The Sky Took Him - An Alafair Tucker Mystery

by Donis Casey

  “I can promise you that Kurt didn’t sink any ships.” Alafair raised her voice to be heard over her sister’s rant. “It’d be mighty hard for him to do that from Oklahoma, wouldn’t it?”

  “But what if we get into the war?”

  “We won’t. Mr. Wilson promised to keep us out of it, and the president of the United States would never lie, would he? Kurt’s an American citizen now, anyway, and a real good boy. He told me he didn’t want to have anything to do with Germany any more.”

  Ruth Ann didn’t seem to want to be swayed by Alafair’s reason. “But if the Germans are really doing those things in Belgium that we’re hearing about, what does that say about them? Aren’t you worried about the young fellow’s character?”

  Alafair felt herself growing exasperated. Talk of the war always upset her, and she certainly didn’t want to hear her own sister cast unfounded aspersions on her future son-in-law. “I don’t want to hear that kind of talk, Ruth Ann. Just being German or French or American, for that matter, don’t make you one way or another.”

  “But…”

  “Besides,” Alafair cut in, “I believe you told me years ago that Yeager is a German name. You’re not thinking that Lester’s blood is tainted, are you?” The comment made her feel a little perverse, but that didn’t prevent her from saying it.

  Ruth Ann bit her lip. Apparently she had forgotten that fact. “All right, I’m sorry. You’re right. You know how feelings are running high since them ships were sunk, and I expect I’m a bit on edge these days, anyway. I hope you won’t hold my unruly tongue against me.”

  “I’m used to it, Sister. I wouldn’t recognize you if you didn’t just say the first thing that popped into your head. You just wait ’til you meet Kurt, though. You won’t have any bother about him being in the family after that. I hope y’all will be able to come to the wedding.”

  “When is it, again?”

  “Late May, right after school is out.” She shifted the cat in hopes of restoring circulation to her lower limbs.

  Ruth Ann looked down at her hands. “I’d like to come, but of course who knows what will be happening with us by that time? We’ll be there if we can. I sure hope Mary will be happy.”

  “If anybody is built for happiness, it’s Mary.”

  “I know it. And the rest of them? How’s that namesake niece of mine?”

  “They’re all back to school. I think this will be Ruth’s last year. Over the summer, she did some special study with Miz Davis, the high school teacher, and it looks like she’ll be graduating early. I’m so proud of her, I could bust. So far, every one of them has finished school. Our kids sure have better opportunities than we did, Ruth Ann, and they’re smart enough to grab hold of them.”

  “Well, we couldn’t have gone past eighth grade even if we’d wanted to, Alafair, unless we had moved to Fayetteville.”

  Alafair nodded, thinking that they had been too busy helping out on the farm, anyway. “Shaw was sure sorry he couldn’t come, but the cotton and the head feed has to be got in, and then Mr. McBride’s fall apples will be ready to pick. Besides, the county cooperative has offered to take as many trained mules as he can supply, to sell over in Europe, so he’s spending every spare minute getting yearlings broke to harness and saddle. Charlie, Blanche, and Sophronia rush home from school and head out to the field to help however they can, and Ruth is running the house while Martha and me are gone and Mary’s working.”

  “I sure am glad you and Martha could make it. Our sister Elizabeth and brother George will be here when they can break away, but I doubt if they’ll be here before…”

  Alafair put her hand on Ruth Ann’s knee. She didn’t need to comment. Instead she asked, “I noticed you didn’t mention Robin in your letter. Weren’t you able to get hold of him?”

  Ruth Ann shrugged. “Didn’t know where to write.”

  Alafair was not surprised. Their prodigal younger brother seldom stayed in one place long enough to receive responses to his sporadic letters to his relatives.

  The fat cat slipped out of her lap and hit the floor with a muted thud. He disappeared from the room just as Grace clattered into the parlor with five lacy white cotton napkins clutched in her hands. Olivia followed close behind with a doily-covered wooden tray of molasses cookies, as did Martha, with her own tray full of tall, frosted glasses of iced lemonade. The food service was temporarily delayed by the fact that Grace had to carefully arrange napkins over the laps of her mother and aunt. The two young women stood by patiently, though, and once she was properly swathed, Alafair eagerly helped herself to a cool glass and a chewy cookie.

