Chapter 22

 

Ray seemed animated on the return trip to Fitzgerald Island. It was obvious Lila was the object of his attention. He wasn't the only animated person on the barge. Sara measured Ray's large biceps between her palms as she ooed and aahed about his muscles. Ray only had eyes for Lila and Sara soon turned her attention to Wiley. Good thing. Wiley was leaning against the railing with his arms tightly folded and appeared an inch from slugging his older brother. Sally Brice interrupted Buck's observations.

“You look great. Any new women in your life we need to know about?”

“Just my new pony Esmerelda. She's the only female I ever met that really understands me.”

“That's a fact,” Brice said, slamming his beer and popping the top on another.

Sally wouldn't let the matter drop. “What about Susie? That little waitress at Juniors.”

“Married a mud salesman and now has two kids.”

“Looks like we have a lot of catching up to do,” she said, encircling Buck's waist with her willowy arm.

Ray, motoring slowly past many small islands Buck never knew existed, took the long way back to Fitzgerald Island. Lila kept him company while the others two-stepped on the party deck to country and western music. It was near dark, everyone in a festive mood, when they reached the dock at Fitzgerald Island.

Ray jumped from the bow of the barge, lashing it to a post as Wiley and Buck grabbed the coolers and followed him ashore. White smoke hung over Aunt Emma's garden and the aroma of barbecue greeted them when they approached the lodge. Raymond's deep laughter, along with Pearl's own shrill hysterics, rolled from behind the shrubbery. They were caught in an affectionate embrace as the group rounded the corner.

“Can't leave you two alone for a minute,” Wiley said.

Pearl gave Raymond a knowing look and they both rolled with laughter. “Wiley, I swear. You haven't changed a bit. Raymond and I had to put a lock on our bedroom door to keep you out when you were little.”

“Maybe that's the reason he don't have no little brothers and sisters,” Raymond said.

Wiley had little time to blush. Lila stepped from behind Brice and Sally, hugging the large black woman. Pearl's laughter quickly turned to happy tears.

“Miss Lila, look how pretty you are. You're all grown up.”

“Pearl, you haven't changed a bit. And Raymond, tall and handsome as I remember when I was a little girl.”

Raymond joined in the hug and said, “Still a charmer, ain't she Pearl?”

“This is Sara,” Lila said, tugging at her friend's elbow and pulling her closer for introductions. “Pearl, you may want to keep an eye on Raymond when Sara's around.”

“Girl, if she'll just take him off my hands, she can have the old man,” Pearl said, giving Raymond a playful elbow in the ribs. “He's just about worn out, anyway.”

Pearl gave Raymond a sharper elbow when he said, “Yeah, well it wasn't me that yelled uncle last night.”

“Time out, you two,” Wiley said. “This is Brice and Sally. They're friends of Buck's from Shreveport.”

Ever the perfect hostess, Pearl embraced the two young people as if she'd known them all her life. “Welcome to Fitzgerald Island.”

“It's lovely here,” Sally said. “Like a perfect little Garden of Eden far from the modern world.”

“Oh it's that, all right,” Raymond said, leading Brice to a row of red ice chests. “Let's get a cold beer and I'll show you some of my barbecue secrets.”

Ray stood alone in the shadows by the gate. As Buck listened to the friendly banter, he wondered what was going on in the young man's mind. The thought melted away, along with the drone of a far off cicada, when thunder sounded in the distance.

Japanese lanterns cast ghostly light, swaying in the evening breeze blowing in from the lake. A scratchy old LP featuring ragtime piano, and banjo music vibrated from speakers in the yard. The melodies melded with a chorus of bullfrogs and Aunt Emma's collection of assorted wind chimes. When Ray finally came out of the shadows, he was pushing Ezra in front of him.

“Mama, look who else is here.”

“Why there you are, Ezra Davis. I told Ray to drag you over here if he had to.”

Raymond joined Pearl in greeting Ezra and they commenced another round of hugs, quips and friendly back slaps. Buck excused himself and joined the others as they admired Aunt Emma's roses.

“They're lovely,” Sally said. “And so fragrant.”

“They're from cuttings grown in my mother's rose garden,” Lila said. “She gave them to Miss Emma years ago.”

Fragrance from the roses combined with hibiscus, wisteria and crepe myrtle in bloom. The odor of sweet flowers mingled with the tangy aroma of Raymond's barbecue. Pearl heard them talking about the roses and pointed toward the back door of the lodge.

“Let's get you settled into rooms before it starts raining. Dinner will be ready after you've freshened up.”

Armed with cold beers and luggage, the guests followed Pearl upstairs to their rooms. Buck waited outside in the garden, sampling Raymond's barbecue. Heat lightning flashed over the lake, the evening still warm from the day’s deluge of sunshine. Brice finished freshening up before Sally and joined him in the garden, exchanging the bound legal document under his arm for a cold beer.

“Title opinion for the Emma Fitzgerald # 1.”

“Did you have a look at it already?”

“You bet. Two acres of the royalties belong to the Johnson's. There's a copy of the assignment of the deed in the title opinion. The land is clearly theirs. What's it all mean?”

“It means someone deleted a transaction or two from the County records.”

“Who?”

“I suspect a man named Hogg Nation,” Buck said. “He owns one of the abstract offices in Deception and is also the town mayor. He's the only person I know with the motive and the power.”

Lightning flashed over the lake as Sally, looking fresh in pink shorts and a clingy cotton blouse, appeared. “Why the serious expressions?”

