The River Widow(15)

Buck’s glare remained fastened on Daisy. “What’d I hear you say, girl?”

Daisy peered up at Buck. “I didn’t say nothing.”

“Exactly. But now that you’re living in this house, you better start saying ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir.’” His gruff tone and the rising color in his cheeks held everyone still.

“Eat what you can,” Mabel whispered.

“Yes, sir,” said Daisy to her grandmother, but no one laughed. She turned her face to Adah’s. “Do I have to eat it, Mama?”

Before Adah could decide how to answer, Buck nearly yelled, “Listen here, girl. You don’t need to ask Adah there nothing. This is the damned hard truth, and you best hear about it now. She ain’t your mama, and your daddy’s dead.”

His color had reddened, but he remained still and in command—the captain of his ship, despite it all. He motioned with a butter knife to himself, Mabel, and Jesse. “The three of us—this here’s your family now.”





Chapter Six

The high-water level in Paducah wasn’t reached until February 2, the river eight miles wide at that point. Seven-eighths of the town was underwater, as were cities and towns all along the Ohio, including Cincinnati and Louisville. Now Paducah was a ghost town of foul water, broken-windowed buildings, submerged cars and trucks, and floating trash.

Adah’s life among the Branches was just as desolate.

While the nearby town festered, the Branch men had to keep working, focused on the new year’s crop, while Adah concentrated on appearing helpful with the farmwork. The seedbeds were prepared by burning brush, wood, and bark, which provided ash—a good supplement for tobacco seedlings—then tilling and fertilizing the beds. The main fields had to be broken up, disked, and furrowed.

Buck said to Jesse one night over supper, “We’re gonna have us a tractor this year. Oughta be coming any day now.”

Jesse quirked an eyebrow. “How’d you manage that?”

Buck waved his fork in the air and, still chewing, said out of the corner of his mouth, “That Harper boy sells John Deere tractors now, and ever since last harvest he’s been at me to buy one of those new ones with rubber tires and a diesel engine.” Buck’s face twisted into an ugly smile; then he chuckled and wiped grease from his mouth. “I told him I wasn’t buying anything I hadn’t tried out yet, said I wanted one on approval. But he goes and says the company don’t do that, so I said fine, no deal, then. Damn fool said he’s so convinced I’ll want the thing, he’d go ahead and buy the tractor himself and let me use it and then pay him once I’ve ‘fallen in love’ with it or some such hogwash.”

“You gotta be kidding,” Jesse said. “He went ahead and bought it?”

“Yep, he thinks I’ll be convinced to buy it from him. But I never had no wanting of buying a tractor, ’specially when I can hire help for nothin’. Boy’s gonna end up with a tractor he don’t need.”

Jesse gave off a snort. “A used one at that.”

“Yep,” Buck said with a sly smile. “He’s got no use for a tractor; he lives in town. Right smart little house he has with his whore of a wife. Too bad it’s probably ruint now, like so many others.”

Shocked, Adah had stopped eating. With so much suffering and loss around, Buck was trying to take advantage of people’s goodwill.

Mabel appeared to be astonished, too. “He’ll tell people what you done.”

Adah had a difficult time believing that even Mabel could think the family was held in the slightest bit of high esteem by others. She obviously had no ability to read people.

Buck harrumphed. “Like hell he will. He’d be admitting to being duped. Mark my word, he won’t say a damn thing about it.”

Adah’s words slipped out before she could stifle them. “Why would you want to do that to someone?”

Buck pointed his fork at her. “None of your business, now, is it?” Then he dropped the fork and dug his hands into the ribs and tore meat off with his teeth, juices sliding down his chin. A moment or so later, he dropped the rib, cleaned down to the shiny bone. “Come to think of it,” he said, gazing across the table at Adah, “you might as well know: me and that boy’s father go way back. Let’s just say we once had a major disagreement.”

Adah’s back went rigid. Buck had no reason to give her this explanation unless it was meant to serve as a warning, making it clear that he could hold a grudge forever. Was it meant to scare her? And still she couldn’t stop herself. “But that was his father.”

His face hardened as they both stared at each other. “Don’t matter. All them Harpers think they’re better than everyone else ’round here. Truth be told, I never cared none about any of that bunch. Bad pennies, all of them. But they go prancing around like they’re all shiny and clean.”

“What have they done?”

“The old man’s a banker. Ain’t that enough?”

“I still don’t see what this has to do with his son,” she said. “He’ll probably lose his job.”

“Am I supposed to care?” Buck sat back, patting his belly. “If he’s fool enough to fall for the deal I made, he deserves to lose his job.” He looked over at Jesse, wearing that ugly smile again. “In the meantime, we’re gonna have to learn us how to drive a brand-new tractor.”