Cottonwood Whispers Read online

  “I can’t tell you, Daddy. You just have to trust me.”

  I felt a hand on the back of my shirt as Luke pulled me closer to him. “You best get out of here,” he whispered in my ear, “before you get hurt.”

  “I ain’t leavin’ you alone.”

  “Jessie, I don’t want you gettin’ hurt.”

  I didn’t reply. I just kept my eyes on Nate, almost wishing him away. He didn’t make a move toward Daddy. In fact, his face seemed to soften a bit, but he still held his position firmly.

  “You do anythin’ here, Nate,” Daddy said quietly, “and your Mae loses you and her girl all in one fell swoop. You’ll go to prison for murder and leave her all alone.”

  “Ain’t murder if it’s justice.”

  “Law says you ain’t got the right to carry out your own way of justice. Law says you’ll go to prison. And you just might take these men along with you.”

  Nate blinked a bit faster as though fighting back emotion.

  “You turn away, Nate,” Daddy continued, “and I figure they’ll do the same.”

  “He ain’t got control of everythin’ around here,” Mr. Custis said. “Not a one of us wants that crazy lunatic roamin’ these streets to run down our own families. Gettin’ rid of Poe gets rid of danger to all of our families, the way I see it.”

  “Stand down, Delmar,” Nate Colby growled. “This ain’t your battle to fight.”

  “Way I see it, it is,” Mr. Custis said, pushing past Nate. He stuck a finger in Daddy’s chest and poked him twice, hard. “I don’t see no badge pinned to your shirt, Harley Lassiter,” he snarled, poking him with each word he spoke. “You best get on out of my way until you get sworn in official-like.”

  Daddy could stand a lot but he didn’t like getting poked; that I well knew. Momma once told me that Daddy had had only one fight in all his life. Daddy made his excuses by saying that the boy had been asking for it for a long time, but when I asked him what had finally made him angry enough to fight, Daddy said, without even looking up from his newspaper, “The boy poked me.”

  I remembered that story now and backed up closer to Luke, afraid of what my daddy was going to do. I saw the muscles in his neck tighten and his free hand clench into a fist. Then he reached up, grabbed Mr. Custis by the front of the neck and squeezed, just enough to take away a bit of his air.

  “You listen here, Delmar Custis,” he said through clenched teeth. “I’m a generally peaceful man by rights, but you’re forcin’ me to get nasty. Now you just calm yourself down and get off this property before somebody gets hurt. You hear?”

  Mr. Custis squirmed uncomfortably, his head stuck in an awkward upward turn. His eyes were wide and his lips moved as though trying to speak but unable to.

  Just then, I heard a rifle cock, and I looked up to see Joe Dailey point his rifle straight toward my daddy. Terror filled my mind, and I reached a hand back and grabbed Luke to steady myself. I felt his hand on my shoulder in a tight grip, but his other hand held the pistol off in front of me, pointing at Joe Dailey.

  “You best stand off, Luke,” Mr. Dailey said. “Lest you want me to shoot Mr. Lassiter here. And you best let Delmar go, Harley, ’cause we aim to have what we came for.” He moved a foot closer so that the gun was only inches from Daddy’s chest. “Now let him go.”

  Daddy let Mr. Custis go but he still held his gun in front of him at the ready. Nobody budged for those few seconds that seemed to me like hours. We all stood without flinching, afraid that any sudden movement would set one of those guns off.

  A couple more men took advantage of the moment to move quickly forward, and I again readied myself to pounce, but a shot sounded in the air that brought us all to attention. Fear crawled through my veins and made my hair stand on end, and I desperately scanned my daddy from head to toe to make sure he was all right. He stood there without a wound, his eyes as wide as everyone else’s, and I looked frantically around to see who had fired that shot and if anyone had received it. That was when I caught sight of Sheriff Clancy standing on the bottom step, his arm raised, pointing his pistol into the back of Joe Dailey’s head.

  No one said much of anything, and no one moved either, but Sheriff Clancy kept his gun steady. “Don’t think I won’t use it, Joe Dailey,” he said to the man at the other end of the barrel. “I ain’t got as much of a conscience about such things as some do.”

  Joe’s face melted into dismay, and he let the gun drop slowly to his side.

