Eunice glanced over at Chandra, sitting away from the rest of them, holding her belly like she was the first girl in history to be knocked-up. Then Eunice noticed the girl was looking a little green around the gills. From her spot by the window, Eunice called out, ‘Chandra! You sick?’
Chandra looked up at the old lady. ‘I don’t rightly know, Mee-maw, but I think this baby is fixin’ to come.’
Emmett found me standing up against the wall of the Longbranch Inn opposite the county courthouse. I was standing against the wall because I didn’t want the old bat to see me if she happened to look out the window. Emmett saddled up to me.
‘Got a light?’ he said. Since neither of us smoked – any more, that is – I just looked at him.
‘A little levity,’ Emmett said and sighed. ‘Very little, I guess.’
‘You got that right,’ I said, staring at the courthouse.
‘I didn’t mean to undermine you in there,’ he said.
I glanced at him but he was staring at the courthouse, too. So I went back to staring at it. ‘No real harm,’ I said.
‘What the fuck are we gonna do, Milt?’ he said, and I could tell his real emotions were showing. Emmett had had a lot of loss in his life – first his son who had died of leukemia, then his first wife who had blew her brains out with his service revolver – and he didn’t need any more. Besides, Petal, his little girl, who was a year younger than my Johnny Mac, needed her daddy – just like Johnny Mac needed his mama. And, hell, Anthony deserved to see his child born, and Dalton deserved to get married and start a family, and everybody up there had people who loved them and wanted them back safe. And I wasn’t doing a damn thing to see to that.
‘I’m thinking of calling up ol’ Eunice and telling her that her boy’s dead. What do you think?’ I finally caught his eye.
He looked at me a long moment, shrugged, looked back at the courthouse and said, ‘It’s something to do.’
‘My thinking exactly,’ I said. I looked at my watch. Two minutes.
‘Marge! For gawd’s sake, see to your girl!’ Eunice bellowed from her stance at the window. ‘If it’s more of them Braxton-Hicks thingies, she just needs to go lie down in the bedroom and stop with all the drama!’
‘Mee-maw!’ Chandra cried. ‘I’m not doing drama! I’m hurting real bad here!’
‘Huh!’ Mee-maw responded. ‘That baby don’t look more’n seven or eight pounds. Your stupid uncle Earl was fourteen pounds. Liked to rip me to shreds!’
‘That why you don’t like me, Mama?’ Earl asked, standing in the middle of the room, shotgun by his side and his head down, a wayward tear dropping from his eye to the carpet.
‘I don’t like you ’cause you’re worthless, Earl! I done forgave you for ripping me up. Had to go to Longbranch and have Darrell at the hospital ’cause I had to have a C-section after you!’ She shook her head. ‘I coulda forgiven you most anything if you weren’t just so damn worthless.’
What with her depression setting in and the drama her granddaughter was creating, the old woman had totally forgotten her deadline. If she’d looked at her watch she might have realized it was time to start shooting people.
‘I ain’t worthless, Mama—’ Earl started, looking up at his mother, but Chandra interrupted.
‘Excuse me!’ she all but shouted. ‘I’m having a baby here! Would someone do something!’
Marge ran to her daughter’s side. ‘Are you for real this time?’ she whispered in Chandra’s ear.
‘Yes!’ Chandra hissed back.
Marge turned toward Jean, who was watching the scene. She nodded her head and Jean stood up and walked over to Chandra. ‘The real thing?’ she asked, speaking softly.
‘Oh, yeah!’ Chandra said and tried to breathe like she’d seen women do on TV.
Jean showed her how to do it correctly, then asked, ‘How close are they?’
‘Like all the time! It ain’t stopping!’ Chandra said.
Jean turned to Marge. ‘We need to get her in the bed—’
‘No!’ Marge whispered. ‘The only way to get my brother out of here is if he thinks he’s gonna witness childbirth. Blanton men don’t hold with that. So let’s say she’s too close and the men oughta leave.’
‘No!’ Chandra said. ‘Not the men! Then he’ll have a gun – ooooooooo – ha ha ha – oooooooo – on my baby’s daddy and I can’t— Oh, shit!’
Marge stood up. ‘Earl, unless you wanna see your niece give birth, I think you oughta step outside.’
