Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 07 - Mad as the Dickens

by Toni L. P. Kelner

  “It does, doesn’t it? I better change it.”

  “Why?”

  “Because this makeup is for the first scene, when he’s about to freeze to death while working in Scrooge’s office. He shouldn’t look this good. But I can use these colors for Bob’s happy scenes, like during Christmas dinner and when Scrooge gives him a raise.”

  “I had no idea makeup was so complicated,” I said, impressed by the level of detail.

  “Oh, it’s not that bad,” she said modestly. “I love fooling around with makeup. If a woman really knows what she’s doing, she’ll never need a facelift.”

  “Really?” I looked at my own face in the mirror, wondering if Odelle would have time to give me a pointer or two once the play was over.

  “Could you get me that notebook over there?”

  “Sure.” The notebook was a thick three-ring binder that was bristling with dividers. “What is it?”

  “It’s our makeup bible. We write down what colors each person takes for foundation and blush and all, so that we’ll be able to do it in a hurry for the performance. Take a look.”

  I thumbed through it and was impressed again. Not only was every character’s makeup described, but Odelle had even pasted in photos of each person before and after makeup, along with notes like “Add bags under the eyes,” and “Bring out eyes.” For the actors playing more than one role, like Florence and David, both sets of makeup were in the book. I said, “This must have taken forever to do.”

  “Not as much time as it would take to recreate everything later on. Could you write some notes down on Tim’s page? My hands are covered in makeup, and I don’t want to get the book dirty.”

  “Sure.” I found the page for Tim and dutifully printed the color names Odelle read out to me. Then she told me how to use the instant camera so I could add a photo of Tim’s “happy” makeup to the book.

  While I took care of that, Odelle wiped Tim’s face clean with healthy amounts of cold cream and started all over again with makeup designed to make him look miserable.

  I hung around, both because I thought Odelle might need me to take more notes and because it really was interesting. I looked at the pictures in the notebook, amazed by how much difference a color choice or a drawn line could make in a person’s appearance.

  The actors were in order of appearance, naturally enough, so I looked at the page for Scrooge first. If Odelle had worked up makeup for Seth, she’d already taken it out of the book, because only Big Bill was included. I was amused to see that they hadn’t had to do much to change his appearance.

  Next was Tim, and then three pictures of David: as himself, as Scrooge’s nephew Fred, and as the young Scrooge. At first glance, it looked like three different men. Of course, there were plenty of characteristics that couldn’t be changed, so I had no doubt that it was all David.

  It was while looking at Tim’s and David’s pictures that I noticed something. The two men looked a whole lot more alike than I’d realized before. Though Tim’s face was fuller, probably from sampling his own barbecue, both men’s cheekbones had that slant that usually means American Indian blood. Their noses were almost the same shape, and their eyes were the same shade of hazel. Even their eyebrows were shaped alike. The longer I looked at the pictures, the more I noticed how much the two men favored one another. In fact, if I hadn’t known better, I’d have said …

  I stopped the thought and went from just looking at the pictures to flat-out staring at Tim, mentally cataloging David’s features. It was while I was comparing the shape of their earlobes that Tim caught my eye. Despite Odelle’s complaints, he turned around in his seat until he could see the page of the notebook I was looking at, and I could tell that he knew exactly what I was thinking.

  Odelle turned him back around long enough to add one more puff of powder and announced, “Tim, that’s how we’re going to do you for the first scene. All I need to do is take another picture and you’re done.”

  I don’t think Odelle noticed that Tim didn’t say a word while she finished up with him, but she did look surprised when he said she didn’t need to wash the makeup off. He left the room with it still on, and I excused myself to follow him.

  He was walking away quickly, and I nearly had to run to catch up with him. “Tim, can we talk for a minute?”

  “What about?” he said.

  I just looked at him and he nodded. Nobody was in the room Aunt Maggie was using to store props, so we went in there.

