Under the Cypress Moon (25 page)

"Well, you're a good lookin' boy of six then," Mark told the child.  "Guess how old I am."

"
Fifty?"

Mark laughed so hard at this that it frightened Henry, causing him to back away.  "No, Henry.  I'm not quite that old.  I'm how old you are plus twenty.  I'm twenty-six."

"You're old!"

"I guess I am kinda," Mark agreed with the boy, still smiling.

"Are you why my daddy won't come home now," the boy asked in anguish and with the same general lack of filter that all small children possess.

"I suppose I am, Henry.  It wasn't my fault, but it's because of the company your daddy worked for, the company I own."

"Are you a bad man?"

"No, Henry.  I'm not a bad man.  I didn't want anything bad to happen to your daddy.  Sometimes, bad things happen to good people, and your daddy was really good people.  He was the best guy around, and don't ever forget that."  Mark felt horrible and overwhelmed with grief, especially at the boy's accusations.

"Mama said we're not gonna have food cuz daddy ain't gonna be here."

"I won't let that happen, Henry.  I'm gonna make sure you and your mama and your brothers and sister always have food and everything else you ever need.  Ok?"
  Mark began patting the boy on the top of his head, which was met with great dissatisfaction, the boy attempting to shake off Mark's hand, tossing his head to and fro to be rid of it.  Mark finally got the point and removed his hand, after which, the boy, Henry, ran back into the house without saying another word.

"This money'll be put to good use, Mark, and thank you," cried Mary Jane, giving Mark's arm a fervent embrace, she hardly knowing how to let go.

Mark, Darius, and T.L. climbed back into the cab of the truck, relieved that their visit had been met with so much joy and had merited such a positive outcome for all. 

Darius, the first to break the awkward silence as the three neared the end of the Bedoes' road, felt reassured.  "Well, boys, I'd say that could've gone a lot worse than it did.  At least Mary took that alright.  A lot of folks ain't gonna be too happy with you, Mark, after what's happened, but doin' what you're doin' for the Bedoes is gonna go a long way in buyin' people's good will back."

"I'm not tryin' to buy anybody, Mr. King," Mark snappily retorted.  "I just wanna do what's right, even if it cost me an arm and a leg.  I'm gonna do everything I can to set things the way they oughtta be after all this."

"Lay off him, Daddy," T.L. burst out, disgusted by his father's treatment of everyone else.

"I ain't causin' no fuss, Son.  I'm just sayin' there's gonna be one hell of a mess to clean up around here.  Folks is up in arms as far as I can tell.  It ain't gonna be easy to get things back to normal.  But they'll all see what Mark's tryin' to do, and they'll come around."  Leaning his head back and a little to the side, Darius added, "Mark, no offense meant.  I know you got only the best of intentions, and that says a lot.  You're doin' right, and you can sleep easy knowin' that.  The Lord knows what's in your heart, and I ain't ever seen one bit of badness in you, Boy.  Things'll work 'emselves out."

"Not to change the subject, well, maybe, but how you and Shylah doin', Mark," T.L. blurted.

"Great so far.  Hopefully, I can keep it that way.  She's really sorry about what happened a while back, and even though she can be a bit mouthy at times, she's been pretty much nothin' but sweet as can be.  I got no complaints."

"Just be careful about gettin' on her bad side," Darius quickly added to his son's words.  "That girl can be as sweet as her mama when she wants to be and meaner'n a rattlesnake when she ain't.  I love my little girl more than the air I breathe, but I know she's more'n a handful much of the time.  She has a temper.  Boy, does she!"

The three laughed all at once, the truck now filled with so much heavy laughter that the very walls of it seemed as if they would break open and spill out their contents.

"Mark's gonna be whipped as a ol' mule, Daddy," T.L. bellowed.  "He's gonna be all 'yes, Ma'am, no, Ma'am' all the time.  Shylah's already gettin' him trained.  You can see it."

"I am not whipped," Mark screamed from the back of the truck.

"Oh, yes you are," Darius agreed with his son.  "You're whipped as they come, but it's ok.  A lot of men are that way.  It just means you know how to keep your woman happy and know better'n to face her wrath.  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and women find the littlest reason to feel scorned."

