RHODES was sitting by his mother’s bed a little after noon. He did not afterwards know how long he had been staring out her window at the Chinaberry tree, the cleared land, and the rolling green of the groves beyond. He was not seeing any of it. He was seeing all the work that Will had done, and for nothing. Darl Hollister was going to take it all. His anger would drive him to an immediate foreclosure when he learned there was no money in Will’s account to cover the check.
He was aware through his thoughts of his mother’s forced, raspy breathing. But for a long time it was not there, and the lack of the sound brought him back to awareness of her on the bed.
He jumped up from his chair and stared down at his mother. Her face was wan, sunken, the flesh pulled taut over the bones. Her eyes were closed. She was barely breathing.
Rhodes dropped to the bed beside her. He whispered her name over and over. Lena did not move.
“Rosanne!”
Rhodes was hardly aware that he had called out. He was staring at his mother. She did not even move when he shouted for Rosanne.
Rosanne and Grandpa came through the bedroom door. Rosanne stood close behind Rhodes, with her arm about his shoulder. He wanted to withdraw, but it felt good and reassuring to have her close behind him.
“She’s not breathing,” Rhodes whispered. “She’s dead.”
Rosanne sank to the bed beside Lena. She looked up over her shoulder. “She’s unconscious, Rhodes. You better go to town for Dr. Beckwell.”
Rhodes’ lips were trembling. “She might die.”
Grandpa’s voice was soothing. “She might, boy. Unless you stir yourself. Your Cousin Rosanne and I — we’ll stay here with your mother, right here in this room until you get back with the Doctor.”
• • •
Dr. Beckwell’s office was closed. Rhodes looked around the town for Will but did not see him. He drove out to the doctor’s home and found him working in the front yard.
“I’ll drive right out in my own car, Rhodes,” Dr. Beckwell said.
Rhodes waited only to see the doctor get into his car and start out of town toward the farm. Rhodes turned the truck around and drove back down to Main Street.
He parked near the Pasttime Bar, went across the walk. He stood in the doorway, letting his eyes get adjusted to the darkened room. He stood there so long that the bartender spoke to him from behind the bar.
“Hey, kid. You in the door. What you want in here?”
“I’m looking for Mr. Will Johnson.”
“He ain’t in here. He ain’t been in here the last three hours.”
“Do you know where he went?”
The bartender laughed. “People come and go all the time, kid. I don’t know where they come from, where they go. I don’t care. I like it that way. Now get away and stop blocking that door.” He laughed again. “Gives a place a bad name to have kids hanging around.”
“Do you know where I might find Mr. Swamp Taylor?”
“Look, kid. Nobody in this county can keep up with them Taylor brothers.” He laughed, swiping at the bar with his rag. “Except Ab — right now you can keep up with him pretty good. He’s over there in the county jail.”
Rhodes spent twenty minutes driving around town looking for Will and Swamp Taylor. He did not even find anyone who would admit to having seen them together at all. Sure, why would they. The Taylors were in a bad business, and the people in Pine Flat never talked about it to anybody. It wasn’t healthy. If you knew too much the government men got suspicious and started watching you. If you talked too much, you made the Taylors mad, and that could be fatal.
• • •
Dr. Beckwell was downstairs when Rhodes got back home. The doctor touched Rhodes’ shoulder. “I gave your mother something for the pain, Rhodes. She’ll feel better, and she’ll regain consciousness soon.”
Rhodes sighed, but the heavy knot remained in his stomach.
“You want Rosanne and me to get her ready to go to Jacksonville tonight?”
Dr. Beckwell shook his head. “I don’t think we’ll take her to Jacksonville tonight, Rhodes. We better wait a while. I’ll talk to Will. Did he come in with you?”
“No, sir. I don’t know just when Will will get back home.”
“It’s all right. I’ll come back tonight — and tomorrow morning. I’m sure to catch Will here one of those times. Meanwhile, don’t you worry. Your Cousin Rosanne has something to relieve your mother when the pain gets too bad.”
Rhodes thanked the doctor and started tiredly up the stairs. Grandpa was dozing outside Lena’s bedroom door. Rhodes opened it and went inside.
Rosanne sat in the chair beside the bed. The shades were drawn, the room was darkened. His mother’s thin arms looked wan and bloodless against the coverlet.
