The Promise of Jesse Woods (36 page)

Verle laughed, then pointed toward the road. “Chicago is that way. As far as we’re concerned, it’s a one-way road. You understand?”

I nodded.

“We’re going to follow you. If you try to turn around, you’ll get more than a headache.”

I opened the car door and fell inside. Verle came to the door. “This is it, Plumley. Don’t come back before the wedding.”

“Don’t worry,” I said.

He slammed the door and when I turned on the ignition, the radio was all the way up and Eddie Rabbitt sang “You Can’t Run from Love.” I turned it off and drove with his voice echoing in my soul, Verle’s headlights blinding me in the rearview.

After a few miles, I settled into a rhythm and held the bottle of Mountain Dew to the back of my head. The capsules released and the pain lessened. The truck headlights receded until they became specks. And then they were gone.

I thought about Eddie Rabbitt’s words and an old TV show came to mind—Chuck Connors getting his sword broken.
“Wherever you go for the rest of your life you must prove you’re a man.”
That’s how I felt about Jesse. I would
always care. But some things simply can’t be. And with that truth came a release, that I could let her go and move on. But alongside that thought came echoes of my father, the way he had lived and retreated from Blackwood. Was I free or imitating what I had seen?

It was a little past four and there was no light coming from the horizon. I pulled into a gas station off the interstate and found some loose change. If I kept driving, I would be home late morning and I could begin the search for Dantrelle. I didn’t have a good feeling about him.

I found a pay phone and slipped the coins in and the phone rang once. Jesse picked up, her voice groggy.

“I thought I’d better let you know I’m okay,” I said.

“I was hoping you’d call. What happened?”

“They made sure I was headed north.”

“Where are you?”

“Cincinnati.”

“Is your head okay?”

“I’m fine. Did you call Earl?”

“Yeah.”

“You two okay?”

“I told him what happened and he said if it was him, he would have come back too.”

“That’s understanding. Maybe you’re right, Jesse. Maybe he’s different.”

“He is, Matt,” she said, her voice fading.

“You have to work today?”

“Yeah,” she said. “But I get all next week off.”

“Where are you going on the honeymoon?”

She didn’t answer, and I could only imagine the exotic place Earl had picked. “So I guess this is good-bye,” I said.

There was a rustling on the other end of the line. A truck pulling in behind me blasted its air brakes. I plugged my other ear and listened to Jesse.

“I did cut you out of my life, Matt. I know I hurt you. I think it was best for everybody, but I’m sorry.”

I searched for something to say but nothing came.

“That was sweet of you to come back. I appreciate it. And I wish you all the best.”

I swallowed hard and closed my eyes. “I wish you all the happiness in the world, Jesse. And I’m sorry if I made things harder.”

She didn’t speak for a moment and I thought maybe she’d fallen asleep. Then she said, “If it wasn’t for you, Matt . . .”

“You wouldn’t have been able to afford that bicycle.”

“I got a long list of questions for God. Why some things happened and some didn’t. I keep them on a sheet of paper in a keepsake box. Most people only keep the bad stuff you can’t figure. But there’s another I started. Things I’m grateful for. Good things I didn’t see for a long time. You’re at the top of the list. Thank you.”

I said good-bye and meant it. When I hung up the phone, it was like putting a three-hundred-pound weight in a rack. And that’s what it was. A surrender. A laying down of arms.

I walked to my car and sat near the air pump, letting the fatigue and pain coalesce. Fully awake now, I started the
car and headed toward Indianapolis. About fifty miles from the city I stopped at a pancake restaurant and found a pay phone near the restrooms. I knew I should call my parents.

“Hello?”

“Didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“No, we’re up early,” my father said. There was a flurry in the background. “Your mother has some news.”

“Matt, I’m so glad you called. They found him! They found Dantrelle!”

“What? Really?” I couldn’t contain my joy.

“Kristin called a half hour ago.”

“Where was he?”

“His mother was arrested and Dantrelle was put in foster care. He’s fine, Matt.”

My heart sank—I was glad Dantrelle was safe, but the news of his mother was another hurdle. I thought of Kristin finding him and how she must have felt. It made the rest of the drive back feel less stressful.

“What time did you leave this morning?” my mother said.

“Early,” I said, avoiding the details. “I’ll be in Chicago in a few hours.”

My mother handed the phone back to my father.

“I’m proud of you, for coming to terms with all of this. I’m relieved. I think it’s best for everybody.”

I thanked him and hung up with an unsettled feeling. Was it something he had said? Jesse? Thinking it might be my empty stomach, I sat at the counter and ordered pancakes. I thought of calling Kristin to find out more about the situation, but I would be back in the city later.

As I poured syrup and took a bite, the smell and taste sparked something. It’s funny how tastes can turn pages in the mind. I thought of Mr. Caldwell, retired from the sheriff’s department. The sweet smell of pancakes and syrup brought up something he had said.

“When I pulled up, your daddy was talking to her.”

I stared at my food. Another memory, ever so slight—a moment when Jesse had said something revealing. When I had brought up her promise, she had muttered something.

“Some promises cancel others.”

Was she talking about her promise to marry Earl? Or was there some other promise she had made?

Then, Jesse’s words—
“I think it was best for everybody.”

My father had said the same exact words to me.

“Is something wrong?” the waitress said.

I looked up, holding my fork halfway between the plate and my mouth. It was as if time had stopped. I could feel every heartbeat. Suddenly all the blurry things came into focus.

“Are you all right?” the woman said.

“Yeah, I think I am.”

“Something wrong with the pancakes?”

“Not at all. I like them crisp on the edges. Like my grandmother used to make them.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” she said, wiping down the counter.

I looked at the clock and calculated how long it would take me to get back to Dogwood. And after I left a tip, I got change to make more phone calls.

