The Wedding Gift (22 page)

I just said that about
summed it up and started crying. Then Jess said oh hell, don’t cry,
she didn’t blame me, I loved him, it was all right, and, besides, I
probably couldn’t get pregnant that soon after my miscarriage and
everything anyway. She finished up by telling me real sweetly that
if I played that Britney Spears CD and made her listen to
‘Everytime’ once more, she was gonna bash my head in with a
baseball bat.

I sniffed a little and
nodded, even though I purely disagreed with her about my song,
which, so help me, coulda been written just for me and Donny, but
it’s no use trying to explain stuff like that to Jessie who only
listens to classic country and Motley Crue. And then we were at the
lake. We got out and went to sit on the shore of it but, shoot, it
was so hot that within a minute we were both naked and in the
water.

Lake Injun has this old
floating dock that’s been there my whole life and that’s what we
swam out to then. When we were lying on it naked and sunning
ourselves, that’s when Jess finally told me her plan.

“
Okay, we have got to
figure out who knew Robina and talk to them right away. Also, maybe
we should go to the library and see the old newspapers and
stuff
.”

I told her we didn’t need
to go to the library for that, let’s not get crazy here. We could
just go to Mama and Daddy’s house. I said that Daddy had kept every
clipping there was about that house because it had to do with him
thinking Charlie had been murdered there. Of course, now we knew he
was actually right about that, though daddy had never suggested it
was a ghost. I thought he would think that idea was nuts even if I
did tell him.

Jessie perked up when I
said it, and she said “
that, hell, she bet
that Daddy probably knew more than anyone about the murders since
he had been investigating the real story for all these
years
.” She bet that daddy might have even
known Robina, that he could be a primary source, whatever the hell
that was.

I told her maybe she was
right, but that Daddy never talked about stuff like that with me,
and he wouldn’t start now.

Jessie said that he would
talk to her and, moreover, didn’t I realize what today
was?

Well yes, I told her, I
knew it was Saturday, if that’s what she meant.

Then she reminded me that
every Saturday, Daddy held court from noon until he passed out at
Downey’s. Jessie calculated that we needed to show up there about
two hours into his drinking and ask him about it, or rather she
would ask him and I could just sit there and be quiet. I guessed
that might work after all. When Daddy was drunk, he loved to tell
stories, and he loved Jessie all the time.

So I told her I might have
heard worse plans in my life and that I was ‘in’. She said good,
and now she was ‘out’ … as in out for a nap. Since I had woke her
up at such a God-awful hour and that, she was gonna sleep now for a
couple hours so “
God help you, if you wake
me up
.”

Jess went out like a light
and I looked at her for a minute. She was so pretty and so brave. I
didn’t know what I would do without her. Then I stared out over
this lake that I loved and I thought about how Donny and I were
supposed to have a little house here one day and nine or ten
babies, and then I thought maybe I should just take a nap like
Jessie, because thinking like this hurt too much.

I went out right away. I
hadn’t got much sleep last night myself, what with my dream that
wasn’t a dream and all, and the old wood under my back was so warm,
and with Jessie right beside me I was safe.

The dream began
immediately. I was still on the dock. I saw a man on the shore
staring at me. Then he began taking off his clothes and got into
the water and started swimming toward me, but I saw that he was not
alone in the water. There was a woman swimming right beside him but
underneath the water. Oh God, the man was Donny, and she was there
too … Robina. I called out to him to be careful, that she was in
the water, but he couldn’t hear me. Donny gestured to his ears,
shook his head, and kept swimming towards me. Robina heard me,
though. I saw her shake her head at me and smile like I couldn’t
help him. Then he was climbing onto the dock naked. His gold hair
was wet and hanging in his green eyes and he kneeled down beside me
and looked into my eyes and smiled at me the way only he could
smile.

He said
“
There you are. Leeann. I’ve been looking
everywhere for you.”

