“That’s all right. You need to do it anyway to feed the lil’uns.”
“Where you gonna be?”
“I believe I’ll be gone for a while.”
Herschel, three years younger, raised up on his knees to look through the cab and out the windshield. “I don’t want you to go anywhere, Mark.”
The fourteen-year-old was torn between sadness and excitement. “I don’t have a choice.”
The truck slowed below the white house on the hill. Grover turned up the drive and gravel popped under the nearly bald tires. He stopped in the yard at the same time Miss Becky came out onto the porch. Hootie ran up, barking. Mark thought she hadn’t changed at all in nearly four years. She didn’t notice him in the middle of the kids riding in back.
Tillie leaned out the window. “Miss Becky.”
She was drying her hands on a dishtowel. “Yes?”
“We done brought him back.”
“Who?”
“Mark. We can’t take care of him no more.”
“Mark? Lightfoot?” She stepped closer to the edge of the porch.
“Yep. It was a mistake to come get him. We got too many mouths to feed and my own come first.”
“And mine,” Grover said.
Tillie didn’t comment. She stuck her head out the door. “Mark. Get out.”
Miss Becky was rooted to the boards. “Y’all come and took him without a word, and now you’re a-bringin’ him back the same way. He ain’t no dog you can give away and come get later.”
“I know it. We ain’t comin’ back.”
Mark had heard enough. He pulled Carl close and hugged Herschel. A small girl named Kate watched with wide eyes. He gave her a kiss on the nose. “Y’all take care of one another. I won’t be back too soon, but I’ll come help y’all directly. All y’all be good and remember I love you.”
Kate’s eyes welled and they were the last thing Mark saw before he threw the little suitcase over the side and jumped over the rotting sideboard. “You kids do what you’re told and be careful. I done told you I’ll come back someday and get you. Don’t forget it.”
“No you won’t.” Grover said over his shoulder after he spat into the yard.
Mark spoke to the back of the man’s head. “And I’ll be growed and bigger’n you and you’ll pay the price when I get there.”
Miss Becky flapped her towel in excitement when she saw Mark rushing up the steps. “Praise the Lord!”
Eyes suddenly full of happy tears, and for Kate’s wide-eyed look of sadness, Mark ran into her arms.
Someone shouted from the direction of the barn, but Miss Becky’s hug filled his senses and he couldn’t look up right then.
Chapter Eleven
Sunday dinner was louder than usual. The excitement over Mark’s return bubbled over like it was Christmas Eve. Grandpa’d already called Judge O.C. Rains at home and he promised to start working on the paperwork first thing in the morning to give Grandpa and Miss Becky full custody.
As usual, us kids were eating in the living room because the kitchen table wasn’t big enough for everybody. We didn’t mind for once, because we could talk all we wanted. The conversation in the kitchen came through loud and clear, and we kept it low with an ear out in case they said something about us.
I was barely halfway through my first chicken leg when Uncle Cody caught my attention.
“Ned, I don’t mean this to sound bad, but y’all are getting a little old to take on another kid.”
“I said the same thing.” Uncle James was in my line of sight, and I saw him throw a glance in our direction. “We thought about letting Mark come live with us.”
Aunt Ida Belle chimed in. “You brought it up and I told you that was a bad idea in a lot of ways. Ned and Miss Becky didn’t think it would be a good neither, especially with all the puppy love those two are passing back and forth.”
Pepper slapped her TV tray, almost knocking her tea over. “We’re sitting right here.”
Miss Becky twisted around to take a pan of biscuits off the table without getting up. She gave me a smile and waved. “All right. James, y’all don’t have no more room in that little house of yours anyway. It ain’t no bigger’n this one.”
Uncle James made an announcement that surprised us all. “We’d have room. We’re buying the Ordway place.”
“Well, my lands.” Miss Becky’s hands fluttered over her plate. “I thought Dr. Dangerfield was living there.”
The doctor was a retired veterinarian who bought the Ordway place the year before, but only lived there a few months.
“He was, but he’s moving to Dallas so he can be close to his daughter.” Uncle James sat straight and leveled his shoulders. “When I found out, I contacted a realtor in Chisum and got the ball rolling.”
“Shit.” Pepper leaned toward Mark, nearly sticking her nose in his long black hair. She took a lot longer than she should have to whisper in his ear. “That place is haunted. I don’t want to live in no haunted house again.”
“You believe in ghosts?”
“Do you believe Top has dreams that come true?”
“Sure do. I’ve seen it.”
“Then believe in ghosts, too.”
Mark’s sober face took the news as if she’d said the sun was bright. “Didn’t y’all live in that house once already?”
I spoke up to make sure they hadn’t forgotten I was there. They’d already started conversations that left me shut out. “Uncle James and them rented it when I first came to live with Grandpa and Miss Becky.”
Grandpa’s voice came through loud and clear since he was facing us from the head of the table. “That place left a bad taste in my mouth. You oughta buy the land, push the house over, and build a new one.”
Aunt Ida Belle didn’t like that idea at all. “It’s a good house, and I’ve loved it since I was a kid. I didn’t want to move in the first place back when we rented it a few years ago.”
