Christy: A Journey Tale (7 page)

She let that thought sink in for a moment and
she felt a connection that had not been there before. She had been
terribly quick to judge and that bothered her now almost to the
point of overcorrecting to the other side of the spectrum. The fact
is it seemed clear now this woman knew her father. Her words about
him repeated themselves through her mind. It was true he didn’t
talk much about what happened on the road, and she always figured
it was because it was boring and there wasn’t anything to tell. Now
it seems he had his own reasons, and that idea intrigued Jennifer
to no end. Who had he met out there on those thousands of miles he
had traveled? Jennifer had to know everything, every single detail.
The anxious tension made her shift in her seat, which brought her
crashing back to reality as she noticed the woman sitting beside
her; looking at her; with the door closed.

“Oh I’m sorry…I must have zoned out for a
moment.” Jennifer said a little embarrassed, as she had no idea how
long she had been sitting there waiting on her to come out of
it.

“That’s alright,” she said with a warm smile.
“My names Christy,” the woman said as she held out her hand.

“I’m Jennifer,” she said, taken aback by the
gesture. It seemed odd to her and it took a moment for her to
react, but when she did she shook the woman’s hand firmly the way
she had always been told. It was interesting but awkward in the
confines of the car. However, not as awkward as the pregnant and
some what painful pause that came after. It was Jennifer’s car. It
was her dime, so Christy decided it was up to Jennifer to make the
first move. She on the other hand kept waiting for Christy to say
something, anything, but all she did was just sit there and stare
at her. Finally, when the silence became too painful Jennifer just
blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

“I’m starved. Are you hungry? I’m hungry. I
haven’t had anything all day,” she said, as it sounded absolutely
ridiculous to her own ears.

“Me too,” she said with a grin.

“Great. Why don’t we go out some place, and
you tell me about my dad,” Jennifer said as she made a U-turn to
head back toward the exit. “You know, he never talked much about
what happened on the road. In fact, he didn’t talk much about work
at all. I mean, when he was home, it was all about being home and
everything else just faded into the distance.” She said,
remembering the good times they had as a family. “Are you from
around here?”

“Close enough, I guess. I’m not exactly tied
to any particular place, but I did grow up just South of here.”

“Really? I grew up around here as well…, but
I suppose you already knew that. Anyways, I live in Atlanta
now.”

“Wow, you like it down there?”

“I do…” she said, trying to match Christy’s
excitement. “I mean, there’s always something to do, but with it
being such a big place, it’s definitely got some disadvantages. In
fact, to be honest, I think I like it better here.”

“I can understand that. I reckon I could be
anywhere I wanted to be and I’m still here. I don’t know why, but
I’m here,” Christy said as she lied to Jennifer and not for the
first time. Jennifer for her part wasn’t sure how to respond to
that and let her words breeze on by.

“So, do you know of any good places to eat
around here?”

“It’s up to you, but there’s a pretty good
place just up the road to the right,” Christy said as she indicated
the direction.

“Ok,” Jennifer pulled up to the exit and hit
her turn signal. She waited a moment and then pulled out quickly,
merging into traffic.

“How far down is this place?” Jennifer asked,
breaking another long silence.

“It’s a good ways. You won’t have to worry
about it for a while. I’ll let you know when we get close,” Christy
said absently as she stared out the passenger window. In some
strange way it reminded Jennifer of her mother – that look that
said she had so much on her mind that she could barely sort through
it. Christy’s mood had clearly changed as the time grew nearer when
she would have to deliver on her promise.

“So how did you meet him?” Jennifer asked as
Christy had not been expecting the question and as a result it hung
in the air for a moment. Christy looked over at her and then back
toward the window.

“That’s a good question. In fact, that’s a
real good question.” Christy said as she stalled for time. “I’ve
been thinking about that ever since I got in your car.” She sighed
deeply. “You see, telling you what I know about your daddy ain’t as
easy as you may think. It’s a long story and…complicated I guess
you could say. It’s not just what he did for me that’s important.
It’s the understandin’ of why he did it and the kind of person he
was. That’s the hardest part to put into words, but that’s the part
that I figure you really need to hear the most. Does that make any
sense at all?” She was frustrated at her apparent inability to
express herself.

