The Wedding Gift (18 page)

When I said it, I leaned
over and took the beer from his hand and drank deep, then I put my
mouth back on his to share it. He kissed me back nice and slow, but
then he sat up looking a little shamefaced. Donny told me to get
dressed, and that made us both start laughing because by now I was
dressed again in the same tiny bikini I had been wearing when he
showed up.

Donny said my
“
damn bikini was smaller than that rock on
your finger
.” His face got all dark and
sulky when he said it. I smiled to myself because I knew that meant
he didn’t like me having another man’s ring on my finger at all. I
was getting ready to tell him how I had ended up with George in the
first place but then, shoot, we saw Maria driving in the gates.
Both Donny and I sat up, trying to look as respectable as a girl in
a bikini and Oklahoma’s hottest man - who was not wearing a shirt -
could look.

Sweet little Maria got out
of her old car and looked over at us kind of puzzled. I introduced
her to “
my old family
friend
” Donny and, if she thought there was
any more to it, she didn’t let on. She just asked real politely if
she could bring us anything. I said no, and then damn if Donny
didn’t ask her for another beer if she wouldn’t mind? He flashed
his pearly whites at her and poor Maria got all gushy and blushy
and ran in the house as quick as she could and was back out with
his beer in about one minute flat. Then she just stood there
staring at him all goggle-eyed. I liked Maria real good, and I
understood her wanting to look at Donny too, but I needed to be
alone with him, so I got kind of haughty, and asked her to go start
dinner. When I did that, Donny looked at me like he didn’t know who
the hell was talking.

Then when Maria was gone,
he just whistled real low and said “
Miz
Leeann would like her dinner now. Shit, when did you get to be such
a Willets girl?
”

Oh I just hated him saying
that and I explained that I was not now, and never would be, a real
Willets … that I just wanted to be able to talk to him undisturbed
and couldn’t think of a better excuse. I said that he had me a
little flustered from our afternoon delight and all, and I put my
hand on his hard stomach to make my point.

He looked at me and
grinned, and allowed that he was a little shook up about that
himself, especially since he had come out here to talk to me about
something serious, but he said the sight of me in my black bikini
and green hair, had just driven it out of his head. I laughed with
him at that, and took the opportunity to ask him where Carlene was,
but he just said “
Later
”.

Which by the way, I hate it
when people say later to me, but I just acted sweet as pie and
said, “
Okay Donny, what was it you wanted
to say to me then?
” He was acting real
serious again and he told me that he had come out to tell me what
had happened to him and Charlie here all those years
ago.

He said he had never told
anyone, and he would appreciate it if I did the same, because if
anyone ever heard about this, “
he would be
hauled off to the funny farm
.” I told him
that I thought maybe I knew what he was going to talk about. I said
his timing was real fine because actually I had planned to come see
him the very next day and ask him what he knew about the house and
Robina. I said not to worry that I would take what he told me to
the grave which, given the subject matter, might not have been the
best choice of words, but it’s just an expression.

Donny nodded at me and then
he did the sweetest thing. He looked over his shoulder to check on
whether Maria was safely inside the house and then he took my hand
in his. He started telling me what had to be told in a real quiet
voice.

“
Leeann, I just need for
you to hear this story, because I think after you do, you’ll
realize that you can’t stay in this house another minute. I know I
don’t want you to be here
.”

Hearing him say that made
me real happy, because ghost or no ghost, of course he didn’t want
me to stay here, he couldn’t, not after what we had just done. I
imagined he would be wanting me to be with him all the time from
now on. That we were both married to other people was bad, but not
something that couldn’t be fixed.

This was Donny and, if he
wanted me, I was there. I wanted to tell him all this, but I could
see he was determined to tell me his story first, so I just
squeezed his hand and told him to tell me what had happened that
night, back when I was only a baby.

He kept my hand in his and
closed his eyes and started talking.

