Bent Road

Chapter 19

Sitting in Elaine’s lap, Evie wraps herself in a blanket and buries her nose in it. Elaine tightens her hug, kisses the top of top of Evie’s head and says, “You try to sleep, pumpkin. Daddy will tell us when there’s something to know.”

Though she closes her eyes, Evie can’t sleep because everyone’s shoes make an awful noise on the tile floors and the hospital smells make her want to pinch her nose closed. She presses her hands over her ears as more people walk down the hall, their footsteps ringing off the gray block walls and shiny tile floors.

“Mama, you’re here,” Elaine says, lifting Evie and setting her on the ground. “You’re okay.”

Daddy wraps one arm around Mama while reaching out to Evie with the other. They both are as gray as the walls and Daddy looks smaller in the hospital than he does at home. Evie drops her blanket, letting it fall to the ground, and hugs Daddy’s leg.

“I’m just fine,” Mama says, kissing Elaine and Daniel’s cheeks and hugging Evie as she drifts from Daddy’s leg to Mama’s. “Everyone is fine.”

Mama’s eyes are red, like she’s been crying, and her hair is mussed on top. In Detroit, Mama’s hair was never mussed. Every morning before they moved to Kansas, Mama backcombed her hair with a pink long-handled comb and sprayed it twice with hair-spray. She always wore a dress and usually her tan shoes with the two-inch heel that she said were good for walking. She trimmed and buffed her nails every Saturday morning, rubbed petroleum jelly on her elbows every night and plucked the stray hairs that grew between her brows. Seeing Mama now, standing in the gray hallway, Evie thinks she doesn’t do any of those things anymore. She looks sleepy and sad like maybe she’s tired of being a mom in Kansas.

“Was it that curve at the top of Bent Road?” Jonathon asks, stepping up to Daddy and shaking his hand.

Daddy nods. It must have been the same monster that scared Mama off the road on the night they first drove to Grandma Reesa’s house.

“Tricky spot,” Jonathon says. “A little ice, a little wind and those trucks drive awful fast for that narrow road. Sure is a tricky spot.”

“Threw us on the shoulder,” Daddy says, turning again when the double doors at the end of the hallway open. “Shook Ruth up a good bit, but she’s all right.”

The overhead lights make Mama squint. “Doctor says Aunt Ruth bruised a rib or two and her shoulder was pulled out of place.” Mama lifts Evie’s chin. “But the doctor fixed her up. Aunt Ruth and her sweet baby are just fine.”

Mama’s hands are rough and cold. Not liking the feel of it, Evie pulls away. At the same time, Daddy lets go of Mama and marches down the hallway where two men are walking through the double doors. One man, wearing a long, dark coat, walks a few steps behind the other. The other man looks like Uncle Ray, except smaller. Daddy begins to walk faster, his footsteps tap, tap, tapping across the tile floor. The man without the coat stops in the middle of the hallway. He looks up at Daddy and then back at the dark coat man. Daddy walks faster.

“Oh, dear,” Mama says.

Jonathon follows Daddy, and Daniel starts to tag along, but Mama grabs his arm and shakes her head at him. The dark coat man nods at Daddy. They are closer now and Evie knows the other man is Uncle Ray, even if he is smaller, even though he’s shriveled up like someone left him in the drier too long and forgot to press out the wrinkles. Uncle Ray steps away from the dark coat man who Mama calls Father. Yes, it’s Father Flannery all bundled up for the cold. Uncle Ray stumbles. He braces himself against one of the gray walls and points at Daddy. Uncle Ray may have shriveled up, but his voice hasn’t.

“That woman,” Uncle Ray says, pointing at Aunt Ruth’s door. “That woman is none of your business now, Arthur. None of your concern. That’s what you said. Now I’m saying it.”

Daddy holds up two hands and, when Uncle Ray stumbles again, Daddy uses them to catch him.

“There’s a God damned baby in there,” Uncle Ray says, pushing off Daddy and falling on Father Flannery.

Father Flannery shoves Uncle Ray toward the wall and steps back.

“You told him about the baby?” Daddy asks and Father Flannery nods yes as Daddy dances this way and that so Uncle Ray can’t stumble into Aunt Ruth’s room.

Jonathon slips behind Daddy, pulls Aunt Ruth’s door closed and stands in front of it, his arms crossed over his chest and his feet spread wide as if he’s bracing for a big gust of wind.

“I assure you that a man should know about his own child,” Father Flannery says, backing away from Uncle Ray. “I assure you that is true.”

“This was not your business,” Daddy shouts at Father Flannery.

Mama scoots Evie off to stand with Elaine and walks down the hall but Jonathon waves her away. She stops when Daniel walks up to her side. He pats Mama on the shoulder, probably because he saw Jonathon do that and he wants to be grown up like Jonathon, and then he walks toward Daddy and Uncle Ray.

Nobody answers Daddy when he shouts out again wondering who told Father Flannery about Aunt Ruth’s baby. Daddy stops searching for someone to be angry at and turns back to Uncle Ray.

“Go on home,” he says, taking Uncle Ray by the shoulders and pointing him toward the double doors at the end of the hallway. “You go home. Sleep it off. Jonathon’ll drive you.”

