Dorothy Garlock (29 page)

“When the water came up, I turned them loose. Couldn’t leave ’em there to drown.”

“You’ll have help rounding them up when this is over.” “It’d be over damn quick if I could get a stick of dynamite in that rock pile down at Calmar.”

The man behind him agreed. “As soon as I get my wife and kids settled, I’m thinkin’ to make a trip down there.” He reached for the register and signed his name.

“The district marshal will be here in the morning,” Jack said. “He’ll be able to handle the folks down at Calmar without any trouble. The judge told them to dismantle that rock pile. The marshal will take care of it.”

“Yeah? Well, they’ve took their sweet time ’bout it, and now it’s too late. I had a hundred Plymouth Rock layers that will be scattered all over the county ’cause I had to let them out. Do you think the sonsabitches down at Calmar care that I’ll have a hell of a time feeding my kids without those layers?”

“Yeah, I know,” Jack said. “It’s enough to make a preacher cuss, but I think we should wait for Marshal Sanford before we take action. He’ll be here in a few hours.”

Joe returned wearing his own clothes and waited with Jack until the last room in the hotel was rented. The lobby was still full of people, sitting on the floor and on the couches.

“Put up a No Vacancy sign,” Jack said to the clerk. “They’re wrecking the lobby!” the agitated clerk shrieked. His hands fluttered as he shooed a small boy away from the newspaper rack.

“You’d be smart to keep your mouth shut.” Jack leaned close to speak to him. “The men here are about to lose everything they have in this world. They’re facing winter and don’t know if they’ll have homes for their families or be able to feed their kids. They’re in no mood to take crap off a slick-haired little jelly bean. Do you get the message?”

The clerk lifted his chin in a defiant response.

“All right,” Jack said. “Don’t call me if you spout off and someone puts a fist in your mouth.”

“I’m entitled to protection just like everyone else.”

“Yeah, well, I can’t be in two places at one time. Guess where I’ll be. You’re on your own, mister.”

Jack picked up the phone and rang the operator. “I’m back on the street, Flora. If you need me, turn on the signal light.”

After they had left the hotel, Jack looked toward the signal light that hung in the middle of Main Street.

“Flora tried to signal me last night, and the damn bulb had burned out. I got one this afternoon at Poole’s Hardware and replaced it.”

“You climbed up there on a ladder?”

“There’s extra wire over on the pole. I had someone out stopping traffic when I let the fixture down. He put in the new bulb, and I pulled it up.” Jack slapped his brother on the back. “I’m glad you’re with me tonight, Joe. This is more than I counted on.”

“You seem to be doing all right so far.”

“I can’t keep an eye on everything without a car. It’ll be a day or two before Wally has the police car ready.”

“April won’t mind you using hers.”

“I wouldn’t want to use it without asking her.”

“She said keep it as long as you want.”

“That meant you and not me.”

“I’ll drive if it makes you feel any better.”

“It would. Let’s go back to the courthouse and get it. I should look in on Mrs. Davidson anyway. I’m supposed to be the jailer, too.”

“It’s a
county
jail. Doesn’t the county provide a jailer?” “No. The district jail is in Mason. When Corbin was the police here, he talked the county into giving Fertile the space in the basement for a jail.”

The brothers walked down the steps to the cubbyhole Jack used as an office, then on through it to the cells. It didn’t seem that Mrs. Davidson had moved.

“I felt sorry for the kid,” Jack said as they made their way back up to the street. “Hell of a note when a young kid has to see his mother like that.”

“Sammy is a tough little nut. He’s on his way to being a no-good if he keeps running with bums like Tator Williams. The two of them were out pounding on Miss Deval’s door the other night and talking nasty. I put a few lumps on Tator’s head and gave Sammy a scare. I hope he learned from it.”

“Is he still hanging around Joy?”

“I’m not blaming it all on Sammy. I think it’s as much Joy as it is him. She’s going over fool’s hill and won’t listen to anything Julie says to her.”

Jack chuckled. “I kind of remember when I thought Pa was the stupidest man alive.”

When they were in the car, Jack said, “Let’s stop by and see if Annabel has had her baby. Lord, I hope so. If everything seems all right, Corbin would be free to help. I’m afraid there’ll be trouble before morning.”

