Sit! Stay! Speak! (18 page)

Addie giggled. “You've assisted in many live births?”

“Yes,” Jasper said, humorless. “Grab those old towels behind you. We may need them.”

By the time Addie turned back around, Delilah was licking the first of the puppies. Addie watched in awe as puppy after puppy was born. She counted six before there was a lull in the labor.

“Is it over?” Addie asked. “Is she done?”

“There's another one,” Jasper said. “But I think it's lodged.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I'm going to have to help.” Jasper leaned over Delilah and gently began pulling the pup, twisting slightly. After a few seconds, the puppy slid out next to its mother.

The puppy didn't move.

“Jasper, is it breathing?”

“No.”

“Is it dead?”

Jasper picked up the puppy. “Fold one of those towels over.”

“Okay.”

“Now, fold the top of the towel over him and rub gently,” Jasper replied. “Very gently. Don't stop.”

“He's still not breathing.”

“Keep going,” Jasper urged. “Just keep going.”

Addie rubbed the little puppy inside the towel, whispering to him words of encouragement. At Jasper's instruction, she placed the puppy back into the box next to his brothers and sisters. After what felt like forever, the puppy gave a short, shuddering sigh.

“He's breathing!” Addie rejoiced. “He's breathing! We did it!”

“We'll have to keep an eye on him until morning,” Jasper said.

“I can't believe she had seven puppies. Do you think she's doing okay?”

“She seems to be okay for now.” Jasper wiped his hands on one of the unused towels. “I need to move her food and water bowls over. And Doc will be here later this morning to check on her.”

Addie yawned. “What time is it?”

“It's five
A
.
M
. Why don't you go lay down? You look exhausted.”

“What about you?” Addie yawned again.

“I'm going to stay up and keep an eye on things.”

“I'll stay up with you.”

“You can hardly keep your eyes open.”

“I'm fine.”

“Just go lay down.” Jasper pointed toward the bed. “I'll wake you up if something happens.”

“Okay,” Addie said. “I feel like I've been run over.”

“About earlier tonight,” Jasper began. He sat down at the foot of the bed. “I didn't mean for what I said to sound uncaring.”

“It's okay.”

“It's not,” Jasper continued. “I want to talk about it, about us, but I just can't right now.”

Addie wanted to ask him why, why he couldn't talk about it.
Why couldn't he talk about the way he looked at her, the way he touched her? Did it have something to do with Harper? But she was just so tired. She didn't want to ruin what she'd just experienced, what she'd just seen, because as far as summer nights went, there wasn't another one in her twenty-eight years that compared to this.

A
DDIE AWOKE TO VOICES COMING FROM
J
ASPER
'
S LIVING ROOM
. Groggy, she sat up. She tiptoed over to the closet to check on the puppies. “It's just me, Delilah,” Addie whispered.

She gave the dog a scratch on the head before making her way into the living room. When Doc and Jasper saw her they stopped talking. “I thought you were going to wake me up when Doc got here,” she said.

Jasper crossed his arms over his chest. “I tried. You told me to go away. More than once.”

“It's true,” Doc said. He looked up at her from his cup of coffee. “You didn't even open your eyes, but you were quite threatening.”

“I'm sorry,” Addie replied. “I can get pretty hateful in my sleep. So how are the puppies? How is Delilah? Are they all healthy?”

“They all seem to be doing fine. I can give the puppies the care they need from here, but I think we'll need to bring . . . Delilah, is it? I think we'll need to bring her into the clinic for some tests—things
we couldn't check while she was pregnant. Not now, mind you, but relatively soon after the pups are weaned.”

“Is that . . . is that going to be okay?” Addie asked. “I mean, what if someone recognizes her?”

“We can do it after-hours,” Doc replied. “But really, Adelaide, I don't know who would recognize her and put two and two together. From the looks of her, she's had little to no veterinary care her entire life. I doubt she's ever even been off of the property until now.”

“So you've never seen her before?”

“Never.”

Addie's brow furrowed. “But I thought Redd came to you with his dogs. Isn't that what the guy at the clinic said yesterday?”

“I've seen some of his males, never any of the females,” Doc replied. “I don't see how anyone would recognize her.”

“There are people over at that house all the time. And Redd acted like he knew something last night at Wanda's.”

“Redd was at Wanda's party?” Jasper asked. “Why didn't you tell me?”

“I guess I forgot.”

“Why would Wanda even invite him?”

“She didn't,” Addie said. “And he and Bobby had some kind of argument, so I know it wasn't Bobby. I was sitting there talking to Loren, and then Redd came over and was, as Wanda put it, ‘as mad as an old wet hen.'”

“Loren was there?”

“Yes.”

Jasper looked as if he was about to say something else but, looking from Doc to Addie, thought better of it. After what seemed like forever, he said, “Did Redd threaten you?”

