The Storycatcher (36 page)

“The box was all I took. When I left the cabin, I heard a mournful
cry. I didn’t like believing in all of Ma Clark’s stories, but the truth was as soon as I took her box from the mountain, my life turned upside down. Me dying was going to happen anyway, but I know there is a story tangled around that box. I just never found out what it was.”

“Where is the box?” I asked.

She only shook her head. “Don’t ask me that question. I will not tell.” And she was gone.

BLACK MOUNTAIN GHOSTS
was much easier to deal with than the spirits I was meeting in Darien. I went down to change Mrs. Dobbins’s bed. The house was quiet. Faith was gone and so was the car. I couldn’t help but wonder where she had to go to in Darien with no friends. Wherever she went, she took that creepy quilt of hers. That suited me just fine.

“Girl!”

I nearly fell over Mrs. Dobbins’s bed. The old woman spirit stood in the door. She looked like a real person.

“You got something to do for me. You understand?”

A sigh left my chest.

“Don’t get sassy. I ain’t your regular old haint. You got to take something away from here with you.”

“What?”

“It be hidden and you got to find it.”

“What’s hidden?” I looked around the room.

The old woman smiled. “You be a good girl. You listening without arguing.”

All the fight was out of me. I just wanted to go home to Nada. Will and I hadn’t had much to say to each other since the day he took me on the beach. What was there to say when I was so mad at him for not coming home?

“You could listen to him, child, really listen to him,” the old woman said. “You ain’t done nothing but bellyache with yourself about not having him. When you find him, you fight him.”

“He left me and Nada.”

“Ain’t nothing like it seems, girl.” She pointed at the bed. “Now, look under there against the wall on the floor, near the headboard.”

I stood where I was.

“Now, girl.”

The dust tickled my nose, but I pushed under the bed on my belly.

“See them boards that are loose?”

I tapped on the boards, and two moved.

“I told her to hide it there ’cause he was coming. She listened to me.”

The two boards came up with a little tug, reminding me of my hiding place at home.

“You find it?”

“Yes.” The last thing I wanted to do was reach in the dark hole under the floor.

“Go on. Ain’t nothing going to bite you.” The old woman laughed.

Something hard and square was in the hole.

“Take it out.”

I pulled out a small wooden box.

The old woman spirit moaned. “Yes, ma’am, that be it. Time to take it back home.” In the daylight of the room, I seen two letters carved into the lid:
A. L.

“Open it. You know you want to see in it. You be a brave girl, so you deserve a look.”

I sat on the floor with the box in my lap and pulled the lid off. A cry escaped.

“What you see?” The old woman moved closer.

In the box was a lock of fine dark hair tied with a thread, a faded piece of pink tissue paper, a small square of white dotted yellow cloth, a piece of white chalk, a gold wedding band, a brown button off a man’s shirt, a small Bible, and a dead dragonfly. I spread the things on the floor. The need to cry washed over me. “A life,” I whispered.

“Yes, ma’am. You be a good girl. Take the box back to her, and the story will be over.”

“Who, Mary Beth Clark?”

“Lord, no.” The old woman cackled. “You got her book. It’s all been about her story, child. Too late to fix what happened to her, but you can stop the evil in its tracks.” She nodded to the box. “It’s a map, a deserving map, to the truth.”

And she was gone.
A. L., Armetta Lolly,
I thought to myself. This was her box just like she talked about in her book. Maybe all this mess had been about bringing her box home. That’s why she wanted me to read her book. She wanted her box back home. I’d do my best.

H
E MADE EVERY STEP
Shelly’s mama made, and the fool didn’t hear him or see his signs. Evil walked the mountain that day. God help her soul.

T
HAT WIND STOPPED BLOWING
and the water got still when I found the box. I left the bedroom in a run and almost knocked Mrs. Dobbins down.

“Shelly, where is Ada?” she asked.

Her face was lined like it stayed when she was on the mountain.

“The last time I seen her, she was in the backyard.”