  Once the door was safely shut behind us, I said, “How long have you known?”

  “Known what?”

  “How long have you known that Seth Murdstone was your father?”

  Chapter 24

  Tim leaned up against the Cratchits’ dining room table and shook his head ruefully. “I should have known you’d figure it out.”

  “It took me long enough.” In fact, I was embarrassed by how long it had taken. For years I’d bragged to Richard about how good I was at spotting family resemblances, but I’d missed it completely with those two, and I knew that if David hadn’t been white and Tim black, I’d have caught it right off. Talk about being color-blind! “How did you find out?”

  “He told me—Seth, I mean. You’ll excuse me if I don’t call him ‘Daddy.’ ” He looked disgusted at the thought. “It was right after we started rehearsing the play. I was a little worried when Vasti gave me the part—a lot of people wouldn’t want a black man playing a white role. But Seth was real nice and seemed interested in talking to me. Then he asked me out for a drink after the second night of rehearsal. I thought he’d bring his boys along—at least Jake—but it was just the two of us. We met over at Dusty’s—you know Dusty’s, don’t you?”

  I nodded. It was a hole in the wall, but since it was just outside the gates to the mill, it was the favorite place to get a beer after shift’s end.

  Tim said, “There weren’t many people in there at that time of night, and Seth got us a booth in the back. He’d said he just wanted to talk about the play and relax, but I could tell he had something on his mind. He was kind of agitated, and drank down the first beer like it was water. He was working on his second when he started asking me questions about Mama and what it was like growing up without a father.”

  “Didn’t you think that was kind of odd?”

  “Naturally, and after I’d talked a little, I asked him if he’d known Mama.”

  “What did he say?”

  Tim’s mouth turned down as if he’d tasted a bad batch of barbecue sauce. “He said he’d known her real well, and that there was something he wanted to tell me. That’s when he said it: ‘I’m your father, Tim.’ Like it was something to be proud of.”

  “What did you do? What did you say?”

  “I didn’t say anything. Hell, Laurie Anne, I didn’t know what to say. He told me how he and Mama had done business together, and how one thing had led to another late one night. I think it was just the one time. He said he didn’t even find out she’d gotten pregnant until after I was born.”

  “Did you believe him?”

  “I wasn’t sure.”

  “Did he ever try to see you? Or to do the right thing by you and your mother?”

  “A white man marry a pregnant black girl? Back then?” He snorted. “Hell, I don’t know many who’d do it now.”

  “I suppose not,” I agreed sadly.

  “Besides, he was married at the time and already had the two boys.”

  “Still, he could have done something. Sent y’all money, at least.”

  “He said he waited for Mama to contact him, and when she didn’t, he figured she didn’t want anything from him.”

  “Right,” I said, rubbing my belly. I couldn’t imagine Richard just waiting around for somebody to ask him to bear responsibility for his child. He’d do it no matter what. Nor could I imagine an unmarried black girl crossing over to the white side of town to beg for what was due her and her child. “What a weasel.”

  “He hint
ed that he wasn’t sure he was the father, but I stopped that talk right then and there. I don’t have any idea that Mama was a saint, but she wasn’t a tramp, either.”

  “I’ve never heard one word against your mother,” I said firmly. “He had no right to imply that.”

  “To give him credit, he did apologize. He said he’d been immature and that he’d been worried about what people would do if they found out. His wife was sick, and he was afraid of what knowing about me would do to her. Besides, he had his sons—his other sons—to think of. I could understand that.”

  “He’s had plenty of time to come up with excuses,” I said cynically.

  “Maybe so. Anyway, he said that he wanted to make up for his mistake by us getting to know one another.”

  “Did you want that?”

  “I wasn’t sure, Laurie Anne. I’ve wanted a father my whole life. I had Uncle Eb, of course, but I always knew he wasn’t my real daddy. Maybe Seth wasn’t the kind of daddy I’d dreamed of, but I could look at him and see part of myself. He was blood, and I thought that meant something.”