“Not exactly,” Addie said. “But I might've . . . I might've said something to make it worse.”

“What did you say?”

“Well, it started with him accusing me of sleeping with just about everyone in all of Eunice,” Addie began.

Doc cleared his throat. “That's quite an accusation.”

“I called him a coward.”

“I wish you'd told me this earlier.” Jasper's hands were clenched tightly at his sides. “This isn't Chicago. You can't go around saying things like that to people. Not people like Redd. Didn't I ask you to let me take care of it?”

“Why? What were you going to do?” Addie asked. “Go find him and beat him up?”

“It's crossed my mind a few times.”

“Well, you weren't there.”

“That's not going to fix anything,” Doc said. He pursed his lips together. “The best thing any of us can do right now is keep a low profile. Just don't talk to anyone.”

“It's going to be hard to hide those puppies in a few weeks,” Jasper said. “The farmhands know about Delilah, but I told them she was a stray.”

“Strays have puppies all the time,” Doc concluded. “Just keep on like normal.”

“Why is everyone so scared of Redd?” Addie asked, the anger she felt earlier flooding back. “I mean, Jasper, you're a lawyer. What's a guy like Redd have over this town that he thinks he owns all the people in it?”

Doc walked over to where Addie stood and planted his hands squarely on her shoulders. “This is much bigger than you could ever imagine.”

“What do you mean?” Addie asked. He was staring so deeply into her eyes that it caught her off guard. It was like he was trying to tell her something without saying any words. She didn't understand.

“He just means that Redd Jones had been terrorizing this town for years before you came around pushing his buttons,” Jasper said.

Doc took a step back from Addie. “I've left some vitamin supplements for the pups in the bedroom. And you might want to think about getting some puppy chow for Delilah. That will help her keep her energy and weight up while she's nursing. The extra protein will be good for her.”

“I'll get some today,” Addie promised.

Jasper led Doc outside and shut the door behind them. Addie crept to the window and pulled back the curtain. The two men were standing close to each other. Doc had his glasses off and was using them to rap Jasper on the chest as he spoke. Jasper's nostrils flared with each
tap, tap, tap
of the glasses.

“I don't think you understand,” Jasper was saying.

“No,
you
don't understand,” Doc cut him off. “This is getting out of control.
She
is getting out of control.”

Jasper looked up and saw Addie at the window. She backed away and let the curtain fall, leaving the two men to their conversation outside in the muggy Delta morning.

A
DDIE WAS EXHAUSTED BY THE TIME SHE PULLED INTO HER
driveway. She'd avoided six phone calls from her mother and spent twenty minutes on the phone convincing Wanda that she would explain everything once she'd had more than two hours of sleep. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed. But as soon as she walked through the front door, the half-sanded dresser called to her from the spare bedroom.

Felix watched her work, curiously tilting his head from side to side each time the sandpaper made a sound against the wooden dresser. He wouldn't get near her while she wore her mask, staying at a safe distance in the living room. Loud voices scared him. Hats scared him. Cigarettes scared him. And Addie's mask scared him. She tried talking to him in a quiet voice, but it didn't do any good while she wore the mask.

She couldn't get what happened at Redd's house out of her mind. It didn't matter if her eyes were opened or closed. It didn't
matter if she was awake or asleep—it was always there, lingering, in the back of her mind. Jasper had tried to take her mind off it, and he had for a while, making love to her in the grass at the farm. His touch left her head fuzzy for a few days, but Addie could still see the gleam of Redd's gun whenever something shiny caught her eye, whenever the sun was out. How could Jasper and Dr. Dixon be so nonchalant about it? How could they tell her to calm down? They hadn't seen what she had.

An hour later, she was jolted out of sleep by the ringing of the doorbell and the howling of Felix. “Be quiet and maybe they'll go away,” Addie whispered.

Instead of going away, the ringing continued. Felix, in an excited frenzy, jumped off the bed and ran to the front door.

Addie pulled herself out of bed. Cursing, she made her way to the front door where Felix sat pawing and whining. “Traitor,” she said to him.

She swung open the door to see her mother and Jerry standing in front of her. “Mom?” She blinked. “Jerry? What are you doing here?”

“Well, that's some greeting,” her mother replied. “Aren't you going to invite us inside?”

“Of course!” Addie said as she unlocked the screen door and held it open for them. “I'm sorry! I'm just surprised!”

“You just sounded so depressed when we talked a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't stand it,” her mother replied. “So we booked a flight to Memphis, rented a car, and here we are!” She flung her arms out wide to embrace her daughter. “I tried calling you all morning, but you never answered. I thought I was going to have to call the police!”

“I'm so happy to see you,” Addie murmured into her mother's shoulder. From the corner of her eye, she could see Felix sitting on top of Jerry on the couch, both paws resting on Jerry's shoulders as Jerry sat there with a mix of horror and amusement on his face. “Felix!” Addie yelped. “Get off of Jerry!”

