Cottonwood Whispers (26 page)

I could have sworn Joel was begging for some broken bones, and I lowered down onto flat feet just in time for Luke to leave me behind and plant his fist in Joel’s jaw. When Joel steadied himself, there was enough blood dripping down his chin that I wondered if he’d bitten his tongue off.

“He broke my jaw!” he yelled incredulously, blood spitting out with every painful syllable.

I was surprised by his shock since he’d deliberately egged Luke on, but I was more surprised by the gunshot that brought all of us to attention.

Sheriff Clancy stood there at the back of the crowd, pistol in the air. Next to him was my daddy, and for the first time in my life I wished he weren’t there. Angry men with guns didn’t add up to much good most times, and I had enough worry about Mr. Poe, Luke, and Gemma. I didn’t want to worry about my daddy too.

“You all right, Jessilyn?” he called out in a voice that mixed rage and fear together.

“Yes’r,” I called back. “Just now, anyways.”

“Gemma, Luke?”

“Yes’r,” they hollered back.

Sheriff Clancy took one almost-imperceptible step forward. “All you boys are in danger of breakin’ the law, here,” he called out in a tone that bordered on laziness. His expression was far from lazy, though; I could see he was trying to play down just how dangerous the situation was. Even with the help he’d called in from Richmond, he and his deputies were outnumbered by a dozen. “Now, this here ain’t your job. It’s mine. I’ll just take the prisoner back into custody, and things’ll all get worked out. You boys can get on your way now I’m here.”

“Now you’re here, why don’t you do your job and arrest Talley?” Joel said, his words jumbled by his already-swollen jaw. “He broke my jaw!”

The sheriff made his way to the front, his pistol still at the ready. “You got proof he did it?”

“’Course I got proof,” Joel argued. “Got seventeen witnesses!”

Sheriff Clancy let his eyes roam over the vigilantes. “Well now, all I see is a posse. Since they’s likely breakin’ the law somehow, I reckon they ain’t such fine witnesses.” The sheriff was clearly willing to ignore the red knuckles Luke was flexing repeatedly, and the look he flashed me promised an ally in a place I had never expected to find one.

But we were still overwhelmed in number and passion, encircled as we were by such angry men, and I took a handful of Luke’s shirt for support. The creek behind us continued to roar, but there was a moment of silence amid our weary group. We were pensive, all of us with eyes that roamed about trying to determine who would make the first move.

It was Nate Colby who made it, and my heart withered at the sight of him, his whole body wrapped up in hate. His rifle stuck out like an extension of his arm and pointed straight at Luke, who still stood guard in front of me, Gemma, and Mr. Poe. His movements were mirrored by the men behind him, and I clung to Luke with both hands, so fearful for his life I couldn’t breathe.

Sheriff Clancy lowered his gun to appease the men who’d trained their guns on Luke. “Nate, don’t you go doin’ somethin’ we’ll both regret. This here ain’t your fight.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. This here’s more my fight than anyone’s.” Nate took two more steps and jabbed the barrel of his gun into Luke’s stomach. “Now get out of my way, boy. I don’t want to hurt you, but I will.”

Joel waved a hand at two men, and they scurried over to
the lawmen to remove their weapons. Luke’s gun was in his waistband, and I watched hopelessly as it was stolen away.

Then Mr. Poe moved forward, his body weary but a lightness touching his face. Gemma reached out to stop him, but he shook his head and patted her hand gently. “It’s okay, Miss Gemma. Ah got tuh do it, is all. Don’t you worry none.”

“Mr. Poe,” I said in what came out as a frightened wail. “No.”

But there was nothing we could do to stop him. He turned to look at me and smiled. “A body don’t never say no tuh his God, Miss Jessie.” And then he left us and stood in front of Nate. It took only a second for Nate to switch his gun from Luke’s gut to Mr. Poe’s. I felt Luke take a long inhale, filling lungs that had been starved for air while he’d held his breath in expectation.

Tears spilled down my cheeks, and though Luke’s limbs were shaky, he found the strength to wrap an arm around me. “They’re gonna kill him,” I cried out to Sheriff Clancy. “Do somethin’!”

