Dovey Coe

by Frances O'Roark Dowell

  “I’ll see what Daddy says,” Caroline told him. “I’ll ask him tonight after supper.”

  “You won’t regret it,” come Parnell’s reply.

  I looked out the window and seen Parnell walking to his car, Amos holding on tight to Tom and Huck so they wouldn’t chase after him. Even from behind, Parnell looked cocky and full of himself, and hateful as it is to say, I believe if I’d had a gun in my hand, I would’ve been tempted to shoot him then and there.

  But not on that day, or any other, did I ever harm a hair on Parnell Caraway’s head.

  chapter 5

  From the beginning there was no love lost between Parnell Caraway and me, not even in the early years, though as Parnell got older he tried to pretend like he got along with everyone. That right there was acting on a grand scale.

  I remember the time that I was nine and had brought Amos down to Caraway’s Dry Goods to pass the afternoon, maybe finger through a comic book or two and buy us some jawbreakers. I won’t soon forget the sight of the electric train set Parnell’s mama and daddy give him for Christmas spread out across the floor, the tracks curving around the barrels full of sugar and flour and making a straightaway down past the canned goods.

  A pack of children had gathered around where Parnell was kneeling on the floor, running them little trains. Me and Amos joined them to take a gander. All of us was dying to help Parnell set up the miniature village that come with the trains, or even just once flip the switch to start them little cars up.

  Parnell looked around the crowd, a big grin on his face, a lock of black hair falling over his forehead. “Y’all don’t touch a thing, you hear?” he said, his voice friendly on the top of it with a little river of meanness flowing beneath. “Now maybe if you give me a dollar each, I might let you help out some, but otherwise, you’re flat out of luck.”

  Of course there weren’t no one who had a dollar to give. Parnell and Paris Caraway were the only children in Indian Creek who ever had much spending money. The rest of us had pockets full of jacks and marbles and the smooth stones you could find up by Cane Creek, but not a dollar bill to save our lives. And Parnell known it, too.

  “You let me play with your trains, I’ll help you clean up when you’re done,” I said, coming up with the idea on the spot and thinking it a fair offer.

  Parnell laughed. “Didn’t know you was a cleaning lady, Dovey Coe. I’ll tell my daddy for the next time he’s looking to hire someone to sweep up in here.”

  I looked Parnell straight in the eye. “You’re a sorry one, Parnell. I ain’t offering to be your maid, I just want to mess with them trains.”

  “Too bad they ain’t your trains, now ain’t that right?” Parnell said, the grin still spread across his face. Then he turned back to the track, flipping the switches all by himself, them children just staring with their mouths open, dying for the teeniest chance to play. Amos got so frustrated, he kicked the side of the soda cooler a couple of times.

  “Ain’t y’all trained that little monkey yet?” Parnell had asked without even looking up from his trains. “Or is he too stupid to be made civilized?”

  I grabbed Amos’s hand and pulled him out of there before I gave in to my deep desire to aim a can of peas straight for Parnell’s head.

  Remembering just how evil Parnell could be, I was right scared that Caroline might lose her senses and take the boy up on his offer of marriage. There was more than a couple reasons the prospect bothered me, the least of which was that I couldn’t stand the thought of being related to Parnell, even if it was just by law. But more than that to me was the worry he’d take a notion to send Amos away. I decided I had better have a talk with Daddy, especially after he done told Caroline that Parnell could call on her regular, if that’s what she wanted.

  It was warm that night, the breeze floating real gentle over everything, like it were a mama putting her babies to sleep. Daddy was out on the porch with his guitar, picking one of them songs that about makes you want to cry even if you were right happy before you heard it. I waited for Daddy to finish his picking before I commenced to speak.

  “Daddy, I ain’t so sure about this business of Parnell calling on Caroline,” I said flat out, the way I’m like to do.

  Daddy strummed a few chords. “Now, why might that be, Sister?”

  “You know how Parnell is, Daddy. He’s bad news for everyone concerned.”

