Bent Creek (21 page)

He ushered her down the aisle of the restaurant to a table near the window. As she started to sit down he came around behind her and touched her shoulders.  “Whatcha doin’?” she asked, in a surprised voice.

“I was going to take your sweater and hang it up.”

“Oh,” she replied and handed it to him.

“You look really nice, Rachael. Is that a new dress?”

“Lily made it fer me. I really don’t have any nice things Sammy. That thars Lily’s sweater.”

He smiled at her candor. “I wonder if I could ask you a favor, Rachael? Could you call me Sam, instead of Sammy?  I kind of gave up being called Sammy when I moved.  I mean… if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure, Sam. Yep, that sounds good. I think I like that better anyway. I mean, since we’re all grow’d up now.”

Sam handed her the menu and she opened it to the middle page. Her finger traveled up and down, savoring each description of the food she could choose from.

Sam watched her while she was engrossed in the menu. He noticed how round her face was and the glow on her cheeks even though she didn’t have on makeup.  A few freckles crossed her nose and her brown hair, pulled back in a ponytail made her still look like a young girl.

“Yer starin’ at me, Sam.  Do I have somethin’ on mah face?”

“No, I was just checking you out. You’re just plain cute, Rachael.”

“Lordy, yer gonna make me blush,” she said covering her face with the menu.

Sam laughed, “Okay, I’ll be nice. Do you see anything on the menu that you like?”

“I have. I want a hamburger on a bun, with French fries, pickles, catsup and no onions. I want a Coca Cola tah drink.” She closed the menu and laid it down in front of her.  He smiled and then ordered the same thing.

“Tell me about your family, Rachael
.  Billy told me about Willie and Paul and I’m very sorry.  That’s terrible losing two brothers in less than a year. How are your mom and dad?”

“Well, I reckon you know since the mine closed it
’s been real tough living here. Daddy jest sits around doing nothin’. Since Jesse and I moved in with Nevers, he depends on us tah provide him and momma with money and food. Ben lives with us, too. He jest wasn’t doin’ good livin’ in the holler.  Did you know that Ben got his legs cut off?  He had a bad accident when he was in the army.  He gits money from the government, but most times he gives it all tah our parents.”

The food arrived and Rachael put her napkin under her chin and took a big bite of the hamburger. “Wow, this is so good.” Dipping a French fry in the catsup, she twirled it around her plate. “Momma just couldn’t deal with everythin’ that’s happened tah her. Losin’ both my brothers was jest plain arful. Then Ben comes home with no legs and Emma Jane got herself pregnant. Lily, that’s Nevers’ wife, is raisin’ the baby.  Now, Nevers is reel sick and we have tah do everythin’ for him.” She continued on as she dunked several more fries into the catsup and put them in her mouth. “What…” she said, realizing that Sam was just grinning at her and not eating his food.  “I reckon I’m a ramblin’ on. I have never had a hamburger or French fries in my life. Fact of the matter is I ain’t ever been in a restaurant, cept one time when I wuz reel little and I had tah use the bathroom and mamma tuck me into a diner. We didn’t eat thar or nothin’. I reckon I’m showin’ my ignorance.”  She wiped her nose on her napkin. “I’m sorry, Sam. I’m jest as nervous as a cat.”

Sam reached across the table and touched her hand. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. I’m enjoying your company. Just relax and enjoy your meal.”

“Really?” she said, putting her half eaten hamburger on her plate. “I’ve been so nervous about today.”

“Rachael, it’s just me, I’m the same old Sam that you used to call monkey ears. To be honest, I was scared to death of you when we were younger. You always knew exactly what you wanted and seemed so sure of yourself. You were a tough little kid.”

“You gotta be kidding. Why would anyone be afeared of me? And yer not the same Sam that left here. You talk different like and you have on nice clothes and short hair.  You probably been tah high school and got a good education.  I’ve been trying reel hard not tah talk like a hillbilly, but it’s hard when everybody round me talks that a way.  You ain’t told me anythin’ about yerself,” she said, picking up her hamburger.