I started to tell him that
she was right behind him but he leaned down and kissed me, a long,
slow, heat-drenched kiss that made me forget everything. I put my
hands up on his wide shoulders and let my legs fall open to him.
Over his shoulder, though, I saw Robina was climbing up over the
side of the dock, her long dark hair hanging in wet strings. Jesus,
Donny had been right ... there was something moving in her eyes and
her face. The skin was hanging off in strings.

She smiled at me and said
“
There you are, Leeann. I’ve been looking
everywhere for you
.”

I screamed and tried
backing away from Donny, from her, and then she was right beside me
and she spoke again….

“
Geez, oh Pete, Leeann,
what the hell? I was having the best dream. For some reason someone
gave me and Mark a big pink mansion to live in and we were just
driving up to it, when you woke me up with your caterwauling. Must
have been quite a dream, huh? Oh well, it’s about time for us to
head over to Downey’s anyway. Shoot I’m hot. I’m going in now. See
you on shore
.”

And then Jessie dived off
the dock and started swimming back. I stood up shaking even in the
heat. Yeah, she was right, that was quite a dream. I followed
Jessie into the lake and began stroking for the shore.

Chapter
29

You wouldn’t think that on
a hot sunny Saturday a total dive like Downey’s would be crowded,
but it was. The lot was already full and it wasn’t even two p.m.
yet.

I spotted my daddy’s beat
up Ford truck parked over on the side. I guess he thought he was
being sly and that if Mama drove by to check on his whereabouts,
that she would never spot it cleverly disguised over there by the
dumpsters.

I said that to Jessie and
she cracked up. Then she reminded me to stay quiet and let her do
the talking. She hadn’t said much on the drive here.

When I told her about the
dream I had, she said that it just confused her. Did it mean that I
was hot for Donny or did I think Robina was? I told her she wasn’t
funny. Mostly she just wanted to talk about her dream … how she and
Mark had somehow inherited this gigantic, Spanish mansion, painted
pink, of all things. What did I think it meant? Could it be a
premonition that Mark was going to be a famous director?

I told her that it just
meant that she was probably hotter for a mansion than she was for
Mark, and maybe I should fix her up with Teddy D, George’s rich
best friend after all.

She told me that
“
One gold digger in the family was enough,
and look how this was turning out
.”

I told her that I hoped
that she and Mark would get attacked by the rats from the dumpster
out back of the Piggly. Mostly we were just trying to pretend
everything was normal, like it was everyday that we hunted my daddy
down to ask him about his son’s death. Oh, and by the way, since
we’re talking about it, did he know anything about the woman who
had killed her entire family, whose house I was now living
in?

When we first walked into
Downey’s I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Jeffy Laws,
who owned Downey’s, kept it awful dark, no doubt so that his
patrons couldn’t see how filthy it was. It smelled like every bar
in the world does, I guess - old beer, perfume, and burnt
popcorn.

Jessie and I were just
standing there a few feet inside waiting for our eyes to get used
to the dark. There had, of course, been a series of whoops and
whistles upon our entrance, but that was to be expected, and then
we heard my daddy’s voice.

“
Hey, what are the two
ugliest girls in Dalton doing here? You two get on over here right
now.”

‘
Here’, it turned out, was
Daddy’s stool in the middle of Downey’s long bar. He held court
there every Saturday and quite a few days during the week, too, if
you want me to be strictly honest about it. When we got over to
him, he told the men sitting on the stools closest to him to shove
off and they did, and Jessie and I took their places. It was kind
of nasty because my seat was still warm from where the dirty
looking man had been sitting. Oh well, when in Rome, as they
say.

Daddy was reaching over and
giving both me and Jessie big hugs. He told me that I had better be
heading over to see Mama right after this little visit because she
was pissed as hell that I hadn’t called her since I had gotten back
from taking my “
honeymoon with Jessie
here
.”

