The Ghosts of Varner Creek (14 page)

Amber was too little at the time but George and Francine came out to see what the alarm was. George was rubbing the sleep out from his eyes, "Mama?"

"Hush up and git you back to bed," she told him. "Both of you," and she waved her hand at Francine, too.

The little girl disappeared in her room but George, who was younger than me, stood innocently staring at me, Sarah, and particularly at Mama, who at this point was trying to hide her face as best she could.

Aunt Emma had started to her own room to get Uncle Colby but she wheeled back around when she sensed George was still standing there, "What'd I tell you, George? Get back in bed right now!" And she said it with such intimidation he instantly ran back to bed, his feet pit-patting on the hardwood floors as he went.

Uncle Colby was still snoring away. "It's like trying to wake the dead," Aunt Emma whispered to herself as she climbed on the bed and started poking at him. "Wake up, honey. Annie's here and she’s hurt real bad. You’ve got to get up."

Colby rolled over and groaned, "Huh? What's all the fuss?"

"I said Annie’s here and she’s been hurt real bad."

Uncle Colby had started rolling over again to go back to sleep but he leaned up a little when the words registered, "She’s hurt? What's wrong with her?" He got out of bed and started putting on his suspender pants.

Emma waited until he had his buttons done to make sure she had his full attention, "Abram. Abram done gone and beat her into a bloody mess, that's what's wrong with her."

Uncle Colby was pulling up his last strap over his shoulders and paused, "Abram?

Abram done beat Annie?"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, hon. Yes! He done gone and beat her worse than I ever seen anybody get beat. You go on and have a look at her and see for yourself."

He came walking out of the bedroom and saw us all huddled together like refugees. He brought the lamp with him and when he held it up, Mama raised her hand because she didn't want him to see. "Annie," he said, "Go on and let me see what he done."

She reluctantly lowered her arm and he let out a long exhale. "God damn that boy," he said. "I don't know what the hell’s wrong with him."

Emma walked out from behind him and looked at Mama's face. "Something’s going to have to be done about this," she declared. She was getting redder by the minute. She looked Uncle Colby in the eyes and said, "Do you hear me, hon? Something’s gonna have to be done about this."

He lowered the lamp and looked at his wife, "Well, what you want done, Emma? You want me to go and fetch the sheriff?"

"Hell, no, I don't want you fetch the sheriff," Aunt Emma said incredulously. "What’s he gonna do? Not a damned thing, that's what."

Uncle Colby was upset at what Pap had done but he was also tired and didn't want to have to make guesses at what Aunt Emma wanted to do about things. "So what you want me to do?" he asked poignantly.

"I want you to go over there and beat him like he did my sister, that's what," she said. "Let him know what it feels like. Hell, if you don't, I will," she let him know. And none of us there doubted that she meant it.

Mama didn't want to stir things up between Emma and Colby so she tried to calm Emma's spirits a little, "It's okay, Emma. This ain't none of y’all's concern."

Aunt Emma just let it roll off, though, "Oh, the hell it ain't, Annie. Ain't no man got no right to beat up a woman, specially one that’s as small as you, and specially if that woman is my blood. He's going to answer, by God. One way or another he's going to answer."

And such was her determination that Colby agreed to take action so that she wouldn‘t. "Where’s he at now?" he asked Mama.

"He's home sleeping off the drink," she said.

Uncle Colby told Aunt Emma, "Ain't no good doin' nothin' about it tonight when he’s still drunk. It’d be bes' to catch him tommorra when he’s sober and got his wits about him."

Aunt Emma really wanted to see something done tonight, and if she had it her way it'd be to see Abram strung up by his balls, but in the end she accepted her husband's advice. "Fine then. But first thing tomorrow when you see him, all right?"

“
All right, Emma. I will.” Aunt Emma gave him a look like she wasn't quite sure to believe him. “I will, Emma. I promise.” And when she finally seemed content he went back to bed.