“Well, I wish y’all’d find someplace else to live.” Grandpa buttered another biscuit.
“The sale has almost gone through. We didn’t want to say anything until we were sure. We wanted to surprise you.”
Uncle Cody finally spoke up. “It’ll be good to have you so close. That’ll put us all within a mile of one another. That makes me feel pretty good. We can keep an eye on each other.”
“That’s the way it was in the thirties,” Miss Becky recalled. “I ’magine we had twenty or more of our own families living within two miles of one another. It was good then. We could help each other when we needed it.”
“We do anyway.” Grandpa took a spoon full of red beans from the bowl in front of him. “It don’t matter how far off folks are, but that’s all right. Family helps family.”
“I’m gonna put some money into it and clean the place up.” Uncle James owned a hardware store in Chisum.
“It was shot full of holes.” I filled Mark in on the history of the Ordway house, since he’d been gone. “Some folks from Vegas rented it and we liked them a lot, but the guy worked for some gangsters. They came after him and there was a shootout one night a year or so ago that almost got us all killed.”
Mark jerked his head to get the hair out of his eyes. “I heard about that. Sheriff Griffin died that night.”
Pepper shuddered. “I hate that house, and they haven’t told me a damn thing about it until just now.”
Mark grinned. “What makes you think it’s haunted? I remember hearing Uncle Cody say he saw spirits one night when he was a kid, but I thought he was just trying to scare us.”
“Me and Top heard ghosts in there not long before Anthony and Miss Samantha moved in.”
“Who?”
“The gangster and his girlfriend.”
“How’d you hear the spirits?”
She peeked into the kitchen.
“Me and Top snuck in through a hole in the floor. We were in the living room and heard someone walking around upstairs. It had to be a ghost, because the house was empty and the doors were locked.”
“Somebody could have snuck in just like y’all did.”
“Maybe.” I thought about it for a second. “But I don’t think so.”
Pepper brightened. “You want to sneak back in after dinner and see if we hear something?”
Mark shook his head. “Nope. I don’t intend to get in trouble with anybody. I just want to go to sleep in this nice house and eat when I’m hungry.”
Pepper’s eyes welled, an unnatural act for her. “Was it rough where you were?”
“Yeah. My aunt and Grover don’t have any money, and there were too many of us to feed regular. He worked ever now and then, but a dollar or two a day don’t buy much after they smoked up a lot of it and drank the other half. He expected us kids to bring in the rest.”
“Whose idea was it for you to move back here? Grandpa would have come and got you any time you wanted.”
“I knew he would, but they weren’t gonna let me go until they got good and ready. It was Grover’s idea to get rid of me. He hit one of the little’uns one too many times and I busted him in the nose for it. He knocked me in the head and kicked me out for a couple of days. I stayed in the barn at night, and that wasn’t too bad. The weather’s been nice and I had a quilt to lay on.
“Then he came out this morning after I was through milking and said they were bringing me here ’cause I ate too much, and that was that. I didn’t eat that much, really, but now the little ones will have my share of the food.
“And now my cousin will have to stand up to Grover. He’ll be my size next year and he can take care of ’em. When I get out of school and get a job, I’ll go back and get every one of ’em that’s left.” He looked down at the full plate on the TV tray and spoke as soft as if he were in church. “There one minute and here the next. Damn that happened fast.”
They must have got to talking about adult stuff in the kitchen. Norma Faye came into the living room and turned the volume up on the television, a sure sign they didn’t want us listening in.
Miss Becky’s voice came through loud and clear. “Praise the Lord, we’re all back together again!”
Norma Faye shook her red hair, gave us a grin and a wink, and went back to the table. The baseball announcer’s voice made it hard to hear them after that.
Pepper got up and turned the television back down when the action stalled and the adults wouldn’t know she’d done it. It didn’t help, though, because they were talking quiet and we finally finished eating and went outside.
Chapter Twelve
Nerves jangling, The Wraith walked through the dew-soaked grass around the empty farmhouse where he lived before his wife left him for another man. He peered into the windows and studied the bare floors, remembering and feeding on the anger that was a steady ache in his chest. The odor of death found his nostrils and he peered inside a bucket sitting on the porch to find it half full of water with a rotting rat carcass floating on top. The Wraith had an idea and built a real smile for the first time in days.
***
Ned steered his Plymouth down the dirt road between high cut banks. A hardwood canopy laced overhead, cooling the thick, wet evening air.
Deputy John Washington rode in the passenger seat with his big arm hanging out the open window. The sleeve rolled above his elbow looked as if it would split at the seams from the pressure of his biceps. “I cain’t believe that boy’s back with y’all.”
“I wouldn’t have believed it, neither. Them kinfolk of his decided they were tired of feedin’ him.”
“Y’all gonna raise him?”
“Yep. O.C. said he’d draw up the papers so nobody can take him again.”
“Mr. Ned, you’re gonna have a houseful of young’uns, and at your age.”
“Don’t I know it. They’ll be the death of me before they’re grown.”
John’s wide smile split his face. “That’ll be good for Top. He needs a boy around to put some bark on ’im.”