“We were wondering if we had the will power to wait on Raymond's barbecue any longer,” Buck said.

By now, everyone had returned downstairs and Raymond, as if on cue, said, “Ribs are up. Let's eat.”

Raymond and Wiley had pulled two picnic tables together. Ribs, smoked sausage, potato salad, coleslaw, pickles and baked beans rested on Pearl's red-checkered table cloths. Buck grabbed a beer and sat beside Lila.

“It's been years since I last visited the island,” she said. “It hasn't changed a bit.”

“Except for Aunt Emma not being here.”

Lila put down her fork. Taking Buck's hand, she gave it a motherly pat. “I'm sorry you never met Emma. She was a wonderful woman.”

Lila's big eyes made Buck uncomfortable. “Hearing people talk about her is a big help,” he said.

The picnic tables were large enough to seat everyone. It didn’t matter because Ray and Ezra ate alone at a smaller table beneath a sprawling pecan tree. Ray was ignoring his food, seemingly rapt in his conversation with the old man. From time to time, Lila would glance in their direction.

Conversation had all but ceased as everyone enjoyed the savory layers of food on their paper plates. They feasted on Raymond's ribs and chicken, and Pearl's barbecue beans and potato salad, topping it all off with watermelon and cold beer. Soon, Buck was stuffed and tipsy.

“I think I overdid it,” Brice said.

Sally, unlike her husband, had satisfied her appetite with only a single helping of ribs and fixings. “Quit whining,” she said. “I still have room for dessert.”

Brice, wishing he hadn't eaten that last plate of ribs, was eyeing Sally's strawberry shortcake when Ray came over to their table and gave his mother a hug. Ezra was with him.

“Everything is great but I have another section to finish before I can get some sleep.”

“Ray, can't you work on that dissertation of yours some other time? We're having a party here and it's still early.”

“Don't you won't me to graduate?”

“At least take some shortcake with you,” Pearl said.

She gave him no chance to refuse. Cutting him a generous helping of shortcake, she ladled strawberries over the top of the dessert. Ray took the package without arguing as Ezra edged closer to the head of the table.

“I had a wonderful time, Ms. Pearl, but it's a wee bit past this old man's bedtime. I'm going to call it a night myself.”

Ezra gave everyone a backwards wave as he sauntered off to his room in the lodge. Ray kissed his mother's forehead and strolled away without a word to anyone else. His omission seemed to distress Lila. After a quick glance at Buck to check for disapproval, she untangled herself from the bench and left the table.

“Please excuse me,” she said, following Ray without a word of explanation.

Buck watched over his shoulder until Lila disappeared beneath the grove of pecan trees. Lightning flashing over the lake, signaled an abrupt end to the frog and cricket serenade. Pearl finally broke the silence.

“You young people go on up to the veranda. After Raymond and I clean up, I'll make you all a pot of coffee.”

Pearl's orders generated a wave of protest. “No way,” Brice said.

“We'll clean up for you,” Sally and Sara both offered.

As they argued about who would put up the food, something unexpected happened—an explosion down by the marina. Everyone stared at the horizon as flames curled skyward and smoke billowed up over the trees. Flames and smoke masked the stars and colored the sky crimson. Wiley was the first to react.

“Something's on fire,” he said, pushing away from the table. “Over by the marina.”

Not bothering to use the garden gate, he vaulted the shrubbery in a running gallop as Brice and Buck followed close behind. As Buck rounded the corner to the marina he saw what was burning. It was a cross, a racist statement as old as the South itself.

In the field beside the marina someone had piled brush around the cross after securing it in the dirt. They had doused the brush with gasoline and set it ablaze. Something was tied to the base of the cross and the creature was whimpering and struggling to get loose. Sally and Sara came running up behind. Sally was screaming. The brush pile had yet to fully ignite but the outcome was imminent as flames licked down the burning cross.

“Oh God! That poor dog will burn to death. Somebody do something.”

Sally ran for the fire, not waiting for anyone to react to her plea, and Brice chased after her. He tackled her from behind before she reached the flaming mass, rolling her in the dirt.

“Stop it Sally! There's nothing we can do.”

He was right. Without a knife or something to cut the rope, there was no way to free the terrified animal from the flames. Buck's brain understood but adrenaline rushing through his veins dictated that he try anyway. It didn't matter that the frightened animal was Cyclone, the pit bull dog from Hogg Nation's development.

As he sprinted toward the cross he heard Brice yell, “Buck, no!”

The ground around the cross was damp from the last rain. Slipping in the mud, Buck slid face first toward the fire, slamming into the dog and knocking him off his feet. He sensed the animal's palpable fear as it cowered against him. His only plan was to grab the rope and yank until either his strength or the flame parted the strands. He quickly got a big surprise. The rope was neither hemp nor sisal. Instead, he tugged helplessly on an unbreakable strand of steel cable.

Lila screamed behind him as blisters began appearing on the backs of his hands. “Get out of there!”

Buck wanted to do just that but Cyclone's quivering body and racing heart prompted him to hold on. He yanked the cable again, further frightening the dog wedged against him. Sensing there was no hope of saving the wretched beast, he had almost resigned himself to letting go. It was a decision he didn't have to make. Someone chopped the steel cable with one swing of a double-bladed axe.

It was Ray. Without waiting for Buck to run from the flame, he lifted him bodily off the ground and dragged him from the fire, dropping him into a mud hole forty feet from the burning cross. Cyclone, frightened but otherwise unharmed, was still clutched in Buck's arms.