“Well, not now, of course, because she—”
“No.” His voice was very firm. “I have no family. Never did.”
“But—” I frowned. Then it hit me. “Your trip . . . her favorite places . . . your wallet—” I glanced over at Jeremy, who was still tinkering, but my chest was tight and uneasy. “You lied to me?”
His eyes locked on mine. “I’m good at it. And you’re an easy mark.”
Mark. Wow. “Thanks.” I started to stand again. I wanted to keep moving. Outrun what an idiot I’d been.
He grabbed the hem of my skirt.
“Let go of me.” But I said it real quiet. I wasn’t interested in exposing myself as a fool to anyone else.
“Wait.”
“Why should I?”
His hand dropped. “You’re right. You shouldn’t.” He picked up a stone and tossed it. “I knew going straight was a bad idea,” he muttered.
“Going straight? Are you a . . . criminal? Is that why you didn’t want the cops?”
An amused sideways glance. “Not the kind of criminal you mean. I’ve never laid a hand on anyone. Wouldn’t own a gun if you paid me.”
Mark, he’d said. “You’re a con man.” I retreated a step, but when Alex looked up, I dropped back to the ground, if a couple of feet farther away from Val. “Are you?” I hissed. Then I remembered. No family. “Oh, Val, I’m so sorry. How young were you orphaned?” If he was on his own really young, that could explain a lot.
He stared at me. “You are too much, Red. Do you just forgive everyone you meet, no matter what they do to you?” His eyes were softer than I’d ever seen them. Confused.
Maybe he needed someone to confide in. “Did you have anyone to take care of you?”
He looked down. “I thought I did for a while. Uncle Paul, he called himself. When he wasn’t using any of his other fake names.”
His voice was tight and a little forbidding. My life had been rocky, yes, but I’d always been with someone who loved me. “Was he mean to you?”
A small, forced chuckle. “I was . . . useful.”
Oh, God. I bit my lip. I was afraid of what that implied. “Children aren’t to blame for how adults treat them. You’re not at fault if he—”
He laughed, but it wasn’t pleasant. “Don’t drag out your bleeding heart, Red. It’s not what you’re thinking. He didn’t lay a hand on me. I was too effective a tool to risk putting me out of commission.” He looked away, a muscle jumping in his jaw.
My imagination was running wild. I touched his arm in comfort. “I’m sorry.”
He shoved to his feet, no longer relaxed. “Don’t be. I learned everything I know from him.” He glared at me as if defying me to be shocked. “I can pick a pocket, charm a woman, play a con, disable a security system before you can blink. What’s so bad about that? I might never have gone to school, but I had one hell of an education. If the last woman’s husband hadn’t come home early . . . ”
The last woman. I managed to close my gaping jaw. A con man. Boy, couldn’t I pick ‘em?
Forewarned is forearmed. I wasn’t in the market for a man, anyway, so I was immune to any charming he might attempt, and the plight of the young boy that he’d been moved me. “Mama died when I was eight. Sister raised me after that. We moved all the time because Sister was terrified The Authorities would realize that she was a minor and take me away from her. I went to school, but I’m not very good at making friends. It was too hard, always having to leave them.”
I’m not normal, either, I was trying to tell him. We’re both misfits. The atmosphere between us was charged, and I had a sense of a line being crossed. I felt certain he didn’t let his guard down often.
Then Alex giggled, and the moment was broken.
“She’ll run, Red, if you just drop her off.” Val stared into my eyes. “And then she’ll have no one. A kid with a kid, God help her.” We know how that feels, he was telling me.
“Maybe she’d go with you.”
“You picked her up. Stole her from Nicky.”
“He was beating her. I couldn’t just stand there.”
His mouth curved. “I’m betting you can’t abandon her, either.”
He was right, of course. Even if Sister weren’t an issue, how could I let Alex go back into that or even worse? Val was correct in thinking that she needed tending. Heaven help her that her best shot at the moment appeared to be me.
Jeremy rounded the hood. “Ma’am—er, Eudora.”
