Kitabı oku: «Shepherds Abiding in Dry Creek», sayfa 3

The woman continued, “I’m sorry. I think every little girl everywhere wants that Suzy bake set in the cupcake edition. It’s quite the thing. I don’t know if you can even find it in the stores anymore.”

Les nodded. Maybe that’s why someone had written the demand note. Maybe they thought the church would have extra pull with a store. “Whoever took the shepherd left a note.” He held the paper out to her. “I think a girl might have written it.”

The woman didn’t even look up to read the note. She just shook her head. “If that’s where you’re headed, you should know my daughter is only four. She can’t even write her name.”

“Oh.” Les had not known the girl was so young. He didn’t think a girl that age could even lift the shepherd figure. The thing was plastic, but it was heavy enough. And it was bulky.

“She’s going to learn to write her name,” the woman continued, as if she was making a point. “We believe in schooling. She’ll go to preschool a couple of days a week in Miles City after the holidays. Most kids here probably already know how to write their names, but Becky didn’t get a chance to go to preschool in Los Angeles. If she’s behind, she’ll catch up.”

“I’m sure she’ll learn to write in no time,” Les said just to put the woman at ease, since her daughter’s schooling seemed important to her. “Kids learn fast.”

Les hoped he was speaking the truth. What did he know about kids? He knew he should forget about the kids and say goodbye, but he found he didn’t want to rush off. Not now that, with the sun fully up and spreading its sunshine all over, Les noticed that some of the shadows were gone from the woman’s face.

He wondered if she would go out to dinner with him after all. Now that they were talking about education instead of crime, she seemed a little friendlier.

“I—ah—” Les swallowed. “We have a good school in Miles City. You don’t need to worry about that.”

The woman smiled. “I’m glad to know that.”

Les wasn’t prepared for the woman’s full smile.

He swallowed again. “Thanks for talking to me. Let me know if you see anything suspicious. It’s probably just some kids playing a prank. Wanting to see if I can figure out that XIX clue they left. I wonder if it’s part of a math equation.”

Les had been ready to turn and walk away when the smile fell from Mrs. Gossett’s face and something in her eyes shifted. She’d suddenly gone tense.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” he asked.

She shook her head. The weariness was back on her face. “The XIX. Where was that?”

“At the end of the note.”

The woman bit her lip nervously. “Are you going to be in town for a little while?”

Les didn’t flatter himself that she wanted to see him again, but he nodded. “I’ll be at the café for another half hour or so. If you think of something that might help, let me know.”

She nodded.

There wasn’t anything more to say, so Les gave her a goodbye nod. “It was a pleasure to talk with you, ma’am. And welcome to Dry Creek.”

Les turned and left. He hoped Mrs. Hargrove would be happy with his little welcome speech at the end. He’d even meant it.

Marla barely waited for the man to step off her porch before she closed the door and locked it. Of course, turning the lock was just habit. She had nothing to fear from the reserve deputy sheriff. Although, if her suspicions were right, she might not want to hear what he had to say to her and her children if she had to take her son over to the café in a few minutes.

“Sammy,” she called.

Becky was happily walking around with her bunny slippers and frog pajamas on. But it was almost seven o’clock and Marla hadn’t heard from her son yet this morning. Usually he was up by now even though it wasn’t a school day. She’d thought earlier that he was sleeping in. Now she knew he was just hiding out.

“Sammy, come out here.”

Marla leaned back against the locked door and looked around. For the first time she wondered how she could have fooled herself so completely. She could paint the rooms in her house with gold leaf and the people here wouldn’t respect them. Not if Sammy had stolen the Nativity shepherd from the church and tagged that note with the 19th Street gang symbol. Her family would be marked as troublemakers regardless of how their house looked or what their ethnic background was. People were scared of gangs, and rightfully so. If they figured out Sammy had wanted to be in a gang, there would be no new start for them. The whole move up here would have been pointless.

“Sammy!”

Her son stepped into the living room. He was wearing a long white T-shirt and baggy pants. It was typical gang clothes for south central L.A.

“I thought you were going to throw those clothes away,” Marla said. They didn’t have many clothes, but Sammy did have some jeans that fit better. And why did he need to spike his hair?

“I’ve got to wear something.” Sammy glared at her. “I can’t go around naked.”

