Hell With the Lid Blown Off (10 page)

Walter was a tall man, but his young brother-in-law easily matched him in height, he realized. “Now, Gee, it ain't how it looks.” His tone was conciliatory. “I was just so worried about Alice that I had to take my mind off things for a bit.”

“Well, you'd better get your mind back on her, Walter. Baby's on the way right now, and Alice wants you.”

Walter's nervousness disappeared. “The baby's coming?” He grabbed his hat up off the table and glanced at Trent, but was too distracted to register who he was looking at. “I've got my motorcar outside. Come on and we can all ride to the house together.”

“We rode out on horseback,” Gee Dub said. If he was implying that he didn't want to be around Walter just at the moment, Walter didn't get it.

“All right then. I'll see you later.” He waved his hat around at the shadowy figures around the tables. “I'm going to be a daddy!” he cried. And he was gone, all consternation forgotten.

Trent laid a hand on Gee Dub's shoulder. “Take a breath, now. I'm sure that woman made herself to home on his lap without invitation. It didn't mean anything. He more than likely did come here just to relax a spell.”

“His timing is mighty bad, is all.” Gee Dub sat down in Walter's vacated seat and heaved a sigh. The soiled dove hefted herself off the floor, bruised only in her ego, dusted herself off, and eyed the two young men with interest.

“What can I get y'all to drink?” she asked.

Trent took a step back. He could bust up fights and arrest abusive drunks without breaking a sweat, but speaking to a lady of easy virtue was beyond his ken. “Come on, Gee, let's go.”

“Well, now, look who's come to roll around in the mud with us pigs!” Jubal Beldon rose from his solitary seat at a corner table and whooped out a laugh. “If it ain't Mr. College Boy Tucker. I enjoyed the show y'all put on with Kelley. But do you expect Dills knows you've brought the law down on him?” He indicated Trent with a nod.

Gee Dub stood up.

This is not good
, Trent thought.

The room fell silent.

Jubal wasn't finished. “I'm surprised you young fellers' mommies let you out on a Sunday. Tired of singing hymns? Since you're here, how about a punch in the gut and a couple of broken ribs?”

Trent stepped between them. “I didn't come here to arrest anybody but I'll reconsider that policy if you don't shut up, Beldon. Come on, Gee Dub.”

Over the bar girl's protest, Gee Dub turned without further comment and the two young men headed for the door. But Jubal wasn't about to let the opportunity for mischief pass. “Hey, Tucker, did your sister tell you about our encounter on the road a couple of days ago?”

Trent turned around, his eyebrows rising. Encounter?

“Seems that snot-nose little tree-climber has got ripe all of a sudden. I think she's about ready to pluck, and I may be just the man to do it.”

This time it was Trent's reaction that caused the other people in the room to scoot out of the way, but Gee Dub managed to restrain him. “Calm down, Trent, he ain't worth it. Think what Scott would say if Dills has us all arrested for riot and mayhem.”

Trent's face was almost as red as his hair as his friend dragged him toward the door. They were halfway back to Boynton before either of them spoke.

“What do you expect he meant about Ruth?” Trent said.

“I don't know, but I mean to ask her.”

“You figure the Beldons have taken to harassing her? I don't like that.”

“I figure Jubal just said that to rile me,” Gee Dub speculated. “He likely didn't know he'd be getting you all hot as well.”

“Well, I plan to keep an eye on her,” Trent declared.

Gee Dub's mouth quirked up at the corner. “My guess is you planned to do that regardless, Deputy.”

Trent couldn't tell whether Gee Dub's tone held approval or disapproval, so he kept quiet. They rode on in silence as their horses picked their way around ruts in the road.

Jubal Beldon

After Gee Dub and Trent left the Rusty Horseshoe, Jubal sat at his table in the dark corner for another twenty minutes, nursing his drink and thinking.

He had always enjoyed having power over people. Especially them who thought they were so superior, who thought the Beldons were low-class, unworthy, ignorant hicks and yokels.
Bedlam Boys indeed
. His chest began to burn with indignation at the very thought. Well, if he couldn't have their respect, he'd have their fear. So he weaseled out their secrets. He watched. He inferred. He put two and two together and came up with four.

