Dorothy Garlock - [Route 66] (26 page)

Brady lingered for a few seconds, then walked away.

Anna Marie whispered, “Is he gone?”

“He’s gone.”

“I got to pee-pee. Real bad.”

“That’s no problem, honey.” Margie climbed out of the truck and held up her arms. “Everyone is gone. We’ll just go around here on the other side of the truck where no one can see us.” She unbuttoned the back of the child’s underpants and held up her dress while she squatted beside the truck.

“I like you, Margie.”

Every time Anna Marie said that, Margie wanted to slap the mother who had told her child she didn’t like her.

“I like you too, puddin’. I more than like you. I think you’re the sweetest, prettiest little girl I’ve ever known.”

“You do?”

“I sure do. Let’s get back in the truck. I’ll light the lantern, and after we take off your muddy shoes I’ll wash your face and hands. Then we’ll look at the pictures in a movie magazine.”

“Can I see a picture of the little girl with the curls?”

“I know right where to find one.”

“Where’s the man who sat out there in the chair every night? He didn’t like me. I said hello to him and he went like this.” Anna Marie drew her eyebrows together and turned down her lips.

“It wasn’t that he didn’t like you, honey. He was unhappy and … thinking about things.”

“Is he comin’ back?”

“Ah … no. He went to where your mama and daddy went.”

“Oh. I’m glad he’s not comin’ back,” she said with a child’s honesty.

Sometime later Anna Marie fell asleep cuddled against Margie. Putting aside the magazine, Margie eased the child down on the bunk. Poor little girl, going to live with strangers. Margie wished with all her heart that she had the means to keep her and give her the love she never had from her mother.

Margie made a pad of blankets on Elmer’s strongbox at the front of the truck and moved Anna Marie there so she could lie down on the bunk. After covering the child with a light sheet she stooped and kissed her cheek.

A wave of fatigue washed over her. She blew out the lantern and sank down on the bunk. She felt her stomach drop away when she thought of the burial tomorrow. She had tried, really tried, to grieve for her father. Long ago she had relegated him to a special place in her mind—the place where she put unpleasant things she didn’t like to think about. Now she was ashamed to admit that she would grieve more if it had been Alvin Putman who came in fatal contact with the electric wire.

What kind of a person have I turned out to be?

Lying there in the dark, she would occasionally hear a car pass on the highway. She didn’t allow herself to think about Brady Hoyt. Giving in to him had been an even bigger mistake than thinking that Ernie Harding was an honorable man and going off with him. She vowed silently never to put her blind trust in anyone again.

The people who thought they knew her had the notion that her big dream was to see Hollywood. She had wanted to see it since she saw her first movie, but more than that, she wanted a home and to belong to someone who needed her as much as she needed him. She wanted to love and be loved. She wanted a man who thought she was grand, the way that Alvin thought Grace was grand. She wanted
roots
. She wanted a little girl like Anna Marie to love and fuss over. She wanted, she wanted—

She made no attempt to wipe away the tears. She would indulge herself tonight … tomorrow would be another day.

It was near midnight when Brady stopped his car in front of the post office and waited for Foley to pull alongside.

“Jody and I went as far west as Texola. There wasn’t anything there. I doubt that whoever picked her up would have backtracked to Elk City.”

“Deke talked to the bartender at the PowWow. He said there had been very few ladies in there tonight and none fitted her description. Do you want to notify the sheriff?”

“If she isn’t back by morning, we’ll have to. I believe that she was picked up on the highway by someone she thought would show her a good time. She hadn’t had time to get very far before I went out looking for her.” Foley rubbed his hand over his face. “She has a suitcase in the trailer. She may come back for it.”

“Are you thinking that she got a chance to go with someone and left you?”

“In the back of my mind I knew it would happen someday. I just didn’t expect it so soon.”

“Hell. I’m sorry.”

“Let’s get on back,” Foley said tiredly. “No use burning up more gas looking for her. It would be like her to worry me by hiding out all night, then come trottin’ in in the morning.”

On the way back to the campground Deke said, “It didn’t take long for me to figure out that woman wasn’t ever goin’ to be anythin’ but trouble to Luker. I’m a-wonderin’ why he married her.”

“He was lonely and horny.” Brady looked at the little man and grinned.

