Dew Angels

by Melanie Schwapp

  Hopey’s room! They’d moved her to Hopey’s room. Had Eric come home and demanded they get her stinkin’ ass out of Petra’s room? Her hands flew to her face to feel for bruises. She wouldn’t have put it past him to pound her while she’d been unconscious. No, no pain, no swelling.

  The room was plain, but comfortable—cream walls, pale yellow curtains at the windows. A faded green bedspread with several holes in it had been thrown over her legs. There was an old dressing table beside the bed, on its surface a collection of grooming items. Her heart leapt as her eyes rested on the old steam bent rocker, just like Granny Pat’s, sitting gracefully in the corner of the room. It’s smooth wooden handles arched down delicately to become the curved legs of the chair, then rose again to intertwine like a ribbon within the circle of the arms.

  Nola slapped the tears off her cheeks and ran to the door, pressing her ear against it. She heard voices, a man’s drone followed by a woman’s high-pitched laugh. Not Val’s laugh. Val’s laugh had been deeper, with that smoky rasp to it. She tried to peep through the keyhole, but the key had been left in on the outside and blocked her view. She listened till the voices faded and a door clicked shut.

  So, already, Eric had found someone to replace Petra! No-good, dutty dog that he was! He didn’t even care that Petra lay just a few feet away, in desperate need of a doctor.

  A sound at the door sent her flying back against the wall. The key was being turned! She pressed herself back as the door opened and Hopey’s head poked through. Nola moved quickly. Before the woman could focus on her standing behind the wall, she rammed her shoulder into the door, and as Hopey’s pained hmmph rang through the room, she ran.

  Hopey stumbled backwards, holding her head in agony as Nola raced down the staircase! She jumped them two at a time, frantically pulling the detective’s paper from her bra. But as she raced into the kitchen, she ran straight into someone, and it was her turn to hmmph as she was pulled roughly to the ground. A hand capped over her mouth, stifling the scream that was about to rip from her lips. Cigarette smoke!

  She didn’t even bother to fight when Val straddled her and hissed into her ear, “Stupid pickney! You want to get us all killed?” The woman squinted a warning as she cocked her head towards the doorway.

  Eric’s voice was echoing from the top of the stairs! “… damn noise so late at night time! Get in your bed and stop haunt the place like duppy!”

  Then Hopey’s voice, “Trip and lick head on door. Opi get ice.”

  They hadn’t told him! She looked questioningly above the hand on her mouth into Val’s eyes.

  The flash of answering anger told her that she was right. They hadn’t told Eric. That’s why they’d hidden her in Hopey’s room.

  Hopey stumbled into the kitchen, holding her head with one hand and the doll in the other. Nola’s heart cracked when she saw the vivid red mark on the woman’s temple. Hopey stopped only for a second at the doorway, blinking down at Nola and Val on the floor before lumbering past and removing an ice tray from the freezer.

  Val removed her hand from Nola’s mouth and sat back against the cupboard. “Stupid pickney!” she grumbled again.

  Nola got up slowly and went to where Hopey was snapping cubes of ice into a white towel. She watched as the woman emptied the tray then placed the towel on the gash.

  “Sorry, Hopey,” Nola whispered, “I thought you was goin’ to make Eric kill me.”

  Finally, Hopey looked at Nola. Her eye glistened with unshed tears, the rim red and swollen. Slowly, she leaned forward and placed her great head on Nola’s shoulder.

  “Nola angry at Opi,” she whispered, “but Opi nuh hurt Nola. Opi nuh hurt Peta. Opi nuh hurt nobody.”

  Nola squeezed the spongy shoulders. “I know, Hopey. I just get frighten, that’s all. I not angry no more. Now I know you wouldn’t hurt us.”

  Hopey sighed. “Opi want help Peta, but Opi nuh want no more beatin’!”

  Nola pushed the woman’s shoulders upwards so that she could look into the eye. “You don’t have to do anyting, Hopey. I goin’ call somebody who will take care of everyting! You not goin’ to get no more beatin’!”

  There was a scoff from the floor and Nola turned to stare down at Val’s scowling face.

  “Phone call? Who you plannin’ to call, m’dear? God?”

