Chapter Twenty-Three

Saturday went off as planned with Xochi arriving promptly to spell Teddy, bringing along some movies she thought Ella might like and a few more baby outfits she couldn’t resist buying. When Teddy returned from calling the game, unfortunately a UL loss, he came bearing pizza, too tired to cook. Xo had the baby, rocking her in the chair, while Ella slept sprawled on the sofa. No surprise there. She’d been complaining that even with the child in another room the nocturnal crying kept her awake.

Xo slipped Lizzy into her baby seat. “She’s really such a good baby. Goes right back to sleep after her feeding.”

“Stay for dinner such as it is?”

“No, thanks. Pizza gives me heartburn in my condition. I’ll be on my way to New Orleans from here since I’m a half hour closer to Junior this way. Lots of places in Baton Rouge to get a quick bite.” Xochi gathered her things, her eagerness to see her husband still fresh and wonderful on her pretty brown face. Teddy suffered a pang of envy along with the pangs of hunger.

Ella roused, sniffed the air. “Pizza! You are the best brother on earth.”

“He certainly is one of them,” Xochi agreed. “Have a quiet evening.”

After her departure, they polished off the pie and a salad Teddy insisted on throwing together. “There’s ice cream if you want dessert. I’m going to shower and take a nap before you go to bed, get ready for my night duty.”

Teddy failed to sleep as well as he’d hoped. He missed Jessie and hated having to pass on the small birthday party in her honor. Bad enough he couldn’t get out to search for a gift and had ordered a necklace online that didn’t seem as special as he wanted, though it was pretty enough for Ella to covet when it showed up express delivery.

“You know, some husbands get their wives a nice piece of jewelry after they have a baby for them. Royalty does that.” Ella held up the necklace above her still-swollen breasts. Asymmetrical, three small pearls spaced apart led to a swirl of gold wire, then a drop of three more pearls. A tiny diamond nestled in the wire.

“Not royalty and not your husband,” Teddy answered, thinking of all he’d done for her already: free room and board, payment of her medical bills, and now night duty with Lizzy, not to mention that phone bill. He guessed in Ella’s mind only material things counted.

“Well, I’ll be a good sister and wrap it for you while you rest.”

“Thanks.” When Teddy finally settled, he slept like the dead—or a worn-out father who had worked all afternoon.

After he woke, he found Lizzy in her crib by his side, the little cooler restocked with formula, and plenty of diapers piled on the night table. Jessie’s wrapped gift gleamed in silver paper he later recognized as aluminum foil on his computer table. Ella had topped it with a pink bow from one of her shower gifts. No one could say his sister wasn’t both resourceful and frugal when she wanted to be.

Realizing the baby’s red-faced grunts had pulled him out of sleep, he prepared to change a poopy one by elbowing up against his pillow and waiting for her to finish her business. Teddy picked her up before she began to cry, cleaned her bottom, lofted the diaper into the wastepaper basket, and dragged out a bottle. He’d completed the whole process with barely a whimper from Lizzy. Ella should be well rested by tomorrow, but he thought he heard her talking to someone in her room. A quick search among the baby items confirmed she’d palmed his phone again. Not wanting to holler at her and wake Lizzy, he let it go and sank back into slumber, forgot about it at the three a.m. feeding, and recalled it once more when the wakeup alarm he’d set for seven didn’t go off. Lizzy Jane did, but she’d put in a solid four hours first. Good kid.

Though he picked up the infant and offered her the comfort of his heartbeat, Teddy did call to Ella. “Get in here! Your turn.”

“Yeah, yeah, coming. I thought she’d be up at six for you to feed, and I’d have more time.” His sister slumped into the room, all prettied up for this early, and a spit pad draped over her shoulder to protect another of Xochi’s maternity tees.

“Time for what? Making long-distance calls on my phone again?”

“Just calling my daddy. I kept it short. Here.” She slapped the phone on the night table and removed Lizzy from his arms. “Hey, I have coffee on and biscuits in the oven. Get dressed while I make up the eggs. You earned them.”

“Look, Ella. I need my phone by me at all times for any emergencies and because I had my alarm set. I must leave by nine while traffic is light. You never know on these highways what might hold you up, and I can’t afford a reputation of showing up at the last minute. We have sound checks to do and information to go over.”

“Well, the baby woke you in plenty of time. Wish I could make a livin’ by just talking.”

“Not as easy as it sounds. Go on, let me put myself together.”

Ella sauntered out with Lizzy fretting and rooting for food on her shoulder. Teddy hoped she changed the diaper before offering a bottle, or they might have a rash to deal with later. He’d double check before he left.

Breakfast was great as usual, full of lard-laden biscuits with a side of bacon, plenty of coffee, and eggs made the way he liked them. When Ella set up her own place, he’d miss the food and probably lower his cholesterol. Teddy watched the clock and waited for Jessie’s arrival. He hoped to give her the gift before he took off for the city. Not like her to be late.

His phone rang around ten. Jessie’s voice came through full of apology tinged with excitement. “Sorry, complications. I can’t get there until eleven most likely, noon at the latest.”