With one swift lick to the side of Jerry's face, Felix leapt down and trotted to his bed, where he plopped himself down with a snort.

“I couldn't tell if he was going to eat me or lick me to death,” Jerry said finally, taking out a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe off his glasses. “You hear all these terrible things about pit bulls. I wasn't sure what to expect when your mother told me you had one.”

“He's about as vicious as a gnat,” Addie replied.

“He seems very sweet,” Jerry agreed. “If not a little excitable.”

“I'm so sorry,” Addie said. “He forgets his manners sometimes.”

“That's okay.” Jerry grinned. “So do I.”

“When was the last time you greeted someone like that?” Addie asked.

“Last night when your mother told me we were boarding a plane to the Delta of Arkansas.” Jerry laughed.

Addie leaned down to give Jerry a quick peck on the cheek. “I'm so glad you came. Thank you.”

“Of course.”

“I haven't been here in so long,” Addie's mother lamented. She walked into the kitchen. “But I swear it even smells the same.”

“Some of the furniture and decorations are the same,” Addie said. “The kitchen table was Aunt Tilda's and so were most of the pictures on the walls. The bed in the spare room was hers. Some
of her belongings were donated when she died, mostly clothes and linens—but she left a few things with the house. Most of it was out in the old shed. I don't think anybody ever thought to look there.”

“Did you refinish the table?” her mother asked. “It looks lovely.”

“I did,” Addie replied. She felt a surge of pride. “I'm working on an old dresser, too.”

“Jonah would be so proud of you.”

“I don't know about that.” Addie looked away from her mother. “I haven't exactly been doing things the way he taught me.”

“No matter about that.” Her mother took Addie's hands in hers. “I always thought you spent too much time trying to please him, anyway. Now, tell us, what are your plans for the day?”

“I don't have any plans.”

“I wanted to take Jerry down to see the river. And maybe we could get some lunch?”

“Sounds good.” Addie shrugged. “There is a cute restaurant over by the clinic.”

“It's been so long since I've been to a little southern town,” Addie's mother said. “I'm so glad to be here.”

Addie grinned and wrapped her arms around her mother's neck. “Me too, Mom.”

Three Sisters was a diner located on the sole strip of highway that ran through Eunice. It was run by three women—sisters who had never been anywhere their whole lives except to the next town over, and any one of them would tell you that they didn't like it much. They lived in the same house they were born in, in 1938, 1939, and 1941. The house was right behind the diner, the last remaining house left on the business side of the town.

Patty Mae, Fannie Lou, and Opal Ruth were, in Addie's
mind, responsible for some of the best food she'd ever eaten in her entire life. The first time Wanda took her there she'd eaten until she was sick.

“Addie!” Fannie Lou exclaimed when Addie, her mother, and Jerry walked through the door. “So good to see you.”

“Hi, Fannie Lou,” Addie said, a broad smile crossing her face. “How are you?”

“Oh, the usual.” She squeezed one of Addie's hands. “And who do we have here?”

“This is my mother, Miranda, and my stepfather, Jerry.”

“Howdy,” Jerry said. He stuck out his hand to greet Fannie Lou.

Fannie Lou raised an eyebrow at Addie. “Howdy.”

“You've got a lovely place.”

“Why don't I show y'all to your table?” Fannie Lou beckoned them to follow her. “Where's he from—that stepfather of yours?” she whispered to Addie.

“Chicago,” Addie replied. “Where are Patty Mae and Opal Ruth? I've never seen you up front by yourself before.”

“Patty Mae's at home today. She's under the weather,” Fannie Lou replied. “And Opal Ruth is in the back fixin' up the usual for Mr. Smoot.”

“Augustus Smoot?”

“You know him?”

“He's my neighbor,” Addie said.

“Lord, child.”

“He's not as crazy as people think.”

“He's a might younger than me,” Fannie Lou replied, “but I've known him all my life. He don't speak to nobody now. Magdalene always answers the door. It's the same thing every week—chocolate gravy and biscuits.”

“What is chocolate gravy?” Jerry asked.

Fannie Lou stopped dead in her tracks. “You ain't never had chocolate gravy?”

“I can't say that I have.”

“Well, bless your heart!”

“Why do I feel like she's insulting me?” Jerry asked Addie as they were led toward the dining area.

“Because she is.”

“But she was so nice about it.”

Addie was about to respond when she saw Artemis Floyd waving at her. Artemis wasn't alone. Both Jasper and his father were seated at the table as well.

“Would you all like a booth or a table?” Fannie Lou asked.

“Either is fine,” Addie's mother piped up.

Artemis stood up from her table and started to walk over to the booth where Addie, her mother, and Jerry were about to sit down. “Hello, Addie,” Artemis said. “How are you, my dear?”

