Her shoulders slumped as she absently rubbed her thumb across the old scar on the back of his hand.
“I was worrying about what a mess my house is in. Last I knew they were dusting for prints. Broken glass and your blood were all over the kitchen floor. A window is out in the back door. Everything is torn up in my bedroom, and the floor was wet from rain getting in...and then my friend Margaret told me she and the other teachers want to help me. They’ve offered to clean up the house for me, so I won’t have to go home to that.”
“That’s wonderful, darling, but remember, from now on there’s nothing we can’t do if we’re doing it together.”
* * *
Saturday morning an email went out to the elementary school personnel about the cleanup at Lissa’s house. Subsequent messages flew between the teachers as to when they would meet and what they needed to bring. Louis received the email along with everyone else, but he didn’t see it first. Reece did.
Reece woke Louis up yelling at the top of his voice, “Get up! Get up, damn it! You have somewhere to be this morning.”
Louis glared. “It’s Saturday. I don’t have to be anywhere.”
But Reece kept yelling. “I said, get the fuck up, damn it! The teachers are going to clean up Melissa Sherman’s house, and you’re going to help because you know how to replace glass and there’s a broken window in her back door. Wanna know how I know that? Because I fucking broke it,” he crowed. Then he threw back his head and laughed.
“I don’t feel good,” Louis said.
“Neither do I, but Mama is in the living room driving me crazy, and you have to take her to the bank to cash her check.”
Now that he remembered Mama was in the house, Louis began getting dressed. He couldn’t go walking around half-naked in front of her.
“You gave Mama money?” he asked.
“Why, yes, I did because my big-mouth brother told her I had a lot of it. He also told her I was stalking a woman and might have killed a man. So now you’d better get up and get out of my sight, or I might have to permanently shut your mouth.”
Louis winced as he fingered the staples in his forehead and then felt the gauze pads still stuck up his nose.
“Did you hear me, Louis? I’m talking to you,” Reece demanded.
Louis turned around and then began looking for his shoes, muttering as he went. “Yes, I heard you. Do you really think I’m scared? Of you? Really, Reece? Do you?”
Reece was silent, momentarily shocked by Louis’s abrupt dismissal of his threats, and then he threw his head back and laughed.
“You are so right, Louie! We’re blood. Blood doesn’t hurt blood, right, brother? But still...after you take Mama to the bank, you should go help them put Melissa’s house back together. Only seems fair, since I’m the one who tore it up.”
Now Louis was silent. It aggravated him that Reece’s request actually made sense. In a way, it would be an apology from the family.
“Yes, I’ll help,” Louis said. Then he stumbled off to the bathroom, leaving Reece to consider his sins.
* * *
Pinky had dressed and packed before daylight. Now she was waiting at the kitchen table for someone to wake up when she heard the yelling. Her first instinct was to go settle the fuss, as she’d done so many times before, but then she stopped. What went on in that bedroom was best left alone. She just needed a check cashed and a way out of town.
When Louis finally made his way to the kitchen she was horrified by the sight of his poor face. He was a mass of bruising, healing scabs and runny scrapes, even worse than he’d looked yesterday, when the injuries were fresh. The staples just topped it off.
“Oh, Louis! Your poor face,” she said. “Can I make you some breakfast? Maybe some oatmeal? That would be easy to eat...not much chewing.”
“No, Mama. I’m fine,” Louis said, as he poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot she’d made earlier. He needed it to down a couple of painkillers.
Pinky eyed the long gray ponytail hanging down his back and wanted to suggest that he cut it, but she didn’t. Obviously he liked it or it wouldn’t be there.
“I heard you yelling,” she said.
Louis nodded. “Reece woke me up. I didn’t want to get up, but then I did.”
“Why?”
He looked at her then, wondering why she always asked the obvious question when she already knew the answer. He wanted to do it, at least in part because no matter how much he talked back, Reece was always in charge. But there was more, too.
