Angel Sister (28 page)

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Another gunshot jerked Victor back to the present. He gasped as if he really had been swallowing the river water and drowning. But that was years ago. This was now. He shouted again and waited for the men to come to him.

There were five of them. All good men, but they’d let their imaginings push them down panic’s path until now they seemed to have lost all common sense. Victor blamed his father for that. His father could have stopped them. He knew Fern wasn’t dangerous. He knew Kate was sensible and would come home eventually. And yet he was egging the men on, encouraging their foolishness for some purpose of his own.

Again in his mind’s eye, Victor saw Fern running up the steps away from Press. His father would know it was Fern whom Press had been going to meet. It could be he blamed her just as much as he blamed Victor for what happened that night. Perhaps even more.

Whatever his father was trying to do, Victor had to stop him. He stepped out in front of the men with torches. “It’s all right, men. Graham found the girls and is taking them home.” It wasn’t a lie so much as a prediction. Graham would find Kate and Lorena and take them home. Given time. That’s what Victor planned to give him. Time.

“That’s good to hear.” Victor’s father spoke up, but he wasn’t ready to give up the hunt. “If it’s true. We want to see for ourselves. We want to be sure they’re safe.”

“Fine.” Victor kept his voice level and calm. “Go on back to the house and there they’ll be. But nobody’s here.” Victor pointed at the piled cedars behind him.

“How do you know? Did you go inside?” Alvin Holt held his torch up higher and peered past Victor.

“I did. No one’s here,” Victor repeated.

“You know Fern can move quiet as a cat and disappear behind a bush until you couldn’t spot her even in broad daylight. A couple of you men need to make sure she’s not in there,” Victor’s father said.

“Go ahead.” Victor shrugged. “Just leave the torches out here. You can’t crawl in there with them.”

“I’m not going in there without some light.” Alvin backed up a few steps, and all the other men stopped in their tracks alongside him.

“Surely you’re not afraid of a woman,” Victor’s father said as he turned to glare at his posse. “If she’s in there, we need to know. We need to know what she’s done.”

Victor grabbed his father’s arm and spun him around to face him. “What are you doing? Fern hasn’t hurt anyone.”

“That’s what you think. She’s the cause of it all.”

Victor stared at his father. The man’s eyes shone with a strange fervor in the light of the torches. “She wasn’t the reason Press ended up in the river any more than I was.”

“So you do remember.”

“I do now. You were the reason Press ended up in the river. Not Fern. Not me. Not Graham. You.” Anger boiled up inside Victor, but then just as quickly it was gone. He simply felt tired. Most of his life he’d carried that heavy sack of guilt on his back. His father had made sure it stayed loaded and in place, but maybe it was time Victor shrugged it off and laid it down. His voice was sad as he went on. “All these years you’ve tried to blame other people, but it was always you. You killed the son you loved.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. I wasn’t even there!” His father was shouting.

The other men lowered their torches a bit and stepped back. They wanted no part of this argument between father and son.

“But you were the reason I was. You were the reason Press was. The reason he had to sneak around to see Fern. What was wrong with her? Why wasn’t she good enough for you?”

“It wasn’t me she wasn’t good enough for. It was Press. He needed someone special. Not someone from Rosey Corner with nothing on her mind but tying him down with babies too soon.”

“Her grandfather was a senator.” Victor was trying to understand. He needed to understand.

“Fulton Barclay was a buffoon. A Populist. The man had to buy votes to get elected.” His father’s voice was scornful. “Any connection with that man would have been a disaster. I wasn’t about to let Press ruin his future because of a girl.”

“So you sent me to spy on him?”

“I had to know what was happening so I could stop it. He would have thanked me in time. When he was governor. He was going to be governor. Everybody knew that. Everybody. You know it’s true.” Victor’s father looked at the men around them as if expecting a shout of support. When none of them said anything, he went on in a louder voice. “You all know it’s true.”

