Prayers and Lies (22 page)

“What has gotten into you, boy?” the old woman barked. “You’re actin’ like you been possessed by Lucifer hisself.”

Harley Boy tried to shake himself loose, but Ida Louise was deceptively strong—tiny but wiry, her hands accustomed to strangling the life out of chickens. She dragged Harley Boy away from the bonfire, finally turning him so that he faced her.

“Have you been drinking?” she shrieked.

Harley simply stared at her, his red face moving furiously.

“I said, have you been drinking?” Ida Louise jerked her grandson forward by the hair. “I told them men they shouldn’t buy that liquor. I told them they’re working in league with the devil’s own. And now look at you! My own grandson! Look at what you done!”

She dragged Harley Boy across the dirt beach by his hair. He stumbled along behind her, but he didn’t struggle. He just stared balefully at Reana Mae, shouting back at her, “You better straighten yourself up, girl! You better start doin’ right! You’re goin’ to hell for sure, Reana Mae! You’re goin’ to hell for sure!”

Reana Mae sank to her knees, shaking furiously. I ran to her and wrapped my arms around her thin frame. Then Mother joined us, holding us both in a close embrace. In the distance, I watched Ruthann following along behind Ida Louise and Harley Boy. Numbly, I wondered if Harley and Ruthann would tell the old woman about Reana Mae and Caleb. At that moment, I didn’t even care. I looked around to see where Caleb had gone to. Surely he would come to help Reana Mae now?

But he sat still beside Nancy, both of them whispering and laughing. Melinda sat beside them, staring at us with wide eyes. Behind her, I saw Tracy walking toward us. Dear God in Heaven, I prayed silently, just keep her away from us now. Reana Mae surely did not need Tracy gloating over her now. Neither of us did.

“Are you okay?” Mother whispered, burying her face in Reana’s hair.

“I’m fine, Aunt Helen.” Reana abruptly pulled away from her, staring after Harley Boy’s retreating figure. She stood slowly, still clutching her hot dog skewer.

“What do you suppose has gotten into Harley Boy?” Mother sat back on her haunches, watching Ida Louise pull Harley along the road.

“He’s crazy, that’s all.” Reana Mae’s voice was dead calm. It made me shiver to hear her. “He’s got his daddy’s bad blood in him.”

Mother nodded her head sadly. Harley Boy’s father—Reverend Harley’s son—had disappeared shortly after his son’s birth—drifting away on a sea of cheap bourbon. His young wife, Evie Rose, had given the baby to Reverend Harley and Ida Louise to raise. Evie Rose was only seventeen. Everyone agreed it was the right thing to do. At nineteen, Evie left for a job in Louisville, Kentucky, without her young son. She had made a life for herself in the city, and she visited the valley sometimes, but Harley Boy had never lived with his mother. And he’d never met his father. Could he have his father’s bad blood? I shook my head. It was aching now with so many worries.

“Damn it!” Reana Mae’s voice came sharply. “Look at them wieners.”

The hot dogs she’d been grilling had dropped directly into the coals and were charred black. Glaring at Nancy and Caleb, she trudged to the hamper for more. I stayed beside her while she grilled them. Mother, still frowning, rejoined Aunt Vera and Lottie.

Finally, we walked back to where my sisters sat with Caleb. Tracy had joined them now, but she didn’t say a word as we approached. Reana Mae handed Nancy her hot dog in silence.

“Thank you, sweetheart.” Nancy’s voiced dripped sugary syrup.

“Where’s the fixin’s?” Caleb handed his hot dog back to Reana Mae. Obediently, she took the sandwich back to the hamper and added ketchup, mustard, and relish. Even from where I sat, I could see her hands shake.

When she returned, Caleb took the hot dog from her without even looking up.

“What was that all about, Reana Mae?” Tracy leaned forward eagerly. “Was Harley Boy drunk?”

“Looked like a lovers’ quarrel to me.” Nancy laughed.

“It wasn’t no lovers’ quarrel!” Reana Mae snapped back. “We ain’t lovers at all.” She paused, staring angrily from Nancy to Caleb. “Ask Caleb! He knows the truth!”

Nancy arched her eyebrows at Caleb, smiling. His cheeks reddened.

“How the hell would I know?” He shrugged. “I can’t keep up with every little thing you kids get into.”

Reana Mae sat back in a stunned silence. Then she rose and ran headlong toward the road.

“You’re just hateful,” I hissed at Caleb. As I ran after Reana Mae, I could hear them laughing behind me—my sisters and Reana Mae’s lover. I hated them all.

