She walked a few steps closer and got a good glimpse of the man. It certainly wasn’t Brody. But who else would be out here? She walked a few steps in reverse but then the man called out.
“Why don’t you stay right where you are, Mary Lou?”
“Pardon me?” she asked, certain she had not heard him clearly.
“I said, I think you need to stay right there so we can have a talk,” the man said quietly. He took a few more steps forward and Lou caught the scent of cherry cigar on the breeze as he lifted it to his lips. The face looked vaguely familiar.
Ball cap. Five o’clock shadow. The temp who had helped to put up hay. Wes? Lou’s thoughts dashed in mad abandon like ping pong balls set loose inside her head. She tried to grab each one as it bounced around but had no luck. He had just called her by her given name.
“Do I know you?” she asked tentatively.
“No. But you know my boss. Or at least he knew your mother. He was real sorry to hear about her passing.” He took a draw on the cigar.
“What are you talking about?” Lou asked defensively.
He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and threw it at her. She caught it against her chest and opened it with shaky fingers. Photos fell out that Lou had never seen. They showed her mother, standing in front of their trailer. Her mother at work. Lou together with her mother, sitting at the kitchen table. Lou gasped as she looked through them all.
“Where did you get these?” she asked, her voice hoarse with emotion.
“We have sources,” he replied.
“What do you want?” she asked, putting the pictures back in the envelope.
“Your mother stole something from my boss. He thinks you have it and he wants it back. I’m here to collect.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I left with nothing the night my mother died,” Lou’s voice shook with the memory.
“ I know you’re lying. You left with one thing. He’s sure of it. You were seen with a black bag as you ran through the woods. This bag just happened to contain something that was precious to my boss. He wants itback.”
Lou’s heart skipped a beat. She held out the pictures. “I can’t help you,” she stated.
“I think you can.” His face took on an even more menacing look. “I think you will.”
“Or what?” Lou asked.
“Or you‘ll be sorry.” He nodded his head toward the house. “And so will they.”
“And if I refuse?” She thought long and hard for a moment. “I would be willing to pay whatever it’s worth to you.”
“Refusal is not an option. But we could discuss compensation.”
“If you touch my daughter…” Lou started.
“She’s safe for now but you need to take this seriously.” The man stopped and turned his head, listening to something in the distance. Lou could hear footfalls behind them. “I’ll be back. I’m watching you, so don’t try to run away again.” He walked into the woods that lined the jogging path and disappeared. Lou tucked the packet of photos into the back of her shorts and covered it with her shirt.
Brody came over the hill just at that moment, a big smile on his face as he saw Lou standing in his path. “You didn’t have to wait for me. I could have caught up,” he said smiling, already winded. “I saw you as you were leaving, but I was running late. I couldn’t catch you before you left the yard.”
“Well, you got me now,” she responded sarcastically, her heart still thudding wildly in her chest from the encounter.
“What’s wrong?” he asked cautiously. “You’re not mad at me about last night, are you?”
“Last night?” Lou searched her mind. “Oh, that. No. I’m not mad about that.”
“Well, are you ready to run?” he asked.
“What? Yeah. Sure. I guess,” she replied absently.
“You sure there’s nothing wrong, Lou?”
“Yeah. Positive.” She turned and started to jog slowly, picking up the pace as she went. She felt like the run would never end. She needed to get back to the house so she could look through the photos. Lou had not seen her mother’s face in seven years and had nearly forgotten what she looked like.
They finally rounded the last turn and Lou dropped to a slower pace. Brody broke in to her thoughts. “You’re awfully quiet. Sure you’re not mad at me?”
“No. I’m not mad at you.” She managed a fake smile.
“Boy, you look sincere,” he mumbled.
Lou didn’t stop to stretch but walked right into the house and up the stairs to her room.
Jeb looked at him. “What did you do to her now?”
“Hell if I know,” Brody replied.
****
Lou closed her bedroom door behind her with a resounding thud. She took the envelope from the back of her shorts with trembling fingers. She opened the envelope and dumped the pictures onto the bed. Emotions overwhelmed her as she looked through the photos. These were from a different time, a different place. They depicted a sullen girl who no longer existed. Lou was no longer a teenager, no longer a kid. She was a mother. A good employee. A part of a family.
Oh, God, a family! The pictures showed her old family. They showed her mother, heavily made up, big hair, smoking a cigarette. In some of the photos, she was in various stages of undress as she worked at the strip club. They showed her wearing tiny shorts and tube tops sitting on the steps of the trailer because there was no air-conditioning inside.
