Playing by the Rules: A Novel (9 page)

“How far are we walking?” Ruby Rose carried the bag with the food.

Jeremiah flung the backpack around his shoulders and picked up Ruby Rose’s suitcase. “We’ll stop at the first friendly house that gives off any sign of warmth and holiday spirit.”

Before they got to the last chorus of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” the doorbell rang. Everyone thought it was Sadie playing the C note three times during the “glory to the newborn king” part, but it was followed by three very distinctive knocks. The room went silent as they stopped singing and everyone stared at one another, wondering who the late, uninvited guest could be. Nana looked at her husband for a moment, then a wide grin captured her face. “It’s Faye!” she shouted, racing to the door. “Bless her heart, she decided to come home for Christmas after all.”

However, when Nana opened the front door, her face turned to stone. She let out a gasp, then put her hand to her chest, which seemed to prevent the words from coming out of her mouth. There were two people standing on her front porch who were not from Lemon City, two Outsiders, to be exact. One grown man and one young girl. Granddaddy saw his wife’s reaction and responded. Watching her expression transition from complete joy to total shock, he came to the front door to see what had caused her transformation.

Granddaddy was taken aback by the two strangers standing before him, but managed to collect himself and speak. “Can we help you?” Granddaddy asked the man since his wife was unable to exercise her vocal cords. He couldn’t help but examine the strange pair in the same way he would a sideshow at a circus.

“Sorry to bother you good people.” Jeremiah took off his hat, trying to make a favorable impression. Despite the cold, he did his best to turn his frozen mouth into a smile. “But we’ve been walking for quite some time and though I’m not one to seek charity, my sister here, as you can see, is really cold and I was wondering if you might have someplace warm where we could take shelter for the night. We don’t need much room and we’re not particular.”

Jeremiah pointed to the sky with clouds moving from west to east, suggesting there might be snow, or worse, a mild storm coming. “From the look of things, I’m afraid the weather may take a turn for the worse.”

Granddaddy said nothing to the strangers. Gazing at the sky, he was thinking that whatever nature had decided to do wasn’t his problem. He was trying to figure out why Outsiders always seemed to wind up at his front door and looked down at his feet to the welcome mat. He wished that certain folk wouldn’t take it literally.

“It’s Christmas Day,” Jeremiah reminded them. “It’s late, and everything is closed,” he continued, one step away from begging. “We’re sorry for the imposition, but we have no place to go.” When he put his arm around Ruby Rose she seemed to reinforce his story; her muscles contracted and her body began to shiver as her lips and the fingertips poking through her gloves were turning blue.

Billy came to the door to see what had captured his grandparents’ attention. When he caught sight of the two Outsiders, he instinctively stepped between them and his family in case he had to block any sudden moves. Lemon City was a long way from home for Outsiders, and his professional assessment was that these two weren’t lost. Looking around the older Outsider’s shoulder to check out his car, he was surprised to discover there was none in front of the house. Sizing them up, he concluded that a man with
a child traveling on foot late at night, the two of them appearing as if they hadn’t had a change of clothes in at least a day, literally smelled like trouble. Trusting his instincts, despite the fact the two had a look of innocence about them, the trouble he detected was that they were probably fugitives running from the law.

“I’m sorry, sir. Please forgive my rudeness,” Jeremiah said to Granddaddy, Nana, and Billy, as if reading their minds. “My name is Jeremiah Richardson, and this here is my sister, Ruby Rose Wilkes.”

“Rose,” Nana repeated. “Ruby Rose.” Then she remembered the smell of flowers early in the day and wondered if it was this child’s scent being carried by the wind.

“Come on in. Come on in,” said Nana. “You’ve been standing outside in this cold long enough. Forgive me for forgettin’ my manners.”

Jeremiah and Ruby Rose were relieved to hear those words, as well as to enter the house and be greeted by the warmth coming from the fireplace.

Granddaddy’s and Billy’s jaws dropped at Nana’s sudden friendliness toward the Outsiders, but they also knew it was cold outside and it didn’t make much sense to let the people freeze to death on their front porch. If they did, then they’d have a whole other problem on their hands. They could dispose of the bodies, but it would be difficult to rid themselves of the guilt.

