Chapter Seventy-One

MISS LILL AND CELIA’S MAMA cut old Mr. Belvidere’s Klan robe down to size that morning and planned to create flowing skirts from the voluminous white fabric. Joe Earl had promised to shape frames to hold the tulle wings for the angel of the Lord. It might not be ready in time for the last rehearsal, but that was okay with Celia. She was willing to make a stunning debut on Christmas Eve—as Janice promised she and Coltrane, as Mary and Joseph, would do, along with her aunt’s baby, who’d be arriving by train just in time to play the baby Jesus. Still no word about the camel.

Celia had just left the two women upstairs discussing their sewing project and come down to begin preparing lunch when she saw her daddy in the adult section of the library, replacing a book on the top shelf. Celia ducked behind the corner of the wall and took her place at the library desk, ready to sign out whatever book he wanted. It’s a hopeful sign, him reading. She thought the words like a prayer of gratitude and waited. But his footsteps went the other way. The back door opened and closed.

Disappointed, Celia left the desk and wandered toward the kitchen, stopping at the bookcase she’d seen her daddy near. She looked up at the top shelf where she’d seen him reach, curious as to what might have caught his interest. It was a section on geology—rocks—something she couldn’t imagine her daddy thinking about. Even she, curious about most everything, wasn’t too curious about rocks. A book had been pulled just a couple of inches forward, like he wanted to remember where it was. She dragged the library stool over to stand on and pushed the book into place, but it didn’t go all the way back on the shelf. Something kept it from sliding full in. Celia swallowed. She stepped up to the next step on the stool and then to the top so she could see what was back there.

A bottle. A bottle of liquid clear as rainwater.

Only, Celia knew it wasn’t rainwater. She shoved the book back into place as far as it would go and climbed down, roughly pushed the stool to the corner, and stood, thinking. Finding a man’s stash was one thing—near criminal as far as the unwritten code went. Touching it was enough to get some men killed. But moonshine was killing her family, bottle by bottle, run by run, day by day.

Celia stood until she heard the clock chime the three-quarter hour. Everybody’d be coming in for lunch at noon, and she hadn’t even started the tomato soup. But now she was alone. The grandfather clock in the hallway ticked louder than usual or maybe just seemed to. Undecided, Celia pulled an apron off the kitchen hook and pulled bowls from the cupboard. She opened the jar of tomatoes her mama and Miss Lill had put up in summer and started to mix the roux, just as her mama had taught her. She lifted a loaf of bread from the bread box and a crock of butter from the counter. Holding her breath, mind whirring, Celia stood for a full minute with a knife in hand, ready to slice bread. The clock in the hallway continued to tick. Funny how she’d never much noticed it.

Decided, Celia lifted the soup pot off the burner, set the knife on the table, glanced out the window to see if anyone was near, and raced back to the library shelf. She jerked the stool into place and climbed to the top, pulling the rocks book from the top shelf, not caring that it slammed to the floor with a crash. She grabbed the bottle and, heart pounding, ran it to the kitchen. She stood over the sink, yanked the cork, and poured every drop down the drain, her chin quivering and teeth gritted together.

“Celia?” Miss Lill stood in the hall doorway, the rocks book in her hand. “I heard this fall.” She stared at the bottle in Celia’s hand. “Is everything all right?”

“No, ma’am. But maybe now things will get better.” Celia breathed hard, stood straight, and replaced the cork.

She walked the bottle outside and slammed it into the trash bin on the back porch so hard it broke. When she looked up, her daddy stood ten feet away, staring at her with an open mouth.

Celia gulped but stared back, eyes flaming, then turned and walked into the house.