But I knew as well as anyone there was nothing we could do. We were unarmed and outmanned, and we all stood helplessly by as Joel tossed the rope to Cole Mundy and ordered him to string up Mr. Poe.

“Can’t do it yourself, can you?” Luke spat out. “Coward!”

“You won’t get away with this, Joel,” Sheriff Clancy yelled before someone jabbed a rifle in his gut to take his breath away. He bent over, gasping for air.

Gemma was behind us crying out, but she wasn’t
demanding justice, she was praying in a voice that shook with emotion.

They dragged Mr. Poe to the cottonwood tree that spread out over the creek and stood him up beneath a sturdy branch. Mr. Poe had his eyes closed, a sweet smile on his face, and I couldn’t decide if I should hide my face to spare myself the memory of what was to happen or keep my eyes on Mr. Poe in honor of his courage. Luke decided for me and tucked my face into his chest. But it took only moments for me to lift my head again. Not knowing was worse than seeing it with my own eyes.

It all seemed to come too slowly, Cole’s stubby fingers muddling through the job of tying a suitable noose. A thought rambled through my mind that a Klansman such as Cole should have been an expert at it. The men around us had their guns and eyes trained on all of us, sneaking occasional glances at Cole’s progress.

Gemma’s prayers got louder by the second, and I hoped if God wouldn’t hear her, maybe the men would and it would prick their consciences. But there was no movement of surrender, only the painstaking inadequacy of Cole’s fingers. I could hear Luke’s breaths coming in ragged gasps, and it sparked such fear in me to know his desperation that I turned my head to dull the sound.

Joel tired of waiting for Cole and grabbed the rope from him. “Ain’t you ever tied a knot before?”

It was then that I caught a sudden movement by Sheriff Clancy, pulling something from beneath his pant leg.

The sound of the shot that followed rang off the trees and echoed in my ears. Startled men ducked and threw themselves out of the way, but none of them effected the tragedy that Joel Hadley did.

Sheriff Clancy’s aim had missed Joel but startled him, and as he toppled sideways toward the angry waters, his hands grasped for something to hold on to.

The only thing he found was Mr. Poe.

I watched in disbelief as the two tumbled over the side together, disappearing into the muddy rapids. My screams seemed to come out all on their own, but they mingled with the shouts from everyone else. Gemma, Luke, and I all ran to the creekside, but the foaming water looked like prisms through my tears, and I squeezed my eyes shut for a second to force them out. Luke was on his stomach in the mud, reaching over the side, and I did the same to see what he was seeing.

There beneath us was Joel Hadley, his hand wrapped tightly around a bush that grew from the side of the bank. The water licked at his legs ferociously, and it was all he could do to hang on.

His was the last face I’d wanted to see. I’d only wanted to see Mr. Poe, and for my thinking, Joel Hadley could be washed downstream and I wouldn’t shed a tear.

But Gemma was crying out next to me, words that sounded more hopeful than devastated, and I peered further over to see that Mr. Poe had a desperate grip on Joel’s leg.

Luke reached out and gripped Joel’s wrist, straining to lift
his weight. I grabbed on to Luke’s waist, for all the good that would do, and hung on to him with every bit of strength I had. Gemma joined me, fairly laying her whole body across his legs.

Daddy tried to help, but there was nothing to hold on to but Joel’s slippery, wet arm. I could tell Luke was barely able to breathe, he strained so hard to hang on.

“I can’t get them up.”

“Too much weight with the two of ’em,” Daddy called back.

Gemma wriggled up beside Luke to see over the edge. “Mr. Poe!” she screamed. “Hold on!”

The men tossed out the rope they had almost used to hang Mr. Poe in hopes that it would now save him, but it was repeatedly swept away with the current.

Then I saw Mr. Poe’s eyes find Gemma’s, and for a few seconds, he held her gaze in a way that went far beyond any words he could ever manage to speak. Gemma stopped screaming and lay still, and then I saw her nod slowly, tears starting to stream down her face.

They may have come to an unspoken agreement, but I hadn’t, and I threw my arms over the edge, crying out with every bit of breath I had left.

I was only in time to watch Mr. Poe let go of Joel’s leg and slip beneath the water.

