The Glory of Green (20 page)

"That seems like a storybook," Tammy said as we pulled out. "You and Chris not only saved her life, you changed it forever."

"It's all Chris. He understands that 'love your neighbor' stuff much better than I do."

"You seem to be a fast learner. Where to next?"

For two more hours we wound through dusty roads, each stop seeming more desperate than the last. While the town of Green had plenty of poverty, the rural areas were something else altogether. The most overt signs of tornado damage had been fixed, but under-the-surface hurt ran deep, and many of the places we visited today had been a wreck before the storm blew through.

"So much for fairy tales," I said.

"It's hard to believe people live like this," Tammy said."These places are worse than the countries we stopped at on our cruise. I thought the U.S. was supposed to be better than everybody else."

"Wait till you see our next stop. It's close to where we found Joe Sepulvado. Anthony, the football player that Molly hangs out with, lives here."

"The one who blew the game last night?"

I looked at her, taken aback.

"I was taking pictures. I wanted to get them online before the Monroe paper did."

"That's the guy. Chris said his head wasn't in the game last night." I motioned at the house. "This is it."

"Look at that pump and outhouse," Tammy said. "This place doesn't even have running water."

"Chris tried to get them a government trailer, but he couldn't convince the man who lives with Anthony's mother."

"Why wouldn't he rather live in a nice trailer than this dump?"

"Meth. The sheriff's department thinks he may be one of those with a meth lab or two in the woods. They couldn't find it before the storm and they haven't had time to fool with it since."

"Some children don't get a break." Her tone told me she had been one of those children. No wonder she seldom talked about her childhood.

When we drove up, Anthony sauntered out, while the little girl rushed at the truck. The baby was not with them.

"The applesauce was good," the little girl said, peering into the truck. "It's been a long time since we've had applesauce."

"We're not supposed to take any more food," the teen said."Mama's boyfriend said it isn't right, you coming down here like we're a charity case."

The little girl's bottom lip trembled, and my heart felt as though it were ripping in two.

"Is your mother home?" I asked, earning a quick look from Tammy, who hopped out of the SUV ahead of me.

By the time we reached the sagging front porch, a young African American woman stood in the door, the baby on her hip.

"Ma'am, we're from Grace Chapel, down the road," I said."The church is delivering food all over the area. I don't know if you've met Pastor Jean, but she'll have our hide if we don't leave this food here."

"Carry it in the house," the woman said to Anthony, and walked away without another word.

Tammy and I got in the truck, and I waved to the little girl who held a teddy bear I had slipped her.

"Have our hide?" Tammy said to me. "That didn't sound like you at all."

"My mother-in-law. Estelle is going to have Hugh's hide over one thing or another all the time."

"Good job," Tammy said, the SUV jarring my teeth as we headed to the main road.

Before we got to the end of the deserted road, the biggest man I had ever seen stepped out of the edge of the woods and stood in front of the vehicle.

Tammy slammed on the brakes, the boxes in the back sliding forward with the force of cinder blocks.

"Go around him," I said.

"I can't make it through there." She nodded at the trees. "I'm not going to scratch the only new car I've ever had over a jerk with too much testosterone."

As the man approached, she reached behind the seat. "Don't tell me you have a gun," I said. "Lord, don't tell me she's about to pull a gun."

"Better than a gun." She let her window down about half way and glanced at me. "Lois Barker Craig, I know you don't like taking orders, but listen to me. Don't move. Don't say anything."

The man leaned on the window with a sneer. "I said we don't want you down here anymore," he said in a Spanish accent. "We don't want your food, and we don't want you poking your nose in our business."

I sat in silence. Tammy smiled as though they were visiting at the grocery store.

"Now get out of this fancy car, and start walking back to town, or I'm going to make you wish you had."

He came closer. "But before you go, give me that purse." He reached in the window, over Tammy, who continued to lean into the back seat.

"Give him the purse, Tammy," I said through clinched teeth.I figured the statute of limitations had run out on my sitting still and being quiet.

Right then, Tammy, new bride of one of the region's most successful lawyers, slammed a baseball bat down on his hands and peeled out, a rock flying up and denting her new hood.