Nana turned to her guests, who had witnessed the unimaginable scene and were now staring in disbelief because she had invited Outsiders into her home who had nothing to do with business. Confused about whether or not she was violating Rule Number Eight: DO BUSINESS AT HOME FIRST, THEN WITH OUTSIDERS YOU CAN INVITE INTO YOUR HOME, AS A LAST RESORT, Nana was confident she was adhering to Rule Number Seven: HELP THOSE IN NEED AND NEVER JUDGE THEM BY
THE HOLES IN THEIR SOCKS. Even though she couldn’t see the condition of the material inside Ruby Rose’s shoes, the little girl had holes in her gloves, and as far as Nana was concerned that was close enough. That was all the proof she needed that she was following The Rules.

“Everyone.” Pausing to get their attention, she scanned the room and discovered it was the least of her worries; she already had all eyes on her. “Everyone,” Nana repeated. “This is Jeremiah Richardson and his sister, Ruby Rose Wilkes. They’ve come to join our Christmas celebration.” Nana never imagined that silence could be more quiet, and she sensed the stillness in the room was begging for additional information to release her guests from their catatonic states. “Keep in mind that Christmas is a time of great joy, good tidings, and giving.” She was nervous about how her audience would receive this presentation, but she moved on. “A time to remember that all the inns in Bethlehem were closed to the baby Jesus, and thank God that someone was kind enough at the stable to take him in and provide a place of warmth and comfort.” That little Outsider introduction had just popped into her head, and she hoped it helped to make her family and friends feel more comfortable with the intruders. If nothing else, at least it helped her to justify her own actions. “For without that place of warmth and comfort, our lives would not be the same. Who knows what would have happened to the baby Jesus had there not been that stable to receive him?”

“He would have been born someplace else,” offered Ole Miss Johnson.

“That’s not the point,” shot back Nana.

Ole Miss Johnson wanted to ask Ernestine if she’d gone clear out of her mind comparing these vagabonds to the baby Jesus. Lemon City didn’t take kindly to Outsiders, no matter what. No matter if it was Christmas Day and they were the last people on
earth. One thing had absolutely nothing to do with the other, but it wasn’t her house. She was in enough trouble with her neighbor as it was, so she kept her mouth shut.

Everyone in the room was torn between watching Nana and her neighbor or the two Outsiders, as if each couple commanded a certain level of attention and scrutiny.

Granddaddy couldn’t believe what his wife had just said about the Outsiders and the baby Jesus either. But because she released the words as easily as a spring breeze blowing through an opened window, he knew exactly what was on her mind. With over thirty years of marriage, he could make a calculated guess, knowing just where she was planning on putting the two for the night. He could tell it was the little girl who got to her, and with that being the case, he also knew his wife’s generosity might outweigh her good judgment and common sense.

Everyone stood up surrounding the two as if they were rare creatures at a zoo. Bootsie and Clement were suspicious, believing the Outsiders standing before them might be con artists. Sadie, Theola, and Vernelle thought the young man was handsome despite his disheveled clothes and unshaven face, which judging by the way he looked was nothing a good washing machine and sharp razor couldn’t cure. The little girl was cute, with her nutmeg-colored freckles against cocoa-butter skin, but Sadie was the only one who noticed her hands with fingers long enough to embrace the keys on a piano. Elvira didn’t know what to make of the two, and it wasn’t her place to say, but she would have given them blankets and food and led them to the shed and thought twice about letting them in the house. Ole Miss Johnson thought that any Outsiders in Lemon City meant trouble, but she sensed one good thing about the man, and that was recognition. The moment he walked into the room, she could tell immediately she was in the presence of another healer. She hadn’t had a whiff of snakeroot in
over twenty years, and the bitter scent was emanating from his leather backpack on the floor like the smell of swamp water on a hot summer day. It had a distinctive odor, with properties almost as strong as penicillin. The plant was extremely rare, she thought to herself, and she knew he must be exceptional to have gotten access to the root. On the other hand, after examining the little girl, Ole Miss Johnson could tell by looking through the tunnel of her dark young eyes that life had already dealt her a series of heavy blows, and she felt sorry for the young thing.