And then he let them know what he knew.
No, sir, you are not better than me. In fact, you are worse because you keep your perversions hid. But I know what you are.

And if what he intimated wasn't so? Well, in a tight little town like Boynton, where everybody knew everybody else, rumor was as damaging as fact.

Fear was all he had ever demanded from anyone. Money hadn't mattered to him so much. But here he sat with almost two hundred dollars in his pocket, and he hadn't even asked for it. Maybe he had been missing a bet. Since his pa had died, the farm was his now. How much he could do with all his carefully amassed information. If he had enough money, enough land, a big house, and nice clothes they'd all respect him then.

He began to review his mental catalog of scandal. Perhaps there was time for one more productive session of extortion this evening.

Marva Welsh

Marva met her husband Coleman at the crossroads and they set off walking out of town together. Coleman's father Marcus had owned the Welsh homestead since before there was a state of Oklahoma. Marcus was one of the many ex-slaves who had left the United States for the Indian Territory several years after the War of the Rebellion. After all, what sort of opportunity was there for a black man in Alabama? Even then the Indian Territory was full of towns that had been founded and built up exclusively by Negroes, mostly on land set aside by the native tribes especially for freed slaves. Marcus had found work in the all-black town of Twine, some ten or twelve miles north of where Boynton was being established. Then he moved south and began sharecropping for a well-to-do Creek farmer, and after a while he was able to buy sixty acres of land on Cane Creek. The old man was still there, nearly seventy years old, but very much the patriarch of his clan. Marva and Coleman lived out in the country, near the brick plant, but like the rest of the Welsh siblings, they made the trek out to Papa and Mama Welsh's place for dinner every Sunday after church.

Marva and Coleman were going to be late today. They had both picked up work in Boynton on Sunday afternoon, so they missed the big family dinner. Heaven forfend they should not see the folks at all on Sunday, though, so the plan was to make it for supper and spend the night.

As they set out on the road, it was that half-light time of day, exactly between day and night, the time that Beckie would call
the gloaming.
While everything on the ground looked gray and smokey, the sky was a lurid variety of orange, fading to an iridescent pink; unnatural colors. Hard to tell what you were seeing, a few moments of illusion before the sunset. It was hot, windy, and muggy, but it was nice to spend the time together, so they enjoyed the walk along the hard-packed dirt farm road that led past fields of cotton, corn, melons, sunflowers as well as cattle, horses, and goats, eventually rejoining the graded road that led toward the town of Morris.

When they reached the turnoff, they were so deep in conversation that they didn't see the rider approaching until it was almost too late to step out of the way.

Trenton Calder

Me and Gee Dub got out of the Rusty Horseshoe without any extra lumps and all our blood on the inside, but when we got back to town we were both still in a bad humor. Gee Dub more for his sister Alice's sake, and me because of what Jubal Beldon said about Ruth. No man worth shooting mentions the name of a respectable woman in a bar. I didn't aim to forget about it, either.

We stopped back by the Kelley place. Walter had made it back in record time, but there was no new arrival to greet him nor like to be for some hours, Miz Tucker told us. So Gee Dub headed home. Ruth allowed as to how it was getting late and she was pretty tired, so I offered to take her back to Miz MacKenzie's for the night. That way she could walk back to Alice's first thing and meet her new nevvy. Her ma thought that was a fine idea, so Ruth accepted.

I figured I'd leave old Brownie back of the Kelleys' and walk Ruth the quarter mile up the road, but she said she didn't fancy stumbling around in the dark. So I mounted up and she swung herself up behind me without a fuss, with her skirt runched up to her knees just like a girl who's ridden double behind her brothers and daddy all her life. Which she was. Truth is, if she'd had her own mount she could have ridden circles around the likes of me, dark or no dark. I know this because she's done it.

It was one of the best fifteen minute rides of my life. We talked all the way up to Miz MacKenzie's, mostly about how excited she was to be going to Muskogee to study music. She said she would be staying with her daddy's aunt, and when her course was over she figured she'd go to teaching piano on her own.

“You expect you'll come back and take over Miz MacKenzie's students?” I asked.