  “All the way down, Joe. I want that rifle on the ground.”

  Joe dropped the gun and raised his hands slowly up next to his ears in a show of surrender.

  “All right, then, boys,” the sheriff shouted. “Move on out before I got to lock you all up.”

  “Lock us up in there with Poe,” one of the men muttered. “We can take care of him good and simple that way.”

  “I’d send you over to Spokeet County, is what I’d do. I’m sure Sheriff Hobbes would welcome the sight of you. He gets lonely over there since they ain’t got but a handful of people livin’ there these days. Heck, he’d put a welcome mat on his front door.”

  “That man in there,” Mr. Custis said, pointing toward the jailhouse. “That man’s responsible for killin’ a little girl, and you’re gonna protect him?”

  “That man in there,” Sheriff Clancy replied, “is accused of killin’ a girl. He ain’t convicted. You boys ain’t got any right or responsibility to judge him lest you’re on a jury, and I can tell you right now, ain’t a one of you that will be on his jury after today. Now you all best scatter before somebody gets hurt.”

  Not one man budged, as though each was waiting for another to move first. The looks of murderous determination had faded only on the faces of Nate and Mr. Dailey, and Mr. Dailey’s had faded only because of the gun at the back of his skull. Sheriff Clancy usually had a fair amount of respect from everybody in town, but on this day, his skills at convincing the men to listen were waning.

  “We’d better see Elmer Poe hang for this, is all we’re sayin’,” Clem Spangler argued. “That man don’t hang, you can be sure he ain’t gonna be safe in this town till his dyin’ day.”

  From below me, I heard a sob, and I looked down to see Gemma jump from behind the bush for the first time since all the trouble had started. “Leave him alone!” she cried out. “Ain’t one of you here knows what you’re talkin’ about.”

  “Gemma!” I was desperate to keep her from going on, knowing full well that prejudice lived on enough in Calloway to cause Gemma all sorts of trouble if anyone found out she was part of what had happened.

  Gemma tried to say more, but I leaped over the railing in an unladylike way that would have given Momma a faint and grabbed Gemma by the shoulders, whispering, “Ain’t nothin’ gonna be helped by you sayin’ somethin’ right now, Gemma. You just wait, hear?”

  “I gotta tell, Jessie,” she whispered back frantically.

  “Not yet. Not here. Not without proof.”

  “For pete’s sake, Jessie,” Luke leaned over to whisper. “You brought Gemma in on this, too?”

  “I ain’t brought her in on anythin’,” I hissed. “She’s the reason we’re here.”

  “Gemma,” Daddy said softly, “everythin’s gonna be all right, honey. You just wait over there, and once this is settled, Luke and I will take you and Jessilyn home.”

  “That’s right. This ain’t got nothin’ to do with you, Gemma Teague,” Mr. Custis said. “You best keep out of it altogether.”

  “But he didn’t do it.”

  “Then a judge and jury will see to it he’s let go,” the sheriff said. “We’ll just let things work out the way they should.”

  I squeezed Gemma’s arm hard and she turned away from the crowd and said nothing more.

  Sheriff Clancy nudged a couple of the men with the barrel of his gun and said, “That’s enough of this now, boys. Everyone move on out before somebody gets hurt.”

  Daddy didn’t lower his gun until the crowd
was good and scattered. “Where in blazes have you been, Charlie?” he muttered. “You always leave your prisoners unattended while a mob’s out to get ’em?”

  “Simmer down. There weren’t no mob when I left. I just ran over to the pharmacy for a minute.”

  “A minute? We were holdin’ them off for a good ten, Charlie.”

  “What’d you run to the pharmacy for?” Luke asked with a sneer. “Run out of chaw?”

  Sheriff Clancy stared at him hard and held up a paper sack. “Matter of fact, I did.”

  Daddy sighed and stepped aside as Sheriff Clancy climbed the steps to go into the jail. “Luke, you watch out for the girls while I have a word with the sheriff.”

  Luke nodded his reply, but the second the door shut behind them, he vaulted over that railing the same as I had and landed in front of me, his face red with anger. “What the sam hill were you thinkin’ of doin’, Jessie? You tryin’ to get someone killed?”

