On a Rainy Night in Georgia

by Olivia Gaines

  “Yeah, I have given that some thought, but until I officially resign, I am still a law-abiding citizen,” he said, looking over at Nate.

  “It is a Catch-22. I am contractually bound to my father, and I can’t say or do anything to jeopardize his operation or he will go after my mother. Or worse, come after Sharon and my kids,” he said.

  “Hmm, this is a conundrum,” Zeke said, waiting to hear the plan.

  Nate was smiling. “Not really. In your wife’s head is tons of information she’s sorted into folders. Your family alone can put an end to all of this. Hell, you have the CIA, ATF, FBI, and Secret Service all sitting at the table for Thanksgiving dinner. Each one of you represent every branch of the government that fights all the illegal activity the Macklemores take part in, and shutting them down could be a great retirement gift for you,” Nate said.

  “Or, I could start a war on this mountain, forever making us a target. We want to stay up here, Nate, make a life for ourselves, nice and quiet,” he said.

  “I can help you with a piece of that, but you need to get her to open those folders,” he encouraged. Changing the subject, he said, “Tell me about the plans for the cabin.”

  Zeke felt like he was back at work. Everyone talking, saying a great deal, but nothing overt being stated out loud in clear language. Actions were taking place on low key orders given with code words, head nods, sleights of hands which overthrew governments and right-wing groups. It was hard to get more right winged than the Macklemores who had created a small militia on the mountaintop. However, his family owned twenty acres of prime hunting land and the perfect soil to harvest wine grapes. He planned to stay on the mountain and raise a family.

  “I was thinking of adding two more rooms, some solar panels, a clawfoot tub, and a propane tank for some gas in the house,” he said. “Tameka also wants a yellow wall with some black and white photos in black frames.”

  “I have some balsa wood in the shed and a can of yellow paint. I have card stock, which would make great mats for the photos. Do you have any pics your phone?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do. One in particular I would love to be the center photo,” Zeke said, showing him a photo of mother and child in an embrace. It was the way Tameka was looking down at the baby which tugged at his heart. He’d snapped the photo when she wasn’t looking, as well as one of her and Sharon cooking in the kitchen. That picture would make a great addition.

  “Come on, let me take a pic of the three of you. I will get them printed out, and she can spend the day here with Sharon while you and I work on a few projects,” Nate said.

  Zeke asked, “And the folders?”

  “You get her to open those up while I print the images, then we head over to your place to paint and create her a surprise,” Nate said with a twinkle in his eye.

  “When I get the information and pass it on, things are going to move pretty quickly,” Zeke told him.

  “Then I will just have to go hunting tonight,” Nate said, extending his hand for Zeke’s phone. “I also have some great photos I took of scenery from all over the country if you want to choose a few images for the other walls in the house.”

  “Okay,” Zeke said, walking slowly towards his wife. He bent low, whispering in her ear, taking Michelle from her arms, asking her to open the folders to extract the information. She gave him a smile, happy to be able to help. Taking a seat on the couch, she crossed her legs, lotus style, and zoned out.

  Nate and Sharon watched as the transformation only took a few seconds. Tameka had left the room. Her body was there but obviously she wasn’t. Amazed by it all, Nate walked over and poked her in the jaw with his finger, but she didn’t move.

  “That is fucking eerie. My skin just crawled,” he said.

  “Yeah, welcome to my world. When she comes out of it, she goes about her day as if nothing strange has ever occurred,” he said, taking a seat. “It’s going to be about 45 minutes. You may as well move about, getting the morning going.”

  “Okay, I will get started on the photos,” Nate said.

  “I will finish up breakfast,” Sharon volunteered.

  “I’m on diaper duty and story time,” Zeke added, kissing Michelle on the nose. The small bookshelf held a good selection of kids’ books and he chose The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

  He’d read, changed diapers, and put both children down for a morning nap when Tameka’s head turned.

  “I need some paper and a pen,” she told him.