“
Your brother Charlie was
the best friend I ever had. We were just kids, I know, but I have
never made another friend like him. Shit, he was a wild kid even
back when we were in first grade. Why he would get up ideas that
were always landing us in trouble, setting off fireworks in the
church parking lot and shit like that. Charlie hated to be bored
and if you grow up here in Dalton, you pretty much have to make
your own fun, you know?
”

I nodded. I sure did know.
Making our fun, well that’s how Jessie and I had lived through our
own Dalton childhoods.

“
The most interesting
thing in this whole damn town was this G.D. house you’re living in
now. Back when me and Charlie was growing up, those murders were
still fresh as hell in everyone’s minds. Shit when we were little,
we even used to come to this house and trick or treat for candy at
Halloween … well candy and to look at Miz
Robina.
”

I just had to interrupt him
here.

“
Donny, what do you mean
‘look at Miz Robina’? Was there something weird about her even back
then?
”

He looked at me startled,
like a man who was miles away, and he didn’t understand what the
hell I was talking about.

“
Weird? No, Leeann, she
didn’t seem weird, we just liked to look at her because she was so
beautiful. Hell I don’t think me or anyone in Dalton had ever seen
anyone that looked even close to her
.”

Well shoot, I didn’t like
hearing Donny talk admiringly about any other girl, even a dead
one, so ignoring my mama’s admonition to let sleeping dogs lie, I
just had to ask. “
Donny, was she prettier
than I am?
”

He didn’t even grin; he was
back in some other time I guess, and he just said in this far away
voice that he guessed she was “
more
beautiful than anything he had ever seen
.”

That made me mad, so I just
told him in this real hurt tone to just go on with his story, which
he did, without even telling me that he thought I was
beautiful.

“
Yeah, so me and Charlie,
we used to bicycle by the house a lot in the years after the
murders, but you couldn’t get in the gates or anything for a long
time. Old George Willets had guards patrol the place for the first
few years on account of the media. Back then there were ghouls who
were coming from as far away as Louisiana just to take pictures of
the house. But after a few years it all died down like stuff does,
and that’s when Charlie started talking about getting inside, and
even bringing something out to prove we had been inside. Now
Charlie was a real good guy, don’t you get me wrong, but he did
love to talk about his exploits … especially to girls, and there
was this one girl - hell I can’t even remember her name - her
family moved away years ago. But, anyhow, Charlie sure did spark to
her, and she was always oohing and ahhing about how brave she
thought it would be for him to get into Willets House. Of course
you might have noticed, as I am telling this story, that when
Charlie told people at school what he was planning on doing, he
never mentioned that it would be him and me doing it. That was just
Charlie’s way, though. I didn’t really mind. He just liked a lot of
attention and, anyway, at the outset of the plan, I wasn’t really
planning to get in on it. I wasn’t scared or nothing, but I had
already been in a little trouble. The sheriff back then was Sheriff
Toomey, a real hard ass. He had told my Uncle Hank that if he
busted me again I was going up to juvie in OKC. So I wasn’t any too
anxious to get a trespassing charge with maybe a little breaking
and entering thrown in. And see, Leeann, it always seemed that no
matter what Charlie and I did, we got busted, or I did anyway, so I
was planning a pass on this one. But shit, Charlie, he just kept at
me, and I kept saying no until finally I said what the hell. But I
told him I would only go along as lookout - that was the plan. We
would both climb up that old tree outside over there,” he pointed
at the tree, “and then Charlie said he thought he could get into
the house through the attic skylight while I would just stay
outside in the tree and watch the street for the cops and anyone
else; if I saw someone I would hoot like I was an owl, and Charley
would come back outside in a hurry. That night I told my uncle that
I was staying at Charlie’s. It was just a regular night at your
house back then; your daddy barbequed for us out back, and you
caterwauled all night, and
…”

I had to punch him for
that, but he just laughed at me and then got serious again and kept
talking.

