Rorey's Secret (14 page)

I nodded. Pastor would surely come. Ben and Lizbeth too, once they could get away. The elder Mrs. Porter was Ben’s grandmother, and I hoped she was all right. A dreadful shock that must have been, to lose the doctor in such a way. And she’d been growing weaker and weaker of late.

“You gonna stay here tonight or go on over to Sam and Thelma’s?” Richard asked his mother.

“I’ll be talkin’ that over with Sam when he gets back. Thelma’s plenty strong enough to travel, and we’re needin’ to get outta Mrs. Wortham’s hair—”

“You’re fine here if you want to stay another night or two,” I said quickly. “The doctor did tell Thelma not to do too much too soon.”

We all went inside. The girls fed Richard all he’d eat, and he held the baby a while before he left. Robert was quiet. He didn’t really want to eat. He just wanted to sit with his father, and I sat with him, watching Samuel sleep again. He looked so different with the doctor’s big bandage around his head. I was glad most of the bruises were not visible for my son to see.

“How bad is he busted up, Mom?” Robert asked me. “I know you don’t want to say, but it’s not like I’m a little kid. What else did the doctor say? Don’t you think I oughta know?”

“He has a concussion, Robert,” I said with a sigh. “Maybe broken ribs. But he’ll mend. He’s doing all right. He’s just to stay in bed a while, at least till the doctor’s back to see him in a couple of days.”

So many times I’d seen Robert’s clear green eyes looking into mine, but this time was different. He was still my little boy. In a way, he always would be. But now the look on his face was more like a man than I’d ever seen in him, moved deep to his heart but still so strong.

“I thought he was gone, Mom, for a while. An’ I didn’t know what we’d do.”

I hugged my son, feeling his near-grown muscles tense with worry. “He’ll be all right,” I whispered to him. “He’ll be just fine.”

I looked up to see Sarah standing in the doorway, and I wasn’t sure how long she’d been there. She didn’t have a word to say. Both of my children seemed numb, not really wanting to do anything.

But Katie stayed in motion. Maybe keeping her hands busy helped her. She gave out as many pancakes as she could, washed up all the dishes, and then started making a batch of muffins, because they were quick, she said, and we were low on bread.

I wanted all of them to go and take a nap, but they weren’t minded that way. Berty had slept, and Harry was still sleeping, but they were the only ones. Delores suggested I lie down for a while, but I wouldn’t have felt right about that unless Samuel woke and wanted me at his side again.

About 10:00 in the morning, George came. Young Sam brought him in the truck with Rorey and William. I was glad to see animals in the back. At least some of the stock had survived. Mostly goats. A couple of pigs. I wondered about the cows, the two horses that pulled George’s wagon, and for the first time, the wagon itself. Had they lost that too?

“Can we put the stock over here, Mrs. Wortham?” Sam Hammond called to me.

“Yes, of course.”

“Ever’body doin’ all right?” George yelled.

I nodded. “They’re all right.”

Robert came out to help Willy and Sam unload the animals and get them all situated in our barn lot. Rorey started for the house. She looked exhausted but not near as dirty as her brothers. She stopped on the porch anyway, to wash at our basin. Sarah came out just as Rorey was about to go in. For a moment they were face-to-face. I expected a hug or something, it had been such a traumatic night. But strangely enough, the girls who had been the best of friends since we came here only sidestepped one another and went on without a word.

12

Sarah

Rorey wasn’t sooty like her brothers. Rorey wasn’t half the mess Franky was when he first got here. I wondered if she’d helped at all or just stood there like a dunce the whole time, the way she had when I’d seen her.

And Lester Turrey wasn’t around. I walked out across the yard, thinking of Lester pulling my braids in the school yard. And pushing Katie into a mud puddle. He was just plain mean. He’d always been mean.

He was probably the one who started that fire. It made my heart beat faster just thinking about it.
He’s the one who should’ve been hurt.

I knew Bert was feeling bad over my daddy. And Franky was dealing with plenty enough too. I wondered if Rorey was feeling guilty. And how much did she have to feel guilty about?

“Everything all right?” Mom asked me.

I nodded, not wanting to say out loud what I really felt.
Everything’s not all right at all.

