Cottonwood Whispers (23 page)

Thankfully Gemma finished pulling my hair out, and I took the comb from her to keep her from starting up again.

“I ain’t sayin’ it’s fair. I’m just sayin’ it’s so.”

“Well, he ain’t bein’ fair. I swear, Gemma, daddys ain’t easy to understand.”

Gemma took the comb from me and ran it through her hair, her eyes pointed at her skirt. “Least you got one.”

I hated it when she did that. There I was having a good argument about what was wrong with my daddy, and she had to go and mention hers. Rest their souls, Gemma brought him or her momma up anytime I had complaints about my parents. “Least you got one,” she’d say. “Least you know what it’s like to have your momma get after you to keep the wrinkles out of your dresses.” Or, “Least you have a daddy to scold you for leavin’ the wheelbarrow out in the rain.”

But it worked every time, and this time was no different. I took Gemma’s free hand in my own and said what I always said. “Least you got us.”

Gemma squeezed my hand in response.

Four rhythmic knocks on the door signaled the all clear, and I hopped up to peer at my reflection in the mirror. “Guess that means Luke’s decent.” I gathered I looked as best I could, considering my hair wouldn’t be dry for an hour at best, and I tugged a lock of Gemma’s hair. “You comin’ down?”

“In a minute.”

Every now and again Gemma would have spells of missing
her parents, and now was one of them, I could tell. I kicked myself inside for having complained about my daddy and made her think of hers, and I planted a kiss on her cheek as reparation before heading downstairs.

“Lady comin’ through,” I called as I neared the stairway.

“You can come down,” Luke called drearily. “I’m all dressed . . . sort of.”

The minute I spotted him standing in the kitchen doorway, I dissolved into laughter. The scowl he pinned on me proved he knew what I was laughing at without any explanation.

My daddy was a solid, muscular six feet, compared to Luke’s lithe six-feet-three, and Luke stood there in too-short pant legs and too-wide waistband. A leather belt cinched the pants in at the waist and though the shirt was on the short side, the shoulders and chest sagged. He was barefoot with his hands stuck in pockets that didn’t sit at the right places, and it was all I could do to stand upright, I laughed so hard.

“You done yet?” Luke asked sharply after a minute.

“We got to get you photographed like that,” I told him in a voice strained with amusement. I stood on my toes to peer over his shoulder. “Momma, did you see Luke?”

“Your momma and daddy are sittin’ on the porch. And yes, they’ve gotten their laughs in at me, so you don’t need to go gettin’ them.” He held his hands out in front of him, a smile starting to show up on his stern face. “You like this look so much, maybe I’ll get me a whole closet full.”

I tugged at the saggy middle of his shirt. “Don’t matter to me none what you wear.”

“Oh, and I guess you’d go into town with me lookin’ like this.”

I looked him in the eye and spoke as bluntly as always. “I’d go into town with you lookin’ any which way.”

Luke was so close to me our toes touched, and though there should have been thoughts racing through my head, I couldn’t make any come together. I just stood there holding my breath, waiting for the moment to be broken.

A creak on the stairs warned of Gemma’s descent, and I was certain she’d done it on purpose since she knew full well how to avoid the creaky step. Luke backed away from me, and Gemma pretended she didn’t notice a thing and plopped onto the couch on her knees, staring outside at the rain. “Don’t look likely to stop. Sure is a blessin’ to see some rain.”

Luke walked away from me and stood at the front door. “Hope it helps the crops some.”

“I got to get into town tomorrow,” Gemma said determinedly.

“What for?” I asked, joining her on the couch. “You got big plans?”

“I got to see Mr. Poe.”

“Mr. Poe, he’ll be fine,” Luke reassured her. “Sheriff’ll take care of things.”

Gemma didn’t have a chance to reply before a truck pulled up in a good hurry. Mr. Hanley, who owned the general store, hopped out and waved an arm frantically to get
my daddy’s attention. As if the mud-spewing stop he made in front of our house hadn’t done the trick.

Daddy stood up from the porch swing. “Hey there, Harry.” His words were easygoing but his face was tight with anxious expectation. “What brings you out this way?”

“We got trouble in town, Harley. And I thought you ought to know about it since you’re one of the few men who’s got sense left in his head.”

“What sort of trouble?” Momma asked.

“There’s a riot in town. Joel Hadley’s got them all stirred up, sayin’ Gemma done accused him falselike and it was Elmer Poe who got her to do it. They’s all excited, sayin’ no half-wit and Negro are goin’ to keep justice from takin’ place. I swear, they’s ready to string Elmer up first chance they get.”

