Summer of the Redeemers Read online

  “If they beat her, that’ll be evidence enough.” Alice wiped the sweat from beneath her blond bangs.

  “She said she’d been fornicating.”

  “With who?”

  “She didn’t say. She just got up in front of the church and confessed to fornicating. Just like she said she’d been eating Fig Newtons.” I was still amazed.

  “Libby Welford fornicates.”

  I cut a sharp glance at Alice. “How do you know?”

  “I’ve got an older brother, remember?”

  “Are you saying that Jimbo and Libby fucked each other?”

  “No!” Alice frowned. “He didn’t fuck her. Harley Adams, the mayor’s son, did. But Harley told everyone he’d done it with her. He told Jimbo she was real good too. That she knew how to make him feel like a man.”

  It made more sense that Libby would do it with Harley than Jimbo. Libby didn’t hang around with boys who weren’t worth her time. Jimbo didn’t have any money and he didn’t have a car. Harley had both. It was something to think about.

  “What are you going to do?”

  Alice’s question hung in the air. What was I going to do? What could I do? If Magdeline Scott was going to be hurt, she already was. I hadn’t seen anything, not really. “Let’s get back to the woods. We’d better rinse off and put our dresses back on.”

  “We’re going to pretend we went to church, aren’t we? We’re not going to do anything about the Redeemers.”

  It was almost an accusation, but not quite. Maybe it was just that I felt so damn bad about it all. “When I get back from Missouri. I’ll think of something by then. I’ll talk to Daddy.”

  “When are you coming back?”

  “Sunday. I’ll be gone a week.”

  “I’ll miss you. Of course, that girl could be dead by then.”

  I gripped my handlebars. “I wish you could come with me, Alice. I’m not so sure I’m going to like flying.” That was a lie. I knew I’d love it, but I didn’t want to rub it in that I was going.

  “Maebelle V. and I’ll be back here, waiting.” She sighed and we both started pedaling home. “We’ll be right here on Kali Oka Road, where nothing ever happens when you aren’t around.”

  Missouri was a different country. Hills rumbled to the horizon, and the university was like a town for grown-ups only. I felt like a munchkin, and The Judge was too quiet. On Tuesday we ate breakfast and then I went with him to his office at the liberal arts building. That morning I stayed in the classroom and listened to him lecture. It wasn’t a bit like school. The students were grown and they sat quietly and asked questions like they were really interested. It reminded me some of the dinner table talk we had at our house, except no one in the room would disagree with Daddy the way Effie did. It didn’t seem to be much point to talk if all they did was spew back what he said. There was one girl with long blond hair who practically hung on every word he said. After the class, she waited to talk with him. She kept looking at me like she knew who I was.

  “Bekkah, this is Cathi Cummings. She’s a graduate student from Hushpuckena, Mississippi.”

  The way Daddy said it, I knew the word tickled him. He liked the odd Indian names for some of the little towns around the state. When I got up close to the girl, she wasn’t really a girl, she was a woman. Her long blond hair made her look younger from a distance. I knew graduate students were older than regular college students. She dressed older. Instead of the denims that most of the other students wore, she had on a real short skirt and a matching jacket. She looked like she had a job instead of going to school.

  “Cathi graduated from Ole Miss with the highest honors in her journalism class. She worked up in Washington, D.C., at the Post for a few years before she decided to get her master’s.”

  Daddy was looking at Cathi as he talked. It was hard to figure out what he was thinking, but it was easy to see that what he said pleased her. Something about it didn’t sit right with me. It felt almost as if she was trying to crowd into my life.

  “What kind of place is Hushpuckena?” I didn’t want to talk to her, but I had to say something or Daddy would be disappointed with me.

  “Not much bigger than Jexville,” Cathi answered. She had a drawl, but it wasn’t like mine. It was somehow familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Maybe it was just after all of those flat midwestern voices I was glad to hear something I knew.

  “I’ve told Cathi a little about Jexville and the Ollie Stanford trial.”

