“Just a minute, son,” Will said. Rhodes sat there in the truck and watched him. He saw Ab and Cousin Tom stop on the walk a few yards away and look back at Will and Connie Hollister. Ab gave Tom a knowing nudge and jerked his head toward them. Rhodes didn’t know what they said, but it gave him a feeling of emptiness. He’d heard men around Pine Flat. They all talked about it. Will Johnson couldn’t stay away from women, and if he did, they wouldn’t let him alone. Once Rhodes had heard a man say that Will Johnson was going to get shot for studding around the whole countryside, and it would be just what he was asking for.
Rhodes didn’t want to eavesdrop, but he couldn’t help it. He moved over on the seat so he could hear what Connie and Will were saying.
Connie said, “I got away as soon as I could, Will. I had to talk to you. I had to explain.”
“What’s there to explain?”
“You know what’s the matter, don’t you, Will? Or are you just pretending you don’t?”
Will’s voice was low and cold. “I don’t know what’s the matter. I know Darl won’t extend me any time, and that he’s gone to all the trouble to suggest to the bank that a second mortgage on my place wouldn’t be worth the paper it was drawn on. Because of him they won’t lend me any money.”
“It’s my fault, Will. I thought you’d guess.”
“Your fault? I reckon I’m gettin’ real thick.”
“Will, you remember that dance two years ago? At the Blitchton Town Hall?”
“Yes.”
“I guess I made a fool of myself over you that night. I don’t know. I’ve always thought you were pretty wonderful. But I managed to hide it. I drank too much that night, and I saw the way the other woman looked at you … I don’t know — something just made me know I didn’t care what happened if I — could just — well, when I looked at you, I kept telling myself you were for me. You were for me. That just went through my head over and over. I don’t know what would have happened that night — and after that night — only you wouldn’t have anything to do with me. You battered my pride, Will. You hurt me something terribly. I never knew I could be hurt like that.”
“You’re joking.”
“You know I’m not. You know I hated you after that night. Darl would remind me of the way I threw myself at you — and you wouldn’t have anything to do with me. Why did you treat me like that, Will? Why?”
“I didn’t know I hurt you.”
“Stop being polite, Will. You knew. You told me to get to hell away from you and leave you alone. I didn’t know why then. I still don’t know.”
“It don’t matter.”
“It matters to me, Will. I want you to tell me why. It’s very important — because I’ve hurt you. I’ve done you a terrible wrong.”
“What are you talking about?” Will’s fingers clenched the car door, turning white.
Connie looked all around to see if they were overheard. Rhodes drew back in the shadows so she didn’t see him.
“A few weeks ago — I — well, there was a night when Darl went coon hunting with Ab Taylor and a bunch of men. I — thought he was going to be gone all night. It must have been a trick. He — he suspected something. He came back quietly. All that — saved me was that I’d locked my bedroom door. Because — well, because Uncle Felix was in the house and I didn’t trust him. By the time Darl had gotten something and battered down the bedroom door, well — I was by myself by then.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
Connie stared up at him. “Because Darl would not believe I was alone. For the first time since I’ve known him, he was like a wild man. He beat me and cursed me, and kept after me to make me tell him the name of the man who was with me. Will, I was almost insane. You just don’t know.”
“And you told him I was with you.” Will’s voice sounded dead.
“I had to make him stop. It was more than I could stand.”
“But not enough to make you tell the truth.”
She breathed deeply. “I don’t blame you for hating me. I hate myself worse than you could. But try to understand how it was. Suppose I’d told the truth? It wouldn’t have ended. He’d have gone to — to the man and killed him.”
“But he wouldn’t kill me?”
“Will.” Her voice got desperate. “Listen to me. All I could think was that he had been taunting me about the way I threw myself at you, and you laughed at me. I — told him that — well, I was just trying to get even with him for taunting me. That I’d asked you over.
