Page 47 of Lightning in a Mason Jar

I wanted to reassure her that I understood we couldn’t have a future for so many reasons, my past being high on the list. But I also recognized this was a moment I needed to listen. “Thank you for talking to me, for being patient with me. I hope you know, I’m really trying.”

“I do recognize that.” A smile flickered across her face, along with a wince as she shifted in the narrow bed. “But there’s going to come a time when people like me are going to get tired of carrying the burden of helping white folkstryingto understand.”

Rather than risk saying the wrong thing, I settled for the one pure and simple truth in my heart. “The last thing I want is for Russell to be hurt because of me.”

“Then make sure he’s not,” she said with a firm nod, then motioned for me to lean closer. “Now let me fill you in on how our network operates.”

2025

Although Bailey Rae wanted to become a beach girl, right now she was grateful to be exactly where she stood in rural South Carolina. And she was especially thankful for country boys who loved their blazing off-road lights, because Libby had wandered off into the woods right at sunset. Not for the first time. Except tonight, her disappearance put everyone on edge, given the fisherman’s mysterious death and the uptick of squatters breaking into foreclosed homes.

Keeping pace alongside Keith on the wide walking trail, Bailey Rae brushed away a low branch, releasing a shower of leaves and pollen. In the distance she heard the shouts of other search teams. Martin had helped the police in organizing most of the town to turn out with flashlights, water bottles, and bug spray. They’d checked the obvious places in town and now were shifting their focus into the forest. This trail had been a favorite of Libby’s, with its earth packed and cleared from four-wheelers and dirt bikes.

Still, fears for Libby multiplied, beyond just the regular worries about wild pigs and snakes. She could be injured and unable to call for help. Or worse yet, someone may have preyed on her vulnerability. Sure, everyone in Bent Oak knew her, but the market would have brought strangers to town. And there was also the problem with drifters.

Bent Oak at night wasn’t nearly as friendly looking as daytime. As a child, the twisted oak trees with Spanish moss reminded Bailey Rae of Halloween and haunted woods. She really needed to talk to Councilman Tyler about installing more streetlamps.

How far could Libby have gone in a wheelchair, for heaven’s sake? Even if she’d managed to use her walker, she wouldn’t have had the stamina to continue for long.

Keith stopped at a fork in the wide walking trail, looking left and right, then sagged against a tree trunk. “I don’t know how to keep her safe anymore. Her memory loss is a struggle in more ways than one.”

Bailey Rae chugged her water bottle to swallow down tears. “Alzheimer’s is challenging, and you’ve been a great son.”

Pushing away from the trunk, Keith set off along the trail on the right. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s Alzheimer’s or if the memory loss is because of some pretty severe blows to the head she took in the past.”

Shocked, Bailey Rae recapped her water bottle.

“I didn’t know.” She’d read about athletes who’d sustained brain injuries from multiple hits, even when wearing a helmet. She didn’t want to assume the worst but had to ask, “Do you mind if I ask what happened?”

Keith’s jaw flexed, his boots hammering the ground harder. “My dad was bad news. He was abusive to Mom and me. We couldn’t even blame it on booze or drugs. He was just a mean son of a bitch.”

Bailey Rae stopped in her tracks, halting Keith with a hand to the elbow. “I’m so sorry.”

His gaze skirted around the forest until finally meeting hers. “Mom did her best to protect me. This one time, when I was five or thereabouts, we could hear him outside, picking an argument with the guy in the next apartment over something stupid, like his taste in music. Nothing really. Except it wouldn’t stay nothing. So Mom scooped me up onto her hip and grabbed a loaf of bread. She said we were going to feed the birds. We fed those birds all night long.”

“I can see why you and your mother wanted a fresh start in Bent Oak after he died.” She rubbed along his upper arm.

“Do you mind searching with Martin for a while?” He gestured to the game warden’s truck parked about a football field away. “I’m gonna meet up with June and Thea, brainstorm some of the old haunts where Mom might gravitate.”

Bailey Rae’s head spun at the rapid shift in Keith’s mood. Although emotionswererunning high. She held her silence and fell into step behind Keith as he led the way to wave down Martin’s truck. The floodlight attached to the roll bar shone like a beacon across a field. Night critters croaked and buzzed from the river in the distance.

Before she could catch her bearings, Keith bolted back into the woods, leaving Bailey Rae shifting from foot to foot. She needed to shake off the awkwardness. Libby’s well-being mattered most.

“Sorry that Keith dumped me on you while you’re on the clock.” She couldn’t even bear to think about the riverbank on the other side of the field. “I don’t want to interfere.”

“It’s an all-hands-on-deck event. Just stay close and keep your eyes peeled for snakes.” Martin picked his way through the ankle-high overgrowth.

Bailey Rae shivered and clicked on her cell phone’s flashlight for extra illumination along every suspicious glint from the high grass. Empty food wrappers from burgers and chips. Beer cans and soda bottles. Common items. Like at the riverside. Just teens escaping authority? Or more squatters? She shivered again.

Martin palmed her back. “How are you holding up? I’ve been worried about you the past few days, after what shook down at the river.”

“I got your messages.” She didn’t know how to explain the need for distance when they weren’t even a couple. Boundaries weren’t her strong suit. Walls were more her style. “I’m okay. Really.”

“So you said in your text.” The floodlight from the truck cast his face in shadows. “I’ve been in your shoes. I recognize a brush-off peppered with denial when I see it.”

His kindness in the face of her borderline rude dismissal left her feeling so very small. “Are you ever anything other than perfect?”

A half grin kicked a dimple into his cheek. “I thought I was a jerk because of the ticket for fishing without a license.”

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