Cottonwood Whispers Read online

  Luke and I watched in shock until suddenly Joel grabbed Gemma by the arms and threw her to the ground.

  That was all it took for Luke to lose any restraint he possessed. He let go of me and flew at Joel, punching him in the face once, only to pull him back and hit him again.

  Joel Hadley had seemed very cavalier when he’d thrown Gemma down, but in the presence of Luke’s fists, he was no more than the perfect picture of the coward I’d always known him to be. I dropped to Gemma’s side and held her while we watched Luke rear back for another blow, but Joel threw his hands to his bloody face, pleading for mercy. He rested on his knees, his upper half held up by Luke’s grasp on his shirt, and moaned in desperation, begging Luke to stop.

  I could see Luke wanted nothing more than to hit him a few more times, but he thought better of it and let go of Joel’s shirt, letting him drop with a thud. Joel scooted away quickly and ended up cowering in a corner, his clothes covered with hay.

  Luke stood, glaring at him and shaking his sore hand; then he turned away and murmured, “Lousy coward.”

  Joel wasn’t a man accustomed to humiliation, and he bristled at Luke’s threatening tone. He narrowed his eyes in a failed attempt to cover his fear. “You best get off my land, Talley. Before I fetch my niggers to whip you up one side and down the other.”

  “That’s right,” Luke said, turning about with a smirk. “You go on and get your hired boys to fight your battles for you. That’s what you Hadleys have always done. Bunch of cowards!”

  Then he gathered me and Gemma in his arms and walked us home. The little colored boy had left his hiding place and gave Luke a nod of respect when we passed him by. Outside the barn we discovered that a crowd of servants had assembled, and they all stood in a line, dipping their heads in a sort of deference to us. I took one more look behind me and saw Joel standing shakily in the doorway, his blood forming polka dots down his shirtfront.

  “What’re you lookin’ at?” he screamed at the group of servants he’d threatened to send after Luke. It was clear by their expressions of scorn that he would never have managed to rally them against us in a month of Sundays. “Get back to work!”

  The group slowly dispersed, shaking their heads but bound to do as they were told. Times were tough for finding work in Calloway, but they were tougher for colored folks, and I flashed them all a rueful glance because I knew that though we could walk away from the Hadleys and never look back, they had to stay or go hungry.

  “Wish we were rich as Hadleys so we could hire them all,” I murmured as we left them behind.

  “We ain’t rich, maybe,” Gemma said, untying her apron and dropping it symbolically to the ground, “but we’re a lot richer in the important things than them Hadleys could ever be.”

  I reached my arm behind Luke and tugged at Gemma’s dress. She glanced at me and smiled the smile I’d missed so much in the past days.

  I grinned back, and suddenly my weariness and sorrow didn’t feel quite so heavy because I knew I didn’t have to carry them by myself. I was surrounded by people who would help.

  Chapter 18

  We told Momma and Daddy the truth of it all that night, and Daddy was fit to be tied.

  “There ain’t no call for you girls to hold back somethin’ like that just because you’re worried for me,” he argued. “Don’t you never let anyone’s cowardly threats make you suffer like that again, you hear?”

  Gemma and I only had the strength to nod. I was sure he had more he wanted to say, but he could see we were sick inside, and he put his arms around both of us at the same time. “You get on to bed,” he murmured. “A rest will be good for you.”

  Momma shuffled us off to bathe and then to bed, sniffling all the while, but neither Gemma nor I slept much that night.

  The day after Luke had planted his fist into Joel Hadley’s smug face, we all piled into the truck, even Luke, and headed into town to talk to the sheriff. Nate Colby was inconsolable and gave no mind to the baby, so Miss Cleta had taken her in for the time being, and some of our time in town would be spent gathering supplies for her to care for her new charge. She was nameless, that poor child, and as fatherless as she was motherless.

  My momma had the looks of a headache about her eyes, as she had since the tragedy yesterday, and I knew the future of that baby weighed heavy on her mind. Everything laid heavy on our minds that day, and Luke, Gemma, and I were silent as we bumped along in the back of Daddy’s truck.

  I glanced over at Luke, who was lost in thought, his hand flexing in and out mindlessly at his side. “That hurt?” I murmured over the noise of the truck.