He l
eaned back against the booth. “It was tough living with my grandparents in Dayton. They had a real small house and they weren’t real happy about my mom and I being there, but we had no place else to go. My mom was so grief stricken when my father got killed that it took months before she would even venture out of the house.  I went to a neighborhood school and if you think you have ever been teased, you have no idea what it was like there.  The kids there called me every name you can think of: hillbilly boy, hayseed, yokel, Li’l Abner and other ones I don’t want to say. They pushed and tripped me in the hallways until I finally had enough.  I cut my hair, got new clothes and stood in front of the mirror for hours practicing how to speak without sounding like I just fell off the turnip truck.  I didn’t have any friends, so I just concentrated on school and before you know it I had caught and passed most of the kids in my grade. I got out of school early and took some college courses. About that time my mother remarried and we moved to Covington, Kentucky. Her new husband works for the government and he was able to get me a job. It was pure luck, Rachael, but I had to work harder than I ever thought I could to prove myself.”

“My goodness, Sam, that’s some story.  What exactly do you do for the government?” Rachael asked.

He paused for a moment. “Surveying. I do surveying for the state of Kentucky.”

The door was open for more conversation and they talked through the rest of the meal and an ice cream sundae at the drugstore. She didn’t want the day to end and when he took her hand and walked her back to Clyde’s store, she knew it was time to go home. “I had a reel nice time today, Sam.  My truck is behind the store. I reckon I better git home.”

“What about next Saturday, will you be in town?  I hear they got a new picture showing at the movie theater?”

“I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises. It depends on what kind of mood Nevers is in.  If’n I’m not here by two o’clock I ain’t comin’.”

“I just want to tell you one last thing,” Sam said. “Sometimes it is not about how you say the words, but what they mean that counts. You be careful going home.”

“Thank you, Sam. That’s reel nice of you tah say that.”

When Rachael arrived home she found everyone, including Joe Seminole, sitting at the kitchen table.  “What took you so long, Rachael?” Jesse asked.  “We were plum worried about you.”

“We got tah talkin’ and I just lost track of time.  You didn’t all have tah be waitin’ fer me.”

“We been havin’ a talk. Sit down
, we have sumthin’ tah tell you,” Ben said.

Rachael slid into a chair wondering what she had done to upset them. “What’s wrong, what did I do?”

“Now this ain’t about you, Rachael. It’s about the whole situation.  First off, we’re workin’ our butts off each week and Clyde is reapin’ all the benefits. I hear tell from some of the men at Mabry’s that moonshine is goin’ fer near a dollar a bottle right off the hill.  Clyde is only givin’ us twenty cents and then he turns around and sells it for two dollars tah them men upstate. He don’t do none of the work.  Either he starts givin’ us at least forty cents a gallon or we’ll find someone else tah sell it tah. Then thars all this goin’s on about Nevers. It’s wearin’ us thin. It’s time we had him dead like he should be and that away me and Lily kin git married and her family won’t have nothin’ to say about this place. And another thang, we need tah go down somewheres in Tennessee and buy us some clothes and things. Except for that dress Lily made you, none of us ain’t even had so much as a new pair of underwear in a coon’s age.”  He stopped talking and folded his hands over his chest.

“Okay,” Rachael said. “You didn’t tell me that you and Lily wuz thinkin’ bout gittin’ hitched. When  did that all come about? I got tah ponder on how we kin git rid of Nevers once and fer all and I think gettin’ some new stuff sounds reel good.”

“Hold on thar, girl. You mean tah tell me, you ain’t mad about all this? Is that alls you got tah say about it?”

“Yep.” She left the room and four dumbfounded people sat quiet at the table. They hadn’t planned on her response. She was supposed to get mad and ask them how they planned to do all those things and then they were all relying on her to have the answers. She always had a plan for everything, but not today. Rachael was lying across her bed reliving every moment of her day with Sam.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Okay, this is what we’re gonna do,” Rachael said as she stood at the head of the breakfast table.  If everyone does their part I think we kin git Nevers buried and you two married,” she said pointing to Ben and Lily.  “Thar ain’t gonna be no room for mistakes, so when I explain it all to you, be sure you understand.” As usual, Rachael had come up with a plan that seemed impossible but she assured them it would work.  Since none of them had a better idea they would go along with her.

