The Struggles of Johnny Cannon (26 page)

“Which brings us to Sora. And the biggest lie I've probably ever made you believe. See, she's been telling you and everybody else that she's pregnant with my baby. But it ain't true.”

He took a deep breath and leaned into the microphone.

“She's pregnant with Captain Morris's baby.”

He sat back in his chair, letting those words sink in. Then he went on.

“Turns out, he got himself a girlfriend that's twenty years younger than him. And he promised her he'd take care of her. And she promised she'd take care of his other child. You. Though, he didn't tell her your name. I reckon he wasn't ready for that yet or something. But what he did tell her was to stay close to Mobile and he'd come get her once he'd gotten you, and y'all would all move off to another country and be happy together. Him and Sora and you and your other sibling. Like a nice little family on the run.

“Same kind of promises he made Ma back in the day.”

He stopped and got his glass up off the ground and poured himself another shot. He downed it and went on.

“Which is why I'm so fired up to help her. 'Cause I wish to goodness I wouldn't have run the last time he had somebody tied up over him. I wish I would have stuck around and maybe I'd have saved Ma's life. And you, too.

“Anyway, I met Sora at church a couple of Sundays ago, and she told me her whole story like she hadn't never even thought about keeping it a secret. She was already starting to second-guess Captain Morris and whether she really was in love with him. Then I told her about that price tag, 'cause I'd just heard about it from Rudy. We agreed that she had to keep quiet about it or she might not have a baby to raise.

“Now, I ain't going to lie to you. I've sort of gotten real fond of her. And I think she's real fond of me, too. More than any other girl I've ever met. Heck, maybe it's love or something. Whatever it is, I reckon that's why we came up with this plan.

“When she's just about due to have the baby, she'll head up to Cullman, and either I'll be there or I won't, but she'll be protected by you and Pa. And she'll tell folks it's my baby. And no matter what, she'll be taken care of. 'Cause nobody takes care of folks better than you do, Johnny.

“But I also know you good enough to know you'll figure things out eventually. Which is why I'm making this tape. 'Cause you'll listen to it when the time is right, and then you'll know the truth. You're the sort that always does better with the truth than with a lie.

“And, hopefully, Morris will either be in prison or dead by then. And hopefully you won't have gotten caught in his web, either. It's dadgum the most important thing in the world that nobody know you're his son, or that this baby is his either. 'Cause Santo's going to kill you if he finds out. I know that for a fact.”

He breathed a little into the mike, probably trying to get his brain to move past all the alcohol it was swimming in so he could finish what he was saying.

“One thing, and I ain't even sure if it's worth mentioning, but Rudy met Sora last night at the bar. And I ain't ever seen anybody as smitten as he was over her. And they hit it off pretty good, too. She seemed to really enjoy his company. But she told him flat out, she couldn't ever be courted by someone that was a Trafficante. Then to make sure he was off her tracks, she said she was being courted by me. Which I didn't mind so much, and it seemed to ease his interest a bit. So it probably won't be nothing, but just in case.”

He sighed again.

“All right, little brother, I got to ship out in the morning. I'll have Superman with me, though, so who knows. Maybe I'll live through this. Take care of yourself, okay?”

He leaned forward to flip off the tape recorder, then he grabbed the microphone again.

“I love you, Johnny.”

Then he clicked it off.

•  •  •

“I love you too,” I said as the tape went stone quiet.

I sat on Willie's bed, not sure what to do with myself. I wanted to listen to it again, hear his voice again, be with him one more time.

But I also needed to wrap my brain around what he'd said.

Sora's baby, Tammy Jane, wasn't his. Willie and Short-Guy had been right to be suspicious all along. Tommy was still just as dead as ever, and there wasn't even a piece of him I could hold on to.

Tammy Jane was Captain Morris's. Which meant somehow, Captain Morris had managed to take my brother away from me all over again. Even from the grave. That dadgum polecat.

Tammy Jane was my little sister.

Dadgum.

