Hell With the Lid Blown Off (8 page)

Alafair Tucker

It had grown hot in the hall, so Alafair and Martha stepped outside for some air and relative quiet. They were hardly alone. There were nearly as many groups of people standing around outside the door as there were milling about inside. The two women took off, arm-in-arm, for a brisk, refreshing stroll around the building.

The Masonic Hall sat on a large lot with a bare dirt field to the south side. The field was rife with vehicles at the moment, buggies, wagons, and automobiles, some still parked, some loaded with tired parishioners who were beginning to move toward the road, raising an irritating dust that just made the heat more uncomfortable. The back of the building was treed and grassy, making it seem cooler and more peaceful. As they passed by the noisy dirt lot, Martha called her mother's attention to two or three groups of men discussing politics over a cigarette and a clandestine sip or two from something that resembled a hip flask. Mother and daughter exchanged a good-natured comment about human folly as they rounded the corner to the back of the hall. It was quieter here. A fresh, damp smell rose up from the ground. Martha squeezed Alafair's arm and nodded discreetly toward a boy and a girl standing head-to-head under an elm at the edge of the lot. The women had almost reached their next turn when Alafair caught sight of another duo sitting next to one another on a tree stump.

Wallace and Randal were both staring quietly into space, not speaking, or even looking at one another. Wallace had propped his hands on his knees, and Randal had crossed one ankle over a knee. One of his hands rested casually on Wallace's thigh.

“Hello, boys,” Alafair called. “Taking a break?”

The men leaped to their feet. It was Wallace who replied. “Yes, ma'am. I felt the need to catch my breath after the last round of caterwauling.”

“I believe Wallace underestimated the jovial reaction to his attire.” Randal gave Alafair a knowing wink.

Martha laughed. “Yes, Wallace, you have provided quite the occasion for comment. How are you finding life in a kilt?”

“To tell the truth, Miss Tucker, it's a mite breezy for my liking. But I think it had the desired result of making my grandmother happy, so I don't mind.”

Randal threw an arm across his friend's shoulders. “Yes, ladies, Wallace here may be a scalawag, but I've always known him to do the kind thing, if pressed, even if it does cause a hullabaloo!”

“Especially if it causes a hullabaloo,” Wallace responded, “or else what fun is it?”

The gentlemen offered their arms to the ladies, and the four of them made their way back into the Masonic Hall together. None of them noticed Jubal Beldon, standing half-hidden by the shrubbery at the corner, watching them.

999

They were met just inside the door by Shaw, trotting toward them with Chase Kemp and Grace in tow. “Alafair, honey!” he called, and they stopped in their tracks, alarmed. “Mr. Bennet says Alice just telephoned his wife and asked them to find us. She's having the baby right now! Doctor Ann is already at her house.”

Shaw and Alafair locked eyes, Wallace MacKenzie and his silly outfit suddenly forgotten as they contemplated the pending birth of their second grandchild. Shaw grinned and gave her a little push. “Well, go on then. I'll get the children headed home and be around when I can.”

Trenton Calder

When I heard that Alice Kelley's first chick was about to hatch, me and her brother Gee Dub were directing traffic over to the field where everybody was trying to leave for home at once. Those who were on horses or driving teams were losing patience with the automobile folks, who seemed to think that having an internal combustion engine on their buggies just naturally gave them the right-of-way. Scott said he wasn't in the mood to bust up fights, so as soon as he heard raised voices, he sent me over there to keep the peace and Gee Dub came along to help.

Gee Dub's daddy gave us the news at about the time the last rig pulled out. Gee Dub decided that since he had ridden in on his own horse, he'd go on over to Alice's with his ma and his sisters Martha and Ruth and reconnoiter for a bit, instead of riding home right then with his dad and the rest of the youngsters. Seemed like the family was all in a party mood, so when Ruth asked me if I wanted to come to Alice's with her, I figured why not? She said she didn't aim to stay long and I could escort her back to Miz MacKenzie's later, and that sounded like a fine idea to me.

When Miz Tucker and all of us arrived at her daughter's house, Doc Addison's wife, Ann, was already there. Everybody called her Doctor Ann even though she was a midwife and not really a doctor. She had delivered near to every baby in town under the age of twenty-five, including me.