Then Lou thought about the family she had now. Sadie was like a mother to her and Jeb was the father she never had. Having him around, she felt safe during waking hours, like she was never alone. She had Mrs. Wester, who had financed her education and given her a job and a home. She had John, who was like a playful younger brother, and she had Sarah. Sarah was the only thing she took with her the night her mother died.
Now, someone wanted her? Who? Why? What am I going to do? She touched the photos that showed her past. And then thought about her future. The two didn’t meet anywhere in the middle. How long could she run from the past before she got too tired to enjoy her future?
Lou gathered the photos together and glanced at them one more time. She placed them back in the envelope and slid it between her mattress and box spring. She went downstairs to join the family in the kitchen.
****
“Did you tell her I want it back?”
“Yeah, Boss. I told her.”
“What was her response?”
“She swears she doesn’t have it,” Wesley responded quietly.
“Doesn’t have it?” His boss exploded. His fist hit the desktop and glasses rattled. Pens danced and rolled off the table. “Of course, she has it! If that little bitch thinks she’s going to use it against me, she has another think coming.”
“I don’t think it will come to that,” Wesley stuttered. “I’m going to give her a couple of days and go back to see her again.”
The boss said quietly, “She’ll be sorry she ever ran from me. Just as sorry as her mother was.” His meaty fist hit the table again.
Chapter Twelve
Brody spent his Saturday with his mother, reading to her and watching her sleep. She continued to go downhill and was sleeping more and more. After dinner, Lou and Sarah knocked softly on the door. Lou poked her head around the corner. “Knock, knock,” she whispered, peering in at the hospital bed.
Brody touched Mrs. Wester gently on the arm. “Mom, you have company,” he said quietly. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled warmly at Lou and Sarah.
“Look who’s here,” she said. “Two of my favorite people.” She took Lou’s hand in her own. Sarah leaned over the side of the bed and presented her with a new card to add to her collection. Mrs. Wester managed a weak smile in return.
With the innocence of youth, Sarah started telling Mrs. Wester about her day and about Girl Scouts. She finally began to tell Mrs. Wester about the upcoming Father-Daughter dance at school. She told Mrs. WesterJohn was going to be her pretend Daddy f
or the night because he wanted to go and eat cake. Since he didn’t have a daughter, he couldn’t go unless she took him.
Lou cut her off when she heard the comments. She brushed Sarah’s hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “You know what, sweetheart? John is not going to be able to take you because of his broken ankle. He can’t even walk well with those crutches, much less dance.”
Sarah immediately pouted up and tears filled her eyes. Mrs. Wester reached for Brody’s hand and said, “Will you take her for me, Brody?”
“Me? Mom…I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
Lou broke in as well, shaking her head. “We wouldn’t want to impose.” Her eyes met Brody’s with a look of apology.
Mrs. Wester lifted her eyes. “Broden, will you take her for me?”
“When is it?” Brody grumbled.
“In a couple of weeks. But really. It’s not necessary.”
“I’ll do it.” He looked Lou in the eye with a resolved look, winked at Sarah, and turned to his mother. “Does it make you happy?” He smiled into her eyes with the question on his face.
“You’ve always made me happy, son.” She patted his hand absently. “Now, you’ll make Sarah happy, too, which directly affects me as well.”
“It does, does it?”
“Yes. It does.”
Brody and Lou stood in the kitchen later that evening. Brody reached for a beer and popped the top.
“You really don’t have to do it. I don’t know why your mom put you on the spot like that but we won’t hold you to it.”
“Lou, I’m going to take her. I don’t know much about kids but I think I can pull this off.”
“Brody…”
“Lou!” he interjected. “Would you shut up and let me take her, please? I just promised my dying mother I would do something, and you’re damned well going to let me do it.”
Lou’s lips compressed into a thin line. “If you say so.”
“I say so,” was his response as he took a swig from his beer bottle.
He pointed to his beer. “Want one?”
“No, thanks. I don’t drink.”
“Lou, you need to learn to let your hair down a little.” He stepped over close to her and said softly. “You don’t drink. You don’t smoke. You don’t have sex.” She gasped. “Sorry,” he continued with a casual shrug of his shoulders. “But it’s true. You have to start living your life and stop trying to unlive hers.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Sure you are and you do it so well.” He placed an arm around her shoulders and led her outside. As they walked through the door, he whispered in her ear, “Stop pouting.” She elbowed him in the ribs in response. He grunted loudly and laughed.
“What’s so funny, boy?” Jeb asked, looking up from his game of checkers with John. They could barely see the game under the porch light.
