The Wedding Gift (29 page)

He shook his head real
serious now. “No, Leeann, I sure as hell am not turning Mormon. I
am staying a damn Baptist, just like our kids will be. I am going
to divorce Carlene so fast it’ll make your head spin and, if that
sends her back on drugs again, well that ain’t my fault. No, I’ll
tell you what, we gotta get these charges beat for you right
quick,and while one lawyer is working on that, the other one is
going to get me a divorce. And about one minute after I is
divorced, well you and me are going to drive up to Las Vegas and
get one of them Elvis impersonators, a real good one too, to marry
us and then we’re coming home to Dalton. It might take me a while,
Girl, but one day I’m going to build you that little house out to
Lake Injun. What do you think about that?”

Well shoot, it’s a good
thing he was so beautiful and all, obviously being dumb as a box of
rocks. What did I think about that? It should have been obvious to
a dead person - oh shoot, another poor expression. Anyways, he
should have known that if I got any happier my heart might explode
from it, and that’s just what I told him, though I had to say
“
Donny, Sugar, a wedding in Vegas, I don’t
know, what about …?
” but he cut me right
off, saying “
Baby, you have had enough big
weddings while you are already knocked up to last you a while I
think. Besides I have always wanted to see Las Vegas, and I’m
betting your daddy has too. Woo, girl, we will have a time. I think
I’ll get you dressed up in one of those showgirl outfits, and see
what we can make of that
.”

I had to laugh and tell him
that, inside my head where no one could see, I was already doing
real bad stuff to him. Donny said he’d take me up on that later but
that, right now, we had better get inside before they came looking
for me “
You being a wanted criminal and
all.”

I had to kick him a little
and tell him that when we were married I was going to nag and
henpeck him to death, just for being so contrary right now. He just
looked me up and down in a way that made my legs go weak, and told
me I could sure try.

Chapter
41

Damn, it was real hard to
get my mind back on present matters, but walking inside the
courthouse surely did do it. By the time we were outside the office
of Billy Ray Tabors, the probation officer, I was back in the real
world again with a thump. Billy Ray was a pretty good guy - he knew
Daddy from Downey’s and all. Speaking of Daddy, he was eyeing me
and Donny like he weren’t born yesterday, which he purely was
not.

I sighed inside, figuring I
could look forward to a talk about that when he got me home. Well,
no matter, it took Billy Ray about twenty minutes to get my ankle
bracelet hooked up, probably on account of Daddy standing over him
the whole time saying “
You better watch
where your hands are at boy
.” When he was
finally done, he told me that if I went beyond Mama and Daddy’s
front porch or back step, then it would set off an alarm and he
would come and get me and I would be ”
Hauled back to Maybeetle right quick
.”

Daddy got all important
telling Billy Ray that I would be in his sight every minute of the
day and not to worry about a damn thing.

Billy Ray said he knew he
could count on him to see I was kept in line.

Jess of course had to ask
in this real innocent voice “
Billy Ray,
will Leann’s ankle monitor start buzzing if Charlie hauls her off
to Downey’s to keep a strict eye on her?
”

That set everyone,
including Billy Ray, to laughing. Why, he even clapped Mark on the
back and asked him if he didn’t want him to put one of these ankle
monitors on Jess. “
If that hellcat were my
woman, I’d be keeping a strict eye on her.”

Mark pretended to be
considering this offer, just about long enough for Jess, to tell
him “
Mark, I swear to God, if you don’t
hurry up and say hell no and take me on home now, you won’t need to
concern yourself with my whereabouts, ‘cause really what the hell
does a eunuch care where his woman is?
”

Like I have said, Mark is
real smart, so he just told Billy Ray thanks but no thanks. And
then him and Jess hugged me goodbye.

Jess said
“
I’ll see you tomorrow, you dang convict.
But, Leeann, so help me God, if you want to call me early in the
morning, well maybe you should just shoot yourself first because it
will save me the trouble and the cost of a bullet. Now I think of
it, I’ll be saving the taxpayers a heap on your trial
too
!”

I hugged her as tight as
she’d let me and I said I didn’t really know how to thank her for
what she had done. Jess just rolled her eyes, and slinging her arm
around Mark’s waist, they took off.

Then my family was
gathering around, Daddy and Randy thanking Donny for what he had
done … Daddy even saying that Donny was another son to
him.

Seeing what was in our real
immediate future, I was damn glad he felt that way. Mama was asking
Donny if he wanted to come home with us for supper but,
deliberately ignoring my begging face, he said he better get on
back; that he had a lot to do in the next few days. He gave me this
secret look, just for the two of us. I knew what he meant - telling
Carlene to take a hike and such.

Because we had to pretend
for a while, I just told him “
Well thank
you for everything again, Donny. You sure are a good friend and I’m
sure I’ll be seeing you soon
.” Randy and
Sarah Beth said they had to pick up Tallulah from her other
grandma’s before coming on over to the house, and could they drop
Donny off? He said that sounded good, and then it was just Mama and
Daddy and me. Daddy held my arm the whole way to his pickup. My
daddy is a real smart man and I know that he was holding my arm
more because he felt I might go running after Donny Readle, than
because he thought I might be trying to become a fugitive from
justice, or what was passing for justice in Dalton right
now.

C
hapter 42

Over dinner that night
which, I must say, having eaten Mama’s chicken fried steak about
one million times before, was still the best meal I have ever had,
my jail experiences having given me a new appreciation for good
food, Randy was awful serious.

For about one semester,
before he knocked up Sarah Beth, (this being something of a pattern
in our family apparently), he had planned to be a lawyer. And he
would have made a damn fine one too, being smart as hell. But,
anyway, based on this knowledge he had, Randy had pegged my public
defender as a nickel-plated loser right from the get go.

