UNDER THE MULBERRY TREE
Margery Harkness Casares
~~**~~
CHAPTER TWO
The door to the room creaked open. Fay Ann jerked upright. A large middle-
aged woman in a sleeveless, shapeless dress and bibbed apron limped into the room.
She had pulled her hair back into a severe knot, which was softened by its silver-gray
sheen, and her pale blue eyes sparkled as clear as a child's. She shuffled over to the
bed.
Fay Ann drew back, watching the woman's every move.
"Awake are you, little missy?" The woman placed a glass of water on a bedside table.
"Thought you might be thirsty. You been shook up a mite, and your wrist had a bit of
a cut on it, but you'll be fine as frog hair, now that you got me to take care of you."
"Who... who are you?" Fay Ann asked. "Where am I?"
The woman wiped at the moisture on her face with the hem of her apron. "You
was in a awful bad wreck. My boys brung you here for me to see to."
Fay Ann glared at her through a dark veil of fear that she struggled to hide
beneath her bravado. "Your boys caused me to wreck my car," she accused.
"What's that? My boys wouldn't do nothing like that. They is good boys. You
want to eat?"
"No. I want to get out of here. Where's my car?"
"I reckon I don't know nothing about that." She went to the door and called,
"Boys!"
Three boys, who looked as though the oldest couldn't be more than sixteen or
seventeen, crowded into the room. "Yes'm," they said in unison.
Startled by their youth, Fay Ann studied them. She decided the oldest must
be the one who stood beside the woman. He was broad of build, square-faced and not
as tall as the other two. His eyes, blue like the woman's, contrasted with his black hair
that he kept touching with stubby fingers.
Both of the other boys, tall, tow-headed, faces covered with freckles, brown-
eyed and gangly, looked as though they could be twins except one was obviously
younger than the other.
"This little gal says you boys caused her to get hurt? That right, Phil Dean?"
the woman asked the dark-haired boy.
"Naw." Phil said, squaring his shoulders at the injustice of the accusation. "I
guess we scared her a mite, but we didn't aim to." He moved closer to the bed and
said softly, "We is so sorry, ma'am, for scaring you like we done. We only wanted to
stop you so's we could talk to you about Joe Bob."
Fay Ann's head jerked up. Joe Bob? Joe Bob of the sign?
The youngest-looking boy spoke up. "I told them I didn't like it, Mama Jo,
but they went on anyhow and tried to get her to stop that big old car."
"Hush, Jimmy Ray," Phil said.
The middle boy said, "Jimmy Ray, you know we had to do this for Joe Bob,"
His remark brought her attention back into focus, and Fay Ann's eyes
flickered with anger. "What did you say? You brought me here for... for Joe Bob?"
She shuddered in spite of herself, and spoke with more boldness than she felt. "What
are you talking about? Haven't you people ever heard of ?kidnaping'?"
"Oh, woe," moaned Jimmy. "Did we kidnap her?"
"Hush, Jimmy Ray," Phil scolded.
"Boys! Boys! You rescued a hurt gal from a wrecked car and brung her
home to your mama to get her tended. Ain't no law against that, is it, missy?"
"Where's my car?"
Jimmy's brothers looked at him. He scuffed his toe on the floor and averted
his eyes from Fay Ann. "Uh, I was steering your car, see, following the truck. And
that big old car slid off the side of the road--"
"You lost my car ...? Fay Ann yelled.
"--into the creek, snapped that tow rope like it were a string. It shore did,
just before we come to the bridge. I was lucky to jump out in time to keep from going
down with her."
Fay Ann moaned. "Someone's going to pay for this!"
Jimmy Ray's mouth turned down. "Oh, woe, I... It were all tore up anyway."
"Hush, Jimmy Ray," his brothers said.
The mother folded her ample arms and faced Fay Ann's rigid stare. "Looky
here. Them boys didn't go to hurt you."
"They ran me off the road, and they meant to do it."
The woman's expression didn't change. "Naw, they didn't."
Fay Ann pleaded, "I want to leave here. I'll forget this happened. I'll even
forget about the car. Will you please tell one of your boys to drive me to the nearest
town?"
"Can't do that, missy. Didn't you hear what them boys told you? They said
they brung you here for Joe Bob. You got to eat, now, you hear? Joe Bob ain't too
partial to skinny women."
"What?" Fay Ann choked and coughed. Catching her breath she stammered,
"Joe Bob ain't... Joe Bob ain't partial...? Who the hell cares what Joe Bob's partial to?"
"I do. And my boys do."
"He won't be coming here till Sunday. Joe Bob comes to see me once a
month, always on a Sunday?and this Sunday's the one."
"Oh, merciful heavens! I'm not going to stay here three whole days until
Sunday!"
The woman's brow furrowed. "Suit yourself, missy." She turned and left
the room. The three boys followed her out, pulling the squeaky door closed behind
them.
