Angel Sister (16 page)

Nadine stopped in the shade of a tree where the lane to her father’s house intersected with the main road through Rosey Corner. Up ahead she could see the stores. Not far past that was the blacksmith shop. She wanted to walk on up there, to see Victor, to rest her head in that sweet hollow on his shoulder for just a moment. To let him lift some of her burdens off her shoulders onto his. But he already had too many burdens to carry of his own. Burdens he’d been carrying for years without asking her to help him bear them.

Her shoulders drooped as she began pushing one foot in front of the other again as she turned down the lane to her father’s house. She was tired. Bone weary. Spirit starved.

Spirit starved! Whose fault is that?
In her mind she could see her father in the pulpit preaching at her while he held up his Bible and shook it.
Hide the words of this book in your heart and feast on its wisdom.

When she was a child, her father had insisted she memorize a new Bible verse every week, and now a bit of one of those verses rose to the top of her mind.
Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.
No sooner had the verse whispered through her mind than she heard the sound of Victor’s hammer striking metal, carrying through the air to her. It was a good sound. Her step was a bit lighter as she headed on down the lane to her father’s house.

______

At Graham’s pond, Lorena wasn’t the first bit squeamish about squishing one of the wiggly worms onto the fishhook the way Tori showed her. It was Kate who made a face and shivered.

“Kate don’t like worming hooks,” Tori explained to Lorena. “But it’s something you gotta do if you want to catch fish.” She wiped her hands on the grass, and Lorena did the same.

“Am I ready to catch a fish now?” Lorena asked.

“Almost. Soon as you throw your line out in the water.” Tori flipped her line expertly out onto the pond surface and watched her hook sink. “Be careful not to catch your hook on a tree limb.”

“Or your ears,” Kate added. “Maybe you’d better let me or Tori toss your line in the first few times.”

“No, I can do it.” Lorena clutched the cane pole and raised it above her head to throw the hook out in the water. It landed a few inches from the bank.

“No fish worth catching there,” Tori told her. “Better try again.”

Kate moved out of hook range and sat down in the shade. She had hoped Graham would be there at the pond, but he’d think it was too hot to fish. Even Tori said there wasn’t much chance of catching anything, but Lorena had been so determined to give it a try. Just as she was determined now to throw her own hook out into the water. On the fifth try, she landed it far enough away from the bank that Tori said she might get a bite. Tori settled into her silent fishing mode, and Lorena settled down beside her, copying her every move.

Kate leaned back against a tree and wondered how long before Lorena got bored with it all. Soon, she hoped, because she was definitely bored with it already. Going fishing with Tori in the springtime wasn’t so bad. There weren’t so many bugs and the sun didn’t try to burn off the top of a person’s head. But now here in late June it was hot. Even in the shade. Mosquitoes buzzed around Kate’s ears, and she could almost feel the chiggers crawling up into her underwear. She should have dabbed coal oil around their ankles before they left. They’d be scratching chigger bites for days.

Lorena’s line bobbed in the water, and she let out an excited shriek as she yanked on her pole. She lost half her worm and didn’t hook the fish, but that didn’t dampen her enthusiasm. She scooted what was left of the worm down to the end of the hook and happily threw it back into the water. A few chigger bites might not be such a bad trade for Lorena having so much fun.

Kate smiled and waved away a fly that wanted to settle on her nose. Maybe Graham would hear them and come out to see what all the racket was about. Then at least she’d have somebody to talk to. But it wasn’t Graham who came to investigate first.

She didn’t see anybody right away. Instead she had the creepy feeling somebody was watching her, watching them. Kate remembered all her mother’s warnings about tramps wandering through Rosey Corner, and her heart began beating a little faster. It wouldn’t be Graham. He and Poe always came crashing through the woods with plenty of noise to let her know they were coming. Kate held her breath and listened harder as she straightened up away from the tree and slowly turned her head to look behind her. Fern was there in the shadows of the trees, watching her. Kate couldn’t keep from jumping.

“Scared you, did I?” Fern said in her voice that always sounded rough, like a rusty hinge on a door that wasn’t opened very often. She didn’t look directly at Kate, but instead kept her eyes on Tori and Lorena.

“You startled me.” Kate scrambled to her feet.

“Not scared?” Fern didn’t wait for Kate to answer as she stepped out of the shadows. She was carrying her hatchet. “Might be you should be.”

“Graham told us we could go fishing here whenever we wanted.” Kate pushed a smile out on her face as she edged a few steps away from Fern. She wondered how fast she could grab Lorena and run for home. She didn’t have to worry about Tori. With her long skinny legs, Tori could outrun Kate any day of the week.

“It’s my pond too.” Fern turned her eyes on Kate.

