Finally Nation rolled on his back, lifted his hands in front of his face, and began to cry. Daddy stopped in mid-swing. The demon had gone out of him. I knew now what Grandma meant when she said Daddy had a temper.
Nation, ribs surely broken, lip busted, spitting teeth, bawled, lay there with his feet and hands up like a dog that had rolled on its back to impress its master.
When Daddy got his wind back, he said, “They found Louise Canerton down by the river. Dead. Cut the same way and tied as them others. You and your boys and that lynch mob didn’t do nothin’ but hang an innocent man.”
“You’re supposed to be the law?” Nation said, spitting blood. “You ain’t supposed to do nothin’ like this.”
“If’n I was any kind of law, I’d have had you arrested for what you did to Mose, but that wouldn’t have done no good. No one around here would convict you, Nation. They’re scared of you. But I ain’t. I ain’t. And if you ever cross my path again, I swear to God, I’ll kill you and beat your corpse daily till there ain’t nothin’ left of it. You just be glad this old handle wasn’t as sturdy as some I got.”
Daddy tossed the shattered axe handle aside, said, “Come on.” I started back to the car. Mama, Tom, and Grandma joined us. Mama put her arm around Daddy’s waist, and he returned the favor.
As we passed Mrs. Nation, she looked up and leaned on her hoe. She had a black eye, a swollen lip, and some old bruises on her cheek. She smiled at us.
Grandma said, “Good day to you.”
When the beating was over and we were home, Daddy explained to me whose body had been found. I sat on the screened-in porch and looked out at nothing and thought about Mrs. Canerton. Tom sat with me, doing the same.
Mrs. Canerton wasn’t just some poor unfortunate we didn’t know, she was someone we knew and really liked. It was hard to believe the woman I had seen at the Halloween party, all beautiful and pursued by every eligible man there, was now in our barn wrapped in a tarp, cut up like those other women.
It was a stunning blow.
As we sat there, Daddy came out on the porch. He pushed his way between us. He had a dried sweat coated with whiskey smell. He said, “Listen, kids. I know I haven’t exactly been right. But you can count on one thing. I’m through with all that. I’ve been an idiot. I’m on my feet now, and I’m gonna stay there. I’ll never touch another drop of whiskey, or any strong drink, long as I live. Hear me?”
“Yes sir,” we said.
“First thing tomorrow, we’re gonna start gettin’ these fields in shape, and the day after that I’m gonna start back regular at the barbershop. I ain’t exactly been settin’ a good example, and I ain’t got no excuse for it but my own self-pity. And you know what? I thought maybe Mose might have done it after all. I couldn’t figure how logically, but with the murders stopped, it crossed my mind.”
“Mine too,” I said.
“All right then. Let’s get back to being what we’re supposed to be. A family.”
“Daddy?” Tom said. “You’re gonna go back to bathin’ regular, ain’t you?”
Daddy laughed. “Yes, honey, I am.”
21
Daddy was true to his word. I never seen nor heard of him taking a drink again. He went back to work in the fields and back to work at the barbershop. And in short time his spirit filled up the house again.
But on this very day I’m telling you about, he heated up water and took a bath on the back porch in a number ten tub.
Rest of us waited in the kitchen. You’d have thought we was waiting for Lazarus to rise, and I suppose in one sense we were. Because when the back door opened and he come into the house, it was as if he was a man reborn.
He stood tall. His face was shaved close. His skin looked clean and pink. His hair was slicked back and he had on a fresh suit of clothes and held his best tan hat in his hand.
He took Mama in his arms and kissed her, hard, right in front of us. Mama and Daddy were always affectionate, but you didn’t see anything like that right in front of us, not the way that kiss was.
When Daddy and Mama separated, smiling, he put on his hat, looked at me, said, “Harry, I need you to come with me.”
“Me too,” Tom said.
“No, baby girl. Just Harry. He’s near a man, and I might need him.”
I can’t tell you what that meant to me. I climbed in the car with him and we drove over to Mrs. Canerton’s.
The doors to Mrs. Canerton’s house were unlocked, but that wasn’t so strange back then. People didn’t lock their doors like now, there wasn’t a need.
Daddy looked through the rooms while I stood in the parlor looking at the books in the shelves, thinking about how enthusiastic Mrs. Canerton had always been about them. I saw a number that I had read. I felt worse by the moment.
When Daddy came back from looking, he shook his head. “Ain’t no sign of a struggle nowhere. She’s just gone. She could have been out and was nabbed by this fella, or maybe she know’d him and went with him without no trouble. And if that’s the case, it could be a number of folks, ’cause she know’d everyone and was kind to everyone.”
We went out back where she kept her car. It was missing.
“Well now, that’s somethin’,” Daddy said. “Means she went off in her car and either picked this fella up, or he was with her.”
“Cecil might know,” I said. “He was seein’ her some.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
We went over to the barbershop. It was empty except for Cecil. He was sittin’ in Daddy’s barber chair reading a detective magazine.
Cecil seemed surprised to see Daddy all spiffed up and neatly dressed. “How about givin’ me a haircut, Cecil?” Daddy asked, removing his hat.
Cecil got out of the chair and flipped the magazine on the table with the others. “Certainly. You’re lookin’ good, Jacob.”
Daddy climbed in the chair. Cecil pulled a sheet over Daddy to catch the hair, and went to work. “Did you know about Louise?” Daddy asked.
“Well, me and her ain’t exactly visitin’ these days. What about her?”
“She’s dead, Cecil.”
The scissors quit snipping. Cecil came around to the front of the chair and looked at Daddy. “No?”
Daddy shook his head. “Afraid so. I didn’t mean to drop it on you so blunt, but there ain’t no other way to tell it. Found her body in the river. She was got by that maniac.”
“It wasn’t Mose,” Cecil said. “You said it wasn’t Mose.”
Cecil went over and sat in one of the customer’s chairs, absently clicked the scissors a few times.
“I thought me and her might be together, you know. But it didn’t work. She didn’t want to get serious. She quit seein’ me. I still thought about her. I think I might have been in love with her. Good God. How’n hell could that happen? She wasn’t a river whore.”
“I thought maybe you might have heard of someone was seein’ her might not have been on the up and up. Maybe you knew or suspected somethin’ suspicious goin’ on.”
“No. Jacob, would it be all right I didn’t cut your hair? I don’t feel so good.”
Daddy nodded. “That’s all right, Cecil. I got things to do. I just thought you might could help us and I could get a haircut in the meantime. I’m cleaning myself up. I’ll be comin’ in more regular. I know that affects your money, but I wanted you to know.”
“I’m glad for you,” Cecil said, snapping the scissors. “Jesus. Louise.”
“You rest a bit,” Daddy said, flicking off the sheet and rising. “Not like there’s a rush on customers. You don’t feel up to it, go home a while.”
“I’m all right. I’ll just sit a moment.”
Daddy put on his hat, said, “All right then.”
Me and Daddy went outside. When we were out to the car, Daddy said, “Run back in there and get a bottle of that coconut hair oil, will you, son? I’m gonna clean myself up, I might as well smell good all around.”
I went back for the hair oil. Cecil was in the barber chair with a magazine.