Sit! Stay! Speak! (10 page)

A
DDIE SAT IN THE CAB OF
B
OBBY
'
S TRUCK
. S
HE WASN
'
T SURE
what to say to him without Wanda as a buffer. She was grateful he'd offered to hang up the swing, but now she wished that she'd put him off for a couple of days.

“Hey,” Bobby said, breaking the silence. “I got some tools at my place that would make it easier to hang that swing up. Care if we run by there real quick?”

When Bobby turned onto the familiar cobblestone street, Addie realized where they were going. The truck came to a stop in front of Redd Jones's house. Addie remembered that Bobby had mentioned living with him the first night they met. She shifted uncomfortably. “I'll just sit here if that's all right.”

“Come on in,” Bobby urged. “You ain't got to sit outside in this heat.”

Addie followed him up the crumbling steps. The grass was as high as her knees, and it beat against her bare skin as she walked. When she leaned down to scratch at her legs, she could see through the missing slats in the backyard fence. She veered away from Bobby to get a better look.

“You coming?”

“Yeah, sorry.” Addie could see nothing but dirt.

The inside of the house was sparse. There wasn't even a couch in the living room—just the two lawn chairs that had been in the front yard the day Addie had run into Redd and Frank. There was a huge television hanging on the wall, and a mattress and several ashtrays full of cigarette butts on the floor. Addie and Bobby were alone in the house.

“Make yourself at home,” Bobby said. “I'll be right back.”

Addie wandered through the massive expanse of the downstairs. Almost every room looked the same—a mattress on the floor surrounded by ashtrays. Window units sagged in every room, dripping water onto the wooden floors. Dirty dishes overflowed in the kitchen. And there was a smell, a distinct smell that Addie couldn't quite put her finger on. The house, at one time, must have been beautiful. She wondered what the original owners would think if they could see it now.

The last room that Addie entered was different from all the rest. It was fully furnished and clean. There was a four-poster bed and another huge television set on the wall. The room didn't match the rest, and Addie knew instantly that this room belonged to Redd. She looked around the hallway to make sure that she was still alone before she moved farther into the room. The first drawer on the nightstand was halfway open, and Addie couldn't
resist going over to peek inside. There was a gun sitting atop a stack of papers, a .38-caliber handgun, but it was different from any that she had seen before. An intricate design had been carved into the barrel and stock—roses, it looked like to Addie. It was beautiful. She didn't know much about weaponry, but she knew enough to know that this gun was special. It wasn't the kind of gun that a person used every day.

She set the gun gingerly on the top of the nightstand and picked up the papers that had been lying beneath it. Each page held a few numbers, a name, and a bunch of other words that Addie didn't understand. The first page read:

PROSPECT #56807/Black Betty

Sire: Grand Champion Whiplash

Dam: Roho

Champion bloodline (yes)

Gameness (yes)

Each page went on and on like this. She was still trying to make sense of it when she heard someone coming down the hallway. In a panic, she shoved the paper and the gun back into the nightstand.

“Addie?” Bobby stuck his head inside the room. “Girl, what are you doing in here?”

“I was just . . . I was looking for the bathroom,” Addie managed to squeak out. “This house is so damn big, I guess I got lost.”

“Well, this ain't it.” Bobby motioned her out of the room. “The one downstairs ain't workin', so you'll have to go upstairs.”

“That's okay,” Addie replied. “I can hold it.”

Bobby shrugged. “If you say so. I got the tools we need. Let's git.”

Addie didn't protest. She followed him out into the Delta sunshine, past the tall grass and crumbling steps, and into the safety of Bobby's truck. She didn't look back as they drove away.

T
HE ROAD TO THE
F
LOYD FARM SEEMED PARTICULARLY BUMPY
as Addie sat in the passenger seat of Wanda's car. She was nervous, and it was a feeling she couldn't shake. She couldn't figure out why. The last time she'd seen Jasper had been at the farm, and they had left everything just fine.