Chapter 23

W
HEN
A
PRIL LEFT
M
RS
. P
OOLE
’
S
the night before to go on a date with Joe, she never imagined it would be six o’clock in the morning before she returned.

Doc had come back a couple of hours earlier to report that Mrs. Corbin had had a healthy baby girl.

“Mother and child are d-doing fine; Corbin is a nervous wreck and swearing that he will n-never put his wife through that torture again.” The corners of Doc’s mouth lifted slightly; he was too tired even to chuckle. He was anxious to see Caroline and went through the connecting door. He reappeared a short time later and seemed to be relieved.

“She’s sleeping. How did it go? Are you all r-right with this, April?”

“As I told you before, Doc, you needn’t worry about me. I’ll do whatever I can to help you and Caroline. She’s worried about what her being here will do to you.”

“No one needs to know she’s here. When we’re ready to leave, I’ll get Joe to d-drive us to Mason or somewhere else to catch the train.”

April thought about the conversation as she opened the door to be confronted by Mrs. Poole. The woman’s face was a picture of disapproval. Her eyes traveled over April’s disheveled appearance: Her skirt was wrinkled, her blouse was opened at the neck and partially pulled from her skirt. Her hair was pushed carelessly back from a weary face.

“This is a fine time for you to be coming in.”

“Yes, it is. I need to take a bath and get ready for work.” “Well, I never! You’re as cool as a cucumber.”

“How did you expect me to be, Mrs. Poole?” April made an attempt to pass the woman, who blocked the hallway.

“I never expected an unmarried woman to come waltzing in here after she’d spent the night with a man, a man with Joe Jones’s reputation for rutting with every woman that he can get his hands on, and acting as brazen as you please.”

“If I spent the night with Mr. Jones, it wouldn’t be any of your business. I don’t have to account to you for my actions.”

“As long as you live in my house, it’s my business.” “Sister.” Fred came quickly into the hall.

“Stay out of this, Fred.” Shirley’s voice was harsh.

“Don’t forget what I told you. I meant every word of it.” April had never heard Fred speak so determinedly to his sister. She didn’t know what was going on between them, and she didn’t care. She was so exhausted that she could hardly put one foot in front of the other.

They’d had several accident patients at the clinic, as was bound to happen with so many people moving about late at night. A car had run over a boy’s foot and broken his toe. Another child had his fingers crushed in a car door. A man came in with his shoulder thrown out of joint. April had put stitches in the leg of the drunk and in the arm of one of Callahan’s boys and was so tired she was in no mood to put up with Mrs. Poole’s accusations.

“When my rent is up at the end of the month, Mrs. Poole, I’ll be moving out.” She stepped around her and went up the stairs.

“It’s just as well. I won’t tolerate sluts living in my house.” April turned. “
What
did you call me?”

Shirley, with chin high, stepped into the other room. Fred looked up at April, where she stood on the stairs.

“She’s upset. She didn’t mean that. Please . . . don’t go.” He had such a sorrowful look on his face that for a second April felt pity for him.

“I can’t stay here, especially after that.” April went up the stairs to her room, and Fred went to the kitchen to confront his sister.

“What in the world is the matter with you? Why did you say that to her?”

“Any woman who stays out all night with a man is a slut to my way of thinking. She’s man-crazy is what she is. She’s had men panting after her like a bitch in heat since the day she came here. I’ll not have that kind of woman living in my house. Look at you. Defending her. You’ve had your tongue hanging out just like every other man in town. ‘Good morning, April,’ ” she mimicked. “ ‘How are you, April?’ ‘Let me get you some coffee, April.’ ” Shirley’s voice was heavy with sarcasm.

Fred looked at his sister for a long while and wondered why he had not realized before that she was sick and twisted where women were concerned. He understood now why she didn’t have women friends. Not even the church women came to call. She avoided waiting on women when they came into the store.

Shirley continued her tirade. “I know what kind of woman she is. I knew the first time I set eyes on her. Her kind attracts men like flies to honey. They know what they’ll get if they get her in the dark. She’s been out all night with Joe Jones. Couldn’t you tell by looking at her she’s been lolling around in a bed somewhere?”

