by Ann B. Ross
“James,” Sam said, leading him to a chair. “James, calm down and tell me what happened.”
James sank heavily into a kitchen chair, mopped his face, and looked up at Sam. “Somebody done broke in yo’ house, Mr. Sam, an’ I don’t know but what they still in there.”
Chapter 10
“Call nine-one-one, Julia,” Sam said. “Come on, James, let’s get over there.”
“Sam, no!” I cried. “Not if somebody’s still there.”
“If they were, they’ll be gone by now. Tell the officers to meet us there. Get up, James, and let’s go.”
James wasn’t all that eager to leave the safety of our house, but he dragged himself up and followed Sam out the door. And, just as I punched in the emergency number with shaking hands, Lloyd dashed out after them.
“Lillian,” I said, motioning to her to stop him, but my call was immediately answered and I had to report the breaking and entering at Sam’s house.
I hung up the phone and turned to scold Lillian for letting Lloyd go, just in time to see her crawl into Sam’s car with the rest of them. It backed out of the drive and was gone.
“Well,” I said to nobody, “I guess I’m left behind to clean up the kitchen.” Which was just as well, since bringing in dishes from the dining room and stacking them in the sink gave me time to calm my nerves. Hearing sirens converging a few blocks away, I could only hope that Sergeant Coleman Bates was one of the responders. As a personal friend, he would make sure that a thorough investigation was carried out.
But who could’ve broken into Sam’s house? And why? Sam didn’t keep any valuable items there, so what could they have wanted? Well, I sighed, it was vandals, most likely, or somebody just looking for empty houses to rob. It had become common practice to have a friend stay in a house just so it wouldn’t be empty during the time a family was participating in a wedding or a funeral—a poor commentary on the current state of the world in my opinion.
After clearing the dining table of crumbs, picking up biscuits from the floor, and putting the centerpiece back into place, with still no call from Sam, I decided to go see for myself what was going on. Then, glancing at my watch, I realized that time had gotten away from me.
“Goodness,” I mumbled, searching for the car keys and my pocketbook, “if I’m late getting to the hospital, no telling what Hazel Marie will do. She could think we don’t want her home, get her feelings hurt, and take off for parts unknown.”
So as concerned as I was about the goings-on at Sam’s house, I had no choice but to go to the hospital and bring Hazel Marie home. And it was a good thing I made that decision, for I found her already dressed and waiting for me in a wheelchair.
“Hazel Marie!” I exclaimed. “Honey, are you too weak to walk?”
“I don’t think so, but it’s hospital policy. Everybody has to be wheeled out.” Then, looking away from me, she mumbled, “I thought maybe you weren’t coming. I thought you’d changed your mind about me coming home.”
“Oh, Hazel Marie,” I said, immediately contrite for being even a few minutes late. “You mustn’t think that. Of course, we want you home, everybody is so excited to have you back. It’s just that the strangest thing happened this morning. Somebody broke into Sam’s house during the night, and James came running over, scared to death. You can imagine how upset we all were, so naturally my schedule was completely disrupted.”
“Somebody broke in? What for?” Hazel Marie’s face, already strained from worry and digestive upsets, took on another layer of concern.
“I don’t have an idea in the world. Sam and Lillian and Lloyd took off with James while I was calling for help, so I came here instead of going there. Now, Hazel Marie, where’s your suitcase and what’re we going to do with all these flowers?”
“They said an orderly would bring everything on a cart, but I told them to give most of the flowers to the other patients. Was that all right?”
“Of course. It’s a lovely thought, but we better take that dish garden LuAnne sent. You know she’ll ask about it.”
Hazel Marie’s hand immediately covered her face, as she bowed her head. “I don’t want LuAnne to know about me,” she said as tears began to flow.
