The Ghosts of Varner Creek (23 page)

Uncle Colby told him, "You’d best be having a look over here, Gus," and walked over to the back of the wagon.

Sheriff Covell followed him over and looked in as Uncle Colby pulled back the sheet Aunt Emma had placed over Sarah's bundle. He gave her a long look over, then leaned back away from the wagon, tossed the rest of his fried chicken off to the side and wiped his hands on his pants. "Hell's bells," he said. "I reckon I shouldn't’ve been so believing after all. I really had it in my mind they had gone off somewhere and we would of heard from 'em any time now. Which one is that, Annie or her young 'un?"

"It's Sarah, my niece," Uncle Colby told him.

“
Where'd you find her?” asked the sheriff.

“
Down at the creek, near a bend in a little hollow weighed down with some rocks. Didn’t find Annie, but she might be somewhere in there, too, I reckon.”

“
Lord oh mighty,” said the sheriff. “Well, I'll get some boys down there and check for Annie soon as I can. What with these rains, though, might be she’s been washed down to the Gulf by now.” He looked over at me and said sincerely, "I'm deeply sorry, Sol. I mean that. Ain't nothin' I can think to say 'cept how sorry I am any of this has happened."

He turned back to Uncle Colby and said with his back to us in a whisper neither George nor I could hear. "You reckon Abram done it?"

Uncle Colby hated to admit it, but there wasn't any other way of seeing things, "Seems like. I gave him some chicken wire just like what's here while back when we was making a little pen for the horse and wagon they had, and he kept the leftover."

"Well," said the sheriff, "I don't see much point in holding out for any silver lining in these clouds here anymore," he told Uncle Colby. "I’m just about done hoping for the better of things in this here situation. I think if the young 'un here was killed, so was the Mama. I’m awfully sorry for y’all’s loss, Colby, but I promise I’m going to take care of this. How'd y’all manage to find her anyhow?"

"Sol says he knew where to look. We checked the well back at Abram and Annie's, but didn't find nothing 'cept what he said was part of a tooth. I reckon him and his daddy have been down there at the creek times past and it struck him that's where she might be."

Uncle Colby didn't mention anything about ghosts and dreams. There wasn't much point in stirring that pot.

"Well, I reckon I best be off to find Abram. It’s judgment day for that boy. I'd better get a holt of him before Marcus finds out, though. He ain't back is he?"

"I ain't seen him yet," replied Uncle Colby, still in a hushed voice.

"That's good, I reckon. If he finds out before I have a chance to bring Abram in I bet we'd be needing ourselves two caskets ‘stead of just the one, and I've got to try and keep things from gettin' out of hand when folks find out," said the Sheriff. “It ain’t gonna be easy, though. Folks ain’t gonna take this too well. And the last thing we need is a lynch mob.”

"Might serve him right," said Uncle Colby as he looked back at the bundle under the sheet. "I didn't think he had it in him." Despite their whispering, I could just make out that last line. He’d tell me the rest of the conversation years later, but even then I already knew who he was talking about, and everybody in town would know pretty soon.

"I guess you'll be wanting to talk with Doc Wilkins," said the Sheriff. The town doctor served as both physician and mortician. There was a carpenter in town that put together the caskets, but Dr. Wilkins walked the families through their time of need.

"Yessir. And I reckon you got your own work to do," Uncle Colby told him with a bit of suggestion. He knew Uncle Marcus was due back any time, not to mention what somebody else might do. Even he was having very violent feelings about Pap at the moment, and he was one of the only people Pap could consider a friend, yet despite himself he didn’t want to see Pap lynched. Of course even if somebody did go vigilante and shoot Pap dead, it'd probably just be cutting out the formalities. Anybody who killed a child, especially a retarded child, and sunk the body in the creek for the crabs, wasn't going to get any leniency out of the Christian people of Varner Creek. Even those that weren't such good Christians would become ones on the day they went into the town hall in witness of a trial like this one would bring. They'd be clean, sober, and full of the word. An eye for an eye and death for a death. Uncle Colby knew Pap didn't have a chance in front of judge or jury.