  Nola waved the paper with the numbers scrawled across it. “No, Val. This person goin’ get us outta here! Him not ‘fraid of people like Eric McKenzie. I … I can’t explain, but I saw it in him eyes. Him is the right match for Eric!”

  But Val just shook her head sadly. “Let me tell you someting, pickney, it’s not one or two years me know Eric McKenzie, and me can tell you someting—ain’t nobody born yet who can come in here, and get that gal upstairs outta here! Only way that gal can leave is when Eric good and ready for her to leave!”

  Nola bent and waved the paper in Val’s face. “Val, someting inside me tell me to take this number with me today, and that mean that this is the person born to get Petra out of here! Trust me!” She dropped to her knees in front of the woman. “Eric isn’t God, Val, and somebody have to stop all the wickedness him doin’. We have to try, Val. Please.”

  Hopey tapped Nola’s shoulder. “Phone on wall. Opi tell lie. Phone on wall. Call man to help Peta.”

  Val pulled her hands out of Nola’s and jumped up from the floor. “Well, me gone! If you want to do some craziness like that and risk your life, that is your business, but me gone before Eric think that is me set this up! Hopey, go to your room, don’t make Eric batter you no more cause of this stupid chile!”

  Hopey turned to refill the ice tray at the sink and place it back in the freezer, then she picked up the doll and cocked her eye at Nola. “Nola take Peta to her baba! Baba sad with no mama.”

  Nola nodded. “Yes, Hopey, I goin’ take Petra to her baby. You go to your room, and when the man come to help, you pretend like you never see me before, okay?” Then she turned to Val. “You too, you go home and pretend you never see me before.”

  Val frowned and jammed her hands on her hips. “You tellin’ me to go home? I’m not the stupid one here, m’dear. Me gone!” But she didn’t move. She stood there looking at Nola as if she was about to say something else, but turned and flashed a hand at Hopey. “GO Hopey! You don’t hear to go to your room? You want another bust ass from Eric?”

  Hopey left slowly, the doll perched on her shoulder like a giant, balding spider.

  “So, you goin’ call or what?” Val’s voice was quiet with daring. She jutted her chin at the phone as she walked to sit in the chair.

  “I don’t want you to stay.” Nola replied. “I don’t want nobody else to get hurt cause of me.”

  Val’s laugh melded into a rusty cough. She stared at Nola with her head cocked to the side, her eyes watery from the coughing. “How old you are?” she asked.

  “Seventeen … almost.”

  Val nodded thoughtfully. “My brother … ‘memba I told you that him dead from a heart attack? What I never tell you is that him get the heart attack after Eric continue to give him more and more drugs.”

  Nola gasped.

  “Mmm Hmm,” Val nodded. “Eric think I don’t know that is him was supplyin’ Teddy. But I know. I always say, Val, how you can see this man every day, work with him every day … knowing that is him cause your brother family to mash up, and is him cause your brother to dead? Well, you know why? Cause I was ‘fraid! ‘Fraid to lose my life, ‘fraid to end up with nothin’ like Teddy—no family, no money—just ’fraid! But I know now that this life is not anyting to try and save. All I want to do is put my hands round Eric McKenzie’s neck and choke him! Choke him, till every last breath stop in him chest! But now, I see you. I see how you risk your life for that girl up there …” Her eyes focused on Nola’s singed smile. “… how you go into that fire to save my sister and my niece, and I realize something. I realize that sometimes you have to give up a lot to get back a lot. I did that one time you know, whe
n I took that money. I did it once. Well, time to do it again.”

  And there it was! Nola had looked for it earlier and not seen it, but there it was—the resemblance to Dahlia Daley. It pulsed for just a second across Val’s face, like a flash of lightning across a night sky. There it was – that fighting spirit. That blaze of glory.

  “So,” Val pointed at the phone, “Miss I-Can-Stop-Eric … make your phone call.”

  Nola nodded. She lifted the white receiver and dialed the numbers scrawled so flamboyantly across the paper. The ring on the other end sounded so much louder in her throbbing head—one ring, two rings, three rings, four rings, then …

  “Run your mouth!” The voice was thick with sleep.

  Nola looked at Val, realizing that she had not thought about what to say, but Val just raised her eyebrows as if to say, Well?