What happened next was a blur of grief and chaos. Without the weight of Mr. Poe, Luke managed to pull Joel back to solid ground, and then his arms were around me and he was
whispering to me to calm down. Gemma knelt at my feet, telling me through her tears that it would be okay.

But Mr. Poe was gone. And Joel Hadley was still here.

Some of the men ran downstream, calling out for Mr. Poe, but I instinctively knew as I sat there by the swollen creek that it had claimed his life. Joel sat on the ground only feet from me, and worn through as I was, I still found the strength to push Luke and Gemma away and lunge for him. He put his arms up to shield himself from the fists I threw at him, but he took everything I gave him. There was a resignation in him I hadn’t expected.

I sat back on my heels to stare at his face. “You killed him,” I spat. “Just as much as if you’d hung him from that tree, you killed him!”

Daddy came behind me and wrapped me up. “That’s all, Jessie,” he murmured. “That’s all.”

Joel’s face was blank, and he sat with his shoulders humped, shivering.

Not one man spoke a word. No one moved except Nate Colby, who had dropped to his knees at the side of the creek. “What’d we do?” he cried out suddenly. “We killed the man.”

I gently peeled Daddy’s arms away and stumbled over to him, kneeling beside his crumpled body. “It weren’t your fault, Nate.” I put one hand on his back awkwardly. “You’re just all beat up inside. You didn’t know what you were doin’.”

“He was a good man,” he said, his shoulders heaving with regretful sobs.

I looked helplessly at the sheriff, and he and his deputies came together to lift Nate to his feet.

I sat back on my heels, and Gemma knelt beside me, taking my hand in hers. “It’s all right, Jessie,” she whispered tearfully. “Mr. Poe’s with Jesus.”

I shook my head vehemently. “He didn’t listen, your Jesus. I prayed, and He didn’t listen.”

“He listened, Jessie. He just didn’t want the same thing you wanted.”

“Then what good is He? What good’s a God who don’t care about people He created?”

“’Course He cares. It’s just He knows more’n we do. Sometimes what we want ain’t really best.”

“So takin’ Mr. Poe away’s best?” I argued. “How’s that best for us?”

She gave me one of those looks that said I was a selfish girl, and I steeled myself against it, determined not to let her make me feel guilty. “Maybe it’s best for Mr. Poe,” she finished.

I gritted my teeth to keep from saying what was on my mind because I knew Daddy would hear. And I knew it would break his heart to know what I was thinking just then. Amid the sound of Nate Colby’s cries and the rushing waters that had taken Mr. Poe’s life, I sat in silence, watching the current cut new boundaries.

Raising my eyes to the rainy heavens, I silently disavowed
the God who had ignored my pleas. A clap of thunder broke the silence as though He were speaking just to me, but my ears were closed to His voice.

Just like I figured His were to mine.

Mr. Poe washed up downstream a day later. Sheriff Clancy came by our place to tell us personally, but I knew what he was there to say the minute he drove up, and I wouldn’t go to the door to hear him say it.

Momma hadn’t stopped crying since Daddy dragged Luke, Gemma, and me from his truck, muddied and exhausted. She’d kept vigil over us that whole evening, offering up soup, warmer clothes, and prayers. Gemma and Luke managed to sleep, but I lay awake in my bed, staring at the ceiling, bitter thoughts eating away at my insides.

Joel Hadley disappeared that very day we lost Mr. Poe. His feet had left guilty prints all the way out of Calloway, and there wasn’t a single soul who didn’t believe Gemma’s story after he ran like a coward.

But being rid of Joel didn’t help everything. There were still money problems, lives in need of healing, and all sorts
of feelings for me to work through. Most of all, there was a hole in my heart the size of the hope I’d had that someday I’d be able to believe what my momma and daddy did, what Gemma did. It was the one thing that had always divided us, and I’d secretly hoped I’d someday find that thing that was missing between us.

But all my hope died the day Mr. Poe’s fingers slipped from Joel Hadley.

We buried him two days after he was found, and though I heard the prayers and the kind words, I spent the time scanning the faces of all who stood by Mr. Poe’s grave daring to lift up a man they’d betrayed that painful summer. They were false people, the way I saw it, people who could condemn a man while he lived and praise him when he was dead.