“LuAnne’s not going to know a thing, and nobody else is, either. I’ve already put out the word that the doctor ordered complete bed rest with no visitors, which he should’ve done even though he didn’t. But that’ll give you time to recuperate at your own pace, and time for us all to make the appropriate decisions. And time, too, I might add, for you to build up your strength. I declare, Hazel Marie, you’re no bigger than a minute. I hope you’ve gotten your appetite back. You’re eating for two now, you know.”
While getting her home and settling her in bed, I kept up a constant stream of chatter, not only to keep her mind off her situation but also to keep mine off what was happening at Sam’s house. No one was at home when we arrived, so I remained in the dark about the break-in and wasn’t too happy about it. Still, Hazel Marie was my first order of business, so I proceeded to impress on her the importance of her health and well-being.
Drawing a chair close to her bed, I said, “Now, Hazel Marie, I know that women in your condition need exercise as well as a nourishing diet. However, I think you should confine yourself to your room for a while and not be out walking around. We don’t want people thinking they can drop in and visit, and we don’t want them wondering why you’re not at the book club or at church or in Sunday school if you’re seen moving about. We’ll just let it be known that you have a long recuperation period. But the longer you lay around, the less likely you are to want to eat. Remember that old saying about women losing a tooth for each child they have? We don’t want that to happen, so I want you to go heavy on milk and cheese and things like that. And vegetables and fruit, of course. Lillian will know what all you need.”
She turned her head away from me and whispered, “What does Lillian think of me? And Mr. Sam?”
“I’ll tell you the truth, Lillian is walking on air. She is thrilled at the thought of a new little baby in the house. And Sam, well, you know Sam. He is the least judgmental man in the world, and he’s absolutely convinced that Mr. Pickens will be back here any minute to take care of you.”
“I don’t want him back,” she said with a quiver in her voice, as well as a trace of determined will. “I don’t want to see him. I don’t even want to hear from him. He had his chance, and, Miss Julia, I’ve learned a few things from you. I know now that everybody has to look after themselves. And that’s what I’m going to do. I got myself in this fix by depending on somebody else, but no more and not ever again. I’ll take care of myself. And Lloyd. And this baby. As soon as I get over this hyperemmy-whatever-it-is, I’m going to move away and do it on my own. I’ve learned that there’re times when you just do what you have to do, whether you like it or not.”
I let her words hang in the air, as I gathered myself to deal with her new commitment to independence. Finally, feeling my way, I said, “I think that’s commendable of you, Hazel Marie, but I hope you’ll let us help you any way we can.”
“Well,” she said, a little more subdued by my seeming agreement with her plans, “I just don’t want to bring any shame down on your head. Can you imagine me staying here as I get bigger and bigger and the talk gets worse and worse? I know they’ll cut me off, but I don’t want them to do it to you. So the best thing is for me to go somewhere else. We can tell people that I’ve taken a job in, I don’t know, maybe Florida.” Her face took on a dreamy look. “I’ve always wanted to live near the beach.”
“That’s what we’ll do, then,” I said, crossing my fingers as I said it. “But I hope you’ll at least consider leaving Lloyd here during your confinement. I mean, what would you do with him when you have to go to the hospital for childbirth? And this coming school year may be his best yet. He’ll be in the honor society and he has a class office. It’d be hard on him to move to another school.”
She started crying again, moved by the realization of all the lives she’d be changing and uprooting. “I don’t know if I could leave him. I’d miss him so bad, but I do want to do the right thing.”
A little late for that, I thought, but, of course, didn’t say. I was pleased enough that she was at least considering the possibility of leaving Lloyd with us. And I might say at this point that I had no intention for her to leave at all, much less take Lloyd with her. But there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and my intention was to keep her here and happy until Sam could find Mr. Pickens. And if it took agreeing with her plans to move, even seeming to aid and abet her with them, why, I was willing to do just that.
And don’t tell me that I was engaging in deceit and deception, or that the ends never justify the means. Like Hazel Marie said, and as I myself had said many times before, you do what you have to do.
Hazel Marie shifted in bed, propping her pillows so she could sit up straighter. I knew she had expected me to put up a bigger fuss over her plans to leave, but I was after larger game.