Gemma pushed herself off the couch and marched to the front door, squeezing past Luke to fling the door open. “That Joel Hadley will stop at nothin’ to save his own neck. I knew this would happen.”

Daddy put a hand on Gemma’s neck to calm her down. “Now, Gemma, don’t you worry none. We’ll get things straightened out. Luke and I can go on into town and have a chat with the sheriff.

“I don’t trust that sheriff one bit,” she muttered. “Fact is, I think he’s in the Hadleys’ pocket. And if that’s so, them Hadleys might get him to do something wrong to Mr. Poe.”

I took my place in the doorway next to Luke. “We can’t let
them hurt him. Mr. Poe ain’t never done an unlawful thing in his life.”

“If Mr. Poe takes a fall for Joel Hadley, then Joel Hadley won’t never have to take responsibility,” Gemma said. “You can bet he wants this town to believe it’s Mr. Poe’s fault. Seein’ Mr. Poe strung up will mean no one will ever point a finger his way again.”

Momma was already crying quietly and wringing her hands so hard it’s a wonder she still had any blood in them. But I didn’t feel like I had much blood left in me either. I was cold all over, and I rubbed my arms to try to keep the chill away. Luke put an arm around my shoulders, and though I relaxed against him, there was no appreciation of his nearness. All I could think about was Mr. Poe’s safety. There weren’t that many people in this town who would stand up to the Hadleys, and with the chance the sheriff was against us too, I didn’t figure on us having a good shot at protecting Mr. Poe from an angry mob.

Daddy trudged to the kitchen to get his rifle, and Gemma stalked off after him.

“I gotta go with you.”

I stepped around the corner to watch my daddy’s face, and what I saw there didn’t surprise me one bit. “Now, Gemma, you ain’t gonna do nothin’ of the sort,” he said with a hard shake of his head. “Don’t even go thinkin’ it.”

“Ain’t no one else who knows what I know. I told my side to some, but not to all. People got to hear it from my lips.”

Daddy leaned his gun against the wall and put his hands
on her shoulders. “Now listen here. Them people, they ain’t thinkin’ straight. They don’t want to hear reason from nobody just now, and they sure won’t go hearin’ any from . . .” Daddy stopped short, but Gemma finished for him.

“From a colored girl. That what you were goin’ to say?”

Daddy’s face dropped. “Gemma, it sounds a sight, I know it. But it’s the truth. I don’t want you takin’ a chance at gettin’ hurt, especially not for nothin’.”

“But I’ve got to go.” Gemma was desperate, and her voice rose uncharacteristically. “Mr. Poe needs me to stand up for him.”

But my daddy was firm, and he gently moved her aside, grabbed his rifle, and walked past her. Gemma looked at me with eyes that begged, and I stepped forward to catch my daddy’s arm.

“Don’t you start too, Jessilyn,” he said firmly.

“But, Daddy, you don’t understand. Gemma and me, we carried our secret about Joel Hadley all the time Mr. Poe sat in that jail cell. We did it all for fear of what them Hadleys would do to us, Daddy, and we’re both carryin’ guilt over Mr. Poe spendin’ all this time in jail. Now it’s bad enough that he might get hurt, and we’ve got to go do our part.” My grip on his arm tightened like I was slipping off a cliff and he was my only lifeline. But then, at that moment, I felt like he was. “Daddy, please!”

Daddy looked down at the floor and squeezed the back of his neck with his free hand. Gemma and I watched him
anxiously, fearing we would be left behind to wonder and wait, but our help came from an unexpected source.

Momma.

She took my daddy’s arm from me and and held it in both of hers. “Let them go, Harley. You can see on their faces, they won’t be at peace unless they do this.”

“Sadie, there’ll be violent men there.” He still held his rifle, and he nodded toward it. “Violent men with guns will be there.”

“But so will our Lord.”

There was a hush that settled over all of us following those words, and I instinctively reached out a hand for Gemma. I knew then without even looking at my daddy that we’d be going with him.

The sight we saw when our truck pulled into town was one that made my heart leap. Dusk had settled in, and the crowd of men equipped with torches and guns pounded hard against the front door of the jailhouse. There were no men in uniform to be seen, and I pictured them all inside settling their weight against the doors to keep the mob out.

