Sabrina's Man (6 page)

Alice turned and ran out of the store even before Micah.

“She's plumb disturbed,” Satterfield said. “Women are crying all over the Confederacy, I guess. She'll feel better, Waco.”

“I don't know. I don't think I will.”

“Well, one of you might be able to stay to run the store. It's a pretty lame excuse, but it might work.”

Waco quickly replied, “I'll be going back for sure.”

“You didn't believe much in the Confederacy, did you, son?”

“No, I didn't, Sheriff. Oh, I did at first when the bugles were blowing and the flags were flying and we were winning, but it became pretty obvious that we couldn't win this war. I knew that a long time ago.”

“Well, you better go talk to Alice,” Will said. “Women are weak, but she'll stay with you.”

Waco's world had been shaken. He had talked to Satterfield several times and to the commanding officer of one of the Confederate groups and got the same story.

The major was a tall man with a fierce mustache. “Lee's penned up, and Grant will get Richmond surrounded. That'll be the end of it. Your woman will wait for you.”

He did not go back to the store for some time but just walked around town.

Finally when he returned, Will said, “Where have you been, Waco?”

“Thinking.” He stopped and gave Will a sober look. “I can't marry Alice, Will.”

“Why, of course you can.”

“What if she got pregnant? Who would take care of her and the baby? When I come home, I may be blind or crippled. She needs a whole man.”

“You've got to do it, Waco. I wish you didn't have to go. Just trust the Lord. He'll bring you through.”

“You don't believe that any more than I do. I don't know about you, but I've ignored God so long He's forgot about me.”

Later in the afternoon, Waco and Alice were in the store.

Will had gone on one of his errands, and he came back with his face alight. “I've been talking to the major. He says a man can pay a substitute to go into the army in his place.”

Waco stared at him. “That's a pretty sorry kind of man to hire somebody to do his fighting for him.”

“No, listen. Here's what we'll do. I'll be your substitute. Then you can stay here, get married, and take care of the store.”

Waco shook his head firmly. “You know I couldn't take care of this store. We'd be broke in a week. But you're right. One of us has to stay.”

They argued about the situation most of the day, and after closing time, Will said, “You may not like it, but one of us has to stay here and take care of the store and Alice.”

“You're the only one to take care of the store, Will.”

“And you're the only one who can take care of Alice. Here's what we'll do. We'll cut cards for it. The high card goes to the army. The low card stays here and takes care of things until this war is over.”

“I don't like it,” Alice said. “It doesn't seem right.”

“I don't like it either,” Waco added.

In the end, though, Will had his way. He walked over and took a deck of cards out of the drawer and said, “Here. Alice, you hold the cards out, and I'll pick one and Waco will pick one.”

Waco watched as Will picked a card out and showed it to them. “The nine of spades.”

Waco reached out and said, “It'll take a high card to beat that.” He picked a card out and stared for a moment. When he turned it over, he said, “Queen of hearts. I guess I'm going after all.”

“I still think it should have been me,” Will said.

“We did this your way, which was fair. As I said earlier, the store needs you anyway.”

“Well, it shouldn't be for long. You'll go off to the army and get the fighting done. When you get back, the store ought to be doing well, and you and Alice can get married then.”

Seeing the stricken look on Alice's face, Waco smiled and said, “Well, that's the way it's got to be. I'll be back before you've even missed me. Now I'd better be getting you home.”

Alice and Waco left the store and walked together. She said, “I knew something would go wrong.”

“Wars break up things, Alice. I'll be careful. I'm no hero.”

“You can't promise that.”

“Well, there are ways to keep from being shot. Take one of the wounded men out of the battle back to the hospital. It won't be for long. You can fix the house up. Will will help you.”

Alice said sadly, “I thought my life was planned. Now it's a wreck.”

“Your life is all right, sweetheart.” He stopped, turned her around, and held her tightly. “I'll be back, we'll be married, have a house full of kids, and grow old together.”

“If you say so, Waco.”

T
he law office of L. G. Simms was cluttered to such an extent that Waco wondered how any work ever got done there. All the walls had shelves going up to the board ceiling, which were packed with books, magazines, newspapers, and souvenirs. The big desk, with its back to the single window, was illuminated by sunlight, and the surface was filled with artifacts, books—some of them open, some of them closed—and old newspapers.

Simms himself was a large man bursting out of his clothes almost. He had a large stomach decorated by a gold chain that led, no doubt, to a gold watch in his pocket. His white shirt had the sleeves rolled up, and the buttons seemed ready to burst off. All in all, L. G. Simms was a disappointment.

Waco had not known the man, but he and Will had come in to have him do some work.

“So, you're going off to war. Is that right, Mr. Smith?”

“That's right,” Waco said sparingly. “We have a little legal matter we want to take care of before I go.”

“Very well. That's my specialty, little legal matters.” Simms grinned, pulled a half-smoked cigar from a desk drawer, stuck it in his mouth, then struck a match on his thumbnail and sucked the blue flame in. As soon as the purple smoke was rising as if from a miniature engine, he said, “What can I do for you, gentlemen?”

Will spoke up at once. “Mr. Simms, we went into business, a hardware store, as partners. We're doing real well, but then this conscription thing comes up and throws us into a bind.”

“I should imagine it does.” Simms had small eyes and glasses that were propped up over his head.

“Yes sir, it really does.” Will nodded. “But only one of us has to go.”

“So I hear. So what's your decision?”