Jess laughed and told him
that “
Yeah, Charlie, and so what? Who
wouldn’t rather travel with her than fat ass George
anyway?
”

Daddy thought that was
hilarious, which surprised me a little since I thought he liked
George now. Then he made the bartender bring Jessie a Bud Light,
and me a coke, which pissed me right off. I mean I didn’t actually
want a beer right then, but why treat Jessie like a grown up and
not me? I was the one who was married, after all.

I kept my mouth shut,
though, and just sat there and let Jessie sweet talk him into a
good mood. To get him warmed up, she let him go on for about (three
days) thirty minutes of talking about his one season of playing for
the Sooners, and how he could have been huge, before she brought up
the house and Robina.

He got real stiff then ....
asking her why she wanted to know. He said we should just let the
dead stay dead. Jess told him that she would sure as hell like to,
but that it didn’t look like Robina was all that dead after all,
and his only daughter was being frightened near to death by
her.

He laughed, and said that
“
Oh hell, you girls have been watching too
many of those movies you like where everybody gets chopped
up.”

That pissed me right off.
After all, I wasn’t the one who spent all day every day of my life
drunk. Wow, where did that thought come from? I loved my daddy and
I didn’t mind his drinking, at least I didn’t think I did. I
started to mouth off to him, but Jess gave me a warning look, and I
remembered my promise to be quiet. So I just looked down into my
Coca Cola, like it could show me the future or
something.

Jess laughed, and said
“
Yeah, Charlie, maybe we have seen too
many horror movies, who knows? But what the hell, maybe finding out
something about Robina would make her seem more human and less
scary. Then wouldn’t it be worth it to restore his little girl’s
peace of mind, and maybe calm her wild imagination
down?
”

He nodded at that, and
said, yeah, that made sense to him. He said he didn’t really know
much about Robina, that he had just seen her around town. After
all, they didn’t exactly move in the same circles, did
they?

Jess jumped on that and
asked him if Robina had been “
an unholy
stuck up bitch, like old Miz Bethany was?
”

He shook his head, saying,
no, no, she hadn’t been. He told us he had been working back then
at Peddy J’s Auto Body and Repair, and that she had come by a few
times to have her oil checked and that sort of thing.

His eyes got distant while
he was telling us what he remembered about Robina.
“
She didn’t even drive a fancy car or
nothing. She just drove this big old station wagon. It was usually
full of kids and she was mostly always pregnant it seemed like. But
she never looked all puffy and red, the way a pregnant woman
usually does. Hell, I guess she was about the most beautiful thing
I ever saw in my life, now that I think about it. She had the
biggest eyes; huge dark eyes, sad eyes, but real kind; do you know
what I mean?
”

Jess and I had no idea, of
course, but we both nodded like we did know. My own experience to
date of Robina’s “
huge dark
eyes
” was somewhat different.

He kept talking.
“
And she was real tall for a woman, but so
slender that she just seemed like a little thing. When she would
come by Peddy J’s, she was always real nice to me, but those kids
of hers … shit, they were hellions, running around, screaming,
grabbing snacks off the stand without asking. She would try to get
them to behave, but they just laughed at her. It used to piss me
off, and my hand would itch to give them a whack now and
then
.” Daddy’s face got kind of dark
looking when he said that, and then he said, “
Well of course it was just terrible what happened to them
poor children, and maybe they hadn’t been that bad after
all
.”

Jess got him back on track
by asking what Robina would do when her kids acted up like that.
Daddy shook his head and got a little smile on his face, thinking
back. “
Well, that part was just real cute.
See, she had this little tiny whispery voice - hell, she sounded
just like Jackie Kennedy, now that I think about it. You know she
was a Yankee too, just like her, which makes a man wonder because
your Mama, Leeann, is always saying that Yankee women have loud,
screechy voices, but Miz Robina sure didn’t, and neither did Miz
Kennedy. Why, if anyone has a screechy voice, then shoot, I guess
it’s your Mama when I’m late for dinner
.”