Miss Julia Meets Her Match (35 page)

We all rushed out, rudely knocking into each other as we slipped and slid in the mud. There was no speaking, no greetings, no rehashing of the recent shameful events, as we ducked our heads and hurried away from the scene of such a decidedly unsanctified service.

Nobody, not us nor any of those who brushed past, was interested in the various half-built structures that were intended to carry our minds back into another time and place. Instead of walking where Jesus walked, we were running where Jesus would’ve never set foot—unless it was to take a whip to the money-changers as he’d done once before.

I almost stumbled when my shoe got stuck in a particularly soupy spot, and had to hold on to Sam while Lillian helped me regain my footing. That was about the last straw, for I was so full of fury over that woman’s lurid confession that I could hardly see straight. And running through the fury was the fearful certainty that Little Lloyd had understood exactly what Monique meant when she listed his father among her conquests.

Why in the world had I allowed that child to come to this place? After all my plans and strategems to protect him, I’d marched right into the lion’s den and brought him with me.

Just as I thought I’d have to sit down and cry with the futility of it all, I felt someone tug at my sleeve. Turning around, I came face to face with Monique Mooney, herself. It was all I could do to get my breath.

“Mrs. Springer,” she said in that husky voice, causing people to stop and stare, “It looks as if you and I will have to complete our arrangements on our own.” While I tried to find my voice, she looked around at the spectators. “We’d do better to find a more private spot.” Then she smiled at me. “Perhaps you’ll give me a ride to town afterward, since Mr. Pickens seems to have flown the coop.”

I stared at the woman, stunned at her boldness and lack of sound judgment. If she’d had any sense at all, she wouldn’t have come within ten miles of me.

I opened and closed my mouth several times, trying to work up the effort to speak. Finally I was able to. “Let me explain something to you, Miss Mooney. Our arrangements just got completed in there!” I flung my hand back toward the tent. “That so-called testimony of yours did nothing but broadcast exactly what I wanted to stay dead and buried. The idea! Dredging up things better left unknown and unsaid. And for that matter,
undone!
”

“My testimony was important,” she said, lifting her head in defiance. “I was led by the Lord to give it.”

“Well, maybe he’ll give you a ride to town. I certainly won’t.” I opened my pocketbook and extracted the check made out to her. “See this?” I waved it in front of her. “It’s going right back where it came from.” I stuffed the check back into my pocketbook and snapped it closed, as Monique’s mouth fell open.

Lillian edged in close, mumbling behind me, “We better go on home now, Miss Julia.”

I shook her off and leaned in on Monique. Through gritted teeth, I said, “You were supposed to keep your mouth shut and
leave.
”

Sam put a hand on my arm, but I paid no attention, so steamed up that I wanted to lash out even harder. From the looks of her, Monique was just beginning to understand that she’d lost her ticket out of town and anywhere else she wanted to go. She pulled herself together and stared down her nose at me. If she could’ve breathed out the fire that reddened her face, I would’ve been fried to a crisp right then and there.

Her eyes began to take on a peculiar glitter, and very deliberately she widened, then closed them. Turning ever so slightly toward Sam, she arched her neck so that her face was right under his. Then she opened her eyes in a slow, soulful manner so that she was gazing fully into his.

Sam’s eyebrows went up, as he took a step backward. Latisha, still in his arms, pointed at Monique and said, “That black-headed lady got something wrong with her. She looking like this.” Latisha pulled down her mouth and squinched up her eyes, mimicking Monique’s moony-eyed expression.

Sam, ever the gentleman, turned away to hide his amusement. I thought at first that he was entertained by Latisha, but when his laughing eyes found mine, I knew it was Monique he found so funny.

I smiled in return, feeling something cold and hard inside begin thaw and shrink. Monique, and her like, had no power over a rock-solid man. She could turn her face up to his and give him all the come-hither looks she could muster, and he’d stay steadfast and true. Right at that minute, I knew I could trust him to keep his head and any vows he made, regardless of the temptations strewn in his path.

But Monique was so confident of her own charms that she’d not noticed how flat they’d fallen. She shifted her gaze back to me, while a knowing smile lifted one corner of her mouth.