  Ollie Stanford was the Negro they were holding in the Jexville jail for murder. I hadn’t come all the way to Missouri to talk about the same thing I heard at home all the time. “Are you married?” I asked Cathi Cummings.

  “In fact I am,” she answered with a short laugh. “My husband is not very happy that I’m in school, though.”

  She surprised me. There was a sharpness in her voice that let me know she wasn’t kidding around. She was angry with her husband for being angry at her.

  “Is he a student too?”

  “Not on your life.” She looked at Daddy. “My husband is an editor at the Post in Washington. His career is safely tucked in his pants.”

  Daddy laughed and I didn’t understand exactly what she meant, but it sounded funny so I laughed too.

  “When your father talks about you, Bekkah, it reminds me of my own childhood. I had an older brother who deviled me to pieces, and I found plenty of adventures to get into. Your father says you like horses. Maybe we can go to a stables this week and ride.”

  Cathi had really nice eyes. They were green and they crinkled whenever she smiled. Most of The Judge’s students didn’t even bother to say hi to me. She was working hard to win my approval, but I couldn’t think why.

  “I don’t know,” I answered softly. I had a sudden feeling that Effie would feel doubly betrayed by my riding, especially with this woman.

  Cathi touched my shoulder. “Well, think about it. I promised your father that I would entertain you while he worked. He’s promised to give me an A.” She looked at The Judge and laughed, and he laughed along with her. They were friends, and she did sound like a lot of fun. The temptation to ride was hard to resist.

  “There’s a new woman on Kali Oka Road and she has horses. She wants to give me riding lessons and teach me to jump.” I cut a look at The Judge.

  “Bekkah’s mother is afraid of horses. She thinks Rebekah will get killed. This is a ploy by my daughter to put me in the middle.”

  “Horses are safe, if she learns to ride properly,” Cathi said. “Lessons would be excellent for her, if this woman really knows what she’s doing. Why don’t I take her for a ride or two and see how she does?”

  “Nadine has nine horses,” I added quickly. I was liking Cathi despite myself. “And five dogs and thirteen cats.”

  “Sounds like a humane shelter to me,” Daddy said. “How about some lunch? Cathi, will you join us?”

  I wasn’t certain that I wanted Cathi along, but it was too late to protest. “Is there a McDonald’s here?”

  The golden arches were the biggest craze. Jexville didn’t have one, and probably never would. Mobile had just built one, and in the first few months they’d sold over a million hamburgers. Or at least that’s what the sign by the golden arches said. We didn’t get a chance to go to Mobile often. Effie hated the traffic and Mama Betts said she hadn’t lost anything there. But Arly and I loved it. There were department stores and drive-in burger places and movies and motorcycle shops.

  “There’s a local joint that specializes in malts and burgers,” Cathi said. “It isn’t McDonald’s—”

  “Thank God,” Daddy said under his breath.

  “—but I think you’ll approve. They have the best chocolate malts in the world.”

  “And fries?”

  “The crispiest.” Cathi laughed. “Your father is an old man. He doesn’t remember how important a good burger can be in a girl’s life.”

  We ate the burgers and talked. Cathi told me my father was
a genius, and that the university wanted to hire him full-time. Daddy didn’t say much. He was watching me. I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t help but wonder how Effie would react to this. Cathi and I arranged to go riding the next afternoon when Daddy had a faculty meeting. Cathi had a lot of free time on her hands because she wasn’t working while going to school. Even though her husband didn’t want her there, he’d decided to pay for it.

  Those days in Missouri passed in a blur. Cathi and I rode three times. She was a very good rider, and she taught me a lot. We were becoming friends, but we both held back a little. I wasn’t certain why, and I didn’t give it a tremendous amount of thought. We rode the horses and didn’t push each other.

