The Hayloft: a 1950s Mystery (21 page)

How should I answer that? Officially, we just
barely knew each other. “Well, she’s the most beautiful girl in the
school and she’s head cheerleader and she’s dating the captain of
the football team—”

“Okay, cut the crap, Gary. I saw you two
dancing together at the sock hop. You were the only boy with guts
enough to do that. And even though you’re as tall as Joe, you’re
too thin to be a match for him physically. You have some connection
with her.”

I shouldn’t have underestimated Barney. “I
taught Natalie how to play nim.”

Barney stared at me for a moment and then
started to grin. “Of course. It all makes sense. Mysterious new guy
appears on the scene and starts overshadowing me in math class.
Sylvia obviously likes him more than her job of showing him around
the school would require. Sylvia and Natalie are tight. Natalie,
who didn’t have a clue about nim, suddenly becomes an expert. If I
had any brains, I would have figured it out. Well, I don’t feel so
bad, knowing that I really lost to you.”

“Thanks. All right, you know my secret. What
about you and Natalie?”

“What did she tell you?”

“All I know is that the first time you two
played nim, she lost and had to run around the school naked.”

“Naked? Is that what she said? My, that girl
does like to exaggerate. Well it’s true, she is somewhat of an
exhibitionist, but she was hardly naked. Maybe I should have
stipulated that. No, she was wearing a bra and panties. And she did
it at night.”

Barney opened a drawer of a hand-painted
dresser and rummaged through some papers. He pulled one out and
handed it to me. It was a dark and fuzzy black-and-white print of a
girl running while wearing what looked like a white bra and
panties. By squinting, I could almost recognize the figure as
Natalie.

“You need to work on your photography,” I
said, handing it back to him. “I’ve seen better pictures taken in a
girls’ locker room.”

“It’s not a great shot,” Barney admitted.
“That’s why I said she had to run during the day the second time. I
was determined to get a better picture of her. Oh well. The best
laid plans of mice and men.”

“But what started this whole thing? Sylvia
told me you were hot for Natalie’s bod, and she wouldn’t have
anything to do with you.”

“Story of the life of almost every boy in
school. But it’s at least partially true. Last spring she was
having trouble with—guess what—math. She led me on so I would help
her. Agreed to go with me to the prom. She stood me up when someone
else asked her who has the qualification of being taller than I
am.”

“Not Joe.”

“No. She just started going with Joe a few
weeks ago at the beginning of the school year. Anyway, I was pissed
off enough that I harassed her. She agreed to play nim with me to
get me off her back. If I had lost, I would have had to stay away
from her and do something so humiliating I’m not going to tell you
about it. She has an imagination, er, unusual in high school girls.
The nim game wasn’t the smartest thing she could have done, but
then she’s not known for her brainpower.”

“You mentioned skeletons in Natalie’s
closet.”

“Yes.” Barney looked thoughtful. “Before Joe
and before me, Natalie made a play for…Ralph.”

“Ralph? My cousin Ralph?”

“The very same.”

“When did this happen?”

“The first semester of last year.”

“And then what happened?”

“Ralph started going with Ruth.”

“It’s hard to believe he would leave Natalie
for Ruth.”

“Truth is stranger than fiction.”

“And it must be difficult for Natalie and
Ruth to be cheerleaders together.”

“Cheerleaders are elected by the students, so
Natalie didn’t have much choice in the matter.”

“You don’t think that Natalie would have been
mad enough to push Ralph off the balcony.”

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of
men?” Barney looked at me with an evil grin befitting The Shadow.
“I’m just telling you the facts. I’ll let you do with them what you
will. Let’s play chess.”

CHAPTER 22

The double funeral for Willie and Dennis Rice
was held on Tuesday afternoon. School closed early so that the
students could attend. The yellow school buses took them into
Carter where the service was being conducted at the old
Presbyterian Church on Main Street. The buses had taken students to
Ralph’s funeral, too. I drove my car since we didn’t have to return
to school.

