tempest appreciates your honesty concerning her father. Any correspondence to her, address it to my address. Let me write it for you.”
Attorney Hecht passed a pad across his desk. “I’m sure I have it on file, but Tempest should sign off on that. Actually, if you’re okay with it, she should put in a change of address with the post office.”
************
John is very particular of his lawn. My guess is over an acre of it manicured with the attention I imagine given to a golf course. He offered to help me carry my packages to the barn, but I said he’d done enough and that I really appreciated the ride and the time he’d spent helping me.
“Will you have dinner with us this evening?”
Glancing at the sun and then my watch, I figured I had at least five hours of daylight, hours to put moving a couple of loads of my new belongings from Billy’s home and time to better my camping arrangements.
Pointing toward his backyard where I knew he had a pile of split wood covered with a plastic tarp, “No, I want to make a couple of hauls. I saw the wood rick beside your fireplace is low. Tomorrow morning I’d love to bring in a few loads for you.”
“Well now, that would be a gift. Come early for a cup, seven-thirty.”
“Seven-thirty… I’ll bring wood in with me.”
“Use the buckets behind the pile.”
It took four trips to carry all my purchases to the barn, purchases that I made using Billy’s operating stash. At the barn, I loaded the trailer with the items I would need at my campsite, a small propane cook stove, my new-used clothing from the thrift stores and the cooking utensils I’d need to prepare meals.
Tempest of Tennessee (Episode 1): Tempest of Tennessee Page 4