Morning Glory (5 page)

Briar shook his head. "No. I'm not leaving. I'm paid
up for two months and I'm staying."

Clara set her empty punch cup down hard enough
that Nellie held her breath, hoping the crystal hadn't
chipped or cracked. "I'll give you back your money
even though it's against the contract," she said through
clenched teeth.

"No, thank you." Briar sipped his punch.

Clara raised her voice an octave. "Oh, yes, you will
leave. You'll not spend the first night under my roof. Oil
well trash doesn't stay at the Morning Glory. I'll get the
sheriff and he'll make you leave. His office is only a
couple of doors down the street"

"I'll be waiting right here." Briar popped the whole
cookie in his mouth. Not bad, but entirely too small. It
should have been at least as big as a man's palm.

Clara pointed at Tilly. "Don't you let him go anywhere. Most especially back to my house"

"Wouldn't think of it, darlin', but do hurry. I've still
got work to take care of tonight and I don't want to
miss a single minute of the fight," Tilly said.

"So you're really a roustabout?" Tucker said after
Clara had slammed the door so hard the building rattled.

"Yes, I am," Briar said.

"Clara hates oil men. Tilly's not too fond of them
and I'm right behind her," Tucker said. "Just thought
I'd set you straight."

Briar reached for another cookie. "I figured she had
something against preachers the way Dulcie talked. No
one asked if I was working for an oil company."

"She hates preachers and oil riffraff equally," Tilly said. "Preachers, because one broke her heart. Oil men,
because they've disrupted her perfect world."

Before anyone could say anything else, Clara slung
open the door and literally dragged an older man into
the room by his shirt sleeve. "This is the sorry culprit
who needs to be evicted from my house" She pointed
at Briar.

"Good evening, sir. I'm Briar Nelson and I do indeed
work for an oil company" Briar laid his napkin and cup
on the table and extended his hand toward the sheriff.
"I rented a room this morning at the Morning Glory
Inn. Paid my money for two months and signed a legal
lease on the room. It does not state anywhere on the
lease that if I work in the oil wells, I can't live there. It
does say that if I'm not in by ten o'clock at night my
lease can be revoked. Right now it is nine-fifteen, and I
do intend to be in my room by ten."

"That true, Clara?" the sheriff asked.

Clara crossed her arms over her chest, making a platform for an ample bosom, and glared at Briar. "Yes, it's
true, but I want him out of my house. And you're going
to put him out."

The sheriff rubbed his chin. The man had a firm
handshake. Looked him right in the eye when he
explained the lease. Talked intelligently. Didn't seem
like the kind who'd kill all those old maids in their
sleep or rob Dulcie of a ham or two. "I can't. He's
signed the paper and if it doesn't say anything about
what a man does for a living and that's the only reason you've got for wanting him gone, then I guess he's
going to stay. I'll read the lease tomorrow morning, but
I expect you got yourself a boarder for two months."

"This is ridiculous," she stormed.

"Yes, it is," Briar said. "If you want to dictate what
kind of work a man does, then you'd better change your
lease when I leave"

Clara shot icy cold daggers from her blue eyes
across the room at him. "Oh, you can be sure I will.
And you just try crawling in from your sinful living one
minute past ten o'clock and I'll have you out of my
house so fast you'll wonder if you ever ate a piece of
Dulcie's chicken. Why don't you just leave? You know
you're not wanted."

"Because I like it there. It's clean and Dulcie is a
good cook. I can live with a shrew like you to get those
things. I've lived with worse. Now, if you'll excuse me,
I'll take my sinful self home to bed. Wouldn't want to
be late," Briar said.

"Honey, you just think you've lived with worse.
You've just signed on for two months of pure hell,"
Clara said.

"Been there. Seen that. Don't scare me no more," he
said seriously, leaving the bunch of them staring at the
door he closed behind him.

Alonesome whippoorwill sang a solo outside
Briar's open window that night. He wondered if Clara
was lying awake listening to the same melody. Clara,
who'd snubbed her nose at him, tried to evict him and
generally hated him. He should crawl out of bed, pack
his suitcase and disappear into the night. Prejudice
surely went farther than the color of a person's skin.
Clara and her cousins acted like they were heads and
shoulders above the people who worked in the oil
fields. No, he wasn't going to let Clara win the fight. It
went against his better judgment to stay in a place
where he wasn't wanted. He thought about the look on
her face when the sheriff told her she couldn't evict
him. Now that was pure compensation if he failed in the
mission he'd set out to accomplish. A streak of stub bornness made him lie there on his bed, hands behind
his head, eyes wide open staring out into the night
through the open window where night breezes filtered
in along with the whippoorwill's sad song. With a grin
on his face, he finally shut his eyes and slept soundly.

Clara heard the annoying bird all right. If she could
have, she would have reached out the window and
wrung its wretched neck. Instead of lulling her to sleep,
the noise grated on her nerves. It had no right singing
outside her open bedroom window when she was so
angry she was still seeing red dots in front of her eyes.
How dare that man dupe Dulcie and then refuse to
leave! Well, she'd teach him a thing or two in the next
two months. He'd think he was roasting in hell one
minute and sitting naked on an iceberg the next. She
hoped he did stay out past 10:00 one night. When he
did, he'd find his belongings scattered all over the front
lawn. She'd throw his overalls and shirts out of the
upstairs window; hopefully it would even be raining
that day and she'd see how many she could put in a big
mud puddle. She slept fitfully, dreaming of Percy coming back to town, gathering her up into his arms and
carrying her to his automobile. In the dream, she pulled
her derringer out of her purse and put one hole through
his heart and another right between his eyes.

