The Wedding Gift (31 page)

Chapter
46

We all walked real slowly
into our house, everybody including my own mama looking like
something the cat dragged in. As soon as we got inside, Daddy tore
off his clip-on tie and dropped his suit jacket on the floor. Mama
didn’t say anything. Daddy walked right over to the cabinet by the
TV, opened it up and got out two big glasses and the Wild Turkey
bottle. He poured them both full and handed one to Jessie and
started gulping from the other one. Then just in case any of us
were ever going to make the mistake of pretending this was just
another day, my mama, who has had maybe one glass of wine in her
life, said “
Charlie, why don’t you pour
another one of those for me and Leeann here?
”

Daddy didn’t even act
shocked; he just went back to the cabinet and did it. He tried to
hand me mine but I waved it away. He just shrugged and gulped from
it too.

Mama said
“
Leeann, Honey, I think maybe you had
better drink that and also get yourself some ice for that elbow …
it’s starting to swell
.” As she said, that
she took a long swallow from her own drink. She choked and made a
face but dived right back in, finishing the whole glass and holding
it out for Daddy, who didn’t say anything but just dumped some of
his into her glass. I said to Mama that I didn’t want anything to
drink because I thought I might be pregnant again. She looked over
at me, and said “
Oh well, that’s real
nice, Honey
.”

Any of these actions might
have by now indicated to you that maybe the funeral hadn’t gone so
well. Oh no, not very well at all. Looking around the room at my
daddy leaning against the wall, bright red, gulping whiskey out of
two glasses, well maybe that wasn’t so strange, but the sight of my
mama sitting in her chair, gulping whiskey and ignoring the
announcement that her only daughter was probably having another
illegitimate pregnancy, was nothing short of world
ending.

Jessie? Well she looked
pretty odd too. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, her hat
was all torn up and hanging halfway over her face. Jess was holding
one of her broken heels in one hand and her drink with the
other.

I guess I must have looked
pretty fine myself. I was barefoot and my hair had fallen out of
its pretty French twist. I could feel some of the flowers from
George’s casket itching my ears. They must have got tangled in
there during the fall. In addition to that, my elbow was the size
of a baseball and, staring at it now, I could practically see it
enlarging before my eyes.

Shoot, I guess it would be
now, wouldn’t it? After all I had hit it on George’s casket hard
enough to knock the casket, and George with it, right off the bier.
Yes Siree, hard enough for George to come right out of the casket …
hard enough even to show what a cheap son of a bitch Dalton’s
mortician was. Yes, awful cheap and not so good at his work,
because … well because … see, when George came rolling on out of
that casket, that casket that was closed before and for real good
reasons … well see, it shook him loose. And that’s when I saw, well
to be strictly honest all of the people in the church saw, that
George didn’t have no arms on him at all.

No arms, but then, oh then
there they were, just like in that old rhyme and “Jack came
tumbling after”. But it weren’t Jack that came tumbling after … it
was just the rest of George that came. Well it was just his arms
actually, and they … oh Jesus and Mary, his arms they came down
right on either side of me, and that’s when some dumb ass in the
church (I think it was May) screamed out “
Oh look at that, look! Why it looks like George is trying to
hold Leeann; don’t it look like that?
”

I guess that’s when I
finally fainted, but it was way too late by then because I had
already seen and felt George’s arms on me. I guess May was just
right too; it must have looked just like he was trying to hold me
because that’s sure what it felt like. Daddy must have been picking
up on my thoughts because he broke the silence in our living room
by saying now “
That Bobby Rose is the
biggest four flushing, nickel dick S.O. B. I ever did see. Why
Sheriff Riffler should have arrested him right then and there for
the thieving piece of shit he is. Why I’ll just bet he charged
George and Bethany full price for poor young George, and then come
to find out that he hadn’t even sewed his arms back on! Shoot, they
was just laying there on top of the body, I guess. Hell, if Leeann
hadn’t knocked poor old George into the aisle, his folks would have
buried that boy thinking he was in one piece
.” Seeing my face, he caught himself. “
Oh dammit, Sugar, I’m real sorry, I guess I’m just upset like
we all are. It was a terrible thing, I’ll say
that
.” He drained his glass and headed back
to the cabinet again.

Nope, I would have to say
that today - and considering the recent events of my life this was
saying something - but yes indeed, today topped them all as the
single worst and most disgusting event of my entire life. I knew
the minute we walked into the church that it wasn’t going to be
good, or even bearable.

Miz Willets must have
somehow sensed my presence even from all the way up front where she
was sitting because even though we walked in alongside about a
dozen other people, her head turned to look and, when she saw me, I
watched her jerk like she had been shot. She tried to stand up but
Mr. Willets grabbed her arm and pulled her back down to him. I
could see he was talking to her, trying to comfort her, but I
couldn’t hear what he was saying. I could sure hear
her
, though. Everybody
could. “
George, why is our son’s killer
here? Why isn’t she in jail, locked up like the animal she is?
George, you get the sheriff, you show him! Get him now George!
George, you let me go!
” Saying that, she
broke away from him and made a dart towards the aisle. By that
time, Sherriff Riffler was already getting up out of his pew. He
and Mr. Willets both got to her at the same time. Sheriff Riffler
was trying to keep his voice down while he talked to her, but it
didn’t matter, you could have heard a pin drop in the church, so we
all heard him say “
Now, Bethany, you
settle down now. Leeann has got herself out on bail, all legal
like, and I imagine she has just come here to pay her respects.
George was her husband and no one knows all the facts yet. We are
all here to bury your son, and he deserves our respect at a sad
time like this
.”