  “It weren’t her fault,” Gemma told him, but I shushed her with one palm in the air.

  “Just who do you think you are, Luke Talley?” I demanded. “You think you got the right to tell me what to do and what not to do?”

  “Matter of fact, I do.”

  “Then you’d better think twice, ’cause lest you’re my daddy or you got a badge, you ain’t got no right tellin’ me what to do.”

  “There ain’t no use arguin’ over nothin’,” Gemma said with a pleading tone. “This ain’t Jessie’s fault. She come on my account.”

  “Gemma tells you to jump off Goggins Bridge, you gonna do it, Jessie?”

  Luke’s fatherly words made me fume. “Come the day my daddy runs out of lectures to give me, I’ll call on you, but till then, you can leave off tellin’ me things I can hear at home. I swear, you think you can boss me over everythin’.”

  “You come on into town when you knew how dangerous things would be, and you think I’m not gonna be upset that you put you and Gemma in a bad spot?”

  This time it was Gemma who got tied up in knots, and she stamped a foot. “It weren’t her fault, I told you!”

  I put an arm out to keep her back. “Stay out of this, Gemma.”

  “Now, listen here,” Gemma said, her senses regained for the first time since she’d told me all. “I got enough on my mind without hearin’ you two argue over nothin’. I’m a grown woman, and I’ve got a right to do as I please, and you ain’t got no say over it. Jessie’s here because I wanted to come and she wouldn’t let me come alone, and that’s all there is to it.” She brushed past us, charged up the steps, and headed toward the jailhouse door.

  “Where you goin’?” I asked.

  “To see Mr. Poe.”

  “Gemma,” I said, reaching through the rail to touch her hand, “it’s gonna be okay.”

  She studied my face for a minute before nodding, her weary eyes piercing my heart.

  We watched her enter the building, and then I sank down into the dirt, my knees suddenly feeling like jelly. I sat there for a few moments just waiting for Luke to start in on me again. But I wasn’t there long before the sound of a ruckus reached my ears, and I jerked my head around toward the jailhouse, where Gemma was being escorted out by Sheriff Clancy. Daddy was beside the sheriff, talking animatedly. I hopped up, and Luke and I walked quickly toward them, my stride outdone by Luke’s, two to one.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Luke asked all three of them at once.

  “He won’t let me see Mr. Poe,” Gemma answered.

  “I got enough trouble round here right now, Gemma,” Sheriff Clancy said. “I need to lock down the place till I get some more help. I ain’t got but two deputies today, and the one inside ain’t worth a hoot. The other one’s on a call. I got some help comin’ in from Spokeet County that’ll be here tomorrow. You come on back then.”

  “We’re here now, Charlie,” Daddy said. “Luke and me can help you keep watch while Gemma goes in for a few minutes. You can see the girl’s got a real itch to see the man.”

  “Harley, I got ways of doin’ things, and I got to follow my own rules. If I let you in now and then somethin’ happens to Elmer, I’ll have heck to pay.”

  Daddy dropped his chin to his chest in resignation; then he reached out and put a hand on Gemma’s back. “Looks like we’ll have to come back tomorrow, Gemma,” he said, his voice filled with compassion. “I’ll drive you in whenever you like, all right?”

  I knew Gemma appreciated Daddy’s promise, but I also knew that it didn’t satisfy her much. The poor thing was pure and simple dying to see Mr. Poe. I figured she wanted to see with her own eyes that he was alive and well. She just walked down the steps like she was walking to her own death. I scurried over to her and took her arm, helping her to a bench under an oak tree and settling her there until Daddy and Luke were done talking to Sheriff Clancy. When they were through, the two men walked to where we sat and eyed us both.

  “Everyone okay over here?” Daddy asked. His arms were folded tightly against his chest, and I could tell by his body language that he was angry. I waited for him to lecture us, but he obviously decided against it. “Guess we’d better head on home,” he said without waiting for us to answer his previous question. “I gotta get some wood to fix the shed before we go. Luke, you want to come over and give me a hand loadin’ up?”

  Luke bobbed his head in agreement, though I could see he was reluctant to leave the two of us alone. Apparently Daddy was too, because he pointed a stern finger at us and said, “Don’t you two go wanderin’ off or nothin’. I expect to find you here when we come back in about fifteen minutes.”