“I think so,” Jennifer said. She had no idea
what Christy was talking about, but the way she said it made her
nervous as to what secrets she was waiting to reveal. This was
going to be extremely good or extremely bad and Jennifer was now
more anxious than ever to figure out which one it was going to be.
“I think I understand where you’re going, but at least tell me
this. Was he a good man?” Jennifer asked with hesitation. The
question took Christy by surprise, and then she thought she
understood what Jennifer was trying to get at.

“No, don’t be scared. It ain’t like that at
all. To be honest it’s totally the other way around. Your daddy
was…” Christy paused as she pushed down the tears. “Well, I’ll tell
you what he was, but to do that I got tell you a lot about me.
That’s the only way I reckon I can make it all make sense. Is that
fair enough?” She said with a smile.

“Fair enough,” said Jennifer. She held back
what she really wanted to say and returned the woman’s smile. This
was just one of those things where she would have to be patient and
just let the situation play itself out.

“All right then, back to my original problem;
where to begin,” Christy said as she thought about it for a moment.
“I guess it all begins with momma. I told you I grew up South of
here. Well, the name of that place is Iron City.” Christy noticed
that Jennifer didn’t give any sign of recognition at the name, but
that was no surprise. “I don’t reckon you’ve ever heard of it; not
too many people have. There ain’t a whole lot there to write home
about, but like most other places they have good folks and bad, but
momma was a whole other class. She was always good to me. I just
wish I coulda figured that out before it was too late. I made her
life a lot harder than she ever deserved. In fact, I made a lot of
people’s lives hard. ‘Juvenile delinquent’ was the exact words they
used to describe me back then, and all I thought I was doing was
just having a little fun. I have to give her credit though; she
tried to get me to see the light. Stay in school, study hard, or
some day you’ll wish you had. Oh, I heard it all – you know, all
the stuff parents are supposed to tell their young’uns – but I
didn’t want any part of it. I told her that to her face every time
she brought it up. I called her every name under the sun, but you
know what? She never stopped trying.” Christy said, as the respect
for her mother came through in her voice. “I ain’t proud of how I
treated her. I regret that more than anything else, and especially
when I think about how hard she worked to take care of me.” Christy
took a deep breath. It had been a long time since she had thought
about any of this. “You see she worked as a cleaning lady at the
High School, and that was some job. She had to clean some of the
most God-forsaken bathrooms there ever was. I’ll tell you one
thing: can’t nobody make a bigger mess of things than a bunch of
teenagers. Just when she thought she had seen it all, they would
come up with something new and nasty.

If that wasn’t bad enough, she also had to
take it from them teachers. Don’t get me wrong. Not all of them was
bad, but some of them were just downright mean.”

“Why was that? Why would teachers give your
mom any grief?” Jennifer asked.

“Oh that’s easy. They hated her because of me
or because they didn’t like anybody, but mostly it was me. I mean
there were always some of them that would strut around that place
like they owned it, with their noses stuck so high in the air they
would drown if it rained. It must’ve been the highlight of their
day to put my momma in her place. Then things got even worse when I
became a freshman. They had already heard stories from the middle
school and that reputation had beaten me there by years. So when I
finally arrived they were ready for the worst, and I’ll tell you
right now I sure didn’t disappoint them. Now, mind you I wasn’t
there a whole lot, but when I was there I was hell on wheels,”
Christy said with a smirk. “Them teachers would go to momma just a
raisin’ Cain about me. Disrespect for authority, they would tell
her. I didn’t know the meaning of them words and there weren’t
nothing my momma, that dummy they called a principle, or the law
could do about it.”

“Why didn’t she quit?” asked Jennifer. “She
could have got another job. I mean, any job sounds like it would be
better than putting up with all that.”