“Reana Mae!” I called out, grabbing at her arm as we reached the dirt road. “Wait up.”

She shook her arm loose from my grip, but slowed down to walk beside me. Tears dripped from her chin. I walked beside her silently.

Earlier that year, Mother had signed me up for cotillion, so I would learn proper etiquette and manners. I had learned how to hold my salad fork and dance the fox-trot. But old Miss Sheldon never told me what to say at a time like this. Finally, I reached over and grabbed Reana’s hand, holding it tightly in mine.

“Lord God, Bethany. How can he be that way?” She stopped in the road. “Oh, God. Bethy, it hurts so bad,” she whispered, collapsing against me.

I wrapped my arms around her, and she cried until it seemed like she surely should run out of tears. Finally, she pulled away, straightened her shoulders, and snuffled loudly; we walked up the road, still holding hands, until we reached the dark little house she shared with Jolene and Caleb—her mother and her father’s brother. Latching the gate behind us, I followed her to the back of the house, and we sat down at the top of the steep stone steps that led down to the black, swirling river below. Neither of us spoke.

Yawning mightily, Bo rose from where he’d been sleeping and lumbered over to lay his head on Reana Mae’s lap. She promptly buried her face in the dog’s fur and began crying again. I sat watching her, wondering what I could possibly say to ever make it better.

Suddenly, an explosion filled the sky overhead, and then another. Across the river, the men had begun setting off fireworks. I watched in silence, while Reana Mae sat hunched over Bobby Lee’s old dog. Every time a rainbow exploded in the sky, poor Bo whimpered pitifully.

Finally, after what seemed like a long time, the huge blasts stopped, the acrid smell of gunpowder drifted across the river, and the stars reappeared in their usual places, blinking as if blinded by their brighter cousins below.

Reana Mae raised her head from Bo’s fur and wiped her arm across her eyes, sniffing. “How can he be so mean, Bethany?” she said, staring into the dark night. “How can he act that way to me?”

“I don’t know, Reana Mae,” I whispered back, casting about for a reason, an explanation about it all. “Maybe he’s just playing with Nancy, you know?”

“You don’t know nothin’, Bethany Marie,” she hissed savagely. “You don’t know nothin’ about it.”

I sat up straight, pulling away from her, my feelings hurt. After all, wasn’t I the one sitting beside her in the night? Wasn’t I the one who had been defending her all summer long? Wasn’t it me that came when her baby brother had died, and me that wrote to her every week, and me that prayed for her every blessed night?

“Oh, I know, Reana Mae,” I whispered, half to myself. “I do know.”

I felt rather than saw her turn to look at me, felt her wide eyes staring at me in the dark.

“You know what?”

“I know all about it, Reana Mae,” I continued, still not looking at her, not wanting to see her eyes staring back at me. “We found your spot in the woods … me and Ruthann and poor Harley Boy. We found your blanket and the mattress and the packages … and your diary, too. We all know.”

I heard her suck her breath in sharply.

“Are you gonna tell?” she whispered the question finally—cementing the knowledge in my heart. For probably the hundredth time that day, I thought I might throw up.

I sat there for a long minute, staring straight ahead of me, not looking at my cousin. It felt like a whole eternity. I wanted more than anything right then to be at home in my own bed in my mother’s tidy white house on a quiet street in Indianapolis. I wanted to be far away from Reana Mae and her terrible family. Far away from the Coal River Valley.

Then, finally, I shook my head. Of course, I knew I should tell. I knew it’s what Mother would want me to do. I even knew it would be the right thing to do for Reana Mae. I knew my confession would take Reana far away from Caleb and Jolene—that it would be for her own good. But we were cousins, Reana and me … hell, we were sisters. And I knew I couldn’t tell, not then and not ever, no matter what.

“No, I won’t tell,” I said.

“Ruthann and Harley Boy?” Reana whispered.

“I don’t know what they’re gonna do. I think Ruthann won’t say anything unless Harley Boy does. But if Harley Boy tells, you know Ruthann will back him up.”

“They can’t tell, Bethany!” Reana Mae rose suddenly, pushing Bo aside as she stood. “I gotta find Harley Boy … I gotta find him right now.”

“But Ida Louise took Harley home. You know you can’t get to him tonight.”

Reana Mae stared down at me steadily for what seemed like a long time, then turned and ran toward the front of the tiny, shabby house. I stood uncertainly for a moment, then sighed heavily and followed her.