“She may have been working at the clinic.” He managed to keep his voice even, but he was trembling inside with rage.

“All dressed up fit to kill?” Shirley scoffed. She was full of indignation and determined to vent. “Women like her were after my Ron while he was alive. They’d rub up against him, flirt with him, entice him. But he paid them no mind. He was a real gentleman.” Shirley paused in her rant. Then she said, “You’d better get to the store. With all the trash in town the windows will be broken out, and they’ll be in there stealing us blind.”

Fred stood looking out the window while he drank his coffee.

“Did you hear me, Fred? I don’t want that trash from Shanty Town hanging around in the store. It was time to clean up the mess down there. I hope that uppity nigger whore drowned in her bed. It would be too good for her.”

Fred set his empty cup on the table, left the room and took his hat and coat off the hall tree. Without a word to his sister he went out the door. He didn’t trust himself to stay any longer in the same room with her. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Shirley had ruined the one beautiful, exciting thing in his life. If April moved, his life would go back to the dreary existence it was before she came.

There were as many cars in town at seven in the morning as there usually were on a Saturday night in the summer. Groups of men stood on street corners. The talk was of the flood and the rock pile down at Calmar. Fred paused on the fringe of one of these groups and heard someone say the water had come up over the road in front of Callahan’s and that he estimated the river had risen four feet but had leveled off now.

Fred reached the hardware store to discover that someone had unloaded household goods on the sidewalk in front. A woman and two children sat on boxes beside them. He nodded politely to the woman and hoped that Shirley stayed at home until after the woman and her belongings had been moved. The poor woman didn’t look like she needed any more trouble.

Inside the store Fred walked to the rear and turned to look back at the rows of barrels, filled with oak handles ready to be joined with rakes, hoes or spades. Some of the barrels held chains. There were tubs of nuts and bolts, screws and small tools. Hanging on hooks were hammers, ball peens and sledges, which he had carefully greased to prevent rusting. Screwdrivers, pliers, handsaws, all were displayed and within easy reach. At one time he had taken great pride in displaying the merchandise in the store, but his sister had gradually taken the joy out of his accomplishment.

He sat down on a stool behind the counter and rested his chin on his palms. He had a lot of thinking to do. He saw his lonely life stretched out before him. The only socializing he had was at the billiard parlor once a week. Shirley had spoken so disparagingly about every woman he mentioned that he had given up thinking he would ever marry and have a family of his own. He had nothing to offer a woman anyway. Shirley could take his job with the snap of her fingers. Without a job and a place to live he would be out on the road like the bums who came though town every day on the freight trains.

He recalled the time when he was friendly with Sarah Parker. She was a small, neat woman who, for a short while, stopped in the store a couple times a week. He had enjoyed her visits. They were beginning to get to know each other, and he was on the verge of asking her out. Then, after she had bought a shallow baking pan, she brought him a plate of sugar cookies. Shirley had been so outrageously rude to her that she stopped coming by. Then for weeks Shirley ranted about Sarah, her immediate family, her ancestors, her personal appearance. Sarah had been a little on the plump side, but she’d had a pretty face and a pleasant way about her.

Fred walked to the front window of the store and looked out onto the street. The woman was still sitting on the box with her two children snuggled close to her. Her home was under water, she was guarding the total sum of her possessions, but she had someone who loved her.

Fred sighed and retreated again to the rear of the store.

Feeling utterly humiliated that Joy’s brother, that uppity Joe, had been in his home and had seen his mother dead drunk, Sammy had spent the rest of the night hunkered down on the sidewalk in front of the barbershop. What rankled him the most was that he’d had to ask for the Jones brothers’ help. But, hell, he couldn’t go off and leave her out there with the water rising. If it had come up another foot and a half, she would have drowned.

Lord, he wished he could leave this place. He’d heard a man could make a living in California picking peaches. He’d catch the next freight train out if it weren’t that he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Joy. She was the only one who didn’t think he was trash because he lived in a shack along the river, with a drunk for a mother and a pa who was as worthless as a pile of pounded shit.