  After their elders were served, Martha and Olivia sat down, allowed Grace to have a care for their skirts, and helped themselves.

  ***

  After refreshments, Ruth Ann led Alafair and Martha up the staircase to the second floor and down the long hallway to the master bedroom at the end. Lester was ensconced in an enormous double bed, the headboard of which had once been centered in the alcove formed by large bay windows. The bed had been turned around at an odd forty-five-degree angle, which enabled Lester to see both the bedroom door and out the windows into the garden.

  “Look who’s here, sweetheart,” Ruth Ann said.

  Lester was propped up on half a dozen feather pillows and covered with a quilt, in spite of the warm weather. He smiled at the women as they entered the room.

  Alafair could tell at a glance that he would never leave that bed again in life. The faded and desiccated body that now housed Lester Yeager’s spirit bore little resemblance to the robust frame he had inhabited since Alafair had known him. He looked like he had aged an entire lifetime since the last time Alafair had seen him. It occurred to her that Lester was coming to the end of his life after only forty-eight years—not much older than Shaw. Martha, close by her side, said nothing, but Alafair could feel her stiffen when she laid eyes on her uncle.

  “Alafair,” Lester said. His voice creaked and rustled like dry husks.

  “I declare, Lester.”

  That was all Alafair said, leaving it to Lester to interpret her comment as he would. Martha glanced at her mother, relieved. She had rather expected that Alafair would ask him how the dying was coming along, or something equally blunt. Of course, the visit was young. She sat down next to her mother in the chairs next to the bed, still braced for anything.

  As they sat, Alafair glimpsed a slight figure perched on a padded stool in the far corner of the room, so still and quiet that she was practically invisible in the shadows. Alafair had seen her sister’s Chinese cook and housekeeper, whom she called Lu, many times before. In her letter, Ruth Ann had called Lu her ‘girl,’ which she definitely was not. It would have been hard to guess her age. Her thin hair, which she wore in a kind of a bun right on top of her head, was completely gray, though her delicate face with its oddly crooked little nose was entirely without wrinkles. She could have been any age from forty to one hundred and forty. If Lu was five feet tall, Alafair would have been surprised. Every time Alafair had seen her, she was wearing a plain, dark-colored, Western-style dress. Today’s version was a gray, sacklike affair with a wide white collar, which was mostly covered by a flowered bib apron.

  Lu was the first Asian person Alafair had ever seen, and the only one Alafair had ever spoken to. She had been with Ruth Ann and Lester since Olivia was a small child. Alafair had never quite known how she had come to be in her sister’s employ. All she knew was that Lester had come back from a trip to California with the woman in tow and presented her to his wife as the answer to all her household needs. And according to Ruth Ann, so she was—the perfect nursemaid, chef, housekeeper, gardener, and lady’s companion, rolled into one tiny Chinese package.

  Alafair had been curious about the woman for a long time, but Ruth Ann had never seen fit to properly introduce them. As far as she knew, Lu was the only Asian person in Enid, and she wondered sometimes if the housekeeper had any family or friends. She didn’t really know w
hat kind of relationship Lu had with her sister. Ruth Ann never made any bones about the fact that Lu was actually the one responsible for the efficient way things ran around the Yeager household, but neither did she seem to treat her as anything other than a trusted servant. For the past many years, the woman had just been there, in the background, a fixture in the household, like the furniture.

  Now, Alafair imagined that Lu was efficiently overseeing Lester’s departure from the world. Before turning her attention back to the invalid, Alafair nodded at the tiny, silent woman and received a nod in return.

  “Well, how are you doing, Lester?”

  “’Bout like you’d expect, Alafair. Could be worse, though. The laudanum the doctor gave me still manages to take the edge off. Seems to be taking me a long time to get this dying business done. Since there’s no getting around it, I’d just as soon be getting on with it.”

  “Now, don’t be in such an all-fired hurry. There’s a bunch of folks who are going to be mighty sad to see you go.”