  Sharon rushed over, watching Tameka’s hand flow over the white sheet covering it in numbers, dates, times, and locations. Nate refused to look at it as Zeke took his phone, snapped a photo of the information, attached it to three email addresses, and then hit send. The paper itself, he took to the fireplace and threw it in.

  “I’m hungry. Who’s ready for breakfast?” he asked.

  “That’s it?” Nate wanted to know. He expected something grander. Nate wanted to hear Zeke speak in the phone and call in some codes. “I was expecting a secret agent call from Mr. Blue to Mr. Operation Salamander Squashing on a Code 287-2 or something. You know, a phone call to the White House, the CIA, with code names.”

  “It’s not up to me. I sent the information. You and I will have no knowledge of what is done with it, how soon, or if there will be any action taken at all,” Zeke said. “Plausible deniability is a great thing.”

  THE LADIES SPENT A quiet day going through clothing, old coats, shoes, and items in the pantry which would become staples for Tameka’s new kitchen. Sharing recipes and plans for decorating, it was easy to see how the friendship over the years would blossom into a long-term relationship.

  Zeke felt the same way at the cabin as he painted the wall surrounding the fireplace a bright yellow while Nate made picture frames with mats for the photos he’d printed from the phone. In less than four hours, it was all done. They stood back and looked at their handy work.

  “She is going to love it,” Zeke said with pride.

  “I’m floored by what you two have done in this house in less than a week. It looks like you’ve lived here all along,” he said.

  “That was the idea.”

  “The detailing on this upholstering is pretty remarkable,” Nate added, looking at the tucking, folding and corners.

  “Honestly, so is she. I’m not sure what I did to earn that crazy lady, but she is all mine,” Zeke said with a smile.

  “I’ll admit, I was kind of worried there, but she is something special. Muddling through all of this will take time, but you two seem to have found your groove,” he said.

  “Don’t know about that. It’s only been three weeks, but I just need to get to work on this house. Now that she has seen yours, I am never going to get any peace,” he chuckled.

  “Will your brothers come to help?”

  “I’m sure they will, but my preference would be just you,” he said. “The woman and child are new enough. My brothers bring a different kind of energy, and at times, I don’t have the stamina right nor to deal with nor manage that kind of flow of dynamism, you know?”

  “No, I don’t really. I am kind of an only child,” he said.

  “Kind of?”

  “Yep, leave it at that,” Nate said.

  Zeke left it at that as they climbed aboard the ATV’s and headed back to Nate’s house. The moment they were dreading had come to pass. In the four hours in which they worked, so had the road crew. The gorge was filled with dump truck loads of stones and the road was drivable until they put down new asphalt.

  “It would be a good idea for you guys to stay another night,” Nate said, going to his closet for his work gear.

  “Nathaniel?” Sharon called to him. “I didn’t hear the fax.”

  “I’m just going to do a bit of hunting tonight. We need some more meat. I won’t be out late,” he said, thinking of the right way to put down a rabid dog before it bit someone else. He knew where the old hound slept, and he had every intention of allowing it to lie where it wa
s. It just would no longer be breathing.

  THE HOUSE WAS QUIET as he dressed in dark clothing and slipped out the side door, driving down the driveway, flipping the switch to activate all of the booby traps around the property. A little security measure he’d established as a young man when all the Macklemores of the world came calling to exact payment from his mother based on the wrong-doings of his Daddy, the Sheriff at the time. Sheriff Mann was known for his bad dealings. Big Chris Mann was a jolly fella who gambled too much and had the worst luck in the world. However, he loved Nathaniel with everything in him, teaching him to be good; even though he wanted his son to be a pious man, Big Chris was not. He never cheated on Paula, Nate’s mother, but he died, leaving them broke, in debt, and damned near starving.