Marla felt that sometimes she didn’t recognize her son. “You have those jeans I got for you to wear when you start school here—”

“They don’t fit.” Sammy shrugged. “I’m saving them for when we paint the house.”

Marla forced herself to relax. She supposed that clothes were the least of her worries, although people did form opinions about young people because of the way they were dressed. “I just want to be proud of you.”

Sammy grunted. “What’s in the bag?”

Marla looked down. Becky was sitting on the floor and had already opened the white bag Les had left with them. She hadn’t taken anything out, although she had a grin on her face.

There were so few smiling moments for Becky these days that Marla didn’t want to spoil this one by questioning Sammy right now. The sheriff would be in town for another half hour. They had time to eat a bite.

“The woman at the café sent us over doughnuts for breakfast.” Marla said. “Wasn’t that nice of her?”

Becky nodded and beamed up at her. “Yes, Mommy.”

Sammy grunted.

Marla didn’t react to Sammy. Gratitude wasn’t the big problem of the day, either. “Let’s go sit at the table when we eat them. We don’t want to get everything sticky.”

Sammy had already walked over and looked in the sack Becky held. For the first time this morning he reminded Marla of the little boy he had been. “Hey, there’s jelly doughnuts. Cool. I can see the raspberry filling coming out of one of them.”

“Let’s take them to the table,” Marla repeated for Becky’s ears.

“I am, Mommy,” Becky said as she stood up and then reached down and grabbed the bag.

Marla watched her children walk into the kitchen together. Becky was holding the bag of doughnuts, but Marla could see that Sammy was guarding them as he walked with his sister. What was she to do? Marla asked herself as she leaned back against the door. Sammy’s heart was good. Look how careful he was to help Becky without taking the sack from her. An aggressive child would just grab the bag. But not Sammy. He had always had a warm place in his heart for his little sister.

She was surprised it hadn’t all clicked together for her earlier when she was standing there talking to the deputy sheriff. Becky might not have written that note asking for a Suzy bake set, but Sammy had. He knew what Becky wanted for Christmas. Becky had been talking about that bake set for weeks. Marla had even wondered if she might be able to squeeze the money out of her budget for one. She hadn’t been sure if she could do it, so she hadn’t said anything to either of the children. She’d just let her suggestion of handmade gifts stand.

Maybe that had been a mistake. Marla realized that if she had told Sammy she was buying a few presents after all, maybe he wouldn’t have taken that shepherd. Somewhere in all of this, she was partially at fault.

She couldn’t help but think that Jorge would have known what to do for Sammy. Maybe Sammy felt free to misbehave because he knew she wasn’t as sure of herself as Jorge had been in disciplining him. She wasn’t used to flying solo as a parent and she wasn’t sure she could do a good job of it. Sometimes a growing boy needed a father.

Marla listened to the voices of her children in the dining room for a minute, then started forward to join them. She was going to have to do her best to give Sammy what a father would.

Marla was glad the card table and folding chairs had fit in the luggage carrier on top of the car when she moved up here. Her children were sitting at the table now. It might not be as sturdy as the table she would eventually buy for them, but it was important for them to have a place to sit down and eat together. For all of Sammy’s sullen ways, he’d never protested eating dinner with the family.

Sammy had put white paper plates and plastic cups on the table. He’d even brought out the gallon of milk. Marla was pleased that they had waited for her.

Marla let everyone finish their doughnuts before she cleared her throat.

“Becky, will you go to your room and get dressed, please?”

Becky didn’t always end up with a matching outfit, but she liked to dress herself and Marla encouraged her to be independent.

After Becky left, Marla turned to Sammy. “Is there something you need to tell me?”

“Nah,” Sammy muttered, his face flushing.

Marla counted to three. “Did you take a shepherd from the church’s Nativity scene?”

Sammy’s face got redder. “It’s just a stupid shepherd. They don’t even exist anymore. At least, not anywhere except in Mexico. I mean, who needs them? We’re through with that life. We’re turning white.”

Marla kept her voice even. “Just because we moved up here, it doesn’t mean that we’re not still part Hispanic.”

Sammy grunted. “I haven’t seen any amigos around.”

No one would know Sammy was Hispanic by looking at him. She knew he identified himself with his old amigos, but maybe it was time for them all to step away from their background a little bit.

