Sophie and the Rising Sun (24 page)

“Don’t be alarmed, Miss Anne,” he said. “We found Big Sally out on the edge of town, and she’s got a broken arm and a cut on her head. Must have gotten hit by a falling branch or something. Me and the doctor are going to put her to bed, and I’ll come back in a few minutes with somebody to take care of you all.”

Big Sally? Out in this storm? But why?

“What on earth was she doing outside in this?” I asked, but the sheriff was already heading back out of my bedroom door.

“Don’t know. Maybe trying to see if her mama’s old house down by the bridge was okay,” he said over his shoulder. “But right now I got folks down there still, needing help. It’s awful bad.”

“It’s a hurricane?” I asked.

“Yes’m, it’s a hurricane, all right.”

And with that, he was gone, leaving me all alone and knowing that Big Sally was hurt and in the bed in my back room and me not even able to get to her to help her. Or to find out why she’d gone out in such a terrible storm.

So I had to lie there just like a stick and listen to all that wind buffeting the house and wonder about it all. Lots of trouble down at the end of town, the sheriff had said.

And what about my papa’s cabin, farther out? Was that where she’d gone? To find Mr. Oto and take him somewhere else to hide him? Because of Ruth?

About thirty minutes passed—seemed like much longer, of course, with me lying there in the dark, just as helpless as a baby.

Then I heard the back door opening again and slamming back and hitting the wall hard. Heavy footsteps coming back down the hall.

“Miss Anne?” the sheriff called to me. “It’s me again. I’ve brought somebody to help take care of you... and Sally.”

And no sooner were the words out
of his mouth than—of all things—Ruth’s mean face peered around my door. Her just as mad as a wet hen and with rainwater dripping out of her hair.

“The very idea of such a thing!” she hissed at me. “Why, he practically kidnapped me! Make me take care of a colored woman, will he? Well, we’ll see about that!”

Oh, Lord.

Well, life sure hands us
some unexpected things, sure enough. Like that hurricane so very late in the year. And Ruth having to play nursemaid to me... and to Big Sally. Well, I tell you, I was mighty glad that I had to stay in bed in my own room, because there were sure going to be plenty of sparks flying around the rest of my house that night. Until the storm would be over and then I expected Eulalie would come and take over for Ruth.

Because it was common knowledge that Eulalie was terrified of hurricanes, and whenever one came, she took right to her bed and stayed there until it was past. Wouldn’t come out for anything. But I sure wished that weren’t so. Because there couldn’t have been anyone worse for the job than Ruth. It just made everything more miserable than it already was.

At first, of course, I was just intent on seeing if my house would hold up in the wind. But Ruth was plenty mad, as I’d expected she would be. Said the sheriff had
shanghaied
her—that’s what she called it—and there was just no settling her down. Why, she made more noise than the hurricane!

“I’ll take care of
you,
”
she yelled above the howling wind. “Even if you did insult me and hurt me right to the quick! But Doc is one big fool if he thinks I’m going to take care of... colored!” Ruth waggled her head toward the back of the house, where Big Sally was.

“Ruth, she’s a human being and needs taking care of,” I yelled back. “Besides—I’ve listened to you talking and talking for your whole life about what you call Christian charity—now I want you to show it to me!”

“Some one
you
are,” she sputtered back at me. “To talk about Christian anything—you haven’t been to church in a month of Sundays!”

Well, I knew then that there was no getting it across to Ruth that being in church every Sunday and being a good Christian didn’t necessarily mean one and the same thing. And I was vexed with her. I had plenty to worry about, without trying to persuade her to take care of Big Sally.

“I’ll take care of her myself,” I yelled, tossing back the sheet and trying to swing my feet to the floor. But Ruth saw my swollen and discolored leg above the ankle that was encased in plaster, and she relented.

“No. I’ll do it—but on one condition.”

“What’s that?” I asked wearily. I might have known she’d drive a bargain. A hard one. But she had to take care of Big Sally, because there was no one else to do it. And besides, she hadn’t said another thing to me about the cabin, and I guess I was grateful for that.

“I’ll wait on Big Sally...” She shuddered a little, in revulsion. “And you’ll come to church.”

I hesitated only a moment before I agreed. Because I had something in mind that I was sure going to enjoy.

“It’s a deal!” I yelled back at her. And I think she was more than a little surprised, although she did a good job of covering it up. After all, she was the one who had suggested it. And of course, she kept her word.

Soon afterward, she took a tray in to Big Sally in the back bedroom, but she slammed the tray down so hard on the dresser back there that I could hear the dishes rattling all the way in my room, even over the sound of the wind.

And Big Sally laughing hard enough to rattle all the hinges on the doors.

Me alone in my room, listening to the two of them and wondering what was happening to Mr. Oto. And why Big Sally had been so far down at the other end of town in that terrible storm. And where on earth Mr. Oto really was.

