“We’re all going to see Daddy,” Cody said. “We’re taking him a bunch of stuff too.”
“That’s right,” Davis said. “Look, we went out and picked up pecans, and they’re all shelled. Daddy loves pecans. Taste ’em.”
Owen tried one of the pecans. “That is absolutely a good pecan!”
“We’ve got fudge and cookies and cake,” Maeva said, “and we’ve got some shaving cream, soap, and razor blades and toothbrushes and toothpaste and things like that.”
“Does your dad know you’re coming?”
“No, it’s going to be a surprise,” Lanie said.
“And I’m going with ’em too,” Aunt Kezia piped up. “That lawyer fella, he got me a pass to get in.”
“Be a pretty cold trip. The weather’s been bad.”
“Here,” Lanie said, “sit down by the fire. I’ll make some chocolate.”
Owen sat and nibbled at the cookies and the cake that the family pressed on him. Their determination impressed him. He knew they would leave with no money except for exactly enough, perhaps, to buy gas. Finally he said, “Well, Miss Kezia, if you’ll show me out, I’ll say good-bye.”
“Never seen a man that was worth shootin’,” Aunt Kezia grumbled. “Come on. I’ll put you out.”
“I’ll see you later,” Owen said. “I hope you have a good trip.”
“Thanks for stopping by, Doctor,” Lanie said, her eyes warm.
Owen smiled and waved and followed Aunt Kezia down the hall. At the door, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a billfold. He removed two bills and pressed them into Aunt Kezia’s palm. “Miss Freeman, I hope you know how to be devious.”
Aunt Kezia smiled up at the tall doctor. “I can be as crooked as a snake. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to use this money on the trip. It’ll pay for the gas and for food and for a night for all of you in a hotel. But I don’t want you to tell anybody where you got it. This will be just between me and you, all right?”
She fastened her jet-black eyes on the doctor’s face, observing him so closely that Owen’s nerves were a bit rattled. “For a doctor you ain’t a bad feller.”
Owen laughed and released her hand. “Did you ever know any good doctors?”
“Well, I knowed a dentist once. His name was Doc Holliday. Cold-blooded killer, that one. I don’t reckon I’d have ever let him touch my teeth.”
“You really knew Doc Holliday, the gunman?”
“He weren’t nothin’ but a two-bit thug. Wyatt Earp, now, he was a good feller, but that Doc Holliday was nothin’ but an imitation bad man.” She suddenly blinked and said, “Are you gonna marry that woman you been courtin’?”
“Well, it might turn out that way. Only she’s rich and I’m not.”
“Well, you better look around before you jump.”
“What do you mean, Miss Freeman?”
“I mean it’s easier to get a fish hook in than it is to get it out.”
Owen grinned. “Don’t you like Miss Louise?”
“Don’t even know her, but I ain’t thinkin’ about marryin’ her either.” She examined the bills, then folded them and stuck them into the pocket of her apron. “You know, I’m worried a bit about Lanie.”
“Worried? What’s the matter?”
“Well, there’s lots of these young fellers campin’ on the front steps, come callin’ on her. Comin’ like moths to a candle.”
“She’s too young to get serious. Besides that, she’s got a lot of sense.” “You know, you’re kind of ignorant even for a doctor. Ain’t you ever seen a young girl hide all her sense under the porch when some sleek-lookin’ fella does some sweet talkin’?”
“I guess I have.”
“That girl needs somebody to talk to her about such things. She ain’t got no mama.”
“Well, you’re the one to do that, Miss Freeman.”
“Shoot, she won’t listen to me! I’m older than pyramids to her. I reckon you’d better do it.” “Me!”
“You got a hearin’ problem? You tell her about the birds and the bees and all about how young girls need to be takin’ care of their treasure.”
Owen felt his cheeks warm, and he chuckled. “I couldn’t do that!”
“Yep, I think you’d better. I won’t tell ’em about the money, but you’d better think about havin’ that talk with that girl. She needs a friend. Now leave.”