I reached into my pocket for a stick of gum or maybe a piece of bark or anything that was worth chewing. My fingers brushed against that note from Rudy that I hadn't given Sora, since she was too busy pushing a baby out and all that.

I opened it to read it.

Sora—

I messed up. I'm so sorry. It's in my blood, I guess. I know we said we'd take care of Morris's child and keep him from my father, but I don't think that's going to work anymore. The only chance we have of protection is to ally with my father. Which means we need to take this boy to him. I swear to you, I will live the rest of my life to make penance for this. But we need my father's hand on us now more than ever before. Or else, I may go to prison forever.

All my love,

Rudy

Well, that wasn't no good.

I'd have to think all about what Tommy'd said to me some other time, 'cause right now, I had to get back to Rudy and Eddie. 'Cause Eddie was on a fast train to the devil himself. And by that, I mean Santo Trafficante. But maybe also the devil. I hadn't never paid attention to if Eddie prayed at church or not.

I ran as fast as I could back over to where I'd left them two yahoos behind. I sure hoped they'd still be sitting there, waiting for Sora like a couple of chumps.

They was still there, but they wasn't sitting.

Rudy was on top of Eddie and he was beating the living tar out of him. Actually, it was worse than that. It looked like he was trying to kill him.

He was hitting Eddie in the face, and blood was coming from just about every place it was possible to bleed from. But Rudy didn't care. He just kept on going.

“Hey, stop!” I said.

Rudy jumped up and yelled back at me. “He's not Morris's son!”

Oh good, maybe the problem was solved on its own. I looked over at Eddie. He was crying and trying to cover his face, but it looked like his arm was pulled out of its socket or something. So, maybe only part of the problems was solved.

“Okay? So what?” I asked.

“So what? Do you have any idea what that does to my plan?”

I tried to tell Eddie telepathically to crawl off and get away, but he seemed too busy having a panic attack to do any of that. I tried to think of a way to distract Rudy.

“It don't matter right now,” I said. “Sora had her baby. A girl.”

Rudy's whole face changed. He looked both happy and surprised and sad and scared all at once.

“Is she okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, she was borned all right and she's breathing and all.”

“No, not the stupid baby,” he said. I got a little mad at that, but I let it go. “Sora, is she okay?”

“No, she ain't. She had to get taken to the hospital.”

“Oh my God,” he said. “Oh my God, oh my God.”

“Will you shut up, you idiot?” I said. Something about hearing Tommy's voice had reminded me what it meant to have a few pounds of courage strapped onto your hip. “This ain't about you, and fact is, it don't concern you. She wanted you to get out of town and leave her be. So maybe that's what you ought to do.”

“No, no, she needs me.”

“Like a heart attack,” I said. “She's fine and dandy without you or anybody else. She barely even needs me and Pa. Heck, the only reason I had to deliver her baby in my living room was probably 'cause she couldn't reach to catch it coming out herself.”

“No, you don't understand—”

“What? The price tag?” I asked. He looked shocked. “Yeah, I know that baby I delivered was Captain Morris's, and so she inherited a price tag that your pa says will only be paid in blood. I know all about that, and I ain't scared one bit. Let him come try and take Tammy Jane away. I'm a crack shot and he's got a big head. This is Alabama, so there ain't no way I'd get in trouble over it.”

He stammered a bit.

“The baby is Captain Morris's?” he asked.

I cussed inside my head.

“You didn't know that?” I asked. “Then what was you so all-fired concerned about protecting Sora for?”

“She's like a china doll,” he said. “And I'm her hero.”

Oh, for crying out loud.

“Look, just get in your dadgum car and get out of Cullman. Leave poor Eddie be, and we'll pretend you never existed. All of our lives will be better for it.”

His face was pale as a sheet, but he nodded.

“Okay, okay, I'll go,” he said. “But you don't understand what this will do to her. She loves me.”