  Martha glanced at Ruth Ann, who was sitting in a chair next to her with her hand placed comfortably on Lester’s knee and a wistful smile on her face. All this talk of her husband’s imminent demise didn’t seem to be upsetting her unduly, or if it was, she was hiding it well.

  Lester managed a weak laugh. “Oh, I know it, and I’m not all that eager to leave them, either.” He smiled at Ruth Ann and shot a brief glance toward Lu’s shadowy corner, which interested Alafair no end. “Now, where’s that little imp Grace? She’s probably grown out of all recognition since I last saw her.”

  “I expect she has, Lester. She’s downstairs with Olivia and the baby. Maybe I’ll bring her up tomorrow morning for a few minutes, when you’re rested, so you can get a look at her.”

  “I’d like that. So how’re Shaw and the kids?”

  While she filled him in on the news, Alafair studied her brother-in-law’s face and determined that Ruth Ann had not been exaggerating when she said that Alafair would not be away from home long. Lester had always been a hardy man, middle-sized but beefy and muscular, but this withered gray creature bore little resemblance to the man Alafair had known for so many years. Ruth Ann joined in the conversation, chipper as always, but Alafair was quite aware of the strain underlying her sister’s upbeat attitude. Lester seemed entirely prepared for the inevitable. Whether or not Ruth Ann was, Alafair couldn’t tell. She decided she was glad she came, for Ruth Ann’s sake if for no other reason.

  It didn’t take long for Lester to reach the limit of his visiting strength, but when the women stood to leave him in peace, he grasped Alafair’s hand.

  “Come back up and visit with me a spell more after dinner.”

  “We don’t want to come trooping up here every hour and tire you out, Lester.”

  Another glance at the shadowy corner. “Well, if you was to come up on your own for a bit, I reckon I could handle that.”

  Ruth Ann leaned forward. “Lester…”

  Lester shook his head. “It’s all right, Ruth Ann. I’m sure Olivia and Martha will want to get caught up, and you and Lu could use the break. I get mighty bored up here just waiting to cross over. A fresh face will perk me up. Alafair can do the talking.”

  ***

  “I expect Lester wants to get you alone so he can worry to you about me and Olivia.” Ruth Ann and Alafair had hung back in the hall and allowed Martha to go upstairs to the third floor and inspect her room. They were standing head to head as they speculated on why Lester would ask to see Alafair alone after supper. Ike the cat had reappeared and was weaving around their feet, looking for attention.

  “I imagine you’re right,” Alafair agreed. “He needs to be sure everyone he meets with before he goes will be watching over you. That’s a good thing, Ruth Ann. I’ll be proud to let him bend my ear about it.”

  “Oh, Alafair, what am I going to do without Lester? This big old house, and just me and Lu. I’ve been trying to get Olivia and Kenneth to move in here after…well, when I’m rattling around on my own. Kenneth wants to do it; raring to go, in fact. But Olivia don’t seem to want to. I don’t know what’s bothering her about it.”

  “Maybe Martha can find out what’s on her mind.” Alafair felt Ike rub along her leg and watched him trot away down the hall, tail high.

  “Yes, maybe she can. You talk to her about it, will you? I’m so glad y’all are here, and I can hardly wait for Mama and Daddy and our brother and sister and their folks. I need my family with me right now. You don’t know how you help me.”

  “We’ll help you the best we can, Sister. You know that.”

  “Yes, I know you will, Alafair. Thank heavens for y’all.”

  Grace must have heard Alafair’s voice from downstairs, for she came pounding up the stairs to inject herself between them, and the two women paused to listen to a couple of minutes of chatter as the child related her adventures with Olivia and the baby in the parlor.

  When she could at last get a word in edgewise, Ruth Ann jumped in. “Come let me show you your bedroom. I had Lu put your things in this corner room, here at the other end of the hall. It’s a nice sunny room, and there’s a little couch that we’ve made up for Grace. It’s real comfortable.”

  Before Ruth Ann had finished telling her where they were going, they were standing in the middle of a bedroom that was as large as the entire parlor of Alafair’s farmhouse, and she unconsciously shook her head.