“That’s cutting it close for me.” Teddy threw a troubled look in Ella’s direction as she cleaned up the kitchen.

“For Gawd’s sake, I can take care of the kid alone for an hour. Get the hell out of here.”

He almost told her not to swear in front of the baby, but settled for making sure Lizzy had a dry diaper before he left. “Jessie should be here in an hour or two. Lizzy might sleep that long. You should rest, too.”

“That’s my plan. Nothin’ on the TV but religion and those egghead talk shows on a Sunday morning. We’ll be watching the game later and doing our nails.” His sister made shooing gestures as if he were a pesky fly hovering over the congealed eggs.

“Good.” Teddy gathered all he’d need for the day including his laptop and phone, gave Lizzy a kiss on the forehead, and Ella a wave as he headed out to make a living.

****

Jessie pulled up in front of the apartment all by her lonesome in the best birthday gift ever. Her dad had outfitted her old car with hand controls, giving her a new independence. Sure, getting her chair folded and into it presented a challenge, as did getting it out again, but she’d rejected help earlier and so caused more of a delay. Too bad her father hadn’t remembered to check the battery and air in the tires on a vehicle just sitting around for months. First, a delay for jumping the battery, then a stop to get the mushy tires inflated. After dropping her beaming father at home and waving goodbye to her worried mother, who thought the idea of Jessie being on the road alone a bad one, she headed to Teddy’s place only to get caught in church traffic. Finally turning into his street, Jessie saw immediately that some clod had parked in the handicapped space, not that it belonged to Teddy alone, but the battered pickup truck bore no handicapped plates or special tags. Maybe someone was moving in as a small television swathed in a blanket and a blue suitcase so old it didn’t have wheels sat in the back, the tailgate hanging down like a broken wing.

Jessie parked next to it. The lack of extra space made the struggle to erect her wheelchair more difficult, but she managed. She checked her watch. Damn, noon already. Teddy would be gone, and she’d wanted to surprise him by driving herself to his place. Oh well, she had the key he’d given her and let herself in quietly without disturbing Ella or the baby if they napped. Initially, she heard voices coming from Teddy’s bedroom and thought he’d remained until her arrival, which would make him late for the Sinners game. Jessie started to call out, telling him to get on the road right away, but no, the red van was gone, the old truck hogging its space. Nor was the voice his. This one had a harsher twang roughened by cigarettes. A smoky aroma hung in the air. Not something Teddy would allow. Jess wheeled silently down the hall, stopped halfway to listen.

“She-it, this guy got nothin’. I have a better TV in my trailer. Who uses a desktop anymore? I guess we can take it and see what it brings. Jesus, I thought he was your rich brother, Ella Sue.”

“His folks are rich, not Teddy. Leave the computer. He needs it for his job, and like you say, it won’t bring much.”

“The plan was for you to stay out at that fancy ranch and get what you could from them. Then, we take the baby and sell her to some desperate people who really want a kid, a blue-eyed blond kid. You really screwed this up, Ella Sue. Babies like this end up in foster homes. Nobody pays for a brown child.”

“Teddy says her eyes will stay blue and she’ll grow up pretty.”

“Ain’t he Mr. Sunshine? Well, he’s welcome to raise her because I won’t.”

“I figured that would be your feeling. I wrote a letter telling him I want Elizabeth Jane to stay with him. Teddy might not be rich, but he’s decent, real decent.”

“You sayin’ I’m not, Ella Sue?” The male voice took on a dangerous edge. Jessie moved closer, ready to ram into him if she must to save Ella and the baby.

“No, Wyatt, no. And I’m Ella now, just Ella. Let’s go before she wakes. I’ll put the letter in her crib where Teddy will find it. Jessie is going to be here any minute. We need to move.”

Jessie centered herself in the doorway. She took in the scene. Lizzy swaddled in her crib. Ella standing between the crib and a dark man, tall, lean, wiry, with black curls resting on his shoulders, the guy from the backside of Burger King. “Ella, don’t do this. Tell the guy to leave. Teddy and I will help you raise Lizzy.”

The man swung in her direction, his features too sharp to belong to a black man, burnished skin, lots of Cherokee blood maybe, and white, also, eyes dark and threatening as a thundercloud about to send out a bolt of lightning. Handsome in a very bad boy sort of way, the kind of guy who would attract a girl like Ella Sue.

“This is her father, so he’s got a say. Never wanted no baby in the first place, and Daddy would have found the money to abort Wyatt’s kid. He hates him. True enough he threw me out when I caught a baby by a Melungeon. Old Newt is a racist bastard. But Wyatt convinced me we could get a good stake to move elsewhere and live large on money some people would pay for a pretty, white baby. Didn’t reckon on the kid to look so much like him.”

“You didn’t tell me the best friend you babbled about was a cripple like your brother, Ella. But she is beautiful enough to tempt a man who can’t have sex with his woman for another five weeks—unless you’re lyin’.” His black eyes bored into Ella’s frightened blue ones.

“I can take care of you, Wyatt. Right now if you need it so bad.” Ella Sue turned paler than pale as she offered herself.