OCTOBER 1972

The day after I met Jesse’s father, I found Dickie at school again. He saw me coming and walked the other way down the long hallway that smelled like WWII chewing gum. I caught up to him near the library.

“What do you want now?”

“I’m looking for a breakthrough,” I said.

I hoped he would smile but he didn’t. When he walked away, I grabbed his arm. “This is not about you and me or my brother or your dad. This is about Jesse. She needs our help.”

“I’m done with you, Plumley.”

“They took Daisy. We have to help Jesse find her.”

“No. I don’t have to help. But you need to let go of my arm.”

I forged ahead. “If you could talk with her cousins, maybe they know something they’re not telling me.”

“I don’t go near those people,” Dickie said.

“You don’t care what happens to Daisy?”

“Don’t try the guilt trip. Let go.” When I didn’t, he clenched his teeth. “You want me to pretend everything is fine between us. It’s not.”

“I know that. I can’t help what my brother did. I’m sorry about your dad. If I could do something about it, I would.”

“You lied to me.”

“I never lied.”

“Every day you didn’t tell me your brother ran to Canada, you lied.”

“Dickie, he didn’t want to get killed. What does that make him?”

“A coward.”

“Okay, he’s a coward. He should have gone to war. I wish he wasn’t scared. But he’s my brother. And I miss him, just like you miss your dad.”

Kids passed us in the hall but unlike during a schoolyard brawl, no one congregated.

“You lied every day you didn’t tell me about Jesse’s mom.”

“I promised her. Please, we need—”

Dickie pushed me to the wall. “Stop talking to me. I’m done.”

It was like the end of some sad movie. Like shooting
Old Yeller and moving on. Watching Dickie walk away made me want to cry, but I knew I couldn’t.

All through classes I tried to figure out a way to find Daisy. I could pretend to be somebody else and make a phone call. At lunch I tracked down every cousin of Jesse’s I could find, but there was nothing new. On the bus ride home I looked in the windows of every house we passed, hoping Daisy would peek out by chance and I could tell Jesse where she was.

As the bus rumbled, more questions surfaced. What would Jesse do if she found Daisy? And what about her father? Jesse never wanted to see her dad, Dickie longed to have his father return, and I was ashamed of my father.

I looked at the hill behind my grandmother’s house. That we were still living in that house felt crazy—we were supposed to be in the parsonage, but Blackwood was stringing us along, keeping my father under his thumb. I didn’t see any smoke on the hilltop. Where was Jesse? Was her father still at their house?

I rode my bike to Jesse’s but the house looked empty. A little further up the road I saw two figures standing by the gate at Blackwood’s farm. I hid my bike in a grove of autumn olives by the road and crept through the woods until I got close enough to hear them.

“I got the deed back at the house,” Jesse’s father said with a crusty cough. “I just have to get it altered and we’re good to go.”

Blackwood looked at him like he was a stain. “What kind of change you talking about?”

“A technicality. It won’t take long.”

“What kind of technicality?” Blackwood said, spitting in the road.

“That wife of mine signed the deed over to my daughter. I just got to get her to sign it back to me.” He held out a hand to shake. “So we’re agreed on the price, right?”

“We’re agreed,” Blackwood said. “Get the deed situated and I’ll get the lawyer to make sure everything is copacetic.”

“I’ll get it done.”

“You have to find that daughter of yours first. Sheriff was by here this morning asking if I’d seen her.”

“I’ll find her. She’s likely with my kin over on Gobbler’s Knob—that’s where they took the younger one. Spent all day finding a social worker who would tell me the truth.”

“Well, you better get over there. Meet me tomorrow or the deal’s off.”

Jesse’s father turned to leave, then stopped. “You don’t reckon I could borrow your truck tonight?”

“I don’t trust the likes of you with nothing of mine,” Blackwood said.

Jesse’s father smiled and waved his hand. “It don’t matter. I’ll get a ride.”

I found Jesse on the hill trying to cook potatoes on a fire that wouldn’t stay lit because of the rain. Dark clouds hung and creeks swelled.

I told Jesse what I’d heard and when I mentioned Gobbler’s Knob, she perked up. “That’s where Daisy is?”

“That’s what he said.”

“I can get there by riding past the haunted house.”

“No, he’s going there to look for you. You can’t go.”

“I’m not letting him near my sister. I’m going to bring her back.”

“Jesse, that’s like a dog chasing a car. What do you do after you catch it?”

She got up and wiped the seat of her jeans. “I promised my mama. I keep my promises.”

I followed her down the hill, trying to talk sense into her, slipping and sliding. I told her it would be dark soon and that the roads would be muddy. She didn’t listen.

She cut through the woods near our house and moved through the wet leaves to the road. I grabbed two flashlights from the garage and hopped on my bike, reaching her house as she ran out.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she said.

“I’m going with you.”

“No, you ain’t. Go back.”

When she got on the bike, I saw a lump under her T-shirt in the back. A hundred yards past the Blackwood farm, she turned. I was keeping pace but just barely. Rain was steady now.

“You’re not going with me, Matt.”

“You need a flashlight. It’s going to be late when you get there. And you’ll probably need somebody to create a diversion.”

“I don’t need your help.”

She stood on her pedals and rode hard to the base of the hill. Then she got off and pushed, glancing back. I clicked
the flashlight twice and pulled up beside her. I couldn’t believe how much stronger I had become since moving to Dogwood.

“If you go now, you’ll be home for dinner,” Jesse said. “Your parents are going to have a fit.”

“They’ll get over it.”

She stopped at the top of the hill to catch her breath. “This is the last time I’m telling you. If I go alone, nobody knows. I get Daisy and slip away. Then you can help. But if you come along, there’s going to be a posse.”