Earl looked up at his mother, panic on his face.
‘Oh, for gawd’s sake! You Blanton men and your stomachs.’ Eunice shook her head. ‘Go on, get out! Not like you’re doing any good here anyway!’
Earl ran for the door, making gagging noises as he went. Marge followed discreetly, looking for all the world like she was just making sure the door shut behind him. Then, without her mother seeing her, she locked it and walked casually back to her daughter.
‘Jean, you need some help?’ Holly asked.
‘Yeah, I’ve delivered a few babies,’ Jasmine said.
Marge gave Jean a negative sign, and Jean said, ‘No, but thanks, you guys. I think her mother and I have it.’
Marge helped Jean lay Chandra down on the floor. The women sitting on the sofa and the love seat threw pillows in their general direction, which Jean used to cradle not only Chandra’s head but her lower anatomy as well.
Quietly to Marge, Jean asked, ‘What’s your plan?’
‘Well, I’ve still got my gun. I think maybe I’ll just have to shoot Mama.’
EIGHT
Aloud explosion rocked the boys nearly off their feet. A fireball lit up the sky in the opposite direction from where they were headed.
‘That’s gotta be houses going up!’ Johnny Mac said with alarm.
Matt nodded his head. ‘Yeah, but it’s not ours. I mean, not my house or your aunt’s. It’s too far away. Gotta be down the hill somewhere.’
‘Then we should go that way!’ Johnny Mac said.
‘Yeah, I guess. But I coulda sworn it was that way,’ Matt said, pointing behind them.
‘We gotta do something, or else Cody—’ Johnny Mac started.
‘Yeah, I know, I know,’ Matt interrupted. ‘Just don’t say it.’
Both boys stared at Cody’s unconscious body for a few moments, then at the dog which, when you thought about it, was the reason they were stuck in this mess in the first place.
‘If it hadn’t been for the damn dog we wouldn’t be here,’ Matt said.
The dog said, ‘Woof!’
‘It’s not his fault. It’s the fault of the guy who was dragging him in here,’ Johnny Mac, who had become somewhat enamored of the dog, said.
‘Whatever,’ Matt said. He turned his head, straining his ears. ‘Listen!’ he said, grabbing Johnny Mac’s arm.
‘Hey, you guys!’ said a voice.
‘Who’s that?’ Matt shouted.
‘Help me!’
‘Keep talking, we’ll find you!’ Johnny Mac shouted, just as the dog said, ‘Woof!’ and ran off into the trees, woofing away. ‘Let’s follow the dog!’
‘And leave Cody here?’ Matt asked.
Johnny Mac stopped in mid-flight. ‘Oh. Yeah. You wanna stay and I’ll go find out who that is?’
Matt looked at Cody, resting somewhat peacefully on the litter. ‘He should be OK, don’t you think?’
‘Yeah, come on!’ Johnny Mac said and went off after the dog, which was doing some serious barking.
They found the dog halfway up a really big oak tree, and doing that by only standing up on his hind feet, his front feet reaching high into the tree. But he was no longer barking – he was growling. When the dog saw them, he got down from the tree and grabbed Johnny Mac’s hand with a soft mouth. The dog pulled Johnny Mac to the tree, stood up and began growling again.
‘Up here,’ said a disembodied voice.
Both boys looked up. A teenaged boy was splayed over a large lim
b of the oak, his head a bloody mess. ‘Can y’all get me down?’ he asked.
A fire truck from Tulsa showed up on High Grove Lane and hooked up their much bigger hoses to the fire hydrant. The puny hose being used by the volunteer firefighters from Longbranch hadn’t done a lot of good.
One of the two police officers from Longbranch walked up to the female volunteer firefighter, whom he had, by watching her, determined was definitely in charge. ‘Wanna leave this to the Tulsa boys and keep going?’ he asked.
‘Sounds like a plan,’ she said and let loose with a two-finger whistle and a wave of her hand. The rest of the volunteer firefighters showed up and they all piled into the rescue van.
‘Where to?’ she asked the cop.
‘Up the hill?’ he suggested.
She shrugged. ‘Works for me.’
Drew Gleeson and Jasper Thorne were headed up the hill in the same subdivision, gawking at all the damage. ‘You’d think somebody up here would be hurt,’ Drew said.