  It was a nice room. While Grace caromed from one delightful corner to the next, Alafair gave the place a thorough once-over. Tall windows in the south and west walls flooded the room with warm afternoon light. A long streak of sun fell across the cheerful broken star quilt that covered the high, carved, four-poster bed. A small daybed/couch had been made up at the foot of the bed for Grace. A mirrored dressing table sat next to the wall between the windows, with a little sateen-covered stool before it. A comfortable rocker, an upholstered side chair and reading table, and a tall armoire completed the furnishings. To keep bare feet from being chilled, two or three large scatter rugs graced the polished wooden floor.

  The furniture was a suite, all made of dark mahogany, and ornately carved. Not like Alafair’s furniture, every piece of which had been acquired in its own good time over the years, made by Shaw or some other relative, handed down from grandparents and parents and older siblings, even rescued from the trash heap in the early days, and yet still in use. In her organic home, nothing went with anything. Every single stick of furniture was an individual with its own character. Much like the people who lived in the house.

  Still, once in a while luxury is a good thing, Alafair thought. She sat down on the bed. “It’s just lovely, Sister.”

  “Martha is right above you in the attic bedroom, Olivia’s old room. I figured the young lady might appreciate a room to herself for a change. If George or Elizabeth gets here before y’all leave, Martha can move in here with you. Mama and Daddy will be down the hall, when they come. I’ve got me a bed set up next to Lester. The facilities are directly across from you, next to Mama and Daddy’s room. Well, I reckon you must be plumb tired from your trip, so I’ll leave you to rest. I’m going to go sit with Lester for a while. Lu has a big supper planned for us, so I hope y’all are hungry.”

  “I can always eat, and a rest would be welcome. I expect Grace could use a nap right about now, too…”

  “No, Ma, I’m not sleepy!” Even as she said it, Grace was climbing up on the intriguing pink-covered daybed. Alafair sat down next to her and began to remove the girl’s shoes.

  “I wish Daddy was here, Mama.”

  “So do I, cookie.”

  “Daddy and Fronie and Charlie. Not Blanche, though. She called me a poop and I don’t miss her.” Grace snuggled down as her mother gave her a stuffed bear that Ruth Ann had thoughtfully provided, as well as her own worse-for-wear rag doll. “Well, maybe I miss Blanche, too. And Ruth, too.”

  “I know you miss everybody, sugar. You can visit them in your dreams
.”

  “Yes,” Grace agreed, serious. “I’ll see them in the sky and tell them all what happened when we rode the train.” Before Alafair had the chance to see that the dolly was well and truly tucked in, Grace was asleep. Alafair looked up at her sister and winked.

  “She’ll see them in the sky?” Ruth Ann said.

  “That’s her words for where she goes in her dreams; up in the sky. Same as heaven, I think. When you wake up, you come back to the ground.”

  Ruth Ann laughed. “I declare, little ones have the most precious way of putting things. Well, you rest as long as y’all want, Alafair. I’ll come wake you when supper is ready, if you’re not down by then.”

  ***

  Alafair had intended to do a little unpacking before looking for a chore that needed doing, but after Ruth Ann left, she sat down on the bed, enjoying the quiet and inspecting the amenities. She wondered briefly what her family was doing right at this minute. Shaw was probably just on his way back to the house for supper, along with son Charlie and Mary’s intended, Kurt. Maybe even their son-in-law John Lee, if Phoebe and the baby had decided to visit.

  Alafair knew exactly what would happen when Shaw and the boys trooped into the house through the back door. All the girls, no matter what age, would descend upon their father with cries of “Daddy’s home!” They would smother him with hugs and kisses, which he would return with warm enthusiasm. Alafair wasn’t there for Charlie to kiss tonight. The realization disturbed her a little, until she decided that Mary would probably take that duty upon herself. She’d pursue her protesting brother around the house for a messy smack on the cheek. She smiled when she thought that Mary’s fiancé Kurt probably wouldn’t protest very much at all, in spite of the close and narrow gaze his prospective father-in-law would be giving him. Mary had more than likely cooked up a giant feed for them all after she got home from her teaching. She liked to eat, and never had known the meaning of the word “restraint.”