Dorothy Garlock (24 page)

Now he sat with his back to a tree trunk and mulled over how he could best use this information. Most folks in town and some along the river thought the doctor got up every morning and hung out the sun. Tator had to admit that he wasn’t as snooty as some in town. He had treated Shanty Town folks regardless whether they could pay or not. He had come into the dives after midnight to patch up drunks after a knife fight and had stayed the night when Tator’s old granny was dying.

Would anyone believe me when I told them the doc was screwing the nigger bitch?

Tator got to his feet to look again toward the corn patch. The big colored man was carrying the basket to the house, which meant she’d not come out anymore today. Tator slunk through the woods to the path along the river. He’d look for Sammy and tell him what he’d found out. The kid was smart; he’d know just where to drop the news so it would do the most good.

He found Sammy at the run-down house where he lived with his mother and his pa, when the man was around. According to Marla Davidson, her husband was working with a thrashing crew. More than likely he was on a freight train trying to get as far away from her as he could. He didn’t seem to have much use for his kid, either; and now that Sammy was big enough to fight when he got out the strop, Arlo Davidson was only home when he was completely down-and-out.

“This place looks like a hog pen.” Sammy’s angry voice reached Tator as he approached the house. “Why don’t you get off your butt and clean it up?”

“If you want it cleaned, clean it yourself.” Marla’s voice was slurry.

“You don’t want to do anything but sit and guzzle that rotgut.”

“That school is ruinin’ ya. You’ve been puttin’ on airs like ya was the banker’s kid. And I don’t like it.”

“That’s too bad. You straighten up and act decent, or I’m out of here.”

“Ha! Where’d ya go? How’re ya goin’ eat? Nobody’s gonna hire a snot-nosed kid.”

“Hello? Anyone home?” Tator asked the foolish question as he opened the screen door and went in.

“Come on in and make yourself at home,” Sammy said sarcastically.

“Hi Tator.” Marla had a silly grin on her face. “What happened to your nose? It’s all swelled up.”

“Ran into a tree.”

“You silly boy.” Marla laughed long and loud. “Get him a glass, Sammy. He needs a drink.”

“Go put some clothes on. I can see everything you got, and so can Tator.”

“Tator don’t mind. Do you, Tator?” she asked coyly. “Course not. I’ve seen tits before.”

Sammy gave both of them a disgusted look and stomped into the back room.

“Who shoved a burr up his ass?” Tator got a glass out of the dishpan, dried it on a cloth and helped himself to the bottle on the table.

“He come home from town that way. I don’t know what gets into him sometimes. He thinks this place ain’t good enough for him no more.”

“He’s just feelin’ his oats. That Jones girl’s got him in a lather. Once he screws her, he’ll be over it.”

“What Jones girl?”

“Shut your mouth, Tator!” Sammy’s voice rang out loud from the doorway.

Marla turned her bloodshot eyes to her son. “Ya screwin’ girls? Jesus! I didn’t think ya was old enough.”

Tator laughed. “How old was you, Marla?”

“I was fifteen when I had him. I don’t care how many girls he screws, but if he knocks up one of ’em, he ain’t movin’ her in here.”

“Jesus Christ,” Sammy yelled. He grabbed his old straw hat, slammed it down on his head and stomped out, slamming the door.

“See what I mean?” Marla shook her head and poured herself another drink. “Ain’t no reasonin’ with him no more. Can’t even talk to him. Yep, associatin’ with those highfalutins at school is what’s ruinin’ him.”

“I’d best go and calm him down.” Tator gulped his drink and hurried out the door, ignoring Marla’s call asking him to come back later. He caught up with Sammy as he reached the road. “Wait up. Where ya goin’?”

“None of your business. Stick around. She’s drunk enough to take you to bed.”

“I’m not interested.”

“No? You screwed her once. She bragged about it.”

“I was drunk. Slow down. I got something to tell you.”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“You will. You won’t believe what I saw down at the white nigger’s.”

Sammy stopped and turned. “Have you lost what few brains you have? You’d better stay away from there if you want to keep the nose on your face and the teeth in your mouth.”

“Nobody saw me. I stayed in the woods.”

“You still have in mind to get in her pants?”