I parked some distance away from the small
stone church with the spire reaching toward heaven, since nearby
street parking spots and the miniscule church parking lot were
filled. As I walked toward the church, I spotted Dr. Graves
entering it from a block away and wondered what he was thinking
about.

It appeared that the church wasn’t large
enough to hold all the students, in addition to the family and
friends of the Rices. Every seat inside was filled by the time I
arrived at the door, and there was standing room only. The students
were being told to stay outside. Anticipating this, a loudspeaker
had been set up outside the door, so that those who couldn’t make
it inside could hear the service.

The church had been built right on the street
long long ago. I was one of perhaps fifty people, mostly students,
who were standing on the front steps and the sidewalk that ran
along Main Street. Sylvia wasn’t among them. She had come on one of
the buses and apparently had made it inside.

One reason I had been dreading going to this
funeral is because I thought it would remind me of Ralph, even
though I hadn’t attended Ralph’s funeral. But being outside the
church in the sun didn’t have the same emotional impact as being
inside with the coffin and the members of the Rice family. Maybe it
was just as well.

I spotted Natalie walking toward the church
along Main Street. She looked good in a dark dress that matched her
dark hair. The dark colors were relieved by a wide, white belt that
accented her tiny waist. She also wore a simple hat with a veil of
the kind women wore in church.

To my surprise, she walked up and stood
beside me. We didn’t say anything to each other; the service had
already started. When I looked around and saw that most of the
other students outside were Willie’s age, I knew why she had chosen
me for a partner. Joe was at football practice, which was being
held as usual.

The mood outside was somber at first, but as
the service droned on with prayers, singing, and people speaking in
monotones, we became restless and disconnected from what was
happening inside. We couldn’t see the coffins or the weeping
parents. It wasn’t real. Kids started talking to each other.
Stories were being told about the wild antics of the Rice brothers,
and there was scattered laughter. We weren’t showing proper respect
for the dearly departed. I hoped the noise wasn’t traveling through
the open doorway.

Natalie took my arm and pulled me away from
the others. “Damn kids,” she said.

Someone started giving what promised to be a
long, boring eulogy extolling the many virtues of Dennis and
Willie, and I couldn’t concentrate on the words. I looked at
Natalie and saw that she was having the same problem.

“Don’t you have cheerleader practice today?”
I asked.

“I cancelled it. Nobody feels like cheering
on a day like this.”

“But they’re holding football practice.”

“Yeah. That’s too important to cancel.”

There was a certain irony in her tone.
Perhaps Natalie was deeper than I gave her credit for. I had been
trying to figure out how to talk to her. And now I had my chance. I
took the plunge. “You never told me that you went out with
Ralph.”

She looked at me and shrugged. “You never
asked me.”

I didn’t have a comeback for that. But I did
need to ask another question. “Your breakup with Ralph. Was
it…amicable?”

Natalie looked at me again and smiled. “You
mean, did he leave me for another girl, and did I, the abandoned
lover, in a thirst for black revenge, throw him off the
balcony?”

“Something like that.”

“We can’t talk here. I sense that this…” she
nodded toward the church “…is going to last until our children ship
us off to the old folks’ home. And I’ve been to enough funerals to
last me a lifetime. Let’s meet someplace.”

“Where?” I pictured Sylvia finding us
together.

“Where? Right, we have to be careful about
running into your commie girlfriend. I’ve got it. We’ll meet in the
hayloft of your uncle’s barn.”

“Do you know how to get there?”

“What do you think?”

Of course. She had gone there with Ralph.
“You’re not dressed for it.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Can you picture me
sliding down the haystack in my nylons?”

I could, but I had better not.

“I only live fifteen minutes from there. I’ll
go home and change and meet you at the barn in an hour.”

“Park down by the railroad track.” I didn’t
want Aunt Dorothy or anybody else knowing that I was in the hayloft
with Natalie.

***

In fact, as I shot baskets while I waited for
Natalie in the hayloft, I grew more and more apprehensive about our
meeting. Why had I agreed to meet her here? Was there a valid
reason to quiz her some more in regard to Ralph? Had Barney put the
thought that Natalie might have killed Ralph into my head because
of some remaining lust for revenge that he was harboring?

