When the Women Come Out to Dance Page 15

  But now he was thinking it wouldn't be fair to say that. It was the reputation Denise had, but you couldn't prove it b y him. They had fooled around some but never gone all the way.

  Okay, there was Boy Howdy, the variety store where he got his sweatsocks and T-shirts. Ralph's barbershop, he'd stop i n once a month for his crewcut. Marino's Bar . . .

  It was where he last saw Denise, home that time for Carl's funeral in '86. She was about to marry a country entertaine r Ben had never heard of, Wayne Hostetter and the Wranglers , but kept touching him as they had a few beers and talke d about things they did twenty years ago, like yesterday.

  His close friend in school, Preston Raincrow, mentioned her only once, Preston on the tribal police now, a Muskoge e Nation Lighthorseman. They had played basketball togethe r and would write each other when they felt like it. Ben neve r asked about Denise, but Preston happened to say in a lette r she had left Wayne, the country singer, and Ben would thin k of her--sometimes even while he was living with Kim--an d wonder what she was doing. He didn't know why he kep t thinking of her.

  He drove past her parents' home on Seminole Avenue, but didn't stop. Denise's dad was a lawyer. He liked to bird-hun t and Carl used to take him out to their property on the Dee p Fork River.

  The Orpheum was showing Harry Potter and Monsters Inc.

  That Sunday they went to Point Dume they were going to see Ocean's Eleven after Kim talked him out of Harry Potter. And i f she were sitting next to him right now . . . they might o r might not see Harry Potter, Kim calling it another kid flick.

  II.

  Ben took 56 out of town, west, up and around Okmulgee Lake to the bottomland of the Deep Fork, the rive r that ran through his property to water the groves and kee p out the pecan weevils. They still had to spray all summer fo r fungus and casebearer larva. You had to have the right kind o f weather for pecans. Carl used to pray for a spring flood. It go t too dry the trees'd start throwing off pecans before they wer e ready to harvest.

  Lydell, his caretaker-foreman, had worked here all his life, first for Carl, and now looked after the property for Ben , who'd transfer money to the bank in Okmulgee and Lydel l would draw from it with power of attorney to run the peca n business, pay taxes, hire the spraying done and the wor k crews, keep production records, make deals with brokers t o sell the harvest to a sheller in Texas. Lydell, now in his seventies, would send handwritten reports to Ben. "That tornada come thru and took out 4000 trees. It don't look like we wil l make our nut this year." Was he being funny? It was hard t o tell. If they sorted and bagged a thousand pounds an acre , they'd load eight to ten semis and make money. With las t year's freeze they loaded three trucks. The tornado was th e year before.

  Now, if there hadn't been too much rain Lydell would have already mowed the orchards with a brush hog and raked u p the sticks. Ben hoped to see a crew using the shaker today o n the trees: mechanical arms gripping the trunk, giving eac h tree a good shake for half a minute or so, then bringing in th e Nut Hustler to gather the pecans from the ground.

  Ben turned onto the road that edged along his property and pretty soon there they were off to the left: fifty-and sixtyfoot trees on the average looking bare this time of year, a tangle of limbs reaching up to stand dark against the sky, some of the trees growing here seventy years or more.

  But no crews in there working, none he could see, only a park of black trees, spiderwebs of limbs and branches, cluster s of pecans, untouched. Either the crew started on the othe r side of the river . . . Wait a minute. Ben raised his foot fro m the gas pedal to let the SUV coast and slow down. He sa w shapes, movement, deep in the trees.

  Cattle. A dozen or so cross-Brahmas grazing on papershell pecans.

  But there were no cows on the property. Not a one since Carl died.

  His great-granddad's original house stood on this road, where Virgil lived till he made his oil money an d built a new one in the 1920s, a big California bungalow tha t was back in the property, the house where Lydell was now living.

  Except Lydell was sitting on the porch of the original house, now weathered gray, its porch roof sagging to one side.

  Ben turned in past a sign that said NO TRESPASSING, one he'd never seen before, and stopped in the yard next to Lydell's pickup, Lydell watching him, the old man's expression takin g time to change and now he seemed to be smiling as Ben approached.

  "Well, Carl, I'll be God damn. When'd you get in?"

