Bent Creek (23 page)

“You won’t be alone,” Ben replied.  “Old Joe will be here. I’ll give him my shotgun afore I leave.  Ya’ll be fine.”

“I bet old Joe can’t even hit the side of a barn; you better leave it with me,” Lily replied.

The truck loped along the bumpy road, every once in a while letting out a loud bark and releasing a cloud of black smoke behind them. “You heer that?” Ben asked.  “It’s a bad exhaust system. I bet the spark plugs ain’t been changed in this truck in yars. When we go shoppin’ I’m gonna buy some parts fer this old buggy and fix it up real good.  I ain’t teched a motor since…well, you know…my accident.  I bet I kin git her runnin’ faster than greased lighten’.  Then if’n them revenuers come after us, they’ll be in fer a big surprise.”

Jesse leaned forward in the driver’s seat.  “What’d you mean, revenuers chasin’ us? I ain’t runnin’ from no revenuers. They got guns so you can count me out.”

Ben let out a chuckle. “Yeah, this old hunk of rust is gonna run like a scalded dog when I git through with it.”

Ben pulled the truck behind Clyde’s store and waited until Jesse brought his chair to him.  Clyde watched from the doorway of the warehouse. He wondered why they had brought the cripple along. Instead of unloading the boxes as usual, the three came toward him. “Clyde, you and me have tah talk,” Ben said. “Do you want tah step inside yer store?”

Without answering him, Clyde turned and went back inside, followed by the Rileys. “Okay, what’s this all about? I’m a busy man.”

“Well, Clyde, we have been do
n’ some figurin’ and we decided that from now on, we want forty cents fer each gallon stead of twenty cents you were givin’ Nevers.

Clyde let out a bellow. “Who do you think you are comin’ in here and making demands on me.  I ain’t about tah give you that much. You take the twenty cents and be glad yer getting’ that.”

“No, we don’t have tah take it.  I got tuther customer that’s willin’ tah give me forty-five cents, but since you been doin’ business with Nevers fer so long, I wuz gonna give you a break. You know that we been bringin’ you good stuff.  Better than most that’s around these parts,” Ben said.

Clyde pointed toward the door. “Take yer kin and git out. Good luck with yer new customer.”

Rachael was stunned. She had no idea that Ben was going to ask for so much. She knew he wanted more money, but forty cents, that was a lot and who was he talking about?

She knew nothing about another perso
n wanting to buy their liquor.

“If’n that’s the way you feel, we’ll be leavin’ now,” Ben said, turning his chair and starting toward the door. Rachael and Jesse followed slowly behind him.  He stopped and turned his chair around. Pointing his finger at Clyde he said, “That thar stuff you been gettin’ is the best around these parts and you know it. Besides who else brings you apple and peach licker?”

“Wait! You done got me over a barrel.  I got people waitin’ for this load. I’ll pay you forty this time.”

“Then I assume you don’t want any next week, that right?” Ben asked.

“Aw, I ain’t got no choice. You damn Rileys are givin’ me a pain in my backside. If’n yer gonna charge me more yer gonna have tah start bringin’ me more. Yer cuttin’ tah the bone. I want you tah double yer order. Now git them boxes unloaded.” He stomped off into the front of the store with Rachael right behind him.

“Clyde
, I wuz wonderin’ if’n you seen Sam around lately?”

“Yeah, he stopped by last Saturday.  He wuz lookin’ fer you. He said if I saw you I should tell you that he had tah leave for a few weeks.”

“Well, why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

“I jest did,” he replied.

Sam had sat on the bench in front of the drugstore for almost an hour on that Saturday before he went inside. He was disappointed that she wasn’t coming.

Billy Tate passed by the lunch counter looking for an empty stool. At the end of the counter he sat down next to Sam, who was reading the paper. “Mind if I sit a spell?” he asked.

Sam looked over his paper. “No problem.” He went back to reading.

After he had ordered, Billy fidgeted with the sugar jar and dumped three toothpicks on the counter.  “Ya still mad at me, Sam? You know’d I wuz only funnin’ with Rachael. She ain’t been around lately. You seen her?”

Sam folded the paper when his plate of bacon and eggs were set before him. “No, I haven’t.  You just keep your hands to yourself and everything will be just fine. Now leave me alone and let me eat my breakfast.”