“At first, I thought he believed me, and that it was going to end there. He was terribly angered. But he seemed to quiet down. And I thought it would end. Even since then, he’s — he’s stayed drunk all day and all night. But he hasn’t said any more about it. I thought it had ended, Will. I swear I didn’t know he meant to ruin you. I thought it would end, Will. I swear I did.”
“And if I told him the truth, he wouldn’t believe me, would he?”
Connie looked frightened, then relieved. Finally she said, “He wouldn’t believe you. You’ve a reputation around here, Will. That night — when I finally told Darl it — was you in my room, he kind of subsided. Suddenly I thought he had decided it wasn’t nearly as bad as before. I didn’t know what he was going to do, Will. How could I?”
Will’s voice was cold. “What you mean is, you don’t give a damn.”
“Why would I have come to tell you if I didn’t?”
“To ease your conscience, so I’ll know why when Darl shoots me in the back.”
“I’m not the only woman you ever had, Will. It wasn’t so terrible. You’ve had a lot of others.”
“You’re the one woman I’d never touch — maybe that’s why I don’t want to go through hell, or get shot because of you.”
She grabbed his hand. “You’ve got to tell me, Will. What is it? Why do you hate me like this — I mean, why did you hate me, even before I did this to you?”
“Because the first thing I ever heard about you, Connie, was that you had a disease.”
“I?” Her mouth was round.
“Oh, not just you. All those rich-girl friends of yours. It was talk around town. All of you had a disease because you ran around with men when you were away at school — men you met in bars in strange towns. I felt sorry for Darl Hollister when he married you. I feel even sorrier now.”
Her face was bloodless. She was staring at him. Her head moved slowly from side to side. “Oh, damn you,” she whispered. “Oh, damn you to hell. I hope now he does ruin you. I hope now he kills you.”
Will stepped back. “Why, Connie? For knowing the truth about you? Or for daring to tell it to you, to your face?”
She just sat there staring up at him for a moment, her lips distended over her teeth, her eyes wide and dry.
She started the engine, gave it too much gas, stalled it. She backed out of the parking place and roared down the street toward the highway, tires screaming on the pavement.
Will turned. Rhodes slid quickly back across the seat. Will stared at him for a moment as though he’d never seen him before. Will looked like a man who’d been beat. His face muscles were rigid. He seemed to be seeing the pickers running their trucks into the groves he’d worked so hard with. And Darl Hollister turning a highball glass in his fingers and demanding payment. And the way Cousin Tom laughed and said the money was really Lena’s, only he hated to ask a woman for money. The bankers telling him politely but firmly they’d be pleased to make him a loan when he’d repaid Darl Hollister.
Will said, “Drive the truck on home, Rhodes. I’m not going now. Tell your mother I’ll be late. Drive careful, you hear. Keep on your side of the road, and don’t drive over twenty-five, you hear? Go ahead, boy. Do what I tell you.”
CHAPTER SIX
RHODES drove the pick-up truck into the yard and parked it near the barn. The place was quiet with Will gone. It was as though the land itself would die if Will were not there. Rhodes looked around the yard, wishing he knew wh
at to do, and knowing there was nothing without Will there to guide him.
He looked around for Grandpa. Something was troubling him, and he had long ago learned that Grandpa would answer all his questions. Disease. Connie Hollister and her rich-girl friends. Diseased. Will and the men he knew wouldn’t touch them. But he could not see Grandpa anywhere in the yard. It was mid-morning, but there was still a bone-chill in the air. Smoke rolled black from the chimney.
“Rhodes!”
He saw Rosanne standing in the backdoor. Her hands and arms were soapy and pink from hot water. She smiled at him, “Your mamma wants to talk to you in the front room, Cousin Rhodes, right away.”
He wondered if Rosanne might know about diseases that the rich girls got when they went away to college. But he decided not to ask her. She was married, but she wasn’t much older than he was. And there was a frightened look about her. Probably she didn’t know any more than he did.
Lena looked up when Rhodes walked into the overheated parlor.
“Where’s your father?” she said.
