Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

by Jackie Lynn

  “What’s the date on that paper?” Rhonda wanted to know.

  Rose scanned the top of the page. “It’s from a couple of days ago,” she said. “And it has to be from Chariot, she’s the only South Dakota person here at Shady Grove.”

  “She just got here this morning, right?” Rhonda asked.

  Rose nodded. “She must have gotten the paper before she left.”

  The women heard Lucas mutter a quiet amen and then rejoin their discussion.

  “So, she stayed in the area after it happened?” Rhonda asked

  “It appears so, dear,” Ms. Lou Ellen replied.

  “But why would she wait around to get a paper before leaving?” Lucas was the one to ask what they were all wondering. After his prayer, he was fully engaged in trying to understand what was happening with the young woman he considered to be a friend.

  “And where in the area was she waiting around?” Rose asked.

  “It doesn’t make any sense,” Rhonda noted.

  “Well, let’s think about this.” Lucas leaned back in his chair. He threw his hands behind his head. The women listened.

  “If I remember right, it’s about eight hundred miles from Pierre to West Memphis. Doesn’t that seem right, Rhon?” he asked.

  His wife nodded.

  “It took us a couple of days to make the trip, but we were on the bikes,” he recalled. “In a car, however, a person could drive that far in about twelve or thirteen hours.”

  The women waited for him to continue.

  “If the murder happened early in the morning on Monday, and she left town right after it occurred. …” He sat forward in his chair again and rested his elbows on the table in front of him. He was thinking about his theory. “Then she was hiding somewhere all day Monday and Monday night before getting a Huron newspaper on Tuesday morning.”

  The three others nodded, following the chronological series of events.

  “Then she drove like a released bat out of hell on Tuesday to arrive in Memphis sometime during the morning of today,” Ms. Lou Ellen finished her son-in-law’s description of the proposed time frame.

  “So, where was she all day Monday?” Rose asked.

  “She mentioned that she was from Mitchell,” Ms. Lou Ellen noted, recalling the conversation they had when the young woman first arrived.

  “Where’s that?” Rose asked.

  Rhonda walked over to the counter and pulled out an atlas from behind it, opening it to South Dakota. She glanced across the state until she found the town of Mitchell, and then she measured the distance to Huron using the small scale included at the top of the page. “It’s about forty miles south of Huron,” she said.

  “So, she visited her crazy family before making a run for it,” Ms. Lou Ellen guessed.

  Lucas, Rhonda, and Rose were quiet, carefully considering everything they had discussed.

  “I guess she was staying with family members and then saw the article in the paper and knew she had to get out of town quick.” Rose shared her theory.

  “Or maybe she met with her crazy mama and got some tips on how to cover up a murder.” Ms. Lou Ellen was obviously going with a very different theory, incorporating the part of Chariot’s family history that Lucas had shared.

  “Or maybe it’s just none of our business what she was doing before she got to us and we just treat her as a sister in trouble.” Rhonda closed the atlas and glanced over at the others. “Maybe she just needed to be with family a little while before running away and we don’t need to know any more details.” She had obviously grown tired of all the speculation and talk in which the four of them had been engaged.

  Lucas smiled. He winked at Rhonda. “That is exactly what it is, none of our business, and I seek forgiveness for messing in details that I don’t need to know.”

  Ms. Lou Ellen narrowed her glance toward her son-in-law. “Oh, Lucas,” she said, waving her hand in a dismissive action. “Just because we like to figure out details doesn’t mean we will judge.”

  Lucas gave his mother-in-law a look of skepticism.

  “Maybe we need to sort through the details because we’re the ones who are going to have to help her figure all of this mess out,” Rose noted. She was not ready to give up on solving the mystery of their newest guest at Shady Grove.

  “What is this name anyway?” Ms. Lou Ellen asked. “I’ve never met anybody by the name of Chariot.”

  “Yeah, that is odd,” Rose agreed.

  Rhonda smiled. She and Lucas exchanged a knowing look. “We asked that, too, the first time we met her,” she said.

