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She sipped her coffee again. “All I knew growing up was Mama made a bad choice when she ran away. Running away never solves problems. It only proves you’re better off in the holler.” But the look in her eyes revealed she might not believe that.
“Why did she want to run away?”
Ruby scraped her thumbnail back and forth on the table. “Guess she wanted out of this life. This place. Thought she’d be better on her own even at that age. But she was in Memphis for less than a month when she met a man. He was kind to her and asked her if she wanted to go for pizza—she’d been living on the streets looking for reputable work. She said yes and he took her. He did things to her. Marked her. Grandma Wanda says that she was gone almost four years with no word. No idea why she chose Memphis other than she adored Elvis.”
“Mother said your mom didn’t know she was pregnant when she returned home.”
“She didn’t.” Ruby sipped her coffee. “Mama started feeling sick. Dr. Crocker came. She was a few weeks pregnant.”
Why had Adam let her go without a baby? Did he think she couldn’t produce and wasn’t worth his time? “Did she say how she got free?”
“No. Grandma Wanda said one day the phone rang, and Mama was on the other end. Asked her to come pick her up at a bus station in Memphis. She did.”
“No one ever called the police?”
She shook her head. “Grandma Wanda said it was over and they were going to just forget it since she was home and well, and she knew Mother and Grandma Wanda had been right all along. The world is much scarier than here in the holler.” She glanced at Violet. “Is that what happened to your mama?”
“Basically. But I was born in captivity, and then he let her go.” She leaned forward, uninterested in the past for a moment. “What scares you in the holler? Because I’ll tell you something. This place doesn’t feel good to me. I’m ready to get home.”
She peeped at the duffel bag again. “Where’s home for you?”
“Memphis.”
“I’ve never been anywhere.” She shrugged.
Lula came bouncing into the room, her panties sticking up from her pink cotton pants. “I washed my hands.”
“Good girl. If you’ll let me and the nice lady talk, you can have another snickerdoodle.”
“I will.” She snatched a snickerdoodle. “Can I go play by the crick?”
“No. Stay inside today, okay?” Ruby rubbed her thumb and forefinger together and glanced out the window. What was she concerned about?
“Okay.”
“Lula tells me you have a leather purse. Cecil Johnson gave you that?”
“Yeah,” she said, surprise in her voice. “Cecil’s a good guy. Just a lot of...issues. Like everyone else, I guess.”
“He give you any other gifts?”
“I got gifts from Him,” Lula said and bit into her cookie.
“From Cecil?”
“From Him.”
Ruby’s cheeks reddened. “She’s not talking about Cecil. She’s talking about something else.”
“Show her the doll, Mama. And my other stuff.”
A doll. Violet’s stomach turned. “Gifts from who?” Violet frowned. “Someone you know?”
Lula ran from the room and hurried back with an arm full of things. “My gifts from Him.”
Ruby sighed, worry furrowed along her brow. “You have enough on your plate with solving what’s happened to Tillie, Darla, Atta and Nadine. This is—”
“Underwear.” Violet plucked the doll from Lula’s arm. “Do you know who made this or who these belong to?”