“Well, the woman Reece is stalking works at my job, so the employees are going to help clean up the mess he made at her house when he tried to get to her and stabbed the man instead. Reece wants me to go fix the window he broke, so I am.”
Pinky’s mouth opened but the words wouldn’t come. This was so outrageous that she couldn’t find a sensible response.
“Can you take me by the bank first?” she asked.
“Yeah, sure, Mama. So Reece came through for you, huh?”
She smiled, revealing the gap in her upper teeth.
“Yes, and there’s enough to get my teeth fixed, too.”
“That’s good. I need to get a few tools to take with me, and then I’ll be ready to go.”
“Okay,” she said, and went back into the living room to wait.
Louis came through a few minutes later carrying a small toolbox and wearing a work jacket. He unlocked the front door and then held it open so she could carry her things out.
“Thanks for the help,” she said, sarcasm dripping as she staggered through the doorway with both bags.
“I’m hurt, Mama. It’s going to hurt me even more today when I should be in bed. Reece causes trouble and I have to fix it. That’s always the way it goes and yet you like him best. If you want help with your bags, ask Reece.”
Pinky wouldn’t look at him. She just kept moving, dragging one bag and carrying the other. She slung them in the back of the pickup bed again and then got into the cab as Louis eased in behind the wheel with a groan.
At that point she felt sorry for him again. He did look miserable, but this was all too much for her to handle, and the sooner she made her escape the better.
When they got to the bank drive-through, the teller wouldn’t cash a check that large from a person who didn’t have an account there, which meant Louis had to take her inside and vouch for her.
After a few minutes of explanation about her recent troubles and the fact that her son Reece, who did bank there, was giving her money to start over, Pinky left with a couple thousand dollars in cash in her purse and a cashier’s check for the rest.
When Louis started to take her back to the house, she stopped him.
“No, no, son. Take me to the bus stop.”
“Bus doesn’t come through here again until Monday,” Louis said.
Pinky moaned. She didn’t want to go back to the house. She was afraid of what Reece might do.
“Then, take me to a motel. I’ll stay there until Monday, okay?”
Louis didn’t care what she did, and shrugged. “Okay.”
They rode together for a few minutes in silence, and then, just before Pinky got out, she put a hand on Louis’s arm.
“Will you please not tell Reece I’m still in town?”
Louis looked at her then and saw the fear in her eyes. “Okay, Mama. I won’t tell.”
“Do you swear?”
“Yes, Mama, I swear. Are you scared of him?”
She hesitated a moment and then nodded.
“Don’t feel bad,” Louis said. “So am I.”
Pinky felt like there was more she should say, but Louis would see through it if she lied. “Thank you for the ride,” she said.
“You’re welcome, Mama. It was nice to see you again.”
Pinky sighed. “Thank you, Louis. I’m so sorry you’re hurt. I hope you get well soon.”
Then she got out of the truck, took her bags from the bed and walked into the motel without looking back.
Louis put the pickup in gear and drove off, her presence already forgotten because that was how it had always been between them.
* * *
Lissa pulled up into the driveway of Paul Jackson’s house and killed the engine. She hadn’t been here since she and Mack were in high school, and for a moment she had that long-ago feeling of anxiety. Could they make love and be back at school by fourth period without anyone knowing what they’d done?
And then she heard Mack groan as he undid the seat belt.
“Oh! Wait a minute,” she said, as she jumped out and circled the SUV to help steady his steps as he got out of the car.
“There’s nothing wrong with my feet,” he said, as she slid an arm around his waist.
“Humor me,” she said as they headed toward the house, then up the steps, where she walked him inside.
“Want to lie down in your bed or on the sofa in the living room?”
“Bed, for sure, but I’ve got this,” he said. He kissed her forehead before moving down the hall.
“I’ll get our stuff,” she said, as she ran back to get her bag and all his paperwork from the hospital.
When she got to the bedroom he was sitting on the edge of the mattress, still in his clothes.
“Okay, it was harder than I thought it would be,” Mack said.
She combed her fingers through the thick, spiky length of his hair.