‘Yeah. Ya’d think,’ Jasper agreed.
‘Where should we go?’
‘I dunno,’ Jasper said. Then got all excited. ‘Hey! Look at it! That’s the Longbranch rescue van!’
Seeing it, Drew hit his horn then turned on the siren for a quick ‘woop-woop.’ The rescue van stopped and the cops and the female firefighter got out of the van.
‘Hey, guys!’ Drew said, getting out of the van and vigorously pumping hands. ‘Y’all find any injured?’
The cops shook their heads and the woman firefighter said, ‘No. Found a fire, though. Hate to think someone could have been alive in there when it started.’ She shook her head. ‘It was a real bad explosion and most of the houses – or what was left of them – went up.’
‘Ah, shit, man,’ Jasper said. ‘That’s not good.’
Everyone nodded in agreement with his statement.
‘Where y’all headed?’ Drew asked.
‘Up the hill,’ one of the cops said. ‘No particular reason, but we thought we’d start there and work our way down.’
Drew looked at Jasper, who nodded. ‘We’ll follow you up there,’ Drew said. ‘In case you find survivors.’
Again, they all nodded and got back into their respective vehicles.
‘You that guy who was dragging this dog into the woods?’ Johnny Mac demanded of the kid in the tree.
‘No,’ he said.
The dog growled, still standing tall into the tree.
‘Dog says you’re lying,’ Johnny Mac said.
‘That dog didn’t say shit!’ the boy in the tree shouted. ‘He’s just a stupid, dumb dog!’
Johnny Mac looked at Matt. ‘Should we just leave him up there?’ he asked his friend.
Matt appeared to think it over. ‘Would serve him right,’ he finally said. ‘I don’t like dog killers.’
‘Me neither,’ Johnny Mac said.
‘Hey! I didn’t kill that dog! Look! He’s right there!’ the kid in the tree said, pointing down at the still-growling dog.
‘Maybe you just admitted what you were gonna do!’ Matt said.
‘I’m not saying shit!’ the boy said. ‘Y’all just be on your way. I’m fine up here. Just fine and dandy.’
‘How bad you hurt?’ Johnny Mac asked him.
‘Not so much,’ the boy’s voice got softer. ‘Just a head injury. You know they bleed a lot.’
Johnny Mac could see that by the pool of blood on the ground that he almost stepped in. He and Matt conferred.
‘You think we should try to get him down?’ Johnny Mac asked.
‘I’m afraid if we do the dog’ll tear him to shreds,’ Matt whispered.
They both looked at the dog, still holding up the tree and growling.
‘Hey, dog,’ Johnny Mac said.
The dog jumped down and turned to Johnny Mac, the growl gone and his tail wagging. There was a big old smile on his face.
‘Promise you won’t hurt this guy if we let him down?’ Johnny Mac asked.
The dog cocked his head, as if trying to figure out his instructions. Then he grabbed Johnny Mac’s arm again with his soft mouth and pulled him to the tree. He sat down on his hindquarters, looked up into the tree and said, ‘Woof!’
Mike Reynolds woke up, his head throbbing. He reached to touch the sore spot and brought back a bloodied hand. ‘What the fuck?’ he said, staring at his hand, then looked up. He was in the suite again. Oh, right! He remembered. There’d been gun fire and he’d run in and … that’s all he could remember. All the women in the room were turned with their backs to him, staring at something behind the long sofa. Chandra’s mee-maw was just standing by the window, staring out. Where was Chandra, though? He couldn’t see her. She wasn’t in her chair at the back of the room. Then, just as his vision had slowly cleared, the ringing in his ears abated and he began to hear voices.
‘Push! Come on, you can do it, baby girl! Push!’
Mike pulled himself up and hobbled toward the sound. But Chandra’s mee-maw must have heard him and turned away from the window, her gun pointing at his heart.
‘Where in the hell do you think you’re going?’ she demanded.
Mike pointed to the back of the sofa, where he could now see his beloved’s feet sticking out. ‘She’s having my baby,’ he told the old woman.
Eunice Blanton shook her head and sighed. ‘Oh, for God’s sake! Go on.’ And she turned back to stare out the window again.
‘I can’t stand much more of this!’ Carolyn McIntosh, Cody’s mom, said. ‘Cody!’ she yelled at the top of her lungs.
