Cottonwood Whispers Read online

  I stopped by Miss Cleta’s and told her what I knew, then left quickly to set out on my quest to find Callie. Just after I left Miss Cleta’s, I saw Luke running down the road. He slowed down and stared at the melee in front of the Colbys’ house.

  “Jessie!” he called. “A deputy came by the factory gatherin’ some men to look for the Colby girl. They find her yet?”

  “Ain’t found a thing. I’m goin’ to help find her.”

  He slapped his hat back onto his head. “Well, let’s get!”

  We stopped by my house first so I could fill Momma in, and we left her praying at the kitchen table with a half-peeled potato in her hand. When Momma felt prayer was needed, she stopped and did it, no matter where she was or what she was doing.

  The first place we looked was Squalers Pond because I often took Callie there to let her toss stones in. It wasn’t a big pond by any means. It was more like a big puddle, really, and not very deep. Luke and I rolled up our pants and walked through it, petrified the whole time that we might come upon a little one facedown in the murky water.

  But we left that pond without seeing a sign of her and headed off to Clem Barrett’s field, where he had a tree fort he let kids play in. There was still no sign of Callie, and as Luke and I wandered the county looking for her, my heart became more and more heavy.

  We’d been searching for hours when Luke suddenly stopped dead in the middle of the road. “We need to go down Duncan Pass,” he told me with certainty.

  “But that takes us out of our way.”

  “I know. But we got to go down there anyhow.”

  “Why would Callie wander down there? There ain’t nothin’ there for her to do.”

  “That ain’t no reason not to check. The girl’s only three. Could be she got herself lost.” He took his hat off and ran his fingers through his blond hair. “All’s I know is we got to go check. I can feel it in my gut.”

  That was enough for me. I headed in the direction of Duncan Pass, struggling to keep up with Luke as we made our way down the road. He didn’t slow his stride for me on this day. He just kept his head on a swivel, searching the sides of the roads for Callie, and walked with efficient speed.

  Duncan Pass was well-known as a bit of a hazard. The road there curved sharply around a corner, leaving drivers to blindly wonder what they might meet around the bend. A sign at the side of the road warned people to go slowly, and though most regular residents wisely slowed down in those parts, some people just didn’t heed the warning.

  There was an eerie heaviness in the air as we rounded that vicious corner. I cast a nervous glance at the warning sign. I didn’t need Luke’s special instincts to feel that something was wrong. The late afternoon sun cast odd shadows across the roadway. No breeze stirred the trees; no squirrels skittered through the brush. There wasn’t even a single bird singing a tune. It was as still and quiet as a graveyard, and as Luke slowed his pace to take a good look around, I instinctively reached out to grasp his hand.

  He turned his head to look at me, his eyes solemn and worried, but even though his face frightened me, the firm grasp of his hand calmed my spirit a bit.

  Together, we paced the road for the next ten minutes. I scanned the ground around us while Luke, with his heightened vantage point, scanned the surrounding brush. Even as I searched, there was a part of me that wanted nothing more than to close my eyes for fear of what I might see. But I could not look away, for Callie’s sake.

  We had just reached the old wooden bridge across Duncan Creek when I stopped dead in my tracks, pulling Luke to a halt along with me.

  “What is it, Jessie?” he whispered.

  I didn’t say anything. My mouth was like cotton. Instead, I lifted one shaking hand and pointed toward the side of the bridge along the creek bank.

  Luke dropped my hand and took off like a shot, leaving me frozen in place, my legs too weak to run. I ambled over with an awkward gait, my stomach swirling. I didn’t want to see death, especially not untimely death, and yet I knew Luke needed someone by his side. I forced myself toward the bridge and found him kneeling on the ground, his breath coming in gasps.

  “Luke,” I whispered in a voice hoarse with fear. “Luke, is she dead?”

  He lifted his bowed head and gave me a nervous look. “No, she ain’t dead. But she’s near enough. We need to get her help right now.”

  Knowing Callie wasn’t dead gave me the courage to look at her, but my heart sank into my stomach when I saw her broken body lying there, blood tinting her clothes and hair. I stumbled backward a bit and then bent over to put my head between my legs.

