The Quaker Café (42 page)

              “Did he say anything else?” Grandpa asked.

             
“Said there was a lot of anger, a lot of questioning. He’s not sure the best idea is for you to meet with them right away. They’re going to talk about what to do.” Grandpa nodded. “People aren’t ready to offer forgiveness. He wants to be sure you understand that.”

             
“I understand,” Grandpa said.

             
The front door to the pharmacy opened and Helen Truitt walked in dressed as if she was on her way to Norfolk instead of the local pharmacy. “Good morning, all.” She waved a hand at Liz and Grandpa and turned to where they sat.

Liz got up to intercept her, but Timmy had already stepped in f
ront of Helen holding out his bags of peanuts for sale. Helen hesitated and then tried to get around him.

             
“What can we do for you?” Liz asked as she blocked Helen’s approach to Grandpa.

             
“I need a refill on this medication,” she pulled out a small container for pills, bypassed Timmy and headed for the back counter.

              Liz stayed by her side. “I wanted to say how sorry I am about Maggie,” Helen said.

             
“Thank you, Helen.” Chase took the plastic bottle from her and started some polite conversation. He wanted to give Grandpa an opportunity to leave if he wanted. It wasn’t the best time for a Truitt encounter.

              Not to be deterred, Timmy turned and followed Helen to the back.

             
“I dropped by Cottonwoods Saturday after the funeral but so many people. What a crowd and with no receiving line or anything, I didn’t stay long. I didn’t see you.” Helen said.

             
“Well, it was hard to know how to set it up, but we appreciate your concern.”

             
“And that’s the end of the Kendalls. It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?”

             
“It is,” Liz agreed.

             
Helen looked up at Timmy and began to rummage around in her pocketbook. He waited patiently. “No hard feelings over the election, I hope?”

             
“Certainly not.”

Liz realized for the first time she hadn’t even spoken to Helen since before election night
. “You won fair and square. I wish you the best with a difficult job.”

             
“Well, you have to admit, I do know more about this county than you do; and with Maggie’s will, you’ll be busy anyway. You are the executor, aren’t you?”

             
Liz screwed her mouth into one of those I-can’t-believe-you’re-asking-me-that-right-now expressions, but true to form, Helen ignored the facial cues. Then the front door to the pharmacy opened and LuAnne walked in. She turned directly towards Grandpa at the corner table.

  Liz shot a glance at Chase
. He stood with his back to the room as he filled Helen’s prescription, but Liz saw him look in the mirror and follow LuAnne with his eyes. Helen turned slightly to see who had just come in, and then turned back to face Liz. Timmy waited patiently for two quarters and eyed LuAnne, another potential customer.

             
“Excuse me a minute, Helen.” Liz walked behind the counter over to Chase.

             
“Let it be,” he said. “Let them talk.”

             
“This isn’t the best place,” Liz said.

             
“LuAnne obviously has something she wants to say now. See if you can get Helen and Timmy out of here and then lock the front door.”

             
Liz watched Grandpa rise to his feet when he saw LuAnne. He hadn’t expected her either.

             
“Helen,” Liz began in an effort to think of a way to get her out of the pharmacy as quickly as possible. “If you’ll go on over to The Quaker Café and order me some toast and coffee, I’ll join you there in a minute. I can tell you what I know about the will.”

             
“And my prescription?” she asked.

“I’ll bring that along with me.”

Helen seemed unsure at first, but the temptation was too great. She handed Timmy four dimes and two nickels. Liz put her arm around Helen’s shoulder and guided her to the front door. “Come on, Timmy,” Liz said in an effort to get him to leave LuAnne alone. “I’ll buy you some breakfast.”

Timmy immediately shifted his attention away from
LuAnne and followed Liz and Helen.

They walked past Grandpa and
LuAnne. Liz heard LuAnne speak. Helen asked Liz if she wanted whole wheat or white toast. LuAnne opened her pocket book. Helen opened the front door. Liz ushered them out, quietly locked the door behind them, and flipped the “open” sign around to “closed.”

When Liz turned, she caught her breath
. Chase had frozen at the pharmacy counter, the color drained from his face. LuAnne stood facing Grandpa, holding a Smith and Wesson.

“It’s Mr. Corbett’s gun,” she said
.

Grandpa didn’t move
.

“The same one he should have shot
you with fifty-six years ago.” Her hand trembled. “You don’t know how many times I thought of doing exactly that. You over there on the other end of town living your life as if nothing happened. Isaac not living at all, and his family falling apart.”  

She sat down and rested her hand on the table between then, the barrels still aimed at Grandpa.

  “What sort of man makes a Christian woman want to do that?  Me and my God, we’re struggling.” LuAnne’s voice quivered. “Sit down, Mr. Hoole.”

“
LuAnne,” Liz whispered. “LuAnne, don’t.”

Chase inched towards the table and
LuAnne momentarily scanned the room as if aware of other people for the first time. “Miss Liz, you and Mr. Chase just sit over yonder. I got some talking to do. Mr. Hoole here, he got some listening to attend to.” 

Neither Chase nor Liz moved a
s LuAnne raised her voice for the first time. “Sit down. Didn’t you hear me say sit down?” 

Liz and Chase both pulled out chairs at the small table nearest each of them
. They’d been on opposite sides of the room and they sat about twenty feet apart, eyeing one another for any clue as to what to do next.

“
LuAnne,” Grandpa said, “this is just between you and me. Let my son and daughter-in-law leave?”