  My words broke his reverie, and he peered at me from underneath his low-slung hat. “What’s that?”

  “Your hand,” I said, nodding toward it. “It hurt? You keep bending it around like it hurts.”

  He shook his head. “Hadleys got hard heads, is all. Ain’t nothin’ that won’t mend on its own.”

  “Maybe we should bind it up. Might make it feel better.”

  “The one thing that makes it feel better is rememberin’ why it hurts.” He grinned at me, one blue eye flashing me a wink from beneath his hat. “You ain’t got to worry over me, Jessie. I’ll be fine.”

  “Ain’t never a day you’re gonna convince me to not worry over you, Luke Talley. Besides, you’re always worryin’ over me.”

  “Well now, I figure I got me good reason to,” he said, tugging my ponytail, “seein’ as how you’re an expert at gettin’ into trouble and all.”

  I could have thought of a million ways to argue with him, but I was in no mood for belligerence that day. I rolled my eyes and let him have the last word. My right foot rested next to Gemma’s leg, and I tipped it out to give her a nudge. She gave me her restless attention for a second, and we shared a wordless message with our faces. I could see she was feeling beat up with guilt just as much as she could see I was sorry for it. It was just that there were no words to say, and we shrugged at each other, both wishing we could wake up and find these last weeks had been nothing but a dream.

  When the truck rolled into town, the three of us tumbled out of the back in silence, my only consolation of the day being when Luke took my waist in his fine strong hands to lift me from the truck. Being a gentleman, he did the same for Gemma, but I knew that his hands said more when they held me. Tragedy or no, I was still alive enough inside to see things were changing between him and me, and I let it be the one thing that kept my head above the troubled waters that surrounded us.

  The sheriff wasn’t in when we got there, and Daddy gave the deputy who told us so a long sigh.

  “Ain’t that man ever around when a body needs him?” he muttered.

  “He’ll be back soon, I reckon.”

  “Well, I reckon we’ll be back here soon too. We got important business to discuss with him, so you make good and sure he don’t leave again before we see him, you hear?”

  The deputy nodded, but I could see Daddy didn’t trust him more than he trusted a snake, so he told us he’d wait in the jailhouse for the sheriff.

  “You may as well go and get things for the baby while I wait,” he told us.

  So Momma, Gemma, Luke, and I scattered out, each with items to find. It was my job to pick out some fabric so Momma could sew some clothes for the Colby baby.

  It was a sad task, and Mrs. Noble didn’t do much to help my troubles as she was filling my order. “Seems a real shame havin’ Mae pass on like that,” she murmured while her scissors worked. “A right shame at that. Makes a body wonder what Nate Colby will do, raisin’ a girl all on his lonesome. A baby ought to have her momma around; that’s what I say.”

  I ignored her and let my eyes wander around the store. After all, she talked on no matter if she had an audience or not. There was a blue dress in the front window that had caught my eye, and I wondered if Momma could make me one like it. I left Mrs. Noble to her mourning and scissors and walked to the window, fingering the soft fabric while I made a memory of th
e dress in my head for telling Momma later.

  As I stood there, a voice I knew as well as my own carried in from outside, overshadowing the drone of Mrs. Noble’s endless chatter. My eyes flicked up and saw Luke standing on the sidewalk, a look of pure frustration painted across his face. Sheriff Clancy was in front of him, a finger pointed toward Luke’s chest.

  “I ain’t sayin’ I ain’t done it,” Luke argued. “What I’m sayin’ is he had it comin’.”

  The sight of Joel Hadley standing next to the sheriff told me there was trouble sure enough, and I forgot about the dress fabric and Mrs. Noble’s conversation and ran out the door in a flash.

  “What’s goin’ on?” I demanded. “Sheriff givin’ you some kind of trouble, Luke?”

  “Not so much trouble as he gave Joel Hadley yesterday,” the sheriff muttered without taking his eyes from Luke’s face. “Now you gonna come with me peaceful-like or do I have to get official with you?”

  “Come with you where?” I wedged my body into the small space that separated the three men and squared up eye level with the sheriff. “To jail? You makin’ a habit of arrestin’ law-abidin’ folks?”

  “Don’t you start with me now, Jessilyn. I got me a job to do and I aim to do it whether you’re standin’ in my way or not.”