  Ben stepped up on the porch.

  "Tell me you're being funny."

  The old man looked puzzled now. How long had it been since they'd spoken on the phone? Jesus, last Christmas, almost a year. "Lydell, how come you're not up at the other house?"

  "What for? This is where I live."

  "You used to," Ben said. "Carl died, I said go on live in the new house." The new house as old as some of the oldest peca n trees. Lydell looked puzzled again. Ben said, "Lydell, I'm Ben." And saw the old man's face begin to change again, ligh t coming into his eyes, and Ben heard himself say oh shit.

  "Yeah, hell, you're Ben. But you sure look like your daddy."

  Ben let that one go. "How're you feeling?"

  "Well . . . I don't know. I seen the doctor. He said I'm as good as can be expected."

  "Why'd you go see him?"

  "I get dizzy at times and have to sit down. I think from the chemicals, that spraying every year as long as I can remember.

  I know a boy that did the spraying had to have all his blood drained out and new blood pumped in and he was fine. Wen t up to Tulsa to work as a gardener."

  "But why're you living in this house again?"

  "They's only one of me and they's three of them. Four when they have a woman there with 'em. They said they ought a have the house and wrote it into the deal, the lease."

  "Lydell, these people leased my house?"

  "They leased the property. I musta told you of it in my report. Carl, you can't hire the labor you used to. These fellas come along, offer to work shares on the pe-cans and their cattle both."

  "Their cows are in the orchard."

  "Again? Goddamn it, I keep telling 'em about that."

  "And nobody's working." Ben stepped off the porch to the ruts in the drive to look toward a closed-up barn, a shake r power--hooked to a tractor with a covered cab and a Nu t Hustler sitting outside in the weeds and brush. The hous e where Lydell should be living was a quarter of a mile up thi s farm road that cut through a grove of pecan trees, the hous e not in sight from here.

  "Lydell, they haven't touched the equipment."

  "I'll get on 'em, Carl, don't worry. The one they call Brother? He'll go into town and bring me back my supper if I a sk him nice. Get it from the Sirloin Stockade or a TV dinne r from Git 'n' Go."

  "Lydell, they walk up and say they want to lease the place?"

  "Their name's Grooms. A daddy name of Avery and the two boys. Hazen about your age and the younger one they cal l Brother. Carl, it's so God damn hard to get labor--Hazen says they'll work the pe-cans, I won't have to lift a hand."

  "And they stick you in this shack."

  "Hell, it was my home for years and years."

  "How'd they come to pick this place?"

  "We's related, what they tell me, on my mama's side. They stop by and we's talking, I believe they come fro m Texarkana."

  "Lydell, you have a copy of the lease?"

  The old man touched his shirt pocket. "Yeah, it's somewheres. I have to remember now where I put it."

  "How long they been here?"

  "They come by the first time," Lydell said, "I believe was toward the end of spring, with a real estate woman. Then the y come back again and moved in."

  "They've been here most of the year," Ben said, "and you never told me?"

  "I thought I did, Carl."

  Ben drove toward the house, a quarter mile up the farm road, creeping the SUV through the orchard to loo k at the trees. None of the grounds had been brush-hogged. He angled off the road
to get closer to the trees. None had bee n picked, some with fungus growing on the limbs.

  Now the house was straight ahead past cleared land: the house, the structure back of it where pecans were sorted an d bagged, an old red barn, a tractor with a rake attached standing outside. The road continued on to a gate that closed off pasture, where a few cows that weren't supposed to be her e were grazing. A pickup truck and a Cadillac with a good te n years on it stood at the side of the house, stucco with gree n trim that needed paint.

  Carl had called it a California bungalow design, the kind that didn't look too big till you got up close: the porch i n shade, sun shining on bare windows coming out of the stee p pitch of the roof. Ben stopped behind the Cadillac and presse d down on the horn to give it a blast. He waited.

  Now the screen door swung open and a man in his sixties wearing new bib overalls came out on the porch, his dark hai r slicked back, a bottle of beer in his hand. Ben was out of th e SUV now walking toward the house. The screen swung ope n again and a forty-year-old version of the first one appeared.