“What's wrong with you today?” Wanda asked. “You've been quiet since I picked you up.”

“I'm fine.”

“Okay, whatever.”

“I swear, I'm fine!”

“I still can't believe Bobby agreed to come tonight,” Wanda said.

“I think your revelation to him the other day really changed his point of view,” Addie replied.

“Mommy?” Bryar peeped from the backseat.

“What, sugar?”

“What does rev . . . revlashun mean?”

“Revelation?” Wanda swiveled her head around to look at Bryar. “It means to tell a story that nobody has heard before.”

“Oh,” Bryar replied. He leaned his whole body forward in his booster seat. “What story did you tell?”

“It was kind of a grown-up story,” Wanda said. “Remember that Mommy talks to other grown-ups about grown-up things sometimes?”

“Yes.” Bryar sighed through clenched teeth. “I don't like those stories.”

“Speaking of grown-up things,” Addie began. “Do you think you might be able to find a sitter for the B-Man in two weeks?”

“I'm sure that I can.”

“Great,” Addie replied. “I'm going to be twenty-eight that Saturday.”

“How come you didn't tell me? We need to have a party!”

“That's why I'm telling you now,” Addie said. “I haven't celebrated my birthday in a couple of years. I figure now is as good a time as any to start back up again.”

There were cars everywhere when they arrived at the farm. Everyone was dressed in red, white, and blue. Wanda and Bryar were wearing matching star-spangled T-shirts and cowboy boots. In fact, Addie was wearing her very first pair of cowboy boots—they were hot pink. The color thrilled Addie. She hadn't even known that a person could get cowboy boots that color.

People carried baskets with delicious contents and jugs of sweet tea under their arms. Children whizzed past them unattended with sparklers clutched in their fists, glints of fire flickering to the ground below. The air was thick with sweat and excitement.

Bryar skipped ahead of them, occasionally looking back to
make sure his mother and Addie were following. “Mom! Mom! Mom!” he chanted. “Look! Sno-cones!”

“That will flat-out ruin your shirt,” Wanda replied.

“I'll be careful. Promise.”

“Those sno-cones look pretty good. It is sweltering out here,” Addie said. “Let him have one, Mom.”

“I could just kick whoever invented the sno-cone. They obviously never had to do laundry.”

“My mom never let me have them as a kid,” Addie said. “She thought they were too messy. You two would probably get along.”

“Fine!” Wanda threw up her hands in defeat. “You two go on and get a sno-cone. But sit down with them!”

Bryar gleefully took Addie's hand and pulled her toward the line. He looked up at her and said, “What flavor are you gonna get?”

“I don't know,” Addie replied. “Maybe purple?”

“Purple isn't a flavor.” Jasper was standing there, arms crossed over his chest. He wasn't smiling. In fact, he was scowling.

“I'm going to have red,” Bryar said.

“Still not a flavor,” Jasper countered.

“He's four,” Addie said.

“And how old are you?”

“I'll be twenty-eight in two weeks.”

“We'd like one red and one purple, please,” Jasper said to the man wielding the sno-cone machine.

The man nodded and set himself to work. “See?” Addie nudged Jasper. “He knew what you meant.”

Jasper handed Addie and Bryar their sno-cones, tipping his hat to them as he walked away. He didn't say anything else to Addie. She wondered what he was so stressed about.

“Hey! Wait up!” Addie handed an already stained and soggy
Bryar off to Wanda and then jogged after Jasper. “Listen, if you've got other stuff you need to be doing, I understand.”

“I don't have anything else to do,” Jasper replied. His tone was gruff, agitated. “You just walk too slowly.”

“I didn't realize I was supposed to be running a race.”

Jasper slowed down. “No. I'm sorry. I forgot you're only about as tall as a nine-year-old.”

“I look at least twelve.”

“You always have a response for everything?”