I wished I could’ve told Mom about Lester and Rorey when I’d had the chance. I couldn’t now with everybody around. So I’d just have to wait till Mom was alone again to tell her what Rorey’d been planning. And I didn’t think I’d feel bad to do it. Even though Rorey’d probably never trust me with a secret again.

“Kirk’ll be over in a little while with Tulip,” Willy was saying. “We had to put Teddy down. He was bad hurt.”

Tulip and Teddy were Mr. Hammond’s horses. I wondered if he could do the farmwork with only one, or if they could afford to get another. Probably not, from what I could see. “What about the cows?” I asked him.

“We found Dolly an’ her calf. Guess we lost the rest.”

“Where’d you leave Dolly?” Robert asked him.

“Tied up over t’ home. Pa said they’d be all right for a while. I’ll go back over an’ get ’em.”

“Eat something first,” Mom told him.

I wondered why she was so quick to think of that. Seemed like it was always that way. Whenever anything bad happened, somebody was always checking to make sure everybody ate. We’d brought food when Phyllis Meyer’s mother was so sick. And people had brought food out here when Emma Graham and Rorey’s mama died. But I didn’t like remembering that. Most things had been good since then.

“I’ll go with you after Dolly,” Robert told Willy.

“We still got a house,” Mr. Hammond was telling my mother. “Gotta fix the roof now and a wall on the west side. It’s purty bad where the fire caught it.”

“Is there loss on the inside?” Mom asked him.

“Perty smoky. Most things is all right, though. The boys worked awful hard to save it. I’d a’ give it up. I didn’t have the strength.”

I saw Sam Hammond look over at his father with something pained in his eyes. I wondered what had happened over there after we left. I think all the Hammond kids, except maybe Emmie or Bert, understood that their pa had problems sometimes. He wasn’t like my dad. He kind of fell apart when times got tough.

Sam told my mom in a quiet voice that most of his pa’s crop and some of ours was gone. The fire had spread into two fields and a stand of timber. Plus all the hay, the smokehouse, and the machine shed. I already knew about the goat pen and the pigsty that had been closest to the barn, so that meant there wasn’t nothing left standing at the Hammond place but the house and the woodshed. And maybe the chicken coop.

“Who knows how bad it’d been if the rain hadn’t come when it did,” Sam added. “That was God’s gift.”

Mom only nodded. And I thought the same thing I’d thought before. Why couldn’t the rain have come sooner?

Kirk brought the horse before long. I’d hardly ever seen Tulip without Teddy, and I kind of felt sorry for her. Maybe she’d be lonely. But Kirk was awful good to her. He loved horses, and I knew he was sad about the loss of Teddy.

We had some more to feed now. Katie was right. It was easy to keep adding to the batter to keep the pancakes coming. I was amazed at how much Willy and Kirk could eat. And their pa. I was surprised he could eat at all. Rorey couldn’t. Not more than a few bites.

Daddy slept a long time. That bothered me, even though we were all pretty tired. Mom kept telling me he’d be okay, that the doctor believed it too. I guessed he must have, or he wouldn’t have left without taking Dad to the hospital with him. But I still hated the thought of Dad lying there in bed with a head concussion and busted-up ribs. I couldn’t be mad at Berty, though. It wasn’t really his fault. He was only thinking to save Imey. I should’ve been able to stop him.

Rorey wasn’t saying much to me. She only shook her head when I asked if she wanted milk. She wasn’t really saying much to anybody. I wondered what she was thinking. Maybe that it was all her fault.

Mom and Delores Pratt prayed about Dad. He woke up again for a while, and I thought he sounded tired but some better. I wished he’d get up, but Mom said he wasn’t supposed to try. He didn’t seem to like that any better than I did.

“It doesn’t seem right to stay in bed,” he told us.

“Dr. Hall came all the way out here,” Mom argued. “The least we can do is mind his advice.”

“It’ll do you good to rest until you’re mended, Samuel,” Mrs. Pratt maintained.

He didn’t answer.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Mom asked.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Mom gave him some more of her medicine tea. It was probably a nasty flavor, but Dad drank it down without saying anything. Mom was glad he’d finished it all.

Mr. Hammond came in. I knew he wanted to see Dad and make sure he was okay, but I didn’t want to be there when they talked. I don’t know why.

