Bent Road (24 page)

 

“Y
ou call the school?” Arthur says, walking out of the bedroom and grabbing his keys from the table on his way outside. He has washed up and is wearing clean clothes. “She there?”

Ruth shakes her head and starts to speak, but Celia cuts her off. “No, she’s not there. No one’s there. No one to even answer the phone.”

Standing face to face with Arthur, her hands on her hips, Celia suddenly hates him. She hates the way his hair curls when it is damp. She hates that he doesn’t shave every day like he did in Detroit and that he can’t be bothered with a tie on Sundays. She hates that he stretches and groans when he eats Reesa’s fried chicken and doesn’t use a napkin until he’s eaten his fill. And most of all, she hates him for yelling at Daniel because he’s not enough of a man yet. Arthur is the one who isn’t man enough, and now, because of that, because he did nothing, because he isn’t the man he is supposed to be, Evie is gone. Gone like Mother and Father. Gone like Julianne Robison. Gone.

“What about Jonathon and Elaine?” Arthur hops on one foot, pulling on a boot that has Olivia’s blood caked in the tread. “They back yet?”

“No,” Celia says, taking her own boots from the closet and reaching past Arthur for her coat. “Why would they be back?” She pushes him in the chest so he’ll look her in the face. “It’s a full thirty minutes there and home again. Thirty minutes at best. That’s how far it is.”

Cupping Celia’s arms with both of his hands, Arthur says, “Take it easy. I’m sure she’s fine. We’ll find her. You stay here. You and Ruth. In case she comes home, you should . . .”

Celia shoves his hand away and yanks on her jacket. “This is your fault,” she says, quietly at first, but then it feels so good, like beating on something with both fists, that she says it louder and louder until she is shouting. “I’ve been telling you, begging you to do something. I knew it. I knew it. He’s angry. Angry that we kept the baby from him. First Julianne and now.” But she can’t say it. She can’t say he has taken her Evie. “You brought us here. To this godforsaken place. This is your fault. All your fault.”

It must be Ruth, laying a warm hand on Celia’s back, and that must be Arthur, wrapping both arms around her, holding her to his chest. Someone is saying, don’t panic. No need to panic. Won’t do us any good. All these months that Julianne has been gone, Celia has thought of her every day, made herself think of the little girl she never met. If ever she found her day slipping away without a thought of Julianne, she stopped her scrubbing or ironing or weeding and looked up. If inside, she looked out a window. If outside, she looked to the horizon, always remembering, always searching, always hoping. Out of respect for the fear of losing her own children, she did these things every day, without fail. But no one ever found Julianne, and now Evie is gone and Celia is facing the same life Mary Robison must live.

 

T
he road under Uncle Ray’s tires changes from asphalt to gravel. Evie feels the change in her stomach, the same tickle she gets when she rides with Daddy in his truck. Getting to Evie’s house from church is easy. Now that the road has turned rocky, they will keep driving on Bent Road for a good long while, and when it breaks off to go to Grandma Reesa’s house, they’ll keep driving straight and the road will turn into Back Route 1. This is where Evie lives. Once Bent Road becomes Back Route 1, they’re almost home. Except Uncle Ray turns before the twist in Bent Road that leads to Grandma Reesa’s house. He turns on a road Evie’s been on before but she can’t remember when.

 

D
aniel stands in the middle of the gravel drive, looking first toward the barn and next the garage, but he knows Evie isn’t either place. He could check inside Mr. Murray’s rusted old car, but she isn’t in there either. Besides, he’d have to walk past Olivia to get to that old car, and he can’t do that. Steam isn’t rising from Olivia anymore. This must mean she’s turning cold. Jonathon patted Daniel on the back before rushing off with Elaine to go to the school. He said he’d take care of the old gal when he got back. He said she’d keep just fine in the cold. Daniel doesn’t want to think about what this means. There’s a smell, too. Maybe it’s Olivia’s insides starting to rot out, or maybe it’s mud and her wet, bloody hide.

Something is different now. It’s the color of things. The sun is hanging on the horizon and its light is gray instead of clear. Everything is gray. It’s almost night. It happens so quickly this time of year. Night didn’t seem to settle in so fast in Detroit where there were streetlights and neighbors’ lights and headlights. The gray air makes Daniel’s stomach tighten and his chest begins to pound as each breath comes faster than the last. He backs away from Olivia. Evie isn’t in the barn or the basement or Mr. Murray’s old car. She’s not anywhere. He takes another backward step and then another. Eventually, he’ll run all the way to school. He’ll find Evie there and bring her home. A few more steps, but he can’t turn away from Olivia yet. She lies on her side, one rounded ear sticking up, one bright eye staring at him. He realizes he is waiting for that eye to blink, but it doesn’t. It never will.