Thus dismissed, Owen went through the door. He heard it shut firmly behind him and stood there thinking hard. I hate to see Lanie make a mistake. It would be her mother’s place, but since she’s gone I guess old Aunt Kezia’s right. I’d better have a talk with her. He got into the car and drove away, mulling over what would be appropriate words for the young girl who had come to mean so much to him.
C H A P T E R 27
Christmas week of 1930 brought warm breezes in from the south, thawing the snow and scattering the bitter weather. Lanie had been nervous about driving all the way to Cummings Prison without a man along, but her fears proved groundless. The sun shone brightly, and unlike other trips, when she had nearly frozen as cold air had filtered in through the ancient Ford’s many cracks and crevices, heavy clothes and blankets kept the Freeman family comfortable. Lanie packed enough food for everyone for the trip there and back, and they washed down their meals with sodas from country stores along the way.
Aunt Kezia performed well, correcting Lanie’s driving and navigating even though she had never made the trip in her life. By the time Lanie pulled into the prison, she had learned to tune out her aunt.
“We have to go in here to be admitted,” she said, stopping the car in front of a long, rectangular wooden building. “Now, you all behave,” she warned. “We’ve got special permission from the warden for all of us to visit Daddy, but we have to behave ourselves.”
A murmur went around the group, and Lanie kept her eye on her Aunt Kezia as they entered the building. The guards looked up in surprise, and one of them said, “Well, you brought the whole crew, did you, Lanie?”
“Yes, I did, Mr. Pote. Merry Christmas to you.”
“And to all of you. These are all your brothers and sisters?”
“Are you blind?” Aunt Kezia piped up. “Do I look like her sister?”
Pote blinked with surprise. “Well, pardon me, ma’am, I didn’t notice you there.”
“Well, notice me now!”
Pote winked at another guard. “I’ll sure do that, ma’am.” He riffled through some papers and said, “You must be Miss Kezia Pearl Freeman.”
He towered over the old woman. “You’re all clear to go. None of you are packin’ any drugs or firearms, are you?”
“I am,” Aunt Kezia said. “What about it?”
Pote stared at her. “What do you mean?”
Kezia rammed her hand down into the big purse and pulled out the thirty-eight. “I keep this for my own protection.”
Pote cleared his throat. “Well, ma’am, you can’t take it inside. Here, let me hold it for you.”
Kezia reversed the thirty-eight and handed it over. “You be careful with that. It was my husband’s. I used it one time and put a bullet in the Sundance Kid’s derrière.”
Pote blinked with surprise.
“That varmint thought he could come into our town and shoot it up, but he found out better. He insulted me. It’s a good thing I did shoot him in the derrière. My husband would have shot him in the head.”
The guards, by that time, had gathered around and begun peppering her with questions. Aunt Kezia obviously enjoyed being the center of attention, and finally it was Lanie who said, “Mr. Pote, do you think we could go see Daddy now?”
“Why sure, Lanie. You’re not carrying a gun, are you?”
“No, sir, of course not.”
“Come along then.” He looked at the various sacks and boxes that the children were carrying. “What’s all this?”
“It’s Christmas presents for Daddy.”
“No guns in
there or anything like that?”
“No, sir.”
“Well, come along.”
As soon as Forrest came into the room, he found himself swarmed. The children rushed at him and wrapped themselves around him, calling his name. Only Lanie stood off to one side with Aunt Kezia and watched as they pulled at him and patted his cheeks, and her eyes grew misty as she saw him pick up Corliss and look at her face and kiss her cheek.
“Hello, Daddy,” she said.
“Lanie! Here, you kids let me get over there and give this girl a hug.”
He hugged Lanie so hard it took her breath. “Howdy, Aunt Kezia. Lanie told me you were comin’.”
“Hello, Forrest. It grates on me to see you in this here place, but give me a hug anyway.”
Forrest put his arms around Aunt Kezia’s tiny form. She kissed him on the cheek. “You look peaked, but we done brung enough food to feed the whole regiment.”
The children began pulling at Forrest. “Open your presents, Daddy. It’s all Merry Christmas for you.”
“Well, I wish to my never!” Forrest smiled. “You sure done it up right.”
