Annie and Frank tried their best to use proper manners and not eat too fast, but I could tell they were almost starved. Annie usually didn’t eat enough to keep a bird alive, but it was obvious this was the first good meal she’d had in a long time.
After we’d finished eating, everybody but Momma went in the living room. She stayed in the kitchen, putting all the leftovers into bowls and packing them in a picnic basket. Daddy lit a cigarette and asked Snake if he wanted one. Daddy knew Snake rolled his own, but wanted him to save his tobacco.
I heard a light knock at the door and got up to see who it was, thinking it might be someone else either bringing some food or just offering their condolences. When I opened the door it was sheriff White, standing there awkwardly, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
“Hey, George,” he said in almost a whisper, “can I come in?”
“Uh…sure sheriff, yeah,… come right on in.”
The sheriff slowly walked through the door. I could tell he was terribly uncomfortable as he took off his hat. He looked at Annie and her two boys who were all sitting on the sofa.
“Miss Annie, Frank, Snake. Uh… I just wanted you to know how truly sorry I am. My deputy did a foolish thing I know, but he thought Hugh was going to shoot that detective and I don’t think he really meant to pull the trigger. I know that don’t make you feel no better, but I don’t know what else to say. We all made up and, well… here,” the sheriff said holding out an envelope. “It’s just a little over three- hundred dollars. I wish it was more.”
Annie just sat there for a minute, looking first at the envelope, then at the sheriff. “Is that all my husband’s life is worth, sheriff?” she asked. “Just three-hundred dollars?”
“No,… no ma’am, I believe it is worth a good deal more, but that’s the best we can do right now. Maybe later…..”
“Daddy raised us up not to take no charity, sheriff,” Snake said, trying his best to sound proud.
Daddy walked over and took Annie by one of her disfigured hands, “Annie, I know your upset. But it wasn’t the sheriff’s fault. He didn’t pull the trigger and I believe he is truly sorry. You and those boys need that money right now like you need air to breathe. Don’t let pride stand in the way of being able to pay your doctor bills and keeping your power turned on.”
Annie thought for a minute and finally reached out and took the envelope from the sheriff’s extended hand. “Thank ye, Sheriff. This will help out a lot.”
The sheriff nodded to her and then turned and shook Daddy’s hand. He offered his hand to Snake and Frank and they both shook it and thanked him.
He walked to the door and said one more time that he was sorry as he put on his hat and shut the door behind him.
Annie held the envelope and just looked at it for a long minute. Momma had walked in and Annie looked up at her. “Miss Rachel, I’ve got this here three-hundred dollars and the two-hundred that Georgia gave me. Would you hold on to all of it but a few dollars and help us pay our bills with it? I’ll have one of the boys bring them to you. You can take some of it out fer yore troubles.”
Momma took the envelope from her. “Why, I’d be glad to, Annie. And I wouldn’t think of chargin’ you for it. It’s really pretty easy for me ‘cause I’m used to it. I’ve been doin’ it for years.”
“I ain’t a-havin’ you do it if you don’t take some pay fer it,” Annie told her.
Momma looked at Daddy, then back at Annie. “Alright, Annie. I’ll take a nickel for every bill I pay.”
“But we don’t have more’n four or five bills a month. That ain’t even a half-dollar.”
“Well, that’s my price Annie. Take it or leave it.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I recognized the two voices as soon as I walked into Aunt Lena’s store. It was the voices of two of the Bullard boys, Freddy and Bruce. All of the Bullards were trouble makers and had come from a long line of them. They were being loud and obnoxious, and were probably making Aunt Lena nervous since they were the only two in the store besides Blake Jones, the postman. Or at least had been until I walked in. They were talking volubly to Mr. Jones who looked like he would rather be anywhere else on earth than there listening to these two blowhards.
“I figure them boys was the one’s who did it. They’re as crazy as hell anyway. Hugh might have helped ‘em try to git rid of the bodies, ‘cause they ain’t smart enough to figure that out,” Freddy was saying.
