When Samuel touched her shoulder, she turned to him with purpose.
“Samuel, I need to borrow your phone. I have to call your Aunt Polly. That’s where Stanton went this morning. Then I need to call your Uncle Thomas. Stanton’s sister and brother need to hear what happened from me.”
Samuel took out his phone and checked the signal.
“The signal is good here. Their numbers are in my contact list if you need them.”
“I know them,” Leigh said, and wiped her hands on her pants before she took the phone from his hands.
Samuel kissed the side of her cheek and then walked a distance away, giving her some privacy to make the calls.
Leigh called Stanton’s sister, Polly Cyrus, first. Her thoughts were in a jumble as she tried to figure out how to tell her without screaming, and then Polly answered and Leigh’s eyes immediately filled with tears.
“Hello?” Polly said.
“Polly, it’s me, Leigh.”
Polly laughed. “Honey, I know your sweet voice.”
“I have something to tell you, and I don’t know how,” Leigh said, and then started to cry, soft, near-silent sobs.
Polly’s heart skipped a beat, and then she started to panic. Leigh was not the crying kind.
“Honey, just spit it out. What’s wrong?”
“Stanton’s dead.”
Polly gasped and then moaned.
“No, no, no. He was just here. What happened? Was it his heart?”
Leigh took a breath and then choked on her sobs.
“No, he was murdered. Shot in the back on his way home.” As she told Polly the rest, Polly went into hysterics.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Leigh said. “If I could, I would die for him. I don’t know why it happened.”
Polly was sobbing. Leigh had started to hang up when Polly’s husband, Carl, took the phone.
“Leigh! What the hell happened? Polly’s done lost her mind.”
Leigh told it all over again, and Carl groaned.
“Sweet Lord, I am so sorry, honey. I’m so sorry. What can we do for you?”
“Nothing. I just had to tell you myself. Now I’ve got to call Thomas.”
“Do you want me to do it for you?”
Leigh wiped her eyes and then her nose on the back of her sleeve.
“Yes, I want you to, but I have to be the one to do it. I think Stanton’s family deserves to hear this from me.”
“All right, then, but we’ll be coming over to your house soon.”
He disconnected, which left Leigh with one more call to make. She punched in the numbers, dreading this call the most, because Thomas sounded so much like Stanton when he spoke.
Thomas Youngblood answered on the third ring.
“Hello, Samuel. How’s it going?” he said.
Leigh sighed. She’d forgotten she was using Samuel’s phone.
“Thomas, it’s me, Leigh. I’m just using Samuel’s phone.”
Thomas laughed.
“Well, you’re a lot prettier than my nephew, so that’s fine with me. What’s going on?”
“Is Beth there with you?”
“Yes, do you need to talk to her?”
“No, I called for you. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t alone.”
She heard him take a quick breath, and when he spoke again, his voice was deeper, even a bit nervous.
“What’s wrong, girl?”
She started all over again, saying the awful words: Stanton is dead. She ended by explaining what had happened, and that she bore the blame because it was someone from her family who’d done it.
Thomas was crying, but the whole time he kept trying to reassure her. Finally he handed the phone off to Beth.
“Leigh, it’s me. I am so sorry. I can’t believe this happened, but we’ll get justice for Stanton. We’ll be over to the house in a while.”
“Okay,” Leigh said, and started to hang up, but Beth stopped her.
“Leigh?”
“What?” Leigh said.
“I just want you to know how much we love you. You won’t go through this alone. You have a mountain full of people who love you and Stanton. We’ll stand beside you all the way.”
“Thank you,” Leigh said. “I love you, too.”
She disconnected and then waved at Samuel. He and his brothers came back on the run.
He could tell how hard it had been for her to make those calls. Even though he was broken up about the loss of his father, he was struggling with how to help her first. He picked a piece of vine from the tangles of her hair and then cupped the side of her cheek.
“Hey, Mama, how about I run up to the house and bring back Bella’s car so you won’t have to walk?”
Leigh glanced back into the clearing, to the huge dark blot on the ground where Stanton had bled out, and then shook her head.
“I need to be gone from this place. I’ll walk. Will you all walk with me?” she asked.
They gathered around her then, like the little boys they’d once been, fussing for a place in her arms. Only this time, they were the ones who were holding on to her.
“Yes, we’ll walk with you. I love you, Mama, and I am so sorry,” Samuel said.