  Luke stood and rubbed my back with one hand, steadying me with his other. “Jessilyn, I know you’re all tore up inside, but we need to get her help, and I’m afraid to move her without the doctor tellin’ me I can. She’s awful broke up. You need to stay here with her while I go get help.”

  “No! Let me go,” I said desperately. It was getting late, and I didn’t want to stay there with darkness and death so nearby. “I can get help and you can stay with her.”

  “Jessie, you can barely stand. Anyways, I can go faster no matter how you’re feelin’. You got to let me go. The Colbys’ is just a short ways down the road, and I’ll get somebody to call for help. Then I’ll head right back to you, okay?”

  I wanted like anything to be strong for him, but my hands shook like leaves and my heart beat so hard I could hear it in my ears. Even though I wasn’t able to calm my nerves, I nodded in agreement. I knew I had no choice but to stay behind with Callie.

  Luke leaned over and kissed my forehead. “You’ll be fine, Jessie girl,” he whispered. “I have all kinds of faith in you.”

  Then he ran off faster than I’d ever seen him go, leaving me alone in the stillness. There was a slight early summer nip in the air as evening began to fall, and I noticed it for the first time, wrapping my arms tightly around my waist. But it was no use trying to warm myself. My blood was chilled inside me.

  I knew I needed to go to Callie. My steps were agonizingly slow as I forced myself to her unmoving body, but at length I reached her side and dropped to my knees. Against my will, I was driven to measure her up, every last bruise and scrape. One of her legs was twisted to the side, making her foot point in the wrong direction. A bone on her right arm poked through her skin. And along her forehead was a patch of scrapes that I knew well as thorn marks, telling me she had passed through the nearby thorny brush. But I had no idea how she had gotten this way. For all I knew, some evil person had harmed her on purpose and left her here to die. And for all I knew, that same person could have come back to make sure the job was done.

  I peered around the woods, but they were still eerily silent. At that moment, I would have given anything to hear just one bird singing or see one chipmunk dashing across the pass. The only movement I saw was that of a buzzard circling high above us, his hungry eyes watching and waiting for death to claim its prey. I said a quick prayer like I would have heard my momma pray, even though I wasn’t very good at it.

  As I bent my head again to look at Callie’s swollen, unrecognizable face, my fear became overwhelmed by compassion. With renewed boldness, I reached out to lightly grasp her tiny, bloodied fingers.

  And then I waited.

  It seemed ages before Luke returned, but it really wasn’t long at all. I can’t imagine how fast he must have run. Fortunately, Dr. Mabley had been at Mae’s side, so Luke was able to get him to come quickly. The sheriff drove Luke while the doctor drove his truck, and they sped up in a flurry of dirt and debris no more than fifteen feet away from where I crouched with Callie.

  The doctor’s face was painted with shock when he saw the girl, but he spoke gently to me as he tried to pry my fingers away from hers. “It’s all right, Jessilyn. I’ll take good care of her now. You go on over with Luke.”

  Although it had taken me a good bit of time to even look at Callie, I was now feeling compelled to stay by her side.

  Luke came over an
d took me by the shoulders. “Come on away, Jessie. Doc needs to work.”

  I took Callie’s hand out of mine and laid it gently on the ground. “She’s just a baby,” I murmured. “That’s all she is.”

  Luke took me back to the sheriff’s automobile and pulled a jacket out of the backseat, tossing it around my shoulders. “Sheriff says you can use this.”

  “Why didn’t Mae come?”

  “She ain’t doin’ too well,” he said sadly. “When she heard how bad the girl is, she just went to pieces. Doc had to give her somethin’ to calm her down.”

  I sat on a stump and put my head into my hands. “How’d it happen?” I asked, not expecting him to know. “How’s a girl get to lookin’ like that?”

  “I’m sure the doc will have a good idea.”

  Within a few minutes, we were called over to help. The doctor had rigged Callie up so she’d stay still while being taken home, and the four of us carried her carefully to the bed of the truck. Luke and I rode in the back with her, holding her as still as we could while we drove back to the Colbys’. Nate Colby was home by then, having gotten the information about Callie being found. He was beside himself with worry and rushed to the truck when we pulled up.

