Doesn’t that mean you can leave on your own? Eddie wanted to know. And come here?
No, no, I have to stay, she said, in a tone that sounded as if she meant to reassure him of something she refused to give life to in words. She laughed. And I don’t think Bethella will have me anyway, she said. Hammer and a few others are going tonight, they found enough money for a bus ticket somewhere. Michelle we don’t know what happened to, but she did what she wanted, and I hope she made it. You really should come back, honey.
Ma, what happened to my hands?
The line went silent. Eddie, I know you know what happened, Darlene finally managed.
I meant where are they. ’Cause I never saw them again.
I don’t think you want an answer to that. You’re just trying to hurt your mother, Darlene said. And maybe your mother deserves it. The silence returned for several moments, then she said, TT. We stopped to smoke somewhere and I think TT put the bag down, and by the time anybody realized—we had to move fast, sweetheart. Is that good enough? Mama fucked up again. But now she’s trying to make things right. It’s much different here, everything’s different now.
Eddie nearly walked away from the phone at that point, disgusted by the thought of the fate of his appendages, but the image of Sextus and his fake bashful laugh came to mind, as well as the corruption his expressions concealed so badly. Eddie could not believe that things had changed so drastically so soon, and he vowed never to return to Delicious regardless. Had the Fusiliers put his mother up to making this call in order to get him to go back, to entrap him and prevent him from exposing them? It made sense that they might try, given his mother’s habit for crack, for Sextus, or for some twisted combination of the two.
Eddie promised himself that he’d get the Subaru back to Jarvis, who would write something in the newspaper that would tell the world what Delicious had done to him and to Sirius and the others, and they would pull his mother out of there even if it was against her will and figure out what had made her go from talking about Delicious as a nightmare to considering it a dream palace in so short a time. Had she ever truly wanted to leave in the first place? Maybe, it dawned on him, she had been pretending to want to leave solely to placate him.
Saying nothing further, Eddie dropped Bethella’s phone onto its cradle with his mouth. But afterward, amid a rising sense of dread, a suspicion that much more had gone wrong than his mother was at liberty to describe, a worry lingered that someone, possibly Sextus or Elmunda, or more likely How or Jackie, might’ve been standing right next to Darlene with some sharp weapon up to her neck. Perhaps Sextus had such a horrifically strong need to get Eddie back to Delicious and to maintain secrecy that they would kill his mother if he didn’t return. A wave of nausea crested in his stomach and chest, and he felt a violent disorientation, as if he were an hourglass right at the moment when somebody flipped it over.
Eddie called Darlene nearly every day after that in an attempt to convince her to leave the farm. Her refusal to allow him to rescue her became deeply frustrating. Had he stayed closer to Louisiana, he might have effected a forced rescue, despite how badly the first had gone. Eventually Darlene refused to speak about leaving Delicious unless he considered coming back. When he rebuffed her, needling her instead, she hung up on him, then stopped answering the phone entirely. Her actions aggrieved Eddie, and with reassurance from Bethella that Darlene was irredeemable, he eventually gave up.
Around that time, a few months after Eddie had left the farm, Jarvis finally tracked him down.
How did you find me? Eddie asked.
Jarvis explained that the St. Cloud DMV had contacted him about a parking ticket, which had provided the first hint. From the ticket I figured you’d run off to St. Cloud. I looked up repairmen and asked around. That’s what reporters do.
I reckon you want your car back.
This is true, Jarvis said, and then he volunteered to come get the car provided Eddie would talk to him about what had gone on at Delicious. He could get the paper to pay for part of the trip and the rest he could deduct from his taxes.
I can’t, Eddie said. I don’t want anything to happen to my mom. She’s still there.
Still there? That’s great! I mean, not great, but what a story.
They spoke further, and ultimately Jarvis told Eddie that he should keep the car for a while. Most of the people I need to talk to are down here in the vicinity of Louisiana, he said. I can use my girlfriend’s car. I’ll pay the ticket.