Alice's husband, Walter, was nowhere to be seen.

Now, I liked Walter Kelley. He was the busiest barber in town, with a three-seat shop right on Main Street and a real nice house over on Second. He could tell a good story like nobody I ever knew, and after five minutes in his chair you'd be laughing until you were in tears. But the look that came over Miz Tucker's face when she saw that Walter was missing caused me to figure there were limits to his charm.

Not that he was avoiding the birth of his first child on purpose. Seems he was unaware that the event was imminent when he left his wife alone and went to play cards with his buddies.

I never did see Alice. She was already in the bedroom, and none of us fellows had any desire to go in and say howdy. Miz Tucker and Martha followed Dr. Ann in, though, while Gee Dub and Ruth and me made ourselves to home in the parlor. I was itching to leave, but Ruth decided she wanted to stay for the duration and I had no idea how long that would be. I still had a notion that I could see her back to Miz MacKenzie's house before it got entirely too late.

That's when Miz Tucker came out of the bedroom and waved Gee Dub and me over. Her sour expression could have curdled milk. She told Gee Dub that Walter was on her bad side and she had no particular desire to inform him of what was happening, but Alice had seemed to want him there and we should go get him. When Gee Dub asked where Walter had gotten off to, his ma pulled him close and whispered into his ear. Gee Dub nodded, but I couldn't tell what his opinion of the situation was. That's the way that boy was. He played it close to the vest. All he said was, “Come on, Trent.”

Since I was only there because of Ruth, I didn't really want to go, but I wasn't foolish enough to cross Miz Tucker right about then.

“If you run into Daddy, best say nothing about Walter's whereabouts if you can avoid it, son,” Miz Tucker said to Gee Dub as we headed out to fetch the prodigal husband. “We don't want Alice's child to be an orphan before it ever sees the light of day.”

Wallace MacKenzie

As the church picnic wound down, a childhood friend of Wallace's had invited him and Randal over for a visit and Beckie had urged them to go. “Y'all don't need to accompany me. Marva is at the house,” she told them.

So Wallace and his two friends had gone off, looking like a peacock and two wrens walking down the street together, and left Beckie to make her way home on her own.

The young men didn't stay at Wallace's friend's house long. Just enough to fill each other in on what had happened in their lives over the two years that Wallace had been away.

But it had been a long afternoon and a busy day. Randal had met as many strangers as he cared to, and Wallace was hot and itchy in the wool tartan and had had enough sport to satisfy even him.

The sun was well to the west by the time they got back to Beckie's. They could barely see the man who was standing in the deep shade beside the carriage house. A glowing point of orange arced through the air as he removed a cigarette from his mouth and let it hang casually at his side, dangling from his fingers.

Wallace felt goose flesh rise on his arms. He stopped at the bottom of the steps at his grandmother's back porch. “Who is that?”

“He looks familiar,” Randal said, loud enough for the stranger to hear. “Like an odd-shaped scarecrow, Wally. Like the man you mortally insulted today at the church potluck. That Beldon fellow.”

The shadow man detached himself from the carriage house wall and strolled toward them.

“Looks like he wants to talk to us,” Wallace noted.

“So it does, Wall, though I cannot imagine what the likes of him might want to say to the likes of you.”

Wallace moved closer to his friend and dropped his voice. “I think we'd better dust off our knuckles, for I fear we may be needing to use them pretty quick.”

“He seems to be alone and there are two of us,” Randal observed, “so I'd be surprised if he's here to pick a fight,”

The two young men stood their ground and made no attempt to meet Jubal Beldon halfway. Neither did Jubal seem to be in a rush to reveal his purpose when he finally stopped in front of them. He took a long drag on his cigarette, dropped it, and ground it under his heel before he spoke.

“Been waiting for you.”

“So it seems, Mr. Beldon. I can't imagine you're here to continue our reasoned exchange of ideas, so what can I do for you?” Wallace's tone was heavy with sarcasm.

Jubal smiled. “Nothing. There ain't nothing you can do for me. There ain't nothing you can do at all.”

Had it been anyone else in the world who had uttered these words, Wallace would have asked him what he meant, or laughed, or been annoyed, but the sultry weather, the crooked smile, and the satisfied tone of Jubal's voice combined to cause Wallace a stab of irrational fear.