 

I
t’s not quite dark yet. As soon as Uncle Ray turns off Bent Road, Evie sees a small group of men standing in the ditch. Uncle Ray must have seen them, too. They must be the reason Uncle Ray turned because he stops the truck in the middle of the road and shines his headlights on them. A few of the men hold a hand up to shield their eyes and they look at Uncle Ray’s truck. Evie scoots to the edge of her seat.

“Those two men have dogs,” she says.

Uncle Ray doesn’t answer, but instead pulls down hard on the gearshift, backs up, rolling the steering wheel so the truck’s tailgate swings around toward the ditch and throws the gearshift forward again.

“Do you know those men, Uncle Ray?”

Again, Uncle Ray doesn’t answer. His hat sits high on his forehead, and even though his eyes have plenty of room to see, he doesn’t look at Evie. Turning the steering wheel the other way, passing one hand over the other the same way Daddy does, Uncle Ray presses on the gas and the men and the two dogs disappear when Uncle Ray drives back onto Bent Road.

The sky is almost all the way dark now, but even so, Evie remembers the place were they saw the men and dogs. She went there a time or two with Daddy when Uncle Ray was away with his other family in Damar. It’s Mrs. Hathaway’s farm, except Uncle Ray uses it because Mr. Hathaway died a long time ago. Evie slides back in her seat and grabs onto the blanket that Aunt Ruth left behind. For one quick second, something smells sweet and light like Aunt Ruth. Evie feels like she wants to cry again, though she doesn’t know why. She grabs two handfuls of the rough quilt, wadding it up in both fists and watches for home.

 

D
aniel is standing in the center of the gravel drive, staring down at Olivia, when Dad starts to beat on his steering wheel. Only then, does Daniel notice the empty sound of the truck’s engine. It is rattling and choking but it won’t turn over. Dad throws open the driver’s side door.

“Go get your mother’s keys,” he shouts at Daniel.

Daniel doesn’t move.

“Hurry up about it,” Dad says, reaching behind his seat and pulling out a set of jumper cables. Next, the hood pops open. “The keys, Dan. Get your mother’s keys.”

Daniel backs away a few more steps. Dad is going to search for Evie but his truck won’t start. How will they find Evie if Dad’s truck won’t start? One more time, Dad shouts. Daniel jumps, spins around, takes two running steps and stumbles.

“Olivia,” Evie says. “Is that Olivia?”

Daniel straightens and grabs Evie by the shoulders. Her cheeks and nose are red, her eyes watery. She steps to the side so she can see Olivia.

“What’s wrong with her?” Evie says. “Her neck is bad. Her head isn’t the right shape.”

From a few yards away, Olivia’s one eye is staring at them. It’s big and black, and like a piece of polished glass, it shines where it catches the porch light. Daniel turns back to Evie and checks her over top to bottom, searching for missing parts. Two eyes, two ears, a whole head.

“Come inside,” he says, stepping in front of her so she can’t see Olivia. “Dad,” he shouts, pulling Evie toward the house. “She’s home. She’s home.” Stumbling up the stairs, across the porch and pushing open the back door, he shouts, “Mama.”

Warm air meets them inside. It burns Daniel’s cheeks and lips. He inhales, drops down to one knee and holds Evie’s hands.

“Evie’s here. Evie’s home.”

Mama rushes in like the hot air, sweeping Evie up. She checks for missing parts, too. When she gets to Evie’s hands, Mama presses them to her cheeks and rubs them between her own hands, warming them, softening them up.

From behind Daniel, Dad says, “Where have you been, child?”

But Mama quiets Evie, tells her that it doesn’t matter. “You’re home, sweet pea. You’re so cold. So cold.” And then to Daniel. “Where?” is all she says.

“I turned around and there she was.” Daniel stands and whispers. “She saw Olivia. She saw what happened.”

“I left her lead on,” Evie says. “I did it. I left it on.” She cries into Mama’s shoulder. “I did it.”

Mama looks over Daniel’s head at Dad. Aunt Ruth wraps a blanket around Evie’s small body. The old quilt smells sour and moldy like the basement. Mama hates drying clothes in the basement.