“Just between you and me?”
LuAnne’s voice escalated and her hand steadied, her finger on the trigger. “Is that what you said to Miss Sarah when you took her to bed? 
This is just between you and me
? Is that what you said to Mr. Corbett when you left him swinging a shovel at Isaac in the barn? 
This is just between you and me?
Is that what you said to Old Man Kendall and the sheriff when they were out raising a lynching party?
This is just between you and me
? There ain’t no so such thing
as just between you and me,
Mr. Hoole. There’s always other people who get hurt by someone’s foolishness.” 

LuAnne
closed her eyes momentarily and shook her head. She put the gun down on the table. “
Just between you and me,”
she sighed.

Chase and Liz both eyed the gun, but neither
was close enough to grab it. Grandpa could have. He could have knocked it off the table at the very least, but the gun seemed not to hold any power over him. LuAnne’s words had his back to the wall.

With his head bowed he confessed
. “I have caused great pain to others, to you and your family. I understand your need to seek revenge.”

“Dad,” Chase stood, alarmed at his father’s submission
.

LuAnne
immediately picked the gun back up and glared at Chase. “Didn’t I tell you to sit down? We’re here talking. Ain’t no way a black person seems to be able to get you white folks to listen unless they point a gun at you.”

“
LuAnne,” Liz said. “Maggie always listened to you. Don’t you think the Judge thought what you had to say was important? I tried to listen to you. I really did.”

“All these years
, and not one white person ever came to say ‘I’m sorry.’ Not one… but you, Miss Liz,” LuAnne nodded at Liz. “You the only white person who ever said you was sorry ‘bout what happened to my family. Sorry about the lives that was ruined. You was listening. That’s true.”

The room became eerily quiet and still
. There was a knock on the door and Frank Busby looked through the picture window and waved to be let in. “What do you want me to do, LuAnne?” Liz asked.

“
Tell him we’re busy just now.” LuAnne lifted the gun from the table and slid it back into her pocket book.

Liz looked over at Chase, but she had already made up her mind. She got up and walked to the door
. She cracked it open. “Sorry, Frank,” she said. “We need a little time before opening this morning, a bit of a family issue has come up.”

“Can I help with anything?  Work the counter for you?” Frank looked confused. This was highly unusual.

“Thanks, not right now Frank. We’ll be open in another hour,” Liz said and closed the door. She sat back down and looked over at Chase who frowned at her. “We’re listening, LuAnne,” she said.

After another long pause, Grandpa spoke up
. “There is not a day that goes by that I have not prayed over what I did and the guilt I have felt. I have tried to stand in the light in hopes that a way will open.”

LuAnne
looked confused. “What good does it do to stand in the light, Mr. Hoole, if you wouldn’t stand by Isaac and me?” 

Grandpa closed his eyes and bowed his head
. His chin began to quiver.

LuAnne
clicked her pocketbook shut and rose. “I’m going now,” she said. “There ain’t nothing I can do here that will make things any better. I can’t kill nobody. I can’t forgive nobody. There’s too much you stole from me, Mr. Hoole. Too much that ain’t coming back. Talk to your God about that.” 

*****

              Rumors swept through Cedar Branch like the November leaves that blew into the gutters and across the harvested fields. Grandpa didn’t return to the pharmacy the next morning or any other time that week. Everyone who came in asked Chase for more details. Chase deflected each question with as much discretion as he could.
He didn’t wish to comment.
He couldn’t help but notice that no one from the black community had entered his store at all.

             
Chase and Liz rarely went to the mid-week evening worship service held at the Quaker meeting on Fourth Day, but this week they knew they should. Grandpa and Grandma would be there. They debated whether to take Nicholas and Evan, and decided their children’s presence would show support. It was important for children to know that every person, young and old, experienced difficult times in their lives, and the community had an obligation to gather round and help.

             
The meeting house was filled, which was highly unusual for mid-week meeting. Every one of the fifty-two adult members living in close vicinity had come. It was somber, with none of the greetings that usually occurred when people entered. Instead, there was a weighty silence. Heads remained bowed, hands folded together. Sensing something different, Nicholas and Evan sat still. When Evan reached out for his brother’s hand, Nicholas took it.

             
At the close of meeting Grandpa rose. “I will be speaking at Jerusalem Baptist Church on First Day,” he said. “I have told my story to the elders of this meeting. Based on the number present this evening, I realize that at least parts of that story have been retold elsewhere. I feel that the members of Jerusalem Baptist deserve to hear my confession in its entirety before the story becomes more public.” He paused, steadied his voice and concluded, “I would be grateful if you would hold our community in the light during the difficult days ahead. My actions from years past threatened to reignite hostilities, which are the least desirable outcome. I ask you to pray with me that we might avoid such an incident.”

*****

              On the way home, the boys sat unusually quiet until just before Chase pulled into the drive and Evan spoke up. “I just have one question.”

             
Chase and Liz braced themselves. “What’s that, honey?”

“Why weren’t the Judge and Maggie raptured?”

Chase sighed a sigh of relief, and raised his eyebrows as he deferred to Liz. Liz cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “God doesn’t rapture people, honey, at least not so far as Quakers believe.”

“But he raptured Jitters.”

“No, he didn’t really. That was something I made-up.”

Evan’s eyes opened wide and a knowing smirk appeared on Nicholas’s face. “Jitters wasn’t raptured?” Evan asked.

“No, he wasn’t.”

“So what happened to him?”