Graham had told Kate that Fern was beautiful as a young woman. Fair skinned with delicate features, light blue eyes, dark curly hair, and a smile that lit up her face. Kate knew it was true because she’d seen her portrait hanging on the wall in the Lindells’ house. But it was hard to believe the woman standing before her now was the same young woman who had worn the airy white gown and smiled at the artist while he’d captured her beauty in brushstrokes on the canvas.

Now the skin on Fern’s face was weathered and mottled with broken red veins on her high cheekbones, and her mostly steel gray hair looked to be trying to take flight to escape from her scalp. The blue of her eyes had faded like old work jeans and had an unfocused, almost feral look. She wore a pair of overalls with big holes in the knees that she’d probably stolen off somebody’s clothesline years ago. Under the overalls was a dirty white slip. She didn’t carry any extra weight, but she’d long ago lost her delicate look. She spent her days cutting cedars now to make her cedar houses instead of sipping tea and doing needlework.

Kate licked her lips and backed a couple of steps closer to Tori and Lorena, who were so intent on their fishing that they hadn’t noticed Fern yet. “If you don’t want us to fish, we’ll leave.”

Fern showed no sign she heard Kate as she stared past her toward the pond. “I don’t like water. People die in water.”

“You mean if they can’t swim and drown?” Kate said.

“Swim or not. All the same.” Fern turned back to Kate. Her eyes narrowed on Kate’s face as she said, “You look like him.”

“Who?” Kate asked, curious in spite of herself.

“Him.” Fern said it as if Kate should know whomever she meant. Then she looked past Kate back at Tori and Lorena. “That little one. Haven’t seen her before. Where’d she come from?”

“Her name’s Lorena. We’re taking care of her right now.”

“She’s like me.” Fern kept staring past Kate toward Lorena.

Kate looked over her shoulder at Tori and Lorena. They’d seen Fern now and had abandoned their fishing to stare at her. Tori was clutching her fishing pole with one hand and Lorena’s hand with the other. She was up on her toes ready to run, but Lorena just looked curious as she started toward them. Tori held her back.

Kate reminded herself that she wasn’t afraid of Fern as she turned back to look at the woman. She kept her eyes away from the little axe. “Who? Lorena?”

“That one.” Fern pointed with her hatchet. Her arm was covered with scratches in various stages of healing.

Lorena pulled loose from Tori and ran up beside Kate. Kate pushed the little girl behind her and stepped in front of Fern. Again she reminded herself she wasn’t afraid of Fern, but the hatchet made her a little nervous. She was starting to say they were leaving when Lorena peeked out from behind her to ask, “What are you doing with that?”

Fern looked at it and then dropped her arm back to her side. “Cutting cedars,” she said. “I make palaces out of them.”

“Palaces in the woods?” Lorena asked.

“Best place for them. Nobody bothers you out here.”

“Oh,” Lorena said as if that made perfect sense to her. She edged out from behind Kate to stand in front of Fern. Kate kept her hands on Lorena’s shoulders, ready to pull her back out of danger. “My name’s Lorena Birdsong. What’s yours?”

“Fern Maia Lindell. I never married.”

Kate had never heard Fern talk so much. Usually a growled “hello” or “get away” was all she said. So even though Kate thought it might be wise to pick up Lorena and run, at the same time she wanted to hear what else Fern might say.

“Why not?” Lorena asked.

“He died.” Fern stared at Lorena as if she’d forgotten Kate or Tori were even there. “He called me Maia. Nobody else ever called me Maia. He said it was a princess name.”

“My mommy told me I had a princess name,” Lorena said.

“Like me. Your name. Your hair.” Fern reached toward Lorena with the hand that wasn’t holding the hatchet. Her fingers were bent like claws.

Kate started to pull Lorena back, but Lorena looked up at Kate and said, “She just wants to touch my hair.”

Kate held her breath as Fern stroked Lorena’s hair. She was relieved when the woman pulled her hand back.

“Pretty hair. He said I had pretty hair.” She touched her own hair and something that might have been a smile flickered across her face.

Kate couldn’t remember ever seeing Fern smile.

“Was he sick? Is that why he died?” Kate asked.

Fern’s eyes sparked with anger as she glared over at Kate. “You’re nosy. Brother thinks you’re nice, but you’re too nosy.”

“You don’t have to answer,” Kate said quickly.

“I can answer, but what difference is it now how he died?” Fern’s voice sounded sad. “He died. Brother let him die. He didn’t understand.”

“Who didn’t understand? Graham or him?” The question bubbled out of Kate before she could stop it

“Nosy.” Fern raised her hatchet and spun it around over top her head. “Maybe I ought to cut off your nose.”

Behind Kate, Tori screamed, “Run, Kate!”

