Edmond, page 10
“Grannie wanted Mac gone. She didn’t like that we loved her like a sister on account of her being our sister. So she’d make us do things to her. Like pinch her legs to make her cry all the time and stuff like that. We was to keep her from going out to see the movies with somebody, too. I don’t rightly understand that one, but we just made sure that Grannie never knew. One time, she wanted us to kill off our momma, but Cole told her no. And then he bounced his fist on the top of her head. I think it hurt her bad, but she never spoke about us killing Momma again. We think that she killed off Grandda and our other grandparents, but we can’t be sure. She’d of had to do that one on her own as Cole didn’t like that she wanted them dead. I don’t think that Cole liked Grannie all that much anyway.”
“Your sister took care of the other grandparents, didn’t she? And her grandpa Jacob died before she was born. Right?” Alan said he had them both right. “So how did she kill the three of them off? I don’t know that anyone ever told me how they died.”
“Grandpa Jacob, he was killed in an accident with his tractor. Grandpa didn’t drive the tractor as he was deathly afraid of it. But that’s how he died. Out in the middle of the field one day, he got off it to look around, and it ran over him. She did it. We seen her do it. Just ran over him like he were nothing at all to anybody. But we didn’t see her kill off the other two.” Alan had to think about it before continuing. He wasn’t going to have it sounding like he’d done the deed when he’d refused her. “Grandma Marlyn, she loved her tea and that was something that she would mail order from someone out in Ireland. I don’t know the person’s name but it would take forever and a day to come to her. We were to snitch the box when it arrived and give it to grannie. She told us that she wanted to try this special tea on her own. I don’t know that she ever did that, tried it nor did we snitch it. But it was what poisoned her, grannie told us. She even got to kill off Grandda Alan, too. She sent him some chocolates. They were poisoned, too, I guess. Like I said, we didn’t have nothing to do with that. We were grown up and out of the house by then, so we might have been in jail for something when they both keeled over. I know that I hurt Mac. She loved them very much.” Edmond said that they would have to tell the police now. “We talked it over when we were together in the cell, the three of us. We’d only do it when she was dead and that Cole was safe from her. She surely did hate him, too.”
Alan watched as Edmond took out a little notebook from his pocket then the littlest pencil he’d ever seen. As he’s writing things down, it was David that reminded him to not forget certain things as he was doing so.
After a lot of questions and some more pops, they were ready to go into the jail and gather their thoughts. Also, in secret like, they were going to make sure that Grannie was dead. Not that they didn’t believe Edmond; he seemed like a good man, but they weren’t going to be killed the first time she saw them. And she would, too, by golly.
When they were brought back in, the place feeling too warm for where they’d been now, they were put in their cell again and gathered around each other, sitting on the floor to convert. He asked the police person. He was sure that was what he was supposed to call them nowadays if their grannie really was dead. Just like he said, she had died in her sleep.
Just after the sun came up the next morning, they were being dressed up in real people clothing and ushered to a room. Since they’d not gotten nary a thing to eat, they were given big boxes of food in it that had all the things that they loved most. While his had grits in his, the other two were given fried apples. There was steak and eggs, too, for the three of them and the fluffiest biscuits he’d ever had the occasion to eat. By the time they were finished up, eating the leftovers they wanted off’n each other’s box they were told to stand up. That’s when the judge from yesterday came into the room and told them what they were there for.
He didn’t know what was going on, but with his belly filled up and his body clean, all Alan wanted to do was take him a powerful nap. Sometimes, when he ate too many eggs and biscuits, he would get that way. Sleepy as the day was long, and he just wanted to go on back to his cell and sleep it off. But he was also wondering what was going on in this here room. He hoped to goodness that he and his brothers weren’t going to be in trouble over what they’d told Mr. Edmond yesterday.
“We’re going to have to ask you a few questions. About all the things that you told Mr. Fraizer yesterday—” Peter asked who that was. “Okay, I can tell you that. It’s the man you spoke to yesterday. Edmond. He’s the one that set this up for the three of you. He and his family.”
“We’ll answer whatever you want, sir. That breakfast was so good. I’d be willing to talk to the devil himself if he was to come into this room, too.” That got a good round of laughter from everyone there. That was when he saw his sister and momma there and wanted a hug from them in the worst ways. But when he moved to see if he could get one, the officer with them stepped in front of him.
It hurt him to his toenails not being able to get close to his family. However, he knew too that in order to keep them safe, him and the others had to be as mean as a wolverine to them to be able to keep them alive. Grannie would have used their closeness against them if they’d tried that. As it was, now they’d made them be afeared of them. Now they had Edmond and Dad in the room with them, he knew that it would be near impossible to get a hug from either of them.
Alan got up to speak first. It was nice not to have to talk to anyone with chains on. It was Edmond that got them unchained for this, too, he’d been told. After being told several times that they needed to tell the truth, Alan said he’d do that. On account of Grannie being dead, they could say what needed to be said.