Each man went to his own tasks. The sheriff ducked into his office for a moment and emerged again wearing his sidearm and holding a rifle. He normally didn't go through town with his guns, but he was no slouch with a firearm. Varner Creek was just too quiet for that sort of thing, and the women had grown a habit at frowning at any man who came to town with guns attached. It just wasn't a socially acceptable thing to do here. Besides, the only trouble the town really knew was the occasional barroom fight that got out of hand, and only once in a blue moon would somebody turn up shot. They'd never had a child murdered before.

The Sheriff walked down towards a group of houses in town. He lived in one and a few doors down lived the mayor. He'd tell him the news and ask the mayor to find a few strong fellas to accompany the sheriff over to Pap’s place. Uncle Colby left the wagon sitting in front of the sheriff's office with the brake on and went looking for Dr. Wilkins in the same direction. He asked George and me to sit tight so that nobody walking by would peek under the sheet and cause a scene. As they both walked off George asked me, "You reckon the sheriff goin' to go after your daddy?"

"I'm pretty sure," I told him. "I didn’t want to think he’d done it, but looks like he did."

We sat up on the seat of the wagon and George looked back at Sarah under the sheet, "I can't believe that's her," he said. "I reckon that means you really did see her that night out at our place, huh?"

The face in the bucket of water, the footprints by the bed, "Yeah, it was her."

"Damn," he said, "I've heard all them stories about ghosts but figured they was just meant to scare people. I didn't never think they was real as that. I believed you and all, but damn . . . it’s just so, so . . . well it just don’t seem like it could be real."

"It was real," I told him. "She found me, and that’s how I found her. I went looking for her like she had done, and she showed me where to look."

George felt the hairs go up on the back of his neck. It was creepy enough thinking Sarah's ghost had been right there next to him while he slept that night, but now he had an image of her murdered and hidden there in the creek. The idea of it sent chills down his side. "You reckon he’s killed Aunt Annie, too?" he asked.

I thought about her and whether or not she’d been sunk like Sarah, but maybe had floated up and was carried away. The thought that she, too, had suffered like Sarah and was somewhere lonely with no one to find her brought more tears to my eyes.

"I'm sorry," said George quickly.

"It's all right," I told him. "It ain't you. It's just that Sarah's gone, and Mama, too, but I don't know where she is. And it looks like Pap’s what done it, and I just don't know what's going to happen no more."

"It'll be okay," said George "You can come and live with us. You'll see, it'll all work out." His effort at comforting me touched me. These were good people, my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins. Why couldn’t we have ended up like them, a real family?

Aunt Emma came walking up with Francine and Amber. The two girls looked at the wagon with trepidation. They had been told the day's events in a quick summary and were both afraid to come near to where Sarah was. Amber started crying and holding on to Aunt Emma as they came closer. Francine looked like she wasn't sure how she was supposed to act. She stared blankly at the wagon and us. "Where's your daddy at?" Aunt Emma asked George.

"He went to go fetch Dr. Wilkins," he answered. "Sheriff gone down that-a-ways, too." He pointed off in the direction both men had headed.

After a while Uncle Colby returned with Dr. Wilkins, a slender man with thinning black hair that was immaculately waxed back on his head, and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose. He came walking beside Uncle Colby and pulled the sheet back a bit when he reached the wagon. Francine and Amber both instinctively looked. Amber clutched Aunt Emma even tighter and Francine let out a gasp. "Let the little children come unto me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these," said the Doctor quietly. He was apparently as well versed as Miss Thomas. Before he decided to become a physician he had considered seminary school, but he’d found his true calling in medicine. He turned to Uncle Colby and said, "We'd better get her in my office so we can get her cleaned up." Uncle Colby walked the horse and wagon down towards the Doctor's office and once there carried the bundle inside. Aunt Emma went in with him and told us children to wait outside.