Late Friday afternoon, Sheriff Donald Elbers pulled his patrol car into the parking lot of Mabry’s store.  He had just dropped his wife off at the church to play bingo, like he did every week. Once inside the store he filled his coffee cup with liquor from the jug that was passed to him.  He sat down with the other men, and would stay there until nine o’clock, and then leave to pick his wife up. Usually by seven he was beginning to get a little tipsy, and would stop drinking shine and start drinking black coffee. By nine he could walk a straight line and drive his patrol car without weaving.  Everyone in the hollow knew that Sheriff Elbers was a lazy son of a gun who would get real queasy at the sight of blood. His race for sheriff was never challenged since he was the only one that was up for reelection year after year. No one was really interested in having his job. The pay was small, and the only perk was the twenty-year old patrol car that he was given to drive.

At Seven-ten, just as the sheriff poured his first cup of coffee, Jesse Riley rushed into the store and called out to him. “Oh Lordy, Sheriff, ya gotta come with me. 
Me and Rachael jest found Nevers’ in the woods. He’s all bloody.”

Sheriff Elbers stood up, slightly swaying.  “Hold on a minute, Boy. Where’d you find him?  How in the hell did he git in the woods?” He heard that Nevers had been sick and he was glad that he didn’t have to worry about him for a while. Nevers was about the only one in the hollow that gave him any grief. Except for the few drunks he picked up on Saturday nights, the jail was usually empty.

“Nevers has been actin’ real crazy since he’s got sick and when we got up this mornin’ he twernt in his bed.  Lately he had takin’ tah rantin’ like a mad man and hobblin’ around the house yellin’ at all of us. Most time we could git him back tah the bed. That fection wuz goin’ plum tah his head. Anyway, when he come up missin’ we spent all day huntin’ for him and we come across his body out yonder in the woods.  It sure ain’t a purty sight. Looks like he must have fell and hit his head on a rock and then somewheres in the night he got a visit from some coyotes. Half his face is gone and his arm is jest hangin’ almost off. We brung him into the barn, but he’s already cold as an icicle hangin’ from the privy.” Jesse could see the expression changing on the sheriff’s face and he seemed to be turning pale. The moonshine churning in his stomach was helping to make his queasy. “Well, I reckon I better check it out.  I need a witness since I can’t get a hold of the coroner this late in the day. Any of you men volunteer tah go with me?”  Artie Shoulders and his son agreed to go along with him.  Jesse hadn’t planned on that.

When Jesse pulled into the yard, he ran to the barn to alert the others. “Sheriff’s comin’ and he’s got Artie and his boy with him.”

With only a couple of lanterns burning, it was difficult to see in the barn. Old Joe Seminole was lying under a blanket that
had been soaked with chicken blood.  Rachael had wrapped a cloth across his head that covered one side of his face.  It too, was blood soaked. Rachael whispered to Joe that he had to try and breathe
real shallow.  She was scared to death that Joe wouldn’t
be able to do it, but they had practiced for two days. He had protested at first, but when Rachael told him that if the plan didn’t
work he would have to go somewhere else to live, he relented. She prayed that he wouldn’t cough or fart or do something to let them know he was alive.  Sheriff Elbers ducked his head and stepped into the barn, followed by Artie. His son had decided to wait in the patrol car.  “Oh, Lordy, he sure is a mess. Man, he sure lost a lot of weight since he’s been sick. Can’t see much of his face.”

“I kin uncover him, if you like,” Rachael said.  “I kin show you what the coyotes did tah his arm.”  She slowly picked up the corner of the blanket.

“No! Never mind. I seen enough.  How bout you, Artie? You witnessin’ that Nevers Bains is dead?”

“I sure am,” Artie said, rushing out of the barn.

“The coroner can get a death certificate issued.”

“Kin we go ahead and bury him tomorrow?  His body is beginnin’ tah putrefy.”