The silence only lasted a few minutes. “Did you ever wonder how them Rileys are livin’ out there with no income ceptin the stuff they sell tah Clyde?  I been by thar place and it’s lookin’ real nice. I heer they been givin’ money tah their folks, too. Seems sort of strange. Some say that Nevers left them a pile of money. Wonder where he got it?  Not from them old skins he used tah sell??

“Why don’t you just mind your own business, Billy? Doesn’t seem that what they’re doing is hurting you or anyone else. Just leave it be.” Sam put fifty cents on the counter, picked up his paper and left.

Rachael and Jesse took the sacks of dried meats and jars of jelly to the front of the store. They removed the canvas cover from the back of the truck and began stacking the brown boxes in the corner. When they were done, Jesse helped Ben back into the truck and they pulled out of the alleyway onto the main street. They had no idea that the man standing across the street had watched them pull in and now watched as they pulled away. They didn’t look back to see him slowly cross the street and make his way down the alley. Clyde didn’t see the man stand
ing in the shadows of the building watching him through the window as he funneled the clear liquid into tall brown bottles and repacked it into white boxes. Two hours later the man sat on a bench in front of Clyde’s store smoking a cigarette.  When the second truck arrived, he took out a piece of paper and a stub of a pencil and wrote down the license number.  Sticking it into his pocket, he meandered down the sidewalk toward the café.

Ben grinned from ear to ear.  “That wuz a lot easier than I thought it was gonna be. He wants twice as much.  We’re gonna make a lot of money, yep a lot of money.”

“That was risky,” Rachel said.  “He could have jest as well told us tah get out. Then what would we have done?”

“Well, he didn’t and now we got tah make tracks.  We got a lot of brewin’ tah do in the next week.  When we git home I want you tah break out that Sears catalog.  We’re gonna do some shoppin’. I want tah buy some parts for the truck.  With a few parts and a lot of elbow grease I reckon I can get this truck runnin’ as fast as anythang on these roads.”

Arriving home, the aroma of bacon greeted them. “Man, that sure does smell good. Looks like Lily cooked us up some vittles,” Ben said.  To their surprise it was old Joe who was cooking. He had never spent more than a few minutes in the house but today he was making a grand mess of the kitchen.

“What’s goin’ on, where’s Lily,” Rachael asked. “She’s in the bed with the baby. The baby’s ailin
’,” he answered. “I wuz hungry.”

“Lily, what’s wrong with Violet?” Rachael asked, push
ing open the door. “She’s been cryin’ all day. I can’t git her tah stop. I’m real worried about her, Rachael.”

Rachael picked up the wailing baby and held her close for a moment, listening to her chest. Laying her on the bed, she pulled up her nightshirt and unpinned her diaper.  Everything looked okay to her. “Well, she ain’t a rattlin’ and it don’t look like she’s got a rash.  Putting her finger into Violet’s mouth, the baby gurgled and sucked on Rachael’s finger.  “I think she’s just jest tryin’ tah cut some teeth, Lily.  Look, her gums are all red and swollen. She stopped cryin’ when I rubbed them. You need tah let her suck on a cold cloth and see if that halps.”

“I wuz so worried. I kept thinkin’ what would I do if she died. I love her so much.” Lily picked up Violet and carried her into the kitchen. Once the cloth was put in her mouth she stopped crying and soon was asleep.

“Now that we’re all here, we might as well have our talk,” Ben said. “Rachael go get the money box.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Cause I reckon we’d all like tah see how much we got now and git the catalog while yer at it.”

Rachael reluctantly left the room.  Reaching into the top of her dresser she uncovered the box.  This was the first time that she had ever shared the box with the others.  This had always been her domain. She didn’t like how she was feeling. After all she was the one who had always made all the plans to keep things running smooth. They had trusted her to be in charge and now, Ben was suddenly making the decisions.  She didn’t like it one bit.

Putting the box on the table, Ben opened it and stared at the bills neatly bundled and tied with string.  “How much you reckon we got in this box, Rachael?”

“We been takin’ out about twenty dollars a week tah live on, so I reckon there should be about nine hundred dollars left.”

“Got dang,” Jesse yelled. “Nine hundred dollars. Damn, we are plumb rich.”