Aunt Emma took some quilts she had stored in her bedroom and some extra blankets from out of the children's room and made us three a big square of blankets in the main area to sleep on. We cuddled up with one another and slept, Sarah on one side of Mama and me on the other.

Pap always walked to Mr. Pyle's farm on a specific route. It led him to enter the farm from the Northwest corner that bordered a thicket of trees. It was under one of these trees that Colby decided he'd wait for Pap the next morning. He was later than usual, no doubt nursing a hangover and possibly worried over the prospect of whether or not there'd be trouble waiting for him, but he was still on his way. He knew that since Annie wasn't there that morning she must have taken the kids over to her sister's house. He remembered beating her up, but through the fog of intoxication couldn't remember how bad. He wondered if his old friend was going to be waiting for him, ready to tell him how wrong he was for doing it, but he didn't have to wonder long.

Colby stood up to greet him when Pap came popping out of some trees. When Pap saw Colby he froze. For a split second he thought about running. Colby was a big man, after all. He had known him for years and couldn't imagine that he was going to have any real trouble with him, but the sight of him standing there with that serious look on his face gave Pap pause. Surely he wasn't here to start a fight, Pap thought.

"Annie and the kids walked over last night," Uncle Colby said.

He had some chew in his mouth and spit out a bit, "Figured. How bad was she?"

"About as bad as I've seen. Why'd you go and to that that to her for?"

Pap was a little scared of where this was going so he chose he words carefully. "She’s been giving me lot of trouble for some time now."

"What kind of trouble that she deserved that?" asked Colby.

Pap stared down at his feet with his hands in his pocket. "She ain’t been doing her wifely duties, for one. She been actin’ high and mighty, like she’s too good for me.” Colby didn’t look satisfied, “Hell, Colby, you know I ain't never want to marry that girl. Only reason I did 'cause she got pregnant. But I stayed, didn’t I? Not like I had much choice. You remember?"

"You got her pregnant," Colby said. "You can't be hatin' her for that."

The talking had allowed Pap to regain some of his nerve, "I can hate her for that and then some if I want. She’s my wife. And what business is it of yours if we get to arguing?"

"She’s my wife’s sister," he told Pap. "And that means I gotta look after her since her daddy’s dead and brother ain’t here no more." With that he started towards Pap with his fists up.

Pap didn't have much time to be surprised. By the time he realized that, indeed, Colby had come to start a fight, he was already in it. Colby’s arms were like tree branches and the first hit nearly knocked Pap out, but he wasn’t drunk now and was able to counter with some of his own. It was never really a fair contest, though. The years of hard work had made Colby fit as a prizefighter and strong as a bull. He could’ve ripped Pap limb from limb if he’d really had a mind to, but as it was, he didn't have it in him to put the kind of beating on Pap that he had given Mama. In fact, he took a few good licks himself because of his restraint. He told me once he pitied Pap in a way, and just wished Pap would find a way to get right with himself. He still left Pap with something to think about, though. When his last punch flattened Pap out on the ground with a busted lip and a terrible black eye, Colby decided Pap had had enough.

As Pap lay there trying to catch his breath, Colby sat down to do the same. Pap told him, "I never did think we'd end up like this. I thought we’d have ourselves lots of land and be rich.”

Colby opened his mouth, but finding nothing worthwhile to pass through his lips, closed it again.

So Pap kept talking, "I should have left. I still could. I should just up and leave 'em all."

Colby was tired of listening to Pap constantly complain about the sour hand he'd been dealt in life. His hadn't been much better but he’d made the most of it. "You should quit yer belly achin', is what you should do. And don't be beatin' on Annie no more. I mean it. I don’t never want to see her looking the way she does right now again. It ain’t right. Now come on and let's get to work." And with that he got up and walked off into the fields nearby. Pap lay in the thicket a bit longer. Eventually he hauled himself up, though, and since there was nothing else to be done about things, he went to work, too.

