Bent Road - Lori Roy [66]
Ian brought the newspaper clipping to school last Monday. He said that Nelly Simpson was married to the richest man in Hays and there wasn’t a man, woman, or child in Rooks County who would dare leave a fingerprint on Nelly Simpson’s Ford Fairlane. Never mind, steal it. No man except Jack Mayer. Ian said Jack Mayer wouldn’t give two God damned cents about Nelly Simpson or any other Simpson.
“We got trouble now,” Ian had said, sitting across from Daniel at the cafeteria table and propping up his short leg on the cross bar. He didn’t need to do this with his new boot because both feet could touch the floor at the same time, but he did it anyway. “He’s got himself a car now. He can get to anyone he damn well pleases.”
“I thought he was living in your barn.”
“Sure he was, but now he’s got a car. It’s trouble. Real big damn trouble.” Ian glanced around as if Jack Mayer might be standing right behind him. “My brothers say maybe we can hunt him down.” He lowers his voice. “After we go to shooting pheasant, maybe we’ll go to shooting Jack Mayer. It’ll be practice. Real good practice. We’ll track him down.”
“How we going to track a Ford Fairlane?” Daniel asked.
Ian opened his brown bag lunch, looked inside. “Dogs,” he had said, pulling out a sandwich wrapped in waxed paper. “We’ll use dogs.”
When Daniel opens his eyes again, the white sheers still shine with an orange glow, his pillow is lying on the floor, Evie’s room is quiet and the telephone is ringing. Outside his door, footsteps cross the living room floor and move into the kitchen. The phone stops ringing and Jonathon’s muffled voice drifts into Daniel’s room. He closes his eyes and opens them again when there is a tap on his door.
“Daniel,” Elaine says. She knocks again, louder. “Daniel, wake up.”
She cracks the door and the light from the living room makes him blink. He lifts up on one elbow. “Yeah, I’m up. I’m awake.”
“Get yourself dressed. That was Daddy. There’s been an accident.”
Daniel sits up, resting his hands on his knees.
“Get yourself going,” Jonathon says, taking Elaine’s place. Daniel wants to tell Jonathon to get his own damned self going, but instead he swings his legs over the side of the bed and puts both feet on the cold floor. In the next room, Elaine taps on Evie’s door.
“No time for questions,” Jonathon says. “Get a move on.”
Chapter 19
Sitting in Elaine’s lap, Evie wraps herself in a blanket and buries her nose in it. Elaine tightens her hug, kisses the top of top of Evie’s head and says, “You try to sleep, pumpkin. Daddy will tell us when there’s something to know.”
Though she closes her eyes, Evie can’t sleep because everyone’s shoes make an awful noise on the tile floors and the hospital smells make her want to pinch her nose closed. She presses her hands over her ears as more people walk down the hall, their footsteps ringing off the gray block walls and shiny tile floors.
“Mama, you’re here,” Elaine says, lifting Evie and setting her on the ground. “You’re okay.”
Daddy wraps one arm around Mama while reaching out to Evie with the other. They both are as gray as the walls and Daddy looks smaller in the hospital than he does at home. Evie drops her blanket, letting it fall to the ground, and hugs Daddy’s leg.
“I’m just fine,” Mama says, kissing Elaine and Daniel’s cheeks and hugging Evie as she drifts from Daddy’s leg to Mama’s. “Everyone is fine.”
Mama’s eyes are red, like she’s been crying, and her hair is mussed on top. In Detroit, Mama’s hair was never mussed. Every morning before they moved to Kansas,