“You’ll meet some new friends when you go to school.”

“Yeah, right.”

“We’re not ashamed of being Hispanic.” Marla tried again. “We’re just getting to know people slow and easy. We don’t need to be any particular ethnic group for a while.”

Sammy grunted.

Marla decided she couldn’t talk about their heritage all morning.

“You know it’s wrong to take things that don’t belong to you. We’ll go over to the café and talk to the deputy who was here asking about the shepherd. Then you’ll give the shepherd back and we’ll talk about what your punishment will be.”

Marla was hoping that if Sammy confessed to what he had done and returned the shepherd, no charges would be filed. She didn’t know how much the Nativity figure was worth, but she doubted it had a high enough value to make this anything but a misdemeanor. Once they figured that out, she’d talk more with Sammy about his other feelings.

“I could give up Christmas,” Sammy offered. “Not that it’s going to be anything, anyway.”

“I’m hoping to make sweet pork tamales,” Marla said.

Sammy looked up. “With the green chilies?”

Marla nodded. “If I can find a nice pork roast to use in the filling.”

“Well, maybe I could give up Christmas after the tamales are all gone.”

Marla smiled. “We’ll talk.”

Marla wondered how she could make Sammy feel more at home in Dry Creek. She knew he missed his friends. Even though those friends were not good for him, he was still entitled to miss them. A few days ago he’d gotten a letter from a boy back in Los Angeles. Sammy had protested, but eventually he’d agreed to let her read the note about some baseball, his lucky baseball, that he’d left behind and how the boy was going to get it to him soon.

At least Sammy had one friend there who didn’t sound like a gang member. She hoped baseball wasn’t gang code for something else. She couldn’t forbid Sammy to have contact with everybody, though. A boy needed some friends, and the note sounded fine. Maybe she had been wrong to postpone school for him by the few weeks that she had. Of course, it was too late to change that now. The classes would be on Christmas break next week, anyway.

“Let’s see if Becky is ready,” Marla said. “We want to go over while the sheriff is at the café.”

“He’s not a regular lawman, is he?” Sammy asked with a frown. “He doesn’t look like the police or anything.”

“I suspect he’s close enough to the real thing.”

“I’m not afraid of him,” Sammy announced.

Marla figured her son was lying about not being afraid when he took Becky’s hand to hold while they walked down the street to the café. He shrugged off the hand Marla tried to rest on his shoulder, but she was glad he had Becky’s hand at least.

They had to pass the church to reach the café and Marla looked over at the Nativity set. Since the church was on the same side of the road as her house, she couldn’t see the lighted figures from her windows. It was nice just knowing they were there, though. She’d heard someone say that the whole town of Dry Creek planned to sing carols around the Nativity set on Christmas Eve.

Marla hadn’t taken her children to church here yet, and once everyone knew what Sammy had done they might not be welcome, anyway, especially not if they made the gang connection. But she hoped they would at least be able to hear the carols being sung. Listening to Christmas carols took Marla back to her childhood.

During some of their poorest years as a family, the best part of Christmas for her had been sneaking into the back of a church and listening to the singing. Her life seemed brand-new every Christmas when she heard those songs. After a few carols, she didn’t care that her only gift was whatever came in the charity basket from whatever group had been assigned her family. She’d never joined a church or anything, but she somehow knew that the world had been changed forever on that first Christmas night.

She had put that wooden cross up in her bedroom at the new house and, if she wasn’t sleeping by the fireplace that night, she would study it before she turned off her light. Her husband had found some peace by looking at the cross, but so far that peace continued to elude her. The only thing she felt when she looked at it was longing. Longing for security. Longing for a better life for her children. Longing for things she could not even name.

Marla could see the sheriff through the café window. He was sitting at a table waiting. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed that he was still there. She knew Sammy needed to acknowledge what he had done, but she hoped the sheriff wouldn’t make the connection to the 19th Street gang. Somehow the sheriff had seemed more intimidating to her this morning than he had when she’d first met him in the hardware store.

She wondered if she should tell him about Sammy’s feelings for his old friends. Maybe the man had once been the odd one out like Sammy was these days. He was a strange one, that man. He looked so quiet, but something in his eyes said he saw everything. She hadn’t noticed it until this morning. Would he see what was behind a boy’s vandalism? She could only hope for mercy if he did.