I gasped, shocked to my soul, for the shameless trollop was letting me know that she was still proud of, and willing to prove, her ability to beguile any man within range.

In spite of the trust I was now willing to put in Sam’s fidelity, I lost every bit of control I’d ever had. “You wicked woman!” I shrieked, barely aware of the avid faces that surrounded us. “Do you know what you’ve done? Do you know who you’ve damaged? Of course you don’t. All you thought about was your own wretched sins and trotting them out for us to see. Or to admire. Was that it?”

I stopped for breath, preparing myself to tell her that she could have Wesley Lloyd if, considering his present state, she still wanted him. But I was unceremoniously pushed back.

Mildred Allen barreled in front of me, breathing hard and panting with the effort. “Stand aside, Julia,” she said. She leaned right into Monique’s face and said, “You dare humiliate me! Well, let me tell you something, confession may be good for the soul, and you may feel better for telling everything you know. But, believe me, nobody else does.”

Then she hauled off and slapped the fire out of Monique, rocking her back on her heels.

Then Mildred turned away and, head held high, left with a parting shot. “Now at least,
I
feel better.”

As Mildred stomped off, Tonya threw me a concerned glance and hurried after her. “Manners, Mother, manners,” she cautioned, as she caught up with her mother and put an arm around her.

I was never so glad to see anything in my life as I was to see Sam’s car and climb into it. The rain began to come down harder, and all over the parking lot people were diving into cars, slamming doors, and turning on lights. Motors roared to life and wheels churned up clots of mud, splattering it over fenders and anyone passing.

“We’ll wait till it clears out,” Sam said, turning to make sure that Lillian and Latisha were safely in the back seat with the doors closed. He smiled at Latisha. “You okay, little girl?”

“Yessir, I’m fine. I think I had a pretty good time, seeing something I never seen before.”

“Nobody ever seen nothin’ like that,” Lillian said, mopping the rain from her face. “That the world’s worst tent meetin’, I do believe.”

“Well,” Latisha said, sounding put out with the world, “don’t look like I’m ever gonna get to a real theme park.”

“Yes, you will, Latisha,” Sam said, looking at her through the rearview mirror. “You’ve started me thinking. Let me look into it, and find one we’ll all enjoy.”

“Count me out,” I mumbled, as I leaned against the window and huddled up in my sweater, just so heartsick about the events that had just transpired that I could hardly stand it.

Sam put his hand on my arm and said in his quiet and comforting way, “Julia, it’s all right.”

“No, it’s not. I’ve never let my temper get away with me like that. I guess I made a spectacle of myself.” I gave him a weak smile, as he patted my arm. “At least I didn’t slap her like Mildred did. But, believe me, I wanted to.”

“I tell you one thing,” Lillian said, “if they’s ever a woman need slappin’, that one did.”

“Thank you, Lillian,” I said, as I searched for a Kleenex in my pocketbook and tried to pull myself together. “Sam,” I went on, clasping his hand, “did I embarrass you to death?”

“Not a bit of it, Julia,” he said. “You’ve never embarrassed me, but you do keep me hopping, wondering what you’ll do next. Tell me, though, what was that check you were waving around? Or is it any of my business?”

“It was Mr. Pickens’s suggestion,” I said, then realized I was shifting the blame. “But I was only too happy to act on it. I was going to make a charitable donation and hope Binkie could take it off my taxes. Thank goodness, I didn’t waste my money. That woman is a menace, and not to be trusted.”

Sam just shook his head, but I saw him smiling. “When you and Pickens get together, everybody better get out of the way.”

I managed a laugh, feeling suddenly better. If Lillian approved and Sam appreciated my entertainment value, why should I care what anybody else thought?

“My Lord,” I said, wiping my nose as daintily as I could, “can you believe what that woman said right up on stage with a microphone, and half the town listening? How could she do such a thing?”