“No damn thing to sleep off,” Uncle Ray says, pushing Daddy away. His cloudy eye is white under the bright lights. “I’ve been patient enough with you, Arthur Scott.” He points at Daddy first, swings his arm around, stumbles and points next at Aunt Ruth’s room. “That woman didn’t get nothing wasn’t coming to her. Feeding those Robisons after they aimed their God damned finger at me.”

Uncle Ray sways a few steps and shoves Daddy with both hands. Daddy stumbles backward, trips over Daniel who didn’t listen to Mama when she said to stay put, and falls on his hind end. Daniel falls, too, knocking his head against the gray wall. The crack his head makes when it bounces off the concrete is loud enough that Evie hears it. Mama hears it, too, and she jumps forward. This time Jonathon can’t stop her even though he holds up the same hand that turned her around before. She rushes down the hall to Daniel as Jonathon shoves Uncle Ray away from Aunt Ruth’s door. Daddy stands and tries to catch Uncle Ray as he staggers backward, but he misses and Uncle Ray trips over Mama and Daniel, who is trying to stand. All three fall to the shiny tile floor.

Elaine shouts out but it isn’t loud because she has one hand pressed over her mouth. With the other hand, she tries to cover Evie’s eyes, but Evie can still see. Daniel’s legs are tangled up with Mama and Uncle Ray’s legs. Mama lies flat on her back and Uncle Ray is spread out on top of her, his arms and legs straddling her, his chest pressing down on hers. Their noses would touch if Mama lifted her head an inch. Uncle Ray seems bigger again, lying face to face with Mama. She pulls her chin in tight and rolls her head away. Uncle Ray smiles down at Mama. Evie wishes he would go away. She wishes he were the happy man in her picture. She starts to cry as Daddy reaches into the pile and yanks out Uncle Ray.

“It’s moving day,” Uncle Ray says as Daddy shoves him. “You got no business doing what you’re doing, Arthur Scott.”

Evie chokes on her tears but she can still hear Uncle Ray shout. He doesn’t stop, not even when Father Flannery walks back through the double doors with two more men. Daddy holds up one hand so the three of them stand back and watch.

“You go on home, Ray. Your time with this family is done.”

The two men who came with Father Flannery push open the doors and Uncle Ray walks through, still mumbling. All four disappear.

Celia arches her back so Daniel can slip his arm out from under her but she doesn’t stand. Focusing on a blank spot on the wall, she draws in full, deep breaths until the feel of Ray on top of her, the pressure that he laid down on her, is gone. It must have been her imagination, his hips grinding into her. He didn’t have the time, couldn’t have had the presence of mind, to take the opportunity. But she did feel him, pressed against her upper thigh and into her hipbone. She closes her eyes and hopes she doesn’t cry. Next to her, Daniel sits up. She inhales, two deep breaths, pushes up on her elbows and reaches out to touch the spot where his head hit the wall. He pulls away and stands. At the end of the hallway, the double doors fall shut, swing back and forth and finally hang motionless. Above her, Daniel reaches down, offering a hand. Celia clears her throat, smoothes her hair and the gathered pleats on the front of her skirt and takes Daniel’s help.

Once standing, Celia tugs at her waistline, straightens her collar, and when she looks at Daniel, she realizes she is looking up at him. Surely she has been for quite some time, but suddenly it strikes her how much he’s grown, how close he is to becoming a man, and how, like a man, his ego is bruised. She smiles and reaches for him but he pulls away again and walks down the hall toward Elaine and Evie, where he sits in one of the chairs lined along the hallway and rests his head in his hands.

“My good Lord in heaven,” Reesa says, her voice shattering the silence. Wearing her blue flannel housecoat, a pair of galoshes and the brown hat that she normally saves for Sundays, she shuffles through the doors. “What is going on here?”

“Everyone is fine, Reesa,” Celia says, rubbing her tailbone. “We had a little car accident but everyone is fine.”

“Well, from the sounds of Ray,” Reesa says, motioning toward the closed doors, “things are not fine.”

“Nobody’s worried about Ray right now,” Arthur says, shaking Jonathon’s hand and slapping him on the back. “Ruth is in there.” He nods toward her room. “Doctor checked her out. The baby’s fine. She can come home in the morning.”

“Seems that Ray plans on being the one to take her home. He knows, doesn’t he?” Reesa scans the room before finally resting her eyes on Celia as if she wears the most blame. “He knows about the baby?”

“He does,” Arthur says, pulling a speck of fuzz from Celia’s hair. “You okay?” he asks.

Celia swallows and nods.

Reesa snorts, shaking her head at Celia and scoots Jonathon away from Ruth’s room, sending him back down the hall to stand with Elaine. “Well, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,” Reesa says, taking Jonathon’s position as guard. “I think Ruth should move in with me.”

Arthur wraps one arm around Celia and rubs his forehead with his other hand. “No need for Ruth to move anywhere. She’s fine where she is.”

“Ray is going to come knocking now that he knows about the baby. She needs to live farther away. She needs to move home.”