Chapter Four

Les was on his second cup of coffee. He was sitting in the café hoping Mrs. Gossett would come by and tell him what she suspected about the missing shepherd. He’d already answered the questions of everyone waiting for him back in the café and he was getting tired of lingering when he had work to do.

“So she didn’t say anything about the shepherd?” Charley asked him again.

Charley, Mrs. Hargrove and Elmer were sitting at the table next to him, watching him drink coffee. Les would feel more comfortable if they’d take their focus off him, but he couldn’t tell people where to look. He supposed it all went with the job, anyway. They were curious, and he didn’t have the gift of chatter. But maybe he should try.

Les shook his head and cleared his throat. “I don’t think she knew anything about it before I told her. At least, that’s how she acted.”

He felt comfortable saying that much. He wouldn’t mention the expression that had come over the woman’s face when she had time to think about the Suzy bake set for a moment or two. When she thought about it, she had suspected something. He could see it in her eyes; they had turned from annoyed to scared in a heartbeat. He wasn’t going to make his suspicions public, however. He knew how fast gossip could spread and he didn’t want the family tried and convicted before they even had a chance to talk to anyone about the whole situation. Besides, he could be wrong.

“Another refill?” Linda asked as she walked by his table.

“I better not.” Les looked at his watch. He’d been sitting here for almost thirty minutes. He’d give it another five. He still had those cows to feed. Besides, he was beginning to feel foolish waiting for someone who wasn’t showing up.

“Here they come,” Elmer announced. He’d positioned himself so he could look out the café window and see the road to the left. “A boy, a little girl and the mother. They look serious, too.”

Les felt his neck knot up. “Maybe we shouldn’t all be sitting here waiting for them.”

“Oh.” Elmer shuffled his chair around so it wasn’t facing the window.

“Let me get my knitting out,” Mrs. Hargrove said as she lifted her bag up to the table and started to rummage around in it.

“I could go over to the counter and get me a doughnut,” Charley announced as he stood up.

“Get me one, too?” Elmer asked.

Les wasn’t sure what was worse—the sudden staged activity or the stares that would have faced the family otherwise.

“I need to get a fresh pot of coffee,” Linda said as she started walking back to the kitchen.

Les deliberately did not turn around in his chair, so that he continued facing away from the door. He didn’t even turn when he heard the click of the door opening and felt the rush of cold air on his neck. He believed in giving people some room to move. And he could not be sure that Marla Gossett was here to talk to him. Maybe she had walked over here with her children so they could thank Linda for the doughnuts.

Les could almost feel someone looking at him. He wished now that he’d turned around before the family entered the café.

“Sheriff Wilkerson,” the woman finally said.

He turned in his chair, trying, and probably failing, to look natural.

He hadn’t expected them to be huddled together. The woman looked frightened.

“You can call me Les.”

“Could we talk to you outside?” The woman stood beside the boy.

This was the first time Les had gotten a chance to look at the boy. If he’d seen him before, he would have made the connection earlier that he was the one who had taken the shepherd. The boy had a sullen look on his face that reminded Les of himself at that age. He had on a wrinkled white T-shirt that was too big for him and his hair looked as if it had tried to face down a tornado and failed.

The boy hadn’t been out of bed for long and Les wondered if he just hadn’t had time to do things like comb his hair. Most likely it wasn’t a matter of the time of day. The boy would probably still look that way at noon. Les guessed life was not going the way the boy wanted it to and likely it hadn’t been for some time now. He wouldn’t be the first kid in that situation to steal something. Les might have turned to petty crime himself if he hadn’t found a church at that age instead. A boy needed to belong to something that challenged him, whether it was a sports team or a youth group.

Les stood up. “I’m just on my way out, anyway.”

“You and the kids come back in and have breakfast when you’ve finished with Les here,” Mrs. Hargrove offered with a smile for Marla. “My treat.”

Mrs. Hargrove had her knitting in her lap and her needles in her hand.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t,” Marla said. She didn’t want to discourage the woman’s friendliness. “Maybe some other morning. We have a lot of things to do today.”

“At least stop for coffee and orange juice,” Linda added with another smile. She was holding a pot of coffee. “I just made some fresh coffee. That doesn’t take much time and it’s on the house.”