Rhodes stood beside the bed looking down at his mother. His eyes brimmed with tears. He tried to slap them away, but they filled again, spilled down his cheek. His throat tightened, and he swallowed back a sob.
Rosanne stood up and drew his head down on her shoulder. For the first time he realized he was as tall as Rosanne. He tried to pull away from her. Her arms tightened and her soft hands soothed his hair.
• • •
“Rhodes.”
It was six o’clock that night. Rhodes was startled to hear his mother speak.
“Yes.” He jumped up from his chair, bent close over her bed.
“Where is Will? I haven’t seen Will in two days.”
Rhodes tried to smile. “It hasn’t been two days, Mamma. It seems like it — you’ve been sleeping so much.”
“The doctor was here.”
“Yes.”
“I was sick and the doctor was here.”
“He’s coming back, Mamma. He’s coming back tonight.”
Lena turned her head away. After a moment she looked back at Rhodes. “That — woman is here on the place again.”
“Rosanne?”
“That woman. I don’t want her here.”
“Mamma. She’s working hard. She’s trying to help you.”
“I don’t want her to help me. I want her out of here. Why is she here?”
“She wants to help you.”
“Why doesn’t she go back to Alabama?”
“I don’t know, Mamma. I guess she will.”
“Yes. She will. You send Will to me. I want to tell him. That woman — off the place — I want her to go back to Alabama. You send Will to me, Rhodes.”
“He’s not here, Mamma.”
“He’s not here? Where is he? I’m ill, and he’s chasing after that woman. Where are they? Where did they go-together?”
“No, Mamma. Stop. You’re getting all upset. Rosanne is fixing supper. Will is — he’s in town, Mamma. He’ll come to you, as soon as he gets home.”
Lena subsided then, closing her eyes, turning her face away.
Rhodes sat there watching the midwinter night darken beyond the closed window, hearing the way the wind was rising, cold and sharp about the eaves of the old house. He listened, for the sound of cars — of Will’s coming home, of the doctor’s return … or Darl Hollister’s arrival. He sat there without taking a full breath.
Almost an hour passed. Lena said, “Rhodes.”
He leaned over her again. “I’m here, Mama.”
“Yes. You’re here. You’re here with me. You’re all I’ve got. Chris is gone, and you’re all I’ve got.” Suddenly she screamed out, wailing.
Rhodes caught her shoulders, pressing her back in the bed.
The bedroom door flew open and Grandpa ran into the room.
“I best get Rosanne up here,” Grandpa said. “Lena needs another one of them pain pills.”
Lena writhed, twisting on the bed. “It ain’t pain, Papa. It ain’t pills I need. We’re disgraced. That’s my pain. That’s the pain I can’t stand.”
“It ain’t true, girl. Don’t talk like that.”
“It’s true. Oh, you won’t see it. You don’t want to see it. But I know. I know. I lie here in this bed … I lie here dying and I know more than all the rest of you — because I see what you don’t want to see.”
“Mamma,” Rhodes whispered. “Stop. Don’t talk like this. The doctor will be here soon.”
Lena’s face got wild. “Yes. The doctor will be here soon. But Will won’t be here. Will’s gone — hasn’t he? Will’s run away with that slut — ”
“Lena. Stop it. If you mean Rosanne, she’s down in the kitchen. I’ll call her for you.”
“Don’t!” Lena gasped it out. Her face was taut and her eyes were distended. “I don’t want her in this room. Oh, I know about her. And all about it. Rhodes, boy, are you here?”
“I’m here.”
“Rhodes, I want you to go into town. I want you to go to Sheriff McCall. I want you to bring him out here to me. Now. Right now, son. If he’s not at his office. You go to his house. You tell him your mother wants him. You tell him he better come now. Right now.”
“Mamma, please.”
Lena began to sob. “Will you do it, Rhodes? Will you do what I tell you? Or must I get up from this bed? Do what I tell you.”
Rhodes stared at Grandpa. The old man looked at his daughter for a long time, then he turned his head toward Rhodes.
“You best do it, boy. You best humor her. Better to do what she says than have her waste all her strength a-carrying on like this.”
Lena exhaled a long sigh and sank back against the pillows. She stared up at them, her eyes lighted deep in their sockets, showing malice and satisfaction and a terrible kind of triumph.