For the next thirty minutes the visitors’ room was bedlam. Lanie and Kezia had conspired together to bring everything a man in prison could possibly use. There was so much food that Forrest quickly said, “I’ll have to share this with some of my friends. A man couldn’t eat all this.” He took a bite of the chocolate cake and shook his head. “Did you make this cake, Maeva?”
“No, Aunt Kezia, she made it.”
“Well, it’s mighty good, Aunt Kezia.”
“That’s my special recipe.” She watched the proceedings with obvious enjoyment. “I mind once when we was lawin’ in Texas. We had a place just outside of town, and my husband rode in every day to shoot anybody that needed it. One day a bandit rode by.”
“A real bandit, Aunt Kezia?” Cody demanded, his eyes round as saucers.
“He wasn’t nothin’ else. I’d just finished makin’ a cake like this, and he come in and waved his gun around and made me cook him a meal.”
“Was you scared?” Davis demanded.
“With a two-bit hoodlum like that? I don’t reckon! It just made me a little riled.”
The kids fired questions at her, but she threw up her hands and said, “Well, I fed him his meal, and he gave me a silver dollar and then kissed me and rode off. He didn’t last long. Got shot down robbin’ a bank. Didn’t even have sense enough to know how to rob a bank! Shows you how dumb he was!”
Everyone laughed, but Forrest was filled with a bittersweet joy, for he hated this place and longed for the day when he would be seeing them again.
“This ought to be enough books to keep you going, Lanie.”
Cassandra Sue Pruitt smiled as she pushed the stack of books over toward Lanie. She was wearing a white blouse and a pale blue jacket, and she waited for Lanie to pick up the books and leave. She was somewhat surprised when Lanie said, “Can I talk to you a minute, Miss Pruitt?”
“Why, sure, go ahead.”
“Not here,” Lanie said. “Somewhere where we can talk.”
“Come on back into my office. It’ll be quiet enough there.”
Lanie followed the librarian through the stacks into the small office. Cassandra waved to a seat and shut the door. She took her own seat and considered the girl. “What is it you want to talk about, Lanie?”
“Well, I want to ask you if there’s a book that tells how to grow up.”
Cassandra shook her head. “I don’t know exactly what you mean.”
“Well, Miss Cass, I’m gettin’ bigger. I’m big as a full-grown woman now, but I don’t know how to handle things.”
“What kind of things?”
Lanie blushed and she wrung her hands. “I don’t know how to treat fellas who like me. Some of them sometimes . . . well, they try to make me do things that aren’t right. How do I make them act right?”
Cassandra was stunned. “Well, I don’t know exactly.”
“What do you do when a fella gets too familiar?”
Cassandra Sue Pruitt could answer many questions about books, but this issue tied her tongue. “I . . . I don’t really have that problem.”
Lanie stared at the woman. She had always thought Miss Pruitt one of the prettiest women she had ever seen. “Don’t you like fellas, Miss Pruitt?”
Cassandra suddenly wished that this interview was not taking place. “Well, not . . . in that way.”
“They sure like you. The sheriff, he thinks you’re real pretty. He told me so.”
Now it was Cassandra Sue Pruitt’s turn to grow red. “He has asked me out, but I’ve never gone.”
“Why not? He’s such a nice man and good-looking, too, don’t you think?”
“I suppose so, but he’s older than I am.”
“I don’t see that that makes any difference, he’s not that much older. But anyway, I need a book that tells me how to get a man to like me.”
“Who? Which man?”
Lanie swallowed, then shook her head. “I’d rather not say. He’s a little older than I am and real genteel, but, Miss Pruitt, he thinks I’m only a little girl. How do I get him to see I’m a grown woman now?”
Cassandra Sue Pruitt fumbled for an answer, and Lanie saw that she had asked the wrong person. Finally she said, “Well, I thank you for listening to me. Is there a book that might tell me what I need to know?”
“I don’t think so, Lanie. I’m sorry.”
Doc Givens and his assistant hit a gap in the steady flow of patients. Givens was looking at the paper and commenting on it. “It says here there’s four million people unemployed in this here country, and there’s bound to be worse.”
