PluckingthePearl

by Afton Locke

  Before she could answer, he slid all the way inside her. Her fingers dug into the coats as she struggled to adjust to his deepness. The scent of her juices filled the air, hiding the smoke.

  The Klan and the hostile outside world ceased to exist. For these short, beautiful moments, this was their room, their sanctuary, and no one could take it away.

  “My woman. My wife,” he chanted as he slid in and out of her.

  Don’t say that! I can’t ever be your wife now.

  This would be the last time she made love, she realized. She would never let another man touch her for the rest of her life.

  “After I rebuild, we’re marrying,” he continued. “No one will stop us.”

  His hands reached inside her bra as he drove into her. The extra sensation of his fingers on her tender nipples sent her hurtling toward the edge. She gasped for breath as her belly tightened.

  “Scream, honey,” he said in her ear. “Scream for everything we lost, everything we’ll get back.”

  Coaxing her toward climax, he pulled almost all the way out and brushed his finger across her clitoris. Then he pushed all the way in, still stroking her. The flame erupted inside her, consuming her on the second stroke.

  “Caleb!” she screamed.

  He hammered her with short, hard strokes as he reached his own fulfillment. They both collapsed on the table, tangled in the coats. He flipped her over and stared into her eyes. The pale blue depths burned themselves into her soul where she’d never forget them.

  “I love you, Pearl,” he said.

  Weak from their explosive lovemaking, she couldn’t hold back the tears.

  He touched them and frowned. “Why are you crying, honey?”

  She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Because…because I love you so much.”

  There was no need to spoil this special moment by telling him her plans now. He’d find out soon enough.

  * * * * *

  The next morning, Pearl went to the plant, which had reopened. Caleb had a team of builders in place and a partial workforce of shuckers, including her family. Not wanting Caleb to know why she was there, she rushed to Aunt Wilma’s side and urged her to come outside.

  Weak sunlight did little to warm the air. Pearl shivered, realizing the cold weather wouldn’t make her trip any easier. The breeze blew tendrils of gray hair around Wilma’s face. To her surprise, the older woman hugged her.

  “I can’t believe what’s happened,” Wilma said. “Thank goodness you’re all right.”

  “We’re sure the Klan did this,” Pearl replied, looking at the charred marks on the white clapboard siding. “They didn’t like the fact Caleb didn’t join and they don’t approve of his involvement with me.”

  The older woman shook her finger. “Didn’t I tell you getting involved with white folks would be nothin’ but trouble?”

  Pearl nodded, wishing her lips wouldn’t tremble. “He wants to marry me but he’s already lost too much. That’s why I’ve decided to leave him.”

  “Move back into the cottage,” her aunt said. “They’s extra room now with Sadie gone.”

  “No.” Pearl shook her head. “He’ll find me there.”

  “Then where?”

  “I’m not sure yet,” Pearl said, “and don’t you dare say anything to him.”

  “All right but that man loves you. He’ll surely come aroun’ asking questions.”

  “Don’t tell him anything. Remember all that money I gave you? I need some of it back. Can you bring it tomorrow?”

  Wilma reached inside her bodice. “I’ve got it right here. With all the stuff burnin’ lately, I don’t leave nothing valuable at home anymore. How much do you need?”

  “Whatever you can spare after Charlie’s…expenses.”

  Wilma pointed to her left hand. “That ring is worth something.”

  Pearl looked at the pearl on her finger. It had become such a natural part of her she’d forgotten about it.

  “If I try to sell this, people will assume I stole it.”

  She would tie it around her neck so no one would see it. It would give her something to remember Caleb by.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come home?” Wilma asked after handing Pearl the money and stowing her envelope again. “Charlie won’t last much longer and Leroy’s itching to move out and start his own family. They ain’t gonna be anybody left.”

  The fact that Wilma had once kicked her out hung between them.

  “Why are you being so nice to me?” Pearl asked. “You’ve hated me since the day I arrived on your doorstep.”

  Wilma sighed, her lined face filled with regret. “When I looked at your pretty face, I saw everything I’d wanted in life and never had. Can you forgive a bitter old woman?”

  Pearl hugged her. “Of course, Aunt Wilma.”

  “Take care of yourself, child, ‘specially with the Klan around.”

  To Pearl’s surprise, the older woman’s eyes were luminous with tears when the hug ended.

  “I will,” she replied, “and thank you for the money.”

  Wilma paused and turned as she headed to the plant’s front door. “They’s a women’s college down in St. Mary’s County. Colored folk work in the dining hall and kitchen. Maybe cleanin’ too.”

  As Pearl walked back to Caleb’s house, she patted the envelope tucked in her dress pocket. Now that she had the money, there was nothing keeping her here.

  By nightfall she’d be out of Caleb’s life forever.

  * * * * *

  Late that night, fear clawed at Caleb’s gut as he steered his boat down Crab Creek. It was low tide and he could hardly see where he was going but he couldn’t wait a moment longer.

  The last thing he’d expected to find when he came home late from his most exhausting day of work ever was an empty house. There was no note or sign of a struggle. It was as if Pearl had vanished. Screaming her name in every single room hadn’t made her appear either. With two devastating losses in one week, it was a wonder he could even steer this boat.