“No she don't. Not like how you want her to. She told me herself. But I'll tell you who she does love. She loves her baby. She loves that little Tammy Jane enough to die a thousand times for her. And there ain't no way she'd ever do that for you.”

He looked real hurt by that, and he mumbled something I couldn't understand, then he took off into the woods. A few seconds later I heard that Corvette engine start up and he went roaring down the road. And I breathed a sigh of relief.

We was finally out of the bull's-eye.

I hurried and helped Eddie sit up. Then I real fast cracked his shoulder back into its socket before he knew I was going to, 'cause that's the best way to do something like that. He screamed something fierce.

“You okay?” I asked.

He nodded.

“So that baby is the Morris kid he's looking for?” he asked.

“No, she ain't. She's just a Morris kid, but there ain't nobody looking for her.”

He groaned as he got up. “Well, wherever that Morris kid is, I sure hope he's never found.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Me too.”

He started working on wiping all the blood off his face with his hankie and I was worried he was going to start talking about Morris again, so I decided to change the subject.

“Hey, you reckon we ought to head into the hospital?”

“No, I'm fine,” he said. “I been beat worse than that for looking at
Playboy
s.”

“No, not for you. We got a whole mess of folks there that it'd probably be good for us to go check on. Martha. Mrs. Buttke. Your pa. Sora. And of course my new baby sister, Tammy Jane.”

He grinned at that.

“You mean you want me to meet your family?” he asked. “Does that make us friends still?”

“Something like that, I reckon,” I said. “Come on, let's go.”

We started walking down the road, making some jokes about life and such and the mess we'd been getting into. After a bit, a farm truck came along and offered to give us a ride. We was real grateful for it, even though we did have to ride in the back with his dogs. They wasn't bad company, and we made it all the way to the hospital without no problems.

When we got to the hospital, though, the problems started right back up again.

To say the place was chaotic would be like saying a tornado was a strong breeze. There wasn't a single person that didn't look like they was a chicken trying to find its head on the other side of the chopping block. The Three Caballeros was all there, but they was so busy yelling and shouting and asking questions and speaking all at once, there wasn't no telling what had happened. The sheriff was there too, but he looked as shocked and scared as everybody else. Short-Guy was there, and he at least seemed like he knew what he was doing. He was writing in his notebook. I thought about asking if he'd found them keys, but it was pretty obvious he wasn't up for no questions.

Me and Eddie hurried inside and I finally found somebody that looked like she might be open to talking. Her mouth was open, anyway, and she was staring outside.

“What's going on?” I asked her.

“A man. With a gun. A man with a gun came in and—oh God.”

I wasn't liking where this was going at all.

“What you mean? Everybody in Cullman's got a gun. What happened?”

“He came in, the man with the gun, and he pointed it at all of us, and he demanded to know where—” She started sobbing. “Where the babies are.”

Oh no.

“What'd he do?”

“He went up there and—and he took her. The baby. He took little Tammy Jane Cannon, the newest newborn, and he drove away with his gun pointed at her little head.”

And all of a sudden, I done forgot how to breathe.

M
e and Willie was sitting in the backseat of Short-Guy's car, zooming down the country roads on the way from Cullman to Birmingham. The Three Caballeros were off on a different route, and Short-Guy had already contacted the state troopers to set up roadblocks on the highways. The sun was starting to set, and I sure didn't want it to be dark while we was hunting Rudy. Besides, I'd come clean about taking them keys, and I had a feeling Short-Guy was aiming to pistol-whip me later. He was just too busy at the moment.

We was heading to Birmingham 'cause he'd heard from Marge in his office, and she'd told him that they'd tracked down the warehouse in Birmingham the key went to. Turns out it had been bought by Santo Trafficante himself in June, or rather, it was bought by his representative, Rudy. It had been Rudy's job to go buy these warehouses at different spots around the country, but they was all left abandoned. Some loose-lipped fellas that Short-Guy knew pretty well told him that them warehouses was meant for one purpose. Finally having revenge on those pesky Morrises, whenever they'd finally turn up.