The men ducked their heads and stared down at the ground. The silence full of unsaid things pounded against their ears. Finally Alvin spoke up. “Maybe Victor’s right. We should just go on home. Graham won’t let no harm come to the girls.”

Victor felt a subtle shifting of the way things had always been in Rosey Corner as the rest of the men murmured in agreement and began turning toward home. They were listening to him and not his father.

Victor’s father must have felt the same shift as he glared at Victor in the shadowy light of the torches. He wasn’t about to surrender his power over the men without a fight. “You aren’t going to listen to a drunk, are you?” he shouted at the men. “A useless, worthless drunk.”

Victor didn’t attempt to defend himself against his father. It didn’t matter anymore what he said, but one of the other men looked back and said, “Come on, Preston. Ain’t no call to be talking about your own son that way.”

Alvin turned around and reached toward Victor’s father. “Yeah, we know you don’t mean it. Victor might take a nip or two now and again, but we all know he’s a good boy. A good man. Let’s just go on home and get some supper. Victor’s done told us Kate and that little girl are safe, and that’s all we were worrying about, wasn’t it?”

“Don’t you talk to me like I don’t know what I’m doing. I know. Give me that torch and I’ll go do what has to be done if the rest of you are too afraid.” Victor’s father tried to grab the torch out of Alvin’s hand.

Alvin lifted it high over his head out of reach. “We’re going home, Preston, and that’s—”

Before he could finish, Victor’s father punched Alvin in the stomach. The torch went flying as the man doubled over. It landed in the pile of dry cedars behind them. Victor scrambled after it. He jerked it out of the cedars, but it was too late. Already the fire was whooshing up through the dry needles. Victor and the other men tried to pull some of the cedars away from the flames, but the fire leapt up through the stacked cedars and took on a life of its own. There was no stopping it.

The other men and Victor stepped back and shielded their faces from the heat. The flames were leaping into the air and spreading sparks across the dry woods.

Victor stared at the fire and said, “What have you done, Father?”

His father showed no remorse. “This cedar thicket needs clearing out.”

Victor stared at the wall of flames as fear gripped his heart. “Kate may still be in there.”

“I thought you said Graham was taking her home.”

“He may not have had time to get them out of the woods yet.”

“So you were lying.” His father made a little snorting laugh. “Could be you’re going to find out the same as I did how it feels to lose a child.”

Victor looked over at his father and felt sick all the way down to his toes. “Kate’s your grandchild.”

“She is.” His father didn’t look at him but kept his eyes on the flames. “But the fire is the same as the water was. Things happen. That’s what everybody told me. Things happen.”

“Sometimes because people cause them to happen.”

“They still happen. And there’s nothing you can do to change that.”

“Kate will be all right.” Victor pushed all the certainty he could into his words. “She’ll have time to get out of the woods.”

“The fire will spread fast.” His father turned to look at him then. In the reflection of the fire there was a look of sorrow on his face, but Victor wasn’t sure who he was grieving. “As dry as it is, it could take all of Rosey Corner if we don’t stop it.”

Alvin was yelling at them then. “We gotta get back away from here.”

“They need someone to tell them what to do,” Victor’s father said. “To make a firebreak. And you’d better pray the wind doesn’t start blowing our way.”

“You tell them,” Victor said. “I’ve got to go find Kate.”

“You can’t find her. You know that. And they won’t listen to me. Not now. It’s up to you. You decide. Kate or the rest of your family and Rosey Corner.” His father’s voice was flat and his face now emotionless. He turned away from Victor and started walking away.

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“Come on, Victor,” Alvin yelled again.

For a few seconds longer Victor didn’t move. The heat was getting intense, and the flames began making their own wind as the smoke rose up to the sky, blotting out the stars overhead. His father was right. He couldn’t find Kate. There were too many acres to cover.

“Dear Lord,” Victor spoke aloud, but he could barely hear his own words above the roar of the flames. “Have mercy on us. Oh dear Lord, I beg you.”