“You’ve already given us the doughnuts.” Marla put a hand on each child’s shoulder even though Sammy scowled up at her. “I hope you’ll let me pay for them.”

“Absolutely not.”

Marla nodded. “Well, then, we appreciate them. Don’t we, children?”

Marla squeezed each child’s shoulder and they each murmured something.

In that instant, Marla had a flashback to the times when her mother had done the same awkward thing to her and she’d had to mumble her gratitude to the latest person who had taken pity on their family. It was still hard for her to say thank-you when someone did something nice for her. It was always worse when she had to say thank-you to a charity person.

Marla wondered if her mother had felt as overwhelmed being a single parent after her father died as she did. Still, next time she’d refuse the doughnuts. The price of charity was too high. Not that there was likely to be a repeat of the gesture, not when people found out that Sammy had taken the church’s shepherd.

“Well, thank you again,” Marla said as she turned. She was only now getting used to the heat in the café. It was cold outside, but she had no desire to have the conversation with the sheriff where it would be overheard by others. She didn’t think there was much chance that the news of Sammy’s theft would stay a secret in this small town, but she had to try. She didn’t want to see the way people would look at her and the children after they knew what Sammy had done. Still, those looks would be better than what they’d receive if people put the clues together and figured out that Sammy gave his allegiance to a Hispanic street gang.

The deputy sheriff was already standing over by the door.

“Thanks,” Marla said as the deputy sheriff opened the door for her and the children.

The winter air was cold, but Marla waited for the man to close the door and turn to face her and the children before she began. “Sammy has something to say to you.”

The deputy sheriff squatted down a little so that he was at Sammy’s height. “I’m listening.”

Marla still had her hand on Sammy’s shoulder and she could feel her son tense up. Whether it was because she had her hand on his shoulder or the deputy sheriff made him nervous she didn’t know.

“That whole Nativity thing is stupid. Shepherds don’t even exist anymore.”

“Sammy,” Marla said softly. “We don’t say things are stupid. Besides, that’s not what we came here to say.”

The boy’s chin jutted out and he was silent.

Marla wondered if she was going to have to confess on her son’s behalf.

Instead, the deputy sheriff started to talk. “Well, I know one real shepherd who would disagree with you. I’ll introduce you some time. I have some sheep myself. Even a few little lambs.”

Sammy looked up at that, but didn’t say anything.

The sheriff continued, “I wanted to thank you for calling our attention to that wire. If we hadn’t seen it, the angel would have fallen. We’ll have someone take care of it.”

Sammy glared at the deputy sheriff. “It doesn’t matter if an angel falls. It’s supposed to be able to fly, anyway, isn’t it?”

The man chuckled. “I’m afraid our angel isn’t quite up to that yet.”

Marla had forgotten that Becky was listening until her daughter spoke. “Maybe that’s what the shepherd did. Maybe he flew away.”

Marla decided she needed to do something before LesWilkerson thought they were all crazy. “Sammy.”

Sammy looked up at her rebelliously for a moment and then lowered his gaze. “Nothing flew away. I took it.”

Everyone was quiet.

“Was there any particular reason?” the deputy sheriff finally asked thoughtfully. “I know the church will work with you if—”

“I just took it, okay?”

The deputy sheriff nodded. “You know it’s considered stealing?”

“So arrest me already.” Sammy still looked defiant.

“Oh, surely, you won’t arrest him?” Marla spoke in a rush. “He’s only eleven. I know it’s wrong, but—”

The deputy sheriff held up his hand. “Nobody’s talking about arresting him.”

“He’ll bring it back.” Marla turned to her son. “Won’t you, Sammy?”

Sammy stared straight ahead for a minute before he nodded.

“Well, we appreciate that,” the deputy sheriff said. “People have been looking forward to having that Nativity scene outside the church when they sing carols on Christmas Eve. It just wouldn’t be the same without the shepherd.”

“I said I’d bring it back,” Sammy said.

The man nodded. “Then we can talk about what kind of consequences there should be for what you did.”

“He’ll be punished,” Marla said in a rush. Maybe the deputy sheriff wasn’t going to tell everyone about the theft. Maybe they had a chance at a new life in this town after all. “You don’t need to worry about that. I’m taking away his television privileges. And he’ll have extra chores to do.”