  “It seems like her mother had taken to Scripture reading during her pregnancy. She went into labor just after she finished reading the Bible story in Kings Two about the passing of the prophet Elijah, the story that was the inspiration for the old song, ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.’ It’s about the band of angels coming after Elijah, taking him on from this world to the next,” Lucas recalled.

  “Anyway, Chariot’s mother told her daughter that the labor and delivery hurt so much she thought the chariots of fire from heaven had come down and were taking her on to her home in glory. She said she thought for sure she was dying. When her pain had eased enough to finally answer the question regarding the name of the baby, she told them Chariot.” Rhonda finished the story for her husband.

  There was a pause.

  “So, she named her child after what she thought had killed her?” Rose asked for clarification.

  “I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,” Lucas replied.

  “Well, I guess it could be a lot worse,” Ms. Lou Ellen noted, fanning herself with the folded newspaper she had in her hand. “Her mother could have been reading the story of Noah.”

  The others waited.

  “Then the child would have been called Flood or High Water.”

  “Or how about what killed Lot’s wife?” Rose asked, going along with her friend.

  “Salt,” they both said at the same time. They snickered at each other while Lucas and Rhonda just watched.

  “Sisters.” Lucas was just about to scold the two of them for being disrespectful when they all heard a car drive up.

  It was Rose who walked over to the door and looked out the window to see who was arriving at Shady Grove. She was laughing until she glanced out and recognized the vehicle. She turned around somberly to announce it to the others.

  “It’s the sheriff,” was all she said. And everything about the mood of the room suddenly changed.

  NINE

  Good afternoon, everyone,” Sheriff Montgomery said as he walked in the door. He was carrying his hat under his arm and was holding a clipboard in his hand. He had lost some weight over the winter season and he looked fit and youthful.

  “Sheriff,” Rose said as a means of greeting. She had walked around the counter and was standing awkwardly at the desk.

  Lucas stood to shake the man’s hand while Rhonda stayed at the counter and waved in his direction. She was leaning on her elbows. Sheriff Montgomery put down his clipboard on the counter to receive Lucas’s greeting. The two smiled at each other.

  “Hello, Leon,” Ms. Lou Ellen said. She slid the South Dakota paper toward herself on the table and then placed her arms over it as inconspicuously as she could.

  “Lou Ellen.” He nodded at the older woman.

  “What brings you out here?” Rose asked, and then wondered if her voice sounded as nervous as she felt.

  “Can’t a friend stop to visit?” Sheriff Montgomery asked with a smile. He glanced around at the others in the room. He seemed to notice the awkwardness in the group.

  “Of course, of course,” Lucas replied. He let go of the sheriff’s hand and gestured for him to go over to the table and sit.

  The sheriff went over and sat down across from Ms. Lou Ellen. Lucas remained over near the counter with Rhonda while Rose stayed leaning against the desk.

  “It’s quite a lovely day today,” Ms. Lou Ellen offered as a way to open up the c
onversation. She was pressing her upper body forward with the paper securely under her arms on the table.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Montgomery responded. “I think maybe we’re going to get our spring after all,” he added.

  Everyone nodded.

  “Ya’ll just get back from a trip?” he asked of Lucas.

  Lucas nodded. “We were down in Mississippi,” he replied. “We go to a little spot there every few months. Rhonda likes to visit friends.”

  The sheriff nodded and smiled. He knew all about the good work that the Boyds did along the river. He had been with them on a few of their mission activities. The three of them had been a part of rebuilding some houses on the Gulf Coast after Katrina as well as getting supplies to a town in Oklahoma after a series of deadly tornadoes. He looked around again at the foursome in the office, still feeling the tension in the room.

  “Did I interrupt something?” he asked.

  They all spoke up at the same time, “Oh, no!” they said, a bit too enthusiastically.

  Rose immediately sat down at the desk and started shuffling papers, trying to appear as if she had work to do.