  I nodded. Goodness knows, I’d put up with a lot from my own relatives for no better reason than our blood connection.

  Tim said, “I told him I needed to think about it, and he said he understood. When I got up to leave, I think he wanted to hug me, but all I could manage was a handshake.” He shook his head. “If I’d known the truth, I wouldn’t even have done that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The next morning, I talked to Uncle Eb and Aunt Fezzie. They’d always said that they didn’t know who my father was, and even though I believed them, I’ve always felt like they knew more than they would say. So I didn’t let up on them until they told me everything.” He looked down. “Then I almost wished I hadn’t asked.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, so I waited for him to go on.

  “They had told me the truth, Laurie Anne. They didn’t know who my father was. But they did know what happened to Mama.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Part of what Seth told me was true. The night it happened, Mama told Uncle Ed and Aunt Fezzie that she was going to meet with somebody about buying something for the bar. They thought it was liquor, but once they knew it was Seth, they realized that he must have wanted to sell her some furniture.”

  Actually, they’d probably been right the first time, but I didn’t say anything. Maybe I’d eventually tell Tim about Seth being a moonshiner, but it wasn’t the right time yet.

  “Mama and Seth met after the bar was closed,” Tim said, “and had a few drinks. Then they had a few more. I always wondered why Mama was so down on drinking when she ran a bar, and now I know. She took one drink too many that night, and the next thing she remembered, she was waking up with her clothes all over the place while Seth got dressed.”

  “Did he rape her?” I asked softly.

  “I don’t know if you would call it rape or not. What Aunt Fezzie said was that he took advantage of her. Mama wasn’t exactly sure herself how it happened. She might have gone along with it, her being drunk and all. I don’t know for sure that he forced her.”

  “Still, the best you could say for him was that he was a married man who got a single woman drunk and seduced her.”

  Tim nodded. “Mama was pretty much sober by the time he left, and he kissed her goodbye and said he’d call her.”

  “Did he?”

  “What do you think? The next time she heard anything out of him was the Fourth of July picnic a few weeks later. She saw him at the park and then went in his direction. By then she had a pretty good idea she was pregnant, and she wanted to tell him about it. But she felt funny going up to him, him being married and white, so she was hanging back, waiting for him to see her. But before he did, she heard him talking. About her.”

  “Oh, Lord,” I said, sickened. Though I knew comparing notches in the belt was considered normal male behavior in some circles, I’d never understood it.

  “Not by name,” Tim said, “and in a way, that made it worse. Seth was talking about the ‘brown sugar’ he’d had, and how he was going to get himself some more that night if the ‘bitch’ hadn’t gone off with somebody else.”

  “Your poor mother,” I said. “What did she do?”

  “What could she do? She couldn’t confront a white man in public, not without everybody finding out what she’d done. So she went back home and cried it out of her system.”

  “Bless her heart.”

  “Aunt Fezzie said Mama promised herself she’d never let it happen again. I don’t think it would have made much difference to her life if it hadn’t been for me.”

  “She never told him about you?”

  “After hearing him talk about her that way, the last thing she wanted was to have him as part of her life or mine. Besides, she figured he’d just deny that he was the father. She couldn’t afford a lawyer, so she just decided to raise me on her own, and that’s what she did.”

  “She must have been one strong woman. I can’t imagine having a baby all alone.” I patted my tummy absently. “I can just barely imagine doing it with Richard.”

  “You’re going to be a fine mama, and I know Richard is going to be a good daddy,” Tim assured me, “but Seth wasn’t any kind of daddy, leastways, not to me. At the next rehearsal, he came looking for me, wanting to know if I’d thought about what he’d said. I told him I’d found out what really happened with Mama, and that I didn’t want anything more to do with him. After that, I don’t think I spoke another word to him other than the lines Dickens wrote.”

  “I’m surprised that you didn’t quit the show.”