“
Randy had overheard
Charlie and I and he wanted to go with us real bad. We had to give
him five bucks to keep his mouth shut. He was supposed to make up
the beds too, so it looked like we were in them, in case your mama
checked, and also to leave the window in the room open so we could
get back in, in case he fell asleep while he was waiting up for us.
We got out the window and onto our bikes and made it over here in
about fifteen minutes. I remember the moon was real bright that
night, and it worried me some as we wouldn’t be invisible. I tried
talking Charlie into another night … one where it would be darker,
but he called me a pussy, and I called him a stupid asshole, and we
decided to just go ahead and do it. We hid our bikes across the
street under some brush, and we climbed over the fence around back
where the pool is. Damn, it was quiet that night … maybe there were
cicadas and such making noise, but I didn’t hear any and, for some
reason, me and Charlie were whispering even though we were out back
a long way from the street and there was no one could have heard
us. This house looked like it was glowing, it was so white in the
moonlight. It’s funny, but I knew then that if I had come up with
just one more excuse, Charlie would have jumped on it. But I
didn’t. We were here, and I guess I was pretty damn curious to find
out what the murder house looked like inside after all those years
of sitting empty, even though strictly speaking I would never
actually be inside, but I knew Charlie would tell me a hell of a
good story. We climbed up the tree just like we planned to and it
was real easy … it held us good too. Charlie scrambled up onto the
roof while I sat there watching him, and damn if he wasn’t right -
the attic skylight wasn’t locked at all. I guess the Willets
weren’t too worried about cat burglars or maybe they had just
forgotten it altogether. Charlie said to me in his normal voice
then ‘Hey, Don boy, I’m going in. I’ll come down and open the
window of the room by the tree here, so I can hear you hoot if
anybody is coming, all right?’
”

I shuddered in the hot sun,
because I knew which room Donny was talking about, the one by the
tree; it was my room … her room. He went on.

“
A couple minutes later,
there was Charlie. He was leaning his head out the window and
saying ‘Shoot, Don Boy, you want me to open up the balcony doors
here, so you can jump down a ways and get in? You got to see this
place; I swear to God, it looks like they just stepped out for a
walk. Shit they still got clothes hanging here in the dang closets.
Hey look, Don Boy,’ and Charlie, he was pointing at the dresser of
the bedroom he was in. He said, ‘Look at

that, Don, there’s still
pictures of Miz Robina on the dresser, that’s what we are going to
bring back, one of them pictures. Shoot everyone will know we were
here then, huh?’ Just then, while Charlie was talking to me, I
thought I heard somebody down underneath the tree, like there was
someone on the lawn. I freaked out a little and I told Charlie to
grab the fucking picture and get back out right now. He called me a
pussy again, but I could tell he was glad as hell of an excuse not
to have to explore the rest of that house. Now remember I told you
that it was real bright out that night?
”

I nodded.

“
Well it was, real bright,
and see from where I was in the tree, I could see into the bedroom
real clear. Charlie was facing me, so it was me who saw the door to
the hallway open behind him. He was facing me talking so he
couldn’t see it, and I guess he didn’t hear it either, but he could
tell from my face that something had gone wrong. He turned around
and looked too. It was her, Miz Robina, only she didn’t look
anything like I remembered her when she was alive. She was wearing
this pink robe - at least I think it was pink - and it was gaping
open so you could see one of her breasts, and her thin legs too,
but there were dark stains all over the robe, and her eyes were all
crazy. One of them looked like it was swollen shut but the other
one was looking right at me … past Charlie and right at me … and oh
Jesus, Leeann, I will die still seeing those eyes of hers. See, she
had big beautiful dark eyes when she was alive, but now it was just
big and dark, black really, and I swear to God, something was
moving in her eye. And the smell, oh shit she stunk; it was like
rotted meat even being outside the room. God it was bad. There was
maybe something worse too, ‘cause part of the skin on her face
looked like it might be coming off, and then I saw what she was
holding in her hand
.”