“Ruth is not living in that house.” Arthur’s voice is calm but his body is rigid, and the arm around Celia’s shoulder is like a clamp.

“Maybe it’s not such a bad idea,” Celia says. “Only because you seem to upset Ray. Maybe he’d be less upset by Ruth living with your mother.”

“And you think we should care about making Ray happy?” Arthur says.

Down the hall, Daniel sits alone, his shoulders slumped, his head in his hands.

Shaking his head at Daniel, Arthur continues. “You think I give two God damned cents about making Ray happy?”

“I think nothing of the sort. But I do know we’re trapped in a terrible place. All of us, but mostly Ruth and her sweet baby. You were the one who said you wanted to keep the peace. I want whatever will keep Ray away from them.”

Celia doesn’t want to say it, or even admit it to herself, but mostly she wants Ruth to move so Ray will never come near her house again. She doesn’t want him near Evie. Doesn’t want him to start thinking that Evie is close enough to Eve, something that he might have thought about Julianne Robison.

“I will keep Ruth and this family safe,” Arthur says to Reesa. “And keeping the peace ended the second he found out about the baby.”

Reesa takes a breath to say something back to Arthur but stops when the door opens behind her. Ruth peeks through the small opening, hiding her body with the door, and motions for Arthur to come inside.

Jonathon stands next to Elaine, one arm wrapped around her waist, the other cocked on his hip as if he is wearing a holster and gun and is ready to draw if Uncle Ray returns. When Dad disappears into Aunt Ruth’s room, Jonathon turns to Daniel.

“You okay, sport?” he says.

Elaine looks at Daniel, too, as if she were Mama and he were Evie.

“I’m fine,” Daniel says and shoves away the hand that Jonathon holds out to him. “I can stand by myself.”

Jonathon steps back. “Suit yourself.”

Daniel stands from his chair and, crossing his arms over his chest, he leans against the wall. Ian says that the morgue is in the basement floor of the hospital and that’s where the police will take Jack Mayer when he and Daniel shoot him dead. He says they’ll take Julianne there, too, if they ever find her. He says that maybe he and Daniel will sneak into the basement morgue to see them both. Next time, Daniel will be ready for Uncle Ray. He is a good shot, a damn good shot, probably even better than Jonathon. Just like he told Mama and Aunt Ruth the night Uncle Ray showed up at the house asking for dessert and a jump start. He could make a real mess of Uncle Ray with Dad’s shotgun. Next time, he’ll damn sure be ready.

Ruth shuffles across the cold tile floor in her paper slippers and crawls into bed, using her good arm to hoist herself. Behind her, Arthur walks into the room and the door falls closed. With her head, she motions toward a wooden chair sitting in the corner of the room. Arthur moves it next to her bed and sits in it backward, straddling it with his legs-the way he sat as a boy. The moonlit room eases the creases around his eyes and because his hair has grown longer, like it was when he was a teenager, he looks younger. Tired, perhaps a little scared, but young again.

“We haven’t talked much since you moved back, just you and me,” Ruth says, wanting to touch Arthur’s hand. “But I’m always around, aren’t I?”

“Glad to have you. You know that.”

“I do.” Ruth rests both hands on Elisabeth and smiles when she feels a familiar flutter. “Do you remember how Eve used to tease you for having so little to say?”

Arthur nods.

“But when you did decide to talk, she always listened. She said you were worth listening to because you made darn sure you had something worth saying before you said it.”

“Be nice if that were true.”

“It is true, Arthur.” Ruth reaches out and rests one hand on his. “I know you’ll take care of us. If you say it, I know it’s worth listening to.”

Arthur drops his head into his folded arms.

“I know it’s true. And I know if you could have saved Eve, you would have.”

For a moment they are silent.

“What happened to Eve was not your fault,” she says. “I know you think it was. I know Father made you think it was. But it wasn’t. You were a boy, Arthur. No more a man than Daniel is now.” Ruth touches Arthur’s cheek and lifts his face. “I listened to you, Arthur. So now you listen to me. There was nothing you could have heard. Nothing you could have seen. It was a terrible thing, but you can’t save her by saving me.”

“I should have moved back home earlier. Shouldn’t have left you alone for so long.”

“All these years, I was afraid that you thought like the others. So many in town believing that Ray hurt Eve all those years ago. Like Floyd. All of them believing I married the man who killed my own sister. But he didn’t, Arthur. I know he didn’t. I promise that I’m certain of that. I hope you never believed like the others.” Ruth lowers her eyes. “I hope that isn’t what kept you away for so long.”

Arthur drops his head, shakes it from side to side and exhales. “You’re too forgiving of me. Far too quick to forgive.”

“We all did the best we could,” Ruth says, lifting Arthur’s chin and smiling down on him. “I’ll tell Floyd everything. I don’t know what Ray was up to that night, I really don’t. But I’ll tell Floyd everything.” She squeezes his hand. “I’d like to stay with your family, if you’ll still have me, if you think it’s best.”

“Good enough,” Arthur says.

She smiles and lays both hands over her stomach. “Her name is Elisabeth.”

Arthur stands and nodding his head, he says, “Elisabeth, it is.”