The Quaker Café (41 page)

             
“So what do you think, Billie?” Liz said as she stared across at the stones. “Where do we put Maggie?”

             
“I think we should cremate the body and bury her ashes with her father’s grave.”

             
“She was never sure whether she wanted to be cremated or not,” Liz said.

             
“Well, she was definitely sure about not wanting to be out there by herself.”

Billie motioned to the other side of the wall.

              They continued to stare at the cemetery as if somehow their thoughts could shift stones and miraculously cause an available plot to appear in one place or another.

             
“I feel like we could have done better by Maggie,” Liz said tearing up again.

             
“In what way?”

             
“Oh, I don’t know… gotten her back to Cottonwoods?  She didn’t want to die at Duke. Allowed more people to come and visit her?  Flowers?  She would have appreciated lots of flowers while she was alive. What good will they do her now?”

             
“That wasn’t our choice, Liz, plus she was the one who said ‘no visitors.’”

             
“I know. Rationally, I know, but I still want to have another shot to do it all over again and get it right. Maybe we should have played more music for her, read her poetry, helped her put her life in perspective. All of these things might have made everything right.”

             
“Right?  How in God’s name do you get death right?  Or life, for that matter?  It never goes the way you planned.”

Liz ached
. So many things she would have done differently had she known the outcome.

Billie stood up and dusted off the back of her jeans
. Liz knew that Billie was grieving, too. They had different ways of showing it.

             
“We’d have to take down the wall if you want to forget cremation. I don’t see any other way,” Billie said.

“Another thing Maggie didn’t want to happen.”

              “Well, she didn’t want to be buried outside the wall, and she didn’t want to be cremated. That gives us very few options unless we stack coffins.”

“If they take out a wall, it’ll be a mess for the funeral,” Liz said.

              “We’ll have to just live with it. In ten years no one will know the difference.”

             
“I’ll call the funeral home and get Jackson down and see what he says,” Liz said. “He’s good at this sort of thing.”

             
“The additional bricks are going to have to match.”

“Absolutely
!  I want to be here when he comes.” Liz said.

             
Liz stood up alongside Billie and brushed leaves and dirt away copying what Billie had just done. Time to start doing. A strong wind brought cold air through the grove and they heard the sound of more pecans hit the ground like little balls of hail. “I’m just curious. Did she know I lost the election before she died?”  

             
“She knew that Clinton and Hunt had won. She asked me before you got there.”

             
“Did she ask whether or not I had won?”

             
“She never asked,” Billie said. “I think you were always a winner in her mind.”

             
The two headed to the house as Liz picked up a pocket of pecans on the way in and cracked them together in her hands. “Let’s make our list for the funeral before Reverend Shannon and Reverend Broadnax get here,” Liz said.

             
“You think we’ll just do a repeat?”

             
“Pretty much,” Liz said, “although I think we can forgo the walk from Cottonwoods to the church. It’s going to be cold, and besides, I don’t think Maggie would want it. That walk was for the Judge, and only the Judge.”

*****

              This time an integrated church service didn’t seem to excite the same amount of controversy. It was cold and cloudy, but the Jerusalem Baptist Choir again lived up to their reputation. Reverend Shannon and Reverend Broadnax took turns at the pulpit. When the drummer started his first drum roll, Reverend Shannon stopped, pointed his finger directly at him and said, “I’ve been warned about you, young man, and I’m ready. Bring it on.” 

             
This got the expected laugh. From then on they worked together like two trapeze artists catching one another in mid-flight. The congregation loved it.

             
Maggie would have approved of the open house in her honor at Cottonwoods. Billie had mulled wine and Russian tea in two large pots on the stove. On the center table in the den sat a five tier wedding cake with a picture of Maggie on the top.

             
A number of the elderly, including LuAnne, Grandpa and Grandma Hoole, stopped by briefly, but didn’t stay. Liz caught LuAnne as she started out the door. “Can we talk sometime soon, LuAnne?”

             
She hesitated and said with more reluctance than Liz expected, “I suppose.”

             
When a series of toasts were initiated in memory of Maggie, it turned into a grand memorial. Applause erupted from the crowd and more rounds of “Here’s to Maggie.” When all was said and done, the only thing missing was the guest of honor. It was her kind of party.

Chapter Forty

              Liz and Chase entered the Quaker meeting for worship emotionally drained. The silence remained unbroken. A deepening sense of communion began to descend on the service and from it emerged a unified presence that blanketed and bound together everyone in the room. Many refer to such an occasion as
a gathered meeting
. If ever Liz had experienced a
gathered meeting
, she did on this day. She prayed for guidance for what to say to LuAnne. When it was over she believed with all of her heart that whatever happened next would strengthen the community. She was wrong.

*****

              Liz had arranged to see LuAnne after church. As she pulled into her driveway she reminded herself that her connection with LuAnne had been through Maggie and the Judge. Beyond that and an occasional exchange of pleasantries in the grocery store or pharmacy, she had not been involved with LuAnne’s family.

The small one story brick house on the outskirts of town was immaculate, as Liz expected
. A sofa and large recliner sat before a television set. With the addition of two small side tables and lamps, the furniture filled the living room. Well known reproductions of a black Christ and Leonardo da Vinci’s
Last Supper
hung prominently on the walls surrounded by several crucifixes of varying sizes. A small kerosene heater set in front of a fireplace on low, making the room warm but not uncomfortable. LuAnne accepted an embrace, but was less responsive than Liz anticipated.