What if Sylvia found out we were together?
She might excuse an innocent flirtation with Kate, but Natalie was
a completely different story, especially since they were barely
speaking to each other. And what about Joe? What if one of his
friends spotted Natalie’s car near our barn? I was glad I had told
her to park by the railroad tracks.

On top of everything else, she was late. An
hour ticked by and then another half. Maybe she wasn’t coming at
all. I tried to convince myself that this was for the best, but
even that failed. She still had some power over me.

When Natalie finally climbed the iron ladder
and poked her head through the hole in the floor, I was in a state
of high anxiety. I determined to get rid of her as soon as
possible. She nimbly made the transition to the floor of the
hayloft before I could get over to assist her.

She was dressed in faded blue jeans and an
old sweatshirt with a tear under one sleeve, through which I could
see a bit of her bra when she raised her arm. In spite of her
tattered appearance, she was still the most beautiful girl in the
school.

She looked around and said, “I’ve got some
good memories of this place.”

She didn’t elaborate, but that was a lead-in.
“So, tell me about you and Ralph.”

She pouted. “Is that the only reason you
invited me here, to pump me for information?”

I hadn’t invited her; she had invited
herself. She grabbed the basketball and shot awkwardly at the rim.
In spite of having the flexibility and coordination of a
cheerleader, she didn’t have the shooting skill of either Kate or
Sylvia.

I asked the same question several different
ways, but she didn’t respond with anything on subject. She kept
messing with the basketball, passing it to me, shooting it,
dribbling. This was going nowhere fast.

I asked her about one of the other things on
my mind. “What if Joe finds out you’re here?”

“He’s at football practice. But I want to
talk to you about Joe. Can we go up on the bales? Ralph and I built
a fort there once.”

Without waiting for a response, she climbed
to the top of the bales with agility. I followed, wondering how one
controlled a wayward woman. I had decided several years ago never
to get married, and Natalie’s behavior reinforced my decision.

“Somebody’s been hard at work,” she said as I
clambered up behind her.

She surveyed all the bales I had moved in
trying to get down to the corner of the hayloft to look for the
necklace. I hadn’t worked on this project since last Friday, four
days ago. I didn’t answer, not wanting to go into my reasons for
exhausting myself.

“Did you make the fort?” she asked.

It was the fort that Kate and I had made—and
Sylvia and I had inhabited. Natalie dove inside and
disappeared.

“Come on in; the water’s fine.”

I knew I shouldn’t do it, but sometimes the
lures of the flesh are irresistible. I followed her into the dark,
cramped space. The only way we could cohabit it was to sit
shoulder-to-shoulder or facing in opposite directions. I chose the
latter position as the safer, but she told me to turn around.

I did, and knew it was advisable for me not
to move any more. In any case, Natalie belonged to Joe, and I
belonged to Sylvia, so she wouldn’t want me to try anything.

“Tell me about Joe,” I said. If she wouldn’t
talk about Ralph, maybe she would at least talk about Joe. And
talking was the safest thing we could do.

“Joe was a mistake,” she said.

That wasn’t what I expected to hear. I was so
surprised I couldn’t reply.

After a pause, she continued, “I expected him
to be manly. After all, he’s a big hunk of a guy.”

I couldn’t dispute that.

“Have you ever heard of a boy who doesn’t
like to kiss?”

Was that a rhetorical question? And what did
it have to do with Joe?

“Ralph was a good kisser. He tried some other
things, too, but I wouldn’t let him do anything below the
neck.”

Now I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear all
this.

“But Joe is strange. He expects me to be
completely true to him, but I don’t know what else he wants. He
certainly doesn’t seem to want to do anything with me, except to
have me close by. Like one of his athletic trophies. Do you know
what I mean?”

I grunted, not knowing what to say.

“He gets mad at me for no reason. If he even
thinks I look at another boy.”