I went and helped Katie clean up the new bunch of breakfast dishes. Then I went walking outside. What I needed was some way to look busy and get clear away from everybody. So I decided to work in the garden. I could pick what few tomatoes were left and see what else I could find. Most of the garden had been done in by the summer’s heat. We had a few things left over, and we’d planted some fall crops to come on late. But it’d been too dry for any of that to do very well. Until last night. Maybe the rain
had
been a gift of God, if it wasn’t too late.

Only two squash were left on vines too shriveled to do them any good. I was leaned over picking them when Rorey came out of the house. I knew she was looking for me. I didn’t want to talk to her. I wasn’t sure what I’d say. I wasn’t even sure why she’d want to talk now, after saying so little to me just a few minutes before. But I could see that she did want to talk, now that nobody else was around. She was charging my way.

“That was the worst fire I ever seen,” she said once she got close. I saw her look one way, then the other, checking to see if anybody was in sight, but I didn’t say anything at all, just set the squash at the end of one row and started to pull weeds out of the bed where we’d planted more late lettuce. Only four or five plants came up, and they didn’t look good anymore. Maybe the rain would help.

“Lester didn’t come.” Rorey said the words quickly, as though she was afraid somebody else would sneak up and hear. “He didn’t even come, Sarah. You didn’t say nothin’ to nobody, did you?”

I just looked at her. Why did she care about that so much, after people had got hurt? Why wasn’t she telling me she hoped my dad would be just fine?

“You didn’t, did you?” she pushed.

“No,” I said, hoping only one word wouldn’t betray the anger I was suddenly feeling.
No, I didn’t tell!
I screamed inside my head.
But I should, you selfish thing!

“I watched for him,” she went on. “But he must’ve known Franky was gonna be watchin’ too. Maybe when they fought yesterday Franky told him he’d watch. You think so, Sarah?” She paused, waiting for my answer.

“How would I know?” I turned my eyes back to the lettuce bed.
Go away,
I told her in my mind.
Leave me alone.

“Anyway, I seen Franky go out there. I seen him go in the barn. And that’s when the fire started. That’s when everybody heard Franky yellin’ an’ wakin’ people up. He was in the barn for a while, an’ I saw the smoke. It musta been his doin’.”

“I don’t think he’s said that,” I told her.

“You shouldn’t care what he says,” she answered right back. “He might try to blame Lester or anything, just to keep his own self out of trouble.”

I just stared at her for a minute. I might have replied somehow, I don’t know what. But her pa came out the back door of the house right then. I was hoping he was just getting some air, going to check on his animals or something. I didn’t want him coming over and talking to us right then, that was for sure.

He glanced our way a minute, and I felt kind of swirly-sick inside, thinking he might somehow yell at Rorey for some kind of an explanation or at me for not saying something sooner.

But what he did next was far worse. He turned his eyes toward the woodshop door, took two or three steps closer, and then hollered as loud as he could for Franky.

Oh no,
I thought.
He’s going to blame Franky just like Robert did. He’s going to rail on him right now.

I was glad Mr. Hammond hadn’t come over and talked to us. I was glad he hadn’t heard what Rorey had just got done telling me. But maybe he’d already heard. Maybe she’d started that kind of talk in the night, before we even got over to the fire.

“Franky!” Mr. Hammond bellowed again, and I felt something tighten inside of me. Rorey walked away. I don’t know why, but she went straight back in the house. She was out of sight before Franky came out of the woodshop. Usually Franky was quick when somebody called. But not this time, and I didn’t blame him. He had what looked like a new-carved chair rocker in his bandaged hand, and he looked his pa straight in the eye.

For a moment they were both silent. Franky spoke first. “You need me for somethin’?” he said kind of quiet. “I got me an’ Mr. Wortham’s orders to fill.”

I guess it was the wrong thing to say. Mr. Hammond looked like he could shoot sparks right out of his ears. “Franklin Drew Hammond, I know ’bout your dad-blame orders! That don’t mean you ain’t got the time if I call you, you hear me?”

I didn’t remember ever hearing Franky’s whole name shouted out like that, so I knew this was bad.

“Yes, Pa,” Franky said, standing as still as he could.

I prayed just a little. Maybe Mr. Hammond wouldn’t be too hard on him. If he
had
started the fire like Rorey had said, it was surely just an accident. But maybe she didn’t really know how it all happened. She hadn’t actually seen the fire start. Had she?