“It's part of my charm.”

“Actually, if you don't mind, I have a few things I need to check on.” Jasper's gaze shifted from Addie to the expansive pumpkin patch. “Do you want to come with me?”

“Sure,” Addie replied.

Jasper motioned for Addie to follow him. He led her to a vehicle that looked like a cross between a four-wheeler and a miniature truck. The word
POLARIS
was written on the side. “Hop in.”

“Don't I need a helmet to ride on this thing?”

“No.” Jasper started the engine. “There are no helmet laws in the state of Arkansas. Besides, this isn't a motorcycle. It's an off-road vehicle.”

“I forgot I was hanging out with a lawyer.”

Jasper grinned as they rattled along, his mood lifting with every bump. Addie sulked next to him. It annoyed her that he seemed to enjoy her the most when she was uncomfortable. It was almost as if he did things on purpose just to watch her squirm.

“Where are we going?” Addie called out over the roar of the engine. “It looks like we're leaving the pumpkin patch.”

“We are. I've got to go check on a couple of things on the actual farm. We still have to keep it running, you know.”

“Oh.” Actually, Addie hadn't known. The closest that she'd come to farm life was the time she'd visited a petting zoo in St. Louis. She had a feeling that didn't count.

They slowed down when they approached a field with several machines. “Those machines are harvesting cotton,” Jasper said. “Cotton-picking machines use rotating spindles to pick or twist the seed cotton from the burr. Then doffers remove the seed cotton from the spindles and drop the seed cotton into the conveying system.”

“Wow,” Addie replied. “Is it complicated?”

“It's not so much.” Jasper shrugged. “The hardest thing is just keeping the damn boll weevils out.”

“The what?”

“The boll weevil. It's the insect enemy of cotton. It can complete an entire life cycle in three weeks, lay two hundred eggs per female—each in a separate cotton square, ensuring the destruction of each—and spread rapidly, covering forty to a hundred sixty miles per year.”

“Sounds intense.”

“It is.” Jasper's voice was serious. “It can destroy an entire crop, which will in turn destroy your bank account. I've got to go over to that machine just to the right of us,” Jasper said, pointing to a green machine standing stagnant in the field. “It broke down this morning, and I've got a guy out there working on it.”

Addie stood up and followed Jasper. As they approached the machine, she could see a man hunched over to one side, his face hidden. He straightened up as they approached him.

“Mr. Floyd,” the man said. “I think I've 'bout got 'er fixed up.”

“Good,” Jasper replied. “What do you think caused it?”

Addie studied the man in front of her. He looked young. He was
smaller than Jasper, with thick dark hair and windburned skin. He looked like a farmer in a way that Jasper did not. Addie stuck out her hand to him and said, “I'm Addie. It's nice to meet you.”

“I'm Loren.” His gaze was set squarely on her chest. He wasn't even trying to hide it. “So, you and the boss man an item?”

Addie choked back a laugh. “I, uh, well, we're . . .” She didn't know what to say. How had she not thought of this before? What
were
they? She certainly hadn't expected some cowhand in the middle of a cotton field to ask for a status update.

Jasper stiffened. He stepped closer to Addie. “We better get going. I need you to get this thing running before lunchtime.”

“Yes, sir,” Loren said, a broad smile plastered across his face. “You let me know if you ever figure out that answer, Miss Addie.”

This kid was brazen.

Jasper turned and strode back to the vehicle, dragging Addie along with him. “So all this land,” Addie said, hoping to break the tension, “belongs to you?”

“It belongs to my father,” Jasper corrected her.

“That's what I meant.”

“My father and I are two very different people.”

“I'm aware of that.”

“Then you're one step ahead of most people.” Jasper stopped the vehicle. He gazed out into the field surrounding them. “You're new here, so I don't expect you to understand the ins and outs of a place like Eunice.”

“I'm trying to understand,” Addie replied. “But the people here sure don't make it easy.”

