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“I ain’t never seen you carry on about a woman before…you must care about her.”
Lee nodded. “Yeah…”
Lee pounced on the old man’s chest with a heavy finger. “But dammit Joe, you even buried me? Sight unseen?”
“She insisted on it. She said it was the right thing to do. You lost at war and all. That we should be proud that you served. We didn’t have a body, but you’ll find your grave on the other side of Dil’s, you see, she brung his body home when they shipped it on the train.” Joe hung his head. “And she cried real tears for you too. She cried long and hard for you, Mr. Lee. Why, if I didn’t know better, which I don’t, I’d swear she loved you, too.”
Lee shook his head. “Right about now, I need something to punch, or drink.”
“How you gonna be around, if you care about her, and not say or do somethin’?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Lee. I had no idea,” Joe apologized.
Joe hung his head. “There’s more--”
“Well, you might as well go ahead and tell it all, Joe.” Lee fretted, his fist coming down on a low beam.
“The Jeffries, they been over here a lot. They been threatening Miss Hattie. Somebody even set fire to the house a couple of times. But the worst of it is, the youngest one has an eye for her. Oh it ain’t like that, he just wants to ruin her somehow. He wants her in her place as he calls it.”
Lee whirled around. “Frank! And does she reciprocate this attention?”
“No sir, she don’t. She ain’t no flirt. And she knows her place. She knows he’s pokin’ fun at her. She got more pride than a body would think. She usually has a rifle pointed at them when they come. Otherwise they might have done even more damage.” Joe glanced at his old friend.
Lee shook his head now, hanging it. “If they touch her, I swear I’ll kill them.”
“Yes sir, I believe you would.”
“Well, you’ve handed me a big problem. Now I gotta figure out how to solve it,” Lee said, his voice going softer, his temper easing a bit.
Dil’s death hit him hard. He’d hoped after all this time they could work the land together.
“What you gonna do, Mr. Lee?” Joe asked sadly. “You think I should put her out?”
Lee stared at the old man. “No! She’s a right to the land, Joe. Let me have some thinking time. Can you feed me here for the next day or two ‘til I figure out what I’m going to do?”
“Yes sir.” Joe perked up quickly. “I knowed you wouldn’t have the heart to just throw her out…”
Lee flopped on the floor and leaned against the wall. He closed his eyes and sighed heavily.
Joe watched, concern lacing his expression. “Are you alright, Mr. Lee? You ain’t hurt or nothin’ is you? I mean…”
Lee opened his eyes slowly, his dark blue gaze on Joe and then the house. “No, I’m alright. It’s just well, I’ve been runnin’ away from this place for years. When Ma and Pa died, I thought it useless to stay here. Then Dil and me got together again and built the new house and we were proud of it. We both intended on coming back to it. But the trouble didn’t stop. At one point, I thought I’d never come back here, but despite everything, it’s the only place I ever called home. And yet, all after the war I realized I wanted to come home and make this my home, as it should be. I figured me and Hattie could work it all out between us. After all, I gave her the place, myself. But I needed some money for those taxes too. So I gathered all my pay and headed home. I figured if I came home with money in my pocket the Jeffries would never see their names on this deed. I seen death, I seen sorrows, and I seen men die for no reason. I’m tired, Joe. Just very tired. And now to hear that Dil is gone, well, maybe I should have just kept walkin’ west myself. Maybe it’s a sign I don’t belong here. Maybe I ought to just turn around and walk away. Might be better for everyone that way.”
Joe shook his head. “No sir, you belong. You belong more than any
body, I knows that. This is your home. Your folks lived here. It’s fittin’ and right that you live here. We’s got problems, but we can work ‘em out.”
“I’m half in love with her now, Joe. How am I gonna keep my hands off her? I didn’t want to be, I knew it would mean trouble for the both of us, but I swear she’s the only one I thought about all those years. And now she’s here, and I want to claim her as mine…but…”
“I don’t know…I surely don’t know.”
Lee cupped his hand over his face for a minute, thinking about Hattie and then his brother. His only link. He missed him more now than he had in all the years they weren’t together. He could still picture Dil pullin’ a good one on him and laughing about it. The fun they had made it harder to take his death. He hadn’t expected this. Death was all he’d seen for years. Soldiers freezing to death because they had no shoes, or boots or blankets. Brothers killing brothers, fathers killing sons. Now he came home to find Dil dead, his only brother, his only link to family.
“Okay, when I figure out what I’m going to do, I’ll let you know. Fair enough?” Lee asked, trying to clear his mind of it all. “Until then, don’t tell her who I am.”
“Fair enough.” Joe stared down at his friend. “I’m sorry, Mr. Lee. Truly I am. I wish I had better news fer ya. You paid a terrible price for all this.”
