The Cottoncrest Curse: A Novel

Chapter 41

148 Chapter 41 Keith stood, gun in hand, barring the way. He had moved out into the swamp beyond the woods because he and Peggy wanted to be left alone. They wanted to be someplace where they didn’t have to talk to anyone but each other. They wanted to be someplace where small children didn’t taunt them. About the way that he walked. About the way that he spoke. About the way that Peggy talked. “no!” he said, raising up his gun. “You know me,” the old man said, leaning a thick branch that Cooper had found for him to use as a cane. “Nimrod. You recognize me, don’t you, Keith?” Keith peered hard at the old man’s face. “Yes.” Keith spoke slowly. Deliberately. He was always that way, as if thinking about what to say and then speaking it was difficult for him. Which it was. “And you know Esau and Cooper and Rossy and the rest of us, don’t you?” Keith looked slowly from face to face. “. . . Yes.” “There are bad times right now, Keith. The Knights are riding, and we’ve had to leave Little Jerusalem.” Nimrod waited patiently as Keith tried to absorb the old man’s words. After a lengthy silence Nimrod added, “I know you don’t like company , but with the Knights out tonight, we need a place to stay for a bit. If we had more warning, we wouldn’t have come here . . . we don’t want to bother you and Peggy. It appears that the storm passed, so we’ll just stay here outside. And we’ve brought some food to share, so we won’t trouble the two of you.” This was a lot of information at once, and Keith’s forehead knotted up. “Trouble,” he finally said. “No,” Nimrod responded gently, putting his hand on the young man’s arm, “we won’t be no trouble.” 149 “Trouble!” Keith shot back. “Trouble, trouble, trouble.” Rossy, her baby on her shoulder, walked forward through the crowd to talk to Keith. “Keith, we grew up together. I promise you . . .” Keith got a frightened look as he stared at her baby. “Baby. Trouble. Much trouble!” He backed up several steps, limping on his clubfoot. Rossy was gentle. “What trouble, Keith? How can a baby cause you trouble?” Keith glanced back anxiously toward his cabin perched on stilts next to the bayou, its windows dark. Even though the sun had set, there was a three-quarters moon rising, visible for now, although shortly it would be obscured by the swift-moving clouds. The wind in the treetops created a low, constant whisper, but as she listened carefully, Rossy could hear, in addition to this, a low moan. “Is that Peggy? Is she all right?” A look of anguish overtook Keith’s face. “Baby. Trouble. Peggy.” Rossy grasped her child tightly to her shoulder and ran toward the cabin, pushing the door open. Even the clear moonlight could not penetrate the darkness. All Rossy could see was a dark shape on the floor, moaning with unending grief. “Shwadelivbyanj.” Over and over a woman ’s voice wailed, “Shwadelivbyanj.” Above her own anguished voice, Peggy, who was kneeling on the floor, an inert object in the small blanket in front of her, heard the door open and sensed a presence at the threshold. Peggy looked up to see a woman whose features she could not discern standing in the doorway, moonlight streaming behind her. The moon made the woman’s outline luminous, and the dust floating through the cabin made the few silvery-blue moonbeams hitting the floor look just like the rays from Mary and Jesus’s head on the painting that Peggy used to stare at when she was a little girl in church. Peggy looked up and asked with desperate hope, “Aryuananj?” “Peggy, it’s just me, Rossy.” Rossy came into the cabin and went over to Peggy. Clutching her baby in the darkness, Rossy reached out to put one hand on Peggy’s shoulder. Just then Rossy’s baby woke up and started to gurgle softly. “Baby? Baby?” Peggy grasped Rossy’s knees and started to cry. “Yuhavbrunmenewbaby?” ...