Only the Truth (9 page)

"Yeah, Billy Ray, they did that. But, that wasn't the important part of
what happened in there today. It was what Mr. Clemens said about Mr. Doe that
mattered."

I didn't understand. "He said Charlene beat up Mr. Doe."

Mr. Green actually put down his coffee and laughed.

"Yeah, he did, but what did Charlene get so mad at Mr. Doe for?"

I shrugged. "Seemed to me like he didn't have
no
money left to pay her for what she gave him."

Mr. Green clapped me on the shoulder.

"You getting pretty smart there, Billy Ray."

I didn't see how I was smart.

"Do you remember Mr. Dawson trying to say how Charlene was ripping off
them men and how Mr. Doe probably came out to the Glen to get whatever she took
from him back?"

I remembered.

"Do you see how all those men he brought called her a thief so we could
believe she robbed Mr. Doe, too?"

I could see that.

"Now what the hell do you think Charlene could have taken from that old
man at the Lighthouse Motel if all he had
was
a few
dollars left and a bag of rags?"

"I
dunno
."

"Exactly, Billy Ray.
We all
dunno
and we sure
dunno
why he
would travel all that distance to the Glen to get back the nothing she could
have taken off of him."

One other thing bothered me and I had to ask him.

"Are you sure that man was really Mr. Doe?"

Mr. Green grinned widely and leaned close to me.

"I haven't the faintest idea if that is the same man who moved cross
the way from you. But, since the prosecution was so excited to make him Mr.
Doe, I couldn't see why we shouldn't go along with it. The real Mr. Doe in the
fire
ain't
got
no
teeth to
check for dental records and it's my guess we'll never know who he really is,
but if Mr. Dawson wants to make a penniless old drifter into Mr. Doe, I've got
no objection! He isn't going to establish much motive that way."

I looked at Mr. Green and I tried to see where he was going.

"But, if Charlene didn't do
nothing
to the old
man and he didn't come to do nothing to her, why would she kill him? Is it
cause
like you said she thought he was someone else?"

Mr. Green bit his lip and shook his head a few times back and forth.

"That's the million dollar question, Billy Ray. If you can get her to
tell you, it would save us a whole
lotta
work and
guessing."

"So, maybe she is just crazy."

"Maybe, Billy Ray.
That's for me to make the
jury think and if it's a good enough answer for the jury,
it's
good enough to save Charlene's life."

********************

The heating system stopped working on Thursday night, so on Friday morning
there was frost collecting on the benches in the courtroom and they canceled
court until Monday. They brought Charlene back from the hospital to the jail
and I went over to see her. I should have gone to work that day since I didn't
have to go to court but I wanted to see Charlene so bad that I went over to the
boss and asked him if I could make some money on the weekend. He was nice about
it and told me to go on over and see Charlene.

When I got over to the jail, I told the officer I wanted to see Charlene but
he told me I would have to come back later, that she was spending the morning
with her Mama. I waited a couple of hours and he came back and told me she was
now spending the next hours with her sister. I tried again in the evening, but
then he told me she said she was too tired to see me.

I didn't go to work Saturday or Sunday neither.
I
spent both days trying to get in to see Charlene. She was always occupied or
tired or visiting with someone else. The police officer finally told me that I
was stupid if I didn't get that she just didn't want to see me. I went over to
the motel down the block where the
Wiggingtons
were
staying and banged on their door. Mrs.
Wiggington
let
me in. She was still dressed from her visit down at the jail. She gave me a
little hug and patted me absentmindedly on the head.

I asked her if she knew what was wrong with Charlene and why she didn't want
to see me.

"She's just confused, hon. Give her time."

"Confused? What is she confused about?"

"She isn't sure she can love you right now, Sweetie."

I felt like I had all the wind knocked out of me.

"She
don't
love me no more?" The words
felt like dry straw in my mouth.

Mrs.
Wiggington
pulled me in the door and sat me
down on the motel bed. She went to her little refrigerator and got herself a
beer. "Want one?"

I shook my head. I never drank beer in my whole life.

She came back and sat down beside me and the boozy smell of the beer made me
feel sick. Or maybe it was hearing her say Charlene didn't love me. Or maybe it
was sitting next to Mrs.
Wiggington
in her little
short skirt that bothered me.

Mrs.
Wiggington
went right on and told me all
about Charlene and their visits.

"Cheryl is real confused, Billy Ray. She told me she didn't want to
hurt your feelings but she thinks now she came to stay with you because she
couldn't find her way back to us."

"She kind of already told me that."

Mrs.
Wiggington
nodded and took a long drink of
her beer.

"But, she has found her way back to us, Billy Ray. She has her family
around her and she is finding it hard to split herself between you and
us."

"And I don't matter no more?"

Mrs.
Wiggington
finished off the beer and she
seemed a little drunk.

"Aw, honey, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that," she seemed to
realize she was repeating herself, "what I am saying is she finally can be
my little girl again; she doesn't want to be a grown up right now with a man
she has to take care of. She just wants to be my baby again."

Maybe there was some sense in that. I didn't say
nothing
though. I just wanted to hear Mrs.
Wiggington
tell me
about Charlene.

She wanted to tell me about her 'Cheryl,' too. She leaned against me and
told me how she finally could smile again and how she could start getting back
all those years she lost when Charlene went missing. She made me uncomfortable
and she made me mad.

"Cheryl is going to have such a wonderful time when we get her out of
this little bit o' trouble!"

A little trouble?
I was beginning to see where
Charlene got her craziness from.

"I am going to take Cheryl home and let her ride on the swing she never
got to use. We put it up the week after she went missing, thinking maybe it
would draw her home
.“

Mrs.
Wiggington
got quiet for a minute. She
smiled.

