The Ridge: The Whisper of the Leaves - Chap. 17

Thursday, March 11

Gerald was trying to sleep, but it was useless. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Al Lawrence’s mangled head. Even though Lampkin had told him not to be in town for a while, much less at Sully’s, he was there when he heard about the shootings. He was watching the old guys at the domino tables when some man came in and said there had been a shooting out at Beebo’s curve. Gerald knew instantly that it was either Lawrence or Prichard.

He had run the mile or so from the pool hall to the curve and seen the car and Lawrence with bullet holes in both. He made sure Lampkin didn’t notice him hanging around there. When the Winkles boy came and told the Chief of another shooting up at Wittsburg, Gerald almost vomited. Before he could, though, he started running toward home and the safety it provided.

At about 3 a.m. he heard tapping on his bedroom window. He looked across the room and saw Marshall outside. Even just silhouetted in the moon light he could tell it was his friend. He slid carefully out of the bed so as not to wake his little brother, Turner and tiptoed to the window opening it as noiselessly as he could.

“Come over behind the barn,” Marshall said into his cupped ear then turned and trotted away without waiting for a response from Gerald.

Gerald quickly put on a pair of overalls along with a jacket and crawled through window as quietly as possible. He followed the same path as Marshall to the rear of the huge, red hay barn. Once face to face, neither one knew exactly what to say. Finally, to Gerald’s relief, Marshall broke the silence.

“I guess you heard what happened?”

“Yea. I was at Sully’s.” Gerald said. “I ran down to the curve and saw Lawrence.”

He took a deep breath and thought about asking Marshall the obvious question for the moment. The question that he already knew the answer to. “Did you do it.” But he did not ask, maybe because of what happened next.

Gerald then noticed something he had never seen before ...... tears in his friend’s eyes. Marshall had not even shed any tears for his brother, but there were tears there now. And there were tears enough that they were beginning to course a path down his cheeks. Then Marshall answered the unspoken question.

“I said I’d handle it,” His voice was raspy. “I guess I did.”

“Yea, I guess so.” Gerald mumbled.

They were both silent once more then Marshall snapped up straight and cleared his throat.

“Well,” He said, with the strong voice Gerald was familiar with, “I just wanted to tell ya goodbye ‘fore I left. I gotta get outa here fore they begin figurin’ out it was me.”

“But, maybe they won’t,” Gerald tried to sound hopeful. “I mean, the only thing that can connect you with them is Friday night at Sully’s. And nobody but the ones there knew what happened.”

“I know, but there were too many guys there for none of ‘em to say anything. One of ‘em’s gona open their mouth to somebody else and it won’t take much piecin’ together after that.”

Gerald just nodded, not sure how to respond. He looked around and noticed there was a partially filled burlap sack on the ground next to the barn with Buck lying beside it.

“That ya things,” Gerald nodded toward the sack.

“Yea.”

“Not takin’ much?”

Marshall didn’t answer, he just turned around and stared at the outline of the Ridge.

“Ya know, I’m gona miss that.”

“What?”

“The Ridge,” He said as if anyone would have known what he meant. “If I get outa this somehow and can come back, I’m gonna have a place up there someday.”

“You’ll be back,” Gerald said then realized he sounded maudlin, so he added. “I mean everyone around knows that those guys had it comin. It was just a matter of when and who.”

“Yea,” Marshall turned back to his friend. “If I make it back. If not....”

Marshall walked over to the sack and picked it up with one hand while rubbing Buck’s head with the other.

“I need ya to keep Buck here till I’m gone. He don’t need to be taggin along after me. Too hard to take care of ‘im.”

“Gonna hop a freight?” Gerald asked, another question with an obvious answer because they had talked about hopping a freight together just to see where they would end up. It looked like Marshall was going to complete that dream.

“Yea,” Marshall nodded with finality. “I’m finally gonna do it. See if I can get one goin’ to Dallas or Oklahoma City or anyplace west of here.”

Suddenly tired of talking about going, Marshall decided it was time to go. So, he thrust his hand out to Gerald who took it in both of his hands.

“I’ll see ya if I see ya, pal.” Marshall smiled.

“I’m sorry I got ya into this.”

“Yea, I know ya are, but it’s too late to think about it now. Ya did what ya did and so did I. We can’t take any of it back so no need hashin’ over it again.”

Marshall and Gerald stood silently for a moment, then Marshall slapped his friend lightly on the back and said, “Well, I gotta go. I’ll be seein’ ya.”

“Countin’ on it.” Gerald said with a weak smile.

Marshall threw the sack over his shoulder, turned and began walking toward the Ridge. Buck stood up to go with his master, but Gerald took hold of his collar and held him back. He whined and pranced about, but Marshall didn’t look back, knowing to do so would just make it worse for him and his dog. A hundred yards behind the barn, Marshall disappeared into a grove of trees.

“Easy, boy,” Gerald said and knelt down to gently groom the dog’s coat. Buck continued to whine in a whimpering moan, that was barely audible now. “Gonna have ta tie you up till daylight, otherwise you’ll light out after ole Marsh won’t ’cha.”

Gerald led Buck into the barn where he tied him in an empty horse stall with a hemp rope. Once back in his bedroom, he crawled quietly into the bed without his brother knowing a thing. He laid with his hands clasped behind his head staring at the barely visible ceiling. Daylight found that he had not moved nor even closed his eyes.

Marshall thought about taking Thomas rifle along with him, but he knew that it would be too bulky. He also knew if he had the weapon, he would constantly be on the lookout for someone stealing it and/or using it on him. But he also needed to make sure that no one could get hold of the weapon and use it to match the bullets in Lawrence and Prichard. So, before he went to Gerald’s house, he had disassembled the Springfield almost down to the screws and left the pieces in different hidden areas over a roughly four mile stretch.

Because of the chance of matching up the rifling on the barrel, he pushed it straight down into the mud of a drainage ditch on the Parnell place. The ditch had been dug out not more than two months before. It seemed like the perfect place, because it probably would not be touched again for at least seven or eight years.

After discarding the last of the pieces, he went to his barn and managed to leave Lucy there without rousing anyone in the house then he had gone to Gerald’s.

It took about thirty minutes to get to the switching area. As he expected, there was a line of coal, flat and box cars on the sidetrack waiting to be hooked up for their trip to who knew where. There was a good chance that these cars might sit on this siding for days, but Marshall thought it was worth a try to hop one and stay with it until at least till sometime tomorrow morning.

He looked at the cars and decided one was about as good as another. So, he unlatched the door of the closest one and slid it back far enough to look inside. He shined the beam of a carbide light he had brought with him into the interior and, except for a rat he saw scurrying by, it was empty. So, after looking both ways to make sure that no one was around, he tossed his sack in then jumped in behind it.

Marshall instantly noticed that the car had been hauling feed, because of the musty, sweet molasses odor. He also saw that the car was quite old. So old that some of the floor planks had separated and in places had a good half inch gap between boards.

“Good. Some hay.” Marshall mumbled when his light passed over an old pile of hay at one end of the car. It looked as if someone had already been using it for a bed, but at that point, he was so tired he did not really care.

He collapsed into the makeshift bed and in less than 30 seconds was sound asleep.

To Be Continued........