  “I thought about it, but I didn’t want to let Seth take anything away from me.” Then he half-smiled. “I was enjoying myself too much. I’d always wanted to try out for community theater, but with the restaurant and taking classes at night, I’ve never been able to. I wouldn’t have done it this time if your cousin hadn’t talked me into it. I sure didn’t want to let her down by backing out at the last minute.”

  “I know Vasti appreciates it. And Richard has been raving about what a good job you’ve been doing.”

  “Is that a fact?” he said, smiling more broadly. “Now that Big Bill is playing Scrooge, I think we’re going to have ourselves a pretty good show.” Then, as if remembering why we’d gotten a new Scrooge, he got serious again. “Anyway, now you know why I didn’t have any use for Seth Murdstone.”

  “I don’t blame you, Tim, not one bit.”

  “I realize that this all sounds like a good reason for me to kill the man, so I’ve got to ask. Do you think I killed him? Because I didn’t. I hated what he’d done to Mama, but Mama’s been gone a long time. Killing him wouldn’t have done her any good. Hell, Laurie Anne, he wasn’t worth the trouble it would have taken to kill him. Even if I had wanted him dead, I’d never have done that to Jake and David.”

  “I didn’t know you were friends with them.”

  “We’re not exactly friends, but they are my brothers. Half-brothers, anyway.”

  “Do they know?”

  “They haven’t shown any signs of it. I guess that when I didn’t welcome Seth with open arms, he decided not to tell them. Still, I’ve been trying to get to know them, and I like them both. At first I thought Jake was too much like his daddy, but he’s not sneaky like Seth was. If he tells you something, you know it’s true.”

  “Are you going to tell them?”

  “I don’t think so. Even if I could prove it, they’d probably think I was just after their inheritance.”

  “You are entitled to it.”

  “I don’t want nothing that belonged to Seth Murdstone.”

  I wasn’t about to argue with the tone in Tim’s voice.

  “Anyway, whatever else he was, Seth was David and Jake’s father. I spent my whole life with no daddy—the last thing I’d have wanted to do was to take theirs away from them.”

  “It’s hard losing a father
,” I said. I’d been through it when I was fifteen, and then again when my grandfather died. “No matter how old you are.”

  “Do you think I killed him, Laurie Anne?”

  I didn’t think Junior would have considered it proper procedure, but I said, “No, Tim, I don’t. I just don’t think you’re a killer.”

  His smile came back in full force. “That means a lot to me.” Then he asked, “Do you think this is going to have to come out? About Seth being my father?”

  “I don’t see why. Like Mark keeps reminding us, Junior and I have no official standing, so we don’t have to file any reports. I will tell Richard, if that’s all right, and probably Junior. But you know you can trust the two of them to keep quiet.”

  “That’s fine,” he said. Then Mrs. Gamp came looking for Tim to get him out on stage. I went back into the auditorium to get a bottle of water, then watched Tim and Florence run through the scene of the possible future where the Cratchits were mourning the loss of their son. I realized I was starting to cry.

  It wasn’t because of the play, though Tim and the others did a wonderful job. It just seemed so sad to me that Tim had waited his whole life to find his father, and when he found him he wasn’t even worth killing, let alone keeping.

  Chapter 25

  “You probably think I’m silly for believing him,” I said to Junior after telling her Tim’s story, “but—”

  “Not really,” Junior said. “You’ve known Tim Topper quite a while. Making a judgment call on somebody you’ve known that long isn’t exactly jumping to conclusions.”

  “Really?”

  “Still, going into a room alone with a suspect wasn’t the brightest thing to do. Especially not in—”

  “Don’t you dare say, ‘in your condition’!”

  Junior went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “What if he had been the killer?”

  “Odelle saw us go off together,” I said. “He’d have to have been nuts to try anything.”

  “Don’t forget the killer attacked Seth in a hallway that anybody could have walked down at any time.”