Miracle in a Dry Season (33 page)

She needed to make plans, but she couldn’t discuss them with anyone. Delilah tried to draw her out, but Perla insisted she was fine, just thinking about the return trip to her family. Although she had originally planned to leave the following Monday, Perla realized she needed to go immediately. It would be too hard to see Casewell again, knowing that she could not marry him. Pretending with him would be harder than leaving him.

That night she waited for Sadie to fall asleep and then waited another hour for good measure. She eased out of bed and quietly packed their things. They didn’t have much—clothes, her Bible and a devotional book, Sadie’s few toys. When she reached for the doll furniture Casewell had made, tears burned the backs of Perla’s eyes. She knelt on the floor and cradled
the little chair in her lap. His hands had touched the wood, had shaped it and smoothed it and stained it. The time and love he had put into a simple toy gave Perla pause. Maybe . . . but no. She could not condemn him to life with an adulteress. She would leave him because she loved him too much to stay.

The next morning Perla got up early. She went to the store with Robert and waited, knowing Frank stopped in almost every morning to drink coffee and talk to anyone around. If no one was around he joked that he could always visit with his books. He came in five minutes after Robert unlocked the front door.

“Am I too early for coffee?” Frank asked. “Something made me want to get down here early this morning.”

Perla tried to smile. Surely that was a sign she was doing the right thing.

“Let me get you a cup,” she said. “Robert’s in the storeroom, but he’ll be along in a minute.”

“Well, I’d rather have coffee from the hand of a pretty woman any day. Join me?”

“Sure.” Perla’s hand shook as she poured the coffee into two thick mugs. She usually added enough sugar to fight the bitter, but this morning she sipped her coffee black. Penance, maybe.

“Frank, I need a favor.” She’d tried to think of a way to introduce the topic naturally but figured direct was best.

“I’ll be glad to help any way I can.”

“Will you drive Sadie and me to the bus station over in Parson Springs?”

“Surely. When are you needing to go?”

“As soon as possible. Now, if you’re able.”

“Now? I’d heard you were talking about going home, but I didn’t realize you were in a hurry.”

“Something’s come up and I need to go. Dragging things out . . . well, it’s not good for anyone.”

“I hate to be the one to help you leave, but I’ve got no other plans.” He thumped his nearly empty coffee mug down and slapped his knees. “I’m ready when you are.”

“Thank you. I’ll let Robert know we’re leaving, and we can go pick up Sadie and our luggage.”

Perla disappeared into the storeroom and came back out almost immediately. “All right, let’s go.”

Perla was pleased to find a bus leaving for Ohio that morning. Her family was in central West Virginia. She would not return to them. She would travel north until she found work. She could clean houses, keep children—she’d even cook if she had to. She had a little money that her parents had given her when she came to Wise. At the time, it had felt like hush money. While it wouldn’t take her far, she hoped it would take her far enough.

Sadie was enthralled with the ticket man’s mustache. He seemed equally taken with Sadie and gave her a peppermint drop.

“Where are you headed, missy?” the man asked.

Sadie piped up. “North, but we’re not excited about it.”

“Ah, well.” The man seemed reluctant to pry, which made Perla grateful. “Not all travel can be for pleasure.” He looked at Perla and nodded. “Hope everything turns out well for you, ma’am.”

In that moment, Perla had the oddest feeling that everything would turn out well. But as the day progressed, her doubts mounted. Sadie, normally docile and easy to manage, wanted
to run up and down the aisle of the bus. She whined when Perla made her sit and complained about being hungry, tired, and bored. Perla felt exasperated and done in by the trials of the day. When Sadie finally fell asleep with her head in Perla’s lap inside the station during a short layover to change buses, Perla caught herself dozing a bit, as well. She jerked awake with a start and looked around as if she’d been caught stealing. Sleeping in public. How mortifying.

Glancing at the clock on the wall across the room, Perla panicked. It was after the time her bus was supposed to leave. Scooping up Sadie, she ran for the door. The bus was gone. A man behind the ticket counter called out to her.

“Was that your bus? I seen you get off earlier, but I thought you was back on there.”

“My bag is on that bus. What do I do?” Perla almost wailed the question.

“Easy now. They’s another bus headed the same way in fifteen minutes. Two lines come acrost of one another here and go the same road for a piece. I’ll do you up a new ticket. Where was you headed?”

“Pittsboro.”

“Oh, that’ll be fine, then. Might get there later than you planned, but you’ll get there all right. I’ll call up to Camden, and they’ll hold your luggage.”

“Thank you.” Perla fought tears.

“Now, none of that. I got a girl about the size of that ’un.” He pointed at Sadie with his chin. “Only glad I can help.”

The later bus meant she would arrive in Pittsboro after ten o’clock. The ticket man gave her the name of a boardinghouse that was likely to have a room. “Cheap but clean,” he called it. Perla said a prayer and climbed aboard another bus.

