Cornelia said, “Better go again before we can’t see her no more. She might turn off somewheres, and we wouldn’t know.”
Del got back on the road and drove fast until the truck reappeared as a dot again. He wondered how much longer this would go on and his answer came a few minutes later, when the dot disappeared. He floored it.
“Damn, where’d she go?”
Cornelia was gripping the dash once more and said, “She must’ve turned.”
He hunched over the steering wheel, speeding along, trying to avoid potholes. They came to a dirt road, and ahead, there was nothing, not even a small cloud of dust. She had to have turned here, so he did too, and pressed on the gas again. The road was nothing like what they’d been on. While many were getting better, most were in the shape of the one they were on now, and Amos’s truck shuddered, and bumped, and lurched until Del finally had to let up on the gas before he risked damage to the underside. Cornelia had turned a little green as it was. She leaned forward, hand to her mouth.
He said, “You all right?”
“Don’t pay me no mind. Keep going, don’t lose her.”
I’m trying not to.
Out loud, he said, “I hope this is the right way.”
“Me too.”
There was a curve here and there, and he slowed to a crawl, afraid he’d come around one and there she’d be. The road was lined with pines, and he pointed them out.
“Mostly loblolly and a few pond pines. Ain’t seen not one longleaf.”
Cornelia barely grunted. He looked left and right, and suddenly braked.
“There’s a barn over yonder.”
Cornelia said, “I wonder if we’re on the right track.”
He crept forward and spotted another shape among the tree trunks and brush. He nudged Cornelia’s arm and pointed.
“A house.”
“Sure enough is.”
He stopped and cut the engine off.
“Let’s walk the rest of the way.”
Cornelia nodded, and they got out, leaving the doors open. She cinched the belt on her housecoat tighter.
She grumbled, “Ain’t I a pure d fool traipsing about the countryside in my nightgown and housecoat. No matter at this point, lead the way.”
Del kept close to the edge of the woods, and Cornelia tucked in behind him. After a minute, he stopped and pointed out Rae Lynn’s truck. Where it was parked told him she’d been to this house before. It wasn’t in the drive like she was visiting, it was parked under a pine, near an old chicken coop, and beside the coop was a shed. The cab of the truck was empty. He stared at the narrow house, which to him looked abandoned. There was the front door and on either side of the door, a window. It was a long, narrow house, one Del was familiar with. Shotgun style. There was a wooden planter off to one side where flowers grew, although most had been taken over by weeds. In the quiet, he could hear the pines above his head, a slight wind creating the soft whisper he loved so much.
Suddenly, Rae Lynn came from some area off to the side of the house, beyond where the planter set. She was crying. Not soft crying, but heaving sobs that reached their ears. Both moved forward, wanting to go to her, except a man came out of the house, and Del threw out an arm out to stop Cornelia.
He said, “Damn. Sudie May was right.”
Rae Lynn appeared shocked, as if she hadn’t expected to see him. From his vantage point, Del weighed his adversary while his heart splintered like old wood.
The man called out, “I knew you’d be back.”
Rae Lynn wiped her eyes and said, “What’re you doing here? ”
“Waiting on you.”
Del whispered, “Who’s he?” and Cornelia whispered back, “Ain’t sure.”
The man said, “You’re back on account of me, ain’t you?”
Rae Lynn gestured in the direction where’d she’d come from and said, “I come to make proper arrangements.”
The man came down off the porch, thumbs hooked in his pant pockets. Del didn’t like how he stared at Rae Lynn. It told him they had a past. This man knew her well enough to be acting like he was. He was a fool for having followed her, but he’d wanted to know, and now he did. He and Cornelia should leave, if possible. He glanced around. The woods were thick, and as long as they stayed off the path until they were around the curve, no one would ever know. He pointed back the way they’d come, and Cornelia gave him a questioning look.
He mumbled. “Let’s go,” but she shook her head and held up a finger.
The man came close to Rae Lynn, and Del couldn’t bear to watch. Here it was, the grand homecoming. She’d returned to her life, and to whoever this man was. Whatever their differences, whatever had set her on the run down to Georgia was over now. He had to let her and his dreams go. She was back home, where she belonged.
Rae Lynn yelled, “Butch!”
Cornelia nudged Del’s shoulder. “Law, it’s Butch!”
Del didn’t know who this Butch was, he only saw how he held Rae Lynn, his arms all the way around her, hugging her tight. But, she wasn’t returning his hug. Instead, she struggled, only she might as well have been trying to push a building over for all the good it did her. Del didn’t like that, not one bit. He rushed forward, Cornelia right behind him.
Del called out, “Hey, Rae Lynn!”
The man called Butch immediately released her. She backed away from him and glanced over her shoulder at Del and Cornelia in surprise, and relief. They went to stand by her side. This man was as stunned as she was at their sudden appearance.
He said, “Who the hell are you?”
Del asked Rae Lynn, “You all right?”
Breathless, she said, “I’m fine.”
Butch directed his attention back to Rae Lynn. “Oh. I see how it is. You with him now, is that it?”
Cornelia put a protective arm around her and said, “That’s right.”
Butch tilted his head.
“I wonder when this all come about?”
Del followed Cornelia’s thinking and said, “Does it matter?”
“I bet you ten to one she ain’t told you what happened to her first husband, now has she? Wonder what you’d think about that?”
Cornelia said, “She told me. She told me about you too, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
Butch had the grace to flush red.
Rae Lynn said, “I done explained to you what happened.”
“You should a gone for a doctor. It didn’t never make sense to me why you didn’t.”
“I tried. More than once. He wouldn’t have it. You said so yourself.”
Butch’s eyes roved from her to Del, back to her.
“It’s like this, is it? Poor old Warren’s already forgotten.”
“If that were true, why am I here now?”
Butch ignored that and said, “You living a new life now, with him?”
He jerked his thumb at Del.
Butch didn’t wait on her to answer. “Eugene allowed I could buy the place. Told him I wanted it. When he asked me where you were, I said I didn’t know, and that was the truth. I went and sold everything I had. My house. My land. My hogs. All on account of you. I was gonna give you a way to stay here, in your home. With me. Now don’t this beat all? Here I done give up all I had, been waiting, praying, all this time. And for what? For nuthin ’pears like.”
Rae Lynn said, “That ain’t my fault. I ain’t ever give you reason to think such a thing could happen.”
Butch said, “I could hope, though, couldn’t I? I weren’t gonna say nuthin,’ Rae Lynn. I believed what you told me. I only wanted you to think I didn’t.” He tipped his head at Del. “Does he know? You tell him?”
Rae Lynn said, “Ain’t nothing to tell him.”
He said to Del, “Go on, ask her. Ask her what happened here in this very house.”
Del stared at Rae Lynn, and if he’d never been sure of anything before, he was with what he was about to say.
He said, “Far as I’m concerned, ain’t nothing this woman could ever do that would make me think any different of her than I already do. I seen her in the worst of circumstances. Seen everything I need to see. Know everything I need to know.”