“She can’t! You could tear out her stitches or give her an infection.” Jessie regretted her words at once.

“So you volunteerin’, pretty lady?”

Jess reversed, but Wyatt made a quick grab, dislodging her by her shoulders, making her fall forward toward the floor, hit on her numb knees, and nearly do a faceplant before catching herself on her arms. Ella’s boyfriend rough-handled her onto Teddy’s bed, the place of so much pleasure turning into a place of horror and fear. If only she could kick out. Beating on the man with her fists seemed to do no good, and when she forked her fingers to poke his eyes, he simply grasped both wrists and held them over her head.

“Come on, Ella Sue. Help me with her clothes. Get her zipper down. I been livin’ poor waiting for this kid to be born. Couldn’t even afford a cheap whore all these weeks while you lived mighty well.”

“No! Let her be. We got to go. These walls ain’t that thick. Someone will hear if she screams.”

Given a cue, Jessie hollered as loud as she could but knew by now most in the building would be gearing up for the Sinners game, TVs turned on, or off in a sports bar doing the same. Wyatt released one of her wrists to backhand her across the face.

Ella leaped on his back, tugging at his narrow shoulders. “No, no, I’m your woman, not her. Take me.” He elbowed her off into a heap on the floor with one savage blow.

Jessie took advantage of the distraction. Her free hand worked its way toward the night table drawer and groped for the grip of the revolver. She rolled off its safety and drew Wyatt’s attention.

“You searchin’ for a condom, honey? I’m clean, but maybe I’ll make another baby prettier than this ’un.”

Lizzy began to scream and flail her tiny hands loose from her wrapping. “Shut the brat up, Ella Sue, or I’ll bash its brains out against the wall. Then, you get over here and help me get this done, you hear?”

Ella started to rise, holding out a hand, begging his help. Wyatt yanked her upright—and Jessie squeezed the trigger, once, twice because she knew Teddy always kept it on an empty chamber. With her elbow sunken into the mattress and her other arm still in Wyatt’s control, the shot went lower than she intended as the gun bucked back in her hand. She wished it had gone into his groin, but angled as he was, he took the bullet in the hip. His hand flew up, and she secured the revolver with both of hers, preparing to pull the trigger again.

“Christ, she tried to kill me! Bitch, I got my own gun in the glove compartment, an automatic, and I’m coming back here to waste you and that kid.”

“Try it.” Jessie stilled any shake in her grip and drew a bead on his heart.

“Wyatt, we got to leave. You’re bleeding all over. DNA, you ever think of that? If they can’t match it to your record, my daddy will give the cops a good idea who was here.” Again, Ella tugged on his arm. “Jessie, please don’t shoot us in the back. We’re going now, ain’t we, Wyatt? Far away. Won’t be any trouble no more. You and Teddy take care of my little girl.” Wrapping an arm around her lover, Ella tried to support him on a shoulder, but he slumped, too heavy for her to carry.

“Put me in her chair. She can’t follow and don’t have the guts to shoot again.”

“Oh, but I do.” Jessie stared him down.

Ella shoved her wheelchair beneath Wyatt’s hips, pressed him into it, and turned the chair quickly to put herself between Jessie and her lover. She pushed him hard down the hall and out the door. It shut behind them. All the while, Lizzy shrieked, a tiny siren wailing.

Jessie stayed as she was, holding the weapon two-handed, waiting for their return, but over the baby’s cries, she heard only the gunning of a truck with a bad muffler taking off down the street. The gun grew heavy in her hands, and her urge to calm the baby surged. Finally, Jess laid the weapon on the night table and told Lizzy how things would go down.

“I’ll give you a bottle, but first I must get mobile again. My phone was in the pouch on my wheelchair. I need to call for help.” The baby listened intently and quieted to a whimper.

“Might have to drag my body the length of the hall and try to hike myself high enough to hit that panic button. My chair is going to be curbside, and I’d rather not pull myself over cement. I don’t feel injuries below the waist and have to be careful about that.” Lizzy found a thumb to suck on while Jessie explained, using the baby to organize her thoughts that wanted to skitter away screaming for help.

Jess positioned herself on the edge of the bed, preparing to let herself drop to the floor when she remembered Teddy’s search for the wedge in the closet. What had he said? Always have a second wheelchair handy. You never know when one will break down. The closet loomed way closer than the front door. Softening the drop by putting a hand on the night table, she lowered herself, rolled on her stomach, and inched along the floor until she could shove open the accordion door with her fingertips. The wheelchair sat right in front. A pushup into sitting position, and she was able to spread the seat of the chair, lever herself into it, and maneuver it into the bedroom. Thank you, Teddy for all those trips to the gym.

First stop, the crib. She glided through a puddle of Wyatt’s blood, placed the baby on her lap, and moved toward the front of the apartment. A second thought had her reversing to pick up the gun and put it in the side pouch with the safety on. Lizzy, having dislodged her thumb in the transfer, began to fuss again. Tracking skid marks of blood behind her, she made it to the door and hit the emergency button. “Won’t be long now, kiddo. Hang on.”