  He’d gone to Henry’s place first, tempted to throttle him again, but his brother swore he didn’t know where Pearl was.

  What if the Klan had kidnapped her or worse?

  But Henry assured him he would have heard about it if they had. Pearl must have needed some time to herself. Caleb couldn’t blame her after all that had happened. Hell, he’d cried in her lap like a little boy. But why didn’t she just tell him where she was so he wouldn’t worry?

  He’d seen her talking to her aunt earlier so she must be staying with her. All he had to do was bring her home where she belonged.

  After tying up his boat at the Johnson place, he carried his lantern and pounded on the door. Minutes later, a sleepy-looking Wilma answered.

  “Get Pearl,” he asked. “I’m taking her home.”

  A guarded expression appeared in the woman’s dark eyes. “She ain’t here.”

  “What do you mean she isn’t here? Where the hell is she?”

  “I don’t know, sir.”

  Caleb felt like throttling her too. Why didn’t anyone have any answers? He held the lantern up to her face, as if the light might force the truth out of her.

  “That’s not an acceptable answer,” he said slowly. “I saw the two of you talking at the plant today.”

  The woman’s lower lip trembled. “She told me she was leavin’ you because she didn’t want to bring no more trouble on you.”

  He cursed under his breath. “Where did she plan to go?”

  Wilma shrugged. “She didn’t know herself. She said she just had to leave.”

  Caleb’s blood rushed through his ears so hard he could hardly hear his own voice. “Did you suggest someplace for her to go? A job, maybe, or more family?”

  “The only f-family she got left is right here.”

  “Do you think she might have gone back to Annapolis?”

  The woman just shrugged again.

  “You’d better not be holding anything
back.” He leaned close until his nose nearly touched hers. “Pearl is alone out there in the night with the Klan at large. She could be dying in some ditch as we speak. I can’t help her if I can’t find her.”

  The older woman’s hand clutched the collar of her bathrobe. “I-I told her there’s a college in St. Mary’s County but she may not go. If they ain’t no jobs there, she’ll move on.”

  Caleb nodded, satisfied. “That gives me a place to start, anyway. If you hear anything, send word to my brother at the plant.”

  “I will,” Wilma promised.

  Now he realized why Pearl had cried after they made love in the shucking room. Her mind must have already been made up then. When his plant had burned, he thought he’d lost everything. Now he knew how loss really felt.

  He had to find her.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Caleb woke up cursing at dawn the next morning. Every muscle in his body had a cramp in it from sleeping in his cold, hard car at an angle. A light layer of frost covered the windshield. He’d run off the road in the dark last night and busted his tire. The rough roads in this county were even more primitive than the ones where he’d come from.

  If he’d been sensible, he would have waited until morning to come down here. When it came to Pearl, he felt anything but sensible. Her loss was a gaping chasm in his body and soul.

  By the time he got the tire fixed, who knew where she would be. He’d comb this entire county if he had to. If she really wanted to end things with him, she’d have to tell him to his face.

  His spare tire was flat too and he had nothing to patch it with. He wrestled off the wheel with the bad tire and walked with it back to the service station and general store he remembered passing the night before. It would take some time to fix, the men told him, so they recommended he relax and have some breakfast.

  Caleb was anything but relaxed and he had no appetite. Instead, he walked. The land looked wilder here. Civilization was spottier. It had been years since he’d come down here since he never liked to leave the plant for long.

  When he noticed the remains of an old building near the marsh, he walked through frost-coated weeds to take a look at it. For all he knew, Pearl could be hiding here. His breath quickened as he wondered if finding her could be that easy. Maybe his tire had busted for a reason.

  “Hello!” he called out once he’d pushed past the lopsided door.

  A mouse squeaked from the corner but no one answered. He should have known finding her wouldn’t be this simple. The cold made him shiver inside his coat. Wherever Pearl was, he hoped she was someplace warm.

  As his gaze traveled across the broken concrete floor and wooden walls with gaps in them, he realized this was a bigger version of the shack on his island. Visions of making love to Pearl while the rain streamed down tugged at his mind until he forced them away.

  He ducked into a smaller room where he saw some rusted equipment. On the back side near the water, he found boat anchors, oyster tongs and even a winch. This place must have been a seafood plant.

  Excitement percolated in his veins, chasing away the chill. Why had this plant failed? The more he looked, the more he saw what it could be, not what it was now. Had his daddy felt this way when he’d started the business? Running Rockfield’s for so many years had been satisfying and interesting but Caleb had never been this excited before.

  After exploring everything in detail, he walked back to the station to see about his tire.

  “Did that used to be a seafood plant down there?” he asked the old colored man sitting in a rocking chair near the stove inside.

  “Yes, indeed, sir. Crabs and oysters.”

  Caleb thrust his hands into his coat pockets. “Well, what happened to it?”

  “Owner died some years back.” He looked down at his gnarled hands. “Used to work there myself before the rheumatism got me.”

  “Is there any trouble here with the Klan?”

  The old man looked at him warily from underneath the brim of his faded cap. “No, sir. No trouble like that here.”