"Quiet!  Quiet," Mark shouted as he pulled out his cell phone, seeing that Shylah was calling him.  "It's Shylah.  I gotta take this."

"Oh, look, a woman scorned," T.L. chimed, laughing hysterically, followed by his father.

"Hey, Baby," Mark answered as soon as he took the call.  "What's up?"

"Baby, when are you comin' home?  I'm starving!"

"I don't know, Hon.  We just left Mary Jane Bedoe's house, and we still have to go see Tanya Donovan.  I'm hurryin' the best I can.  Just eat whatever you can find in the house for now."

"I already am.  There isn't a lot here.  And what do I feed your dad if he wakes up and asks for food?"

Mark began to feel not only a bit worried but strangely upset.  "I don't know.  Just find what you can find.  I promise I'll be back as soon as I can, and after that, I'm all yours.  We can go get all the food in the world then.  I promise.  I'm sorry if I seem a bit short, Babe.  I just got a lot goin' on and a lot on my mind.  I'm sorry.  You got me all you want me after a while.  Sorry if there isn't much food.  Just find whatever you can."

"Ok," Shylah unhappily accepted.  "I'll see what I can find.  Maybe I could just run to town real quick and get somethin', but I don't have much money."

"Is the nurse still there?"

"Yeah.  She's gonna be here for just a few more minutes."  Shylah  hoped desperately that Mark would say that it alright to leave to get food.

"Hon, I'd really prefer somebody was there with my dad, just in case.  Ya know?  I'm sorry.  I'm really really sorry.  I promise you can have anything you want when I get back."

"So, I can finally have the pony I always wanted?"  Shylah, as much the joker as Mark ever was, could not help herself and hoped that she could take her mind off of things with a good laugh.

"Yes.  You can have a pony, if that's what you really wanna eat.  You can have two ponies, and I'll even barbecue 'em for ya however you want 'em.  I can go pick up some steak sauce if you want that.  We might throw in a few dogs and cats, too, just for good measure."

"Yummy!  I love you, Babe.  I'll see you in a while."

"I love you, too, Baby.  Stay sexy."

"You know I'll try," Shylah confirmed. 

"Bye."

"Bye."

As soon as Mark hung up the phone, T.L. felt an urgent need to make fun of his friend.  "Awwww.  Lovey love love love.  I love you.  No, I love you.  No, I love you more!  No, I love you more!  No, I love you way more than you love me!  Smoochie smoochie!"

"Shut up, T.L.  You and Kerrie Mabley'll be that way soon.  Well, I know you will be, maybe not so much her."

"I'll have that girl so wrapped around my finger," T.L. bragged, "She'll be  hooked on me like you ain't never seen!  She'll be glued to me!"

"You think, Son," Darius agreed with Mark.  "There ain't hardly a woman on this Earth that is as wrapped around a man's finger as a man gets wrapped around hers!  I like to think I run the house, but you know it's your mama.  I hate to admit that, but I gotta listen to that woman and let her have charge, or I ain't gettin' none of what I want."

"Daddy!  I told you I don't need to hear about you and mama and your sex life!"  T.L. suddenly turned his face toward the window, wanting to drown out all thoughts of what his father had said.

"Ain't nothin' wrong with it, Son.  You'll understand when you get you a good, steady woman."

The conversations carried on much like this for some time, all the way to Tanya Donovan's house.  All Mark could think about was what he would say to the Donovan family and about Shylah.  Shylah was always on his mind, somewhere, somehow, most often the predominant thought overtaking all others.  Mark wondered what Shylah might be doing at that moment, if there were something really urgent or bad that he should be made aware of, thinking back over Shylah's statement that they needed to discuss something very important.

Little did Mark know that Shylah had been experiencing growing symptoms for a while, symptoms typical of pregnancy.  She believed very much that she could be and that she must have gotten pregnant weeks before when she and Mark first began to see each other.  She didn't know how she would bring it up when Mark got home, but it was necessary.  More than that, Shylah was worried that she might cause unneeded alarm, not knowing for sure if her suspicions were at all correct.  She hoped that Mark would not fly off the handle, get too upset, or get too joyous over the possibility, at least, not until more could be known. 

