The Saints of Swallow Hill(80)

Peewee nodded. “Now there’s a purty area.”

The thought had come out of the blue when Peewee started talking about leaving Swallow Hill. What was holding him here? Nothing, except what he owed, really. He’d like to think Rae Lynn could be in his future, but she’d given him little, if any, hope. If she was interested, she’d have let him know by now. He might not have his full capabilities as a man, but he could still read women, and she’d indicated zero interest. The more he thought about it, the more anxious he was to be on his way.

He said, “I got a sister, and she’s got a husband. As time goes on, this Depression don’t seem to be getting any better. I’m gonna go and see if I can’t help them out in some way.”

Peewee said, “Times like this is when we need to be near family.”

When they were back in the camp, Del said, “I reckon we ought to go check on how the women are.”

Peewee nodded, and they made their way onto the Riddles’ porch.

He peered through the screen door and shouted, “Hello?”

Otis came stomping into view, pointed at him, and yelled, “That damn woman you hired! Or man! Whatever she is!”

Peewee ignored that and said, “We came to check on them. How is Cornelia?”

“My wife’s ruint!”

The men entered the house and followed Otis to the kitchen. Cornelia sat at the table, a basin of water nearby, a jar of Vaseline, and a mirror. She cried softly while trying to delicately pick at the tar on her right cheekbone. At the sight of the men, she stopped and sat with her head bent, hands in her lap, like she was ashamed. Her dark hair blended with the black goo on her head. Half her scalp was covered, the other half fairly clean with only a few small clumps of tar here and there.

Del glanced about, and Otis said, “I know who you’re lookin’ for and she ain’t here. I told her to get the hell out.”

Cornelia said, “You had no call! She ain’t done nothing.”

“Nothing! You call what I seen her doing to you nothing? Shameful!”

Del said, “Where’d she go?”

Otis jutted out his jaw and said, “I don’t give a damn where she goes, long as she ain’t in my house.”

Cornelia said, “Well, I do.”

“Only thing you need to care about is acting right, behaving proper.”

Peewee said, “Now, now. That ain’t called for.”

Del spoke to Cornelia. “Did she say where she was going?”

After Otis’s comment, Cornelia’s spirited moment passed, yet she managed to give Del a look that made him think she knew. Otis scowled at her, as if he was replaying in his mind what he’d seen between her and Rae Lynn. Del shifted his attention to Cornelia.

“I came to see how you were, and to wish you the best.”

Cornelia sat up. “You leaving?”

Del said, “Soon as I can.”

Otis said, “You can’t leave. Not when you owe money.”

Peewee said, “He owes nothing. My company’s gonna take care of it. Matter a fact, if Miss Cobb owes anything, we’re gonna take care of that too.”

Astounded, Del said, “You ain’t got to do that, it ain’t necessary,” but Peewee waved him off.

Otis’s mouth opened and shut several times, speechless, while Cornelia looked like a woman who’d lost everything. Del couldn’t fathom why she’d stay with a man like him, and without thinking of the consequences, he made a suggestion.

“You could leave too, you know.”

Cornelia regarded him carefully, like she’d never had the thought before.

Otis sputtered, outraged. “What the hell? She ain’t going no damn where!”

Del squatted by her chair.

“All you got to do is go into Valdosta, catch the train. I’d help see to it you got on it. Seeing as how my obligation here has been met, thanks to Peewee’s generosity, I’m leaving as soon as possible.”

He could see the temptation was there. She was thinking about it. Otis maneuvered himself between her and Del, his hands clenched, like he would hit him, and Del stood up.

Otis said, “Her place is here, with me!”

Del ignored him and stared at Cornelia. Her life with Otis was captured in her eyes, a cesspool of turmoil, and submission, but mostly fear. Voice flat, without hope, she repeated what Otis said.

“I belong here with my husband. Besides, I ain’t got nowhere else to go.”

Once she said that, Otis was smug and self-righteous.

“She knows she’s lucky. Especially now.”

She stood and said, “Let me get you a few things to take.”

Del had to let it go. If she wouldn’t leave, he couldn’t make her. She couldn’t say much nohow, or she’d pay for it later.

Otis said, “Huh? You ain’t giving him nothing!”

Del said, “Ma’am, I ain’t wanting to cause you any more trouble.”

Cornelia ignored Otis, and said to Del, “It ain’t no trouble atall.”

Del was of a mind Cornelia was perhaps the strongest of them all, living as long as she had with a cruel, pigheaded man like Otis Riddle. He went outside to wait, and not too soon after, Peewee came out too.

He looked back at the house and said, “It was a mighty fine thing for you to offer to help her. She’s too scared, though.”