  Ben took this one to be Hazen, with the same slicked-back dark hair as his dad but more of it. He wore a striped shir t hanging open with his jeans and what looked like lizar d boots. Ben thought Avery, the dad, could stand in for Harr y Dean Stanton, looking enough like him to be his twin. Haze n looked like half the stuntmen working today, the kind Ki m referred to as rough-trade good-looking, blue-collar guys wit h an easy slouch to their pose. Trees going to hell and they sat i n the house drinking beer.

  Ben came to the porch steps and looked up at these Grooms from Arkansas. He said, "I like to know what you'r e doing in my house."

  The one, Hazen, raised his eyebrows saying, "Well, you must be the movie star," sounding glad to see Ben, till h e said, "Come to check on us, huh?"

  "I'm here to kick you out. This is my home."

  Avery said, " 'Fore you start eating anybody's ass out, I'll show you the paper says this property's ourn for two years, stamped and signed by a noterary in the real estate business.

  You go on get outta here."

  Ben said, "You took advantage of an old man didn't know what he was doing." And looked at Hazen. "You tell hi m you're gonna work shares, only I don't see nothing a-tall getting done. You got cows grazing on pecans falling off trees haven't even been sprayed.''

  "I changed my mind about growing pe-cans," Avery said.

  "Gonna test for oil instead. They was some pretty fair wells here at one time and they's always some left."

  "The wells were plugged," Ben said. "Cement poured down 'em."

  "They's still oil. You heard of stripper wells?"

  Ben said, "Look," keeping his tone flat, and it was hard, "even if there's oil, and even if your lease stood up in court , you'd only have surface rights. Mineral rights are somethin g else."

  "You mean to tell me," Avery said, "we hit a gusher you don't want to go shares on it? Boy, you're ignorant you thin k you can make more growing pe-cans. You know what oil's selling for these days?"

  No, and he didn't imagine they did either. It wasn't about oil. They were having fun with him, but in a serious way, se e where it would lead.

  Ben said, "You people are the Grooms, come here from Arkansas?"

  Avery, looking past Ben, said, "That's right, and so's this one coming," sounding happy to see whoever it was.

  Ben half turned. A pickup came across the open ground to pull up behind his SUV, the driver in a cowboy hat lookin g this way, then inched up to get his front bumper within a foo t of the SUV's rear end. This would have to be the one calle d Brother, walking toward them now. He had size but looke d slow, about twenty-five, a big kid in a cowboy hat and curltoed boots. The belt cinched around his jeans bore a rodeo winner's buckle, one he must've bought if he didn't steal it.

  Looking at Ben he said, "Who's this?"

  "The movie star," Hazen said.

  "No shit."

  "You tell by his shades," Hazen said, "and his beauty parlor hair."

  "What's he play in movies," Brother said, "queers?"

  "Ask him," Hazen said.

  Now their big boy was here they were getting to it. Ben told himself to walk away, and said to Avery, "Why don't w e have this heard in court?" But couldn't leave it at that. He said to Brother, "You take a swing at me I'll put you on th e ground, hard."

  Brother stared and Avery said, "Now you got my boy looking sideways at you, like he might want to give you an asswhuppin'."

  Ben walked toward Brother saying, "I'm tired, been driving all day. Why don't you whip my ass tomorrow?" Put his hand on Brother's shoulder as he passed and kept walking t o the SUV. Ben got in and laid his arm on the windowsill. He said to Brother, "You want to back your truck up a few feet?"

  Brother folded his arms and gave Ben a stare that worked pretty well under the hat brim pointing this way. Brother said, "You can't get out, then you have to stay, huh? Get yo u ass-whuppin' right now."

  Ben turned the key, went ahead a foot or so, revved, said fuck it, and slammed his rear end into the pickup, wen t ahead, reversed and revved and hit the truck again. Be n slipped out of the space, put the gas pedal on the floor an d went into a power slide to head for the road through the trees.

  He looked back to see Brother going to his truck.

  Coming up on the old house Ben stopped at the side of Lydell's porch, the old man still sitting there.

  "Lydell, don't you have a daughter lives in Chouteau?"

  He said, "Lemme think, I believe Isabel's the one there."

  "Go stay with her a while."

