Everyone said good night, and from Del, “Hope you can get some rest. You been working hard around here.”
She acknowledged his remark with a nod and went upstairs. To her mind, it got too quiet, as if they were making sure she was out of sight before they discussed her. She readied herself for bed, and once she was in it, she turned one way, then the other, unable to sleep, playing out every what-if scenario she could come up with. It was no surprise she was up before the sun rose, and dressed. She carried her boots in one hand, a piece of paper and a pencil in the other. She carefully navigated the staircase step by step. She wasn’t perfectly quiet, but she was quiet enough. In the kitchen, she scribbled a note.
Be back by noon. Rae Lynn
She propped it on the table, against the little pitcher for cream. Whoever was up first to make coffee, usually Sudie May, would see it. She eased the back door open, stepped outside, and turned the handle to shut it. It was cold enough her breath came in small clouds in front of her face while the moon, a soft golden color, hung low in the sky, like a ripened piece of fruit. She sat on the back steps and pulled on her boots, thinking she’d not dressed warm enough for an hour ride in a less-than-airtight cab. She wore one of the dresses Sudie May said was too small for her. It was long sleeved, and she had on a sweater and now her boots, but she shivered still. It would simply have to do. She moved quickly across the yard, knowing it would be hard to get the truck started without waking the entire household. Plus, they were all early risers.
The truck’s door gave an uncustomary squeal when she opened it. She got in, sat for a second gathering the steps in her head, and began adjusting the gas mixture, the throttle, and luck was with her again as the engine coughed, and caught. She let her foot off the brake enough to allow it to roll backward and clear the tree it was parked under. She gave a quick glance toward the house, checking for any sign of movement. She saw nothing. Soon she was rolling by the now-fallow cornfield, and it was then she flipped on the headlamps. They illuminated the dirt drive and the landscape. It wasn’t until this second that dread began building in her for what she might find.
Chapter 33
Del
He’d had trouble sleeping lately, which meant he was awake and heard someone up just as early as him. He got out of bed, cracked open his door in time to see Rae Lynn, boots in hand, descend the staircase, slow and easy. There was that one squeaky step, and watching her reminded him of how he used to sneak out on Saturday mornings when he was a boy so he could meet his friend, Buddy Blalock. Buddy had lived on the next farm over, and their early morning rendezvouses were usually about fishing or hunting. This could only happen when Pap didn’t need him for turpentining—which wasn’t often.
Del shut his door and hurried to get dressed. He and Rae Lynn could enjoy a cup of coffee together. He hadn’t been around the house much, too busy working to prepare the pines for the next season. It would be nice to talk, just the two of them. She’d been acting quiet the past day or so, like something was on her mind, and he couldn’t help but think of what his sister said. There was another man. He hoped not, but if there was, he needed to know so he could quit thinking like he’d been thinking. He was buttoning his shirt, when he heard a truck starting. He pulled back the curtains and saw her backing up. Grabbing his shoes, he hurried down the stairs. He was about to go out the door when Cornelia appeared in the kitchen, still in her nightgown, yawning. She shuffled over to the stove, while asking him a question.
“Where’re you heading so early?”
He stood at the back door, feeling a bit foolish.
He shoved his hand in his pockets and said, “Did Rae Lynn happen to say she was going anywhere today?”
Cornelia gave him a confused look.
“No. Why?”
“She just left.”
She frowned and said, “Huh. She ain’t said a word. Least not to me.”
“I heard her come downstairs, and thought maybe she and I could have some coffee and talk.”
Cornelia’s mouth bent in a crooked smile, and she said, “Talk? She ain’t much on talking case you hadn’t noticed.”
Del hadn’t shared his thoughts with anyone about Rae Lynn, and fact of the matter was, Cornelia would make a good ally. She might know something that would help him understand Rae Lynn’s caginess about her past.
He said, “I noticed. That’s why I thought it might be good to try. Sudie May thinks the reason she doesn’t appear to know I exist is to do with another man.”
Cornelia raised her chin in a knowing manner and said, “Ah. So you care about her. And?”
“And what?”
“You care about her, but how much? Do you mean as in no matter what?”
He tried to make light of it. “That sounds like a ‘for better or for worse’ sort of question.”
Cornelia said, “Well?”
“What difference does it make how I feel if she’s got someone already? You got any ideas where she’d be going?”
Cornelia went to the table and sat down. She hugged herself, but was quiet.
Del persisted and said, “Whatever is going on, I’d like to know, so I ain’t got my hopes up for nothing.”
“It ain’t up to me to say. It’s her business.” She spotted the note and picked it up. “She left a note. Here, it says, ‘Be back before noon. Rae Lynn.’”
Del saw his future disintegrating. All of his planning, how he’d been thinking for some time now began to collapse, holding up no better than the scrub brush he’d been burning off for weeks now.
“Is it another man?”
“You could say that, but it ain’t like you think.”
“How is it, then?”
Cornelia said, “All I’ll say is, if where she’s going has anything to do with what she’s told me, you might ought to hurry.”
“Is she in trouble?”
“I ain’t sure, but I’m going with you. I reckon I ain’t got time to dress.”
“Not if we want to catch her.”
Cornelia grabbed the pencil Rae Lynn left next to her note and added her and Del’s names below Rae Lynn’s. She gathered her nightgown and housecoat around herself, and they left the house.
They climbed into Amos’s truck, and Del said, “Where would she be going, exactly?”
“Harnett County is all I know.”
On the trip home, he’d noticed Rae Lynn’s driving was sedate. His was not. Cornelia clung to the dash and the door as he pushed Amos’s truck, which vibrated and rattled loud due to the speed, so much so, conversation was impossible. The road was good in spots, bad in others, and the only other traffic they saw was a mule-drawn wagon heading in the other direction. The sun had just broke over the horizon when they spotted another truck just in front of them, maybe a half mile away.
Cornelia said, “That’s her.”
They hung back, and as the sun rose higher, it drenched them in warmth. They went slow, kept their distance. They passed a tiny sign that said HARNETT COUNTY, and the truck in front of them crept along even slower.
Del said, “We might have to pull over and let her get ahead some. Her driving like this, it’s bound to start looking suspicious if we stay behind her and don’t pass.”
Cornelia said, “She’s slowed down ’cause she’s scared, I’d imagine.”
She immediately smacked her hand over her mouth, then lowered it. “I shouldn’t’ve said that, but it’s God’s honest truth.”
“Why would she be scared?”
“I can’t say, but I think we’re gonna find out.”
Maybe Rae Lynn had made a poor choice in a husband like Cornelia. He didn’t want it to be true, to think of someone treating her the way Otis treated his wife. It made him grit his teeth, but worse would be if she was married. After all the women he’d been with, none affected him the way she had. He pulled off on the side of the road, and they sat watching the truck shrink, and shrink, until it was barely a dot.