Chapter 42
NEEDFULS
When the OSM inspector finally came and saw the filled-up slurry pond, he immediately halted the Cheek Mountain dig. The state regulators scheduled a hearing in Frankfort the next week to fast-track the new containment pond on the Mitchell farm.
I brought Pops out to the porch later that week with morning coffee and the paper. I locked his wheels and adjusted the light blanket in his lap. “Thank you, son. Your superior nursing is tempting me to remain a permanent invalid.”
“Don’t get too used to it; after next week you are on your own.”
Mom pushed out the front door with coffee and sat next to him.
“Well, we wanted to talk to you about that. We think it would be best if you and your mom stayed here for a while longer.”
“I’ve got school. What about Dad? What about my friends?”
“Not sure about any of that, but let’s talk it through. On school, you could enroll in Missi High School with Buzzy. Try it for a semester, and if you don’t like it, switch back to Redhill for second semester.”
“Do you want to stay, Mom?”
She rubbed her arms as if a sudden chill had taken her. “I don’t think I can ever go back to that house. At least not anytime soon.”
“What about Dad?”
“I don’t know.”
It took me a nanosecond to weigh my options. “I’m not leaving you.”
She held out a hand. I took it.
“All right, it’s settled. I’ll call Edward tonight and the school tomorrow. Better alert the sheriff too; the girls at Missi High are liable to riot on first day.”
Mom smiled. I rolled my eyes.
Audy Rae pulled up in her car. Today was her day off and she usually used it to deliver canned goods, clothing, and other items to the county’s poorest. Sometimes Mom came along if she felt up to it.
“Got the Budgets on my list this week,” she said to Pops. “I don’t know what the Lord is trying to tell me with that one.”
“He’s trying to tell you that Darwin was right.”
Audy Rae shook her head. “Something.” She turned to Mom. “You up for a ride out to Beaver Holler, Annie? You and Lucille knew each other from high school.”
“I’d like that,” she said softly. “Maybe there’s some comfort I can offer.”
“That’s a kind thing, honey. I think she would appreciate the thought.”
“Can I go too?” I asked. “I can help carry stuff.” Since Tilroy’s death three weeks ago, the Budget clan had not come into town, talked to the Register, or emerged from their cloistered hollow. I was curious about how they were managing their grief and wanted to try to thank Gov Budget again for helping Pops. We took the truck, three across the front bench, through town and out Route 17 to Beaver Hollow Road.
We arrived at the cul-de-sac to a yapping dog and bleatings from the two goats the Budget clan had acquired over the summer. Lucille Budget was sitting on her front porch in an aluminum lawn chair, watching her ten-year-old son throw stones at the barking hound tied to a tree in the front yard.
“Hey, you, come over here,” she yelled to Audy Rae as we got out of the car. I was carrying a paper bag that contained an assortment of canned goods and secondhand clothing. Audy Rae had even cleaned out Pops’ disused clothing closet and added some of her family’s old wearables.
She stopped, smiled wanly at Lucille, and walked to the bottom of the porch steps.
“What can I do for you, Lucille?”
“You can do for me to say what the hell you’re doin here.”
“I’m doing the delivering for social services this week.”
“Lemme see what you got. Get on up here.”
I walked up the steps behind Audy Rae and Mom and set the bag at Lucille’s feet. She had one arm raised and tucked behind her head. Her armpit hair was slicked flat from sweat, giving it the appearance of a dirt stain. She began rummaging through the bag and pulled out a can of creamed corn and put it on the side table. Next came two cans of pumpkin pie filling, then a jar of pickles and two boxes of Tuna Helper. She removed a man’s white dress shirt and held it up by the shoulders, examining the workmanship like a master seamstress. Cigarette dangling from her mouth, a ten-minute ash dangling from the cigarette.
“Hello, Lucille, do you remember me? It’s Annie Peebles,” Mom said to her. “We went to high school together.”
Lucille kept at the shirt. “Yeah, I remember,” she said. The cigarette ash tumbled to her chest, mixing with flecks of morning scrapple.
“Well… I just wanted to say hello and tell you how sorry I am to hear about Tilroy.”
She checked the size of a child’s winter coat. “Well, now you done it.”
“Yes, I guess I have, haven’t I,” Mom replied. I watched her watch Lucille Budget sort through the clothing. Mom smiled but said nothing else.
After a minute I drifted over to Lucille’s son by the tree. He had exhausted his supply of dog stones and picked up a whippy green stick. The dog saw the boy approaching and ran to the other side of the tree. The boy chased it around the poplar until the leash was wound up and the hound immobilized. He raised the stick and the dog blenched. He brought it down hard on the dog’s snout to a piercing yelp from the animal and a frantic scramble to escape the beating. The boy raised his arm again and the dog hunkered for impact. He held the stick in the air, laughing as the dog cowered with eye whites watching the boy’s arm for any movement. He started to bring it down hard and I caught it in midair. The dog yelped on the expectation. The boy whirled to me with crazy eyes. “Give it.”
I took the switch from him and broke it.
Lucille was holding up a pair of polyester slacks, wondering if her sister Betty would fit into them. She heard the dog’s yelp and yelled through the slack assessment, “Rayful! Don’t be hittin on George no more; he’s gonna bite your ass again.”
Rayful pulled free and ran toward the barn at the back of the house. “An leave them goats be!” she yelled after him. I went to the dog, who was still cowering in the dirt. I stroked his head, then went to the porch.
“What else you got in the car?” Lucille asked Audy Rae.
“In the car? Oh, we have about three more parcels to deliver,” she replied pleasantly. “We’re heading up to Bonny Holler next, then over to the O’Shea place. The O’Shea brothers were both struck with the lung, as you know. Ernestine and Kendra are having a bad time of it.”
“Well, don’t jus stand here jowlin… go get what else you got.”
“Excuse me?”
Lucille noticed me kneeling next to George. “Hey,” she said to Mom. “Tell your boy don’t be pettin on someone else’s dog without permission.” Then she yelled over to me, “Hey, boy, don’t be pettin on that dog. He’s a known biter.”
I jerked away from the animal. At my sudden movement, George winced, steeling for a blow.
Lucille turned her attention back to Audy Rae. “Well, what you waitin on?… Go get the other stuff,” she said and held up a pair of men’s trousers for a quick look. “I can’t be usin no Tuna Helper if I ain’t got no tuna, now, can I?”
Audy Rae’s forehead crimped. She folded her arms against her chest but kept smiling. “I’m sorry, Lucille, but I can’t give you more… The O’Shea brothers are in a bad way and the Sletts up in Bonny are counting on this food to carry them til month end. I can’t be giving you their needfuls.”
Lucille put the pants back in the bag. “Let’s you an me get somethin straight right now. You ain’t givin me a goddamn thing. This is giveaway stuff. The O’Sheas or the Sletts ain’t claimed it. Now, go on an bring that other stuff up here.”
Audy Rae didn’t move.