"I can see why Anthony's mind wasn't on football last night," she said.

I didn't say anything.

Two sheriff's cars, lights flashing and sirens blaring, flew past us on our way back to our camper.

Molly stopped by our place within an hour.

"That awful man's in jail," she said, "although I don't know how long they'll keep him. Anthony's mother hopes Coach will get them one of those tornado trailers. Do you think it's too late?"

"It's never too late, Molly."

Chris and Walt were not far behind her, Walt still wearing his golf shoes. To say they were upset with us would have been like saying World War II was a fistfight.

"If you ever do anything like that again," Chris said, holding me at arm's length as though to reassure himself that I was OK, "I'm going to . . . I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Have her hide?" Tammy said, throwing me a wink.

"Don't do anything like that again," Chris said.

"I wish I had gotten a picture of the look on Lois's face when I pulled out that baseball bat," Tammy said.

"I'm trying to figure out how you got the leverage to use the bat like that," I said.

Tammy's brand-new husband looked at Chris and threw up his hands. "Are all wives this much trouble?" Walt asked.

"I feel certain the answer to that is no," my husband said."Let me show you what we're thinking about out here."

He headed down the steps, let the dogs out, and came back to the door to kiss me.

"You took more years off my life today than that tornado did," he said.

Tammy and I sat in the swing and watched the two men walk around the property, Chris gesturing and measuring with his long stride.

Walt nodded and smiled, took a tiny notebook out of his shirt pocket and wrote a few things, and counted off steps in another direction.

"Do you ever think about what could have been instead of what is?" Tammy asked.

My mind spun from the sight of her with that baseball bat, and I shook my head.

"I could be living in poverty out in the middle of nowhere or be married to a caveman like that guy on the road. Instead, I have plenty of food, a beautiful home, and that wonderful man."

"I could be living in a sterile little condo in Ohio, dreading another winter alone. Or I could have blown away in that house." I nodded at the lot.

"Aren't we lucky?" she asked.

"I'd say it goes well beyond luck."

Congratulations to Estelle and Hugh Craig who are celebrating their sixty-first wedding anniversary this week. There's no telling how many people Estelle has fed through the years, and Mr. Hugh is a friend to all. The Route Two scuttlebutt says the lovebirds are going on a fishing trip to Toledo Bend as soon as they get done babysitting their granddogs.

—The Green News-Item

I
owe you a honeymoon," Chris said.

"I owe you a house," I said.

"Let's get on with our life."

"You won't get an argument out of me. I'm more than ready."

The Rabbits were having a winning season with what looked to my amateur eyes like inspired play from Anthony Cox.

The
Item
was making a profit, advertisers slowly coming back.

Nearly six months had passed since the day we became husband and wife and Green became Before Tornado and After Tornado. B.T. and A.T.

"I talked to the principal and I'm adding three days to fall break at the end of the month," he said. "I've called the airline and the lodge. We're going to Montana."

He picked me up and swung me around the little trailer, my feet knocking over a lamp.

"Oh, Chris, I'm so ready to get out of town."

I floated into work the next morning, looking like Tammy often did these days.

"Honeymoon. Me. Chris." I said as I jumped over the swinging door in the lobby, a patented Tammy move.

Within moments, Iris Jo, Linda, and Tammy were in my office.

"We've been working on an idea," Linda said.

"Oh, I just bet you have. How much money is this going to cost me?"

"We're making a little profit," Iris Jo said.

"Very little, as I recall."

"Let's have a redo of your wedding reception," Tammy said.

"And invite the entire town," Linda said.

"On the site of the old Grace Community Chapel," Iris said.

"A tent," Tammy said. "Hold on. I'll show you." She headed for the lobby.

"I know what a tent looks like."

"You said one time you'd always wanted a party with a big white tent," Iris Jo said.

I couldn't believe she remembered that.

"I have, but I'm not sure Green's ready for a party. This town has been through so much."

"That's precisely why Green
needs
a party," Linda, the most sober person I knew, said.

"No offense, but your wedding reception was not much fun," Tammy said. "You deserve a real one, where people sit in the chairs instead of dodge them."