“Lou packs one hell of a punch, Jeb.” He rubbed his side as he sank down into a chair. Lou perched herself on the porch rail and hooked her feet through the slats. The moon was high in the sky so Sarah was already in bed. The crickets chirped a quiet song and the horses could be heard talking to one another in the distance.
“God, I love it out here.” Brody broke the silence.
Sadie smiled and patted his arm. “Then maybe you’d like to stay for a while. We sure have missed you.”
“Sooner or later, Sadie, I have to get back to the real world.”
“It doesn’t get any more real than this,” Lou stated, her head flung back, wind blowing her hair gently.
“Maybe not for you, but I have to get back to the hustle and bustle of the hospital, the bright lights and the commotion.”
“You can’t tell me that’s what you really prefer,” Lou replied skeptically.
“No. I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you I get to practice medicine in the city which does make it worthwhile.”
The other adults were silent for a few moments. Jeb groaned as he got up and walked into the house. When he returned, he was carrying an old guitar which he handed to Brody.
Brody sat up instantly and reached for it. “Oh, my God. I have not seen this old thing in years. I can’t believe she kept it all this time.”
“She could never part with it, Brody, because she knew it meant a lot to you.”
Brody caressed the dark wood like it was an old lover who had been absent too long.
“Think you can still carry a tune on that thing, Brody?” Jeb challenged.
“To be quite honest, Jeb, I’m not sure. But I’ll give it a shot.”
He spent a moment tuning the guitar and then started to play hesitantly. Lou quickly picked up the tune in her head. Sadie began to sing The Old Rugged Cross. Her deep, soulful sound flooded the porch and Lou smiled as she watched. When the song was over, everyone clapped and Sadie took a small bow.
“Let’s try another,” Brody said as he started the chorus of I’ll Fly Away. Jeb sang along with Sadie on this one.
Brody laid the guitar beside his chair and Lou asked, “Where did you learn to play the choir music?”
“At Sadie’s knee. Where else? She had me playing the guitar in church before I could even date girls. Or was even interested in girls.” He chuckled loudly.
Jeb looked startled. “I didn’t think there was a time when you didn’t show an interest in girls, Brody.”
“You might just be right, Jeb.” Brody laughed. “You might just be right.”
“I think that’s enough for me for tonight,” Jeb said as he jumped John’s last checker. He and Sadie stood up. “Tomorrow comes awfully early.”
“Sure beats the alternative, huh, Jeb?”.
“You got that right, boy. Y’all sleep tight, now.”
Jeb pointed to John. “You come on along, too, Hopalong. I would hate for you to break something else hopping around out here in the dark.”
John maneuvered himself on crutches through the door, leaving Brody and Lou alone.
She slid down from the porch rail. “I had better get to bed, too.”
“Oh, sit down and stay while. I promise I won’t bite.”
“It’s not you biting me that I worry about, Brody,” she mumbled in his direction.
He smiled innocently and picked up his guitar. He strummed a few notes. Lou quickly picked up the tune of Brown Eyed Girl and colored slightly. Brody looked through lowered lashes at her.
“You need to stop,” she mumbled.
“Stop what?” he asked playfully.
“Stop looking at me like you are going to eat me.” Her face turned red when realized what she’d said.
Brody laughed loudly. Lou couldn’t figure out what to do with her hands. She reached for Brody’s beer bottle and cupped it loosely, resting it on her knee. His left eyebrow rose and his smile issued a challenge.
“Living dangerously tonight, Lou?” Brody asked quietly.
She lifted the bottle to her lips. His heart sped up as she realized her lips were where his had just been. But then she grimaced slightly and frowned. “Oh, God. That’s awful.”
“Try it again. You might be surprised.”
Lou frowned but lifted the bottle to her lips and drank more. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Nope. Still terrible. How do you drink that stuff?”
“Let me see it.” He took the bottle from her outstretched hand and raised it to his own lips. Warm beer sloshed into his mouth. “No wonder, Lou. It’s hot. That’s a lot like drinking warm piss. Hang on and I’ll get some cold ones.” He rose from his chair despite her protests.
“No, Brody. Really. I need to get to bed, anyway.”
He was already returning from the kitchen. “Nuh uh, Lou,” he walked back through the screen door. “Your first taste of beer will not be spoiled by warmth.” He held out a frosty bottle that had steam floating from the open neck. She took it cautiously and raised it to her lips.
She took a full swallow, then hel
d the bottle up, looked at it, and said, “Not nearly as bad as the warm piss.”