Shylah needed to take a test as soon as possible, and it weighed so heavily on her mind, now more than ever before, that she felt as if she were losing what sanity she had left.  She would find a way, some way, to tell Mark.  Sitting on the couch in the parlor, she began preparing herself for the imminent conversation and Mark's possible reactions.  Would he cry, Shylah wondered.  Would he scream?  Would he just ignore it all?  In a fit of confusion and fear, Shylah burst into tears, dying to get it over with, hoping that Mark would finally come home.  This would not be an easy night, Shylah told herself over and over.  It would be one of the most difficult nights of her life.

Chapter 12

The visit to Tanya Donovan went surprisingly well.  Despite her husband being heavily sedated in the burn unit of a hospital in Atlanta and unable to receive visitors, Tanya was pleased with Mark's offer and with all of the well wishes from Cyrus' three co-workers.  Mark had no cash to offer Tanya, as he had given all that he had on him to Mary Jane Bedoe, but his promise to write her a check the next day and many more to come brought a smile to her face and a torrential downpour of tears.

It took very little time, even though Tanya Donovan invited Mark, Darius, and T.L. to stay and share a meal with the Donovan family.  The men politely refused and excused themselves, seeing it as the perfect opportunity to get going.  They wanted to make certain that Tanya knew of their sorrow and regret over the situation and would have no reason to question them, yet they all very much wanted to get home, none of them more so than Mark.

"Tanya took all that pretty well, wouldn't you say," Mark happily asked of his companions as they roared T.L.'s truck down the narrow gravel road away from the house and back toward Mark's, south of town, requiring to head back into town, down the main street, and onto one of the county highways.

"Yeah.  Yeah, she did," Darius agreed. "She took it a lot better than I would've ever expected.  I reckon as long as you cut her those checks you promised, you won't have nothin' to worry about with her.  I don't know how well you know her, though.  She's like Shylah but worse.  She's a great one to have on your side, but if you cross her, you got hell to pay.  That woman can make anybody's life absolute misery!"

"I don't plan to give her reason to turn against me," Mark sighed.  "She's gonna get every penny of Cyrus' pay and then some.  I just hope he's gonna be ok.  He's definitely gonna have his job waitin' on him, if he still wants it, and his pay even if he doesn't."

"What are you gonna do about the plant, though," T.L. chimed in.

"You know," Mark began, pondering the entirety of the situation, "I don't rightly know.  I got some basic ideas, but I'll have to run 'em all by Don Birchum.  I'm thinkin' we need to switch out all the furnaces for electric, just like Don's been tellin' my dad for years."

"That'd be good, Mark," Darius added, stroking his chin, his mouth a little pursed.  "That'd be really good.  It might cost you a fortune in the short run, but in the long run, it'll save the plant money, not to mention that it'd be a hell of a lot safer.  You got a lot more control over electric and a lot more safety features and measures.  I think it's definitely worth lookin' into.  I think I'd do it if I was you."

"What's the fatass Birchum think about all this," T.L. laughingly asked.

"Fatass?  I thought you liked Don.  What you got against him?"  Mark was confused.  He liked Don as much as he could.  Don, for some, was, at best, an acquired taste.  Maybe it was that Mark had known Don for so long and that Don had worked so closely with Thomas.

"He's a know-it-all, fat, lazy, son of a bitch, and I think that's putting it kinda mild and easy, to be honest," T.L. balked.

"Ok.  You got me there, T.  The man is pretty fat and is a know-it-all, but he's anything but lazy.  You don't see as much of him as I do, and he's been runnin' things since I've been gone.  He must not be doin' too bad of a job."

"Really?  Not doin' too bad of a job?  Look what's happened since you've been gone!  You think Birchum's doin' a good job, letting a furnace blow up and send a man to the hospital and another one to the cemetery?  That's not good in my book, Mark."  T.L. was now becoming quite angry at the mere thought of Don Birchum, placing all of the blame at the man's feet.