Like always, Briar arose long before dawn. He
dressed in fresh denim overalls and a chambray shirt,
shaved leisurely since no one else was up and standing
in line for the bathroom and went downstairs. He was surprised to find Matilda Anderson snoring on the sofa
in the living room. She slept on her back, her arms
tucked under her head, long black hair splayed out in
disarray all around her head. Heavy lashes rested on
perfect skin. Pretty, no doubt about it, but not as beautiful as Clara.

He tiptoed around her out to the porch where he
claimed the white rocking chair to watch the sunrise.
Dulcie didn't even see him in the corner when she
arrived a few minutes later. The rattle of pots and pans
and a gospel hymn being hummed let him know she
was cooking breakfast and in a good mood.

Dawn brought a lovely sunrise; one that did not disappoint Briar. A big tangerine-colored ball peeped over
the far horizon, defining tree limbs into long fingers
beckoning the whole world to wake up and see the show.
It kept growing, pushing away the darkness, promising
a new day. Peace filled Briar's heart as he rocked to and
fro, keeping a soft rhythm. His outside world might be
filled with trials, the biggest of whom was named Clara
Anderson, but sitting on the porch watching the birth of
a new day put everything in perspective.

If he succeeded in talking oil leases out of Tucker
and Matilda, he'd make a lot more money than he
already had. If he failed, it wouldn't prevent the sun
from coming up and the world turning on its axis, and
there was already enough money to support Libby for
her lifetime should anything happen to him.

* * *

"Tilly, what in the world are you doing here?"
Clara's clear Southern voice drifted out the screen door.

Tilly rubbed her eyes and sat up, reaching for the
hairpins she'd thrown on the floor. "Good mornin', darlin'. That danged new deputy the sheriff hired caught
me coming home from over in Ragtown without any
lights. I told you I needed a new car. Blasted thing hit a
rut in the road and the lights just blinked out."

"Good Lord, what happened?"

"He was hiding out there in a grove of post oaks.
Said he was looking for moonshine runners. I had to
put on the charm to keep him occupied so he didn't see
my little sawed-off shotgun under a blanket right
beside me on the seat. He wanted to know what I was
doing out all alone at that time of night. Told him I'd
been checking on a sick friend on a farm just outside of
town and was going on my way to spend the night with
you. He insisted on giving me an escort right up to your
door so I would be safe."

"Honey, you're going to get caught one of these
days."

Briar had to change rocking chairs and strain extra
hard to keep up with the conversation.

"And when I do, I'll sweet-talk my way out of it.
What do you think the `Sweet' in Sweet Tilly stands
for? Don't worry about me. I could charm the hair off
a frog's hind end. What's Dulcie makin' for breakfast?
I'll eat with y'all, then I've got a ton of work to do at
the farm today"

"You look like you slept in those clothes," Clara
chided.

"I did, darlin'. Thank goodness I was wearin' a dress.
Don't think the deputy would have believed me so
quick if he'd seen me in my work clothes," Tilly
laughed.

"You may have to put him on the payroll."

"Hell's bells if I will. Granny didn't pay for protection. Neither did Momma and I won't either. I was
raised to outsmart the law and I can do it," Tilly said
adamantly.

"Okay, don't get your dander up so early in the
morning. I'll tell Dulcie to set another plate."

"Dander isn't beginning to get up. Not yet, anyway.
I'm tired and I'm hungry. By the way, how's that goodlookin' new boarder with a stubborn streak as wide as
yours? Did you freeze him to death last night? Is there
a dead body up there in his rented room?"

"If I had that kind of power, I'd use it for sure. If he's
layin' up there dead, then my sleepless night will be
worthwhile," Clara snapped.

Briar stopped rocking and sat perfectly still. They
kept talking and he could hear the tone, but couldn't
understand the words as they moved from the living
room to the kitchen. So Tilly thought he was goodlookin', did she? And Clara hadn't slept so well? He
wondered why Tilly had really been to Ragtown alone
in the middle of the night, and what it was she did that
would warrant protection money? At least he'd found out a little more about Tilly. She was fearless, driving
her car out to Ragtown. Kept a sawed-off shotgun
under the seat. Did she know how to use it or was it
merely a scare tactic?

In a while, he heard the gaggle of feminine voices as
the other boarders made their way down the stairs.
Dulcie called everyone to breakfast and Briar stood up,
stretched to a full six feet two inches and opened the
front door. Silence and cold stares greeted him. Nellie
huffed. Cornelia managed a sheepish grin. Olivia
winked. The two B's, Bertha and Beulah, ignored him.
"Guess he didn't die," Tilly said.

"Was I ailin'?" Briar asked.

"They don't call me a dreamer for nothing," Clara
snapped.

Briar took the only available seat, with Tilly to his
right and Clara at the end of the table. "Does that mean
you dreamed of me dying? Well, I'm alive and well and
hungry as a bear after a long winter's nap. Those pancakes look delicious, Dulcie."

"If I'd a known you was one of them oil riffraff, you
wouldn't be sittin' at this table." Dulcie emphasized
each word with a jab of her fork across the table at him.
"You sure enough pulled the wool over my eyes, Briar
Nelson. Miss Clara told me the law says you can stay
here and eat my cookin', but if I could figure out a way
to put poison in your food I would, so don't you be
tryin' to butter me up."

He piled four pancakes on his plate. "Anyone else
got anything to say?"

"I don't like what your kind have done to our land
or brought into our community, either," Nellie
frowned.

Bessie slipped two fried eggs from a platter onto her
plate, added a sausage patty and two pieces of toast.
"Well, the whole bunch of you are silly as geese.
Whether you like it or not, it's amongst us. I can
remember fifty years ago when I was a young girl. I
didn't like the way the war tore up my world either. But
it didn't do me a bit of good to moan and groan and
hate Yankees. Life went on. We adjusted. You will, too."

em. "Amen," Beulah nodded. "If you can't lick 'em, join