A Cry in the Wind
Page 2
*****
A Cry in the Wind
Ellie’s Cry
It was New Year’s Eve 1950, and Emma Frances Coy was driving through the foggy rain from Griffin, Alabama, to Maysville, Tennessee with her ten-year-old daughter. She had gotten lost somehow, and fear was growing along with the pain of her head wound.
“Eight years of abuse and he had to almost kill me before I had the nerve to leave,” she moaned, looking in the back seat to see that her baby was still sleeping. So far, Ellie had not stirred, thank God.
The headlights of her ’47 Nash shone on a sign beside the rain-slicked road. “I’m on Highway 9 NE,” she read, “wherever that is.” Another sign said Dry Ridge 3 miles. She was in Coots County. The fog began to break up. “Thank the Lord! I’ll be alright now.”
She turned the radio on. Nat King Cole was singing “Mona Lisa.” Emma began singing along with him. Ellie woke and asked, “Are we there, momma?”
“No, not yet honey. Go on back to sleep. I’ll wake you when we’re there, okay?”
Ellie settled down again, and Emma looked for a place to pull over and call her sister in Maysville. It was almost 11:00 p.m., not a good time to drop in on anyone, but she wanted to hear her sister’s voice.
The road was isolated; not a car passed. “I must be out in the boonies,” she thought. Then she came upon a little redneck bar. The bar looked like it might have been a store at one time. It was decorated with flashing mixed color Christmas lights, with a flashing sign that had some burnt out bulbs. It was an old block building with a patch-up roof. You could hear the music as you pulled up. It looked quiet with only a few cars outside. “Baby girl, maybe I can use the phone here,” she whispered.
Slowly she pulled in as she heard the loud music; Ellie was asleep again. The sign in front of the place read, “The Bean Patch.” It was cold and dark, and the fog had not entirely cleared, giving the parking lot a ghostly gleam. “I’ll leave the car running,” she told Ellie, “so you will stay warm.” Two men were standing outside the bar door smoking and talking. Suddenly they turned and went back in as she got out of the car.
The bar was filled with smoke, the smell of whiskey lingering in the air. There were more people inside than cars in the parking lot. The people were laughing, drinking, and shooting pool, and a two-bit band played on the stage. As she slowly looked around, she noticed there were a few couples slow dancing on the dance floor. When the bartender saw her he yelled, “Hey lady, didn’t you read our sign?”
She yelled back at him that she needed to use the phone, but he couldn’t hear her. He yelled again. Then she saw the sign—No Coloreds Allowed.
She yelled again that she was lost and needed some directions. Then one of the men from the bar came up to her and said, “Hey, baby do you want a drink?”
Outside, Ellie had woken up. “Mama,” she cried, but as she looked around she didn’t see her mother anywhere. Afraid, Ellie began to cry. As tears filled her eyes, she began looking out the car window for her. She noticed a little kitty running about on the ground not far from the car. “Hi, kitty cat,” she said. Ellie eased opened the door of the car and got out. “Here kitty, kitty, kitty,” she whispered. Suddenly she grabbed for the cat, but it wriggled out of her hands and ran off behind the building. Ellie took out after the cat and disappeared into the darkness. From out of the darkness you could still hear her cry, “Here kitty, kitty, kitty,” as her cry slowly faded away. At the same time, in front of the bar, a strangely acting man with a grass sack was suspiciously wandering about, peeping inside of people’s cars. He appeared to be going through the cars and taking whatever caught his fancy. When he came to Emma’s car he took Ellie’s blanket, when a man from the bar who had stepped out for some fresh air saw him.
“Hey you!” the man yelled, “What do you think you’re doing?”
Others inside the bar heard the commotion and ran outside, but the thief had disappeared behind the bar, out of sight. Suddenly, a car started up. With the engine revving, it raced off.
“Did anyone recognize the car?” asked one man.
“Yeah,” replied another. “It was a ’51 Hudson Hornet.”
“I got the license number and wrote it down,” cried another man. “They’re probably working together. He’s probably picking the thief up down the road.”
Emma ran to her car and found the rear door open and Ellie gone. Suddenly the darkness of the night was ripped apart with the screams of a desperate woman.
“Oh my God!” she cried.
“Someone call the police!” yelled a woman as she ran over to her.
She was still screaming when the police and ambulance arrived. There was no sign of the child. The people from the bar had tried to calm her down, but she was determined to find her little girl. The police began the search. It appeared to be a robbery, but it was too early to say if it was a kidnapping. It was the first crime of the New Year in Coots County.