When the Women Come out to Dance (2002) (23 page)

Avery was still on the porch, sitting in
a squeaky wicker chair with green cushions, waiting for Brothe r to come back with his story, Avery expecting it to be a goo d one. Hazen was in the house. Avery raised his voice to say, "I t old Brother bring him on back here. I was thinking, put tha t pe-can shaker on him, get his nuts to fall."

Hazen came out to the porch pushing the screen ahea
d of him.

"I said to Brother, bring him on back, we'll put the pe-ca
n shaker on him."

"I heard you. Where's the number for the real estat
e office at?"

"By the phone in the kitchen, last I seen of it. You kno
w Brother'll likely have to chase that Mer cedes all the way to town to catch it."

Hazen said, "She's pretty, huh? Once we tend to the movi
e star I might keep her."

"Suppose to be in pitchers--I never heard of him."

"Me neither, but it's what they say."

Both of them heard the car coming and looked out at th
e yard. Avery said, "Don't tell me," seeing it was the black Mercedes back again but no sign of Brother. Now it circled, bringing the driver's side close to the porch steps. The smokeglass window lowered and there was Ben Webster looking up at them.

He said, "You all want to settle out of court it's fine wit
h me. My offer, you have till noon the day after tomorrow to ge t out of my house and off my property. You don't, I'll be bac k here to run you off."

The smoke window started to go up and Avery said, "Hol
d it there. Where's Brother at?"

"He needs to get winched out of a ditch," Ben said, "an
d some Band-Aids."

Avery watched the window slide up all the way and th
e sporty black SUV circle out of the yard and into the trees , gone. It got Avery frowning, saying to Hazen, "The hell's h e talkin about, Brother's in a ditch?"

"Like he put him there," Hazen said.

"Brother was chasing him. "

"Brother ain't the issue," Hazen said. "You heard him, he'
s gonna raise the law on us we don't leave, have troopers ou t here looking around. You want to stay or not?"

"We ain't gonna move nothing in no two days. Course I
w ant to stay."

"All right, then what do you want done with the movi
e star?"

"What do you think? Take him off somewheres and shoo
t him. Hell, Brother'd kill you to do it. Yeah, jes take him of f somewheres."

"I saw it coming," Hazen said, "but wanted to make sure."

He went inside, walked through the musty smell of the livin
g room to the kitchen, picked up the business card from th e counter and dialed the number on it.

Within moments a voice came on saying, "OK Realty, thi
s is Denise. How may I help you?"

Hazen said, "You know who this is?"

There was a pause before she said, "I have a pretty goo
d idea."

Hazen said, "Guess who jes come by here?"

Ben coasted toward Brother standing at th
e side of the road by his truck and stopped close to him.

"Man, you're a mess."

Bloody from his face to his T-shirt. Brother said, "I buste
d my goddamn nose," and touched it, barely.

"I see that. Listen, I told your daddy. He ought to be alon
g pretty soon." Ben raised the window, nothing more to say, an d continued on toward town.

Doing the one-eighty brought him to life again and go
t him thinking of Carl, what Carl would say to him: "There yo u go, you don't take abuse from those people. You can tell looking at 'em they're dirty. What you said's fine. Get off my property or I'll fuckin run you off." They looked serious enough to come after him, and h e couldn't help thinking this situation could be in a movie. Th e only thing different, he'd be the good guy for a change. An d it was real life.

III.

Preston Raincrow could trace his people bac
k more than a hundred and sixty years: some of them from a Cherokee clan, the Keetoowah, and some from slaves owne d by the Creeks, black slaves brought all the way here fro m Georgia or Alabama during the Trail of Tears. His greatgrandma, Narcissa Raincrow, lost a child when she was sixteen--not having any business being with child--and Virgil Webster hired her as a wet nurse when Graciaplena died giving birth to Carl. Narcissa stayed on as Virgil's housekeeper, "becoming as close as a man and woman can be," Presto n would say, "till she died a few years ahead of old Mr.

Webster."

Preston and Ben played basketball three years for the Bulldogs, Ben looping the ball toward the basket, Preston finally growing tall enough to go up for the ball and stuff it. Afte r high school Preston went to work for Ben's granddad Carl i n the orchards and rode bulls every year in the Okmulgee Invitational, the all-black rodeo they held out at the Creek Nation arena, fourteen thousand in prize money. Ben told him he wa s too lanky for bulls and Preston switched to saddle broncs. I t was fun, but didn't offer a living. After a few years he gave u p working for Carl and joined the tribal police, became a Muskogee Nation Lighthorseman and drove around in a white Taurus with a gold star on the door.

Ben called the Lighthorseman headquarters from the mote
l and was told Preston was no longer with them, now workin g for Russell Exterminating, killing bugs. Ben said, "You'r e kidding--Preston?" but didn't get a reason or any more information. He called the exterminators to learn Preston was out on his route. Ben left his name and the Shawnee Inn phon e number.

Five-thirty, Preston Raincrow hadn't called.

Ben was about to try him at home, say hi to Ophelia and fin
d out where he might be. That was when Preston knocked o n the door and came in the room in his dark-green exterminato r uniform.

The first word he said was "Tenkiller. Man, it does me goo
d to see you," and wrapped his long arms around Ben.

"How'd you find that out?"

"What, calling yourself Tenkiller?" Now he stepped bac
k to look Ben over. "I'd catch a glimpse of you in a movie fallin g off something, or getting beat up by the good guy, but I w ouldn't see your name there at the end? I don't know why I n ever wrote and asked. So one time I kept stopping the tap e to look good. I see 'Ben Tenkiller' there with the stuntme n and I know it's you."

"I used it," Ben said, "to get the job on Dances with Wolves, told 'em I was Indian. But then once I was known in the business as Tenkiller I was stuck with it."