“
LuAnne, I’m so sorry about Maggie.” Liz said. “Thank you for coming to the hospital with Reverend Shannon in the end. I feel certain Maggie knew you were there.”

LuAnne
was quiet. She gestured to the chair for Liz and moved to the sofa where she sat with her arms crossed in front of her. She pulled a Kleenex from a box next to her. A coffee table in between them was filled with an assortment of small ceramic angels, apparently a collection item.

“Not much family left,”
LuAnne said. “The Judge, Maggie…both dead. Johnson in jail. I just got Johnson’s girl and boy now.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Liz said, waited a moment
, and then leaned forward. “LuAnne, I want to talk to you about Nathan Hoole.”

LuAnne
shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. “Reverend Broadnax came by, told me.”

“You were absolutely right
. He was the other man in the barn the night that Isaac was murdered. All these years, and you were the one who figured it out.”

LuAnne
pressed her lips together tightly and nodded.

“We didn’t know
. Honest to God, we didn’t know until just recently.” Liz felt a strong need for LuAnne to believe her. “I want you to know he did go to the sheriff and the sheriff wouldn’t believe him. He tried to tell his story.”

“He didn’t try very hard.”

“The sheriff didn’t accept his word. He didn’t want the men who had lynched Isaac to be accused.”

“Why didn’
t he stay behind in the barn?” LuAnne asked. “Why did he run?”

“He was scared
. He didn’t want to be caught. For the same reason Isaac ran.”

“No
, ma’am,” LuAnne snapped at Liz. “Not for the same reason Isaac ran. Isaac ran because he knowd he might get killed for doing nothing wrong at all. Mr. Nathan ran because he’d been caught with another man’s wife.”

Liz lowered her head, “That’s true,” she paused
. “My father-in-law has regretted that his entire life. He wants to try to make amends to your family.”

LuAnne
clucked her tongue and shook her head. “Why are you here, then? Why ain’t he here, down on his knees in front of me? He not brave enough to even do that much?”

“
LuAnne,” Liz pleaded. She wanted so much for LuAnne to offer forgiveness; to say that she understood, but Liz realized now that what she’d hoped for was unrealistic. “It was my idea to speak to you first. I thought it might help. He will be here. He is willing to speak to the Perrys and anyone else you think needs to hear the story.”

“He needs to be arranging to stand on a platform in the middle of the county and tell the world that he was a coward and a liar,”
LuAnne shot back with more venom than Liz expected.

“If that’s what the family wants, I think he’s prepared to do that,” Liz said.

“Leastwise, he’s been living. He had a life…a good life. A wife, children, grandchildren…a lot more than Isaac had.”

“You’re right,” Liz said
.

“Somewhere there’s got to be justice.”

Liz felt lost. She didn’t know where to turn or what to say. “Will you tell Johnson that his daddy died an innocent man and the truth will finally be told?”

“Johnson already
knowd that. He knowd that all along, just like me. What you think he’s been fighting for all these years?  Fighting to get the mad out of him. Fighting because he lost a daddy for no good reason at all. You hear that, no good reason at all. Do you and Mr. Hoole have any idea at all what you done to that man?”

“We can only imagine,” Liz conceded
. Silence pursued and Liz felt the tension escalate. “What do you want us to do now?” she asked helplessly.

LuAnne
shifted in her chair. “I don’t know.”

Liz grimaced
. “Will you meet with Reverend Broadnax and discuss what you expect from Nathan Hoole?  Grandpa has agreed to do his best to accommodate whatever you think is required, no matter what.”

“I don’t know.”
LuAnne shook her head and pursed her lips. “Maybe for Johnson’s kids, Isaac’s grandkids. Maybe there’s a way they can turn the page and move on. But…” and LuAnne paused and her eyes began to water, “I want them to know their granddaddy was hung an innocent man and I want them to know that I did everything I could do to help my family.”

Liz sat quietly for a few more minutes
. She wanted more than ever to hold LuAnne in an embrace that promised forgiveness, but she wasn’t sure now whether that time would ever come.

LuAnne
rose, having said all that she wished to say. “I’ll call Johnson. He deserves to know. Then I’ll talk to Reverend Broadnax.” 

That was that
.

Liz dropped Nicholas and Evan off at school and returned to the pharmacy the next morning. She knew Grandpa would be there. She and Chase had talked about her discussion with LuAnne and Liz was disappointed that there had been unexpected hostility.

“Maybe I made
a mistake,” she said to Chase. “I should have left this in the hands of Reverend Broadnax. I don’t know all the history or anything about Johnson and his family.”

“There are a lot of moveable parts going in different directions at the same time,” Chase said
. “No one thought this was going to be easy.”

  Grandpa sat
at one of the corner tables with a bag of roasted peanuts beside him. Chase stood in the back with Timmy Bates. Liz kissed Grandpa on the top of his head and sat down across from him. “Hi, Grandpa,” she said.

             
He patted her hand.

             
“Reverend Broadnax called last night,” she said. “He’s arranged to meet with the Perrys.”

             
“Chase told me.” Grandpa said.

             
Timmy saw Liz and turned to carry his bags of peanuts over to her. She fished in her pocket and pulled out two quarters. He smiled, handed her a bag and started for the door.