“That’s bad,” Owen murmured. He disliked being read to out of the paper, but Givens loved it.
“More than thirteen hundred banks closed this year. I don’t know what’s happenin’ to this country, but it’s not good.”
“It’s good for H. L. Hunt. I see he bought out that oil business. Made him the richest man in America.”
That was Owen’s only contribution to the conversation, and in time Givens lowered the paper and looked over it. “I’m not boring you, am I?”
“Well, I’ve got a problem.”
“What’s the matter? You’re not sick, are you?”
“No, it’s kind of a responsibility I have. How would you advise a young girl about the dangers of being . . . of, well . . . of being a young girl?”
“What young girl?”
“Oh, just any young girl,” Owen said.
“What kind of dangers? You mean like falling down a well?”
“No, Dr. Givens, you know. With men.”
“Tell her the truth. Scare the daylights out of her.”
“I don’t know. She’s a sensitive girl. She doesn’t have any parents.”
“Why do you have to take this on, Owen?”
“She needs help.”
Givens put his paper down and leaned forward. He flexed his foot and his leg, which was much better now, but still gave him problems. “Son, don’t you get mixed up with some female.”
“Oh, it’s not like that at all!”
“Uh huh. How many times have I heard that? You want my opinion, I’d stay out of it.”
Owen nodded. “Maybe you’re right.” But he thought otherwise.
For the rest of the day Owen performed his duties perfunctorily. When he set out to make house calls, he began at Butcher Knife Annie’s, and he was surprised to see Lanie going toward the house. He watched her enter and muttered, “Well, this may be as good a time as any.” He parked the car, grabbed his black bag, and walked to the door. When he knocked, Lanie answered. Her face lit up when she saw him, and he smiled. “Why, hello, Lanie.”
“Come in, Doctor. Did you come to see Annie?”
“Thought I might look her over a little bit. She’s not quite over that flu she had.”
The two went in, and Annie, who was sitting on a co
uch decorated with cats of various sizes and colors, seemed glad to see him. “I hope you brought somethin’ for my misery, Doctor.”
“That’s what I’ve come for, Annie. Let me check you over.” As he went through his routine of listening to her heart and lungs and asking her questions and taking her temperature, he thought about what he would say to Lanie. Finally he gave Annie some mild sleeping medicine and told her to stay in bed and rest.
“Could I give you a lift somewhere, Lanie?” he asked.
“I’m just going home.”
“Why don’t you come with me? I’ve got to make a call over to the Sixkillers.”
“Are they ailing?” Lanie asked.
“The kids may have chicken pox. I hope not, though. You’ll have to stay outside. I wouldn’t want you to get it.”
“I’ve already had it.”
“Well, that’s good.” He looked at her face and said, “It didn’t leave you marked any. You’ve got a smooth complexion there.” He saw her flush and did not answer. “Well, anyway, their daddy told me he’s got a brand-new litter of cocker spaniel puppies. Maybe you’d like to see them while I’m doctoring.”
“Oh, I’d like that!”
They left Annie’s house and all the way out to the Sixkillers’ place, which was one mile out of town, Owen tried to think of some way to begin his speech. He could not, and when they arrived at the veterinarian’s home, he left Lanie on the floor covered with puppies. “You can’t have them all,” he said with a grin.
“You can have one of them,” Matthew Sixkiller said.
“No, sir, we don’t need any more dogs. Beau would be jealous.”
By the time Owen was ready to leave the Sixkillers, he had a plan. “Let’s see how high the river is.” He pulled up on top of the levee and shut the engine off. “Not too high. I understand it flooded the town one time.”
“Daddy told me about that. He was just a boy then. He said water was in all the houses and all the businesses.”
Owen turned to face her in the seat and was impressed at how smooth her skin was. She had beautiful auburn hair that was long and fell over her shoulders, and her eyes were wide-spaced and clear. Her lips were full and round and very expressive, and he was aware that she was no longer the gangling fifteen-year-old girl that he had first known. “I’ve wondered maybe if I ought to talk to you, Lanie.”
THE HOMEPLACE Page 28