Right about the time Pap and Colby were having their man to man, Mama and Aunt Emma were in the kitchen fixing us kids something to eat. Normally, Aunt Emma would make her own kids get up at dawn with her and Uncle Colby to eat and start the day's chores, but today she decided it'd be easier to have them sleep a little later and make a separate breakfast. She didn't want them staring at Mama over their eggs, either, so she made a mental note that she would pull them aside and tell them as much before they sat down to eat.

We stayed at Aunt Emma's for nearly a week that winter back in 1900. Aunt Emma stayed in contact with Uncle Marcus via letters and Mama was tempted to write one herself and ask if he couldn't help her by moving us all like he had done with their own mother and Candace, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She and Marcus hardly ever corresponded themselves. Besides, Marcus was apparently in the middle of relocating down to Galveston to help rebuild the rail lines from the great storm. He had distanced himself from Annie and even though she realized her mistakes now, she didn't think Marcus would excuse them. He’d been so hurt when she married Pap.

I don’t know what it was in Pap that made him decide he missed and needed Mama after all, but after a few days he came over and begged her for her forgiveness. It seemed sincere enough as they sat outside for privacy and he poured his heart out to her about how horrible it had been for him as a child and how he had stayed in Varner Creek trying to become a better man by taking care of her and the baby they had, and about how he needed his family to keep himself sane. Mama never really forgave him, but she knew she couldn't stay in Uncle Colby and Aunt Emma's house forever, and Pap made promises.

“
You’re going to go back to him?” asked Emma that night when Mama told her what she’d decided.

“
There ain’t much else I can do, is there?” said Mama.

Aunt Emma told Mama she could stay with them, but Mama had already made up her mind. Aunt Emma told me years later she’d always wished she’d handled those days differently. “I should have seen then just how bad he was,” she had told me. “You’re Mama had tried to tell me back when she first met your daddy about some of his ways, but I didn’t listen. I just didn’t see him doin’ the things he did.”

I told Aunt Emma that she couldn’t have seen what was to come. I know it always bothered her, though, wondering if she didn’t have some blame for not doing more.

So a few days after Mama told Aunt Emma her decision, we went back home.

Things were much better for the next few months. Pap drank less and kept his voice down. I was still scared of him from what’d I’d seen that night and tried to stay out of his way as best I could, but it’s tough when you’re in a small house and there’s not much to do in the country. Mainly I just tagged around after Mama helping her with her daily chores or going to pick pecans and blackberries. Sarah normally came, too, but she was limited by her condition a bit. And on those occasions when it was just Mama and me, I must confess I enjoyed that stolen time.

Things seemed like they had finally settled down for us all and might work out okay, but after a while they took to arguing again. Pap didn't beat her like that one night but he did slap her on occasion. When Aunt Emma found out she was furious. She had Colby talk to Pap again, not the fist-fighting kind of talk, but one where Colby would warn him repeatedly about slapping Mama around and let him know that if she showed up on his doorstep again looking that way she did that one night, he‘d do the same to Pap and then some. After a while, though, Mama stopped telling Aunt Emma when Pap hit her. It wasn't doing any good except to cause a rift within her and Colby's marriage, Emma always getting on to Colby to get on to Pap, so Mama left it alone. When Aunt Emma saw Mama with bruises or red marks about her, though, she knew where they were coming from, but Mama wouldn’t let her get Colby involved. “It ain’t gonna do no good, Emma, and he ain’t bad like he used to be.”

“
But Annie, he ain’t got no right! I can’t stand by why my blood’s gettin’ beat on.”

“
Just let it be, Emma. He ain’t beatin’ me no more. He just loses his temper now and then and pushes me around, but it ain’t nothing to be worryin’ about. He’s just like that, and he ain’t never gonna change.” Aunt Emma was still skeptical and didn’t like things a bit, but Mama said again, “Just let it be. Things is fine.” It was Mama’s indifference again, and while I don’t think it really didn’t weigh on her, pretending like it didn’t is how she got by. Aunt Emma was always watching, though, and now that she understood what Mama had told her all those years ago, she wasn’t about to let Pap pull the wool over her eyes again.