The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (32 page)

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In the morning Adela woke bright and early invigorated and ready to start another day in Mississippi. Her first thought was as always of Olivia and wondering how she was and had she got to France okay and was she one her way to Spain perhaps, or Italy. Still thinking of Olivia she showered and dressed in shorts and a pale blue T-shirt, the same colour as the hat, with white frills around the cuffs and neckline. She then made herself breakfast of egg and bacon then after cleaning her teeth and donning her hat and sunglasses she headed out.

The curtains to the Carters cabin were still closed so they either weren’t up yet or they were still getting themselves ready to leave. She had enjoyed herself with the them the day before and felt awful as she hoped that they would not insist on her accompanying them on their excursions today. They were going into Gulfport to the beach for the day and she wanted to explore. But she would avoid the woods just yet she would leave them for another time; she hated to admit that she still felt a little apprehensive about being alone in a secluded area, but she did. But every hour she spent here she felt better and was becoming more and more at ease; still she wouldn’t tempt fate just yet.

She walked down the path and through the woods; she was half way through them when she saw the Youngs coming towards her. They said good morning and asked how she was finding her cabin, was it comfortable and so on?

They chatted for a while then they made their way back to their cabin and Adela to the town. She called in to see Dean Maxwell in the bookstore and was persuaded, not that she needed much persuasion, to stay for a cup of tea. They talked and laughed and she spent a very nice forty five minutes there leaving him with a promise to call back later for more tea and chat.

She walked down the street saying hello to almost the same people she had greeted the day before. She saw a bus coming down the road towards her with a sign that said, “Biloxi.” She had seen in her book that Biloxi was a pleasant place to visit, with lots of things to see and do and only two miles or so from here. She also recalled that the author John Grisham set some of his novels in Biloxi and thought she would like to see some of the settings for his stories. She was quite close to the bus stop and on impulse put out her hand hoping that the bus would stop for her. It did and she got on, thanking the driver for stopping in an unscheduled place. He told her she was welcome and she paid the fare.

There were only four people on the bus and she smiled at them all as she sat down and they smiled back. She sat next to a woman in her early fifties who told her she was going to visit her son in prison. Adela told her that she was very sorry to hear of her troubles, but the woman said it was no trouble for her and her son deserved everything he got. If you dance with the devil you’re bound to get your feet burnt. Adela wanted to laugh, but the woman was very serious so she just nodded. But she was to remember the woman’s words later.

The other three people talked to her about the area she was visiting and told her places of interest that she simply had to see and before she knew it they were in Biloxi. She said goodbye to her fellow travellers and the driver and got off the bus.

This part of Biloxi seemed to be a very busy area with lots of people around and seemed to have a lot of casinos and bars advertising jazz music, she could actually hear strains of the saxophone all along the street.

Unlike her brother David, she was not a huge fan of jazz, not that she would tell anyone around here that was for sure, she would probably get beaten up. She strolled along until she found a quieter area and could enjoy herself window shopping. She popped into several shops and bought a pair of cuff inks shaped like a saxophone for David and a very pretty pair of pearl earrings for Sally. She looked around for something for Daniel but couldn’t seem to find any swastika cuff links. Never mind, she would think of something before she left.

She wondered vaguely how Daniel would like it here; there were so many black faces. But then Daniel would never come here, not to the U.S and certainly not to Mississippi. He only just about endured Spain or Portugal when his girlfriend of the moment insisted that they went abroad for their holidays, and even then, according to the girlfriend, he spent most of his time in English bars.

She strolled along the street listening to people chatting to each other loudly and exuberantly. She found the nearest travel agency and went in to pick up a brochure of things to do and places of interest in Biloxi. They were very helpful and told her of the Jefferson Davis home and presidential library. She said she would be very interested in seeing that and asked if it was far to walk. They said not at all and gave her directions. She bought some maps to add to her collection, thanked them and made her way to the Jefferson Davis’ house.

She found it very easily and spent a very pleasant few hours there. She knew quite a bit about the American civil war but very little about Jefferson Davis and was always eager to learn new things.

After that she strolled along the beach front and watched the boats go by. She knew that a lot of these vessels were gambling casinos but gambling had never been of any interest to her, except the lottery of course. She smiled to herself at the irony of that, she doubted any of the people on board those casino boats were going to be as lucky as she had been.

She looked at her watch and realised that it was 2.45, she would get some lunch here then head back to Eden, she may even still have time to keep her promise to Dean Maxwell and join him for a cup of tea in his bookshop.

She walked awhile until she found a reasonably quiet little diner and went in. She had to wait quite a while to be served and the waitress, who could not have been more than sixteen or seventeen, eventually came over to take her order looking very harassed and sweaty. She apologised to Adela for keeping her waiting but Adela assured her that it was no problem and not to worry. After giving Adela a curious look (the accent again) she smiled and took her order.

She was gone a long time so Adela took out her maps whilst she waited. She looked up other places to visit whilst she was in Mississippi, such as Fort Massachusetts, which was in Gulfport on Ship Island, she would go there perhaps tomorrow. She studied the map of Gulfport she had picked up when she had booked her holiday to the states. There were some very interesting and exciting places she desperately wanted to visit while she was here.

She decided to write down where she would visit next and when. She took out her notepad and pen and began to jot down the places that interested her most.

After about fifteen minutes the waitress came back with her meal and Adela put aside her notepad, pen and maps and thanked her. The poor girl looked even more harassed and apologised again, and once again Adela told her not to worry, that she was in no hurry. Just then a man at a near by table yelled out, ‘hey, honey, when you’ve finished chatting about shoes and men maybe you could serve us, we been waiting here an hour or more.’ This wasn’t true as Adela had seen them walk in not ten minutes before. She smiled at the girl and whispered, ‘they’ve actually only just arrived, they’re just impatient.’