Kate didn’t look around at Tori. She wrapped her arms around Lorena and stood her ground. She tried to keep her voice from trembling but didn’t quite succeed as she said, “I’m sorry, Fern. I’ll stop asking questions.”

From the woods behind Fern came the sound of Poe baying, and then the dog and Graham crashed through the bushes out of the trees.

“Fern!” Graham’s voice was sterner than Kate had ever heard it. “What do you think you’re doing? You know I’ve told you not to bother Kate and Victoria when they’re fishing here.”

Fern looked at him and lowered her hatchet. She pointed at Lorena. “That one’s like me.” Then she pointed toward Kate. “That one’s like him. The one you let die.”

“Now, Fern, you know I didn’t want anybody to die. Especially not him.” Graham’s voice was calm and gentle now. “You go on and chop on your cedar bushes and don’t be stirring up trouble. You hear?”

“I hear.” Fern glared at Graham and then at Kate one last time before she turned back to the woods.

She disappeared into the trees without rattling the first bush. Somehow that was spookier than her swinging the hatchet over her head. Poe nudged his wet nose up against Kate’s hand to get her to rub him. When she didn’t pay any attention, the dog gave up on her and began licking Lorena’s face. Lorena giggled and hugged the old dog’s neck. Graham asked Tori if she was catching anything, and she told him not yet as she pitched her hook back in the pond, and things almost felt normal again. Almost.

“Tori’s teaching Lorena how to fish,” Kate said. She hesitated before she added, “I didn’t aim to upset Fern.”

“She wouldn’t have really hurt you. She just sometimes likes to put on a show.” Graham frowned and shook his head a little as he looked over his shoulder toward the spot where Fern had gone back into the woods. “I don’t know what got into her today. She normally doesn’t pay the first bit of attention to you and Victoria fishing here.”

“She liked my hair.” Lorena pulled a lock of her dark curly hair out away from her scalp. “She said it was like hers.”

“Is that a fact? Well, maybe that explains it. Fern did have pretty curly hair when she was growing up. My mother was always making over her and dressing her up like a little princess.” Graham smiled at Lorena. “That was all a long time ago.”

“Do you think she wanted to be a princess?” Lorena asked.

“Could be,” Graham said. “Maybe she thinks she is a princess. Who knows with Fern? She’s always out there piling up cedars to make her cedar palaces. Leastways that’s what she calls them. Appear to be nothing but piles of brush to me, but it keeps her occupied and mostly out of trouble. She didn’t scare you too bad, did she?” Graham looked from Lorena to Kate and back to Lorena.

“Tori was scared, and I was a little bit. But not Kate. Angel sisters don’t get scared of anything.” Lorena grabbed Kate around the middle and gave her a hug. “Kate’s not even afraid of rats biting her toes while she sleeps.”

“I told you. No rats at our house.” Kate pushed a smile out on her face as she breathed in and out slowly. She felt weak all over, like she’d run to Edgeville and back. She really wasn’t afraid of Fern. Not exactly. But hatchets start flying and a person would be stupid not to be at least a little worried. “And I’m not an angel, remember?”

“You’re my angel like Mr. Graham is her angel.” Lorena turned loose of Kate and looked at Graham. “Did you really let somebody die like she said?”

It was the question Kate had wanted to ask, but she would have never spoken it aloud. Lorena had no such qualms.

“No, I didn’t. You can’t pay any attention to what Fern says. Back when she got so sick with the influenza, the fever did things to her head. She can’t remember things right. The way they really happened.”

“She remembered being a princess,” Lorena said.

Tori let out a yell. “I’ve got a bite, Lorena. Hurry up, and you can pull it in.”

Kate and Graham watched Lorena run to grab the cane pole from Tori and run backward up the bank to pull the fish in. It was too little to keep, but Lorena didn’t care as she jumped up and down and clapped her hands. Tori carefully unhooked the fish and gave it to Lorena to put back in the water.

“Nothing like catching that first fish.” Graham smiled before he looked back at Kate. His smile slid away. “Are you all right, Kate?”

“I’m fine,” Kate said. It wasn’t much of a lie.

“She won’t bother you again. I promise.”

Kate looked at him. She wasn’t sure she should ask, but she did anyhow. “Who was the him she was talking about? She said I looked like him.”

Graham mashed his mouth together and for a second Kate didn’t think he was going to answer her, but then he said, “That would be your daddy’s brother. Press Jr. Fern was in love with him.”

“Do I really look like him?”

Graham studied her face a minute before he answered. “The family resemblance is there. Around the eyes and mouth, but that’s not a bad thing. Press Jr. was a good-looking boy. Good at everything he did. Your granddaddy thought he was going to be governor when he got old enough. But he never got old enough.”

“What happened to him?”