Both men followed suit, screaming their own boys’ names as loud as they could.
‘Hey!’ came a faint sound from far away.
‘Hey!’ Harmon bellowed back. ‘Who is it?’
‘John McDonnell Kovak, sir!’ came the faint but shouted answer.
The three adults began to run as fast as they could through the wreckage and debris of the woods.
‘Y’all hear that?’ Drew Gleeson asked those assembled outside their vehicles on the cul-de-sac at the top of the hill.
There was a chorus of ‘yeahs!’ in response.
Jasper Thorne pointed toward the woods. ‘It came from there!’
‘Grab the stretcher and I’ll grab the bag,’ Drew said and they all – two EMTs, two police officers and five volunteer firefighters – headed down the path to the greenbelt and into the woods.
‘I’m here, baby, I’m here,’ Mike Reynolds said, holding his beloved’s hand and stroking the damp hair away from her forehead.
‘Just let her squeeze your hand,’ Marge said. ‘Come on, sweet girl, breathe, breathe!’
Chandra tried her new breathing techniques but it didn’t seem to help the pain even a tiny bit. ‘Oh my God!’ she screamed. ‘Get this damn thing out!’
Jean, who, with some help, had managed to get on the floor between Chandra’s raised legs, looked at Marge. ‘The cord’s around his neck,’ she whispered to Marge.
‘Ah, shit,’ Marge breathed.
‘What? What is it?’ Mike asked, panicked.
‘Oh, God, oh God, my baby!’ Chandra screamed, and began to cry as Mike tried without success to calm her.
‘We need to get her to the hospital,’ Jean said.
‘That ain’t happening,’ said Eunice Blanton from her stance at the window.
Johnny Mac, Matt and the dog ran back to where Cody was lying, still unconscious, on the litter.
‘Here we are!’ Johnny Mac screamed. ‘Can you hear us?’
‘Keep yelling!’ a grown-up voice said.
So both boys began to yell and both burst into tears – which they would later deny – when they saw Johnny Mac’s uncle, Matt’s dad and Cody’s mom come running to where they were.
The room phone rang. It took two rings before Eunice Blanton turned to acknowledge it. She moved away from the window and picked the phone up off the table.
‘What now?’ she said into it dejectedly.
‘Ma’am,�
�� said the voice of the sheriff, ‘I got some real bad news for you.’
‘That’s been about all you’ve been giving me, asshole,’ Eunice said, trying to get some spunk into her voice.
‘Ma’am, Darrell is dead. I’m real sorry, Miz Blanton—’
Eunice dropped the phone and fell on the sofa where Jean had been sitting. Marge saw this, stood up and walked to her mother. The gun in Eunice’s hand was pointed at the floor. Marge took it out of her mother’s hand with surprising ease, let out a deep breath and picked up the phone’s receiver. ‘Sheriff, that you?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, who’s this?’
Ignoring his question she said, ‘Y’all can come on up now, Mama’s disarmed. And we need an ambulance. My baby girl’s having a baby and the cord’s around its neck.’
‘We’re on our way,’ the sheriff said.
‘But be careful. My brother’s outside the door and he’s armed. He’s already shot one lady up here.’
Downstairs, Milt nodded his head, hung up the phone and readied his men to go.
PART TWO
SIMULTANEOUS INVESTIGATIONS
NINE
‘There’s a boy in a tree back there,’ Johnny Mac told his uncle after all the hugging had abated. ‘We think he tried to kill this dog here.’
‘That’s a dog?’ Uncle Harmon asked. ‘I thought it was a bear.’
The dog, sitting back on his haunches, smiled and wagged his tail without saying a word.
It was at about this juncture in the discussion when all the Longbranch rescue people showed up.
Carolyn McIntosh was down on her hands and knees next to her son. When she saw the EMTs with their medical bag and stretcher she said, ‘Over here, y’all! My boy! He’s hurt bad.’
Turning to the EMTs, Johnny Mac said, ‘I tried to help him.’ Tears formed behind his eyes, threatening to spill over. ‘I tied my shirt around his leg so that bone wouldn’t—’
At that point Cody’s mom unwrapped Johnny Mac’s shirt, saw the bone sticking out of her son’s leg and passed out.
Countdown Page 11