Then Bruce chimed in, “Ain’t none of us safe as long as them boys are around. The sheriff needs to lock ’em up, but I reckon the law just give up on the whole thang, since old Hugh got killed. Hell, I got a half a mind to run ‘em off ‘fore they kill somebody else.”
I listened for another minute until I just couldn’t take it anymore. I don’t know where the bravery or maybe just downright stupidity came from, but I opened my mouth. “You two are dumber than a sack of rocks. If you don’t know what you’re talkin’ about it’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.” I’d stolen that line from Daddy. It was one of his favorites.
“Why, you little piss-ant. I’ll slap the taste of yore mouth.”
Bruce took one step toward me and I had to think fast. He was ten years older than me and would have made two of me, and I was a fair size for my age. As quick as a rattlesnake striking, I used all the strength I could muster from the deep recesses of my inner core, and kicked him square in the balls as hard as I could. He let out a loud grunt and crumpled to the floor like a sack of potatoes. He just laid there moaning, doubled over in a fetal position, writhing in agony.
Freddy was startled at my sudden, vicious attack, and it took him a minute to respond. He looked at me like he was gonna run through me and hissed, “I’m gonna beat your eyes out, you little shit.”
Just as he started toward me, Aunt Lena came out from behind the counter with an old double-barreled shotgun. The barrels of the thing looked as big as twin railroad tunnels when you were looking into the business end of it. Freddy stopped dead in his tracks.
“You lay a hand on that boy and it’ll be the last thing you ever do,” Aunt Lena said, her tone leaving no doubt she meant business. Aunt Lena was about five feet tall and weighed maybe a hundred pounds, if she had a couple of rocks in her pockets. The shotgun looked almost as big as she was. Bruce backed away, turning his palms out toward Aunt Lena.
“Now Miss Lena, you…..you be careful with that thang,” Freddy said, his voice shaky. “If that thang goes off you might kill me and yore nephew both.”
“Boy, I was shootin’ guns before you was born,” Aunt Lena told him. “I hit what I aim at, and this thing is loaded with buckshot. There wouldn’t none of it get on George, but it would cut you in half.”
Sweet old Aunt Lena, one of the kindest women who ever lived. She was my mother’s sister and they were Martin’s. Those Martins had tempers they were famous for when you got them riled, and apparently Bruce had Aunt Lena riled.
“You get out of my store and take that low life brother of yours with you. And don’t neither one of you darken my doors again,” she said sternly.
“Now, Miss Lena, my family’s been tradin’ with you a long time. Let’s don’t let one little squabble git in the way of that.”
“The rest of your family is still welcome as long as they behave themselves, but you two threatened my nephew. My baby sister’s boy who I love like he was my own. Now do like I tell you and git!”
By this time, Bruce had gotten to his feet and was walking slowly, still bent over, toward the door. “You’ll be sorry for this you little bastard,” he said looking directly at me and scowling.
When they walked out, I ran over and hugged Aunt Lena and thanked her. “Well, I guess I’ve done it now,” I said. “I’ll have to look over my shoulder from now on watchin’ out for one of those Bullard boys.”
Aunt Lena looked at me and smiled. “If they ever give you any trouble, you just let me kn
ow. I’ll get your uncles Charles and Cliff on ‘em and they’ll think they’ve sandpapered a wildcat’s ass.”
*****
After a couple of weeks Momma had finally started cooking enough food to last the Williams’ two days. She fixed stuff that could be easily heated up by one of the boys, and Daddy didn’t have to carry something over there every single day. I had helped Daddy with the milking that day and decided I would go with him to take what Momma had cooked over to their house. I hadn’t seen Snake since the day of the funeral and felt bad about it.
Snake met us at the door with a worried look on his face. He looked tired, like he hadn’t slept much the night before.
Before we had a chance to speak, Snake grabbed daddy by the arm and pulled him in the house.
“Careful, son,” Daddy said to Snake. “You don’t want me to drop your supper do you?”