“I'm good, Mrs. Floyd. How are you?”

“Call me Artemis. I know I've told you that before. Is this your mother and father?”

“I'm Miranda,” Addie's mother said. “And this is her stepfather, Jerry.”

“It's so nice to meet you both,” Artemis replied. “I'm Artemis Floyd. Your daughter and my son, Jasper, are good friends, I believe.”

“I think I've heard Addie mention a friend named Jasper a time or two.”

Addie wanted to crawl under the nearest table and stay there. “Mom, we should probably sit down and look at the menu. The lunch specials will be over soon.”

“Why don't you all come over and sit with us? We'd love to have the company.”

“We were actually thinking about taking our food to go.”

“No we weren't,” Addie's mother said. “We'd love to join you, Artemis. What a nice offer.”

Fannie Lou busied herself making the table ready for six people while Addie tried to ignore Jasper's eyes on her. She knew how awful she looked after hardly any sleep, and she knew how awful it was going to be having to sit through an awkward lunch with four nosy parents.

“Sit!” Artemis commanded.

Addie said nothing as her mother and Jerry made small talk. After a few seconds Jasper cleared his throat. “Hello, Addie.”

“I thought you said your parents were out of town,” she whispered.

“They were out of town. They came home unexpectedly last night.”

“Oh.”

“Why are you acting weird?”

“I'm not.”

“Yes. You are.”

“I didn't even know your dad went out in public.”

Jasper put the menu in front of his face. “He's paralyzed, not dead. Besides, where did you think ‘out of town' was? The barn next door?”

“So, Jasper,” Addie's mother said, drawing their attention back to the group. “I don't know if I've ever heard how the two of you met.”

“I was there the night she brought that disaster of a dog into the clinic,” Jasper replied.

“You don't work there, too?”

“No, no,” Jasper said. “I was there talking to Doc about something or other when Addie came rushing in.”

“I see.”

“She saved that dog's life,” Jasper continued. “He would have died without her.”

“That's what we heard,” Jerry said.

“He's quite a dog, especially considering all he's been through.”

“He sure gave me a hero's welcome.” Jerry chuckled. “I told Miranda I was worried about Addie having a pit bull . . . you know, because of all the terrible things you hear about them.”

“I've seen animals endure less and come out meaner than a bag of snakes,” Jasper replied. “He's got some kind of spirit.”

“Some of us see more than our fair share of cruelty in life,” Addie spoke up. “The only difference between people and animals is that people are cruel on purpose.”

“Well,” Jasper began. “Felix is lucky to have you, then. I don't believe there's a cruel bone in your body.”

Jasper's gaze was on Addie, searing into her. It was the same look he'd had in the hallway of his loft in Memphis, and the same look he'd had that night in the kitchen at her house.

“How long will you folks be in town?” Artemis asked, breaking the awkward silence between Addie and Jasper.

“Just until tomorrow,” Addie's mother replied. “I'm a nurse, and I've got to be back at work for the weekend shift.”

“Oh, that's too bad. The Delta Blues Festival downtown starts this weekend.”

“That sounds like fun,” Jerry said.

“It is,” Artemis said. “Isn't it, Jack?”

“Huh?” Jack grunted. “Oh, yeah. A blast.”

“Sometimes Jasper even plays in a bluegrass band,” Artemis continued. “Jasper, honey, have you decided if you'll play this year?”

Addie choked on her water. “Jasper plays in a bluegrass band?”

“He plays the harmonica. It's a family tradition.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes,” Artemis said. She grinned at Jasper. “We always have a get-together at the farm with some of the musicians after the first night of the festival. Addie, honey, you ought to come. I'm sure Jasper would love that.”

The scraping of forks against plates was the only response as Jasper stared down at his food. Everyone was silent, waiting for a response. “Yes. I would like that,” he said finally.

Addie concentrated on the menu in front of her. What had taken him so damn long to respond? She was so busy being irritated that she didn't even hear Artemis talking to her until the entire table was staring at her.

“Addie, honey?”

“Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry. What was it? I didn't hear you.”

“I was just asking you about your job. Jasper tells me you're working at the clinic with Dr. Dixon?” Artemis asked.

Addie nodded. “Yes. I've been there a few weeks. I really like it.”

“Doc said you've brought the whole place up to date electronically.”

“It's nothing fancy,” Addie said. “But they were working with a few older programs, and it was causing some trouble.”

“You have some kind of degree in computers?” Jack Floyd spoke up, looking at Addie for the first time.

“No. I have a degree in fine arts. But I know a thing or two about computers.”

“That what those two paid for while you were at college?” Jack pointed at Addie's mother and Jerry with his fork. “You want to work there for the rest of your life?”

“I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of my life, Mr. Floyd,” Addie replied. “No idea.”