Redemption (36 page)

“
Don’t hang around long,” Poole said. “Pine County’s gonna take a direct hit from this one. This ain’t no ordinary tropical storm.”

A direct hit on a day of direct hits.
“Gonna? We’re taking it right now!”

“
You usin’ Ramsey’s Bronco?”

Not yet.
“Yep. Y’all take care.”

Overton drove to Ramsey’s trailer as hail thundered on the Escort’s roof, but he found he needn’t have come. The trailer had already blown over, the wind lifting and banging it onto the hood of the Bronco. “Damn.”

He spun out of Ramsey’s driveway and was halfway to Callie’s when 115 disappeared under a raging torrent of water mere feet in front of him. He had never seen Taylor’s Branch so high. He backed up a hundred feet and floored it, praying the entire time that Autumn’s Escort would make it through.

The car hit the water and banked hard to the right, the back end swimming behind, the spray blinding Overton for several long moments until the tires found pavement on the other side of the stream. “That wasn’t fun,” he panted. He said a prayer of thanks and continued to Callie’s farmhouse.

He didn’t like what he saw when he got there. The trees in front had fallen, crashing through the front porch. Several smaller trees littered the driveway, but he was able to steer around them to the barn. He jumped out and opened the barn door, and inside sat the Jeep.
Why didn’t she take this?
He looked but didn’t find the key where it normally dangled from the ignition, so he decided to wait out the storm, watching walls of rain slam into Callie’s farmhouse.

60

Jimmy Lee rocked back and forth under the desk, trying not to remember what he could never forget.

“
He ain’t breathing, Jimmy Lee!”

“
Good.”

“
You killed him!”

“
Yep.”

“
I’m gettin’ the hell outta here!”

“
Not yet. Still wanna burn the church?”

“
Let’s go, Jimmy Lee!”

“
Light it first.”

“
What?”

“
Light it up. We’ll sneak out in the smoke.”

“
What about ... what about J?”

“
I know just the place for him.”

Michael struggling with J’s body, cryin’ and fussin’ like a baby the whole time, me posin’ J’s body just right though his finger wouldn’t stay pointin’ at the courthouse ...

The double doors crashed open. “
Jimmy Lee? It’s time to go, Bro!
”

Jimmy Lee shivered. “Go away!” he sobbed.
I’m not looking, I’m not looking, I’m not looking …

“
Can’t do that, Bro. We’re out of time-outs. Game’s over. Time to go home.”

Jimmy Lee crawled from the desk to the windowsill, inching himself up the short wall. He peered through the flying paper and the darkness and saw Jeremiah Poindexter wearing a Pine County letter jacket and leaning against the iron bust of his daddy, the Senator.

His daddy, too.

“
Jeremiah?” Jimmy Lee squawked.

“
Yep.”

“
Are you a ... a—a”

“
Ghost? Yep. You ready to go?”

Jimmy Lee gripped the gun more tightly. “Go where?”

“
Home, Bro.”

“
Home?”
But I’m in my home!

“
Yep.” The ghost took off the letter jacket and pulled up his T-shirt. “Remember this?” The ghost turned around, and Jimmy Lee clearly saw NIGGER. “Still have the tattoo you gave me. Next time, Bro, ask me first, and whatever you do, don’t use a lighter. That shit hurt!”

IdidthatIdidthatIdidthat.
“Oh Jesus!” He lifted the gun, but he couldn’t bring it to aim. “Oh Jesus!”

“
You gonna use that thing or what?”

Jimmy Lee squeezed the trigger, the bullet splintering the bar some ten feet from the ghost. “Oh dear God in heaven!”

“
Damn, Bro, you can’t kill me anymore than you already have, an’ if you try, I’ll come back twice as mean with some other folks. I seen Lester float by the other night. He burnt bad, Bro, got a hole clean through his back. And Michael? He ain’t got no arms or legs. That boy is pissed. Mags kinda looks like an accordion—”

Jimmy Lee fired again, this time hitting his father’s desk. “Shut up!”

“
An’ puttin’ Ramsey in the safe was pretty stupid, Bro. He’s a spirit now, an’ if you think he smelled bad in life, just you wait till you smell him in death.”

“
Shut up!” He fired in the ghost’s direction and heard the bullet break glass somewhere down the hallway.

“
You about to make me mean, Bro. Ain’t nice pissin’ off dead people.”

Jimmy Lee sank to his knees and wept. “W
hat do you want from me?
”

“
Nothin’ more than what you took from me. You took my life, and it’s time for you to return the favor. Kill yourself, Jimmy Lee. It’s the least you can do for me.”

“
Kill ... myself?”

“
Yeah. You do that, and I’ll leave you alone for all eternity. You have my word on it.”

“
Your ... word?”

“
Yeah, Bro. My word is bond.” He put on the letter jacket. “Gonna go now, gonna be waitin’ on the other side of the door, Jimmy Lee. I’ll try to hold off Lester an’ Mags an’ Michael as long as I can. You do the right thing now, hear?”

Jimmy Lee watched as the doors closed without a sound.

So tired, so tired.

Flashes of fires and funerals, football games, and faces danced through Jimmy Lee’s mind.

