Peter Abrahams: Last of the Dixie Heroes

Maybe Roy had no business making that last remark, but for once he got lucky.

First, it was pure luck that he didn’t die before he even had a chance to utter it. For some reason, perhaps Roy turning at the last moment, the bullet entered his chest at a sharp angle, shattering a rib, the pieces of which had to come out, but failing to reach anything vital. He spent a week in the hospital.

Then he was lucky he didn’t go to jail. The Sons of the Confederacy raised enough money to hire the best lawyers, but Roy turned them down, went with a public defender. In the end, prosecutors in two states couldn’t see their way past the kidnapping and self-defense issues. No bullet was ever found up at the National Weather Service station, and its destruction was put down to a lightning strike. Roy pleaded guilty to one count of disturbing the peace, a misdemeanor, and paid a $250 fine, money he didn’t have at the time; the bank had already taken the blackened remains of his house in Atlanta. Lee, not long out of the hospital, lent him the money.

Dibrell served three months for a parole violation, specifically for leaving the state without the permission of his officer. His original conviction had been for shoplifting, although how that related to his fear of DNA evidence wasn’t clear. Roy found all that out in an awkward phone conversation with Gordo, their last.

The investigation of the weather station fire did uncover Ezekiel’s marijuana patch, which was razed to the ground. Ezekiel got fifteen years.

Sonny Junior left no will. As his closest living relative, Roy inherited the old farm with that cantilevered barn of the kind still found in east Tennessee. He sold it to a New York publishing executive and her husband who were getting into fly-fishing. Roy used what remained after paying off the mortgage to hire a good lawyer for Ezekiel’s appeal. Partly because he didn’t like the contrast between fifteen years for marijuana cultivation and a $250 fine for killing two men. But mostly because he and Ezekiel were family, and family was what mattered: Sonny Junior had been right about that.

Globax spun off several small divisions, as Curtis had foretold. Curtis became CEO of one of them, a small company with an office in New Jersey and a patent for a device Roy didn’t understand, but would be shipped by the millions if everything went right. Curtis offered Roy a job as head of shipping, paying more than twice what Roy had ever earned. It meant moving to New Jersey.

Roy took Lee on long walks to help with her rehab. On hot days, she wore a dress. They didn’t talk much, perhaps didn’t have a whole lot to say. Once they came upon a Confederate graveyard. Little battle flags flew here and there; Roy didn’t feel a thing.

“I’m not pregnant,” Lee told him.

Roy didn’t say anything, didn’t know where this was going.

“I actually can’t get pregnant, Roy, meaning it’s not possible.” They were holding hands. She let go. “Are you going to take that job?”

“I want you to come with me,” Roy said.

“To New Jersey?”

“We don’t have to live in New Jersey. New York and Connecticut are close by.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Roy ended up going alone. Marcia had seen to it that Roy lost all but supervised visitation rights. That was good enough for now. On the very first one, Marcia happened to mention how good Roy looked. The supervision part began to drop away in practice.

In the fall, Rhett signed up for Pop Warner and Roy volunteered as an assistant coach. Rhett was growing now, getting bigger and stronger. He played without fear, with no regard for his body, led the team in tackles and made the all-stars.

After the games, they always went to a barbecue place Roy had found. The head cheerleader started coming along, Roy surprised at first that Rhett didn’t discourage her, which just showed that he still had a long way to go when it came to understanding things quick. She thought Rhett’s little tuft of hair was dorky. It was gone the next time Roy saw him.

Lee came for a visit, stayed three extra days. “I need to get used to you,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“You. This present you.”

“It’s the only one,” Roy said.

She booked another visit for Thanksgiving. By that time, Roy had already gotten his first raise. It was a good company, with a friendly atmosphere, flexible hours, and a generous health plan. Roy’s inhalers were free.