Luke hovered around me from the day we arrived back home, but even his presence did little to lift my spirits. My whole world was off-balance, and it was more discouraging for me to discover that Luke Talley couldn’t heal all my hurts.

And I desperately wanted healing. I hated walking around like a shell, living life without even noticing. But I feared there was nothing that could heal me now.

Miss Cleta’s teakettle whistled, an earsplitting noise that matched my mixed-up thoughts. Nothing was the same anymore. I’d been in this place before, this forced acceptance
of things I never wanted any part of, and I was tired of life always having its say. I removed the kettle from the heat and joined Miss Cleta in the living room.

Nate Colby was sitting on Miss Cleta’s sofa, doubting himself as I’d seen him do so many times of late. “She ain’t takin’ it, Miss Cleta,” he moaned. “I’m tellin’ you, she don’t like me.”

“You’re gettin’ all worked up over nothin’,” she scolded, taking the bottle from Nate’s hand and using it to tickle the baby’s lips. “You just got to give her some hints, is all.”

The baby’s lips wriggled and then latched on, and Nate’s smile broke out in a way I hadn’t been sure it would ever manage to again.

All because a baby sipped some milk.

“There you go, you see?” Miss Cleta squeezed Nate’s shoulder and looked away so he wouldn’t spy the tears that glistened in her eyes. “That baby knows her daddy.”

I reached out to touch the baby’s tiny toes. “What’re you goin’ to call her?”

His face creased up, so that I immediately regretted my question. The look on his face reminded me of the one I’d possessed since that day at Rocky Creek. But he kept his eyes locked with those of his baby girl and managed to whisper hoarsely, “Grace.”

“Oh, that’s fittin’,” Miss Cleta murmured. “Sure enough, ain’t no name better.”

The moment did nothing to cure my blues, and I crept away into the kitchen.

I heard Nate leave minutes later, and when Miss Cleta came into the kitchen, my face felt stiff from dried-up tears. I lifted my chin to keep any new tears from spotting Miss Cleta’s tablecloth. “Feels like everybody’s gone all at once, and I don’t know why. There ain’t no reason to any of it.”

Miss Cleta poured the tea and then sat next to me, taking my shoulders in her aged hands. “Ain’t nothin’ without purpose, Jessilyn. Nothin’. God gives us kind people out of the goodness of His heart, and He takes them home when He’s good and ready.”

“But He always takes the good ones,” I argued, anger ripping through my insides. “There’s bad people walkin’ this earth like a plague, but the good ones always get taken away! What sort of God does things like that?”

“We ain’t got the right to argue with Him, Jessilyn Lassiter. The sooner you realize we ain’t much more than God’s creation, subject to the Master, the better off you’ll be.”

Her voice was firm and strong, and I swallowed hard under her stern gaze. “That’s what Mr. Poe said, near about, just before he surrendered himself. He said, ‘A body don’t say no to his God.’”

Tears welled up in her eyes, but she leaned forward to wipe my own away with her thumbs. “People thought that boy had no sense, but he had more than all of us put together.” She pulled a lace hankie from her sleeve and blew. “He knew what life was all about, and he knew what death was all about, and he didn’t argue one bit when his Maker called him home. Don’t you go lettin’ bitterness sweep away
your life, Jessilyn. I seen it enough, and it ain’t nothin’ but tragedy.” She stuck that hankie back in her sleeve with decisiveness. “Those men you’re hatin’, Joel Hadley and the like, they get those hard hearts from bitterness. Don’t you go becomin’ like those people you’re bitter against.”

Her words struck hard, and I buried my head in my arms to keep her from seeing my shame.

She reached a hand out to ruffle my hair, and I heard her let out a long sigh. “And besides that, Mr. Poe ain’t really gone. He’s always in our hearts. All those things Mr. Poe said to you, they were special to your heart, weren’t they?”

“Yes’m,” I said, my reply muffled by my arms.

“Well, they’re as special now as they were then. Don’t matter none if he’s gone.” She sat back in her chair, and her face took on a wistful expression. “Heaven knows my Sully was taken earlier than I’d have liked. The day he left me, part of my heart crumbled into pieces. He was a good man, Sully was, and he always had a way of sayin’ things that made me smile even when I didn’t feel like it.” Her eyes blinked three times fast to keep tears away and then focused on me. “Don’t you know he’s never gone from me, though? My memory of that man won’t never leave me, no matter how old I get. That’s God’s gift to me. He didn’t have to do that, you know. He didn’t have to even give Sully to me at all. He could’ve left me alone all those years, but He didn’t. And now I’ve got years of memories to keep me goin’.”