“Pea.” What had I been thinking, trying to adopt a stronger name? I was no Dark Agnes. Forget pretending otherwise.
“Um, okay.” His forehead wrinkled. I didn’t bother explaining about Sister and my nickname. “Thing is, I can’t fix what’s wrong out here.” He launched into a lot of terms that were gibberish to me but seemed to make sense to Alex.
“Your car has to go into the shop,” he continued. “Alexandra—” And here his cheeks took on that lovely color again that so perfectly suited a fresh-faced country boy. “She and I can go get the tow truck if you two want to stay here, or you can ride with me, except someone’s gonna have to sit in the back. Alexandra says you have a lot of your stuff with you, so I didn’t know if you would want to leave the car alone.”
I studied Alexandra, who’d insisted on being called Alex, and tried to figure out if I should be worried that Pretty Boy called her Alexandra, too. Was this a signal of some self-destructive impulse of hers regarding men? Except how this sweet boy could ever be a danger was beyond me.
Until I remembered that Pretty Boy was also good-looking and maybe if I’d met him at a different time, I would have thought him sweet. Oh, hon . . . I wanted to do my own Big Lil to her. Men are not the answer.
Alex piped up. “Jeremy understands you don’t have much money.”
It was the plea in her eyes that did me in. And what choice did I have, really? “Want to guess what this might run, Jeremy?”
“If it’s what I’m thinking, I’ll do my best to keep it under a thousand dollars.”
I was surprised everyone couldn’t hear the thud as my heart took a nosedive. “Do you know any make-do repair that would get me by?”
Jeremy shook his head. “No. I’m sorry. I wish I did, honest.” He paused. Brightened. “Maybe Pop or Gramps will have a better idea, though. My Gramps started the garage and taught Pop. There’s nothing about an engine the two of them don’t know.” He waited again for my answer. “The tow is free when we do the repairs.” He glanced at Alex and blushed again. “Oh, shoot, ma’am, I’ll make sure there’s no charge, anyway, but you can’t just leave the car here on the road.”
I was in a tunnel that kept narrowing and narrowing until the air was close and stale. I shoved past all of them and started walking, gasping for that last breath.
A thousand dollars. After the motel and two meals, I’d still be a good four to five hundred short. I’d also need funds to buy gas to drive to Taos, and if Sister wasn’t there, I’d have no place to stay and—
My brain just flat froze up. Rebelled at the thought that I was out in the middle of nowhere with strangers I had idiotically committed to drive—
Someone seized my arm, and I struck out without thinking.
“Hey!” It was Val, but he was part of the problem, the one closest at hand. I smacked his shoulder and jerked away. He only tightened his grip and turned me until he caught the other arm. “Red, calm down.” Val gathered me in, and the feel of strong arms around me and a shoulder to lean on was so welcome that for a minute I forgot all the reasons I knew it was wrong.
“I can’t afford it,” I blubbered.
“Don’t sweat it. I’ll get the money.” He was doing this rocking thing, a soft sway that might have been the single best sensation I’d felt in years, so I didn’t hear the words as much as the reassuring tone at first.
Then, however much I wanted to just turn off the brain for good and stay right there with Val’s voice a baritone blanket keeping me safe and warm, I fina
lly did hear the words, I’ll get the money. And remembered others. I can pick a pocket. Disable a security system before you can blink.
I pushed away. “What do you mean, get the money?”
“I have a little. I can come up with more.”
“How?”
What I was asking was clear to both of us. He was scowling then. “The same way I got this.”
“You said you were broke. At the motel, you said it. You—” Lied.
“I was broke then. Now I’m not.”
“What did you do last night, while you were gone?”
“None of your business. You want help or not?” He wheeled and headed for Jeremy. “Get the tow truck.” He glared at me. “Take her with you. I’ll stay here.”
“No, I will,” I insisted.
“I’m not leaving you by yourself on the side of the road, Red.” Though he seemed furious about it.
“I started out on this trip alone.”