Then he turned away from the fire and ran with the other men through the trees back toward Rosey Corner. Already somebody had seen the flames and was ringing the church bell.

______

Kate perched uneasily on one of the stumps around the table in the middle of Fern’s cedar palace and nibbled on a peanut butter sandwich while she tried to think of what to do next. It wasn’t going to work for them to just sit there and try to hide. She had realized that as soon as Fern came back with the food and said Kate’s grandfather and some other men were in the woods hunting for them.

“Where’s Daddy?” Kate had asked.

“Don’t know. Didn’t see him. Or Brother. Could be hunting too.” Fern had pulled out a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. She looked at Kate as if guessing her thoughts. “I didn’t steal it. Brother bought it at that man’s store.”

“Does Graham know where you are?” Kate looked around. “Where this is?”

“No.” Fern shoved her hand deep into her overall pocket and pulled out a knife. She handed it and the peanut butter to Kate. “Here. You fix her food.”

Lorena was staring at the peanut butter jar as though she was worried it might disappear. “Can I have a spoonful?”

“Sorry, sweetie. I don’t have a spoon.” Kate twisted the top off the peanut butter.

“Fingers came before spoons,” Fern said.

“But,” Kate started to protest. Her mother would never let anybody dip peanut butter out of a jar with a fingertip even if the person’s hands were squeaky clean.

“She’s hungry.” Fern yanked the jar away from Kate and held it out to Lorena, who gave Kate a guilty look before she stuck her finger down into the peanut butter.

“Are you that hungry?” Kate asked.

Lorena nodded her head as she licked the peanut butter off her finger. “She told me I couldn’t have anything to eat until I said my name was Polly. But I wouldn’t. I told her my name was Lorena Birdsong. I said it real loud. She got mad and hit me and put me in the closet with the rats.” Lorena’s voice trembled a little as she went on. “I saw their eyes under the shelves, and I prayed for you to come. But Fern came first.”

Kate swallowed hard to keep from crying at the thought of Lorena alone in the closet all day with nothing to eat while she was terrified the rats were going to eat her toes. “It’s okay, Lorena. I’ll fix you a sandwich and we’ll have a picnic here while we decide what to do next.”

“I’m not going back there.” Lorena planted her feet and crossed her arms. “I’ll live here with Fern before I go back. Fern will let me, won’t you, Fern?” She looked at Fern, who didn’t say anything.

“You can’t live with Fern,” Kate said gently. “They won’t let you.”

“But they wouldn’t let me live with you either.” Lorena crumpled to the ground and started crying.

“You made her cry.” Fern hit Kate’s shoulder so hard Kate staggered back a few steps. “Make her stop.”

Kate rubbed her shoulder, then knelt down to pick Lorena up off the ground. She held her very close. “Shh, sweetie. They’ll let you live with me now. We’ll make them.”

“We can’t. We’re too little.” Lorena sounded ready to start sobbing again.

“God’s big.” Fern was standing over them. She reached a hand out to awkwardly pat Lorena’s head. Then she pointed at Kate. “Pray!”

Kate looked at Fern. Her face was hard and tight, and her eyes were burning into Kate. “What if he doesn’t answer?” Kate said softly.

“Bible says he’ll answer. He answered when you prayed in the cedars.”

“You saw me?”

Fern didn’t answer her. Instead she said, “‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’”

“That’s out of the Bible,” Kate said. Fern was the last person on earth Kate expected to quote Bible to her.

Fern’s eyes narrowed on Kate. “You think I’m a heathen.”

Kate cringed as she tightened her arms around Lorena and braced for Fern to hit her again. Lorena pushed her hands against Kate’s chest and wiggled free. She put her small face close to Kate’s. “Fern won’t hurt you. She just wants you to pray. Please. So God will help us.”

“He didn’t help us before. What makes you think he will now?” Kate immediately regretted her words when she saw Lorena’s bottom lip start trembling again. Besides, it was surely sinful to doubt the Lord’s help. Especially when he’d answered her plea for help just moments before and guided her to Lorena.