“Sorry, Mr. George. I just want you to see if you could wake up Momma. I’ve tried all day long. She must be pow’rful sick or somethin’ to sleep this long.”
Daddy went to the kitchen and set the food on the table. To my surprise the kitchen was as clean and neat as a pin. For that matter, so was the rest of the house. Snake and Frank were doing a good job, I’m sure to try and please Annie and make her as comfortable as they could.
Me and Daddy followed Snake into the little bedroom that up until a couple of weeks ago, Annie and Hugh had shared. Daddy walked up to the side of the bed, Snake looking at him with a concerned and worried expression on his face. You could tell that even though he was worried about his mother, he felt a little more at ease knowing Daddy was there.
Daddy bent over the bed and put his hand on Annie’s shoulder, shaking her gently. “Annie. Annie, it’s George. You need to wake up, hon. Snake says you’ve been asleep all day. I’ve got your supper in the kitchen. Rachel made that meat loaf you said you liked so much.”
Annie didn’t move. Her head was turned facing the wall, so we couldn’t see her face. Daddy began shaking her a little harder and talked a little louder this time. “Wake up, Annie! You’ve got to get up now. It’s suppertime.”
Then Daddy quit shaking her and turned around and looked at me like he was trying to conceal what he was really thinking.
“Junior, take Snake in the kitchen and help him set the table,” Daddy said motioning toward the door with his eyes.
I took Snake out of the bedroom and into the kitchen and helped him start putting plates and forks on the table. I ask him what he’d been up to and he told me he hadn’t been doing much, other than taking care of his momma, trying to keep the house clean and doing some work for Madge. He said Madge had been awful good to him since his daddy had died and had given him lots of work and was paying him real good for it.
Daddy yelled for me to come there and bring Snake with me. I looked at Snake. His eyes were darting from the kitchen table to the direction of the bedroom, back and forth. He looked like he wanted to move but his legs wouldn’t cooperate. Finally, I took his arm and led him.
Daddy was still sitting on the side of Annie’s bed and he was smiling. Annie hadn’t moved, so I was puzzled as to why the pleasant smile was on his face. He looked at Snake and then got up and told us to come with him to the living room where we could all sit down.
When we all had a seat, Daddy asked Snake where Frank was.
“He went fishin’,” Snake answered, “I don’t know when he’ll be back. Sometimes if they’re a-bitin’ purty good, he don’t git home ’til after dark.”
Daddy nodded his head, “Okay, then. We’ll just have to tell him what I’m about to tell you when he gets here, then.” Daddy cleared his throat and started rubbing his chin, “Snake, do you remember what we talk about in Sunday School and church about how pretty and wonderful Heaven is? How once we get there we all get brand new bodies and nobody ever has any pain ever again? And we get to live there forever, with Jesus. The happiest thing you can remember in your life is not even close to how happy you are all the time in Heaven. And it never, ever has an end to it.” Daddy paused for a minute, making sure Snake was grasping every word. “Well Snake, your momma decided she needed to go ahead and be with your daddy. She was just missin’ him too much and she knew you and Frank would be just fine. She knew that one day you’d all be together again, anyway, and once you were, you’d never have to be apart from one another again. Not ever. We’re all gonna live in that beautiful, wonderful place forever. And the best thing, is that new body she has. It’s not twisted up like the one layin’ in yonder in that bed. She don’t hurt one little bit anymore, either. And she never will again.”
Snake started trembling, looking like he was trying hard to hold back tears. “Mr. George, I know she’s with Daddy and she’s real happy now. But do you think Jesus would git mad at me if I cried anyway? I shore did love her and I’m gonna miss her ‘til I git up there with her.”
“No, son. Jesus won’t get mad at you one bit if you cry. He’s glad you loved your momma. That’s what you’re supposed to do. He expects you to cry, because he knows how much you loved her. Why, Jesus even cried himself one time when one of his friends died. It’s right there in the Bible.”
Daddy looked over to where I was sitting and saw tears rolling down my cheeks. There was no way I could stop them. He looked back at Snake and pointed to me, “I guess it’s okay if we all cry.”