Mr. Willets put his arm
around her and started pulling her back to their pew. He was trying
to talk quiet, but of course everybody could hear him all the same.
You could almost see ears quivering in that church, bunch of nasty
old Uncle Wiggly gossips that they are. “
Come on, Sugar Beth, you just ignore her. This here is about
our boy
,” and then he started to cry
too.

Me and Daddy, Mama and
Jessie just stood there frozen for a second, and then Jessie put
her hand on my arm and guided me over to a pew.

Jakely Sims, from the
Tri-weekly, and his wife were sitting there with about eight empty
spaces beside them but, when we walked over, they jumped up all
offended and went to another pew that was already crowded. Daddy
and Mama followed Jessie and me into the pew. Daddy has his head up
and that look on his face like he would fight anyone who looked at
us funny, but my poor mama, you could see she was dying of shame.
Me, I was too shocked to even be embarrassed and Jessie, well, she
was throwing evil glances at everyone in church.

Father Moray just stood
there silent like a damn fool, so all you could hear was Miz
Bethany just wailing George’s name over and over again. Finally he
pulled himself together and started this real endless sermon. I
didn’t hear a word he said. I was lost thinking of George, and how
nice he had always been to me, and hoping that whatever Robina had
done to him, that it had been quick. George had never hurt anyone,
and he hadn’t deserved this one bit. I felt Mama nudge my ribs. In
this real loud whisper she said “
Leeann,
lower your head, it’s the final prayer.”
Oh, I hadn’t even noticed. I guessed it was over now, thank
God.

But it wasn’t over.
Everybody was standing up and walking towards the casket. What the
hell was this? I leaned over and asked Jess because she always knew
what was going on. Besides, for about ten minutes there,
Susan/Delilah had been a Catholic and had dragged Jessie off to
church with her when she was a kid. Jess had always said it was on
account of the free communion wine. Jess told me that everybody had
to go up front now, and that when we got there to the casket, you
were just supposed to bow your head and say a prayer and move on.
She whispered to me “
Then this fucking
nightmare will be over, so let’s just get it done,
okay?
”

I shook my head and started
backing away. No, I couldn’t go up there, but Mama told me with her
look that I was going up there. I didn’t see a way out without
making more of a scene, so I trailed Jessie up the aisle, Mama and
Daddy right behind us.

When we got up to the
casket, Jessie had just bowed her head when Miz Willets got loose
from Mr. Willets again, and came running at us like a freight
train. She got to Jessie and looked her up and down and said in
this screechy voice “
Look at you! You’re a
whore, like your mother’s a whore, like she’s a
whore
,” pointing at me and then, shoot,
before I could try to get away she came at me. I turned, panicked,
but behind me were dozens of people and I couldn’t get past them
and she was in front of me. So I tried to squeeze in between the
casket and the flowers just so I could edge away and make a break
for it. But she got to me first; she just plowed into me, driving
me backwards. It all happened at once. I heard Jessie scream
“
Leave her alone you crazy bitch.”
I felt Miz Willets hands on my shoulders. I backed
up so fast that I felt my elbow slam hard into something. I shouted
out from the pain and then there was this horrible
sound.

Miz Willets and I, her
still on top of me, had knocked into the casket and it was coming
off the bier. It seemed to happen in slow motion, the casket
sliding, then tipping off, and then hitting on its side. I guess
Jesse pulled me back enough not to have it land on me but, as she
did, I caught my shoe against the bottom of a pew and fell over
onto my side. And that’s just where I was laying when first George
rolled out onto the carpet beside me and then something else flew
out of the casket … one thing, then two, and they both landed on my
chest.

In all the awful confusion
and shock, I don’t think I would have known what had landed on me,
if I hadn’t heard May scream “
his
arms
.”

Oh God help us all, Robina
had cut off his arms, and now George’s arms were on top of me, and,
oh, there was George’s head. Why it was right next to mine, and his
eyes, his eyes were open, but they were sockets. Where were
George’s eyes? And his face, George’s nice big moon face, it was
cut something terrible, but there was no blood, just big black
stitches where Bobby Rose had tried to stitch his skin back
together. But he hadn’t done a very good job because you could see
the black stitches real clear, and then the room and George started
to spin like crazy.

I could hear Miz Bethany
screaming now, over and over, but drowning her screams out in my
head, I could hear Robina laughing.

Chapter
47

Mama stood up from her
chair and said to no one in particular that she was going upstairs
to lie down for a while and that, if anyone was hungry, there were
leftovers in the fridge. Daddy put his empty glass down and,
without saying a word, followed her up the stairs. I looked over at
Jessie and asked her now if she had heard Robina laughing
too?

She just looked at me and
shook her head. “
No, I didn’t hear
anything. I think maybe most of Robina’s tricks are saved just for
you, well you and the people she cuts up. Jesus, Leeann, did you
know that she had cut his arms off?
”

I shook my head and told
her that my lawyer Jack had tried to tell me the extent of George’s
injuries back at the jail, but that I hadn’t wanted to know. I
asked her why she thought Robina had torn him up so bad. What had
poor George ever done in his life to deserve that? And just
thinking now of how bad it must have been, how scared he must have
been, I finally started at last to cry just for him. Not for
myself, but for George who was only twenty-seven years old and had
liked life so much. I prayed for him then.

Jess finally took off what
was left of her hat, and crawled over to sit beside me.
“
I don’t know, Leeann. I don’t think
anyone in the world could deserve such a horrible thing. I think
that now, whatever Robina is, she just ...well she just hates. I
guess we’ll find out tonight if there’s any reasons behind
it
.”

Oh God, tonight. I wanted
to tell Jess that I couldn’t go through with it, but I knew that if
I didn’t, that Robina would keep coming, that maybe the next time
it would be Donny or my baby. I didn’t know if she could get to
them if they weren’t in that house, but I didn’t think I could
stand wondering either. I stood up; my elbow hurt and I needed
ice.