As soon as I hopped out onto the sidewalk, I saw a hand squeeze through the bars in the front window and heard three shots pop out of a pistol. I jumped a mile and grabbed onto Luke’s shirt for safety. He shoved me and Gemma behind him, but I peered around him and saw the pistol pointing through the window, smoke from the barrel making a gray cloud against the damp darkness. The rain had
slowed, but a fine mist dusted our faces as we watched the crowd back down a bit in the aftermath of gunshots.

“Now everyone clear off,” Sheriff Clancy shouted. “And I mean now!”

“You ain’t got the right to keep us out, Sheriff,” Joel Hadley cried. “These here men have a right to justice and this here’s a public building.”

“Son, don’t be an idiot,” Sheriff Clancy called back. “You boys ain’t got no right to vigilante justice, and you know it. Now just back away while you still got the chance. I done called the sheriff in from Richmond, and he’s sendin’ some men out, so you best leave before they come in with their fancy rifles and whatnot. You know how these big-town boys like their guns.”

“Sheriff’s tryin’ to run ’em off at least,” I whispered to Gemma.

“Probably just tryin’ to save his own hide from bein’ trampled,” she muttered.

“Don’t matter none why he’s tryin’ to run ’em off long as he does it.” I stood on my toes to whisper in Luke’s ear, “We got to get to Mr. Poe.”

“Jessie, you ain’t goin’ nowhere near that jailhouse.”

“But Mr. Poe’s got to be scared to death.”

He turned around and put his face right up close to mine. “You step foot near that jailhouse over my dead body, Jessilyn.”

Every muscle in my body flexed at his command, and I reared further up on my toes. There wasn’t much more a
body could do to rile me than to tell me I wasn’t allowed to do something. I’d had enough whippings in my day to prove it. Amid the potential tragedy that surrounded us and the angry voices of senseless men, I found the time to let my pride swallow me whole.

“Don’t you go tellin’ me what I can and cannot do, Luke Talley. I ain’t goin’ to let Mr. Poe sit in there and rot, and you ain’t got no right to tell me I am.”

Daddy came around the front of the truck and separated the two of us by grasping each of us by a shoulder. “Dang it all, if I ain’t got to spend most of my time breakin’ up fights between the two of you.”

“He’s tryin’ to tell me what to do, Daddy,” I argued without taking my angry eyes from Luke’s. “He thinks he knows all.”

“I ain’t said I know all,” Luke returned. “I said I ain’t goin’ to let you get yourself killed.”

“All right, now, that’s enough.” Daddy put both hands on my shoulders and pushed me back down to flat feet. “This ain’t no time for you to be on your high horse, Jessilyn. We got bigger fish to fry.”

“I ain’t on a high horse. It’s Luke who is. He done told me I can’t go nowhere near Mr. Poe, and I say Mr. Poe needs us.”

“Well, you’re right, Jessilyn. He does need us.”

I crossed my arms and flashed Luke a strong gaze of satisfaction.

“But he’s right too. You ain’t goin’ nowhere near that jailhouse.”

My satisfied smirk settled into an angry pout in two seconds flat. “Daddy!”

“Now, Jessilyn, you get back in this truck and stay there until I say you can leave.” He lifted me so my feet left the ground by an inch and steered me into the truck. “You stay there until I say otherwise, you hear?” He pointed a finger at me and flashed me that look that said, “You listen up or be sorry.”

“But, Daddy . . .”

The finger came a little closer to my face. “Stay!”

I flopped down onto the seat, fully aware that I’d lost this battle, and when you’d lost a battle with Daddy, you’d good and lost, plain and simple. Daddy opened the door wider for Gemma, and she hopped in beside me, though reluctantly.

I kept my head down in embarrassed defeat, but I angled my eyes upward to see Daddy and Luke head slowly toward the jail. My feelings were a mixture of anger and fear as I watched the two most important men in my life saunter off into danger while I was stuck cowering in the car like a scared rabbit.

“We got to get to Mr. Poe,” Gemma whispered. “Them men’ll kill him. Ain’t nothin’ your daddy and Luke can do to stop a whole mob like that.”

I pulled my knees up to my chin and wrapped my arms around them. “Daddy says stay put. Ain’t nothin’ we can do.”

“Oh, there’s somethin’ we can do all right.”

I turned my head toward her, resting my cheek on my knee. “What’ve you got goin’ on in your head?” She didn’t
say anything, but I could nearly see the wheels turning in her head by looking into her eyes. “Gemma! What’re you thinkin’?”

“I’m thinkin’ we’re goin’ to get Mr. Poe out of here.”

“That’s stupid! A jailbreak? You been readin’ Jesse James stories or somethin’?”