Big Cherry Holler - Adriana Trigiani [50]
Spec searches the man’s pockets for identification, finds his wallet, and opens it. “His name is Albert Grimes. He’s from Dunbar.” Dunbar is a coal camp over by Appalachia. What was he doing in the closed theater on Christmas Day?
“I wonder if he’s kin to Pearl,” Spec says, waving her over.
“I don’t know.”
“Let me see,” Pearl says, running up behind me. She leans over the stretcher. “He’s my father.” Spec looks at her—“What?”—and then looks at me; I had no idea Pearl’s father was alive or lived around here. I glance at Pearl, who gazes down at the man on the gurney. She isn’t afraid for him; there is detached concern in her eyes, but certainly not worry. Spec and I lift him into the Rescue Squad wagon. I look at Pearl again and hold back a thousand questions—this is not the time.
“The building’s empty!” the Fire Chief yells to his crew. “Let her have it, boys!” In earnest, they begin hosing the building through the windows; the gold flames disappear, replaced with thick black smoke.
Doc Daugherty rides with Albert Grimes in the back of the wagon. Spec and I speed up to Lonesome Pine Hospital’s emergency room, which is not more than a five-minute drive through town and out through the southern section. The fireman whom Dr. B. treated did not require oxygen, but he is behind us in Appalachia’s rescue squad wagon for a thorough check at the hospital.
Albert wakes up and moans; his blue eyes are fuzzy, and he cannot focus. As we wheel him into the emergency room, Tozz Ball wants to ask him a few questions, but Spec tells Tozz to beat it. Pearl and Leah sweep through the automatic doors and search the room for Albert. Pearl sees him through the window in ICU and goes to him. Leah joins Spec and me.
“Is he all right?” Leah asks.
“We think so. He took in a lot of smoke.”
“He didn’t mean no harm.”
“I’m sure he didn’t.” I put my arm around Leah.
“He’s basically good. He just had a bad run of it.”
“Of what?”
“Of everything. Things didn’t work out between us. He lost his job with the railroad on account of the disability and it all went downhill after ’at. He just lost his way, you know.” Leah goes through the doors and into the ICU. She puts her arm around Pearl, who rests her head on her mother’s shoulder.
I can’t believe that Leah is making excuses for the man who left her and a baby. She doesn’t love him anymore; she’s going to marry Worley. Maybe she just feels sorry for him. Pity is a dangerous thing in a woman: it gives the man the power to treat you any way he wants; he can stay and be cruel, or he can abandon you. As I watch Pearl lean on her mother, I think of my own mother, who I could always count on when I was hurting. My mother pitied my stepfather, Fred Mulligan, felt compassion for a man who could not feel, and it left me in the middle, feeling sorry for a man who could not love me.
“I think we ought to run down and check on Jim Roy. This thing could give him a nervous breakdown,” Spec tells me, and I follow him back to the squad wagon.
We pull up in front of the Pharmacy. Fleeta has opened it, turned on all the lights, and it looks as though the whole town is stuffed inside, where it’s warm. The mechanical choir in the window nods and waves as though nothing has happened. There is one truck left on standby across the street outside the theater. Jack Mac and Etta stand on the sidewalk outside the Pharmacy, watching the firemen as they secure the building.
“Mama, look!” Etta points to the marquee, which has burned off the facade of the theater.
Before the fire, the bright white marquee used to have a green plastic pine tree anchoring it in the center, and THE TRAIL in plastic cursive on either side. Underneath THE TRAIL was always the title of the movie, or at least as close as Jim Roy could spell it. As the years went on, letters got lost or broken, and Jim Roy didn’t replace them. So you’d see titles like GO WIND for Gone With the Wind or SUM 42 for The Summer of ’42. Now the modern plastic is gone, and under it, in bold letters carved into the wood, is AMAZU.
“What’s Am-a-zoo?