  Further conversation revealed this was a peaceful and primarily colored community.

  “What about the government?” Caleb asked next.

  “Most of that’s up in Leonardtown. Say, you sure ask a lot of questions.”

  “I just have one more. Who would I see about buying that place?”

  After the man gave him the information he needed, Caleb picked up his repaired tire. He even sang a tune as he put the wheel back on the car. The future was clear to him now. He just had to find Pearl so she could be part of it.

  * * * * *

  Pearl sat up in the narrow bed she’d slept in, reaching for Caleb’s familiar warmth. This wasn’t Caleb’s bed, she reminded herself. She’d left him. Her hand reached for the ring she’d tied on a string around her neck. She squeezed it hard until the worst of the sadness passed and her eyes stopped burning.

  As she looked around the small room, she didn’t recollect where she was and how she’d gotten there. It came back to her bit by bit as the morning sun poured through the small window.

  She was in a spare room at the women’s college. Getting here had been easy enough. She’d hitched a ride with a farmer and had walked the short distance from the main road to this dormitory where the students lived and ate.

  A matronly colored lady named Berta Smith had told her there were no jobs available but had taken pity on her and let her spend the night out of the cold. After dressing, washing up and forcing herself to eat some oatmeal with the other dining room workers, Pearl went back to Berta’s office.

  “Did you think of anything else overnight?” Pearl asked.

  The kindly woman smiled sympathetically. “I’m afraid not, dear. Our positions are filled until the next term at least.”

  “When does the next term start?” Pearl asked.

  “January.”

  January? That was months away. It might as well be forever.

  “I’ll make some inquiries,” Berta told her. “Maybe I’ll hear of a housekeeping position. Check back in a few days.”

  Pearl nodded and stood up. “Thank you for your help.”

  The other woman stood too. “You seem like a refined young lady. Wherever it is you came from, can’t you go back?”

  Pearl shook her head.

  “Are you in some sort of trouble?”

  Pearl was sure the woman wouldn’t look at her so kindly if she told her the truth—that she’d been fucking a white man she wasn’t married to for months and had stirred up the Klan.

  “No. My mother just passed away.”

  In fact, this woman reminded her of her mother more than anyone she’d met since. How ironic that she hadn’t thought about her as much lately.

  The woman patted her shoulder. “Oh, I’m sorry. Please do check back. You might also try Point Lookout due south of here.”

  “Thank you,” Pearl replied.

  She put on her hat, hefted her suitcase, wishing it weren’t so heavy, and started walking. If she didn’t get a ride soon, she would have to throw out some dresses to lighten the weight. At least she’d wisely chosen to wear the expensive dress Caleb had given her. It made a good impression and kept her warm on this chilly morning. Unfortunately it also reminded her of him.

  It was a shame there were no jobs here, she thought as she looked at the stately dormitory with its wide front porch, white columns and grassy lawn surrounded by water. She could be safe and happy here.

  The air was chilly but at least the weather was good. She bit her lip as she headed toward the main road, wondering where she’d end up. This was even harder than moving in with the Johnsons after leaving Annapolis. At least they were family and had gotten her a home and a job.

  Now she had nothing. She turned around and looked north, tempted go back to Caleb. No! Despite how alone and scared she felt, Oyster Island was not safe anymore for either of them. She would find a new life for herself and the pain would eventually subside. Unti
l then, she’d concentrate on getting through each day.

  When she heard a car park at the residence hall behind her, she turned around. A dozen emotions burst to life when she saw Caleb get out of the car. Damn! Aunt Wilma must have told him about the college.

  Run! Run before he sees you! But her feet refused to move. She couldn’t stop staring at him. His face was so serious and sad. Anyone looking at him would suspect he’d lost everything.

  Pearl stood still, camouflaged by the dappled morning sun filtering through the trees she stood among. Her heart fluttered wildly in her chest as the urges to both run toward Caleb and away from him battled inside her body.

  He looked in her direction with studied concentration as if claiming his surroundings. A hunter looking for a deer. Despite his losses, he still exuded the power that had attracted her to him.

  She studied his eyes, noticing the exact moment he recognized her. He ran toward her. His hat fell off but he didn’t even bother to pick it up. The next thing she knew, a pair of hard arms were around her, lifting her off her feet. Before she could react, his mouth covered hers, nipping and claiming.

  “Why, Pearl? Why did you leave?”

  He pinned her against the tree she stood in front of, gripping both sides of her face.

  “You shouldn’t have come looking for me,” she told him. “This is the best thing for both of us.”

  “Haven’t I already lost enough?” The rawness of his voice tugged something deep inside her. Had he cried again? Or screamed?

  “Yes.” She swallowed hard against her shallow, rapid breaths. “That’s why I left.”

  “Did you get a job here?” he asked.

  She raised her chin as much as his tight grip would allow. “No, but I’ll find one.”

  “Do you have any idea what you did to me?” he asked, a mere inch from her face. “I yelled your name in every room of that house, wondering where you’d gone and why.”

  All the pain she’d put him through was plain to see in his pale eyes. She closed her own eyes, unable to look at it any longer. Had she really done the right thing? Now she wasn’t so sure.