  Cathi had dinner with us several nights, and we played card games and laughed. She tried very hard to make my stay fun and exciting, but it wound up making me feel like I was a guest. And no matter how much Daddy laughed and joked with us, he was sad. I would catch him staring at me, and it was like he’d said goodbye and was going on a long trip. As soon as he realized I saw him, he smiled and tried to act normal. That only served to frighten me more.

  At the university he seemed happiest. The students there all smiled when they spoke to him. A couple told me he was a wonderful man. They said he was hard and sometimes difficult, but fair. It seemed important for them to tell me.

  I liked the students. They weren’t like any of the high school kids in Chickasaw County. These boys and girls acted like friends. They weren’t sneaking off to hug and kiss and giggle with each other. When they did that stuff Cathi assured me that they hid it pretty well. She said the students were idealistic, but that underneath all of the idealism were the bodies of young people, and they enjoyed hugging and kissing and giggling. She said that one day I’d enjoy it too. When she said it I thought of Jamey Louise and gave a silent prayer that I’d never act so dumb over a boy.

  The last night before I was ready to go, I told Daddy that I had to talk with him. The Redeemers had been heavy on my mind, especially the girl who had fornicated. I’d as much as promised Alice I’d have a solution when I came back, and I hadn’t thought up a thing on my own. Daddy had to be consulted.

  After a supper without Cathi, I went to his study and waited for him. The faculty housing was small but cozy. He had a two-bedroom house with a study and a fireplace. He’d already told me he could get a larger house for very reasonable rent if we should all end up in Missouri. There was a picture of Effie and me and Arly on his desk, and I looked at it while I waited for him. It was Halloween and we were all dressed up. Effie was a really scary-looking witch, and I was a goblin and Arly was Satan. Daddy had said we were the perfect family when he took the photo. He didn’t dress up.

  I was putting the picture back when he walked in the room. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t worry about the family. You know I love all of you more than anything. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep us all together.”

  That scared me more than anything he could have said. I knew he and Effie fought, but I hadn’t realized they’d actually talked about not being together.

  “After this week with you, Bekkah, I couldn’t leave my children. Or my wife.” He smiled. “Your grandmother was very wise to send you.”

  “Arly wanted to come too.”

  “Arly might have made me decide the other way.”

  “Daddy!” I ran into his arms and he held me tight.

  “I love you, baby girl. More than you’ll ever know.”

  I could have stayed in his arms, safe, forever. It didn’t matter that Mama Betts had used me as a tool of blackmail. What mattered was that whatever had gone wrong between Daddy and Mama had been set right.

  “When will you come home?”

  “At the end of summer term. In August.”

  “Summer will be over then.”

  “Maybe we’ll take a trip in the fall. I’ve been thinking about the Grand Canyon. How would you like to see that?” “I’d rather take riding lessons this summer.”

  To my surprise, he laughed. “Your grandmother says that you get that stubbornness from me. I think it comes from your mother’s side of the family. Or maybe it’s just the female nature.”

  “Daddy, Nadine is a wonderful rider. I want to learn, and she’ll teach me for the work I can do. If I don’t do it this summer, school will start and I won’t have time.”

  “I’ll talk with your mother, Rebekah. That’s all I can promise.”

  That was enough, for right now. The Redeemers still had to be dealt with. “Daddy, you know how you told me that when someone is doing something wrong, it’s up to me to address that wrong?”

  “What have you done, Bekkah?”

  “I went down to that church and spied. I went down there last Sunday, and I heard a girl about my age confess to fornicating, and I think they beat her.”

  “Did you see them strike her?”

  “I got scared and ran away, but I heard her scream. And beg. Alice heard her too.”

  “You went to all the trouble to spy and then didn’t see anything?” Daddy could make me feel shame like no one else. Effie and Mama Betts were better at remorse. With Daddy it was total shame.

  “You don’t know how those people are. They beat Greg, the Redeemer boy.”

  “In church? You know this for a fact?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “His parents, I think. It was over his shirt.”

  “The shirt that you took?”

  I looked up at him. He’d been talking to Mama Betts. “That shirt.”

