“Samuel, the crow? That crow?”
Kate looks at him sitting on his branch. He looks off a ways, but he listens. He don’t mind being talked bout but you gotta be respectful.
“He come home with me and stayed.”
“When was that?”
“Like I say. Twenty years now, or near bout.”
I puff on my pipe and wait cause Kate’s got a cloudy look in her eyes.
“That crow came twenty years ago?” she mumbles. “Don’t they all look alike?”
I blow out a stream of pink smoke, and it circles Kate’s muddled head.
“If you don’t know what you looking for.”
We don’t talk for a spell. Just stand side by side in front of the box of Roy’s stuff. The top of my head is level where her titties should be, but that chest is as flat as a man’s.
Kate says, “I’m sorry, Birdie. I’m confused by this story. It’s strange and grounded in folklore I can’t easily accept. Forgive me if I sound rude.”
“You can’t help it. You from the valley.”
“I’m not trying to be difficult, but…” She steps back from me and Roy’s box and slides away from my crow story cause she ain’t ready. That’s okay.
She asks, “Why do you have a box for Roy Tupkin’s things to begin with?”
I wondered when she’d get to that question.
“You hear bout that girl they been looking for?”
“I heard something at the Rusty Nickel, but I wasn’t paying attention.”
“You know who’s tied to that girl gone missing?”
I wait and puff on my pipe, and when Kate’s eyes flash wide, I nod.
“Oh Lord.” She slumps gainst the side of the trailer.
“Uh-huh. Roy and her was tangled.” I cross two fingers as best I can. “Word is he pays for her place. Buys her things.”
“My word… Poor, dear Sadie.”
“Uh-huh.”
I pick up the gold necklace from Roy’s box and dangle it from my finger. “Now if this here necklace went round that missing girl’s neck, it matters something strong.”
“You don’t seriously think it’s connected to the girl, do you?”
When I don’t say, she asks, “When did someone last see her?”
“Seven days back. Tomorrow be eight.”
Kate whispers, “Birdie, do you think the girl’s dead?”
“Yep. A girl don’t up and leave on her own and not tell nobody.”
“Well, there’re a lot of ifs in this discussion: If Roy’s responsible. If she’s dead. If that’s her necklace.”
Kate’s done talking cause she can’t find easy answers. She steps away, waves good-bye, but throws words over her shoulder. “Why don’t you ask Samuel where the crows found the necklace? You might find the girl there, too.”
Her words might sound regular to some ears, but to Samuel and me, they say Kate don’t think much bout crows. Samuel hears it. He flies off that branch over top of Kate, squawks, and poops on her shoulder, then comes back to his branch.
He’s getting old.
Bet he aimed for her head.
? ? ?
Kate don’t know how close she is to truth. Lots of folks been looking for the girl called Darlene Simms. I hear from Mooney that Petey Pryor called the law when Darlene don’t show at the club. One of em that come to look was Sheriff Loyal Sykes from neighboring Burnsville, and his small posse of men been combing the woods looking for clues or a body, chatting up everybody they can, but they ain’t talked to me.
Petey says business at the Midnight Club is off bad cause who wants to see Sheriff Sykes leaning up against his car looking over dark glasses on his nose, him studying on everybody going in and out of the place?
Sadie says Roy Tupkin’s come back home most days now, restless. He likely thinks he’s safe in his trailer, him with his old routine.
Now Darlene Simms’s name is on everybody’s lips. This thing could blow over if we don’t find the girl or her body.
That don’t sit right with me.
It’s time I do what I do.
I fetch my shallow bowl the color of blood. Put it in the middle of the tree stump. Pour spring water in the bottom, a finger width deep. The surface goes still as a mirror. I pick up and kiss the horn-shaped stone hanging from a leather cord, and hang it round my neck.
With my thumb, I make a X in the middle of my forehead. Over and over I make a X. Skin oil coats my thumb making that X. When my forehead is tender from the thumb mark, I pick up the necklace from Roy’s box. I rub my skin oil all over it and drop the necklace in the middle of the water bowl.
I know what I’ll see. The oil moves like swirling clouds, taking shape round the truth. The smell of rotten eggs rises up and grows strong in the air. I wait and watch and wonder.
Why are young girls dumb and men surprised?
What does evil look like to crows from up in the sky?
They’re brave to play hide-and-seek with the dead.
Billy Barnhill
I always got eyes for Sadie Blue. Long before she up and married my best friend, Roy, I only got eyes for that girl. She sucks the air outta my chest. Makes it hard to breathe. I gotta turn away, sure my eyes are gonna tell on me.
She was but eight years old first time I seen her. So slight a breeze could lift her off her feet and carry her away. Only the paper pokes of supplies in her hands hold her to the ground. She got hair the color of chestnuts and was singing while she walked. Cause I can’t help it, I followed her through the woods, walking soft.
She stopped and turned. “Why you come after me?”
I won’t walking quiet as I thought.
“Name’s Billy. Billy Barnhill,” was my peace offering.
She waited and I waited till she said, “Billy Barnhill, you stay away, you hear?” Her voice was down-in-a-well small.
Looking at her stand there that day, I woulda said she was built flimsy with no mind of her own. That the only things she owned was a angel face and long hair. I was a handful of years older, but she put me in my place standing there waiting.
She backed up, then turned round and walked on. I stayed put till she started singing again, far off. I don’t think to ask her name that first time, but she already burrowed in my heart.
? ? ?
One day, she walked by the swimming hole me and my buddies was at. I swung out on a vine to drop in the river and make a big splash so she’d look my way. But I forgot to let go and crashed back into a tree and broke my arm. It hurt like hell and made me cry like a sissy.
That girl walked right on without even a glance my way.
Another day she sold apples and jam at a roadside stand. I squatted down in the bushes and watched her sit on a crate, straighten her skirt, collect dollars from fancy people in fancy cars. Sadie said real polite, “Thank you, sir. Thank you, ma’am.”
What I don’t know was I was hunkered down on a nest of nasty chiggers. While I watched Sadie Blue, those little buggers climbed over my bony ankles and up my legs to the top of my jeans. Don’t know till the next day when the chiggers made me claw my skin raw. I dug till blood run. Then scabs come, and I went crazy with a terrible itch. I can’t do nothing but scratch at myself for two weeks.
I don’t mind cause I got to see Sadie be normal by herself.