Page 42 of The Night the Lights Went Out
“Stop it, Harry. Don’t be like that. He might get hurt.”
Curtis pretended to be upset. “What about us? Don’t you care about what happens to us?”
Ever since Jimmy’s accident, I had avoided being in Curtis’s company. It was a sin to hate, but I thought God would make an exception for Curtis. The boy was pure evil, and if I was Catholic like Willa Faye, I would have found some holy water to sprinkle on him.
“No, I really don’t. Now, give me back the wheelchair.”
Jimmy looked at me with wide, terrified eyes behind smudged glasses. “Come on, Harry. Quit it.”
Curtis grinned, then sat down on Jimmy’s lap. “Come on, Harry. Give me a push and climb on.”
“No!” I shouted, trying again to reach the handles, but Harry held me back, laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world, which just made me madder.
I stomped on his foot with the heel of my shoe—grateful now that I had on my saddle shoes—and he let go just as the wheelchair started to roll slowly back down the path, heading too close to the edge. I grabbed hold of one of the wheelchair handles and brought it to a stop. I launched myself at Curtis, grabbing at his face, his hair, anything to give me the grip I needed to cause damage. I wanted him to roll to the ground and slide off the mountain, not that we were high enough to do much damage, but maybe I’d get lucky and he’d hit his head. I wouldn’t care if I went to jail for murder if it meant that he was dead.
I felt strong hands on my shoulders, and then the man in uniform yanked Curtis to his feet. Without even a how-de-do, he punched Curtis in the face, knocking him to the ground. Kneeling down, the man looked up at Jimmy, who was shaking from fever and fear, his face an awful chalk color.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
Jimmy and I both nodded.
The man stood, rubbing his knuckle, and I saw that he still had a boy’s face, the uniform making him appear older. “I’m sorry about that, but I was afraid things were getting out of hand and you needed assistance.” He surveyed the scene, eyeing Harry, who looked like a bull refused by a cow, and Curtis, stumbling with his hand to his face. Turning back to me, he said, “May I escort you back down? I brought my Jeep, and I’d be honored if you’d let me bring you home.”
“Yes, please,” I said, not caring that I didn’t know this man and I’d just agreed to let a stranger take Jimmy and me home. But I trusted him. There was something in his face that made me think I’d known him my whole life.
The man slipped off his cap, showing shortly cropped, thick brown hair, and tucked it under his arm. “Lieutenant Tom Bates, ma’am. I’m currently training pilots at the Naval Air Station, but my home is Dothan, Alabama.” He smiled, and all of a sudden I felt much calmer.
I introduced Jimmy and me, then began walking back down the path. I turned at the sound of footsteps, no longer afraid with Tom there. Harry called to me with the belligerent tone he used when he knew he’d already lost a fight. “You can’t leave with a stranger, Sugar. You ain’t too old for Daddy to tan your hide.”
Tom stood between Harry and me, and I saw how he was taller than Harry, making my big brother seem puny. “I’ve introduced myself to her, so we’re not strangers. And I’d say she’s in better hands with me than she’d be with you and your friend.” We all looked over at Curtis, who was squatting down now while blood poured from his nose and painted the dusty trail with red.
“I forbid you to go, Sugar.” Harry tried to look tough, but I could see the worry in his eyes, probably remembering how Daddy had sent him to Cairo and how he’d hated every minute, only returning after he’d promised Daddy he’d do better and not be so mean and hateful to everyone.
We turned our backs on him and I allowed Tom to guide Jimmy’s wheelchair as we made our slow way down the mountain. We told Tom about the farm and our family, and he told us about his own family back in Dothan. He was an only child, and his parents were much older than ours. His daddy owned the general store downtown, and his mama loved his daddy so much that she went to the store every day to help him. It said a lot about Tom, I thought, that his parents loved each other enough to want to spend all their time together, and then poured all that love into their son.
It wasn’t until much later, after I’d put Jimmy to bed and given him something to bring his fever down, that I lay in bed thinking about Tom Bates, and the way he’d smiled at me, remembering something I’d promised myself a long time ago, a promise that I would never love anything again that I couldn’t bear to lose.
A mockingbird cried out into the cold spring night, and I wondered if Jimmy had heard it and was sitting up in his bed by the window with the binoculars. I rolled over, my back to the full yellow moon, and closed my eyes, wondering if it was already too late.
Fifteen
MERILEE
Merilee parked her minivan in front of the cottage, embarrassed at the little jolt of excitement she felt at the sight of Wade’s truck. Another club member had already planned to drive Sugar home after the AWC meeting, so after dropping Sugar off at the Wimbish House on Peachtree Street—Sugar having declined her offer of assistance to walk her to the front door—Merilee drove straight home, relishing the idea of the rare peace and quiet of an empty house for at least another hour.
She found Wade in the kitchen, kneeling in front of one of the cabinets and unscrewing the hinge. He smiled at her when she walked in, and she hoped the blood rush in her chest didn’t mean she was having a heart attack.
He stood, brushing his hands on his jeans. “The cellar door has been replaced—I’ll have to show you how the new lock works. I thought you might need help moving all those books onto the shelves, so I figured I’d make myself useful until you got back. These kitchen cabinets are pretty warped, so I’ve been making some adjustments to make them easier to open and close.”
“Wow, thanks. I’m really not used to having things in good repair. My husband wasn’t very good with his tools.”
“Really?” Wade said, his mouth widening to a grin.
“Oh,” Merilee said, feeling the blood rush to her face. “I meant, he wasn’t, you know, handy...”
Wade held up his hand. “I know. I’m just teasing. You’re so serious that I couldn’t resist.”
She frowned. “No, I’m not. I just have a lot on my plate and have to be in charge all the time...” She stopped when she saw he was still grinning. “What?”