  He thought about the state Tameka was in when he saw her on that second night. Had he not shown up with fresh blood and an IV, she would not have made it. To his amazement, the child appeared healthy. Maybe her faith was more than he’d ever had in a higher power, but that was how life worked. Some had reason to believe in the goodness in the world even though life handed them crap, but in his mind, there was no reason for anyone to be treated that way and the simple act of her hiding in her mind saved her from a terrible fate. He’d seen her disappear in her head and it didn’t sit well with him. She had to do that for 11 months while that rotten toothed fucker toyed with her life. That is what drove him forward.

  He knew where to find Jimmy Don.

  PARKING HIS VEHICLE at the bottom of the hill, he moved on foot through the thick underbrush toward the old moonshine barn. Most of the men would be gone or passed out by now, which is what he found when he opened the door, easing his way into the building. He found his target in the corner, slobbering on himself, mumbling he just wanted her to love him.

  He bent down in front of Jimmy Don, touching his bare arm with the epibatidine laced two-pronged pad, leaving two tiny holes in his skin. It was enough poison to kill a water buffalo and the coroner would take months to figure out what made his heart lock up. Jimmy Don sat up, red-eyed, immediately recognizing the person in front of him, delivering the venom he knew would end his miserable life. He also knew why he was here.

  “She’s alive ain’t she?” He asked, looking at his arm, which had started to burn.

  “I don’t know why you did it Jimmy Don, but she is alive. She sent me a message that you’d hurt her,” Harley said, leaning Jimmy Don’s body against the wall so when death arrived, it wouldn’t knock him over and wake his relatives. “I will never forgive you. I want you to die knowing that.”

  Oddly, a peace came over the man’s face as he leaned against the wall, knowing the baby and Momma were alive, that they didn’t die by his hand. It was a small comfort as his mouth twitched and his heart raced and then began to seize. Jimmy Don clutched at his chest, but he welcomed death. He deserved it after everything he’d done. His heart was broken anyway from the first day she laughed at him until the moment she refused to even make conversation with the likes of a man like him. She hid in her head to avoid acknowledging he existed. It hurt even more that death was coming at his brother’s hand.

  He had pushed Harley too far this time.

  THE LIFE FORCE WHICH resided in the moonshine shriveled body was long gone before the sun rose and Jimmy Don’s family discovered his cold corpse. The Macklemores would be up in a few hours, and he would be taking the Nearys home, and for some stupid reason, he was excited to see Tameka’s reaction to the yellow wall. It was near 9 am when they were all loaded up and ready to head to the Neary cabin.

  Tameka, not wanting to impose any further, placed Michelle in a car seat to have her very first ride in an automobile over a rock-filled bumpy road, as her Uncle, as she would grow to call him, drove her home. The bassinette was also in the back seat with a laundry bag full of clothes for her to grow into as well preserves, fresh fruits, and more formula.

  Zeke had taken the trail back to the house nearly an hour ago, waiting anxiously inside waiting for his family when they pulled up. The fire blazing bright in the fireplace offered a great deal of light as the house warmed and a pot of coffee brewed on the old potbellied stove. He looked forward to replacing it with a gas one, modern and sleek. The road was open, and he had to be ready for company when it arrived later in the day. He knew they were coming. After his email, he expected all kinds of people to swarm over the quiet mountain in the next few days.

  “Snook’ums, once you get all settled,” Zeke called from the front porch “you might want to get a pie in the oven for our guests coming today.”

  Tameka walked into the cabin, spotting the yellow wall covered in photos of her and Michelle, her and Zeke and one of her and Sharon in the kitchen, preparing a meal and laughing. There was even a pic of Nate and Zeke holding fishing poles on the wrap around deck. Her favorite picture of all was of little Nate and Michelle on the couch, staring at the camera. She, having doubled in weight, was still tiny in comparison to the big brute of a baby in Nate.

  Today, for the first time in eleven months, she actually allowed herself to really cry. To actually feel. To walk into the room and address the pain sitting in the chair daring her to challenge its authority to rule her life. It gripped her tightly, closing in on her, the darkness strangling her, the thin fingers around her throat clamping down. He was real. What he’d done to her was real. She dropped to her knees on the floor, clutching the baby blanket to her breast and she screamed from the depths of her soul to the rafters of the cabin.