I had to agree when he said
that if we couldn’t figure out how to get me a real criminal
attorney, I might end up celebrating a lot of holidays up to
Maybeetle. I told Randy then about how Donny and Jessie had tried
to get my jewelry out of Willets House, but they had been foiled by
the guards. Randy said that no matter what, that jewelry was mine.
He told us that he did think that the Willets could put a stop to
me touching George’s bank account and even the house, me being an
accused murderess and all, (Randy winked when he said it though,
thank God) ‘cause it isn’t so funny to joke about things like that
when it’s you who is the accused killer in question.

My brother announced that
he himself was going to take off work all day tomorrow to figure
out how to file an injunction asking Judge Styles to order the
return of my jewelry. He said he figured we had a pretty good
chance. Then once I had that jewelry in my hot little hand, that
him and Daddy would go on up to Dallas where they had the kind of
jewelers that handled such fancy stuff and sell it and hire me a
lawyer, all in the same day if they could. That sounded like an
awful good plan to me, and I told him so. Heck by then Sarah Beth
was looking at him like he could walk on water. Little Tallulah
cracked us all up by asking, if I was going up to Maybeetle, could
she have my old canopy bed? Then Mama made us all get real quiet by
asking me what I thought we should do about the funeral.

Oh shoot - George’s
funeral.

I asked her what she knew
about it, and she told me that it was the day after tomorrow at Our
Lady of Perpetual Sorrow. She said that she thought me or Daddy
better call Billy Ray up tomorrow to ask permission for me to go. I
told her that I didn’t think I could stand it and she bowed up and
told me I had better stand it.

She said
“
George was your lawfully wedded husband,
Little Missy Leeann. What do you think people would say if our
whole family, especially George’s widow, wasn’t
there?
”

I knew she was right but I
knew that Miz Willets wouldn’t like it, and I told her so. Mama
told me in quick return that Miz Willets having just lost her own
son, a grief that she, Mama, knew all too well, would be too busy
grieving to care about me. I knew she was wrong about that, but I
knew I had to go.

Thinking about George’s
funeral made me tired, so I excused myself. I kissed everyone
goodnight and, grabbing up Muffin from the couch on the way, I went
upstairs to my sweet little lavender bedroom. The whole time I was
brushing my teeth, and getting ready for bed, I was thinking not of
Donny now, but of Robina. I knew she would come for me. I prayed to
have the courage of Jessie, the fierce heart of a lion like she
had, because when Robina tried to take me with her tonight to show
me what she had to, I was going.

Then, wouldn’t you know it,
she didn’t come. I lay awake for an hour, even trying to be open to
her spirit, like Jess had told me to, but nothing strange at all
happened. I hoped this didn’t mean she was now done with me, that
having framed me for George’s murder, she would just leave me to
hang for it.

Thinking like this does not
help someone get to sleep, so instead I put my hands on my stomach,
thinking that inside there, real tiny now but alive, was a little
boy, one with his daddy’s green eyes and his grin. Ah, then I could
feel my muscles loosen up. Thinking about my boys was a lot better
road to walk on the way to sleeping, and I know I was still smiling
about that littlest boy when my eyes closed.

Chapter
43

For no other reason than
because I could, I stayed in bed all the next day. I knew I
wouldn’t be seeing Donny. Randy and Daddy had headed on up to OKC
to see about filing an injunction, and Mama had gone back down to
work at Elma’s Occasion Dresses, so I was just laying there in my
bed minding my own business with Muffin curled up beside me, when
Jessie came in and jumped on me.

“
So what the hell happened
last night? Did Robina show you them … whatever they was, you know,
them pictures? Well speak up girl! I haven’t got all day to lie
around like you do, laying there like a fat hog, acting like a big
old tragedy queen. Some of us have to work for a
living
.”

Shoot, I knew somehow
Robina not showing up was going to be my fault in Jessie’s book. I
told her that nothing happened last night, and don’t start with me.
I said “
I mean it, Jess, because, hell, I
just laid here for hours stretched out like a dead carp, trying to
be open like you said and still nothing happened
.”

Jess got quiet for a minute
as she was thinking this over. Then she asked me to repeat
everything Robina had said that night in jail. I did, and then she
got this real serious doom and gloom look on her face. I knew she
was waiting so I said it. “
What, Jess,
what are you thinking?
”

“
Well, Leeann, don’t you
see, she said she couldn’t go so far. When she asked you to come
home, I don’t think she meant here … I think she meant Willets
House
.”

“
Oh hell no, Jess, and I
mean it this time! And even if I were feeling like going into
Willets House and seeing Robina’s private home movies, which I
purely am not, you told me yourself that Miz Willets hired guards
and that’s why you and Donnie couldn’t get in for the jewelry. So,
see, you can take that sad idea right off the table
there
.”

She nodded like she agreed
with me, which I knew was pure grade A bullpoop, so I just laid
there waiting.

“
Yeah, yeah, you’re right,
Leeann. Hell, I don’t know what I was thinking of. Oh, and by the
way, congratulations on your latest illegitimate
pregnancy
.” We both had to laugh then of
course, but she wasn’t done. “
Yep, the
more I consider this, the more I realize that Robina is sure nuff
done with you. After all, George is dead and everyone thinks you
are Dalton’s own Lizzie Borden, so what more could Robina do to
you? Well, excepting that it seems to me that she mentioned
something about that there baby in your stomach. I am just assuming
here now of course, but I was thinking that you might be a little
more excited about this here baby than, say, your last go round; am
I right there?
”

I put my hands protectively
around my stomach and sat up in bed. “
What
are you saying, Jess?
”