Wiley Cash - A Land More Kind Than Home

When I turned around, I saw Julie standing there just outside the door to her bedroom. She must’ve come in while I was sleeping. She already had her nightgown on, and her hair was down like she was fixing to go to bed. I couldn’t hardly see her face where she was standing in front of that light coming from my room.

“Julie?” I said.

“I heard what he told you,” she said. “It ain’t safe to be here no more. We’re going to have to leave.”

“Who?” I asked her.

“Me and Pastor,” she said. “It ain’t safe. And everybody’s trying to keep us apart.”

I leaned back against the locked door and just looked at her where she stood outside the bedroom in her nightgown. Good Lord, girl , I thought. What in the world are you going to do now? It didn’t take her hardly no time to show me.

EARLY THAT NEXT MORNING I HEARD JULIE WHISPERING INTO THE kitchen telephone. I stood there on the other side of the door trying to make out the words she was saying, but I couldn’t quite tell what it was. She hung up the telephone, and when she opened the door I was standing right there on the other side. I still had on my nightgown, but she was already dressed. She looked like she was surprised to see me standing there, like she’d been caught doing something she knew better than to do. We stood there looking at each other.

“You don’t think Ben meant it, do you?” I asked. “What he said last night. He ain’t capable of nothing like that.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I ain’t never seen him act this way, and I ain’t never heard him say the kinds of things he’s been saying.”

“A drunk man’s likely to say anything,” I said. “It doesn’t mean that what he says is true.”

“You don’t know him like I do,” she said. “You don’t know what he’s capable of doing.” She walked past me toward her bedroom, and I turned and followed her. When I walked into her room, I saw that she’d made the bed; her closed suitcase sat on top of the quilt. I looked at that suitcase, and then I looked at her. She picked it up by its handle and stood there beside the bed.

“You’re leaving?” I asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said. “I have to. After what Ben did last night, after what all’s happened.”

“Who were you on the phone with?” I asked her. “Did you call Pastor to come and get you?”

“No,” she said. “I called the sheriff’s office. I want somebody there with me when I go home to get my things.”

“Julie,” I said, “I wouldn’t do that. You heard him last night. Please don’t go over there.” She looked at me, and then she walked toward me and brushed past my shoulder on her way out the bedroom.

“I did hear him last night,” she said. “Why you think I called the sheriff?” I followed her into the front room. She stopped at the door and sat her suitcase down beside her and turned the lock and unclasped the chain. She picked up her suitcase again and opened the door. “I appreciate everything you’ve done,” she said. “And I hope to repay your kindness one day.” She pushed the screen door open and walked out onto the porch. It slammed behind her. I could hear a car running out in the driveway.

“Julie,” I said, but she was already gone. I walked to the screen door and looked out and saw Chambliss standing in the driveway. He had the back passenger’s-side door of his car open, and he was setting Julie’s suitcase inside. Julie climbed into the front seat and closed the door. Chambliss slammed the back door shut and looked up at me. He nodded. Then he smiled.

“Sister Adelaide,” he said.

IWAS IN THE BATHROOM ON FRIDAY MORNING IN MY UNDERWEAR toweling off my hair when I heard the phone ring. I hoped that Sheila would pick it up in the kitchen. I tossed the towel onto the closed toilet lid and turned and looked at myself in the mirror. Same old thing as always: gray hair, white belly, scrawny arms. The phone in the bedroom kept ringing.

“Are you going to get that?” I hollered, but Sheila didn’t say anything, and I figured she might just be waiting me out. I walked into the bedroom and sat down on the bed and picked up the phone on the nightstand.

“Hello?”

“Sheriff, it’s Robby.” I sighed loud enough for him to hear me. “I know you’re about to leave the house and come into the office, but I thought you’d want to know that Julie Hall just called here looking for a police escort. She’s going back out to her house to get some things, and she said it might not be safe if her husband’s there. I can go if you want me to, but I thought I’d call just in case you might want to go out there yourself.”

“That’s fine,” I said. “I’ll call her and let her know I’ll meet her out there.”

“All right,” he said. I hung up and called Adelaide Lyle’s house looking for Julie, and Miss Lyle answered immediately, almost like she’d been sitting by the phone and waiting for my call.

“Morning,” I said. “This is Sheriff Barefield.” I hadn’t hardly gotten out those words before she stopped me.

“You need to get over to Ben Hall’s place,” she said. “They done left just a minute ago.”

“Slow down,” I said. “Who left? Who are you talking about?”

“Julie,” she said. “Chambliss came by and got her just now. They’re going to get her things. She told me they’re leaving town today.”

I told her I was leaving the house right then, and I hung up and called the station.

“Yes, sir?” Robby said.

“I need you to meet me at Ben Hall’s place,” I said. “And you’d better leave right now.” I slammed the phone down on the cradle and stood up. Sheila was standing in the doorway. She had a cup of coffee in each hand.

“What’s happened?” she asked.

“Nothing yet,” I told her. “But I can’t speak for later.”

WAKE UP, JESS,” SOMEBODY SAID. THEY HAD THEIR hand on my shoulder, and they shook me a little bit and tried to get me to open my eyes. I rolled away from them over to my other side and pulled the covers over my head and closed my eyes even tighter to keep out the light that came in the window.

“Wake up,” I heard Daddy’s voice saying. “You’re already late for school. Wake up.” He put his hand on my back and pushed on me and I bounced a little on the bed, and then he pulled the covers down and the sun came in the window and hit me right in the eyes.

“I’m awake,” I said, but I knew he didn’t believe me because I still had my eyes closed.

“You ain’t going to have time to eat nothing,” he said. “We’ve got to leave right now.”

“All right,” I told him, but I still had my eyes closed. I heard him go back down the hall to his bedroom. I kept my eyes shut just as tight as I could. Before I knew it I was falling asleep again.

“Get up, Jess!” he hollered from his room, but I’d pulled the covers up over my head again and I was just about asleep by the time I even heard what he was saying in there. It didn’t seem right having Daddy come in there to wake me up, and it made me wish that Mama was there to do it. It made me wish that Stump was there too so he could get up before me and go to the bathroom first so I could keep my eyes closed just a little while longer. I laid there and thought about that, and before I knew it I was falling off to sleep again.

I heard a car coming down the driveway from way up on the road, and I could hear the sound of the gravel crunching under the tires and kicking up and bouncing off the fenders.