So tired, so tired.

He looked at the gun.

This is my salvation, my redemption.

He raised the gun and laid the cold, steel barrel on his tongue.

I’m sorry
, he thought, and he pulled the trigger.

61

Though it was only a little past four in the afternoon, it was as dark as midnight inside and outside the barn. Overton rode out the roaring storm, drenched by water pouring through the roof, by holding onto the Jeep’s back bumper. He had tried to close the barn door during the worst of the winds only to have the door fly off its hinges into the void.

The winds abating somewhat, he staggered out of the barn to see Callie’s house, his hands blocking the stinging rain. It stood but just barely, its tin roof peeling back in large, silvery sheets that rattled noisily in the wind, its windows gone as if they had never been there. He looked to his right and saw Autumn’s Escort, a large branch protruding from her rear window. He straightened and squinted in the direction of the road and saw a car turn into the driveway.
Now who could this be?
As the car crept closer, Overton recognized the car: a blue Buick.

Isaiah?

The car stopped behind Autumn’s car, the door opened, and a figure wearing an old Pine High letter jacket splashed through puddles to the barn.

It’s J. I know it can’t be, but ... it’s Jeremiah Poindexter in the flesh!

The boy shook himself off and laughed, smiling from ear to ear. “Some storm, huh Sheriff?”

Overton couldn’t find his voice.

The boy peeled off the letter jacket and tossed it onto the hood of the Jeep. “Name’s Daniel.”

Overton couldn’t help staring. “Sheriff Overton,” he said weakly.

“
Grandma said you might come by. She’s hangin’ somewhere with Aunt Autumn and Uncle Isaiah. Not sure where. Someplace dry, I hope. I’ll tell ‘em all you stopped by.”

Same face, same smile, same strong chin, Callie’s eyes.

“
You all right, Sheriff?”

“
No. I don’t think I am.”
Nor will I ever be.

Daniel took off his shirt and wrung it out.

Overton gasped when he saw NIGGER on Daniel’s back.

“
Don’t worry. It’s only temporary. Henna. Might last two weeks.”

That word on that boy on that statue ...
Overton looked at the ground. “Oh. That’s, uh, that’s good.”

Daniel sat on the Jeep’s bumper and took off some red Chuck Taylor’s, emptying them of water. “Bet you got
lots
of questions.”

“
Uh, yeah, I do.”

“
So ask. It’s a perfect day for comin’ clean.”

Overton’s mouth felt full of cotton, his tongue dry as a bone. “Start ... start with Darcy.”

Daniel laughed. “Mama?”

Oh God!
“Yes. Start with your mama.”

“
Not much to tell. Always wanted to meet her, gave her a call, went for a visit. I never seen so much red hair before. Why I got some on me. We talked mainly, and I asked her why she abandoned me, asked her why she didn’t help my daddy that night, asked why she didn’t tell anyone the truth. Mama cried, moaned, shook, the whole nine yards. I went to the bathroom, opened the medicine cabinet, fought off some marbles, grabbed a bottle of pills, brought them, some tissues, and a glass of water to her. She did the rest.”

“
You expect me to believe that?”

“
It’s the God’s honest truth. She was howlin’ ‘I’m so sorry’ and ‘I loved your daddy’ and ‘please forgive me.’ She showed me the diary and cried even louder as she read it to me. I shut the windows cuz that shit’s embarrassing, you know? You just meet your mama, and she’s cryin’ like a baby.”

“
Y
ou
took a shower.”

“
Yeah. It got real hot in there. When I get out, she’s in bed, the bottle’s empty, she’s dead.”

“
Did you at least check her pulse to see?”

Daniel frowned for the first time. “What I look like? A doctor?”

“
You could have saved her!”

Daniel stood, his eyes unmoving. “An’ she coulda saved me from a night in a graveyard.”

“
You were never in any danger, Daniel. Callie had it all set up. You were safe.”

“
I was safe? Twenty degrees that night, and I was safe? A dog coulda got me or even a cat. I spent my first night outside a hospital in a graveyard, man! That shit is beyond whack. I’ve been thinkin’ about that for as long as I can remember, and it always pisses me the hell off. Yeah, I let my mama die, and I didn’t feel a damn thing. I left her a note and came here, told Grandma what happened. All Grandma said was ‘so it’s begun.’”

The nightmare began.
“And that’s when you went out and ran down Annie.”

Daniel returned to the bumper. “Bitch walked right into the car. It was more her hittin’ us than anythin’. Grandma jumps out—”

Jesus!
“Callie was there?” Overton interrupted.

“
Shit, man, Grandma was
drivin’.
I’m only fifteen.”

Overton slumped against a wall.
She ran her down like a dog!

“
Anyway, old bitch is still alive, and Grandma sells her a piece of land of all things. I’m thinkin’, shit, Grandma, it ain’t gonna do her no good, but that was before I knew about the auction.”

“
Callie was driving.”
A whole lot of prunin’ ...

“
Yeah. Thought she was gonna swerve there right at the end, but she didn’t. Grandma got nerves of steel.”

Overton looked at his hands.
Callie, I don’t know who you are anymore.
“So
she
was the one who messed with my car.”