  “Jessilyn,” Luke said behind me, “I ain’t got to have you fightin’ my battles for me.”

  “I ain’t fightin’ no battle. I’m just tryin’ to tell the sheriff here if he’s determined to go arrestin’ people, then he best look to his left and hook himself a real lawbreaker for a change.”

  My arrogant tone did nothing to ease my standing with Sheriff Clancy, but it felt good to me all the same, and I met his challenging stare until he relented out of curiosity.

  “All right, then, Jessilyn. Let’s just say . . .” He took his cigarette from his mouth and blew a bit of smoke into the wind, taking a nervous glance at the gathering crowd of curious onlookers. “Let’s just say that you got some truth to tell me.”

  “Let’s just say I do. You want to hear it or don’t you?”

  He dropped a few ashes at my feet, and I kicked a bit of dust over them with a flick of my shoe. “Well, do you?”

  “I ain’t got me much time, so why don’t you come out with it so’s I can get back to work. I know you ain’t gonna give me no rest till I hear it anyhow. What is it you got to tell me about this here Hadley boy?”

  “She ain’t got nothin’ to tell,” Joel interjected. “She’s just tryin’ to protect her boyfriend, is all.”

  Luke and I each flashed our own angry glare Joel’s way, but we didn’t get a chance to say a word before a voice told what I was prepared to say.

  “Joel Hadley’s the one who struck down Callie Colby.”

  The voice didn’t come from any of our crowd but from behind Sheriff Clancy, and though every eye in our party turned to look at the speaker, I kept my eyes on Joel Hadley because I knew who it was that had called him out.

  Sheriff Clancy turned and laid a squinty eye on Gemma. “What’s that you say, girl?”

  I took a glance at her and could see by her face she was nothing but a bundle of nerves, but she was bound and determined to come out with it, I knew. And when Gemma was bound and determined to do something, she did it.

  “I said Joel Hadley did that killin’.”

  Joel’s face was lit up like a Christmas tree, and I saw Luke take a step closer to him, his hand at the ready to hold him up if he tried to bolt. “That’s nothin’ but slander, Sheriff, and you know it. This here girl’s just after me because she has her heart set on me.” Joel looked at Gemma with an expression of gentility and said, “Gemma, I done told you there ain’t no hope in it, so’s you best take your crushes elsewhere and pick yourself a nice boy of your own kind.”

  Now, my momma had tried hard to raise her up a girl she could be proud of, but I wanted nothing more in that moment than to rip Joel Hadley’s pretty head off and throw it in the river. Luke knew as much and put a hand on my back—a warning to be patient. There was never a day a calming hand from Luke Talley didn’t do its trick on me, and I backed down a bit, casting Gemma a glance that told her she’d best stand up to Joel Hadley once and for good, especially here in public.

  She didn’t let me down.

  “There ain’t no kinds in this world but good kinds and bad kinds,” she spat back. “And far as I see it, you ain’t nothin’ near the good kind. Ain’t no sensible day I ever wanted to be sweet with a boy who ain’t got a decent sense of respect and responsibility.” She stepped right up close to Sheriff Clancy. “It was Joel Hadley who took Mr. Poe’s car that night. It was Joel Hadley, tipsy from the drink, who ran down Callie Colby and said it must have been some old deer or somethin’. And it was Joel Hadley who found out what happened to Callie and told me I best keep my mouth shut about it lest I wanted ruin to come to Jessilyn’s daddy. And I know all this because . . . I was there.”

  A moment of panic creased Joel’s face, but he quickly brought it under control with practiced ease, slipping into the part of a righteous white master who felt sorry for his slave. He reached out a hand to tip Gemma’s face up so she could look at his. “Now, Gemma, I understand you feel slighted. But you can’t let your feelin’s get the better of you or I might just end up in real trouble. Why don’t you go on with your business and stop all this nonsense.”

  “She ain’t doin’ no such thing as lyin’,” I argued. Luke’s hand moved to my shoulder, but my dander was up too far to be restrained completely. “Joel Hadley’s the cause of all this trouble, drivin’ under the drink and stealin’ Mr. Poe’s car. Go ask the Hadleys’ servants if you don’t believe us—one of them probably had to go help him push his own car back. And now he’s lettin’ Mr. Poe suffer for his crime and callin’ Gemma a liar.”