I laughed despite myself. "Exactly when would this party be?"

"Right before your honeymoon," Iris said. "You love fall in Louisiana almost as much as you love spring."

Oh, she was right. Fall in Green was a blend of relief from the hot days of summer and a colorful spectacle, the light shining off the rust of cypress trees on the lake, coming through the yellows of sweet gums and bringing a complete change of attitude.

"Let me think about it, and see what Chris thinks."

"You're consulting Chris before you make a decision?" Tammy said. "You really are an old married couple now."

My first call was to Marti, happily married to a preacher in the making. "Please, please, please. You and Gary come down for a few days. It'll be much better weather than your July visit last year. You can see the Craig Meth Casa. I can get you the newlywed suite at the Lakeside Motel."

Next I called Kevin. "What are you doing the last Saturday in October?"

"Taking Asa to the park?"

"How about bringing Asa to my wedding reception do-over?"

"We're there," she said.

"Want to bring Terrence?"

"Don't push your luck."

Eva was in the command center at the courthouse, now down to two hours a week.

"I could use a party," she said when I broached the subject."May I bring Sugar Marie?"

"Of course. I'll bring Holly Beth. We'll let bygones be bygones. Bring Dub, too."

A pleased smile lit her face. "He'll be delighted."

I texted Katy. "U. Here. Last Sat. in Oct. Party. Me. Chris.Miss U."

"Can't wait. Miss U 2." She answered within a minute.

Next I tracked down Pastor Jean. "Will you say a few words?"

"Oh, Lois, I'd be honored."

Finally I caught up with Chris by phone after school.

"Our plane tickets are for that Saturday evening," he said."We'll be cutting it close."

"For me?" I asked.

"Consider it done," he said. "I've got to run. Faculty meeting today. Getting pressure from the state since the tornado.Love you."

"Love you back."

Bud came up with the idea that pleased me most. "October's the perfect time to plant trees," he said. "Let's give every guest a tree. We lost so many of our beautiful oaks."

"I'll coordinate the food," said Anna Grace, never far from Bud these days. "As the food writer, I have a little clout."

"You're a brave soul. My last reception nearly killed you."

My in-laws were over the top about the party, spending every one of our Saturday family breakfasts discussing it with military precision.

"Then what will happen?' Estelle would ask.

"Would we have the food before or after Pastor Jean's remarks?"

"What's with those guys?" I asked Chris as we headed out."They act like we're planning to invade a small country."

"They're probably scarred from our first reception, baby. It didn't exactly go as planned."

"Tornado season is over, right?" I asked.

"Yes, and you know what they say about lightning striking twice."

"That's not exactly the reassurance I hoped for," I said.

"I need reassurance on our house plans," Chris said. "What are you thinking?"

"That if you clear any more trees we'll be living in the middle of a field. Aren't you going a little overboard?"

"I talked to the sales guy about the prefab cottages. He says they need lots of room to get the trucks in."

My face fell. "You think that's the route we should go? Those houses have plastic that they try to make look like wood."

"I talked to that architect friend of Walt's in Shreveport. She says if we build, we'll need a larger area for a foundation. The trees had sort of grown around Helen's house."

"That's one of the things I loved about it. Like your grandparents' house. It looks like it was always there."

"We've agreed, haven't we, that the old house is too far out of town and out of our price range?"

"Yes. It's just that those old houses are . . . noble. Everything else looks bland when I remember what Aunt Helen gave me."

"Let's scrap the plastic house and build," he said. "It'll take longer, but it'll be worth it. Do you think you can live in the Meth Mobile for a year?"

"If I'm with you, I can live anywhere."

Marti wouldn't commit to the reception, a major disappointment since my brothers said they couldn't make a second trip to Green in a year.

"Can't or won't?" I asked.

"Let's say we'd rather have you and Chris come up here," the eldest said. "We don't exactly have fond memories of your new hometown."

"Seriously, Sis," my younger brother said, "it's too expensive to get our families down there for a weekend. We'd have to take the kids out of school. It's a logistics nightmare."

When Marti finally called me at the office a few days before the party, I was not surprised by her decision.