“Well, right now,” she said, watching me intently, “I think I have to take Lloyd with me. I could send him back when the baby is due, if you wouldn’t mind.”
My heart gave a lurch, but I just nodded. “Whatever you think best, Hazel Marie. See that bud vase on your dresser? He bought those two roses with his own money just for you.”
She smiled as her eyes filled with tears again. I handed her the Kleenex box. “He is so sweet,” she said. “I just couldn’t go off and leave him.”
“I know,” I murmured agreeably. “But you do need to think carefully how you’re going to tell him about your condition.”
That brought on a full-scale crying fit, but finally she pulled herself together. “It’s all my fault,” she said. “And now so many people’re being hurt. I’d do anything, Miss Julia, anything in the world to make this right.”
“Well,” I dared to venture, “one thing that would make it right is for you and Mr. Pickens to marry.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Anything but that. I am not going to chase after him to make him do what he doesn’t want to do. I know it’s a bit late to be standing on principle, but I have to some time or other.”
Principle, I thought, huh. She was standing on sinking sand, if she wanted my opinion. But she didn’t, so I didn’t give it.
“So,” she went on, “please don’t tell him. Promise me that you won’t. I’m serious about this, Miss Julia, please promise me.”
“I do promise you, Hazel Marie. Besides, he’s unavailable at any of the places I know, and nobody seems to know where he is. So you have my word. I will not contact him in any way, shape, or form.”
Of course, I am never comfortable saying one thing and doing another, or of telling stories, or of letting someone believe what they wanted to, but I deemed it judicious of me to placate the sick, which Hazel Marie was.
My promise, so readily given, seemed to ease her mind, and mine, too, as well as my conscience, for I had no intention of contacting Mr. Pickens. Sam and Lillian had that job well in hand, and I was pleased enough to leave it to them.
Chapter 11
Hearing a commotion downstairs, I got up and went out in the hall to look over the stairwell. “Lloyd,” I called. “Your mother’s home.”
I heard the thud of his feet running through the house and clamoring up the stairs. “She’s home? Where is she? Mama, where are you?”
“She’s in bed, Lloyd,” I said as he gained the upstairs hall. “And she’s feeling a lot better. Run in and stay with her a while. I need to talk to Sam.”
“Mama, wait till you hear what happened,” he said as he flew past me, running to his mother’s bed.
Hearing them greet each other as if they’d been separated for months, I had a sinking feeling that my plan to keep him with me might not be the best one I’d ever had. How could I even consider letting Hazel Marie go away without him? Those two had faced shame and censure together; yet for all of that, Hazel Marie had raised as fine a boy as ever lived.
So, if she absolutely rejected Mr. Pickens’s proposal—if we ever got him to his knees in the first place—maybe she and Lloyd could manage on their own again. Hating even to consider losing them, I resolved to hound Mr. Pickens to the ends of the earth if that’s what it took.
“Julia!”
Sam was at the bottom of the stairs, calling, so I hurried to meet him. “What happened, Sam? Is everything all right?”
“As all right as it can be, considering. You got Hazel Marie home?”
“Yes, she’s upstairs. But tell me about the break-in.”
He took my hand and began to lead me into the living room, just as Lillian came by with a tray of food for Hazel Marie. “We got to fatten that little woman up,” she said. “She eatin’ for two now.”
“Lillian,” I said, stopping her, “the doctor said she shouldn’t have anything spicy or rich until we’re sure her stomach has settled. Just small portions of bland food several times a day.”
“Yessum, I know. You done tol’ me.”
“Well, so I did. But listen, do be careful what you say in front of Lloyd. Remember, he doesn’t know about the you-know-what.”
“Oh, that’s right. I be careful, don’t you worry. He won’t know a thing from me. But sooner or later, he gonna know.”
I followed Sam into the living room and we sat in our usual place on the sofa. For some reason, perhaps because I’d been thinking of Hazel Marie and her first foray into illegitimacy, I thought of how Wesley Lloyd and I had never sat together. He had always taken the chair to the right of the fireplace and I’d taken the opposite one, with never the twain meeting.