“He will. I know he will,” Lorena said. “He has to.”

Kate looked right into Lorena’s eyes. “I’m sorry I said that. I was wrong. The Lord will help us.”

Lorena smiled a little. “So you’ll pray like she says? We can all pray together.” She grabbed Kate’s hand and then Fern’s. She looked impatiently at Fern and Kate. “You two have to hold hands too.”

Kate held out her hand toward Fern. Fern hesitated a moment before she grabbed hold.

“All right,” Fern said. “Pray. Like Preacher Reece.”

“I can’t pray like him.”

“Pray like you. Like an angel.” Lorena squeezed her hand.

“I’m not an angel, but I can pray. At least I think I can.” Kate held the two hands, one soft and small, the other hard and rough, and looked up at the stars. Her heart was pounding inside her. She’d never prayed out loud in front of anyone except for saying grace at the table. If anything needed praying about out loud, somebody else, somebody older and better at praying, had always been there to take the lead, and she’d just followed along in her head. Now she had to come up with the words and not just for Fern and Lorena to hear, but for the Lord to hear.

Kate licked her lips and began. “Dear Lord.” She stopped and stared up at the stars. She didn’t know what to say. Then she thought about how Aunt Hattie prayed. Like the Lord might be standing right beside her, listening.

She tried again. “Dear Lord. I know you’re there. That you’re listening and watching over us. I was wrong when I kept saying you weren’t up there paying attention last week. I know you’re always there. A present help in trouble just like Fern said. Like the Bible says. And we’re in trouble now. So if there’s any way you can, please help us tonight. We don’t know what to do, but Lorena loves you. Fern loves you.” Kate paused and let the silence pound against her ears before she added in a quavering whisper. “I love you.”

She let the words hang in the air a minute before she swallowed down the lump in her throat and finished her prayer. “And thank you for Fern. For the way she helped Lorena.” She squeezed both Lorena’s hand and Fern’s hand as she said, “Amen.”

“Amen,” Lorena echoed her.

But Fern shook Kate’s hand a little and said, “You didn’t thank him for the food so we can eat.”

“Oh.” Kate bowed her head this time. “Thank you for the food we have to eat. Amen.”

So now they were eating the peanut butter sandwiches Kate had made and drinking water out of the mason jar, but Kate still didn’t know what to do. Except go home. She looked over toward Lorena. She couldn’t see her face. Night had fallen and the quarter moon didn’t push much light down into the trees. Fern was sitting on the other side of Lorena, silent as a stone. Kate slid her eyes over to her and then back to Lorena as she said, “We can’t stay here. We have to go back to the house.”

Lorena sighed heavily and stood up to come lean against Kate. “If we have to.”

“Go then,” Fern said. “They’ve got guns, but they won’t shoot you.”

“They won’t shoot you either,” Kate said.

“They aim to shoot something.”

“Not us. Not you.” Kate stared at Fern, but shadows hid her face. “I can’t find the way home in the dark.”

Lorena went over to her. “We’ll get lost without you, Fern.”

“Then wait till daylight,” Fern said.

“We can’t,” Kate said. “Mama and Daddy will be worried.”

“He worried about his mother and father worrying too. Too much.”

“Who? Graham?” Kate asked.

“No, him. The one you look like.” Fern stood up. “I’ll take you partway.”

They crawled out of the cedar house. As soon as Fern stood up she stopped and raised her head as if listening for something. “Smoke,” she said. “Cedar smoke.”

Kate smelled it too. “Is the woods on fire?”

Fern didn’t answer. She just pointed behind them where the glow of flames was lighting up the sky.

“Are we going to burn up?” Lorena asked in a small scared voice.

“No, of course not,” Kate said. “The fire’s not here. We’ve got time.”

“Coming fast.” Fern licked her finger and held it up. “Wind’s picking up. Blowing this way. The fire will jump ahead.”

“I’m scared, Kate.” Lorena grabbed hold of Kate’s leg. “Maybe we should pray again.”

