Bent Creek (7 page)

“I’m sure sorry, Roy. Sure sorry,” Ida Mae said.

“I got a little bit of news. Ain’t the best, but anyway, while I wuz in town, Nevers Bains came into the store.  He said he wuz lookin’ fer a couply people tah come live over at his house for a while. He wants someone tah stay behind with his wife and halp her out with the chores and keep the varmints away from his livestock. He says he got a whole heap of trouble runnin’ his place and trying tah trap at the same time. Says he’s a lookin fer somebody tah halp him run traps.  Me and him made a deal.” He pointed an unsteady finger at Rachael.  “I’m gonna send Rachael and Jesse over there tah halp him out.  Nevers said he would send me five dollars a week for thar halp.  That’s a heap of money right now.”

Rachael jumped up from her chair.  “Oh, no. No way am I gonna go live with Nevers Bains.  He’s a mean old man and I ain’t a goin’.” Rachael folded her arms across her chest in an act of defiance.

Roy fell against the table as he stood up.  He grabbed Rachael and pulled her close to him.  “You lissen tah me, Gal. Yer gonna do what ah say. We ain’t got no money and yer sister is layin’ in the other room with a big belly and no husband. Ya’ll do what I say. Ya hear me? I plan on settin’ up a sawmill when Ben comes home. Thar’s big money in lumber.”

His hand squeezed her arm tightly and she could smell his foul breath. For the first time in her life she was afraid of her father. Undoing his fingers, she stepped back.  “I’ll do it for momma and Emma Jane but I won’t do it for you!  And it won’t be fer long, so you better find work. You been settin’ around here for over a yar jest waitin’ fer that mine tah open, you could have been doin’ somethin’. Why put all yer troubles off on me and Jesse? Besides, what makes you think Ben wants tah come back tah this hovel after he seen what is really goin’ on in the world. I sure wouldn’t come back.”  Rachael could see the stunned look on his face as she finally said out loud what every
one in the house was thinking. She bolted from the room before he could snatch her back. If he had been sober she would have gotten the whipping of her life.

Rachael knew all about Nevers Bains.  He had been the source of gossip for as long as she could remember.  He lived way back in the hollow, his house invisible from the road and he liked it that way. He kept his shotgun by the door and would fire shots at anyone who came to his house unannounced. He was a cussed man who had been married twice and both of his wives had died. The first supposedly drowned in the swollen creek after a flash flood and the second died from eating a piece of bad meat. Nevers didn’t have a funeral service for either of his wives. After he got a release from the coroner, he buried them in a small plot he called the family cemetery in the back of his house and stuck wooden crosses over their graves.  When the mine’s company store closed, Nevers tried to buy up all of the sugar in town. The storeowners refused to sell it to him, saying everyone was low on sugar and he had no right to all of it. The next night bullet holes riddled the windows and siding of the town stores. Everyone knew that Nevers did it, but they were afraid to accuse them.  Once when he overheard a stranger in Lynch calling him a hillbilly, he picked him up and threw him against the side of a building. When the sheriff was called, Nevers refused to back down.  The sheriff finally let him go knowing that if he didn’t he would be the next one on Never’s list. He had threatened so many people in the past that everyone steered clear of him. Nevers was a trapper by trade. He would come through Bent Creek with a load of smelly skins on his truck and take them to Lynch to sell.  Every town had a bully and Nevers filled the bill quite well.

When Nevers married a mute girl named Lily everyone was surprised. Rachael wondered how her family could let a young girl like Lily marry an ornery old coot like Nevers. She had gone to school with Lily for a few years.  Lily dropped out in third grade when she had to go to work in the fields to help her family survive. How could her parents marry her off to someone three times her age?

Chapter Nine

Emma Jane leaned on the bedpost and watched as Rachael put her few pieces of clothing into a canvas sack.  “I’m gonna be so lonely without you, Rachael.  You always took a care of me. What am I gonna do if that old rooster comes after me and what am I gonna do when this baby comes and yer not here tah halp me?”

“Don’t you worry none, Emma Jane, I don’t plan on being gone too long. If daddy don’t find work soon, I’ll come and get you and we’ll leave this place.”