  There was all sorts of shouting and all sorts of questioning, but the only thing anyone really cared about was that Callie got on into Laurel Springs to the hospital. Luke walked me home, where we found Momma and Daddy waiting for us on the porch.

  “You okay, baby?” Daddy asked me before we even reached the house. “We heard about the Colby girl.”

  “Harley was just gettin’ ready to go out on a second round of lookin’ when we heard how bad off she is.” Momma’s grip on her handkerchief tightened, lifted to swipe at her wet face. “Lord knows everyone must be all broke up, poor things.”

  “They’re right upset,” Luke said, respectfully pulling his hat from his head. “They’ve gone off to Laurel Springs. No doubt she’ll be in the hospital for a while.”

  I listened to their conversation much like I’d listened to everything that day, with ears that felt stuffed with cotton. It was as though I was still sitting on that dim roadside alone with Callie’s broken body, watching everyone else from a distance. I couldn’t get the sight of her off my mind.

  “Jessilyn,” Momma said. “Baby, you ain’t said one word. You all right?”

  Luke put a hand to my back. “It’s been hard on her, is all, seein’ the little girl that way. And I had to leave her alone with Callie while I got help.”

  Momma moved to comfort me, but I didn’t really want to be comforted right then. I took a step back and asked, “Where’s Gemma at?”

  “She ain’t home yet. Seems the Hadleys asked her to stay on late again tonight.”

  “She didn’t get home until midnight last night. What’ve they got goin’ on over there that makes them need so much help?”

  “Gets her a little extra money, anyhow, Jessilyn,” Momma said, trying to settle my nerves. “She don’t seem to mind none.”

  That wasn’t the way I saw it, but I didn’t say anything. To my mind, Gemma had been strange since not long after she started that job, and I didn’t like things that interfered with my and Gemma’s friendship.

  Momma and Daddy asked Luke to come in for supper, but he said he didn’t feel much like eating, and I felt the same way.

  “I’ll take you by the hospital sometime, maybe,” Luke said to me, tapping me under the chin with his finger. “Maybe day after tomorrow?”

  I just nodded. Once he disappeared around the corner, I turned to Daddy. “Gemma not home yet?”

  “Not yet. But she agreed to be home before dark. Ought to be here soon.”

  I slid down onto the porch steps. “I’ll wait out here for her.”

  “Why don’t you come on in for supper, Jessilyn?” Momma asked.

  “I’m not hungry, Momma.”

  “A bite might make you feel some better, honey.”

  “I’ll wait anyways.”

  They watched me for a minute and then walked reluctantly inside. While I waited, Momma and Daddy took turns poking their heads out the door, trying to get me to eat something, but I just kept shaking my head and sat on the porch waiting for Gemma. When I saw her round the bend, I straightened up and stiffened my shoulders, determined to tell her just how I felt about that job taking up all of her time.

  “Hey there, Jessie,” was all she said when she saw me.

  “I been waitin’ here for you awhile now.”

  “Got a lot to do at the Hadleys’,” she said quietly. “I’m tired. I’m goin’ to bed.”

  I stood up to block her way. “I ain’t waited out here all this time just to say good night to you.”

  Gemma never did like anyone trying to restrain her, and she bristled the minute I got in her way. “You move on out of my way, Jessie,” she said through clenched teeth. “I said I’m tired, and I want to go to bed.”

  “Not till I say my piece.”

  “What you got to say that’s so important it can’t wait?”

  “I can’t figure you out. You ain’t the same Gemma no more. You just work and wallow, that’s all. Ain’t no in-between.”

  “It ain’t wallowin’ to be tired after a hard day’s work. Maybe you don’t see it as so, Jessilyn Lassiter, but life ain’t always about you.”

  “Maybe I should be tellin’ you that. You ain’t given me the time of day lately. It’s like you ain’t got nothin’ to do but deal with your own problems. Maybe you ought to look around you and realize that there’s things goin’ on around here.” The stress of the night broke my nerves, and I started shaking and crying, but I managed to keep ranting. “Maybe you got too much on your mind to realize other people got troubles of their own, but these days all you seem to do is think about your own life and ignore everybody else’s.”