  “H … Hello?” Nola swallowed. “This is Nola Chambers … the girl from Palm View … the one you were askin’ questions ‘bout Barry, by the Rasta shop.”

  There was no response, but Nola could hear deep breaths passing over the phone.

  “H … Hello?” She said again.

  “Yeh! Nola! What you needin’ at this time of night, Nola from Palm View? You have some news for me?”

  “Not ‘bout Barry. Someting else. I … I want to tell you … ’bout a kidnappin’. A girl! Petra Ramsey. She live on Palm View, too, but someone take her away, and him beat her up bad! She need a doctor and him not lettin’ her go!”

  “A kidnappin’, eh? You sure is not the girl gone on her own free will. How you know sey she get kidnap, Nola from Palm View?”

  Was there sarcasm in the tone? “Why you don’t come and see for yourself?” She hissed into the phone. “You’re a police! You’re supposed to save people! Look, this is the same man who kill Barry! Just come and see for yourself! I callin’ from …”

  She looked at Val who mouthed the address. “Twelve … Blair … Way!” she repeated. “Come now and get us out, or you goin’ have innocent blood on your hands!” She’d heard those words once, in a scratchy old black and white movie that Sister Norma had shown one Saturday afternoon at church.

  There was silence on the other end of the phone, then a heavy breath and the voice finally said, “Repeat that address?”

  Thank God! Him was comin’! Nola’s voice shook with relief as she repeated the address. “Down from the bus stop by that hardware store. Steele’s! Steele’s Hardware!” She added. “Come now! And bring help, him have gunman on every corner!” Then she hung up.

  Val stared at her for a long time before standing up. “Well,” she sighed, “Might as well get comfortable! Some mint tea?”

  Nola realized then that she had not eaten since she’d stuffed one of Imo’s gizzadas down her throat that morning. Her stomach felt hollow and gassy, but, truth was, she couldn’t think of anything else but the look on Aunt May’s face when she brought Petra home and announced to everyone that Eric McKenzie was out of their lives for good!

  They must be worrying about her now. She almost sobbed at the thought. What a thing to be able to say! Someone was worried about Nola Chambers!

  Val made tea for herself, then sat back in the chair and slurped from the white mug, staring at Nola with that same blank expression. “You have guts, that much I will say. You don’t know what it’s like to give up, do you?”

  Val blew into the mug. “One day when I was a little girl, I was walkin’ to catch water by the pipe, and when I look into the bushes, I saw some red flowers. Pretty and so bright. I went to get a closer look and saw that it wasn’t flowers! It was cherries! There was a little cherry tree in the bushes, laden with cherries – the sweetest cherries I ever eat in my life! Every day I would go to that tree and eat cherries till my belly hurt! Then, when Granny died, me and Teddy had to go and live with our father, and we move far away from that cherry tree. Well, after that, every time I walk somewhere, I look in the bushes for someting red, and every time I see red flowers, I get excited thinkin’ that it’s another secret cherry tree. But, never again… from then on, every red flower was just a red flower. And after a while, I just stopped lookin’ for cherries.”

  Nola was silent, waiting for Val to explain the point of her story, but the woman said nothing else, just sipped her tea and stared into space.

  CHAPTER

  48

  The knock was muffled, coming from down the passage, but it still shook Nola in her slippers. He’d come! Even with the moat and the watchmen, he’d made it. She gave Val a look that said, “See?,” but the woman’s face remained blank. After a second or two, Val sighed and went to open the door.

  When Nola heard the muffled voices she was unable to contain herself any longer, and ran and beckoned agitatedly towards the light flooding in from the garage. Val’s back was turned to her, but she could make out the top of the detective’s head, bowed forward as if asking a question.

  “Hurry!” Nola hissed, and Val obediently turned and came back towards the kitchen.

  As she passed Nola, she whispered, “Red flowers.”

  Nola frowned slightly, but the confusion was soon lost to relief when she realized that the detective had entered the house followed by another head. Good! Him bring help, just like she told him to! She rushed ahead of them to the doorway leading into the dining room, her heart racing with the euphoria of her success.