  Ben turned onto the country road and held his speed at thirty miles an hour with an eye on the rearview mirror. In less than half a minute he saw Brother's truck coming up on him fast, closing in at sixty or better. Ben waited til l the truck's hood and windshield filled his rearview, saw th e cowboy hat, Brother by himself in there, the big boy wantin g to handle this deal on his own. Ben mashed the gas pedal an d watched the truck lose ground like it was being sucked awa y from him. He shot past the road to town doing ninety an d held it there, horses in a field raising their heads at the tail o f dust rising, the truck behind him hidden as Ben got ready t o bring the game to Brother, see if he was any good. Approaching the next intersection he watched the speedometer ease down to forty-five, came to the crossroads and punched hi s left boot down on the parking brake--tires screaming as th e rear wheels locked--cranked the steering wheel a quarte r turn, released the brake and let his rear end swing around in a tight one-eighty to head back toward Brother. The fat ki d would see from under his cowboy hat a black shape comin g dead at him out of the dust and realize, the distance betwee n them closing at top speed, he had seconds to decide ho w much nerve he had.

  Not enough. Brother bailed, swerved off the road to his right, and Ben watched the truck in his mirror dive into th e ditch and wedge itself against the bank. Ben stopped an d backed up all the way to the truck. Brother, his hat gone , blood coming down his face, turned and looked this way a t Ben watching him. Ben shook his head at the dumb kid, pu t the SUV in gear and headed back to his property.

  Avery was still on the porch, sitting in a squeaky wicker chair with green cushions, waiting for Brothe r to come back with his story, Avery expecting it to be a goo d one. Hazen was in the house. Avery raised his voice to say, "I t old Brother bring him on back here. I was thinking, put tha t pe-can shaker on him, get his nuts to fall."

  Hazen came out to the porch pushing the screen ahead of him.

  "I said to Brother, bring him on back, we'll put the pe-can shaker on him."

  "I heard you. Where's the number for the real estate office at?"

  "By the phone in the kitchen, last I seen of it. You know Brother'll likely have to chase that Mer cedes all the way to town to catch it."

  Hazen said, "She's pretty, huh? Once we tend to the movie star I might keep her."

  "Suppose to be in pitchers--I never heard of him."

  "Me neither, but it's what
they say."

  Both of them heard the car coming and looked out at the yard. Avery said, "Don't tell me," seeing it was the black Mercedes back again but no sign of Brother. Now it circled, bringing the driver's side close to the porch steps. The smokeglass window lowered and there was Ben Webster looking up at them.

  He said, "You all want to settle out of court it's fine with me. My offer, you have till noon the day after tomorrow to ge t out of my house and off my property. You don't, I'll be bac k here to run you off."

  The smoke window started to go up and Avery said, "Hold it there. Where's Brother at?"

  "He needs to get winched out of a ditch," Ben said, "and some Band-Aids."

  Avery watched the window slide up all the way and the sporty black SUV circle out of the yard and into the trees , gone. It got Avery frowning, saying to Hazen, "The hell's h e talkin about, Brother's in a ditch?"

  "Like he put him there," Hazen said.

  "Brother was chasing him. "

  "Brother ain't the issue," Hazen said. "You heard him, he's gonna raise the law on us we don't leave, have troopers ou t here looking around. You want to stay or not?"

  "We ain't gonna move nothing in no two days. Course I w ant to stay."

  "All right, then what do you want done with the movie star?"

  "What do you think? Take him off somewheres and shoot him. Hell, Brother'd kill you to do it. Yeah, jes take him of f somewheres."

  "I saw it coming," Hazen said, "but wanted to make sure."

  He went inside, walked through the musty smell of the living room to the kitchen, picked up the business card from th e counter and dialed the number on it.

  Within moments a voice came on saying, "OK Realty, this is Denise. How may I help you?"

  Hazen said, "You know who this is?"

  There was a pause before she said, "I have a pretty good idea."

  Hazen said, "Guess who jes come by here?"

  Ben coasted toward Brother standing at the side of the road by his truck and stopped close to him.

  "Man, you're a mess."

  Bloody from his face to his T-shirt. Brother said, "I busted my goddamn nose," and touched it, barely.