  “You near about done?” she asked. “I’m tired.”

  Momma came out onto the porch and stared wide-eyed at us both. “What on earth is goin’ on out here? You’ll wake the dead!”

  “Jessie’s just riled at me, is all,” Gemma said. “Pretty much the same as always.”

  I bristled at her assertion that I was always picking fights, and I told her as much. “Ain’t no normal day. Ain’t no normal time with you and me, neither.”

  I was still crying a little, and Momma came over to hand me a fresh handkerchief she had in her apron pocket. “Gemma, Jessilyn’s a little hurt inside today over the Colby girl and all. Why don’t you girls talk about this again tomorrow when things seem clearer?”

  Gemma gave my momma a confused glance. “What about the Colby girl?”

  “She went missin’. Looks like maybe she wandered off last night or this mornin’. Took them a long while to find her.”

  “Is she all right?” Gemma asked.

  Momma shook her head slowly. “Honey, she’s pretty tore up. Has some broken bones and things. She’s at the hospital over in Laurel Springs right now. Jessilyn and Luke . . . they found her at Duncan Pass, layin’ underneath the bridge.”

  Gemma’s face went pale and she dropped her purse right onto the lawn. I had wondered if she’d show concern, but I hadn’t expected anything near to the look I saw on her face.

  “Gemma?” I asked anxiously.

  She ignored me, bent over to retrieve her purse, and said, “You let me know if you hear she’s all right. I’m goin’ to bed now.”

  Momma and I stared at one another as Gemma charged off into the house.

  “You see, Momma?” I asked indignantly. “She’s been like this for weeks now, all caught up in her own little world, and she can’t see hide nor hair of anythin’ else.”

  Momma didn’t say anything, though I could see she was concerned just like I was. But then, there were plenty of concerns to go around.

  Chapter 5

  The next morning I made my way out to Daddy’s makeshift office in the shed. He was sitting at his desk in the cramped space, rubbing his neck. His
shoulders were slumped, and I knew just what was weighing on him the heaviest.

  I approached him cautiously and set a glass of sweet tea on the desk beside him. “More money troubles, Daddy?”

  “Ain’t nothin’ for you to worry about, baby.”

  I watched him closely for a minute, wondering if it would be smart to ask my important question while he was so preoccupied. But then I thought that if he was distracted, it might be the perfect time to ask, since he wouldn’t have much of his brain left for thinking about little things like me working for Miss Cleta. I decided to take the plunge. “Daddy,” I began slowly, “you got a minute?”

  Daddy sighed and wiped the sweat away from his eyes. “What d’you need, Jessilyn?”

  “Well, it’s just that . . . I talked to Miss Cleta and, well, she asked me a question, but she said I can’t give her an answer till I get an answer from you.”

  Daddy stared at me for a few seconds. “Jessilyn, I ain’t too good at thinkin’ on hot days like this. You think you can say that a little clearer?”

  I took one good look at the impatience spreading across his face and decided I’d better take my chance while I had it. “It’s just that Miss Cleta . . . well, she’s asked me to come work for her maybe two, three days a week. She says she’s gettin’ on up there in age, and her arthritis is actin’ up, and she could use some company. So she asked me to come help her do some cleanin’ and gardenin’ and stuff.”

  “Miss Cleta asked you this?”

  “Yes’r.”

  “And you want to do that?”

  “Yes’r, I do. And I think it’d be a kind help to Miss Cleta, anyhow.”

  “You know I ain’t too much for the idea of you workin’.”

  “I know, Daddy, and Miss Cleta figured as much. But I sure could use somethin’ to do, and it wouldn’t hurt to make some spendin’ change doin’ it.”

  “Seems you could help her out without takin’ her money.”

  “Yes’r, and I said as much, but she won’t have it any other way. And you know how Miss Cleta is when she sets her mind to somethin’.” I leaned heavily against his desk and sighed. “Anyways, hard work would keep my mind off troubles. And I’d be nearby the Colbys so as to hear any news on Callie.”