There was silence in the car as we marvelled at Monique Mooney’s lack of shame. I watched the rain streak down the windshield, cringing inside at what Little Lloyd might have understood from her rantings. After all my care and concern to protect his innocent admiration of his father, I had miserably failed. Even though we all come to learn, sooner or later, that our parents aren’t perfect, I’d have preferred that the child learn about his considerably later, when he was better able to understand a roving eye. Although, I must confess, as advanced in years as I am, it’s still beyond my understanding.

Sam rubbed his thumb over my hand. “He’ll be all right,” he said. “Pickens is probably halfway home with them by now.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the way he could read my mind and know what was troubling it.

When we arrived at the house, Lillian immediately took Latisha up to bed, while Sam and I went to our customary place on the living room sofa.

I was still in a daze from the enormity of that woman’s arrogant disregard for the feelings of other people. Not, you understand, that I thought the men she’d been involved with deserved to have their secrets kept. Not a bit of it. As far as I was concerned, their names could’ve been printed in the newspaper and scrolled across the bottom of CNN, and they wouldn’t have come close to getting their just desserts. But what about Mildred and Helen and Amy and even Norma—Lord, what about Little Lloyd and Tonya and all the other children who’d just been told that their fathers had not only lusted after that black-headed witch, but had slaked that lust?

My insides knotted up at the thought.

“Why, Sam?” I asked, leaning close to his warm side. “Why did she think she could get up there and broadcast her darkest deeds and think that people would just calmly listen and forgive her?”

Sam patted me with the hand that was draped across my shoulders. “I wonder, myself. Maybe she thought she could right a few wrongs. The only problem is, when we think we have to get ourselves right at the expense of others, well, let’s just say that no matter how sincere you are, it can’t excuse a lack of common sense.”

“I don’t think she was sincere,” I said. “I think she liked the attention. You know—‘Look at me. See how bad I’ve been.’ And, Sam, she caused an all-out riot! I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if there’re not a few divorces in the works right this minute.”

The telephone rang, and I hurried to the kitchen to answer it before it woke Latisha. Sam followed me and, as I picked up the receiver, he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and said, “I have a few things to look into tomorrow, but I’ll see you later in the day.”

I waved him off, turning my attention to the telephone.

“Miss Julia?” Hazel Marie’s voice had a low and disconsolate tone to it. “Lloyd and I are going to stay over with J. D. We’ll be home Monday.”

Not a hair on my head turned at this blatant announcement of their sleeping arrangements. I had more important things on my mind. “How is Little Lloyd, Hazel Marie? Did he understand what that woman said?”

“He understood enough,” she said, still subdued. “Enough to ask questions I didn’t have it in me to explain.” She took a deep breath that ended in a sob. “Oh, Miss Julia, I’m so sorry for all I’ve done to hurt you. All this has just opened my eyes to what I put you through.”

“Stop that right this minute! You don’t have to turn yourself inside out for me, Hazel Marie. That’s all in the past, and it’s going to stay there. You keep your mind on one thing: we have Little Lloyd and, I’ll tell you the truth, I don’t care
how
we got him.” I took a deep breath of my own. “Where is he? What’s he doing now?”

“He’s out in the carport with J. D. They’re sitting out there in the dark, and J. D.’s talking to him. He said,” she stopped and I could hear a smile in her voice, “he said they had man-talk to discuss, and I was to make myself scarce.”

The smile didn’t last long, because I could hear her sniffling. “He’s a good man, Hazel Marie,” I said. “I’m glad he’s explaining it to the child. I, for one, wouldn’t know how to start.”

“Me, either.”

Lord, the next day the whole town was stirred up even more, so much so that hardly anyone attended church services. I know I didn’t, not wanting to hear another word about the previous night’s events. But from what I did hear, even those who had not been at the tent meeting expressed their outrage, fearing, I suppose, that the next thing on Monique’s agenda would be a tell-all book, complete with a television interview. From the anxious telephone calls and visits that I received, no one seemed to think Monique had reached the bottom of her list by a long shot. Yet at the same time, I was reassured by the number of people who expressed admiration of me for telling her off, and especially of Mildred for hauling off and slapping her. I can’t tell you how many said they wished they’d had a chance to smack her silly, too.