The girl gave her a grateful smile but still looked worried. She said, ‘oh geez, I forget your coffee, I’ll get it.’

Before Adela could say anything she had run behind the counter, grabbed the coffee pot and was hurrying back. As she poured the coffee a man came out of the kitchen area and called angrily, ‘hey you, Zoe or whatever, we have other customers you know.’

Zoe or whatever jumped and spilt some of the coffee on the white tablecloth, she began to wipe it up with a cloth she had tucked into her apron apologising to Adela as she did so. Adela told her that it was not a problem and not to concern herself with it, but the girl continued to look agitated and scared. She said, ‘I’m new, this is only my second day and I’m not used to the pace yet.’

Adela smiled in understanding, ‘you’ll get into it, if you can survive today,’ she nodded towards the table and the man who had yelled, ‘you can survive anything.’

Zoe laughed and the impatient customer yelled again. ‘Hey you, little missy, get your cute little butt over here and take our order, some of us have work to get back to ya know.’

Zoe turned to rush over to them but collided with the table directly behind her causing the coffee pot to fall from her hand and crash to the floor. Glass smashed and coffee spattered everywhere, including the loud man’s left shoe. He leapt up as though he’d been stung on the backside by a giant wasp. He yelled, ‘you idiot girl, what’s wrong with you.’

Zoe just stood looking down at the mess around her feet as though if she stared at it long enough it would miraculously disappear.

The man said, ‘well, don’t just stand there like an idiot, get something to wipe this crap offa my shoes.’

This seemed to penetrate the girls stupefied stare because she immediately bent down and started to pick up the glass saying, ‘I’m sorry, so sorry.’

Adela stood and up and rushed over to the girl and crouching down next to her put her hands on hers and said, ‘no, don’t, the coffee will still be hot and you’ll cut yourself on the glass. We need a dustpan and brush, could you go and get one, and a mop too?’

The girl gave her a grateful look liking that she had used the word, “we.”

The man said, ‘what about my shoes.’

Adela stood up as the girl rushed off to get the dustpan and said, ‘it was
one
shoe and they’re synthetic not suede or anything, they won’t be ruined.’

The man positively bristled, ‘and what would you know. Anyway, that hot coffee burnt my foot.’

Adela almost laughed, ‘nonsense, it splashed on your shoe, not your foot, if you’d been burnt you’d have complained about that first and not your silly shoes.’

The man couldn’t believe that this foreign piece had the nerve to talk to him like this. He took a menacing step towards her, ‘who you calling silly, bitch?’

‘Not you, your shoes, but now that you mention it.’

Adele couldn’t believe she was confronting the man this way, she hated conformation and avoided it whenever possible, and he was a big man, a trucker by the looks of him. But he had made her mad with his rudeness.

He took another step towards her but just then another man stepped in front of him. She had noticed him as he had entered the diner just after her, she recalled thinking how very tall he was, but not wanting to be caught staring she had looked down at her maps again. Now he had his back to her and was facing the rude man. He said very calmly, ‘now, why don’t you just use a napkin to dry off your shoes. And if you dislike the service in here so much perhaps you should go elsewhere to eat lunch.’

The man’s face was almost purple as he spluttered ‘who you think you are, telling me where I can and can’t eat.’

‘I’m the guy whose gonna put you out on your ass in five seconds flat if you don’t haul it outta here right now.’

The man gave a derisory laugh, ‘you and
whose army pal?’

The stranger took the rude man’s arm in a firm grip, took him a step to the side then leaned forward and said something in the man’s ear. Adela watched as the colour left the rude man’s face like paint being peeled off a wall with a paint stripper. He leaned back as if in shock then swallowed deeply before taking a step back. After looking at the tall man a moment longer he very quickly turned and left the diner.

His friend, who had said nothing but had watched with amusement his friends ridiculing of the young waitress looked at the stranger who looked back, he said nothing but the man got the message; he stood up quickly and followed his friend out of the door.

Adela was about to thank the man and ask him what he had said to the rude guy, but just then Zoe came back out of the kitchen carrying a dustpan and a mop. She was followed by the man who had shouted at her earlier. He was saying, ‘and when you’ve cleaned up your mess you can get yourself out of here, you’re hopeless, you’re useless and you’re fired.’

Adela said, ‘now wait a minute, this wasn’t her fault, that rude man made her nervous, it was an accident.’

The man looked at her for a moment taken aback then said, ‘she burned him with hot coffee.’

‘No she didn’t, he wasn’t burned at all, he was putting it on. Probably trying to get a free lunch or something.’

The man looked around as if waiting for someone to back him up, no one did. Instead the stranger who had come to Adela’s rescue said, ‘she’s right, it splashed on his,’ he looked at Adela and smiled, ‘silly shoes, that’s all.’

The man didn’t know what to do, his face flushed and he mumbled to the girl, ‘well, get this cleaned up anyway and get back to serving, there’s folks still waiting.’

The girl bent down and began sweeping the glass into the dustpan and Adela said, ‘oh, and by the way, her name is Zoe.’ The man turned to look at her over his shoulder opened his mouth to say something, but his eye caught that of the tall man standing behind her and changed his mind, muttering under his breath he went back into the kitchen.

Adela turned to the stranger and was about to speak when she stopped dead her mouth open, arrested by a pair of astonishing blue eyes surrounded by very long black eyelashes. She blinked several times to bring herself out of her haze and as usual when nervous found an outlet in humour. She said, ‘thank you for your assistance. I was just about to throw him out myself, but you saved me the trouble
and
prevented me from hurting him too.’