“Yeah. And look how you’ve managed so far.”
My mouth dropped open at his gall.
“You two just stand here and argue,” Alex said. “I’m starving, and it’s hot.”
Oh, God. The baby. What was I thinking? With all the uproar that morning, none of us had had a chance for breakfast. After Alex fainted yesterday, we couldn’t take chances. “We should have gotten you something at Glory’s.”
Jeremy’s head snapped toward me. “Glory’s?” He scanned all of us. “You’re friends of hers?” His expression told me this was not a plus.
“We just met her. She was kind enough to let us stay the night.”
His frown deepened. “Kind? She didn’t do anything . . . crazy?”
I smiled, but I could tell he was serious. Everything Glory did was odd, but who cared?
The graffiti. Surely this boy wasn’t one of them. Didn’t actually hate her. “She was fine. We didn’t talk much, just ate and went to bed.” Somehow I didn’t think mentioning Dark Agnes would help me get a good deal on repairs.
“You lucked out, then.” He took a protective step closer to Alex. “She’s a wacko.” His voice was flat and absolutely sincere. “And dangerous.”
I wanted to ask why. Crazy, I’d buy and yes, you’d think a woman who’d take us in one minute and shoot to get us off her place the next might be a bit worrisome.
But I’d seen her face when she spoke to Alex, the tender regard. I’d had a sample of her kindness myself.
Alex was hungry, and Val had said he’d help with the repair expense. Sister or not, an innocent child couldn’t be made to suffer while I agonized over how he might do that. I’d just have to keep an eye on him. “Go ahead, Jeremy. Take her with you, but please see to it that she gets something to eat before you come back. She’s—”
“Hungry!” Alex practically shouted. She glared at me and all but dragged Jeremy away.
She could not mean to entrap this poor boy, could she? She wasn’t showing much, not in that baggy shirt. Still, knowing her straits and the level of her desperation, I couldn’t assume she wouldn’t latch on to whoever could help her. At the moment, though, I had all I could handle, so I let it go.
“Val, please. Would you go with them? I think he’s a good kid, but—”
“You can trust me here with your car, you know. A con’s no fun if the mark knows it.”
I stared at him. “You’re going straight, you said.”
He shrugged. “Trying.”
“Why? The husband?”
“Not just that.” His exhale was long and weary. “I’m not sure I can explain, even to myself.” He jerked his head in the direction of Jeremy’s truck. “Sure you don’t want me to stay?”
Alex was probably safe with Jeremy, but still . . .
“Go ahead.”
He turned. Looked back. “You’ll be all right?”
“Frankly, I could use some time alone.”
He nodded. “I hear that.”
I watched them drive off, then settled back on the shady side of my car. What a troupe we were, this ragtag band of strangers who felt a little more like friends, if weirdly complicated ones, with every mile.
Sister, am I ever going to have some stories to tell you. Unless, of course, you’re already with us.
I leaned my head back against the car door.
And just started to laugh.
Edith
Settled by cattlemen who ran herds on open range, and stock-farming homesteaders.
Development began in early 1880s after Winfield Scott, rancher, fenced his spread.
Area had three schools, lodge hall, tabernacle, general store, cotton gin and blacksmith shop.
The post office, established in 1890, was named for Edith Bonsall, an admired young lady of Ballinger. It closed in 1955. Dwindling schools combined, then consolidated with those of nearby Robert Lee.
As trend toward urban living increased, Edith declined.
THE TEXACO MAN
Less than an hour later as we made our way down the road in Jeremy’s tow truck, my car hooked behind, I was looking around for signs of life. All I saw were mesquite trees, the occasional live oak and, oh boy, countless more goats and dottings of cows. All this open space could make a person nervous. I knew my way around cities just fine, but what did people do with themselves out here?
Then, just ahead of us over the crest of the hill, came a sight that made me practically get whiplash doing a double-take.
An old man on a riding lawn mower was pulling a little trailer. The trailer sported a flagpole, American flag waving. In a basket hooked to the back of his seat was a beagle, ears flapping faster than the flag.