  “I am so stupid!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Thinking a fucking yellow wall with some pictures would erase the ugliness of what happened to me!”

  She screamed a blood curdling cry.

  “He was inside of me! He had his mouth on me! He used my body like I was his personal sex doll. I want him dead. I want his fucking head on a platter Nate! Kill the low-life and bring me his tongue!” She screamed shaking her fist. “He impregnated me, giving me his seed like I was some receptacle for his waste. I feel so filthy. I scrubbed my skin raw in patches trying to wash his touch off my skin. Zeke, he used my body. He drugged and forced himself on me, more than once. I want him dead. Dead you fucking hear me?”

  Nate moved quickly, but Zeke held out his hand.

  “Go home, Nate. You’ve done enough. I got this,” he told his friend. He sat on the floor beside her, his arm about her shoulder, the crackle of the fire blazing as she leaned into him. The wails ebbed into soft sobs as she rocked back and forth, feeling the pain she never allowed herself to emote. Remembering the ugliness of his actions, the touch of his grubby hands, the idea of him inside of her unconscious body, violating everything she believed. The pain was real. The ugliness was real, and no matter how many times she tried to shut it out, it would bubble up again while she hid in her head from it. She couldn’t tamp it down. The tears wouldn’t stop, and God bless her husband, he didn’t try to make it stop either.

  Michelle quietly watched the fire from her car seat as her Daddy pulled the book from the shelf, cracking open the pages as he began to read. Zeke had no words to console her as the anger he’d been waiting for almost three weeks finally made an appearance. Now, she could start to rebuild. The ugly part was far from over, but she only had a short time before the guest would arrive.

  “Chapter Twenty,” he said aloud, his arm around Tameka’s shoulder as he read to his ladies.

  Day Twenty – A Day of Reckoning

  THE CRUNCH OF TIRE wheels in the driveway pulled Zeke from the nap on the freshly upholstered couch. When his wife finally stopped crying, she went to work on the sofa, cutting, tucking, and working at a frantic pace, as if she knew they were expecting more than two guests. He lent a hand, stapling as fast as he could go until she folded the last corner and the last nail went it. The timer dinged and the cabin filled with the scent of apple blueberry buckle when he heard the knock at the door.

  Additional locks and safety latches had been added to the door as well, but
Zeke took his time opening the door to find Sheriff Jefferson Huckston standing there, his beer belly nearly forcing his way into the place. His beady brown eyes looked into the cabin, spotting the car seat first. Behind him stood a man, Zeke didn’t recognize, but he wasn’t in a uniform. By the appearance of him, it wasn’t the Jimmy Don his wife had described.

  “Neary,” the Sheriff said.

  “Sheriff, I hope you are here to tell me the road is opened and we can head to town. We were down to our last and Lord knows I was starting to worry that I would have to get out and forage for food,” Nate said, offering a friendly smile.

  “I’m trying to remember which Neary boy you are,” the Sheriff said.

  “I am the one who works in the White House,” Zeke responded with a smile. “What can I do for you gentlemen?”

  “Can I come in?” Huckston asked, trying to peer inside.

  “Who is your friend? He is not in uniform and I’m not going to let some strange man into my home around my wife and daughter,” Zeke said, eyeballing the man, challenging him. The man stood fast, his fist clenched at his side as he tried to keep his composure.

  “This here is Harley Macklemore,” he said. “He runs the local laundry service in town. He also heads up our outreach program at the church. He’s here to see if you guys needed anything after all that rain.”

  “Yeah, an ark would have been nice,” Zeke said. “We are doing well.”

  It took everything in him not to react to the name. He didn’t have time to warn Tameka, but she knew this day was coming. Either it was going to be her former fiancé or the brother who’d done her wrong. They had practiced being a loving couple for this moment. Today was test day and they could not afford to fail the examination. The Sheriff was not going to let up.