"Huh, maybe that
ol
' swing really did bring
her home, you think, Billy Ray?"

I wasn't really thinking of Charlene at home with her family. I was thinking
about Charlene sleeping in another bed far away from me.

"Anyway, I want to bring her home and show Cheryl her room with all her
stuffed animals still in it. And I want to walk her to her school and back home
again. I want her to eat her dinner with us and I want to say prayers with her
before she goes to sleep at night."

I just couldn't listen any more.

"Bye, Mrs.
Wiggington
." I left as
quick
as I could.

When I looked back, she was standing at the door with another beer in her
hand and she was still smiling.

********************

I went back to the house, made myself some tea and forced myself to think
things through. I could feel myself hating Mrs.
Wiggington
for stealing Charlene away from me and I could feel myself hating Charlene for
wanting to go with her. But, then I knew if I ever had a little son and he went
missing and then I found him a whole bunch of years later, I would want to
bring him home to our little house on the hill, and let him see Big Dog, well,
if Big Dog were alive, and give him biscuits fresh out of the oven and watch
him breathe while he sleeps on our bed. And I'd guess I would want him coming
home by
hisself
and not bring a whole bunch of people
I didn't know with him. I could understand all that but I still wanted my
Charlene. I didn't want to be alone again. Maybe I should get a new Big Dog.

A new Big Dog. A new Big Dog. That was a nice idea but still it seemed like
just a dog wouldn't be enough for me
any more
. I
wanted Charlene.
And my baby.
I would be a good daddy.
I would take good care of him. Play with him. Get him toys. Maybe make him a
swing like they did Charlene. He would like that. Kids like swings. It was one
of the first things Charlene mentioned when Mr. Green asked her what she
remembered; the swing that hung from the big oak tree.

I suddenly had a bad feeling I couldn't identify.

The swing that hung from the old oak tree.

I went and looked under the bed for those papers I took to Charlene way back
when I was trying to make her happy in the jail. She didn't seem all that
interested in them and she would always give them back to me. I kept them in
case I needed to bring something back for her again. I pulled out the stack and
went through them one by one, looking at the pictures until I came to the one I
didn't want to find.

********************

I couldn't sleep that night. I just rocked back and forth on the bed until
the sun came up. Then I went to town. I stopped in at the drug store for a few
minutes. When I got to the courthouse, I found
Pammy
in the hallway and I nodded to her but walked away without even a good morning.

I saw Mr. Green talking with Mrs.
Wiggington
over
by the trial room door. Mr. Green waved at me to come over but I looked away
from both of them and kept walking until I found Mr. Dawson sipping his cup of
coffee at the end of the hallway. Then I stood in front of him and muttered
over and over, "The swing that hung from the old oak tree that Charlene
loved so much" and he looked at me as though I were crazy and maybe I was.
I held up the old newspaper in front of me. He stared at it for a minute and
then I folded it up, put it in my pocket and turned and walked back down the
hall.
Mr
Green was at the end of it and he had been
watching me and Mr. Dawson.

"Billy Ray!" He tried to grab my arm, but I pulled away and ran
out of the building. I walked home and slept all day while the trial went on.

I opened my eyes when it got dark. I looked around at the empty room and
then I closed them again and went back to sleep. I didn't dream at all that
night.

********************

I woke up and the house seemed like a big empty box. The house was silent
and I sat on the edge of my bed and wondered if I was even alive. I was still
dressed from the day before and I walked to the door and picked my coat up off
the floor where I had dropped it. I walked back down the road to the
courthouse.

********************

January 13 - Day Five

I don't know if that is exactly right because I didn't count yesterday. I
really don't care anymore what day it is.

I went and sat down on my bench. Mr. Green turned and looked at me. Then Mr.
Dawson turned and smiled at me. I had the urge to run out of the courthouse
again but I stayed in my seat and the judge called the court to order.

Mr. Dawson started his day by calling Mrs.
Wiggington
to the stand. I must have jerked or made a sound or something because Mr. Green
smiled over at me and mouthed, "Don't worry."

Charlene smiled for the first time since she had been in the courtroom. Mrs.
Wiggington
blew her a kiss and Charlene put her hand
to her face and blushed.

Mr. Dawson welcomed Mrs.
Wiggington
to the stand
and thanked her for her willingness to share with the court the reuniting of
her family with her long lost daughter, Cheryl.

"It's my pleasure, Mr. Dawson.”

"I know how hard this must be considering the reunion has come under
such difficult circumstances."

Mrs.
Wiggington
disagreed. "Finding my
daughter after all these years is welcome in any circumstance. I love Cheryl
and no matter what she has done, I will always love Cheryl."

"I understand Mrs.
Wiggington
, I
understand."

Mr. Dawson cleared his throat and rubbed his hands together.

"Please tell the court the whole story of how Cheryl disappeared from
your life and how she came back into it."

Mrs.
Wiggington
told the whole story and the
female members of the jury wept loudly and Mr. Green looked happier with each
tear they shed.

Then Mr. Dawson started clapping, very slowly, letting the court know what
he thought of her testimony.

"That was most heartfelt, Mrs.
Wiggington
,
and certainly everyone here in the court can sympathize with your plight. Too
bad the defendant isn't really your daughter."

Mrs.
Wiggington's
mouth dropped open and she
stared at Mr. Dawson. She tried to speak, but Mr. Dawson quickly cut her off
with, "That's all for this witness, Your Honor."

The judge looked over at Mr. Green who was looking over at me and I had no
place to look but at the worn spot on the floor in front of me.