That was certainly a long, long night, but when it was over, the storm went away with the darkness. And just as I expected, Eulalie came just as soon as the wind had stopped and took over from Ruth, who left right away—but only after she stuck her head into my room and said, “You needn’t worry yourself about your... friend... back there.” Again, she waggled her head toward the back room. “Strong as a bull. Mean as a snake. And I’ll never forgive you, Anne. Making me wait on her. Just like a servant! So don’t you forget your part of the bargain!” And with that, Ruth was gone, at last.

And it was ever so much better, having Eulalie there, because I knew she would be just as just as tender and loving with Big Sally as she had been with all her stray cats. And with Mr. Oto. And with anyone who needed help—black or white.

One thing, though—I asked Eulalie right away if she’d please go see if my papa’s old fishing cabin was still there. Said it lightly, so it would seem that I was merely interested in knowing whether it survived the storm. Because if the cabin was still there and if Mr. Oto was still in it, if Eulalie saw him—then I could let her in on the secret about our hiding him. Eulalie would have understood. Whether she could have kept her mouth shut about it was something else, but I had to risk
it.

But she said right off that there was no need for her to go down there at all. That everything from that end of town and on down the coast was gone. Or so the sheriff said. And after all, Eulalie reminded me, it was just an old shack, so I shouldn’t worry myself about it. And with that, she went right back to the kitchen, from which the most wonderful aromas were wafting down the hallway. But when she brought a tray into my room—and it laden with fried chicken and mashed potatoes and English peas and fresh, buttered biscuits—I couldn’t eat a bite.

All I could do was wonder about Mr. Oto. And was he all right?

Oh, it was terrible.

When Eulalie came back in for the tray, she never fussed at me the least little bit, but she looked at all the untouched food still there with real grief in her eyes. And I guess she thought she had figured out what was wrong with me, because in a little while, she brought Big Sally—leaning on her quite hard—down the hallway and helped her to sit down in the chair next to my bed.

“I figured you all needed a little visit together,” Eulalie said. “Doc said it was okay.” And she went out of the room, smiling and looking back at us, firmly convinced that I was just a little bit lonely and that bringing Big Sally to “visit” with me would solve everything. How I wished that were true!

Of course, I was certainly glad to see Big Sally—certainly had a lot of questions for her. One of her arms was in a cast and a sling, and she had a plaster bandage over her left eyebrow. But otherwise, she looked just as big and strong as she ever was. I waited until Eulalie closed the door all the way before I dared to speak.

“What were you doing out in that storm?” I whispered right away.

But the doctor must have had Big Sally on some kind of strong pain medicine, because her eyes were funny-looking—with the pupils gone all wide. Either that, or getting hit on the head like that had hurt her more than it looked like on the surface. That little plaster bandage.

“Doing?” she asked, most sincerely, as if it were a word she had never heard before.

“Yes—what were you doing out in that storm? Did you go to the cabin?”

“Sheriff found me,” she said.

“Yes. I know all about that, but what were you doing out in it? Where were you going?”

But Big Sally just blinked at me, as if she didn’t understand a thing I was saying.

“You went out in that storm,” I said. “But why? Sheriff said you may have gone to see if your mama’s old house was all right.”

“That’s it,” she said happily.

“That was it?” I pressed.

“What was it?” Big Sally asked, drawing her eyebrows together and crinkling the plaster patch.

“Listen to me,” I pleaded with her, and I felt close to tears. “Did you go down to the cabin?”

She just looked at me, and her face was as blank as a baby’s. “Cabin?”

Dear Lord!

Clearly, she wasn’t able to answer my questions. She’d forgotten everything about Mr. Oto hiding in my papa’s old cabin. And I still didn’t know what had happened to him. My throat got so tight, I could hardly breathe. And I couldn’t tell whether I was going to cry harder than I’d ever cried in my life or whether I was going to leap out of bed—broken ankle and all—and grab her and choke the answer out of her!

“I do better than you,” Big Sally said, right out of the blue. And she sure didn’t look so blank anymore.

“Better than me?”

“Better than you at not saying things that shouldn’t be said,” she replied. “But you listen to me—and you listen real good, because I’m only going to say this once: Don’t you worry about anything. I took care of it all.”

I certainly did search her face, then. What was she trying to tell me, without telling me?

And could I trust that she even knew what she was saying? Because of her being so confused?

“And another thing...” A strange smile was on her face, and I was remembering how I could hear her laughing at Ruth all the way in my room and in spite of that howling wind. “From now on, my name is
Queen
Sally.”

I wondered if she was completely out of her mind. And how could I believe a thing she said?

While I was sitting there, studying her face and trying to decide, she closed her eyes and fell asleep. So that all I could hear was her snoring. And that made about as much sense as anything else that had come out of her mouth.

A little while later, Eulalie came back. “I hope you all had a nice little visit,” she said, and waked Big Sally by touching that massive shoulder so gently and then led her back down the hallway, just like a sleepy little child.

I fretted myself for most of the afternoon, but when Eulalie brought me a cold chicken sandwich a little later, she delivered it with such hopefulness in her face that I made myself eat it. And after that, I felt a little better. And finally, I decided that even if Big Sally seemed to be quite confused, there could be an element of truth in what she said.