No longer, though, for Sam and I just naturally flowed together. Where one went, the other was sure to follow. He was the kind of man who liked to touch, sometimes with his hand on mine or an arm around my shoulders or waist or sometimes with just a meeting of the eyes. It had taken me some little while to become accustomed to such demonstrations of affection, public and otherwise. Now, though, I’d be lost without them.
“Tell me what happened, Sam,” I said. “I’ve been so worried about your house.”
“Well, first off, let me say that I’m sorry you had to get Hazel Marie on your own. I fully intended to go with you, but I tell you, Julia, that house is a wreck. The back storm door had been taken off the hinges, and the window in the back door itself was broken. Then whoever it was just reached inside, unlocked it, and walked right in.”
“Oh, my. I was half hoping that James was exaggerating, since he’s fairly well known for doing that.”
“No, he wasn’t exaggerating. Everything in the kitchen cabinets was strewn all over the floor, chairs turned over in the living and dining rooms, mattresses upended and slashed and papers and books thrown everywhere. I can’t tell you how disheartening it is to see it.”
“Did they steal anything? Or could you tell?”
“Not anything obvious. But I don’t keep anything really valuable there.”
“But, Sam, you have some fine pieces of furniture. None of that was gone?”
“No, but I might’ve overlooked something small. Coleman and several deputies got there right after we did, and they sorta took over, trying to figure out who might’ve done it. There’s not much I can do till they’re through.”
“Oh, I’m glad Coleman came. I’d rather have Coleman on the job than anybody. Unless,” I said, sitting up with a sudden thought, “it’s Mr. Pickens. That’s what you can do, Sam! Hire him to solve this case. He’ll come back to help you, I know he will.”
Sam smiled and pulled me back closer. “I don’t think we’ll need a case to entice him back, but I’ll keep it in mind. But what I’ve got to do now is get over there and begin straightening things. Coleman wants me to go through everything as soon as they’re finished and be sure nothing is missing.”
“I’ll help you with that.”
“I hope you will
. I’ve already got James calling around to get the doors fixed, and I told him to start on the kitchen as soon as the deputies’re through.”
“We should’ve put burglar alarms on that house,” I said, “and this one, too. But that one stays empty every night, and I’m sorry we didn’t think of it before. Now it’s like locking the barn door after the horse is gone.”
“It is that,” Sam agreed. “But you’re right. We should have both houses wired to an alarm in the sheriff ’s department. I’ll take care of that today.” He stood up, then said, “I’ll run up and speak to Hazel Marie first, though.”
“No, Sam, better not,” I said, putting out a hand to stop him. “She’ll make you promise not to contact Mr. Pickens, then where would we be? In fact, to keep that from happening, maybe you should stay away from her until you find him.”
Sam nodded. “You may be right. Well, tell her I asked about her, but that Coleman needs me at the house.”
While we were eating lunch, Coleman called to tell Sam that they were through with their clue-searching business and that he should get started on a list of anything missing. After running up to tell Hazel Marie that we’d be at Sam’s house for the afternoon and ask if she needed anything, I asked Lillian to stay with her. Lloyd was torn between staying with his mother and accompanying us to the burglarized house. He ended up going with us, since investigating a burglary was more exciting than watching Hazel Marie take a nap. He felt bad about it, though, and ran back several times during the afternoon to look in on her.
To say that the sight of Sam’s elegant home so torn up was disheartening is an understatement. I could’ve cried as I surveyed what had been done to it. As we waded into the shambles and began to set chairs upright and replace cushions, it looked more and more as if the perpetrators had destroyed just for the unhealthy thrill of it. Cushions and mattresses had been sliced open and the foam pulled out. A layer of down feathers was all over the living room, causing James to sneeze his head off. When I couldn’t stand the eruptions any longer, I sent him back to the kitchen and told him to stay there.