“Godalmighty. There’s easier ways of gettin’ your rocks hauled than marryin’ up with a floozy.”

“I agree. My brother married a woman who gave him a merry chase. I learned a lesson there. I’m going to be damn careful who I tie up with.”

“You said young Luker was goin’ to drive Margie’s truck. I’m right glad she’s not goin’ to strike out on her own. She’s too nice, too trusting.”

“We’ll look after her.”

“Hell I hope so. Mama’d be glad for her to stay here till she got on her feet, but she didn’t want to put us out. As if having that little thin’ around would be anything but pure pleasure.”

“She wants to see Hollywood,” Brady said irritably.

Deke glanced at Brady’s set features. “I hope she sees it and gets it out of her system. Then she’ll settle down.”

“To what? Workin’ in a laundry washin’ someone’s dirty drawers?”

“She’s pretty enough to be in the movies. Maybe some high muckety-muck will take one look at her, sign her up, and we’ll see that pretty little face on the screen.”

“More than likely she’ll take up with some no-good jelly bean who’ll use her like the bastard that left her here last year.”

Deke turned his head and smiled when he heard the irritation in Brady’s voice.
The man had a yen for little Margie!
He decided to goad him a little.

“Yep, that’s about what’ll happen to her. She’ll find herself tied down with a bunch of kids and a life of pickin’ oranges or hoein’ cotton to feed ’em. A lot of no-good bums out there are just waitin’ to latch onto a woman like Margie who’s sweet and loving and loyal. She deserves more, by golly.”

Brady’s silence spoke louder than words. Hearing Deke’s prediction of Margie’s future had set his teeth on edge and a muscle dancing in his jaw. Deke kind of wished they’d stay around so he could find out what would happen between them.

When Deke and Brady turned into the campground, the car headlights shone on Mona, Rusty and Jody standing beside the Lukers’ trailer. Jody, no doubt, was telling them of the search for Sugar. Brady let Deke out, then parked his car behind the Kinnard truck. He sat there for a minute or two before going to the end of the truck to get Anna Marie.

“Did you find her?” Margie’s voice came out of the dark interior.

“No. Foley says she’ll either come back or she won’t.”

“I suppose he’s all torn up about her leaving.”

“Didn’t seem to be. I think he finally got his eyes opened to the kind of woman she was.”

“I’m glad. I hate to think of him hurting.”

“I’ll take Anna Marie.”

“Don’t wake her. She’s all right.”

“Sure you don’t mind?”

“Would I have said, ‘Don’t wake her,’ if I minded?”

“Guess not. Well, thanks and good night.”

Margie stared into the darkness. Sleep now evaded her. After a while she heard Jody’s voice just outside the truck telling Mona to go on and that he would wait for her.

Mona was walking Rusty to the Putman camp, and Jody didn’t want his sister coming back through the darkness alone. Margie decided that although Foley Luker hadn’t used much judgment in choosing a second wife, he must have done something right. He had two really nice kids.

In a motor court cabin near Elk City, Sugar and Homer Persy lay in a tangle of bedsheets. Sugar giggled happily.

“Spread yore legs, slut!” he demanded.

“We’ve done it three times, you horny little stud!”

“I can go three more.” Homer sucked on a spot beneath her ear and rocked himself against her naked thigh.

“Save some of it, lover. I don’t want you to go dry on me.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’ve got the hottest little pussy I’ve ever had. Know that?”

Sugar sank her teeth in his shoulder. She loved it when he called her a slut, a hot pussy. She loved it when he drank bootleg whiskey out of her navel.

“Whater we going to do about Uncle Chester? He didn’t like having to sleep in the car.”

“Nothin’ right now. I got other things on my mind.”

“He don’t like it that you’re in here with me. I heard him call me a bangtail.”

“Well, ya are, ain’t ya? I aim to bang yore tail all the way to California.”

Sugar giggled, wiggled against him and stroked his erection.

“I’ll send him back home.” Homer worried her earlobe between his lips. “Then it’ll be just you and me, baby doll. We’ll honky-tonk, screw and raise holy hell all the way to California.”

“I want to get my suitcase—”

“We’ll get it.” Homer moved over between her spread legs. “Is yore old man goin’ to kick up a fuss?”

“What if he does? There’s nothin’ he can do.”