“I know we’re going to jail on what we did sometimes, but we surely did make it so that Mac was to be married up with Edmond, who we like, by the way, and that momma didn’t have her head bashed in all the times that grannie told us to do it. Mac was supposed to never meet nobody, but we just kept an eye on her and whoever she was out with instead of doing what we’d been told to do by Grannie. We couldn’t save our grandpa and grandparents, Pendleton. Grannie outsmarted us on those, but we worked hard to keep as many people to not be killed as much as we could.” Alan was asked what his part was in the death of the grandparents.
After explaining to everyone what Grannie had wanted and how it would have been done if she made them, the three of them seemed like they had an endless supply of words that kept sliding from their mouths. There were things that they told those people about that he’d not thought of in years and years. But it was out there now, and they had to clean themselves of the garbage so that when it came time for them to meet their maker, they could do it with their heads up and their hearts empty of causing pain. It was the way that they had wanted to do it for a long time.
By the time they were worded out, feeling like he’d been wrung out and then laid over a clothesline to dry even more, their box had been opened up, thanks to the police giving Edmond the key, and all their money was added up, too. Alan just wanted a nap and a good long one at that.
“Misters Pendleton, it’s come to my attention that you have helped a great many people for a while now. Is that true? Even using your own money to help them out.” He told the judge that they’d never had any money but was using the money that Grannie had given them to do the job. “And that money that you had left over, you put it away so that it could help you?”
“No, sir. We knew that Cole was going to have to have him a good place to live. We was fearful of him being put in one of those cheap places where he might not get the best of care. We also found out that Grannie had been stealing the money that had been put aside for him, so we just put it aside for him ourselves. The only time we used it for ourselves was when we were about to be starved to death, our bellies swearing up a storm by growling a bit. But you got it all there, with our notes. Oh, and we paid for the box to be saving our stuff in too. It was hard to keep a good job with Grannie, making us run all over the place and telling us to be murdering people so we’d have to be close to her so she’d not be able to get around us like she did our grandparents. I loved Grandpa Jacob. She had no right to kill him off with that tractor like she did.”
“You’re absolutely correct in that, Mr. Pendleton. But I have some news that is going to make your lives, the four of you, much better. If you stay on the right path. Or so help me. I’ll snatch you right back in here by your short hairs and have you in prison before you can figure out what had happened to you. As it is, your sister’s family that she’s married into has agreed to be responsible for the three of you. So long as, as I said, you stay out of trouble, Misters Pendleton, they’ll provide you with a furnished home, a good job, and…well, it’s been said that you don’t have a license between the lot of you. Is that correct?” Alan explained how they couldn’t afford a car, so having a license to drive one seemed silly to them. “Good thinking. All right then, there will be transportation for the three of you as well. And I can’t say this enough to you. But you have to be good men from now on and not be taking things that don’t belong to you or beating people up because you have gotten away with it before. As for your brother, Cole, he’s going to be put into a place where he can get the best of care and he’ll be able to see the lot of you when he’s settled into the place. Do you understand what it is I’m telling you?”
“No, sir. Yes, sir. What I mean is, we like Edmond and we’ll keep on his good side. Besides, he’s a might bigger than us and I think that he could do us some thumping and that it would hurt more than Cole’s hand did.” There were snickers in the room, but he, as best he could, ignored it. “We sure are happy that our little sister is with him, too. That family, they’ll make sure that nothing happens to her. And if they don’t keep her from being thumped or get thumped by him, well then, I’m sorry, but all bets are off. We’re going to go after him for it. I can’t help but think that he won’t, but I never thought that my grannie would be stealing from her on flesh and blood, either.”
They were to be spending the last night in jail until arrangements were finished up. He was about too excited to sleep thinking about the things that he’d been told. They’d have a job, a real one, and they’d have money in their pockets. He couldn’t help but think that they were going pretty far for them, but he was going to be the best man he could be. And he’d make sure that the others were too. Also, he couldn’t wait to go and see Cole. He’d do that, wait like they told him, but he was just tickled as pink as he could be to think that they were going to be able to be good men in the world.
Chapter 8
Mac had read the letter from her grannie four times before she just laid it on her table and was finished with it. Her mom, sitting across from her at their dining room table, just stared out the window and didn’t say all that much. When her mom finally spoke, it wasn’t to her, she didn’t think, but speaking in general terms about what had been said about the family.
“Caroline was never one to pull back on things when she could just say whatever was on her mind at any given time.” Mom finally looked at her. “I remember our first Christmas with Cole. He was such a happy little baby. I know that he was all right then, but it took me years and years to get over the fact that I might have done something wrong. The doctors, of course, told me that it hadn’t been my fault but he was my son, and I thought that it had to be me. And to think all this time, she knew just what had happened to my little man.”
“She said that it was your fault for not allowing her to move in with you to help around the house with the children. I can’t imagine, or maybe I can imagine, what she might have done to us all had she been around us all the time.” Mom nodded and looked away again. “Mom, I’m so sorry that your own mother did this to you. I don’t know what else to say, but I’m so very sorry.”