“No, Evie,” Mama says. “It was an accident. No one’s fault.” Mama stretches out her arms, holding Evie where they can look into each other’s eyes. “Where were you, Evie? How did you get home?”

“Uncle Ray brought me,” she says. “We went to Mrs. Hathaway’s farm, but there were men there so Uncle Ray brought me home.”

Celia cracks a third egg, cracks it so hard that the shell collapses in her hand leaving the yolk and white to slide through her fingers and into the dumpling dough. Dropping the shell into the sink and wiping her hands on the dishtowel tucked in her apron, she picks up a wooden spoon and stirs the thick dough. After a few minutes, she shifts the spoon to her other hand and continues to dig and grind until she’s breathing heavily. Pausing once to roll her head from side to side, she shifts hands again, wraps her forearm around the bowl, drops the spoon and kneads the dough by hand. On the front burner, the chicken stock grows from a simmer to a rolling boil.

“Take it easy,” Arthur says, leaning back in his chair and stretching.

Celia glances up at Arthur, but says nothing, and instead reaches for another egg. Reesa shakes her head. Celia grabs the egg anyway, cracks it as hard as the last and throws the empty shell toward the sink. She misses, and as it falls on the floor, she wipes her hands across the front of her white blouse.

Her right arm still in a sling, Ruth leaps from her seat to scoop up the shell. “A nice warm meal always makes things better,” she says. “Always makes the house smell so wonderful.” She talks as she picks up every piece of the slippery shell as if no one will notice the mess if she keeps talking.

“Making this house smell pretty good, that’s for sure,” Arthur says, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table.

Celia takes a teaspoon from the drawer and begins to dip up the dough and drop it into the boiling broth, ignoring the fact that it’s too runny because she’s added one too many eggs. She clears her throat and chokes back a sob when Ruth, after cleaning the egg shell from her fingers, steps forward and whispers, “The kids are fine, Celia. Evie is fine. Safe and sound.”

Pausing mid scoop, while Ruth kneads another cup of flour into the dough, Celia says to Reesa, “I’ve asked that Evie return all of Eve’s things to you, along with an apology. I don’t know what she was thinking. And getting in that truck with Ray.” She stops, swallows. “We need to call Floyd and report this.”

“Report what?” Arthur says. “He gave the girl a ride home. Damn fool that he is, he just gave her a ride home.”

“They are searching his farm,” Celia says, stirring her broth. “Searching it with dogs. And he took Evie there. You know what that means.”

Arthur brushes his hair back from his face and takes a deep breath before speaking. “For twenty-five years, Floyd has been thinking Ray had something to do with what happened to Eve.” His eyes are swollen from his having rubbed them and from being tired. “That’s the only reason he’s keeping such an eye on Ray. Listen, I’ll keep him clear of this family, that’s for sure. And I know the man is up to plenty of no good, but I don’t believe for a minute that he hurt Julianne Robison.”

Celia throws her teaspoon into the broth, jumping back when it splashes up. “What about the night Julianne disappeared? He wasn’t home. Ruth said so.” Celia stands, hand on hips. “He could have done it. How can you know?”

“Evie doesn’t have any friends.”

Everyone turns. Daniel stands outside his bedroom, his hair tousled and his eyes red as if he woke up from having cried himself to sleep.

“At school. She doesn’t have any friends at school. Neither do I, except for Ian. It’s not like in Detroit. Nobody likes us here.”

Celia, pulling off her apron, walks toward Daniel. He takes a few steps backward. “What do you mean, Daniel?”

“Just that. No friends. Except for Aunt Eve.”

“Of course she has friends,” Celia says.

Daniel shakes his head. “She did back home. Had plenty back then. But not here. They call her nigger lover. Have ever since we started school. Because we lived in Detroit. Called me one, too, until Ian started being my friend. The kids, they all tell Evie she’s here because Jack Mayer stole Julianne Robison. Or maybe Uncle Ray took her. They say one of them’s bound to steal Evie next.”

“They say that to Evie?” Celia drops back against the kitchen counter.

Arthur shakes his head. Reesa makes a clucking sound.

“She sits by herself every day. At recess. Lunch. Everywhere. She’s so small. They call her names. Tell her she’s too small for Kansas. Sometimes Miss Olson sits with her at lunch. But Evie just pretends Miss Olson is Aunt Eve. Miss Olson isn’t so small, though.”