A rush of tears stung Fay Ann's eyes. The whole thing was utterly ridiculous,
almost like a slapstick comedy, but she feared she was caught up in something not at all
humorous.
Who was Joe Bob? What was Joe Bob? And what would Jake thinkof her
now? Even if she could get away from these people, he'd never believe this story.
~~**~~
Fay Ann woke up to the crowing of a rooster and soft rosy light filtering in
under the curtains. She crawled out of bed and tied the belt of the large chenille robe
Mama Jo had given her to sleep in. Her ivory silk blouse and taupe slacks were
nowhere to be seen.
Muffled voices came from a nearby room. The woman called to one of the
boys. "Phil Dean, get out back and wring the neck of one of them chickens. I aim to
fry us some chicken for dinner. It's nigh on to daylight now. I got to get breakfast on
the table and get everthing ready for dinner. I don't like making late dinner."
Jimmy Ray said loudly, "I wish you'd tell Phil Dean to wring that cussed Maidy's
neck."
The woman's voice said, "Hush, Jimmy Ray; I ain't gonna do that."
Fay Ann realized she was hungry, and she needed to go to the bathroom. She
doubted they had a bathroom. While that thought lingered in her consciousness, the
door opened. The middle boy, his face flushed, stepped into the room. This one, she
thought, must be Roy Jay.
"Mama Jo says come on in the kitchen and eat."
Her hunger, overwhelming her lingering anger at the boys for terrifying her,
eased Fay Ann off the bed. She followed him out the door.
Mama Jo looked up. "Come here, child, and eat."
Fay Ann said, "Ma'am, I need to go to the bathroom before I do anything else."
"I'd like it a heap if you'd call me Mama Jo," she said. "Me and them boys is
the Lloyd family." She turned to her son. "Roy Jay, you come here. This girl has to go."
He shuffled over to Fay Ann and stood looking at her as though he had no
idea what to do about that. He edged toward the back door, then hesitated. "Looky
here," he said, "we ain't got no inside toilet. I'll take you out back."
She nodded.
Roy Jay hesitantly took her arm and led her outside. He released her, took a
chewed match from his mouth and threw it down in the dirt yard. She had no more
than stepped off the back porch steps when a white, squawking, fluttering creature
ran at her. Roy grabbed a broom from the porch and fended it off.
"What was that?" she shrieked, her heart thumping.
"Aw, that's ole Maidy, the goose. She's meaner'n a starving bear but better'n
a dog at watching the place. She don't like strangers, is all."
"Well, I damn sure don't like her, either. Why do you keep her, if you have to
fight her off every time you go outside? I almost wet my pants."
Roy Jay turned bright red and searched the pockets of his overalls for another
match which he stuck in his mouth. "I'll pen her up in the chicken yard while you're
here. The privy's over yonder." He pointed to the unpainted outhouse.
She grabbed up the hem of the robe, holding it out of the dirt, and hurried to
the outhouse--one thought lingering in her mind. She's better get out of there before
Sunday and Joe Bob. Now how could she do that? She no longer had a car.
Omigod, she thought, how could she tell Jake the Lincoln he'd bought her
was at the bottom of a river, or creek, or whatever.
She had no idea where she was. Those boys had done all this for... for Joe Bob.
Fay Ann wouldn't let herself give in to the tears stinging her eyes. She wiped them
away with the hem of the robe. Lord, she didn't want to meet Joe Bob!
When Fay Ann returned to the house, Mama Jo brought her a pair of freshly
laundered jeans and a shirt. "These is Jimmy Ray's and probably come nearer fitting
you than the other boys' clothes. You'll have to wear them if you want to be clean. I
burned them clothes of yours, they was awful dirty and tore, and they had blood on them."
"Not my clothes! You didn't burn my clothes!"
"I just said I did, didn't I?" She fluffed up Fay Ann's pillows. "The boys, bless
them, rigged a shower for you out on the back stoop."
Fay Ann fingered the jeans and shirt. "A shower?"
Mama Jo nodded. "They split a bunch of towsacks and made a cover ?round
it so's you can have privacy to wash yourself. It ain't fancy like you're apt to be used
to, but it'll work. Them boys spent near a hour filling that tub up on the high shelf with
sun-warmed water."
Fay Ann, grudgingly grateful to the boys for all the trouble they'd taken,
reached for the clean clothes. "Will you thank them for me>"
"Thank ?em yourself. Go on out back and wash up. The boys is doing chores,
so they won't be gawking or nothing. ?Course they don't be gawking noways ?cause
they's good boys, but I sent them to their chores just to put your mind at ease."
"What about Joe Bob?" Fay Ann asked. "Will he gawk at me?"
Mama Jo chuckled and rolled her eyes. "I ?spect he'll be doing a mite more'n
gawking, missy."
Fay Ann clamped her hand over her mouth, her mind vividly translating Mama
Jo's words into a fear-inspiring scene. A big, hairy mountain man ripping off her clothes
off and .... Omigod!
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