“Godalmighty. You musta been desperate to wed up with a clod old enough to have grown kids.”

“It seemed like a good way to get to California.”

Homer slid into her. “Goddamn. I been waitin’ all my life for a hot-and-ready woman.”

“Ya found her, Stud.”

“We’ll make a damn good team. Stud and Sugar. Sugar and Stud.”

“Whater we goin’ to do, Stud, after we get rid of Uncle Chester?” Sugar wrapped her legs around him.

“We’ll get us some money. You said you could drive.”

“Anything that’s got four wheels. Will we—”

“Shut up talkin’ and move yore ass! Ya’ve got me big as a fence post and harder’n a rock—”

Chapter 20

S
UGAR LUKER HAD NOT RETURNED
when the group gathered to go to the cemetery for the burial. Foley looked haggard and tired after spending a sleepless night. He and Jody had gone on ahead to report to the sheriff that Sugar was missing, and would meet them later at the cemetery.

Alvin suggested that he and Grace go in his truck and Brady’s car would carry the rest. Anna Marie would stay with Mrs. Bales. When Brady brought the car around to the front of the garage, Margie got in the backseat with Deke. Mona sat in front between Brady and Rusty. Rusty put his arm on the back of the seat. His hand cupped Mona’s shoulder and pulled her close to him.

“You all right, darlin’?” Deke asked Margie as they pulled into the lonely-looking treeless cemetery where two workers in overalls stood back from a mound of red Oklahoma dirt. The casket containing her father’s body sat on the ground beside an open hole. Deke reached for her hand and held it tightly.

“I’m all right. It was good of you to come, Deke. You’ll lose business with the garage closed.”

“Only for an hour, darlin’. Ole Deke wouldn’t let ya go through this without bein’ with ya.”

“Both times I’ve been here, I’ve been trouble to you.”

“It wasn’t of your makin’, darlin’. None of it.”

“Thank you for being with me today.”

When Foley and Jody drove up and parked behind them, they got out of the car. Somberly they walked through the sparse prairie grass and stood at the grave site. Before the service began Alvin asked Margie if she wanted the casket opened so that she could see her father for the last time. She shook her head. Deke stayed beside her, his arm around her.

Alvin spoke about how they had started on this trip and how Elmer’s life had ended before they completed a third of it. After a sketchy background of Elmer’s life, Rusty began to strum on his guitar, then sang “Rock of Ages.” Alvin read from his Bible. When he closed it, he, Grace and Rusty sang “Nearer My God to Thee.”

The service was short but decent and respectful. When it was over, Deke turned Margie away from the grave and led her back to the car while the casket was being lowered into the ground. Brady watched Deke lead Margie away and felt a surge of primitive jealousy.
He
should have been the one to be with her when they buried her father.

Brady hid his feelings when Alvin moved up beside him, but that didn’t make them go away. He knew what was the matter with him, but it didn’t make it any easier to tolerate. This plucky, little blond woman had gotten under his skin. He wanted her for his own. The need to have her was burning a hole in his gut. He didn’t like the feeling and was impatient with himself for his restlessness.

Foley, who was the last to arrive at the cemetery, led the way back down the highway to the garage. As soon as they pulled into the campground, he saw that the ropes holding the cover on his trailer had been cut and the canvas thrown back. He knew before he looked that Sugar’s suitcase would be gone. She and whoever she was with had sneaked in here to get it, knowing that he would be at the cemetery burying Elmer Kinnard.

Now he felt like a fool for reporting her as missing to the sheriff. She had left him for someone who had picked her up on the highway. Foley was relieved in a way that she hadn’t been kidnapped, that she was evidently where she wanted to be. He didn’t wish her to be harmed. But, Lord, what a chance she was taking. Didn’t she have any sense at all? Then he thought that he had no right to question
her
reasoning when
he
hadn’t shown any at all when he married her.

He glanced at his children. Jody and Mona were waiting to see what he was going to do. He owed them far more than he owed the woman he had known only a couple of weeks when he took her for his wife. He would try to make it up to them for the time they’d had to spend with Sugar.

“Daddy?” Mona came to look in the trailer, then up at her father. “She took her suitcase. I’m sorry, Daddy.”

Foley put his arm around his daughter. “I’m the one who’s sorry, honey. I knew even before we started on this trip that I shouldn’t have married her.”