“I’d like to say that I’m going to be all right, but I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do with the information that she left for us. I will turn it over to the police, that’s for sure, but what they can do about it now that she’s killed herself is beyond me. To think that she was my mother makes me shiver in my skin.” She didn’t turn back. Mom didn’t have to. She could see the tears as they raced down her cheeks as she stared off into the distance. “She killed my daddy too. Just…didn’t it sound as if she enjoyed that part? Running over him several times like he was nothing more than…I don’t know. She just is—oh darling, what am I going to do with all this information?”
“Like you said, turn it over to the police. Let them deal with it. As you said, there isn’t anything that they can do to her, but at least it’s given us closure on things that I’ve never thought of before.” Grannie had killed her boyfriend in high school. “I’ll have them tell George’s parents what really happened to him. All this time, they thought it was suicide, and come to find out, she’d killed him by locking him in his car while he was out and killed him that way. They’ll have some peace, at least.”
She didn’t know what was going to happen once Mr. and Mrs. Ridgeway found out that their oldest son hadn’t committed suicide like they’d all thought. She had, too, and it had bothered her for years that he’d do something like that. Her grannie had a lot to answer for when she got before the pearly gates. If she ever made it that far. Mac wanted to believe that there was a special place, a not-so-nice place for people like her.
“Let’s go and do something.” Smiling at her mom, she asked her what it was she wanted to do. “Brandy was telling me that there are some garage sales today. I’ve not been to one in years, but it might be fun. Where is Edmond and his family today?”
“They went to an auction that is selling off a farm not far from here. They’re hoping to get a good price on some of the farm equipment as well as some of the animals that are going to be there. Chickens are one thing that he wants to try and raise. I’ve never had a fresh egg, but he told me there was nothing like it.” She reached out to Brandy to see if she, too, had gone with the men.
“I’m at home, feeling sorry for myself that I’m so large with this baby. I’m not, I know that, but I feel like a turnip or something equally gross today.” Mac told her that she liked fresh turnips. “You would. You’re nuts in the event that Edmond hasn’t pointed that out to you. How about we hit up the auction, too? I know that in addition to the farm equipment, the house and household things are being sold as well. We might be able to snag a couple of more bedroom sets for your house. It’s supposed to be in the lower seventies today, so dress warmly.”
After talking to her mom, they were ready to go before Brandy arrived. She was getting big with the baby, but it looked good on her. Even as they were loading up in the car to head out, Brandy said they’d need to get some lunch while there. The food truck there was supporting the local football team for new uniforms this year. They were also toting and carrying things for people for a tip. She thought that was a wonderful idea as well.
Once they were there, Mac could feel the excitement racing over the other two women and, in turn, her as well. She was happy that her mom, who’d never been to one before, was excited to learn how to bid. The three of them, after getting their number, converged on the box lots, just odds and ends that were found throughout the house and just put into anything that was lying about. She could already see her mom going home with a lot of them simply to have her and dad go through them and guess what some of the things were.
There was plenty of furniture to be sold off. Most of it was older than she was, but she didn’t care. Whatever there was, it would be perfect for their new home. Even as she was looking over the baby furniture, there seemed to be an equally large amount of that. She was standing there when a very pregnant woman came up to stand next to the changing tables. There were four of them.
Listening in, with her new hearing abilities, she heard the mother-to-be and the woman next to her talking about the changing tables. Moving just a bit closer, she was able to hear them all right while looking over the baby clothing, a great deal of it even still in the packaging, while they talked about the upcoming grandbaby.
“Lenord said that I can’t get anything that is used. That his baby deserves the best. I don’t know how he expects me to be able to afford anything brand new when he doesn’t even have a job.” The older woman, her mom, she called her told her that he wasn’t worth the spit that made him. “No, I wish I had listened to you when you told me that. I made a terrible mistake in thinking that he really loved me. Now, it’s all I can do to hold down a job, take care of the house like he wants, and still be this far along. The doctor isn’t going to be charging me on account of my being on welfare right now. But he told me that I should leave Lenord. That he’s going to leave me anyway.”
“I hope he does. The moron. I know that I shouldn’t talk that way about him being the father of my granddaughter, but he’s an idiot. Spouting off things like he’s made of money. Why, where does he think that you’re going to do with all the stuff that he has in that room now that it’s supposed to be the nursery.” The younger woman told her. “Put the baby in the living room? Whatever…he needs to sell off that gaming shit that he has, get him a real job, and try supporting you rather than bringing you down. Is he still hitting on you, Pam? If he is, your daddy is going to kill him.”
“He is, but don’t tell Daddy. I’m going to need him as a role model when Lenord is put away. He’s been selling drugs out of my apartment, too. I’m not supposed to call it mine when he says that we’re a team, and what’s mine is his. I wonder what he’d say if I sold off the shit he has in the spare bedroom on account of it being mine, too.” They both laughed. “I guess we should head on home. There are just too many people here for me to get a good deal anyway.”
“I’ll help you.” She’d not meant to speak aloud, but she wasn’t going to see this young woman ruin her life over some deadbeat. She waited until the older woman wandered off in favor of her cell phone. Mac pulled the younger woman closer to her so that they could talk.