There was something about the male Outsider that rubbed Medford the wrong way, and it had to do with how long he fixed his eyes on Louise and vice versa when Nana made the introductions.

Temptation sneaked up on Louise and she didn’t have a chance to step out of its way. She stood apart from the circle of family and friends to get a better view of this stranger, unable to take her eyes off him. Although she knew he was off-limits and she was halfway involved with Medford, she wasn’t married to him. More important, they obviously didn’t have the kind of commitment that would prevent her from being available to someone else.

Once the introductions were made, Sadie started playing the piano again, trying to create a sense of getting back to normal. Nana stayed in the room to finish the second verse of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” just long enough to see that the Outsiders knew the words to the song, so she could verify they were Christians. Satisfied that they sang along, Nana went into the kitchen to fix them both a plate.

Granddaddy joined her, knowing that whatever opinion he had about the situation wasn’t going to do any good.

“I know what you’re gonna say.” Granddaddy started waving his hand to his wife to express himself first, but it was too late.

“They can stay in the cottage,” Nana pleaded. She nodded her
head repeatedly, as if the motion would trigger him to do the same.

“For goodness sake, Ernestine. They’re Outsiders.”

“I know, but the little girl can’t remain out in the cold. She needs some food in her stomach and a warm place to sleep. Ain’t nothing of value in the cottage for them to steal, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“We don’t know these people, Ernestine,” Granddaddy said, trying to get her to be practical.

“I know, but I don’t think anything bad is gonna come of it.” She patted his chest to soften the emotions inside. “We just gotta trust it’ll be okay. Besides, it’s just for overnight.” Nana laid her hand against his chest again; hoping it would warm her husband’s heart.

As Granddaddy looked at his wife, he was well aware that it wasn’t going to be “just for overnight,” just like he knew he had lost this fight. “I’ll meet you halfway,” he compromised, which he felt was much better than being defeated. “Let’s hear what they have to say for themselves, and the kind of explanation they give us for how they landed on our front porch. We’ll hear their story first, then we’ll make a decision. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Nana said with a look of satisfaction.

“Depending on what they say,” Granddaddy continued, “we either put them in the shed or they can stay at the cottage. But only for one night.”

Nana hugged her husband with the complete knowledge that a person could always change his mind.

The cottage down the street from the Dunlap house was barely visible from Tuckahoe Road in spring and summer, but in fall and winter, when the leaves that normally clung to the sycamore trees left their branches, it was exposed like an eastern white pine without its needles. It was the three-room house that Granddaddy had
built for his family in case anyone wanted to get away for a while or feel like they were on vacation, needing only to venture down the road. There were even times when he rented the cottage to the young adult children of friends who craved to experience life independent of their parents before they purchased or built their own homes. Since the cottage was comfortable living quarters, when his wife said it was where she wanted to put the strangers, Granddaddy suspected it would be for more than just one night.

Nana took the plates that she was warming for the Outsiders out of the oven. Delivering their hot plates to the dining room, she called Jeremiah and Ruby Rose to the table so they could enjoy their meal. Everyone tried to be polite and let them have their privacy, but they couldn’t help but notice how the two devoured their food like wild dogs.

Granddaddy wanted to be sure the Outsiders had satisfied their appetites before questioning them. When Jeremiah and Ruby Rose finished eating, he requested that Jeremiah explain in detail to everyone in the room how he and his sister happened to come to Lemon City, and even more important, how they came to select their house.

When Billy sensed some resistance in the Outsider and saw he was reluctant to share his story, he felt an obligation to offer him words of encouragement. “As the Lemon City Sheriff, it is my duty to tell you The Rule—like reading you the Miranda Act— that means your rights, and inform you of the consequences. Rule Number Two: ‘If You Can’t Be Honest You Might as Well Be Dead.’ Which means,” Billy continued, “if you’re lying about your story, it could result in death at the hands of myself, or by Jefferson County Sheriff Beaureguard Taylor. Take your pick.”