*****
Daniel Delaney was the coroner for Putnam County and owned the funeral home in Fort Kane. We had taken Snake and Frank home with us before Mr. Delaney arrived at the house to examine Annie’s body. The state of Alabama required an autopsy be performed any time a coroner had any suspicion that a death was caused by any means other than natural causes or an obvious accident. It took Mr. Delaney less than five minutes to determine what killed Annie Williams. Hugh had always kept her pain medication out of her reach and given her one before he left in the morning and laid out another for her to take during the day if she needed it. And she always needed it. Then he would give her one before they went to bed. Snake had been giving her the medication and didn’t know to put it away out of her reach. Nobody thought to tell him either, because no one ever suspected Annie of taking her own life. I guess with Hugh gone, she figured we would help watch over the boys and keep them fed. She probably felt that she was just a burden to them and the whole world, since she couldn’t do anything for herself. When you add to all that the fact she was in constant pain, that lately her medication was barely even taking the edge off, she just decided when she got the chance she’d get out of everyone’s way.
Mr. Delaney, with Sheriff White’s blessing, ruled the death natural causes.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
It was getting late, but we were having a banner night and none of us wanted to quit. Glenn didn’t put up any fuss at all when I told him I wanted to bring Snake along coon hunting with us. He felt as sorry for him as I did, and we had started including him in a lot of our activities, especially the ones that didn’t require being particularly quiet. We had caught four big coons and the dogs were really in rare form, but we knew we needed to be going. After we got the dogs loaded in the truck, we let the coons go. We always did. It was the thrill of the hunt and listening to the dogs run that we liked. We could have cared less about the coons.
Old Roscoe let us drive the truck every time we went hunting, now. We were about to fire up the engine and go, when we saw a pair of headlights out on Highway 11 pull off the road. We were parked on a little side road that turned off the Portersville Gap, maybe a quarter of a mile from where the gap road intersected with Highway 11. On a whim, we decided not to start the truck or turn on the lights, but just sit there a minute and see if they had just pulled off for a minute or if they were up to something else.
After a few minutes Glenn said, “Maybe we better go over there and check on ‘em. They may be havin’ car trouble.”
“What do you think, Snake?” I asked him. I had gotten to where I ask Snake’s opinion on thin
gs, letting him believe his opinion mattered. Which it did. I found that Snake was smarter than people had always given him credit for being, including me.
“I think we oughta wait another minute or two,” Snake answered.
“So do I. If they don’t move on in a couple of minutes, we’ll go see if they need help.”
I had just gotten the words out of my mouth, when another pair of headlights appeared out of nowhere. Like they had just been turned on when they had pulled up alongside the car. We saw someone walk in front of the lights and in seconds, heard a door slam and the vehicle take off, going south in the direction of Collinwood. Then a truck pulled up in front of the car and sat there for a very short time. We heard a couple of clanking sounds, like hammers hitting steel, and the truck pulled away. The car was gone! Or if it wasn’t gone, the headlights had been turned off.
“What do you reckon that’s all about,?” Glenn asked.
“Beats me,” I said.
“Me too,” Snake agreed.
After about five minutes or so we cranked the truck and drove off in the direction where the activity had taken place. We had promised we wouldn’t get out on Highway 11, but Bible swearing hadn’t been involved this time. Besides, this was an emergency. Somebody might be in distress. We drove slowly along the shoulder of the road, looking closely to see if anything had been left behind. The only thing we could figure was that the truck we’d seen had hauled away the car.
“What do you make of that?” I asked to no one in particular.
“I don’t know,” Glenn replied, “but it looks like somebody may have stole that car. And what was the other car drivin’ up all about?”
“Maybe the car had trouble and the truck came to pick it up,” Snake said.
I thought about that for a minute. It was a good deduction by Snake, but it just didn’t make sense. How could they have gotten word to anybody that quickly? We decided we had better mention it to somebody and let the cops know about it. There was nothing we could do about it tonight as late as it was, so we headed for home.
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