I burst out laughing and pointed.
Jeremy pulled up beside the man and waved out the window. “Hey, Gramps!” The old man waved back.
Oops. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know—”
Jeremy turned to me, neck and ears bright red. “Gramps doesn’t see so good anymore, but he wouldn’t listen to anyone. Finally, Gran turned him in to the Department of Public Safety and got his license pulled. He hasn’t spoken to her in nearly six months.” He flashed a quick grin. “He figured out a way to get around, though. You don’t need a driver’s license to operate a mower. He and Rascal can cover some ground. This spring, he drove all the way to Brownwood. Gran was fit to be tied.”
Before I could summon a response, we arrived in Jewel.
Not much to it didn’t begin to describe the place. The city limits sign said Population 973, but if a hundred people lived there, I’d have been astonished.
There was one main thoroughfare, the highway we were on, if a two-lane road can be called such. Maybe a dozen side streets, a couple of which seemed to actually be farm-to-market roads with a handful of houses closer together on each one, until you started running into exactly what we’d been seeing for hours.
A whole lotta nothing.
But I was riding in a tow truck, which was a seriously amazing piece of machinery, with all its levers and stuff. I wondered what it would take to get Jeremy to let me drive it. First, though, I’d have had to get his attention, which was glued to Alex. We were all jammed in the front seat together, and I was nearly on Val’s lap.
He’d suggested exactly that, but I had declined. After our conversation, I knew he was only hitting on me because . . . well, that was part of his trade. A con man? What kind of sign is this, Sister?
I would soon have to explain to him about me and men and what was going to happen between the two, which was zip, zero and nada. Being a little too attractive for his own good, he would likely argue. Men like Val weren’t used to women turning them down.
But that was neither here nor there at that moment. I was much more concerned about Jeremy’s reaction to the fact that we’d been at Glory’s. His pickup was different from the one that sped away after her shotgun blast, but was he one of them, the people who called her a whore and a witch? And why?
She was different, yes, and humans have a hankering to cut misfits from the
herd. She was gruff and cranky; I doubted she bought a lot of Girl Scout cookies or contributed to bake sales, but that was a long way from being a righteous target for vandalism.
As a fellow misfit, I was more than a little concerned about entering the town that likely harbored the vandals.
“The backside of beyond,” Val muttered, and I couldn’t disagree. Jeremy pulled into an old-fashioned service station in what was literally the center of town.
How could I be sure of that? Well, when you can see both ends without craning your neck, hey, can you say middle?
We pulled around to the bays at the side of the stucco canopy, and I spotted what was next door. The sign said Cashwell’s Grocery, but it looked like a kissing cousin to a convenience store.
And it had a Help Wanted sign in the window. Where on earth they’d find applicants was beyond me. How much business could there be? “You folks own this town?” I asked Jeremy.
That fair coloring of his reddened easier than mine, poor kid. “Not really. Well, not exactly.”
“Gas and groceries power the economic engine, my man.” He was so dang cute, I could have just slurped him up like an ice cream sundae.
He shrugged. “Gramps owns the service station, and Pop worked for him until Gramps got his license yanked—then Gramps flat quit for a while. Pop had to take over, so I’m helping him after school and all summer, though Gramps has started showing up again. Gran still operates the store and café, but it’s hard on her. Sometimes Aunt Millie helps out, but she’s about to have another baby, so she can’t anymore. Pop and his brothers and sisters think Gran should close the store down, but folks around here depend on it.” He ducked his head and sighed. “Things were better before Gramps and Gran stopped speaking. They’ve always been pretty hot-tempered together, but this is new.” He paused. “And weird.”
Val chuckled. “Marriage will do that to you.”
I elbowed him in the side. “What do you know about it?”
“I have known my share of married women, Red.” His glance recalled for me the husband who’d come home early. “We don’t have time for me to tell you all I understand about marriages.”
The Goddess of Fried Okra Page 11