Sheriff McCall took off his big Stetson when he came through the bedroom door. He stood beside Lena’s bed, looking awkward and uncomfortable. He looked down at her and tried to smile.
“Howdy, Mrs. Johnson. Your boy tells me you want to see me urgent. What’s got you so upset?”
Lena stared up at him, picking at the coverlet with her bony fingers. “The same thing that would have you upset, Sheriff, if you knew the truth like I do.”
“The truth, Ma’am, about what?”
“Sit down, Sheriff. In that chair. Pull it beside the bed. I haven’t a lot of strength any more, Sheriff. It’s a wonder to God I have any strength at all the terrible things I have to go through.”
“Yes, ma’am, now just why did you call me?”
“It’s not easy to say the things I’ve got to say, Sheriff. I want you to know that. I’ve — been through hell in my mind — but I knew I had to tell you.”
“Yes ma’am.” The sheriff leaned forward slightly. “Now what is it you wanted to tell me?”
“It’s about my husband — about Will Johnson — and that woman downstairs — that woman he brought here on the place.”
Sheriff McCall frowned. “You mean Tom Wilkes’ widow, ma’m?”
“Certainly Tom Wilkes’ widow. Who else? That no good. Strutting and twitching around here from the first moment she came. It’s their fault. It’s their fault that my poor dear cousin Tom lies dead right now.”
Sheriff McCall scowled, looking from Grandpa to Rhodes. Rhodes was holding his breath, but Grandpa had an odd smile on his mouth, and he was staring at Lena.
“Their fault, ma’m?”
“That’s right. I’m going to tell you the truth about the way Tom Wilkes died, Sheriff. You believe that Tom was robbing Will, don’t you?”
“I know he’d been doing some thieving, ma’m. I know he had three calves in his truck that seemed to belong to Will.”
“To Will? To Will Johnson? He had nothing. He has nothing — nothing but what he tries to take from me and my poor unprotected boy. Those calves were mine. They were mine, Sheriff. I gave them to Tom Wilkes.”
For a long time it was silent in the room. The rising wind tickled at the house with a chinaberry branch.
“You — gave them to your Cousin Tom?”
“Of course I did. He was a Wilkes. My flesh and blood. Why wouldn’t I give them to him if he needed them to get started in a place of his own?”
“Did — Did Will Johnson know this, ma’m?”
“Of course he knew it. I told him. But he wouldn’t have it that way. He knew that Tom was not robbing us. How could Tom rob us — his own family?”
“Way I looked at it, ma’m, I figured Tom just wasn’t too particular who he robbed — own family didn’t make no difference.”
“Well — that’s not true. Tom was a Wilkes. And we’re not thieves — and liars and — murderers.”
“Ma’m … do you know what you’re saying?”
Lena burst out laughing. “Are you suggesting I’m lying now?”
“No, ma’am, it’s just that nothing I learned gives any credence to your story. Why would Will kill your cousin?”
“Why? It’s plain enough. That woman downstairs. That’s why. Will Johnson is in love with her. He has been. I’m ill, ugly. He can’t stand me. But a pretty little slut comes along — and he looks for an excuse to kill her husband. Will wanted any excuse to kill Tom — and to act like it was a robbery. That was just what Will Johnson had been looking for.”
“But — they fought and argued — there in the corral, ma’m.”
“Yes. Why? Because Tom was trying to bring Will to his senses, trying to make him see that I had given those cattle to him. Will didn’t listen, because he didn’t want to listen.
“He gave them his house to live in, didn’t he? It’s been closed all these years, but he gave it to Tom and that Rosanne to live in. Why? He wanted to keep that woman near him. That’s why he gave her that house. So he could sneak to see her — so he could wait for a chance like this — to kill poor Tom.”
The doctor walked into the room. He stared at Lena. “Good lord,” he said. “What are you people trying to do, kill this poor woman? Look at her. She hasn’t the strength for anything like this. I’ll have to ask you people to leave this room. Now.”
Rhodes was staring at his mother. Her eyes were lighted as they had been when she sent him for the sheriff. He turned, feeling sick at his stomach.
The sheriff stopped him in the hall. The sheriff looked gray and ill, too. He said, “Boy, where is Will? I’ve got to see him.’’
“He’s not here,” Rhodes said. “I don’t know where he is.”
If I did, he thought, I’d warn him. I’d tell him never to come back.