  “I admit it can take a while for Parnell to grow on a man,” Daddy said, measuring out his words slow the way he did whenever he was giving some thought to a topic. “But this ain’t got to do with my feelings on the matter. Caroline’s just about a grown woman now, and I reckon it’s up to her who she passes an evening with. When you turn sixteen, I won’t tell you your business, either.”

  “But, Daddy,” I said, a little panic creeping into me, “what if she goes and marries Parnell?”

  Daddy laughed. “Then I reckon we’ll start having Sunday dinner with Homer and Lucy Caraway. That’s a good way for a man to lose his appetite, now ain’t it?”

  “I’m serious, Daddy.”

  Daddy took a long look at me. “By your face, it appears you are. Well, tell me this, Sister. How likely you think it is that Caroline will break down and marry old Parnell? He’s been coming around here on and off for a full year now, and she ain’t never took much notice of him before. I reckon she’s just passing the time.”

  “I know what you’re saying is true,” I told him, leaning forward in my chair. “But I’ve thought a right long time on this matter, and I can see how she might go and take Parnell up on his proposal. You see, Caroline might start to thinking if she married Parnell, then he’d give us all the money and things we needed. She’d think she was doing us a favor.”

  “What makes you think Parnell would give us anything?” Daddy asked, the least bit of an edge to his voice.

  “He promised Caroline he would. I heard him. And, Daddy, if Parnell was giving us money all of the time, he’d figure he could be the boss of us, and he’d send Amos off to one of them homes where we’d never see him again.”

  Daddy set his guitar against the chair next to him. Then he looked at me real hard, like he didn’t much like what he was seeing. “I expect you best think real careful about what you’re saying, Sister.”

  “All I’m saying, Daddy, is that Parnell—”

  Daddy cut me off. “All you’re saying is I’m a man who can be bought by the likes of Parnell Caraway. All you’re saying is I’d let another man do what he pleased with my children. Is that what you think of me, Sister?”

  I was right at the edge of tears. “No, Daddy, I don’t think that way at all!”

  Daddy picked up his guitar. “Get on out of here, Sister. I don’t think I want your company right now.” He started picking at some notes, not paying me any mind, even though I sat where I was for a couple of minutes before going up to my room, the tears running on down my face. It was like I had been made invisible to him.

  Well, I can tell you I felt like the worst person that ever lived. The more I thought on it, the more I could see the error of my ways. Being so worried about what Parnell might do if he got ahold of Amos, I done neglected to consider that Daddy might have some say in the matter. Us Coes are proud people, but I’d gone and let that fact slip right out of my head. I admit that’s my biggest drawback, not thinking things through far enough.

  The next day Daddy weren’t no friendlier than he had been the night before. He didn’t so much as look at me over breakfast. Amos was fixing to take Tom and Huck up to the mountain to lay out traps for rabbits, and I decided to go along. Maybe if I got out of Daddy’s way for a while, he’d get to missing me and act more kindly next time he saw me.

  Me and Amos gathered up some traps from the barn and took off for the mountain, Tom and Huck right on our heels. Even though the path can be steep in places, usually I don’t take no notice of it. I can climb right far up without having to stop to catch my breath. But on this particular day, I fel
t like I had a bag of stones strapped to my back. It weren’t the traps that were so heavy, it was my bad feelings about what I had said to Daddy.

  Katie’s Knob ain’t the tallest mountain in these parts, but it’s close to it. You can see it from right far away. It’s mostly pines growing up there, and that smell is as cool and fresh as any you’re likely to come across. If I’m having a particular bad day, I like to go sit in a soft bed of pine needles beneath one of them trees and just breathe in real deep till I come back to my regular self.

  It weren’t unusual for Amos to get ahead of me when we was walking up to the peak. He was right quick, and when he had a plan in mind, he tended to get straight on it. I was more likely to take my time and keep an eye out for tracks in case there was a cougar about. That afternoon, though, Amos let Tom and Huck run on ahead while he stayed at my side. He didn’t have no idea about what had occurred between me and Daddy, but it was like he known how low I was feeling. Amos didn’t go in for much hugging the way he did when he was littler, but on that day he’d take my hand from time to time and give it a little squeeze, which was a great comfort to me.