  As Winston walked into the kitchen, Nola jammed a finger towards the dining room. “Upstairs! Quick! Petra up in the far room, make me show you!” she almost shouted, now suddenly freed from the fear of Eric overhearing her.

  But Winston stopped in the kitchen and just stood there, looking from Nola to Val with a smirk on his face. Those eyes that had pierced her on the sidewalk were now pink and mushy with residual sleep, as if he hadn’t even had the courtesy to awaken himself properly for the job.

  “Well, well, well,” he said with a chuckle that sounded like he was saying the letter ‘K’ over and over again, “Keh, keh, keh! Wonders never cease.”

  Val crossed her arms over her chest and stared back at him.

  “So, you goin’ tell me how she get in here?” He addressed Val.

  “How you mean, ‘how she get in here’? Eric McKenzie kidnap her! Him won’t let her go and she need a doctor!” Nola cried, shaking her head in frustration.

  But Winston continued looking at Val, just keh, keh, keh-ing.

  Finally, Val sighed and said, “All of you think you’re so bad! Well, she get past every one of you, and them idiot dogs too!”

  Nola swallowed. Something was wrong! Something was very, very wrong! She felt the acid heat of dread creep into her head, burning her nostrils with its familiar bitter smell—Winston and Val were speaking in a conversational tone—not the tone of strangers.

  She took a step backwards and finally, Winston turned to look at her. All at once, it hit her—red flowers, not cherries! Of course, of course, of course! No weak link! There was no weak link in the fence around Eric McKenzie’s life! Eric would not have been that sloppy, to have allowed just anyone to handle the questioning of Barry’s murder. That’s why the detective’s eyes had held that look on the sidewalk. It hadn’t been a look, it had been a warning, to keep her mouth shut! That’s why he’d given her this piece of paper with his number. Because he’d known that of all the people there, she would have been the first one to break. And so she had.

  She turned to look at Val’s tired, blank face. Nola wanted to say to her, there were some people who never even found red flowers.

  Suddenly there was a movement behind Winston, and Nola remembered the other head that had walked in behind him. The person had been so quiet that she’d almost forgotten about him, but now he looked out from around the dim passage. When Nola spotted the rat tail, it was all she could do not to laugh.

  “Shit! I just figure it out!” Winston suddenly snapped his fingers then tapped his forehead. “You is the beggar woman from the plaza!” He turned to Necka and shook his head in
wonder. “Keh, keh, keh! She good, you nuh! Damn good! Sneak up right behind me and Eric when we was talkin’!”

  If Nola’s hadn’t felt so weak with distress, she would have felt a tinge of pride at the awe in the man’s voice. Instead, her hands flew up to her open mouth. This was the policeman! This was the policeman Eric had been talking to in the plaza! The one he’d sent to handle the questioning of Barry’s murder, the one in his back pocket!

  Necka gave a little giggle and pulled at his beard as he studied Nola’s garb. She could only stare wide-eyed back at him.

  “Eric know?” Winston asked, turning back to Val.

  Val shook her head, but her face remained expressionless.

  “So when you was plannin’ to tell him?” Necka piped up.

  Val cocked an eyebrow at him. “Why bother tell him when all of you are so on top of tings, with all your watchmen out there?”

  “Look here, woman, don’t fresh yourself with me before I box all your teeth down your throat!” Necka screeched. “How them must know that a old witch like this comin’ to try and break into Eric house?”

  Val shrugged. “Well, that ole witch could’a have a gun hide up under all them rags, and waltz right in here and blast off Eric head! I don’t think Eric would’a like that, what you think?”

  It was true, Nola thought, she could easily have come in there that evening and killed Eric. What would have stopped her, when she’d already tried it with her own papa? Suddenly, she felt the familiar gurgle rising up from within her chest.

  “ERIC!!” She shouted into the dining room. “Eric, Nola Chambers get in your house and you never even know!” She had to hold her belly as it cramped from the force of the laughter.

  “ERIC!” She guffawed again, “You dutty dog! You think you’re so smart, but look who is in your house! Me! Clumsy! The clumsy gal get in your house and you never even know! I could’a kill you, Eric … I could’a kill you if I wanted! I could’a walk up behind you at the plaza and kill you, and nothin’ you could do ‘bout it!”