“Hell, yes. I ain’t scared of that clodhopper. He’s got no right to tell
me
what to do.”

“I don’t want to know what you’re planning.”

“Yes, you do. You’ll never guess who was calling on the river whore. None other than the upstanding, holier-than-thou, God-fearin’ Dr. Forbes. He parked his car behind the bushes and took her in the house. Whattaya think of that?”

Sammy looked disgusted. “I don’t think anything of that. She might have been sick.”

“She wasn’t sick. She was out pickin’ corn.”

“You said half the men in town went callin’ on her. Doc’s a man, isn’t he?”

“I tell you, it wasn’t like that. He
sneaked
in.”

“Why’re you wanting to get the doc in trouble? What’s he done to you?”

“Nothin’ that I know of. I’m just thinkin’ that if we let him know that we know he’s screwing the bitch, he might throw a few dollars our way.”

“Keep me out of that! Hear? Do what you want; but if I were you, I’d give some thought to what Joe Jones said. Next time he’ll not stop at bustin’ your nose.”

“I’ve figured out a way to fix him.”

Sammy started walking again.

“Where ya goin’?”

“Anywhere to get away from
her
.”

“Don’t ya want to know how I’m goin’ to get even with big-shot Jones?”

“You’re determined to tell me. So tell me.”

“I’m goin’ to de-nut that bull of his so all he’d be good for is ground meat. A feller told me how to do it.”

“I suppose the bull will just stand still and let you cut off his nuts.”

“I need your help, Sammy.”

“Count me out. I’m not ruining any animals. That’s sick!” “That’s revenge! After what they’ve done to you, ain’t ya wantin’ to get back at ’em? They think you’re trash, boy, not good enough for their sweet, innocent little darlin’. You’re just shit to them. Do ya think that girl wants a man her brothers can make dance on a string?”

At the mention of Joy, Sammy’s eyes narrowed and his fists clenched, and Tator knew that Sammy was at least willing to listen to his plan.

Chapter 19

A
PRIL WAS RELIEVED WHEN SHE RETURNED
home after closing the clinic to find the house cool, quiet and without either Mrs. Poole or her brother. She found the matches on the shelf in the bathroom and lit the hot-water heater. After setting the timer for twenty minutes she went back to the bedroom, removed her soiled uniform and lay down on her bed to wait for the water to heat for her bath. She was almost asleep when the timer went off.

Later, while relaxing in the tub, her head back, her eyes closed, she thought about the night ahead with Joe.
Lord help me to be on my guard.
Joe Jones was handsome, charming and all the things she had sworn to avoid when she chose her life’s mate. The fact that he was a farmer with few prospects of ever being well-off were of no consequence to her. She could love a poor man every bit as much as a rich one. But she would have to know without a shadow of a doubt that he’d be faithful and not be constantly seeking the thrill of seducing another woman, as her father had done.

The thought struck April that should she marry a man such as her father, she would not even have the option her mother had, because she didn’t have parents who would welcome her and a child.

Her grandparents had loved her—doted on her, in fact— but it was not the same. Now that they were gone, she was alone. She would not let her yearning for a family of her own lead her to make the mistake her mother had made. She would not bring a child into the world to know the pain of a father’s abandonment.

April was satisfied that she had taken the first step to get out from under Joe’s spell by agreeing to go on a date with Harold Dozier, although she was not looking forward to it. Doc had said that Harold was a well-bred man, a good catch, and several women in town had been after him. She had always avoided getting involved with a man because she hadn’t trusted any of them. She had been afraid to risk her heart as her mother had done.

She had known men at the hospital who loved their wives and children; men who were faithful and dependable. She wanted to think that emotionally she had moved beyond her troubled childhood and was now able to judge a man without comparing him to the philanderers she had known.

Suddenly she was brought back to the present by a scratching sound on the other side of the wall in the storage room. She listened, her head cocked to one side, but heard nothing more and decided that it was probably a mouse scurrying across the boxes piled against the wall. She didn’t want mice in the boxes she had stored there and would ask Mrs. Poole to set a mouse trap.