  Mama was sitting at the kitchen table when we come off the mountain, writing in her little book. Mama liked to keep notes on things, such as what Pastor Bean preached about on Sunday or the first day of spring that the flowers showed their blooms. Daddy said she was a historian, and years from now her grandbabies and great-grandbabies would be able to know how things were in the old days without having to go to the library to study on it.

  The kitchen was bright with sunshine, yellow rays streaming through the curtains and settling over everything, giving the room a clean, soft feeling. Amos went off to his room to tie some fishing flies for an afternoon out back by the pond, and I sat down across from Mama, hoping she might have some advice for me on how to get back in Daddy’s favor.

  Mama closed her book and set down her pencil. “You’uns get them traps set?” she asked, her eyes holding a more serious concern.

  “Yes’m,” I answered, rolling a grain of salt across the table with my finger. “I reckon we’ll get us one or two rabbits at least. We might get some money for their furs to help with Caroline’s schooling. That is, if she still aims to go on to teachers college.”

  “That weighs on your mind real heavy, don’t it?” Mama asked.

  I nodded. “Yes’m, and I’ve gone and gotten myself in a mess with Daddy over it. I don’t think he’s like to forgive me for what I said to him yesterday about Parnell giving us money were he and Caroline to get married.”

  Mama reached across the table and put her hand atop of mine. “Give your daddy some time, honey. I suspect he knows you just hadn’t thought the matter through, is all. You know, your daddy ain’t tickled by this proposal, either. He wants Caroline to go to school.”

  “Then why’s he letting Parnell come up here all the time?” I asked, tugging hard at a thread coming loose from my sleeve.

  “Well, I’ll tell you, honey, partly it’s because we’ve tried to raise you children so that when you came of age you could make your own decisions in a clearheaded fashion, whether we agreed with your decisions or not. But I suspect your daddy has other reasons for letting Parnell court Caroline.”

  “What other reasons?” I asked.

  Mama smiled. “When your daddy started courting me, my mama and daddy weren’t too happy about it. A lot of folks thought your Granddaddy Caleb was an odd sort, always coming up with wild notions. Caleb Coe was famous for standing up in church one Sunday and saying we should all be outside admiring God’s handiwork instead of cooped up in a musty old building and singing tired old hymns.” Mama laughed at the memory of it, then stood up and walked over to the window and looked out across the yard.

  “Your daddy was tame compared to Caleb, but he was still a free thinker. All them Coe boys were, and Mama and Daddy didn’t want me to have a thing to do with any of them. It took John Coe two years to convince my daddy to let him come to the house to call on me. I reckon your daddy remembers that well enough to feel the least bit of sympathy for Parnell.”

  I leaned back in my chair. “What about you, Mama? What’s your thinking on the matter?”

  Mama turned to face me. “Honey, what I think ain’t important. Caroline’s got to make up her own mind about things. I’ve got my opinions on the situation, of course, but I tend to keep my thinking to myself.”

  “Unlike some people you know?”

  “That’s right, honey,” Mama said, laughing. “And some people I know need to be real sweet to their daddy for the next couple days if they want to get back into his good graces.”

  It took a little while for Daddy to like me again, but I known everything was fine between us a few nights later when he took out his guitar and asked me to sing “I Gave My Love a Cherry” with him. That’s always been a favorite of ours, and we been singing it together since I was right little. After we finished, I give Daddy a little hug and he give me a little hug back. I thought then that nobody’d ever be able to take Amos away from us, not if me and Daddy had anything to do with it.

  chapter 6

  “Miz Coe, I don’t know when I’ve tasted potato salad this good. You must be the best cook in Indian Creek, bar none. Now don’t go telling my mama I said that!” Parnell Caraway leaned back in his chair and dabbed at his mouth with his napkin. Then he gave a big old grin to let us know what a regular feller he was, just happy as he could be to be eating my mama’s good cooking.

  “That’s nice of you to say, Parnell,” Mama replied, busying herself with brushing some crumbs from her skirt. “But I’m sure it ain’t true.”