“I’m more worried about Pepper than anything else. She’s got eyes for Mark, so I don’t know what’s gonna happen.”
“They’re gonna be kids.”
“That’s what worries me. Listen, if these Mayfields swell up, you step in and cool ’em off.”
“They’ll most likely not say much. They’re grieving right now. The only ones that might give us trouble are a couple of the younger folks, but I expect their elders’ll calm ’em down.”
The .38 on his belt, the sap in his back pocket, and the pump shotgun on the seat between them didn’t help Ned’s unease as they turned off the dirt road and rolled slowly down a two-lane track to the Mayfield house that was in direct contrast to the Clay place. “Here we are.”
The unpainted, rambling house had seen better days. It squatted in a clearing surrounded by thick woods on three sides and a pasture on the other. Two tall sycamores shaded the dirt yard. A tire swing hung still in the dead air. Rusting screens, their holes stuffed with rags, barely kept bugs and critters out.
Two dozen cars and trucks were parked haphazardly in the dirt yard. The front porch was full of people. An elderly black couple carried foil-covered dishes across the yard and into the house.
John got out first and threw a hand up in a wave. Most waved back. Several faces closed up when Ned appeared from behind the wheel. He threaded his way between the cars, watching a mixed pack of dogs rush up to smell his pants legs.
They stopped short of the steps. Tilting the straw hat back on his head, Ned found Hollis Mayfield sitting in a tired rocking chair to the right of the door. “Hollis. I’m sorry for your loss.”
The old white-haired man rocked slowly in the shade. Two women who appeared to be in their twenties moved closer to him, as if for protection. He plucked at the galluses on his soft, faded duckins. “Constable. John. How y’all doin’?”
Big John propped one foot on a lower step and leaned on his knee. “Fair to middlin’. I sure am sorry about Maggie. She was some punkin’.”
Hollis gave him a weak smile. “She was a ring-tailed tooter, all right.”
A thick middle-aged woman in her Sunday clothes came outside and handed him a sweating mason jar full of sweet tea. “Here Daddy. Supper’ll be ready in a little bit.”
“Thank you, baby.” Chipped ice tinkled against the glass as Hollis drained half the quart jar in one long draught. “You gentlemen care for some sweet tea?”
“No thanks.” Ned shook his head.
John wiped sweat that trickled down his cheek in the still air. “Nossir, but thankyee. Just came by to see y’all for a minute and tell you we’re lookin’ into the wreck.”
“It was murder, John.” Those around the old man nodded. “We done heard there’s rubber thick on the road where someone run our girl through the guardrail. You need to be out looking for a car or truck with creases down the sides.”
“Cain’t say that yet, Hollis. All we know is they went over the dam.”
His eyes grew moist. “I dearly loved that gal. Bringing her into this family was the only good thing Tylee ever done. Them Clays’ll be mad about it, sure as shootin’. I already heard they’re sayin’ we had something to do with it. They’ll be laying for us.”
Ned shook his head. “I thought y’all buried that hatchet years ago.”
Hollis stared off into the trees. “Some did.”
John studied the raw, dusty boards at his feet.
A thick man in unbuttoned overalls thumped the legs of his chair to the floor. “There’s gonna be trouble, all right.” He sounded like a fire and brimstone preacher.
“What makes you say that?” Ned tried to place the man but came up empty. “You know something the rest of us don’t?”
; A middle-aged man in suit pants and a white shirt spoke up. “We never had no business with any of them since the Trouble, but when her and Rubye went to work for him, it all came back.”
“Now don’t go bringing the past up, Willie.” John frowned at the big man. “Let it lay. Have they done anything to any of y’all yet?”
A younger man with thick forearms spoke up. “I done seen cars I don’t know driving slow up and down the road last night. You need to do something about it, John.”
The big deputy wiped sweat from his eyebrow. Ned and John were baking in the direct sun. “Nothin’ to do yet, Bryce. It looks like a pure accident when she didn’t make the turn over the dam. If we learn something different, we’ll let you know.”
A woman holding a hip baby spoke up. “White law won’t help us find out what happened. You’re gonna have to do it for us, John.”
“That ain’t true.” Ned shook his head. “I’ll do everything I can.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Everything?”
“Yep.”
“Then why you here now, a day and a half after she was killed? A full day and a half after you already went to them white people’s house?”
The truth was that Ned couldn’t bear to talk with two grieving families on the same day, and then with Mark showing up, it had slipped his mind. He realized how it looked and was ashamed.
John took the focus back on himself. “Avon, that was my fault. Him and Sheriff Parker talked to the Clays first, but I couldn’t get over here ’til now and Mr. Ned wanted to come with me. You know I woulda been by yesterday if I could and Mr. Ned here, well, he had some family business to take care of this mornin’,” he waved a hand toward the cars behind him and the house full of grieving people, “and y’all know about family.”
She backed off and Hollis sighed. “Well, I appreciate y’all checking on us.”
John tilted his straw hat up on his forehead and wiped at the sweat again. “Bury your dead, and I’ll do everything I can to find out what happened. Just y’all don’t take it on yourselves, no matter what. Stay away from the Clays.”
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