We ran down the hard-packed dirt road, Reana Mae and I, finally turning onto a path that led up the hill toward Brother Harley’s parsonage and Christ the King Baptist Church. Panting and swearing mightily at my bruised, bare feet, I struggled to keep pace with my cousin. She ran like she was in a race for her life, and I guess she probably was. When we reached the church, we veered left and ran toward the small parsonage. Silently, I watched as my cousin deftly climbed the tidy wooden fence that surrounded the house. I stayed behind on the dirt road while Reana Mae padded across the yard, stooped to pick up a handful of pebbles, and climbed into the stunted, gnarled apple tree in the yard. She moved gracefully and quickly, finding foothold after sure foothold. I could tell she’d climbed that tree before.

Holding my breath, I watched as she crawled out onto the narrow limb nearest the house and pitched a stone at a darkened window on the second floor. Downstairs, several lights burned brightly. I could see Ida Louise moving about in the kitchen, dishrag in hand. I saw Reana Mae throw a second pebble at the second-floor window. Then I saw him.

Harley Boy opened the window slowly—it creaked loudly, and I glanced again toward the kitchen below. But Ida Louise kept right on washing dishes.

“Come out, Harley Boy,” I heard Reana Mae’s voice pleading. “Come on out and talk to me.”

“I can’t,” he hissed at her. “Grandmaw’s downstairs. And anyway, why should I?”

“Because you want to,” Reana Mae’s voice was soft and cajoling now. “And because I want you to,” she whispered urgently. “Come on down and let me talk to you … just for a minute?”

Just then, the light in the kitchen went dark. Reana Mae crawled farther out onto the limb. “She’s gone into the front room now, Harley. Come out … please?”

Harley Boy’s face disappeared from the window, and Reana Mae edged carefully back toward the tree trunk. By the time she had climbed down from the tree, Harley was rounding the back of the house. The two of them walked quickly away from the house, toward the darkened church and its even darker graveyard. Unable to take my eyes from them, I followed along the dark road.

“She beat you bad?”

Reana Mae reached out to touch Harley Boy’s face just below the purple, swollen eye. He pulled away from her.

“She’s done worse, I guess.”

They dropped down onto the church steps. Still, I watched them from the road. Neither of them ever once looked my way. I think Reana Mae had forgotten I was there.

“You acted like a damned fool tonight, Harley Boy. You know that? You acted crazy.”

“You’re the one who’s crazy!” Harley’s voice sounded sharp and hurt. “You’re the one who’s goin’ right straight to hell! What are you doin’ with that man, with your own blood-uncle? That man is old enough to be your daddy!”

“But I love him, Harley.” Reana Mae’s voice carried across the dark yard, calm and steady. “I know I ain’t supposed to, and I know you think it’s a sin. But I love him, anyways. He’s the only one that truly knows me. He’s the only one that loves me back.”

“That ain’t true.” Harley Boy’s voice shook. I nodded along with him. “It ain’t true, and you know it—or at least you ought to! Belle loves you, and Helen and Bethany love you, and your daddy does, too.”

“My daddy?” Reana laughed disdainfully. “Oh yeah, my daddy loves me right good! He loves me so damned much he can’t stand even to be in the same state as me.”

“That ain’t because of you.” Harley Boy spoke confidently now. “It ain’t you he hates, and you know that, don’t you?”

He leaned forward and took both of Reana’s hands tightly in his. “It’s your mama that he hates, Reana Mae. And you know why, don’t you? Don’t you even know why your daddy hates Jolene?”

Reana sat back, trying to pull her hands from his. But Harley Boy held on, staring straight into her eyes.

“He hates her—he hates his own wife—because of his own damned brother. It’s all because of Caleb. It’s because your mama acted like a whore with Caleb. That’s what Bobby Lee can’t abide. And now you, Reana Mae … now you’re carrying on with Caleb, too? Can’t you see how that’s gonna hurt your daddy? Can’t you see how that makes you just like your mama?”

Reana Mae stood abruptly, pushing Harley Boy away. “I ain’t a bit like my mama,” she spat at him. “You take that back right now!”

“But just look at it, Reana,” Harley pleaded softly, urgently. “I ain’t saying you’re exactly like her. But you’re carryin’ on shameful-like. And can’t you see how folks are talking about it, all up and down the river? Grandmaw says it’s so, and that’s the Lord’s plain and honest truth. They’re talking, and you ought to know it!”

“You think I give a shit what folks on this river say about me?” Reana Mae’s voice rose.

“Well, you ought to give a shit. Lord knows, you ought to. ’Cause this time they’re right. You’re eleven years old, Reana Mae Colvin. And Caleb, why he’s near onto nineteen, if he ain’t already. He’s a growed-up adult. Plus he’s your own blood-kin. That’s wrong, Reana. It’s purely wrong.”