"You name yourself after the lake?"

"After the Cherokee with ten notches on his bow the lak
e was named after. What're you doing killing bugs?"

"You mean 'stead of arresting drunk Indians? I stopped
a white guy come driving away from the Elks, weaving all ove r the road, and I stood at attention while I caught hell for it.

What Caucasians do is not the business of a Lighthorseman.

The guy even sideswiped a car, said somebody cut him off
, two A . M
., not a soul on the street. I said fuck it. I said wha t am I doing working for the law? My great-grandma Narcissa?

Her daddy, Johnson Raincrow, was bad as they come and go
t shot for it in the olden days. Shot while he's sleeping outsid e on the ground, the only way to take him."

"You gonna turn outlaw?"

"I was thinking you could get me work in the movies.

Sonny Samson from here made it big. One Flew over th
e Cuckoo's? The man didn't even talk and was one of the stars."

"You want a beer?"

"I don't need any for a change, but yeah, gimme a cold one."

Preston looked around the room of dark wood, the king-siz
e bed, walked over to the balcony and looked out from the second floor. "Man, you could almost dive from here in the swimming pool. But don't try it, you hit your head on the concrete.

It's too cold anyway, do any swimming."

Ben got a couple of Buds from the cooler asking Presto
n how his family was doing. Preston said Ophelia took the kid s to her mama's when he quit the cops and stayed drunk for a while. He said, "It ain't hard to act stupid if you put you r mind to it. But two weeks of missing them was all I coul d take." He asked how Ben was doing and Ben told how Ki m was killed, falling off a ladder while he's slicing mushrooms , and Preston said, "Did it turn you stupid, get you thinkin g you're to blame?" Ben said he was handling it. He didn'
t mention the feeling of expectation, ready for somethin g new in his life. Or ask about Denise, if Preston had seen he r lately.

He told about going out to the house and finding thes
e people living there, the Grooms, Avery, Hazen and Brother , and what they'd pulled on Lydell, getting him to lease th e property.

"Bring Lydell to court with you," Preston said. "Th
e judge'll let you tear the lease up."

They were seated at the table now, drinking their beer an
d smoking cigarettes. "They're bad guys," Ben said, "but I can'
t figure out what they're up to."

"What made you suspect it, big ugly prison tats on thei
r arms?"

"They're not working the place," Ben said. "Letting it g
o to hell. The barns are closed up, the equipment's all outside i n the weather. They got cows in there eating the papershells of f the ground."

"That's only criminal in the eyes of a pecan grower," Preston said. "What else you see?"

"Nothing."

"What you suppose are in the barns all closed up?"

Ben said, "If I could get deputies to go out there to take
a look--"

Preston was shaking his head. "They have to know what they're looking for."

"But they could go out with subpoenas, couldn't they? Ge
t these guys to appear in court?"

"Once you file a complaint."

"But when's the court date, next year? I want 'em out o
f there now, so I can still hire the pecans picked. I gave 'em til l noon the day after tomorrow."

Preston, starting to grin, said, "Or what?"

"I'd run 'em off."

"You told 'em that, uh? Man, you sound like old Carl.

That's what he'd do. Come back from Hollywood and fin
d squatters on his land? He'd go out there with a shotgun an d run 'em."

"If he didn't shoot 'em," Ben said.

Preston got up from the table and went to the phone o
n the desk. "Avery Grooms and Hazen. What's Brother'
s name?"

"Haven't any idea. But that notebook right there has his license number in it."

Preston dialed, waited a moment and said, "Eddie? Gues
s who I'm sitting here with having a beer. Our old point guard , man, Ben Webster." He nodded, quiet for a few moments, an d said, "I'll tell him that. Listen, what I need, somebody to ru n two guys name of Grooms, Avery and Hazen, on NCIC." H
e opened the notebook. "And a license number I'll give you , from Arkansas." Preston spelled the names, gave the number , spoke and listened for a while and said, "Yeah, if you can do i t now, I'll buy you three beers." He said to Ben, "Remembe r Eddie Chocote, the only freshman made the team our las t year? That was Eddie."

Ben said, "Went on to play for Tulsa."

"That's right, and he said you were the quickest guard h
e ever went down the floor with, and that's counting colleg e ball. But you rather ride bulls."

"It paid," Ben said, "else I'd have to've sold the farm."

"Why keep it? Other than you grew up there."

Ben said, "I have to think about it."

Eddie Chocote came on again and Presto
n
talked to him for a few minutes taking notes, then came ove r to sit at the table saying, "Hazen have dog bite scars on hi s left arm?"

"He didn't show me any."

Preston looked at his sheet of notes.

"Hazen Richard Grooms, May 12th, 1967. Served a hundred and thirty-two months in the Cummins Unit over there, Arkansas Department of Corrections. You want to guess wha t for?"

"Tell me."

"Theft of property and aggravated robbery. Hazen hijacke
d a highway hauler and they caught him with the tractor. Tha t was, let's see, twelve years ago."

"What about the old man?"

"Avery Louis Grooms, wears dentures, has 'Lucky Dog' tattooed on his left arm. D . O. B
. August 5th, 1940. He went down for theft by receiving and was given ninety months i n their North Central Unit, the same time Hazen was in Cummins. There's a detainer on him for parole violation. All you do is tell the sheriff and Avery's gone." Ben said, "I don't know if that would settle it."

"Maybe not," Preston said, "but it would spray their hive
, get 'em active." He looked at his notes again. "Next piece o f business, the Ford pickup's registered to Jarrett Lloy d Grooms, so Eddie ran him on the crime computer. Date o f birth April 10th, 1975. He's six-four and weighs two-forty.