“He stayed in town,” Rhodes said.
Grandpa turned from his chair before the fire. “Long time since Will did a thing like this — in middle of the week.”
“Was he drunk?” Lena said.
Rhodes shook his head. “No, ma’m. He wasn’t. He didn’t say anything about gettin’ drunk.” Will hadn’t mentioned drinking, but Rhodes had known when he sent him home that Will was on his way. In his own mind there seemed a lot of extenuating circumstances, the way Connie Hollister had lied, blaming him for something he had not done, and would never do because she was diseased, the way Darl Hollister had acted, and then the bank refusing to lend Will money. “He didn’t mention gettin’ drunk in this world.”
Lena’s mouth twisted. “I’m sure he wouldn’t have told you if he had.”
“He tells me pretty much everything, ma’m.”
“Oh, don’t think I don’t know that. Treats you like you’re grown, instead of a baby. Letting you drive that truck home alone. Well, he’ll hear about that.”
“Will says a man’s got to learn to rely on himself, ma’m,” Rhodes said. “And I drive careful. Will knows that.”
“You think that Will Johnson is something pretty wonderful, don’t you?” His mother’s voice rose with the anger in it.
“Yes’m. He’s pretty fine. He’s always treated me pretty fine. Seems to me he does all he can for us, all of us.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Lena wadded the needlework in her thin fists. “If only your own father hadn’t died, if only Chris hadn’t left us.”
Grandpa stood up suddenly and stared at her. “Now you listen to me, Lena Johnson. You were already looking moon-eyed at Will Johnson before Chris Burris died. There ain’t but one thing ails you, Lena, you got sick and Will Johnson got healthier, and you can’t stand it.”
“That’s not true. I don’t see how you can say such terrible things about your own flesh and blood,” Lena said. She was holding her breath. “You’re an evil old man, Gran’pa.”
“Yes. I reckon I am. I see things true, instead of the way you want me to see ’em. That makes me pretty evil all right.”
Lena waved her hand. “I haven’t time to talk about it now.” She turned her head, facing Rhodes again. “Where did you and your father get off to this morning?”
“We rode over to Mr. Darl Hollister’s, m’am.”
“Did your father pay Mr. Hollister?”
“No ma’m.”
“What did he do? Don’t make me dig the truth out of you, child. Speak up and tell me what your father did over there?”
“Well, ma’m, he asked for some more time on that note. But Mr. Hollister refused to let him have it.”
Lena bit her lip, then said. “And perfectly right. A man should meet his obligations. Chris always said that.”
Grandpa snorted. “You listen here, daughter. If that Chris Burris had ever butted head on into just one-tenth the troubles Will Johnson has met the past five years he’d of taken a shot gun and blowed the top of his head off.”
“That does not excuse Will for missing a payment on a just and legal debt.”
“Oh, my good lord, deliver me from a woman’s figuring,” Grandpa said, “and from a sick woman most of all.”
Lena would not look at him. “Did Will promise to get the money right away, Rhodes?”
“No ma’m. And Mr. Darl Hollister threatened to take this farm unless he did. He didn’t act like himself at all, mamma. He was mean, and he was already drinking heavy when we got over there.”
“You shouldn’t say such things about Mr. Darl Hollister, Rhodes,” Lena said.
“It’s the truth.”
Grandpa snorted. “Don’t matter if it’s truth or not. Your ma thinks that when a man is as rich as Darl Hollister, you only say nice things about him, no matter what he does to you.”
“Whatever Mr. Darl Hollister does,” Lena said, “I’m sure he’ll be within his rights. Will will just have to get that money somewhere. I can certainly understand why Darl Hollister feels as he does.”
Rhodes stared at his mother a moment, wondering if she had heard about Darl’s wife and the man in her bedroom. But he knew better. She was too calm. If she had heard that Will had been over there to see Connie Hollister she would have been hysterical. Rhodes had seen her get hysterical when Will just stopped to talk to another woman at church.