  “We were just speaking of campground things,” Lucas responded. “Necessary repairs, maintenance issues, that kind of thing.”

  Rhonda cleared her throat and went to stand behind Rose. “Do I need to help look over the reservations?” she asked.

  “No, no,” Rose replied. “That’s all taken care of.” She moved a pile of papers from one side of the desk to the other.

  There was an awkward pause.

  “You have anybody interesting come to camp with you this week?” the sheriff asked.

  The four others in the office suddenly began looking at one another, waiting for someone to answer the question. There were coughs and immediate shifts in body language. The sheriff just watched them.

  “There’s a lovely couple from Texas,” Rose said quickly. “They have a fifth wheel, parked by the river.” She tried to think of something else to add. “They’ve gone to look for the woman’s birth parents, somewhere near the border of Missouri.”

  Montgomery nodded. He continued to search the faces around the room, trying to understand if something was wrong at Shady Grove.

  “By the way, Sheriff,” Rose asked, thinking it would be a great means of diverting attention from bringing up any other identities of campers, “can you get the name of birth parents in Arkansas?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” he replied.

  It had worked. He had quit looking around the room and was involved in her line of questioning.

  “I mean, if an adopted person from here wanted to find out the name of her birth mother, would the state or the adoption agency give it to them?” she asked. She was proud of herself for moving the conversation into a different direction.

  The sheriff considered the question. “I can’t say as if I really know the answer to that,” he said. Then he scratched his chin and sat back in his seat. “I would have to ask somebody over at the courthouse,” he added.

  Rose nodded. “I know in North Carolina that adoption agencies or the department of social services can’t tell,” she said. “I remember that from the hospital,” she explained. “Thomas said it was to protect the women who give up their children.” She was trying hard to make small talk.

  “That makes sense,” the sheriff agreed. “I never met anybody trying to find their birth parents,” he noted. “I’m not sure how one goes about that process.”

  “I heard somebody say there was a Web site where you could pay a couple of thousand dollars and that within twenty-four hours they can give you a name and an address,” Rhonda said. She was glad for Rose’s topic of conversation.

  “That Internet is amazing,” Lucas commented.

  “It’s just lovely to be able to find out about people, isn’t it?” Ms. Lou Ellen jumped in.

  “You can type in a name and get the latest information on anybody,” Rose chimed in. “You can Google a person and find out if there have been any stories about them in the newspapers or magazines.”

  And as soon as the words left her mouth, Rose felt her throat go dry. The others watched as her face grew pale. In a knee-jerk reaction, Ms. Lou Ellen slid the newspaper she was hiding with her elbow and it immediately fell on the floor around her. The different sections scattered around her feet.

  Sheriff Montgomery stood from his seat and bent down to help pick up the sections. Lucas ran over and bumped him, almost causing him to fall. Lucas was, after all, a big man. “No, no!” he exclaimed. “I’ll get that!”

  Sheriff Montgomery eyed the group. Rhonda and Lucas were yanking up the pages while Ms. Lou Ellen just sat fanning herself with a handkerchief. Rose had stood up at the desk and had a frantic look on her face.

  “What is wrong with you people?” he asked.

  They all froze as if they had been caught at doing something illegal.

  It was Lucas to answer. “Brother Leon,” he said as he handed his wife the newspaper. She took it and walked over to the counter. Lucas reached over and patted the sheriff on the arm. “We have just heard some sad news about a friend of ours,” he explained.

  The women watched closely.

  “There’s been a death,” he added, “and we were just trying to understand what we should do for the family in this difficult time.” He shook his head.

  Sheriff Montgomery surveyed the group of friends and they all responded with nods or sympathetic responses.

  “Well, who is it?” he asked. His voice still sounded a bit suspicious.

  “It’s a young boy,” Ms. Lou Ellen answered for the group. “He’s not from here,” she explained. “And he had just discovered he was going to be a father.” She dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief.

  Rose and Rhonda looked at each other, rolling their eyes.