  “What is it you think should be done?”

  “Daddy, those boys said it was the preacher who was touching that girl. They said—” I stopped.

  A terrible look crossed his face. “You’ve been talking about this with those boys?”

  “Good grief, no! I eavesdropped on them.” He must have thought I’d lost my mind talking about fornicating and touching with boys.

  “Bekkah, I’ll talk to your mother about the horses, but I’m telling you, stay away from that church and those people. When I get home, I’ll make it a point to see about them if they haven’t already moved on. They have a right to their beliefs and their privacy, as long as they aren’t hurting anyone.”

  “What about that girl? She might be getting hurt.”

  “I’ll have someone look into it. I promise you. Just stay away.”

  The Judge was mad, but I couldn’t tell if it was at me or at the church people. All I knew was that the subject was closed. He had walked away from me and was staring out the window into the early night.

  “The stars aren’t as bright in Missouri,” he said.

  “There’s more lights around than on Kali Oka Road. You said that lights take away from the splendor of the night sky.”

  “You were only about six when I told you that. You have a very good memory.” He turned back to me and he was smiling.

  “I’m precocious, remember?”

  He laughed out loud. “You’re arrogant.”

  “Mama says I’m just like you.”

  “Your mother is vicious. If she’d put that in print it would be grounds for libel.”

  “She says that you’d never win in that case because truth would be her defense.” We were both laughing. Daddy came to me and hugged me hard. “I don’t want you to go home, Bekkah. Why don’t you stay the rest of the summer with me?”

  “Oh, Daddy. I have to get back to Kali Oka Road.”

  His laugh was sad again. “What is it about that road that the women in my life can’t seem to leave it behind?”

  Fourteen

  MRS. Welford and Jamey Louise met me at the Mobile airport. It was an unpleasant shock to my system to see Jamey Louise waving at me like I was some kin to her. I tried to ignore her, but she squealed and ran out across the tarmac to meet me when I started down the steps of the plane. She reeked of Evening in Paris cologne, and she had on silvery pink lipstick that made her look like she wasn’t getting enough blood to her face. On Jamey
Louise’s insistence, I had to ride in the backseat with her so she could whisper to me all of the things I’d missed in my week away from Kali Oka Road.

  Jamey Louise was delighted to report that Alice had been slapped by her mother Thursday afternoon in the Waltman front yard as the Welfords were driving by. Arly had also been in trouble, something I found not unusual. Jamey Louise didn’t have all the details, but she’d heard he kissed a girl in one of the booths at the Jexville Drugstore. Old Mr. Hartz, the pharmacist, had seen him do it and called Effie. Such public displays weren’t in good taste.

  Someone had given Addy a new kitten, and she was keeping it in her house for fear someone would hurt it. Instead of a gray tabby, it was a marmalade. Carrie’s plums had gone ripe, and everyone on the road had picked at least a bucket for jelly. The Spooners got a new car, a ‘62 Chevy, red with white interior.

  I listened, waiting for a chance to ask where Effie and Mama Betts had gone. I’d looked forward to seeing them at the airport. Truth told, I was sort of homesick to see them. I’d never been away from Effie before. She’d been angry with me when I left. Even though it upset her, she had taken me to the airport and watched with her lips tight as I went through the door that led outside to the plane. In so many words she said I’d betrayed her by going off to Missouri. She made it seem as if I’d chosen travel and seeing Daddy over staying on Kali Oka with her. But even mad, she would have been at the airport to get me. A knot of worry was growing in my stomach. Something bad had happened.

  “Why didn’t Mama and Mama Betts come for me?” I finally got a chance to ask Emily Welford.

  She tried to avoid the question, but Jamey Louise was sitting on ready. “It’s that nigger they’ve got in jail. Someone tried to break in the jail and hang him last night. Your mama’s down there standing vigil.”

  By the way she said it, I could tell that no one in the Welford family appreciated what Effie was doing. Jamey Louise was just spouting off what she’d heard at her dinner table.