“That’s a good question. I know I wouldn’t
have put up with it, but momma wasn’t like that. It was just her
way. I only think there was one time in her whole life when she
quit something. She just didn’t give up on things. She never quit
on me, and she never quit trying to do the best she could at
whatever it was. No matter how much trouble they gave her, momma
kept that High School spick and span; but it sure did take a lot
out of her. She would be there by sunup and stay until eight or
nine at night. She always looked exhausted, but I don’t ever recall
her complaining about it. To this day, I don’t see how she ever
kept going. Momma had a lot of heart I reckon, a heart that
wouldn’t let her stop. Here, you’ll want to get over in the right
lane. It should just be a little bit further.”

“Ok,” Jennifer said as she checked her
mirrors and changed lanes.

“Some people said momma must have been crazy,
and to be honest looking back at her family there was definitely
some crazy stuff going on. I think it was her daddy that was one of
them old time back woods country preachers. Now, he was a little
crazy, and by little, I mean he was a lot crazy. He must’ve been
one of those fire and brimstone types. They said he was good at
what he did, but they also said he was haunted by voices. Some of
the old folks even said he had a demon inside. I don’t know much
about that, but toward the end of his life, I think the voices must
have got too loud for him or something. He eventually went missing
and the last time anyone ever saw him alive they said he was
walking into the woods just a-mumbling to himself about something,
nobody knows what.

“That’s awful, did they ever find him?”

“Nope, they never found hide nor hair, but I
don’t think momma’s family was that much worse off because of it.
They had a farm, and apparently my grand daddy wasn’t exactly what
you would call a worker, and the preachin’ didn’t bring in much
money, so having one less thing to worry about was a relief to
grandma. After he left, though, momma left school and started
working on the farm full-time. She never went any further than
sixth grade, but life on the farm made her strong. By no means was
it an easy way to live, but it was simple. They always knew what
needed to be done and they always did it. Momma, I think, always
seemed a little sad though when she talked about those days – like
she wished she could go back there again. I think those were the
good times for her when she felt the world actually made sense.”
Christy paused, as she thought about it for a moment. “In time,
momma grew up, but as she did she didn’t grow up with any kind of
understandin’ about people or how the rest of the world works. It
was bound to happen of course when she latched on to this boy from
town. She had no idea what she was getting herself into. He was
sweet to her and all, but he wasn’t exactly what you would call a
one-woman type. Momma was like that. She would let people into her
life, and they would just take what they want and then leave her to
pick up the pieces. That boy was no different. He strung her along
for years and one day, poof he was gone. She got real torn up about
it because she didn’t have any idea what happened to him. She went
even so far as to report him missing. Poor Sheriff Blaylock
probably didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, she was so pitiful.
But in the end he had to be the one to set her down and tell her
like it was. That boy had run off and married some other girl.”

“That’s terrible!”

“Yes, but what I think made it worse was that
it didn’t just break her heart; I reckon it broke her spirit, too.
She loved him so much, and when he left I don’t think she was ever
the same after that. The farm wasn’t the same either. The thought
of hanging around there just reminded her of what she had lost. I
suppose it was then that she made up her mind to get out of there
and that’s exactly what she did.”

“Where did she go?”

“Oh it was some big city like Chicago or New
York. I can’t remember exactly which one she said though, but I
think it was New York.” Christy tried to recall, but it wouldn’t
come back to her. “Anyway, she caught a Greyhound out of town the
next week and she was gone.”

“Wow! That took some guts.”

“It did, but not as much as surviving in the
big city and bright lights. She never did give me any details as to
how she got by, but I can’t imagine it was anything good. The
little bit of money she took with her probably didn’t last very
long, so I don’t reckon she was too proud of what she had to do to
survive, but she did it. It took six months for her to either get
it out of her system or to get over her pride enough to come home.
Needless to say, she hadn’t left on exactly the best of terms with
her family. She was more than a little scared they wouldn’t want
her back, but she was dead wrong about that. She always cried when
she talked about it. Apparently, that homecoming was one of the
happiest days of her life.” Christy said as she examined the road
ahead. “I’m sorry I guess it’s a little further down than I
thought. It shouldn’t be much longer. Just whenever you see the
yellow sign for the Waffle House go ahead and turn in.”