  Joel raised an eyebrow and dug an elbow into Sheriff Clancy’s ribs. “The way she threw herself at me, she’s lucky I don’t call her more than that.”

  At that remark, Luke’s other hand flew out to catch Joel Hadley by the collar, but he stopped short of violence when the sheriff called out his name.

  “Don’t make me add charges to the list, son,” Sheriff Clancy warned.

  “You still want to charge Luke when you just heard all you heard?” I asked. “Just what’d this town elect you for? Sittin’ on the stoop watchin’ the world go by?”

  “All right, that’s it!” Sheriff Clancy flicked his cigarette into the dirt and gripped my arm. “You head on out of here, Jessilyn, before I stick you in that cell with Mr. Poe, seein’ as how you’re so anxious about him anyways.”

  “You can’t make her go anywhere,” Gemma said, pushing her way to my side. “She ain’t done nothin’ but question the job you’re doin’. There ain’t no crime in that.”

  “There is when she’s impedin’ an investigation.”

  “Don’t seem likely there’s too much investigatin’ happenin’ here.” Daddy walked up to us and firmly removed Sheriff Clancy’s hand from my arm. “Looks more like a good old-fashioned argument to me. Now, why don’t somebody tell me what’s goin’ on?”

  “Your girls say this here boy’s the one who ran down Callie Colby, but they ain’t been able to offer up nothin’ even close to proof.”

  “Seems to me you ain’t given them any chance,” Luke said.

  I looked pleadingly at my daddy. “All he’s set on is arrestin’ Luke for doin’ what somebody should’ve done long ago.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Punchin’ Joel Hadley in the face.”

  Daddy took a look at Joel and stifled a proud grin when he saw Luke’s handiwork. “Can’t two boys have an honest disagreement in this town no more, Charlie? Seems to me I remember you in a scuffle or two at their age.”

  “This weren’t no scuffle, Harley. Talley here got in the only shots, so I hear it.”

  “So I see it,” Daddy agreed. “But you can’t arrest a man for havin’ a good right hook.”

&
nbsp; “All right, now it still stands that these girls don’t have any good proof to back up their story.”

  “They say it. Ain’t that enough for you to look into it?”

  “Harley, I ain’t got time to go chasin’ after ghost rabbits. Your girl here’s been tellin’ me every chance she gets that I ain’t doin’ my job right. I ain’t got time today to listen to her crazy ideas. What I do have proof of is this boy’s face bein’ black-and-blue from that boy’s fist.”

  “No you don’t,” I cried. “Lest you got yourself a photograph or knuckle marks that match up to Luke, you ain’t got nothin’ but the word of Joel Hadley. And that ain’t sayin’ much.”

  Joel let out a snide laugh. “You talk a big talk, girl, but you ain’t never been nothin’ but a nigger-lovin’ brat.”

  Luke ripped off his hat and threw it into the road, his eyes lit up with the fire of revenge. “If I’m goin’ to go to jail anyways, I may as well make it worth my while.”

  Daddy caught Luke’s arm before it had a chance to come forward into Joel’s jaw, and he stepped square in front of Joel, his large frame casting a shadow over him. “You listen here, boy, and you listen good. You keep away from my family, and you keep away from my home, and you sit at the ready. Because if there’s truth out there about you, I aim to make sure it comes out. You hear?”

  The crowd around us was so silent we could have heard a pin drop, and I reveled in the fear that sped across Joel Hadley’s face.

  “You just wait,” Joel said with a wobbly voice. “You’ll get what’s comin’ to you.”

  Daddy stepped an inch closer to Joel and stood three inches above him. “What’s that you say, boy?”

  Joel didn’t say another word. He just stared at my daddy with a look that told us words he wouldn’t voice in front of the sheriff.

  It was a rare day that I’d seen my daddy this angry, and I took hold of Luke’s arm, worried about what might come next.

  But Daddy did nothing. He just stared at Joel and said, “Sheriff, you be sure to look into what these girls said. And until you got more than that Hadley boy’s face that says Luke committed a crime, he’s comin’ home with us.” Then he stepped away, took me and Gemma by the arms, and steered us all back to the truck.