"We can't make it this weekend," Marti said.

I tried not to cry.

"Because we're here now," she said, stepping around the door with her cell phone up to her ear.

I dropped the phone and tackled her. Gary stood to the side.

"You came, you came, you came!" I screamed. "Iris, Tammy, Linda, Marti's here!"

"They set it up," Gary said, stepping around the door.

"Oh, Gary, you, too! Thank you for bringing Marti to our party."

"Bringing Marti? Wild horses couldn't have kept her away."

Saturday dawned cool and beautiful, and I awoke early, excited about the day ahead. Sitting in the swing with Holly in my lap, Chris still asleep, I thought about the spring morning of our wedding, a fresh morning, similar to this but with a different feel.

The past six months had felt endless when I was in the middle of them, but now it seemed as though they had zoomed by, the seasons changing as steadily as my life. Spring had been fresh, but fall felt . . . right. I loved being Chris's wife, and I knew we could make it through whatever storms came our way.

I left Chris a note and, with all of the dogs, walked to the church lot, the site of the party. The crew hammered and whizzed around, setting up the tent, tables, and chairs.

"The weather looking good?" I asked the foreman.

"Not a cloud in sight."

"Wind?"

"None. You picked the perfect day for a party."

"That's what I thought in March, too."

"Trust me. Even if a storm blows through, this tent isn't going anywhere."

"Don't even say that."

"What time are you starting?" a workman asked, hammering a spike into the ground.

"Eleven o'clock sharp. Wrapping up at three and going on my honeymoon."

Marti drove up in a small rented SUV as I stood there.

"You really are in Green," I said. "You had me convinced you wouldn't make it."

"So this is where you got married?"

"It has an airy feel, doesn't it?" I pointed at the slab where the church had been bulldozed. "Tammy calls it the highway of love."

"So the interchange will be over there?" Marti motioned to the corner.

"It feels different, doesn't it? It's weird with Chris's trailer moved and the parsonage turned into a construction office."

"But you have a nice buffer there," she said, "with all those trees. It's your own little corner of the world. Are you excited about building a house?"

I had known Marti for more than twenty years and knew when she was fishing. "Are you worried that I'm not happy?"

She looked startled. "You were so settled in Aunt Helen's house when Gary and I came last summer. I thought you might be having adjustment problems."

I looked around, as though someone might hear. "Don't tell Chris," I said, "but I fell in love with his grandparents' house.I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. I wish I had time to take you out there to see it."

"Why don't you move there?"

"It's a wreck and way too far out of town. When all was said and done, it wasn't practical."

"Moving to Green wasn't the most practical thing either, but look how it worked out."

"But I'm married now. My husband's a practical kind of guy."

"Men," she said with the look only a friend of decades could muster and gave me a huge hug. "Let's take you home and get you ready for the party."

Chris had left a note. "Gone to run an errand or two. Will pick Gary up. See you at the party."

"Isn't it weird how marriage changes you?" I asked. "I'm sort of disappointed Chris and I aren't getting ready together."

"Strange thing, love," Marti said. "After all those years, when we fell, we fell hard."

I slipped into the newest of Miss Barbara's original creations, a burnt-orange chiffon two-piece outfit that swirled when I moved.

"You look like an autumn leaf," Marti said. "Let's put your hair up in one of those perky topknots."

"I'll ride down to the church with you," I said. "Chris and I will have to come back here to get our suitcases before the trip."

"If I were you, I'd take my car, just in case."

"Just in case what?" My eyes got big. "There's not a storm in the forecast, is there?"

"You've got to calm down about this storm business. Take your car in case if we have to pick anything up at the last minute, that sort of thing." She kept looking at her watch and pulling at her short blonde hair the way she did when she was nervous.

"Is everything OK with you and Gary? You're acting strange."

"It feels like your wedding day. I'm a little nerved up. Let me get dressed and let's go down to the church."

By the time we arrived, Becca and two women from Grace were setting up the flowers, simple calla lilies in cylindrical vases on every table with a branch of bright leaves from nearby trees. The contrast between the formal lily and the tree limbs was stunning.