  The sheriff didn’t notice the exchange. He sat back down. “Well, that’s too bad,” he replied. “Too bad for everybody.”

  The group settled as there seemed to be a collective silent sigh of relief.

  “Well,” the sheriff said, looking to change the subject and get to the purpose of his appearance. He was growing tired of the strange visit with the staff of Shady Grove. “The reason I’m here is because I would like to get a few tickets to the Spring Fling,” he explained. “I ran into Thomas in town and he mentioned that you still have some.” He was speaking to Ms. Lou Ellen.

  “I do, it’s true,” she replied. “Although I have sold almost all of mine,” she mentioned. She winked at Rose. “I’m even taking one attendee shopping next week. Maybe we could purchase you a new tie.”

  Sheriff Montgomery didn’t respond. He instead turned to Rose. “You and Thomas going?” he asked.

  Rose nodded without much hesitation. “It appears as if I have been recruited,” she replied.

  “Well, that’s nice,” Montgomery noted. “It’s a good event for the community,” he added.

  “How many tickets will you be needing?” Ms. Lou Ellen asked, thinking he was purchasing them for staff in his department.

  “Two,” he replied.

  “Two?” she repeated. “Are these for you and a special someone?” she asked. She lifted her eyebrows and waited for his response.

  He cleared his throat, suddenly realizing that he was the one displaying a certain level of discomfort.

  “I knew you were spiffying yourself up for a woman,” she added. She clapped her hands together. “All that weight you’ve lost, a new hairstyle …” She crossed her arms at the wrists and placed them across her heart.

  “It’s Loretta Cleaver, isn’t it?” Ms. Lou Ellen was delighted with the thought that she had figured out a new couple in town.

  “Mother, I don’t really think you should be so curious,” Rhonda said.

  Suddenly Ms. Lou Ellen leaned across the table toward the officer. “Do you have on cologne, Sheriff?” she asked.

  The question flustered the sheriff and he made a kind of coughing
noise. His face reddened. “No, no,” he replied. “Probably just the laundry detergent I used,” he said.

  The others smiled. Suddenly, the tables were turned and Rose and Rhonda and Lucas were relieved. Besides, they loved watching the older woman work.

  “No, I’m pretty sure that’s cologne,” Ms. Lou Ellen noted, sitting up and moving closer to try and smell him. “I believe that’s Mr. Calvin Klein’s brand.” She smiled. “I think one of my husbands used to wear it. What is it, Obsession or Possession or Recession? I don’t recall.”

  She waved her hand at her daughter. “Come over here, Rhonda, smell the sheriff. Now, was it Mr. Maddox who wore that or Lester Earl?” she asked.

  Rhonda stepped over to the table, going along with her mother. She stuck her face by the sheriff’s neck. “I don’t remember that particular smell,” she said. “Must have been one of the husbands I didn’t get the privilege of sniffing.”

  “I think it may have been one of the later ones.”

  Both women were leaning into the sheriff.

  “Let me smell,” came from the other side of the room, and Rose joined them.

  “What are you doing?” Sheriff Montgomery jumped from his chair. His face was crimson. “I said it was just the detergent.” He tried to compose himself. He adjusted his tie and pulled on the waistband of his pants. He picked up his hat and placed it squarely on his head. He was standing near the wall as far away from the three women as he could get.

  Lucas grinned at the scene taking place before him. “You can’t get anything over on these three, Leon.”

  “Well, I’m not trying to get anything over,” the man replied. “Look, if you don’t have the tickets, I’ll just get them from Martha Foote. I know she has some over at the diner.” He kept his distance.

  “Oh, Leon,” Ms. Lou Ellen said as she rose from her seat. “Don’t be so sensitive.” She waved her hands in front of her face. “The tickets are at my place. I’ll go get them.” She headed toward the door and then turned around. “It really is no concern to us if you decided to put on a little aftershave or if you have a new lady friend. For heaven’s sake, it’s nice.” She added, “Actually, it’s kind of sexy, Sheriff.” And she winked and walked out.