Preacher looked at the others before he slowly stepped forward.
He took his hat off and said, “After y’all took Mr. Ballard to his missus, Crow gathered his men, and all us who worked under Mr. Ballard, had us tell him what he wanted to hear. Said we was having a trial about how that kid didn’t never make his numbers. Said it was time he learned, and if we was to say a word, he’d see to it we’d never talk agin. He done put him in the box.”
As Preacher spoke, Del could see it happening.
His stomach dropped, and with his voice tense, he said, “Three days ago?”
Preacher nodded. “Yessuh.”
Del spun on his heels and ran to Ruby, his quick movements so unlike him, he spooked her and he had to grab her reins before she skirted out of his reach. He got his foot in the stirrup by some miracle as she turned sideways, and heaved himself into the saddle. As he tore down the path, he heard a noise behind him and turned to see Clyde coming at a good pace, with the men and Georgie hanging on in the back of the wagon. Del rode Ruby as fast as he dared, and as he tore through the camp, he spotted Crow near the cooper’s shed. It was the first time he’d laid eyes on him since the night he’d seen what he wished he could forget.
“Damn you!” he shouted as he flew by.
He was now on the other side of the camp and the wooden structure lay straight ahead. Was it his imagination, or did it seem like the rays of the sun only touched it, making it appear as if caught by a blistering sunbeam? He jumped off Ruby, and she trotted over to stand in the shade, her sides heaving. Del ran to the box as the wagon arrived and the men spilled out of the back.
Del knelt by it and hollered, “Cobb! Cobb! Hang on! We’re getting you out! Somebody get me something to get this lock off!”
The men pulled out their bark hacks, and he grabbed one and began pounding on the lock, but it was big, thick, and he succeeded only in nicking the steel. He ruined one hack and grabbed for another. Clyde and the work hands gathered around him. Preacher began praying, and the men joined in. As their voices rose and fell with fervor and passion, off in the distance came pounding of horse hooves. Del knew who was coming.
Clyde said, “There’s Crow. He’ll have the key.”
Del’s insides burned with a rage as furious as the sun scorching his back. Crow thundered into the area, scattering a few men at the back, got off of his horse, and sauntered over. Del continued pounding on the lock.
Crow said, “I was coming to see if he was done baking.”
It was all Del could do not to jump on the man. The men around him continued chanting Scripture, and their voices echoed throughout the woods. Crow stared at them in disgust.
“Ain’t this something. The lot of you praying and carrying on like saints. Shut up with that racket.”
Del stood and, with gritted teeth, said, “Get him out. Now.”
Crow grinned and sauntered back over to his horse to rummage around in the saddlebag.
“Now, I know it’s got to be in here somewheres.”
Del said, “Hurry it up, for God’s sake!”
Crow stopped his hunt through the saddlebag. He patted his shirt pockets and pulled out the key.
“Aha! Now, that’s what I call a miracle, ain’t it? Looks like them prayers worked after all.”
Del held himself in check. It took all he had to control himself and not jerk it from his fingers. Crow moseyed over to the box and dropped to his knees. He knocked on the lid.
“Hello?”
He raised his hands up as if to say, Oh well.
Del said, “Get on with it!” and stepped closer.
Crow stuck the key in the lock and grinned over his shoulder at the group of men who dared to still whisper prayers, while Del paced, clenching and unclenching his fists. Finally came a tiny click, and Crow raised the lid. There was a collective drawing in of a breath as he peered inside. He stood up quick, stumbled backward, tripped over a root, and fell on his rear. His reaction disturbed the stillness holding the group in check. They broke loose, some yelling and running for the large pines, eager to put something between them and what the dreadful box held. Anybody who’d left the Earth in such an awful way was likely to have suffered mightily and might now be a haint who could come back to haunt them.
Crow lurched to his feet, backed away, his hand rubbing his chin like he couldn’t quite figure what he’d seen. For once, he was tongue-tied, no words, no smart remarks. Del peeked in at the form. Everything had gone still, even the birds in the trees. Preacher raised his voice, as if yelling at the heavens, lending an eerie tone to what they were experiencing.
“‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you!’”
Del stared at this person called Ray Cobb and felt like someone had dumped a bucket of water over his head. He squatted down, reached inside to touch him, and the men, all of them, those behind the trees and those who’d not moved, waited and whispered in fear. Del’s thoughts were hectic as he dealt with the truth. This was no man. This was some poor young woman, no mistaking it. What in the hell had she been thinking? Why would she do such a thing?
Del turned and nailed Crow with an unforgiving look. “This here’s a young gal.”
Voices started into a low hum that rose as everyone mulled over the information.
“He ain’t no man?”
“A woman?”
Del rose to his feet, angry as he’d ever been. Crow adjusted his horse’s halter, brushed his hands down his pants, looked at a tree as if there was something interesting about it. Acted dumb.
Del said, “You’re a damn fool.”
Crow spat out an answer. “How the hell was I supposed to know? Didn’t nobody. Not even you.”
Del said, “Man, woman. Colored, white. You go too far. You always go too far.”
“Yeah. Like you been around all that long. Hell. It ain’t up to you, now is it?”
“We’ll see about that. We’ll see what Peewee’s got to say. I hope he throws you outta here. Better yet. Maybe you ought to spend some time in there yourself. You done killed an innocent young woman.”
Del jabbed his finger at the box and in that instant, a horrible croupy noise rose from within. The workers heard it and this time, they all fled, certain that Cobb, who wasn’t Cobb, but a woman, had, by some strange happening, been raised from the dead. They scattered through the trees helter-skelter.
Crow came to life, jumped on his horse, yelling, “Git back here! Don’t think you’re gonna run off! I’ll whip the black off’n your hides! Damn!”
Del couldn’t worry about the men right now. He held his breath against the stench as he put one arm under the woman’s shoulders and under her knees before lifting her out. She didn’t weigh much more than a sack of potatoes. Her coloring was awful, somewhere between ghastly white and splotchy, as if her blood was having trouble circulating. Her breathing was sporadic, and when it came, it rattled loudly in an alarming fashion. To those who’d stayed, Clyde and Preacher, it was obvious how Del had made his determination of her gender. A large, dark burgundy stain in the crotch of her overalls clearly signified she was someone other than who they thought. They averted their eyes as Del went to the back of the wagon and laid her down. He climbed into it and pulled her up so her head rested on his lap.
He said, “Preacher, will you take Ruby to the barn, feed her good, and give her plenty a water.”
Preacher said, “Yessuh, ain’t no problem.”
Clyde waited, sitting in the front, and Del said, “Let’s get her to the Riddles, see what Miss Cornelia can do, if anything.”
Clyde clucked at the mule to get him going.
Del said, “Hurry.”
On his way he watched as the men who’d scattered came out of the woods and started for home.