Emma Jane threw her arms around her sister and sobbed. “Daddy hates me now and momma won’t even talk tah me. They think I’m jest a common whore.  I love you, Rachael, and I’ll be waitin’ for you. I’m so afeared tah be here without you.” She repeated herself, “What if the baby comes and I ain’t got nobody tah halp me?”

“You got a few months tah go, Emma Jane.  We’ll worry about that when the time comes.  You jest take care of yerself and try tah eat some greens now and then.  I love you
, baby sister.”

After everything was loaded into the wagon, Rachael said goodbye to her mother. “Now, Momma I’m gonna be just eleven miles down the road. If you need me, you send somebody tah get me. I want you tah be nicer tah Emma Jane.  She’s jest a little girl herself and she made a bad mistake, but she’s still yer daughter and she needs you.”

“I’ll try, Rachael. But this is all wrong.  Ain’t no call fer the two
of you tah be goin’ tah Nevers.”

Ida Mae was upset, but it was Roy’s decision and she wouldn’t go against it. “You be careful, ya heer? Y
a stay close with yer brother.” She hugged Rachael and whispered into her ear, “I know it ain’t right sendin’ you two off tah Nevers’ house, but we aint’t got no choice. You watch him, Rachael. Don’t let that old man git around you.”  She stood with Emma Jane as Roy turned the wagon around in the yard.

About a mile from Nevers’ house, Roy reached under the seat and pulled out a small sack.  He handed it to Rachael. “This here is one of Grandpa Abe’s handguns that I kept.  It’s only got four bullets left in it, so if’n you have tah use it, you bet
ter aim good.” He set it on her lap.  “I don’t reckon you will have any trouble with Nevers. He knows if he doesn’t do right by you and Jesse, I’ll come a lookin’ fer him.”

Rachael turned her head. Nevers wouldn’t be afraid of her skinny, old daddy. He would laugh in his face.

When they arrived at the front of the property Rachael and Jesse jumped down from the wagon and retrieved their bags. Rachael stood with her hands crossed over her chest while her father drove away. She still refused to talk to him.

Walking up the winding road, Rachael stopped for a moment and tied her shoes. “I don’t hate Pa, but he sure is a lazy ass. He’s always on me about being a dreamer, but I ain’t ever seen anyone that can’t see more than a foot in front of his face like our pa. I sure hope he knows what he’s doin’ by sending us tah live with Nevers Bains.”

When they got to the gate, Rachael pulled on the cord that set off the clanging of a large, barn bell.  She wanted to make sure that Nevers didn’t shoot them before they got to his house. She swung the gate open and closed it behind her.  It felt like the prison gate had just closed on her.

“Damn! Would you look at that?  That’s a right nice place. I wouldn’t have thought that Nevers had a house like this,” Rachael said aloud when she first caught sight of the house sitting in a grove of pine trees.

The foundation of the house was made of creek stones that extended up into a fireplace chimney.  Layered with round logs, the front of the building was covered with a porch made of sturdy uprights and the roof was bright red tin.  In front of the porch there were wooden containers filled with flowers and wild vines covered with red roses climbed up the side of a trel
lis.

Rachael walked slowly up the path and stepped on to the porch. A swing hanging in one corner rocked gently in the breeze. The door opened and Nevers stood in front of them.  He wore a clean plaid shirt and coveralls.  “Well, don’t jest don’t stand there gawkin’. Yer lettin the flies in. Come on in, but wipe yer feet first.”

How could this be possible?  This is not at all what Rachael had expected.  She imagined a filthy cabin reeking of dead animals instead of a kitchen with the table draped in green oilcloth. There were curtains on every window and the floor was covered with red and white linoleum.  Neat rows of dishes and pans filled the shelves lining the wall over the four-burner cook stove. A small refrigerator had a place of honor next to the sink.

“This is reel nice, Nevers. I mean it, reel nice. Damn, you got lectricity and a radio,” she said, pointing across the room.

“Not what you expected, eh?  Guess you thought I lived in a cave somewheres? This is why I don’t like people comin’ round. They don’t need tah know what I got up here.  This is reel nice, ain’t it? I done it all myself.  Ain’t nothin’ like that shack yer family lives in. I like a clean house. I got me a Kalvinator refrigerator,” he said, leaning against the white metal box. “Sent fer it from the Sears-Roebuck catalog. My lectric line runs clear across the county line.  Ain’t too many of us in these parts got lectricity,” he boasted.

