She didn’t have an answer.
“I’ll be right back,” he said and he went down the stairs and to the house and Consuela met him halfway across the yard with a stack of towels and sheets and a bar of soap and shampoo. His dad remained in his chair on the porch and he watched Russell without expression. Russell returned to the room and the child was standing with her back against the air conditioner and it blew her hair across her face. Maben was sitting on the edge of the bed taking the clothes from the duffel bag and then she took out the pistol and she placed it on the mattress. Russell set the things on the bed next to her and he asked them if they wanted something to eat.
“I do,” the child said.
“I guess I do, too,” Maben said.
Russell returned to the house and he asked his father what they had to eat. Mitchell asked Consuela to make a plate of sandwiches and she went inside to the kitchen. Russell sat down on the porch steps and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He waited for what was coming but he didn’t have to wait long as his father got up and walked into the yard and stood in front of him and said I suppose you’re planning to tell me just what in God’s name is going on.
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TO TELL YOU THE GOD’S HONEST TRUTH, I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE hell is going on,” Russell said. He rubbed the back of his neck. Looked out toward the barn and the pond. Shook his head. “Ever since I got off that bus feels like there’s something in the air around here. Something hanging around. Can’t see it. But I can feel it.”
Russell reached down and picked the tip of a grass blade and he tossed it aside. “You remember when I used to bring home a dog every now and then?”
“Them old strays. I remember. Your momma hated that.”
“Why’d she hate it?”
“She hated it cause they always run off after some days and you’d get all pissed off about it.”
“That’s my point. The one I’m about to make. Those two out there are like that. Like those strays. Don’t matter what hell they’ve been through. Don’t matter how hungry. Give them food and a soft bed and they still got to run off sooner or later. That’s what she’s gonna do so just let them stay out there and I guarantee you she’ll be gone one morning dragging that girl with her. And that’s why I’m not gonna tell you nothing more other than I found them and they need somewhere and you know why they can’t stay at the house with me.”
Mitchell stepped back onto the porch and sat down again. Consuela came out of the kitchen with a tray of ham and cheese sandwiches and crackers and Cokes. She walked out to the barn and disappeared up the stairs. In a minute she came out and returned to the house and passed the men as if they weren’t there. Russell thought of telling his father who the woman was but decided to keep it to himself. Then he stood up and went across the yard and up the stairs and he found them sitting on the bed together. Shoes off, mouths chewing.
“When you get done with that, I want you to wrap that thing up and come with me. Annalee can go in the house and watch TV.”
Maben nodded. Swallowed hard from a full mouth. Russell looked around the room. He and his dad had put it together when he turned seventeen against his mother’s wishes. His own place out of the house but within reach. He thought of the girls he had snuck across the backyard in the middle of the night. He thought of shooting at deer across the pasture from the window. He thought of sitting and drinking with his buddies until they passed out. He thought of how he had joked with Sarah that this would be where they would live once they were married and no it wasn’t Sarah and no he wasn’t married but he had accidentally been right as here he was with a woman and a child to try to take care of. At least for now. Annalee coughed and the sound shook him free and he again told Maben to come down when she was done. With that, he said and pointed. She stopped chewing and said I know it’s a gun and she knows it’s a gun so why don’t you call it a gun.
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