Randal saved him from the effort it would have taken him to speak. “What do you want?” He barked out the sentence, betraying his own fear.

“I'm on my way to the sheriff's office. Going to let him know that we've got us a couple of perverts in town. Then I'm going to pass the word around town. I reckon y'all will either be on your way to prison or lynched by morning.”

There was an instant of stunned silence before the two young men spoke over each other.

“You can't…”

“What are you talking about?”

The snaggle-toothed smile was accompanied by a low chuckle this time. “I knew right away, when you come tripping into the Masonic Hall in your darling little frock there, MacKenzie. Why, I should have figured you out years ago, you pansy. Then you come back to town with your sweetheart in tow. Yes, it hit me like a brick. Then I seen y'all. Right there behind the hall, sitting on a stump with your heads together, canoodling. There ain't no use to deny it. I ain't blind. I stood there for quite a spell. If them ladies hadn't come by there's no telling what you might have got up to.”

Wallace MacKenzie may have been a spoiled and self-indulgent man, but he was neither stupid nor a coward. Randal made a noise, and Wallace put his hand on his friend's arm to silence him. “You're insane, Beldon. Yes, you've purely lost your mind, that's how I see it, because you didn't see anything. Do you think for a minute that anybody is going to believe such an outrageous lie? Why, most of the folks in this town have known me since I was knee-high. And there isn't anybody in the county who doesn't love my grandmother. Now, we both know what everybody thinks of you. So who do you think the sheriff is going to believe?”

“Oh, times have changed, fancy boy. There ain't nobody going to take a chance that there's a cancer living among us. They're going to cut it out. Or string it up.” Jubal pantomimed the jerk of a noose around his neck and emitted another nasty chuckle. “And don't fool yourself, you filth. Even if there wasn't a war coming, folks love to believe the worst. Nobody likes you that much, anyway.”

Wallace felt the tremor that passed through Randal's body. He dropped his hand from his friend's arm and took a step forward. “Why are you here, Beldon? Why come here alone and wait in the shadows, without your posse, to warn us of what you intend to do? If we're such a danger and blight, why not gather all your slimy brothers and thimble-headed friends, grab us up off the street and string us up? Could it be that you want something?”

“I want you to know. I want you to be a-waiting for the law or the lynch mob. I want you to know that you're finished, both of you, you sodomites.”

“Are you stupid? Now that you've warned us, we'll be gone before you can bring anybody back for us!”

“Oh, you can run, but I don't expect you'll be able to get too far. Sheriff'll put out wanted bulletins on y'all. No more college for you, or the Army, neither. You are ruined and so are your families. Your rich snooty old grandma ain't going to be able to hold her head up in this town ever again, MacKenzie.”

Jubal didn't sound angry or righteous when he delivered his message. He sounded downright pleased, and that was the worst thing of all.

Wallace felt curiously calm. He felt sorrier for Randal than for himself, and more sorry for his grandmother than for either of them. “How much will it take for you to keep your mouth shut?”

Jubal growled. “I don't want no money.”

“So you say. But men have been known to change their minds when they're staring at a pile of greenbacks.”

A pile of greenbacks. Jubal took a breath, preparing to fling a dusty reply at him.

But nothing was forthcoming, and had his very life not been hanging in the balance, Wallace might have smiled. He seized his opportunity. “I've got our trip money upstairs, almost two hundred dollars. ”

Jubal thought for a moment. This was not his plan. He was not a blackmailer. He purely enjoyed knowing things about people, things that they wouldn't be proud for anyone to know, and now he had the power to act upon his knowledge. People were afraid of him, he knew that. His neighbors, people who had always despised him and his brothers, and thought they were better than him, were afraid of what he could do to them. The fact pleased him.

When by sheer accident he had seen Wallace and Randal together, he knew he had hit the jackpot. It didn't matter if it was true or not. The very accusation would mean the end of both of them. This piece of information had given him the power of life or death over two human beings, and for the past hours he had been savoring his knowledge and carefully considering the best way to use it to his own advantage. In the end he had decided it would please him most to see this smart-mouthed, spoiled rotten ponce spend a few years in prison, or maybe even something deliciously worse.