Rachael put her hands on her hips. “Don’t you worry, Nevers Bains, when I get my own house it will have rugs on the floors and maybe two or three radios.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Nevers said grinning.

“Where’s yer wife?” Rachael asked.

“She’s back yonder gettin’ yer rooms ready.  I want them rooms kept clean, you heer?  Now, let’s talk about what I expect outta you and yer brother for my five dollars a week. I got at least twenty traps tah set in the next couply days.  Me and Jesse might be gone fer two or three days at a stretch.  So that leaves you and Lily tah keep the wood cut when I’m not here. You gotta halp Lily with this house and the livestock. She ain’t keepin’ up reel good lately. I got me a couply cows, some chickens and rabbits. Don’t keep no pigs, can’t stand the smell. You know how tah cook, girl?”

Rachael rolled her eyes. “Of course I kin cook.  I been helpin’ my momma since I was knee high tah a grasshopper.”

“What I want tah know is kin you make a decent biscuit?” he asked.

“I sure kin,” she answered.

“That’ll be good. That woman of mine sure ain’t no cook. She kin do most everything else if she has a mind tah, but she sure can’t cook worth a damn.” Nevers got up and poured a cup of coffee out of the enamelware pot on the stove.

Lily came into the room carrying an armload of blan
kets. She dropped them on the floor and began folding them. She smiled at Rachael.  Rachael had only seen her at a distance in the last couple of years. Sometimes she would come into town with Nevers, but she stayed in the wagon. She was fair-skinned with light hair and a thin, straight body.  She was much too nice looking to be married to Nevers Bains.  “Hi, I’m Rachael.” She extended her hand. Lily just continued to smile at her.

“Ain’t no sense tryin’ tah make talk with her.  She kin hear you, but she’s mute. Been like that fer some yars now. Sometimes she mouths words, but hell, I don’t read lips.  I can’t figure out what she’s sayin’. I got the best. Ain’t nothin’ like havin’ a woman that can’t talk.”  Nevers stretched his hands over his head. “Daylight is awastin’.  Might as well get some wood cut so you women kin make up some supper. Come on boy, you kin halp,” he said to Jesse, who had been standing in the corner since he came into the house. Rachael had never been called a woman before.

After Nevers and Jesse left the house Lily once again smiled at Rachael. She took a pad of paper from her pocket and with a stub of a pencil wrote the words, ‘hapy yer heer.’

“Well thank you, Lily, I’m glad someone is happy that I’m here.” Lily took her by the hand and led her down the narrow hall leading to the bedrooms.  She stopped and pushed open a door.

Rachael covered her mouth with her hand, “Oh, my God! You got inside plumbin’. Oh, my God! Ain’t that sumthin’.” Lily nodded and pulled her into another room. The iron bed was covered with a pink and white quilt and there was a proper dresser with a mirror. Lily pointed to Rachael and then patted the bed. “Are you tellin’ me this is my room?  Yer kid-din’.” Rachael giggled and sat down. There was a pillow on the bed. She actually had a pillow. Without thinking she stood up and hugged Lily. Lily’s arms went down to her sides and she backed away with a startled look on her face.

“Oh, Lily, I am sorry. I didn’t mean tah scare you, but you have no idea how much all of this means tah me. Maybe livin’ here won’t be so bad.” Lily dropped her head and stared at the floor. Rachael could be so jealous of Lily if it weren’t for the fact that she was married tah Nevers.  That…she could not imagine.

That evening Rachael made biscuits to go along with the pot of ham and green beans that Lily had simmering on the stove. They set the table and Lily went outside and pulled the cord on the heavy dinner bell. Nevers came out of the barn.  He stopped at the pump and washed his hands before coming into the house.

“Well, I’ll be damn, biscuits!” After eating two plates of food and three biscuits, Nevers pushed himself away from the table and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.  He let out a loud belch. “That was a right nice meal.  Right nice.” He got up and went outside. “Now if’n’ you git a hankerin’ you teach Lily how tah make them biscuits,” he said pointing his finger at Rachael.