“Twelve hundred acres of this land has been in my family for almost two hundred years,” Jasper continued. “The Floyd men have always been farmers.”

“But you became a lawyer instead.”

“The land on the other side of this fence,” Jasper continued, “is all my land. It's just about twenty acres, but it all belongs to me.”

“Twenty acres sounds like a lot to me,” Addie said.

Jasper smiled. “You would think that.”

“So what do you plan to do with the old barn and what's left of the house?”

“Demolish it,” Jasper said matter-of-factly. “There's no saving it. It's too far gone to be of any use.”

“Then what?”

“I'm going to build a house.”

“A house? For you?”

“Who else would I build a house for?”

For some reason that response cut her. Of course he was building a house for himself. Just for himself. “What will you do with all that's there now?”

“Throw it away, I guess.”

Addie hopped off the Polaris. “Care if I go over there and take a look? I'm dying to see what's inside that barn.”

“Snakes and rusty nails are what's inside,” Jasper replied, following after her. “I swear, I've never met a person so interested in trash.”

“It's not trash just because it's old,” Addie said.

“I know, I know.”

She waded through the hip-high grass to the entrance of the barn. It was leaning far to its left side, as if one strong gust of wind could topple it for good. “How long has it been since anybody lived here?”

“Decades,” Jasper said. “They'd abandoned the place long before it went into foreclosure. We were just teenagers when they
moved off. Left all their livestock, dogs, even half their belongings in the house.”

“Why?”

Jasper shrugged. “Nobody knows, exactly. Old Man Jones died when Redd and the rest of us were in junior high. I guess his mama couldn't handle it all by herself. She tried for a while, having eight boys and a farm to take care of.”

“Eight?” Addie was aghast.

“Not much to do around here but farm and have babies.”

“Well, you'd think with all those boys she would've had some help.”

“You'd think.” Jasper thumped his foot on a stray board. “But that's only because you don't know the Jones boys.”

“I ran into him the other day while I was walking Felix,” Addie said. “He was sitting in front of some run-down house.”

“Did you talk to him?”

“I didn't have much of a choice.”

“He give you a hard time?”

Addie shrugged. “He called me a Yankee, which I gather is an insult.”

“People around here call everybody who isn't from here a Yankee,” Jasper replied. “What were you doing downtown?”

“I told you. I was walking Felix.”

“You shouldn't be down there by yourself.”

“I'm not a child,” Addie said. She rolled her eyes. “I can handle myself.”

“It's not safe down there.”

“Why not?”

“It just isn't.”

“That's not a good enough reason.”

It was Jasper's turn to roll his eyes. “There are plenty of places you can walk Felix that don't include getting that close to the Mississippi River.”

“Why do I feel like there's something you're not telling me?”

“Just be careful down there,” Jasper replied. “Redd Jones hangs out down there for a reason.”

“Maybe he knows what happened to Felix.”

“I wouldn't go around asking people what they know.”

“Well, somebody knows something,” Addie said. “Somebody had to have seen or heard something.”

“I'm going to give you some advice that you probably won't take too kindly to,” he said. “People around here don't want you burrowing into their business. They want to be left alone. A few lonely old women sitting on the front porch gossiping is one thing, but an outsider coming in and asking lots of questions where she isn't wanted is another. It puts people off, Addie. It makes them angry.”

“I'm not burrowing into anybody's business.”

“Good.” Jasper nodded. “Keep it that way.”

“But a decent person doesn't just shoot a dog and leave it to die,” Addie finished.

“No, he doesn't,” Jasper agreed. “And it isn't the kind of person you want to accidentally rub the wrong way.”

She decided against telling him that she'd also been
inside
Redd's house with Bobby. Besides, she wasn't sure what to make of what she'd found, and she didn't need Jasper in her head telling her it was nothing. “I'm trying not to do any burrowing or rubbing,” Addie said.