“No, it ain’t,” she declared.
If Del was a betting man, there was fear in those three little words.
Chapter 30
Rae Lynn
Rae Lynn immediately got back in the truck and watched them in the side-view mirror. Cornelia raised her shoulders in a shrug as if she didn’t know what bothered her. It irritated Rae Lynn more when Del made a similar gesture. Their reactions made her feel like a fool, like she was being hardheaded without good reason. Well, they hadn’t been through what she’d been through either. She averted her gaze while she twisted her hands like she was wringing out a dish rag. Cornelia approached the driver’s side window.
“Can’t we give him a ride for a little ways, Rae Lynn?”
“First it’s just a ride a little ways, and next thing I know, we’re in North Carolina.”
“No, we won’t go that far. Just a few miles. A little thank-you for helping us.”
Rae Lynn thought about it. How would doing that hurt? No telling how long it would take him if he had to walk the entire way.
She didn’t want to seem unreasonable, but then Cornelia went on to say, “North Carolina’s a pretty big state. In my opinion, we could at least find out where his sister lives. Could be it’s all the way to the other end from your house.”
Now they were back to that idea.
Rae Lynn’s voice went sharp. “I said I won’t never going back there, and you know why, Cornelia.”
Del had shouldered his pack as if he knew he’d caused a problem. He was already making his way down the road again. Rae Lynn stared after him, torn between guilt and what she felt was self-preservation.
Cornelia stared after his dwindling figure and said, “I’m sorry. I know you got your reasons.”
She walked around to the passenger side and got in. When they passed him, Cornelia turned around in the seat and gave a sad little wave. If Del responded, Rae Lynn didn’t know. She reckoned she was hardhearted, and pigheaded to boot, and neither would allow her to look at him again. No one talked, and the farther she went, the more Rae Lynn got to feeling like a fool. Grim-faced, she pressed on the gas and created a swirling mass of dust behind them. She checked the side-view mirror. Del Reese was no bigger than a speck. She checked again seconds later, and he was gone from sight. They went for several more minutes before Cornelia ventured to speak.
“Rae Lynn?”
“Don’t say nothing.”
Rae Lynn clenched the wheel, both hands in a white-knuckled grip of tension. Cornelia stared out her window. The only noise was the engine and the wind in their ears. The mood had shifted in the small truck. The farther they went the worse she felt. What she must seem like to him. Ungrateful. Unreasonable. Selfish. Minutes later, Cornelia tried again, persistent.
“Rae Lynn.”
Rae Lynn let off the gas some. “Yeah.”
“He’s helped a lot, you know.”
Rae Lynn huffed and said, “Yeah, I know.”
“He saved you from that torture chamber. Checked on you to make sure you was all right. Stood up to Crow and Otis for the both of us. Gave that nasty Crow a lesson he won’t soon forget. A little ole ride seems like a real small thing to do, considering.”
Rae Lynn slowed some more. She hated how reasonable Cornelia sounded.
“Maybe.”
“We got to think about our own situation here too.”
“I guess.”
“Like you said, you ain’t got a plan, and since we ain’t got nowhere to go . . . I mean, what if it rains? What if we can’t find jobs? What about—”
Rae Lynn cut her off. “I know. I told you when we left it would be hard.”
Cornelia, arms crossed, quit talking and for the first time since knowing her, Rae Lynn thought she might be mad. She stopped the truck. They sat in the middle of the road, engine puttering, staring through the grimy, bug-spattered windshield.
Cornelia turned to Rae Lynn and said, “Why’re you so afraid of going back to North Carolina? What happened to your husband and all, ain’t your fault. You done what you had to, and if no one knows, what does it matter?”
Rae Lynn rubbed her hand across her forehead. Her head was starting to hurt.
She said, “Because someone does know. He saw me right after and has his own ideas about what happened. There I was, holding the pistol. And there was Warren. Twice shot. It didn’t look good.”
She ventured a peek at Cornelia, whose mouth hung open, speechless.
Cornelia said, “Oh.”
Rae Lynn looked away, her voice soft.
“His name’s Butch Crandall. He was a friend of Warren’s. He tried to blackmail me. Said unless I, you know . . . be with him . . .”
Cornelia gasped. “He wanted you to . . . ?”
“Yes.”
Incredulous, Cornelia said, “Why, what kind a friend asks such a thing?”
“He said he’d always cared about me. Sure was a funny way of showing it. He threatened to tell Warren’s son, Eugene, unless I did what he wanted. I was afraid I’d end up in jail. It would’ve been my word against his. It’s why I pretended to be a man, in case they put the law on me. And, well, these camps had places for workers to stay. It seemed like the perfect solution at the time.”
“But, how did you come to know about Swallow Hill?”
“It won’t nothing but chance when I think back on it. Butch told Warren about the turpentine work going on here in Georgia back when we were trying to get our small operation going. With it being so far away, I thought it could be a new start.”
Cornelia said, “It’s a shame he drove you away from your own home. What happened to it, you reckon?”
“I guess it’s Eugene’s. Warren never got around to changing his will after we married.”
Cornelia said, “I declare. Men like that Butch, and believe me, I ought to know, they ain’t nothing but trouble. Still, I’d bet not a soul’s been looking for you like you think.”
Rae Lynn said, “I ain’t taking no chances.”
“I reckon I wouldn’t neither. But now, take Del Reese. He’s different. We owe him. Just take him a little ways.”
Rae Lynn sat thinking and drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. Without a word, she turned the truck around and headed back the way they’d just come. Eventually a figure appeared.
She pointed and said, “Reckon that’s him?”
“Got to be.”
“Don’t say nothing about what I told you.”
Cornelia looked offended. “Of course not. I wouldn’t do that.”
Rae Lynn slowed down as she came close, then stopped.
She tried to smile when she asked him, “Wanna ride?”
He appeared surprised, but he didn’t hesitate. He quickly tossed his things in the back, before he came and stood by her window. He gazed down the road, where waves of heat made the horizon shimmer and dance.
He said, “Awful warm today.”
Rae Lynn said, “Sure is.”
“I ’preciate this.”
She said, “It’s fine.”
At least he didn’t ask why she’d changed her mind.
She said, “Where’s your family’s home?”
“Bladen County.”
Rae Lynn contemplated on what she knew. First, her house in Harnett County was a good hour away from there. Second, they didn’t have any other plans like Cornelia kept reminding her. It was true, if she were on her own, she wouldn’t have come nowhere near North Carolina. She’d have bought newspapers as she came to small towns in Georgia or South Carolina (to her mind, the closest she ought to get), search for jobs, rooms for let. That would have been what she would do, but who was to say she’d have found a thing. Not with the country still deep into this Depression. Well, they didn’t have to stay long, they could leave at any time, and it did solve their immediate problem. She felt their eyes on her, waiting.
“You said your sister would have room?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Rae Lynn detected movement. Cornelia, probably thanking the Lord she’d come to her senses.
Del said, “It’s a big ole farmhouse, got lots a room.”
“Thankee kindly for the offer. We’ll take you up on it.”
He smiled openly at her. “Sudie May will be more than obliging, I’m sure of it.”