Thankfully, Sadie slept all the way to Camden, where there would be a long wait. Perla decided she wouldn’t even get off the bus this time. She wasn’t taking any chances on missing a ride again. When the bus pulled into the station in Camden, Sadie stirred but didn’t wake. Perla leaned back against the window and cradled her daughter in her arms. They were beginning a new life. She tried to see it as an opportunity.

Staring out the window, Perla saw a man who looked very much like Casewell stick his head out the front door of the bus station and look around. He ducked back inside before she got much more than a general impression of him. She turned firmly away from the window. She would not start imagining things. She had come too far to have second thoughts now.

24

C
ASEWELL
DIDN
’
T
FIND
P
ERLA
inside the station. He asked if anyone had seen a woman traveling with a child, but no one had. Could she have changed routes? Did she not get off the bus and just keep going? He learned that the bus she was on had left about ten minutes before he arrived, but the ticket agent was certain there hadn’t been a woman and child traveling alone. Where could she be? Casewell sat. He paced. He went outside and looked around. He had a terrible feeling that Perla had somehow disappeared into thin air. But that was impossible.

He approached the ticket man with the slicked-back hair at the counter again. He thought the man looked a little annoyed, but he didn’t care.

“Look here,” the man said as Casewell stepped up to the counter. “I ain’t seen ’em. Don’t tell me some sob story about your woman running off, neither. Odds are if she run off she had a good reason.”

Casewell felt like he’d been dashed with cold water. Did she have a good reason? And then an odd sort of assurance washed over him.

“That’s not it,” he said to the man. He read the nameplate on the counter. “Harold, it’s like this. She had a child even though she didn’t have a husband. I want to marry her, and she’s running off because she thinks she’ll bring shame on me. But I love her. And I intend to find her no matter how far she goes.”

The man sniffed and lifted his nose slightly. “Huh. Guess it’s up to you, but I wouldn’t want no other man’s leavings.”

Casewell felt a surge of anger, followed closely by an unexpected peace. “I do,” he said, looking the man in the eye. “She’s a jewel beyond price.”

Casewell heard a stifled gasp and turned. Perla stood behind him, holding a sleepy Sadie’s hand. “What did you say?” she asked, her voice catching.

“You’re priceless.” Casewell swept her into his arms, tears gathering in his eyes. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“You did,” Perla said, collapsing into his arms. “But now I’m found.”

Perla’s luggage had been left at the Camden station for transfer to the second bus to Pittsboro. Perla saw a porter carrying her bag outside and intercepted him. It was soon stowed in the back of Casewell’s truck. Perla took Sadie to the ladies’ room—the whole reason she’d gotten off the bus in the first place—and then climbed into the truck with Casewell for the long ride back to Wise.

“It’s going to be very late when we get home,” Casewell said as he pulled out of the lot. “But I don’t think it would be quite right for us to spend the night anywhere.” He glanced at Perla and smiled. “Even if you are my fiancée.”

Perla gave a wry laugh. “They could hardly talk about me
any more than they already do, but you’re right. It’s best we get back.”

She settled Sadie, who sat between them, against her side. To keep the child comfortable, Perla turned in so that she was almost facing Casewell. She admired his profile and decided she was glad he’d shaved his beard. She wasn’t sure about kissing a man with a full beard. Blushing, she decided she needed another line of thinking.

“Why did you come after me?”

Casewell looked at Perla and then turned his attention back to the road. “I love you.”

“But marrying me . . . it may be complicated.”

“No more complicated than any other two people putting their lives together. Seems to me everyone has something about them that could give a potential spouse pause. Ma says I snore something fierce.”

Perla laughed. “But what will people think? What will they say?”

“Oh, some will say I could have done better,” he looked at her again. “And some will say you could have. I don’t really give a hoot one way or the other.”

“I imagined what it would be like if you came after me.” Perla ducked her head and smoothed hair back from Sadie’s sleeping brow. “I determined that I wouldn’t go back with you, no matter what.”

“What changed your mind?”

“I heard what you said to the ticket man. I didn’t think you’d admit to anyone what . . . what I am, much less stick up for me. You said I was a jewel beyond price.”

“‘Her price is far above rubies.’ It’s from the Bible.”

“I know. It’s from the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs. It’s
talking about a virtuous woman. You took me by surprise saying that.”

“Why?” Casewell flashed her a puzzled look.

“I’m hardly virtuous.”

“Virtuous—upstanding and moral. I’d say that describes you.”

Perla swallowed hard and was silent a moment. Casewell began to wonder if the conversation was over. Maybe she was dozing. He looked at her again. Her left hand held Sadie in place while her right was over her face. He thought she looked to be crying, and his heart lurched. What had he said or done?

“Perla? What is it?”

“I’m soiled, Casewell. Unworthy, shameful. I don’t deserve you or marriage or any kind of happiness. God has been generous in allowing me to love this child. I can’t ask for any more than that.” She struggled for composure and lowered her hand to her mouth. She whispered from behind her fingers. “How is it that you want me?”