“No time.” Fern turned and started walking fast through the cedars.

Kate took Lorena’s hand and hurried after her. She couldn’t let Fern get out of sight. They hadn’t gone far when they heard something crashing through the woods toward them. Kate picked up Lorena and tried to run, but it was no use. It was coming too fast. She couldn’t outrun it. She pushed Lorena behind her and picked up a stick.

An animal bounded out of the trees and jumped straight at Kate. She screamed and fell backward. Then paws were on her chest and a big tongue was licking her face.

“Poe!” Kate sat up and pushed him away from her face. “You crazy dog. You nearly scared me to death.”

“Sorry about that, Kate,” Graham said as he followed the dog out of the trees. “I should’ve told Poe to bark before we got here.” He snapped his fingers once, and the dog backed away from Kate. “He was glad to see you. Truth is, so am I. You find the girl?”

“She’s here.”

“Hi.” Lorena peeked out from behind Kate. She laughed when Poe ran toward her to wash her face with his big tongue too.

“No time.” Fern came back down the trace of a path they were on. “Fire’s bigger.”

The smell of smoke was getting stronger, and they could hear the fire crackling and popping now. It didn’t sound all that far away.

“Fern was showing us the way home,” Kate said. “But then when we got out of her cedar house we smelled the smoke. Is it bad?”

“Bad.” Graham’s voice sounded sad. “The whole place may go up in flames.”

“The house too?” Fern asked.

“A possibility.” Graham and Fern stared at one another.

“What about Mama’s picture?” Fern said. “And the money?”

“You and the girls matter more than a picture,” Graham said, but he sounded even sadder. “More than money. And the men may stop the fire before it gets to the house.”

Fern raised her head and listened a moment. “No stopping this. Too dry.”

“We better get moving.” Graham picked up Lorena. “You lead the way, Fern.”

“You take them, Brother. I’ll get the picture.”

“No, Fern. It might not be safe.” Graham grabbed her arm as she turned away.

She pulled away from him. “I thought the woods was safe, but nothing’s safe. Nothing.” With that she was gone.

“Fern, come back,” Lorena yelled after her. When Fern didn’t answer her, she started crying.

Graham patted Lorena’s back. “Now, now. Don’t take on so. Fern’s tough. She’ll keep out of the way of the fire. You just trust old Graham and Poe on this one. We’re all going to be fine.”

“But what about Fern’s trees?” Lorena whimpered.

“Trees grow back,” Graham said. “Tell her, Kate.”

“Right. Trees grow back.” Kate kept her voice steady and calm, but she felt anything but. The fire seemed to be on all sides, closing in on them. “We’d better go, hadn’t we?”

They took off through the trees. Graham carried Lorena and held her head down close to his shoulder as he ducked under the branches. Kate followed on his heels. Behind her the fire was roaring, and she imagined she could feel the heat of the flames. She had no idea where they were in the woods with the smoke swirling around them. She could only hope that Graham knew where he was going.

Then the fire jumped the way Fern warned it would, and instead of running away from the flames, they were running toward them. The fire was coming toward them from every direction. Kate could barely get her breath. She didn’t know if it was from the smoke or the running or the fear. She tried to pray, but she was too scared. Fern’s words from earlier popped into her head. God’s big. He could save them.

Graham leaned over and spoke right into her ear. “We can make the pond. Grab hold of my shirttail. Poe will show us the way.”

Up ahead she heard Poe bay like he was on the trail of a coon. They ran after him, not paying any mind to the bushes grabbing at their legs and arms. When they came out on the pond bank, the water looked red in the light of the fire chasing after them and coming in from the other side. Poe stopped on the bank, but Graham didn’t slow down. He plunged right into the water and kept walking until the water was waist deep. Kate was right behind him. Her shoes got stuck in the mud. She pulled her feet out of them and kept going. The mud squishing up between her toes was the most wonderful thing she had ever felt. Poe swam in after them.