I watched her through misty eyes as she got up from her chair arthritically slow and shuffled to the open kitchen
window. “Hear that breeze?” She closed her eyes and a sweet smile spread out across her face. “It’s like the breath of God washin’ over me, stealin’ away all my worries, whisperin’ precious words.”

But the tears still painted tracks down my cheeks, and Miss Cleta’s face creased up into sadness on my behalf. Suddenly she took my hand and led me outside. “Ain’t nothin’ to heal a heart all at once,” she said as we made our way down her back steps. “But there’s balms to soothe it if you know where to look.”

I was hiccuping in air as we walked, but the cool breeze was just what Miss Cleta said, a balm. It tossed my hair away from my face and dried the tears up into salty streaks. I felt peace tiptoe into all the nervous spots of my spirit and dropped to the ground with my head held up, eyes closed. Before I knew it, Miss Cleta was beside me, no matter her advanced age.

The trees around us swayed and rustled, a sound that blocked out all the worries that had been racing through my head for days.

“Those trees are talkin’,” Miss Cleta said, and I opened my eyes in time to see her smile. “It’s days like this I swear I can hear my Sully. Whisperin’ on the breeze just like he was whisperin’ in my ear.” She leaned back on shaky arms and crossed her ankles. “There weren’t nothin’ my Sully loved more than sittin’ on the porch on a beautiful day. ‘Cleta my darlin’,’ he’d say, ‘the good Lord favored us with a fine one today.’ The man knew simple blessin’s when he saw them.”

“You say you hear his voice, Miss Cleta?”

“Not so much in my ears, mind you, but in my heart.”

I lay back on the grass, the windblown blades tickling my ears, and stared at the cottony clouds that streaked the sky. “You think Mr. Poe’s in heaven?”

“Oh, honey, that man knew my Jesus like nobody else I know. Folks around here thought he weren’t given much since he didn’t think like most people, but that ain’t true at all.” Like a young girl, Miss Cleta lay down beside me and searched the clouds. “Most people think too much about things that don’t matter, but that weren’t true with Elmer Poe. He didn’t clutter his mind up with all that much, and that was a gift from God, sure enough, because it kept his mind free for higher things.”

“You sayin’ he was better off not bein’ smart?”

“Smart’s somethin’ people come up with, not God. Who says what’s smart? It’s knowin’ God and His Word that means somethin’ to Him, not knowin’ what people wrote in books. Elmer didn’t know all the particulars about book learnin’, but He knew as much as a body can about our God.” She took my arm in her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Sure enough that man’s in heaven now, sittin’ at the feet of Jesus. Don’t know of no one who loved our Lord more. And that’s what Jesus asks of us, Jessilyn.”

I wiped my nose with the back of my hand and kept my eyes on the sky, knowing full well her words were aimed at my unbelieving heart.

“He up and walked this earth, took our sins upon Him,
and died on that cross, just so He could rise again for you and me. There weren’t no better gift than that, givin’ up His life for ours. And all He wants is for us to believe, to let Him take us by the hand and help us walk through this life. Elmer knew that. That’s why he was able to give up his own life, because he knew he was goin’ somewhere so much better than here.”

The clouds tumbled over the sun, so I didn’t have to squint for a minute, and I took Miss Cleta’s hand. “I don’t know why I can’t,” I murmured.

“Why you can’t what?”

“Believe.”

Miss Cleta turned her head to look at me and let tears spill to the grass. “Oh, honey, just sayin’ that tells me whose you are. You just don’t know it yet. If you
want
to believe, someday you will. You just wait. God’ll open your heart when you least expect it, and He’ll take that wide-open heart of yours and fill it up with believin’ till there ain’t no room left.”

Her words soothed my anxiety, and I closed my eyes with a deep breath. There weren’t any more words to be said, and the two of us lay there beneath the busy trees, close in spirit if not in age.

And we listened.