Her frown got deep. “Go find her. There’s a man here about her boy. He’s been hurt.”

I pushed down them stairs two at a time with my hand shoved in the deep pocket on my skirt, holding the memory box safe. My plans was to hide it in my bag at Ada’s house in Darien.

“Be careful, Shelly. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

It was time for some truths. “Her boy be Will, Mrs. Dobbins.”

“What?” she yelled.

But I couldn’t stop running. Will was hurt, and I hadn’t even taken the time to tell him I did love him.

I
LOOKED OUT THE WINDOW
of Zach’s truck, trying to shake the dread easing down my scalp for no good reason.

“Maude, this woman is colored, and it will be hard to get a court of law to take her testimony serious, especially against a pastor. I wish we could talk to his daughter. What is her name?”

“Faith, but she’s gone. They’re hiding. Shelly’s note said they went to the Georgia coast. Amanda is trustworthy, and she went to work for him before Faith was born.”

“It doesn’t matter, Maude. Some people will not care about anything but the color of her skin.” He turned into the drive.

The big house was quiet. “His car isn’t here. I haven’t seen him since he came to my door raving like a crazy man.”

“That is odd. I expected to see him again. He was very angry.” Zach stared at the house.

“Let’s go to Amanda’s cabin first.” I had a feeling someone was watching our every move. When I knocked on the door, it swung open. Zach touched my hand and shook his head. He took a step inside.

“Amanda?” I called. “Maybe she’s up at the main house.” Then I saw all the bottles on her shelf in the kitchen scattered over the floor. The shelf hung sideways on one nail. “Something bad has happened.”

“Maybe the shelf just fell. It looks like it was loaded down.” Zach eased into the kitchen. “Let’s look around.”

This didn’t take long. “She’s in the main house.” I said this around a knot in my throat.

When I stepped into the yard, a wave of pure panic washed over me. My hands shook.

“Her be lost.”
The words floated through the air.

“Did you hear that?”

Zach looked at me funny.

“I thought I heard a voice.”

“I didn’t hear a thing,” he said.

I nodded.

The back door to Charles Dobbins’s house stood wide open. Cabinet drawers were pulled out and the contents scattered all over the floor.

“Maude, come over here.” Zach pointed to the floor.

Sugar was spilled. Someone had written a message:
FIND HER.

I shook my head.

“I think our good pastor has lost his mind.”

I saw Faith’s face in my thoughts. “He’s left. He’s gone after Faith and Lydia, Zach. He’s going to hurt them like the others, like Arleen.”

Zach’s face turned red. “I have a friend who is the sheriff of McIntosh County, Georgia.” He moved to the phone. “Maybe he’ll know where they’re staying. He has connections up and down the coast.”

“What about Amanda?” My stomach churned. “I shouldn’t have left her. He came after I was here.”

“He could have taken her with him.”

“Maybe.” But I knew he hadn’t. “Let’s go to my place. Maybe he’s been there too.”

WE STOOD
in my garden.

“The angel was here?” Zach pointed at the flattened grass. “I thought I told you not to bother it, Maude, that it was stealing.”

“I know.”

“Who helped you?”

A butterfly caught a breeze and glided along to the next bush. “I did it with my wheelbarrow.”

He shook his head. “So Charles Dobbins could have seen you bring it out of the woods?”

“I guess, but why would he care about the marble angel with a broken wing?”

“I’m not sure, but I have a gut feeling he was watching you and this angel is important. Let’s go to the cemetery.”

I led him up the path into the woods. All was still.

“She be lost.”
The voice was loud this time. Zach still didn’t seem to notice.

“H
ERE’S YOUR COFFEE.”
I handed Will the steaming paper cup. “It’s wrong that I can go in there and buy coffee and you can’t.”

Will looked at the shrimp boats from where he stood on the side of the road. “Lots of wrong things, Arleen. You should know that. It’s the way things are right now, but maybe not forever.”

“We’re the same, Will.”