They didn’t have much of a television, but Sammy did like watching sports on it.

“Maybe he should do some chores for the church, too,” the man said.

“Of course,” Marla agreed. “He could sweep the floors or maybe clean some windows.”

She didn’t know what she would tell people about why Sammy was doing any of those things, but she would think of something without making it sound as if he was doing any good deeds.

“He could always help Mrs. Hargrove with her Sunday-school class,” the deputy sheriff added thoughtfully. “She has a lot of first graders and she’s always looking for extra help when they practice for the Christmas program.”

Marla saw all the color drain out of Sammy’s face. Well, the lawman had finally gotten her son’s attention.

“Is that like babysitting?” Sammy asked, his horror evident. “Would people see me?”

“Well, people would need to see you,” the deputy sheriff said calmly. “You might even need to stand up and sing with the kids when they do their piece in the program. They’re the angel choir.”

“But I’m too tall,” Sammy said quickly. “They’d all be baby angels. And I don’t have blond hair.”

“I think you’ll do all right,” the man said. “I’m sure Mrs. Hargrove has a pair of wings that are large enough for you. And there will be all different colors of hair in the angel choir.”

“I’d have to wear wings? In front of people?”

The lawman nodded seriously. “With gold glitter on them. The kids make the wings in class, so you’ll be able to make yours really sparkle. You probably remember how to cut with those little scissors.”

Sammy was starting to turn a little green.

“And a halo,” the deputy sheriff continued with a straight face. “I don’t know if you’ll wear sheets or bathrobes yet, but Mrs. Hargrove will figure that out. You’ll need to be in something white.”

“I want a halo,” Becky said happily as she hung on to Marla’s coat.

Marla patted Becky’s head without answering.

Her son looked shell-shocked.

“But the first order of business is to bring the shepherd back where he belongs,” the man said. “Do you need help in getting him back?”

Sammy shook his head.

“He’ll bring the shepherd back right away,” Marla said. “And if there’s any damage, we’ll fix it.”

The shepherd was plastic and Marla realized Sammy might have scratched some of its paint off here or there. If he had, they’d paint over the scratches until the shepherd was as good as new.

“Oh, I’m sure the thing’s in fine shape,” the deputy sheriff said. “Sammy here knows he’ll have even more chores to do if something happens to it.”

The boy swallowed and then nodded.

“You’re sure you don’t need any help bringing it back?” the deputy sheriff asked again. “It’s kind of big.”

Sammy shook his head. “I’m big, too.”

Marla waited for her son to walk off the porch and head back to their house. She wanted to talk to the deputy sheriff for a minute, anyway, without Sammy overhearing her.

“Thank you,” Marla said when Sammy was half-way to their house. She looked up at the man. She didn’t know why she’d ever thought he wasn’t confident enough to be a lawman. He looked completely in control. “I appreciate you talking to my son.”

The man nodded. “It’s my job.”

For the first time, Marla noticed that the man had a tan line on his forehead. The cold air gave the bottom part of his face a red tinge, but his forehead, which had no tan, was even whiter than it had been inside the café. She wondered if it was really his job to have conversations outside in below-freezing temperatures just to save a young boy’s pride.

“And I promise I’ll talk to Sammy again myself,” Marla continued. She looked the man in the eye so he would know she was serious. “He’s not a bad kid. He’s just trying to get adjusted to a new place. And he misses his old friends.”

“I can understand that. It’s hard when a kid moves around.”

Marla took a deep breath. “This is a final move for us. We want to make this our home.”

“I’m glad.”

Marla watched the man’s face to see if he was being sarcastic. After what he had just found out about Sammy, she would be surprised if any lawman would welcome them into their community. But there was nothing but friendliness in the man’s eyes. Of course, he didn’t know Sammy’s biggest goal was to be in a street gang.

“Thank you,” Marla said. She let a few moments pass. “I, ah, I was wondering if you were going to tell anyone about Sammy taking the shepherd?”

“Well, there’s no official record of it, if that’s what you mean. He won’t have a police record or anything.”

“Oh.” Marla hadn’t even thought about that. She’d just been worried about the community gossip. “That’s good.”

“No one here knows that it was Sammy,” the man continued. “I’m hoping we can wrap it up before any more people even know that the shepherd is missing.”