Her voice, coming warm over my shoulder, sounded happy. “I could if I wanted,” she told me. “Miz Beckie wants me to. She's already asked me. But I'll have to see how I feel when the course is done. I might like living in the city!”

My heart sank to hear that, but I didn't let on.

We couldn't see any light in the MacKenzie house when we got there, which was no surprise considering the late hour. I rode around to the back and Ruth slid off from behind me. I dismounted to see her to the door in the dark. I went with her up onto the back porch but stopped when she turned around before letting herself into the house. I snatched off my hat and said goodnight, and she put her hand on my arm.

I can still feel it.

“Thanks for the ride, Trent. Come by Alice's in the morning. I should have me a new niece or nephew by then.”

She went inside and closed the door, and I stood on the porch for a while, holding my hat to my chest. When I finally decided I'd stood there mooning like an idiot for long enough, I made my way back to Brownie and headed out. As I passed I noticed that the doors to the carriage house were standing open and Miz MacKenzie's yellow-topped shay was gone, but at the time it didn't mean anything to me.

Alafair Tucker

When Alafair and Shaw got home early the next morning, Mary and Kurt were in the kitchen, feeding breakfast to the children. Martha had volunteered to stay in town to look after Alice, Walter, and the newborn, but Gee Dub had found his way home. After the bluster and threatening weather of the night before, the new day was dawning bright and pink and clear. A perfect first day for their new grandchild, Alafair thought.

The offspring crowded around when they came into the house.

“It's a girl,” Alafair announced. “A big, bonnie girl with a darling topknot of dark hair.”

The young girls began a joyous dance and Charlie's arms flew up. “I knew it!” he whooped. “I win, Gee Dub!”

Gee Dub dug a nickel out of his pocket and handed it to his brother with a wry smile. “Durn, I figured we were about due for a boy around here for a change.”

“How's Alice?” Mary asked.

“Happy as a little red heifer in clover,” Shaw said. “Seems it was a lot easier on her than she feared. The little babe is healthy and fair, and Walter is over the moon.”

“What's her name?” Blanche wondered.

Alafair sat down and Grace climbed into her lap. “Alice is calling her Linda, after my mama, Selinda.”

“Glad to hear that Walter is such a family man after all.” Gee Dub's tone was bland.

When Alafair answered, her expression left no doubt as to her opinion of Walter Kelley's behavior. “I sure felt like giving him a piece of my mind about leaving Alice alone so near her time, but Alice was happy to see him and I didn't want to upset her. Besides, he was so thrilled to make his little girl's acquaintance that he was about to take off and fly. I doubt he'll be gallivanting around—for a spell, at least.”

“Maybe being a daddy will be just the thing to finally get him to change his ways,” Mary hoped.

“It will be.” Shaw was more optimistic about the prospect than Alafair was. “Baby girls have a way of doing that to a man.” He put his hands flat on the table as a signal that he was about to get down to business. “Now, have you boys taken care of the animals this morning? Cows milked and all? Good. Rest of you kids, run on and get ready for your chores, and I will too. Charlie, you can run over to Phoebe's after breakfast to give them the news.” He turned in his chair to address Alafair. “Mama, I had me a nap on Alice's sofa last night, so I'm raring to go. But you were up all night. Why don't you get some sleep? Mary can take the young'uns over to her place for a while. It'll be nice and quiet with all of us away, and if you've a mind you can go into town to visit Alice and little Miz Linda this afternoon.”

Alafair considered it for a moment, but truth be told she was still going on adrenalin and wasn't sleepy.
I'll probably collapse in a heap later
, she thought, but she said, “No, today's laundry day and if I don't take care of it it'll just be a bigger chore later.”

“Now, Ma, I'll do your laundry,” Mary chided. “Chase is a dab hand at laundry, aren't you, sport?”

Chase Kemp answered by dashing around the kitchen and whooping, and Grace leaped off her mother's lap and joined in.

Alafair raised her voice to be heard over the din. “Well, all right, honey, I appreciate it. But I'm not up for a sleep right now. I'll separate the clothes for you. These two rowdies can help with that. Maybe later we can all troop into town to see Alice and the baby. Martha said she'd stay over there all day today, so I expect I'll take me a nap after dinner.”