“We cut cards for it, and I won, I guess you might say.” Will made a face. “I didn't like it. I still don't like it. It's not right. It's not fair, and I hate the whole idea.”

“Will, we already thrashed this out.” Waco shrugged. He turned to look at Lawyer Simms and said, “What we want to do is put everything in Will's name, the business and a house we recently bought.”

“Well, that should be simple enough. You have the papers here?”

“Here are the Articles of Partnership,” Will said, opening up a folder. “And here's the papers for the mortgage on the house. Still a little bit owing on it.”

“Well, this will be fairly simple. You gentlemen just wait one minute. I'll get this matter out of the way.”

Waco watched as the lawyer worked on the papers. He appeared to be rather messy and almost turned the ink bottle over once, but he got through the business without total disaster. “Here, you two gentlemen sign right where I have marked. That's all that will be necessary. You'll need to go to the court with this at the capitol building.”

Will shook his head but leaned over and signed his name carefully. He handed the pen to Waco, saying, “I still don't like it, Waco.”

Waco shook his head. He signed his name and said, “How much do we owe you?”

“Ten dollars ought to cover it, I reckon.”

Waco fished in his pocket, but Will beat him to it. He came up with cash and said, “Thank you, Mr. Simms.”

“Well, good luck to you both.” He turned to Waco. “And you dodge them bullets now.”

“I'll do my best.”

As soon as they were outside, Waco said, “I guess we might as well head for the train station. From what I hear, the train will be pulling in sometime this afternoon. Trains don't run on schedule with this war going on.”

The two walked along the boardwalk, and finally Will said, “Waco, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Are you scared? I mean scared of getting shot?”

“Not right now, but they're not shooting at me.” Waco managed a grin. “I will be when about five hundred Yankees are trying to kill me.” He glanced over and saw a flight of blackbirds circle the town, making their harsh, guttural cries, then disappear behind the taller buildings. “I remember when I served the last time. I didn't like it a bit.”

Will was quiet for a while and said, “We've never talked about this, but do you believe in God?”

“Of course I believe in God. What do you take me for? Just look around you. With a world like this, there's got to be a world maker.”

The two trudged silently on, threading their way between the people going to work and soldiers wandering the town, and finally Waco said, “You know I'm not afraid of dying.”

“I would be.”

“Well, it's what comes after that bothers me.”

Will shot a quick glance at his partner. “Maybe you'd better go talk to the minister.”

“No, I reckon not.”

“I expect he can tell you how to get right with God.”

Waco turned and shot a hard glance at Will, saying, “Will, I've been ignoring God all my life. Now you think if I run to Him and tell Him I've been a bad boy, He's going to let me into heaven? That would be like trying to buy insurance on a house when a house was on fire. I may be a sinner, but I'm no hypocrite.”

They continued their walk, and when they approached the train depot, Waco said, “Look at that crowd.”

Will shook his head. “They don't look like much, do they?”

“No, the Confederacy is skimming the bottom of the bucket.”

The two of them moved back and leaned against the station house, and Waco's attention was drawn to an older man.

A woman was hanging to him and weeping, and a young woman with a small boy was standing by, watching with a worried look in her eyes. “You'll be all right, Carl,” the young woman said.

“Sure I will.”

The boy perked up and said, “Are you going to kill the Yankees, Grandpa?”

“I reckon as how I'll do my best.”

The woman was weeping violently. “Why'd they have to take you, Les? You're fifty-five years old. You're too old to be a soldier.”

“Well, I got to go, Liz. That's all there is to it.”

The scene disturbed Waco, and he shook his head in despair. “That old man doesn't need to leave his grandson and his wife.”

“No, it's not right, but it's the way it is.”

Ten minutes later, a very young lieutenant with rosy cheeks and bright blue eyes and dressed in a new Confederate uniform appeared. He shouted out as if everyone were deaf, “I'm Lieutenant Burl Gibson. When I call your name, sing out.” He began calling out names.

When he called out Waco Smith, Waco raised his voice: “Here, Lieutenant.”

The officer called out several more names, and then he called, “Charles Abbott.” The lieutenant waited. “Charles Abbott, are you here?”

There was no answer, and one of the men said with a wry smile, “He lit out last night, Lieutenant, headed for the West Coast, I guess.”

Lieutenant Gibson turned rosy, blushing furiously. “He'll be sorry when we catch up with him.”

An older man, obviously seeing a younger son off, said, “You ain't gonna catch Charlie, Lieutenant. He's going all the way to the West Coast, sign on a clipper ship, and get down to the South Sea Islands. I wish I was going with him.”

Gibson stared furiously at the older man, completed the roll call, and said, “You men stay where you are. The train will be here any minute.”

He had no sooner spoken than Alice came, almost out of breath. She was holding a fairly large box. “I fixed you something to eat on the train, Waco.”

Waco took the box and said, “Feels heavy. What you got in here?”

“Cake and sandwiches and pickles. Everything I could get in there.”

“Thanks, Alice. That'll come in handy, I'm sure.”

Alice looked around, her eyes falling on the older couple, and then she burst out, “I hate this war! I hate everything about it!”

“I reckon we all do, Alice.”

“Grant wouldn't let this bunch in his army,” she said.

“No,” Waco said, “but Lee has to use what the South has got. This is it.”

“You know the best of the men went off in the first excitement,” Will said thoughtfully.

“That's right. Most of them got killed. I was in that bunch. We were all excited. Thought we'd be home before Christmas. Pretty soon it'll be the fifth Christmas.”