“And instead of looking about to see where he might get the money he owes Mr. Darl Hollister why what does your fine Mr. Will Johnson do? He stays in town the middle of the day, the middle of the week to get drunk and chase some no-good woman.”
“Sometimes when a man’s troubles crowd him too much, he just about has to get away from them for a few hours.” Grandpa’s voice was mild.
“Stop excusing him!” Lena’s voice lashed at him. “He had nothing. I took him in. And he let everything go until it is now at a place where we stand to lose everything. Everything in this world. They’ll take our house away from us. Everything that poor Chris Burris worked so hard for.”
Grandpa spat into the fire. “Wouldn’t do one bit of good to remind you that this here farm is three times as big as it was when Chris Burris was alive, would it?”
“This was Chris Burris’ farm!” Lena’s voice was shrill. “He left it to me and to my son. Will Johnson had nothing in this world, and we took him in. This is the thanks we get for it. He loses our land right from under us — and instead of doing anything about it, he lays around drunk in some cheap woman’s room.”
Nobody spoke. Rhodes wished he had begged Will to come on home. But he knew it would not have helped any.
Lena said, “Well, I’m not going to sit by and let Darl Hollister take my farm away from me.” She wheeled her chair over to a small mahogany secretary that was littered with letters and bills. She got a fountain pen and began to hunt for writing paper.
Grandpa said, “What you going to do now, Lena?”
“Protect myself,” Lena said. “Protect myself and my son. I’m not going to let Will Johnson throw away our birthright. I’ve still got those groves. The concentrate people will send their crews in, and they’ll pay me. Will Johnson can be a fool, but I won’t be.”
“Mamma!” Rhodes shook his head.
Lena was writing swiftly.
Grandpa said, “You listen to me, Lena. You’ve done a lot of fool mean things to Will Johnson. But even you must have better sense than do a thing like this. You know good and well how Will feels about having strangers wrecking his groves. And that’s what they’ll do.”
“Do I have to remind you they are my groves?”
“No. You don’t. But I can remind you that Will Johnson is handling them groves in the way that will best help them and you — ”
“Will Johnson is lying drunk in Pine Flat right this minute.”
“Please, Mamma,” Rhodes said, “Will is going to handle this. He said he would.”
/> “I’m tired waiting for Will Johnson. He’s hurt me and humiliated me for all these years. You’re too young to understand, Rhodes, and I don’t expect you to understand. But your grandfather understands. Will Johnson won’t leave women alone. It’s gossip in this county where I have to live. How have I stood it?”
“Will Johnson is a growed man, Lena, with a growed man’s needs. Blind yourself to it, and rail against him. He works like a mule — like a slave, and still there’s a need in him that you got sense enough to recognize, if you only would. But you don’t — because you don’t want to.”
“Will Johnson married me. He took vows.”
“A vow is a thing a man can take. But damn few of them can live with them when they got nothing else to live with!”
“Don’t you dare to yell at me.”
“I got to yell some sense in your head, I got to do it before you hurt Will Johnson some more. Don’t you reckon Will tries to stay away from these here women? But it don’t matter if he does. They wouldn’t let him alone nohow. It’s something you can see when Will Johnson walks in a room. Women look at him. It don’t matter who they been looking at until that moment. Once they see Will Johnson, there ain’t any other men. You was that way. I seen you, heated up and silly-actin’ — long before you was free of Chris Burris. Why then in God’s holy name can’t you understand other women feeling the same way?”
“It was different!” Lena’s voice rose shrilly. “I was in love with Will Johnson. I married him.”
“What you wanted was to close him up in your fist. And that’s what you did until illness struck you down. You think I never saw them tantrums you threw ever’time some woman looked his way. They was all sluts and worse when they looked at Will Johnson.”
“And that’s what they are!” Lena cried, writing as she talked. “If they were decent women, they’d keep to their own men and leave my man alone. You think I can’t see it in their faces? You think I can’t see it in the face of this woman that Tom married?”
A Woman on the Place Page 4