After finishing her bath she shaved beneath her arms and leisurely dried and powdered her long slender legs by propping each foot up on the edge of the tub. Feeling wonderfully clean and relaxed, she slipped on her robe and went back to her room.

Fred, his heart pounding, his throbbing and painful erection wrapped in his handkerchief, leaned his forehead against the wall in the storage room and gave himself up to the glorious feeling brought on by seeing his angel naked as the day she was born. When it was over, he put the handkerchief in his pocket and buttoned his trousers. When the door to April’s bedroom closed, he peeked out into the hallway, grateful for the foresight he’d had days ago when he oiled the hinges on the storage room door.

With his shoes in his hand he scurried past her room and down the stairs. In the kitchen he grabbed up the sack of sandwiches Shirley had left for him on the table. Careful to make no noise when he opened the door, he went to the porch, where he sank down in a chair and breathed deeply in an effort to calm himself.

He had seen all of her from the top of her beautiful head to the tips of her toes. She had been even more beautiful than the picture hidden in his closet of the woman lying naked on a sofa.

April’s skin was soft and pink, her cone-shaped breasts tipped with rosy nipples, her long slender legs and thighs topped with a nest of dark curly hair. He had seen more of April than he had of the woman in the coveted picture. The dark-haired beauty was holding a fan over that part of her that he most wanted to see.

Thank God he had come home when he had. He would not have known she was in the house if he hadn’t heard the water running in the bathtub. Knowing that Shirley would stay at the store until he returned, he couldn’t allow this golden opportunity to slip away. Holding his breath for fear April would hear his labored breathing, he had sneaked up the stairs to the storage room to watch his angel bathe.

In a languorous daze Fred put on his shoes and sat for a few minutes longer reliving the past half hour. Then, not daring to linger longer, he left the porch with a secret smile on his face and walked jauntily down the path toward the store.

As April was dressing, she heard Shirley come up to her room, then almost immediately go back downstairs. She briefly considered leaving the house before Joe arrived and meeting him at the clinic, where he had parked the car. If at all possible, she wanted to avoid an embarrassing scene with Mrs. Poole. The woman was perfectly capable of making a sarcastic remark, and she wasn’t sure how Joe would respond.

Why did Mrs. Poole dislike the Jones family? And why didn’t her dislike seem to include Joy, Joe’s sister?

The woman had the right to like or dislike anyone she pleased. She was only April’s landlady, and April didn’t owe her an explanation for going out with Joe or any other man. If Mrs. Poole was rude to Joe, April had the option of immediately giving notice that she was moving. Having made up her mind to face her less-than-congenial landlady, April went downstairs.

She had on a fashionable forest-green suit and matching turban that she hadn’t worn many times and not at all since she’d been in Fertile. Knowing that the night would be cool, she carried a light coat over her arm.

Shirley was not in the kitchen or the parlor. From the dining room window April could see that she was in the backyard, the far corner, searching for onions or acorn squash amid the dried remains of the garden.

After checking her image in the hall mirror to make sure her slip wasn’t showing, April went through the house and stepped out onto the porch as Joe was coming up the steps.

“Well, don’t you look pretty.” He removed a dark felt hat and smiled. She answered his smile with one of her own.

“You don’t look so bad yourself.”

“Thank ya, ma’am. I’m putting my best foot forward.” His eyes teased her. “I don’t usually wear this suit except to weddings and funerals and less often than that, the hat.” He put it back on his head and tilted it.

“You made an exception for me?”

“I’m trying to impress you so you’ll realize what a fine fellow I am.” He tipped his head and gazed at her with teasing scrutiny.

“I’m impressed, I’m impressed.” She had to laugh at his antics. He had a boyish appeal that was hard to resist.

“Ready to go?”

“If you are.”

“I don’t have to face the wicked witch?”

“Not if we hurry. She’s in the backyard.”

“Then let’s go.” He grasped her elbow firmly, and they went down the porch steps to the walk.

April had been with Joe only a few minutes, and she had already forgotten her resolve not to let him charm her. When he tucked her hand in the crook of his arm and covered it with a warm callused hand, she smiled up at him, feeling lighter than air.

“We make a handsome couple,” Joe said, his gaze provocative.

“I’m glad you think so. I bet you say that to every girl you take out.”