  We didn’t say anything, but he took our silence as an answer that we would and strode off with Luke in tow. Gemma watched them as they walked down the sidewalk, and the second they turned the corner out of sight, she was off the bench like a shot.

  “Where in God’s green earth are you goin’?” I called after her.

  She said nothing, and with a long sigh, I heaved myself off the bench and followed after her, fairly well knowing what she was planning without her telling me. I followed her to the back of the jailhouse and down the hill that dipped to the basement floor, where the cells were. I caught sight of the metal bars across the windows and had a fearful feeling that they might not be good enough to protect a man from an angry crowd like I’d seen that day. I bent over low to keep from being seen by anyone while we peered into the windows looking for Mr. Poe’s cell.

  He was sitting on his cot, his knees tucked up under his chin, arms wrapped around his legs. I had a fleeting thought that he was good and limber for a man in his late sixties, but I doubted his ability to ever defend himself against any capable man.

  Gemma sat on the ground and peered into the long, narrow window, tapping against one of the bars.

  Mr. Poe looked up quickly, fear in his eyes, but the fear melted when he recognized us.

  Gemma lay down on her stomach and put her face to the bars. “You okay in there, Mr. Poe?” she asked, her words slow and deliberate to keep from sounding upset.

  Mr. Poe jumped up from his cot and moved to the window as fast as his legs would carry him. “That you, Miss Gemma Teague?”

  “Yes’r, Mr. Poe. And Jessilyn too.”

  “Hey there, Miss Jessie,” he said with a nod in my direction.

  By now, I was lying on my stomach next to Gemma, tears building in my eyes to once again see that man, sweet as honey, sitting behind bars.

  “Cain’t look at muh Injun pennies,” he said in his usual mumbled speech. “Cain’t look at muh bottle tops or muh skippin’ stones or muh butterflies.”

  “Sheriff won’t let you keep any of your collections here, Mr. Poe?” I asked. “Did you ask him if you could?”

  “He says ah cain’t.” He began to pull at his earlobe nervously. “Them’s all by their lonesome, all muh things. Sure ’nough, they’s alone.”

  Mr. Poe had always been “special,” according to Momma, and I’d always known him to talk a little fun
ny and be hard to rouse once focused on something, but he was smart as a whip in his own way. Just now, though, his senses seemed dulled, and he was far more anxious and distracted than I’d ever seen him before. I was worried for his mind as well as his body.

  “I think I’ll have my daddy talk with Sheriff Clancy, Mr. Poe,” I told him. “Maybe he can convince the sheriff to let you have a collection or two to look at.”

  Mr. Poe’s face broke into a smile full of such hope that I was terribly afraid of what he would feel like if Daddy didn’t manage to talk the sheriff into it. I hoped I wouldn’t regret making the offer.

  “Sure’d be nice, Miss Jessie,” he said, the s sound whistling through the empty space where his two front teeth had been. “Indeedy, it’d be nice. I ain’t got nuthin’ in here to c’llect.”

  We left him with smiles that were much lighter than our hearts, and I put a hand on Gemma’s shoulder as we went. It was as though I could feel the weight resting there, and I wished I could carry some of it for her. But sometimes, there just isn’t much a person can do no matter how much they wish they could. Daddy had told me before that sometimes the Lord lets us feel the weight of the world so we figure out how to let Him carry it for us. I reckoned then that this was Gemma’s turn, but I hoped good and hard that she’d figure it out fast.

  Chapter 10

  I woke up the next day to find Gemma’s bed empty. She’d been up at the crack of dawn for the past two mornings, and I hadn’t seen her much at all. I decided to make sure I spent time with her that day, so I pinned my hair up quickly, put on one of my light dresses, and ran downstairs to the breakfast table.

  “You seen Gemma this morning, Momma?” I asked as I buttered a biscuit with quick strokes.

  “She ran off for church about fifteen minutes ago now, I guess. Suppose she wanted to make Sunday school this morning. Didn’t eat any breakfast, but I saw her fill her pockets with a plum and two biscuits. Seems that girl’s not eatin’ her fill these days,” she murmured, staring out the window at nothing. “Girl’s got me worried.”