Rachael slammed her hand on the table.  “No, we are not! I figure we need at least three times that much tah git tah Florida and find a place tah live.  We can’t go spendin’ any more money than we have tah.”

“Look, I know yer hell bent on goin’ tah Florida, Rachael, but right now we need to buy some things.  Since Clyde is gonna pay us more, we’ll make it back in no time,” Ben said. “Besides, right now we kin still pass off the money we spend as cash that Nevers had stashed away if anybody has a mind tah ask us how come we got cash tah spend.”

Lily was the first to open the catalog.  “Kin we jest circle what we want and then Rachael kin go into Lynch and call in our order? Ben pulled his chair next to hers and Jesse hovered over them as they slowly turned the pages.  “What do you need, Rachael, and how about you, Joe?  Where’s Rachael?”

“She jest went out the door. I don’t need nothin’.  I don’t spect I’m gonna be around much longer.  No sense spendin’ money on an old man. Lessen you see some warm long johns in that book and a big ole pack of chaw.”  He cackled a toothless grin.
“I’ll be goin’ out tah the barn now.” No one answered. They were too engrossed in the catalog.

Joe walked slowly down the path to the smokehouse.  It was time to put some more wood on the fire. Carrying three logs in his arms he pushed open the door.  Rachael was sitting next to the still, her head buried in her hands.  She jumped when he pushed back the wall.  “Sorry if’n I scart you, gal. I didn’t know you were in here. What’s goin’ on with you? You cryin’?”

“I’m okay, Joe. I reckon I’m jest feelin’ a little under appreciated right now. I mean, they’re in the house pourin’ over that book and not even thinkin’ about savin’ money.  They don’t seem so halpless now. Where were they when I really needed them? The whole idée behind my plan wuz tah save as much as we kin, not go off an spend it.”

“Yer feelin’ plumb sorry fer yerself, eh?”

“Yes, I reckon I am,” she replied, tears filling her eyes.

“Taint unusual. Money turns people.  Turned me yars ago and I paid fer it. Once I started makin’ money on moonshine I got myself a whole passel of woes.  Let em have thar fun. Then in a few days start makin’ them feel real scart about what’s ahead of em and put the fear of God in em.  They’ll sit up and take note and start lookin’ up tah you agin.” Joe threw his head back and laughed.

Rachael rubbed her eyes with the hem of her shirt. “How do I do that, Joe?”

“Jest start talkin’ bout the law and about other rum runners that could be lookin’ tah take over this still.  Git them brewin’ night and day and make yer money back fast.  It’s a real fact, gal, we could be out of business in the blink of an eye ball. This ain’t no easy business. We been reel lucky, so far, but luck don’t last forever. Hell, gal, yer still a youngin, still wet behind the ears and yer runnin’ rum. Might do you some good tah think about what would happen if ya git caught.”

Rachael’s eyes widened.  “I reckon I jest don’t want tah think about that stuff, but yer right.  Thanks. I have tah go back and talk tah them.”

They were still sitting at the table when she went into the house. “So here’s my idée.  From now on we’re gonna figure up our expenses and then we’re gonna divide the extry money four ways. Ya’ll can do what you like with yer money, but I’m gonna keep on savin’ mine. So that when the revenuers come sniffin’ round I’ll have enough tah make a run for it.  Good luck tah you guys.”

On the following trip to Lynch, Rachael counted out the money and she took her share and handed the rest to Ben.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Old Joe was pacing back and forth across the yard when the truck pulled in. “Some fella come round while you was gone tah Lynch. I was outside and I didn’t heer the bell on the gate.  I reckon he come round from the back and climbed ovah the fence. When I seed him standin’ on the porch I got my gun outta the barn. He said he come tah see Nevers.  I told him that Nevers was dead. He didn’t seem none too surprised.  Didn’t even ask me how it happened. I knew’d he wasn’t from round here since he didn’t know bout Nevers.  He asked who wuz livin’ here and I told him it weren’t none o
f his concern. He said he’d be back and then he went on down the road and I heered a car motor a little time later.  He musta had someone a waitin’ fer him. He wuz a reel nasty lookin’ feller, with them little beady eyes and big ole scar that run clear across his face. Looked like somebody cut him up reel good. He had a big fishin’ knife stuck in his belt loop.”