A few minutes passed when Miss Thomas came hurrying up towards us. She lived just a few more houses down and it seemed that somehow word had reached her. I was leaning against the wagon looking towards the doctor's door, wondering what they were talking about inside, when she rushed up to me and threw her arms around me saying, "Oh, darling, I'm so sorry. I just heard, dear. Gus . . . I mean the sheriff, he just dropped in and told me." Her cheeks were moist and her powder rubbed off on me as she held me. "Everything is going to be okay, child," she said. She let go of the hug but continued to hold me by the shoulder saying, "Are you all right, dear?"

Hell, no
, I thought. "Yes, ma'am," I said.

She stroked my hair and asked, "Where's your Aunt and Uncle gone to?"

"They inside," said Francine "talking to Doc Wilkins." Her lack of an "are" in her sentence didn't get corrected, for once.

Miss Thomas walked up to the door, helloed the house, and entered. A minute or two later she and Aunt Emma came out. They came over to the wagon and Aunt Emma climbed up. "We're going to go on home," Aunt Emma told us. "Uncle Colby's gonna stay and make arrangements with Dr. Wilkins, who’ll give him a ride back later on this evening."

"If y’all need a thing in the world, Emma, you just let me know," said Miss Thomas.

"We will, Miss Thomas, and I do appreciate it." They reached out and held each other's hand for a moment before Aunt Emma slapped the reins, "Come on, Joe."

He started with a grunt and we headed home. Francine and Amber were both unnerved at the idea of sitting in the back, and Amber was latched on to Aunt Emma again, so George and I sat in the rear of the wagon as we went along. Francine kept looking back at me like she wanted to say something, but wasn't sure what.

"Quit yer gawking," George finally told her.

"Sorry," she said, and didn't look back anymore.

As I learned later, over the next few hours while we were home getting ready for supper, Uncle Colby was back at Sheriff Covell's office having a discussion with him. "You wouldn't have any idea of where he'd be likely to go, would yah?" he was being asked by the sheriff.

"No sir, far as I knew he was still at work today."

"Well, that was the first place we went," said the sheriff, "but Mr. Pyle said Abram skinned out early, not long after you left for the day, he said. We went over to his place but couldn't find hide nor hair of him. I reckon we'll try again tonight, though, and he'll probably be there. All his belongings were still in place so I don't think he's gone anywhere without meaning to return soon. Not unless he’s somehow found out we got a body, but that doesn’t seem likely. I’m trying to keep it quiet for now, but come tomorrow it’ll be out."

Uncle Colby just looked at the Sheriff. And he thought about what was going to happen to Pap tomorrow if they caught him. "I just didn't think he had it in him," he repeated.

Chapter 13

When Uncle Colby returned later that night we were all asleep except for Aunt Emma. I had cried so much during the day that I felt spent, and I was out when my head hit the pillow. Crying, as we all learn in life, is an exhausting thing that wears one out, both emotionally and physically. My sleep was deep, and no dreams of dark places came to me. I was awakened in the night by Aunt Emma, who was gently hugging me and whispering, "Sol? Sol, you awake, now, baby?"

"Yes ma'am," I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"Sol, I need you come on into the front room, we’ve got to talk to you."

She held me by the hand as we walked into the big room. She was in her nightgown, but Uncle Colby and Uncle Marcus were there as well and they were both fully dressed. I remember wondering when Uncle Marcus had come back. I had no idea what time it was, but it felt like the middle of the night.

"Hey, Uncle Marcus, guess you heard," I told him.

He looked at me with softness and pity. "Yes, I've heard. And there’s been some other things that’ve happened we got to tell you 'bout." I wasn't sure what more could have happened after the day I’d already had, but it didn’t sound too good.

Aunt Emma asked me to sit down next to her on a sofa Uncle Colby had bought for her some years back for her birthday. Uncle Colby sat in a nearby chair he'd made by hand, and Uncle Marcus pulled up one of the kitchen table chairs. "What we’ve got to tell you about ain't easy," started Aunt Emma, "especially considering all what's happened. We was goin' to wait 'til morning, but decided it’d be bes' to do it while the others are asleep." She looked over at Uncle Colby for strength, but when she started to speak again she either couldn't find the words or couldn’t find the nerve.