  “Now, Miz Coe, you don’t have to be modest with me,” Parnell said. “A man knows good cooking when he tastes it! Ain’t that right, John?”

  “I reckon so,” Daddy told him, lifting a forkful of butter beans to his mouth. “I believe it’s an ability that comes natural to most males.”

  It was just like Parnell Caraway to call my daddy by his first name. Now, my daddy was always telling folks to do just that—“Mr. Coe was my daddy,” he liked to say. “You just go on and call me John”—but I thought it disrespectful for a boy of seventeen to be so familiar with his elders.

  Parnell looked across the table, where Caroline was pushing some beans around her plate with a spoon. “Now I bet Miss Caroline takes after her mama in the cooking department, ain’t that right?”

  Caroline raised an eyebrow but didn’t actually look at Parnell, keeping her eyes on her plate. “I suppose I’ve been known to make a pie or two in my day, but they ain’t been nothing special.”

  “Don’t you believe her for a minute,” Daddy said, winking at Parnell. “Caroline can do some cooking when she puts her mind to it.”

  “Can we talk about something other than cooking?” I asked. “It’s about the least interesting topic I can think of.”

  Mama frowned at me, but I just shrugged. I was telling the truth, after all.

  “Didn’t mean to bore you, Dovey,” Parnell said. His tone was jovial, but there was a note of something else in it, like he’d be just as happy if I’d keep my mouth shut. “What would you care to talk about? World events? Mathematics? Baseball?”

  I give Parnell my most dire look. “If it’s all the same to everybody, I’d prefer to be excused.”

  Mama nodded, so I carried my plate to the sink and signaled to Amos to follow me outside. To my surprise, Caroline came as well. “Good Lord,” she said, sitting on the front stoop, spreading the flowered skirt of her dress out so it covered her legs. “That Parnell do go on.”

  “Whose idea was it for him to have supper here practically every night?” I asked, taking a seat beside Amos on the porch swing. “I know it weren’t mine.”

  Caroline laughed. “I believe it was Parnell’s idea. He’s persistent, I’ll give him that much.”

  Ever since Daddy had given his okay for Parnell to call on Caroline, Parnell had taken every advantage. It was like he lived w
ith us. He showed up in the morning and helped Mama pull the chokeweed out of her garden, and then he’d go see what Daddy was up to in the barn. Midafternoon, he’d go back to his own house to change clothes, and forty-five minutes later you’d hear that automobile of his struggling up the mountain’s twists and turns and know that Parnell had arrived for supper.

  Parnell was endlessly polite to Mama and friendly as could be with Daddy. He paid Caroline compliments whenever he got the chance to and did his best to tolerate me, though I did my best to try him.

  As for Parnell’s actions toward Amos, well, one thing was clear to me, and that was Parnell thought Amos was some sort of freak set loose from the circus. I could see it in the way that Parnell could hardly bring himself to look at Amos when they passed each other in the yard or were sitting across from one another at the table. It were as though Parnell thought deafness were contagious and you could catch it from just making eye contact. Parnell never made no effort to talk to Amos, even though it was perfectly clear that Amos could read lips. The rest of us chattered away to Amos, but Parnell couldn’t even bring himself to say boo.

  I wanted to point out this aspect of Parnell to Daddy, but I couldn’t, of course. I certainly didn’t want to make Daddy out of sorts with me again. Maybe I wouldn’t have worried about it so much, except for that Daddy and Parnell seemed to be turning into fast friends. It seemed like any bad feeling Daddy might have had toward Parnell had gone and disappeared.

  I heard Parnell asking Daddy’s advice over every little thing. “Now, John, tell me this, why is it when it’s been raining outside my car will just plain cut off when I apply the brake to slow down?” Or, “John, explain me something. My mama’s got a faucet that ain’t done nothing but drip for two months now, but no manner of tightening up the pipes has any effect on it.” Of course, my daddy being a fix-it man, he loved to tell folks how to repair all their broke-down things and could go on for quite a spell explaining this and that.