The Ridge: The Whisper of the Leaves - Chap. 29

It turned out that Gerald was as good as his word…..this time. Lampkin came back Sunday night with a couple of ham sandwiches and tea his wife had made and let Gerald wolf these down before he began to grill him. And grill him he did.

For two hours he pounded at Gerald, but to no avail. The boy wouldn’t budge. He usually answered his questions with silence, but when he did speak it was in short, vague sentences.

“Borden,” Lampkin finally said. “I’m gettin’ the feelin’ that you’re not gonna tell me anythin’. Am I right.”

“Probably.” Gerald said trying to hold back a smile of satisfaction.

“You know, I don’t have enough evidence to charge you with anythin’.”

“No sir, I didn’t really think ya did.”

“Don’t be smug, son,” Lampkin put his hand on Gerald’s shoulder and squeezed.......hard. “I know that you know more’n you’re lettin’ on. I don’t know that you pulled the trigger on either of them bores, but you know somethin’. And just so you’ll understand, I could keep you locked up quite a few days, just because you’re suspected of somethin’.”

Lampkin waited for Gerald to say something else smart, but he didn’t respond

“But, what I’m gonna do is carry ya home.” Lampkin said and stood. “Ya momma and daddy have been worried sick, I heard, so I’m gonna give ya a ride out there. And I better not hear that you’ve skipped town like your buddy or gone into hidin’ or anything like that.”

Once again, Gerald made no response.

“Ya understand what I’m sayin, son?” Lampkin once again had a scolding tone.

“Yessir,” Gerald said, feigning humbleness. “I understand.”

“Ya better. And ya better be close to home if I need to talk to ya some more. Do you understand that?”

“Yessir.” Gerald repeated and the questioning was over.

It was around nine-thirty when he got home and he was just as vague with his parents as he had been with Lampkin. Neither of his parents were the stern sort, so he simply put them off with the promise that he would tell all about what happened tomorrow, but that right now he was really tired. Of course, he had no intention of telling them any more than he told Lampkin.

It was after midnight when he finally got to sleep.

On Monday morning, he went to school as usual. He did imagine a number of times through the day, though, that he saw the Lawrence girls………and that man.

Gerald couldn’t have seen the Lawrence girls, however, because they were with their father on the Ridge.

“I thought ya loved ya brother, girl,” Lawrence was saying.

“I did, Daddy,” Sally responded as strongly as she dared. “And I still love ‘im, but you know nothin’ we do’ll bring ‘im back. And besides that, Daddy, how do ‘ya know this’ll draw ‘im out? How’ll he even find out about it if he’s on tha road somewhere? Why can’t we just let it stop?”

“If Sally don’t wanna do it, Daddy, Ah can do it by muh’self,” Katie said looking at her sister, sneering. “I don’t need her help anyhow.”

“Shut up, girl,” Lawrence said. “Your sister’ll hafta do it, cause you’d scare ‘em off. Ya know she’s got a way ‘bout her and you don’t, so just close ‘at trap.”

He turned his eyes back to Sally, ignoring Katie’s hurt look.

“Ya listen ta me, now. I don’t give a hang what ya think ‘bout this. You are gonna do what ah tell ya ta do an‘ ‘ere ain’t gonna be no more arguin’ ‘bout it. Ya understan’ me?”

“Yessir, but how’ll he know.....”

Lawrence drew his hand back and Sally dropped her head. After a moment, he lowered his hand back down.

“Don’t’chu worry ‘bout how at boy’ll know. He’ll know. One way or t’other, he’ll know. Then he’ll come back an’ we’ll have ‘im.”

He stared intently at Sally who returned his stare, but only for a moment then broke the gaze, looking down at her hands which were folded in her lap.

“Now ya’ll gonna get one ‘o dem kids.” Lawrence said, satisfied he would have no more back talk. “Ah don’t care which one. Don’t matter ta me. But’cha gonna get one of ‘em. So I want’cha both to get over to‘at school an just watch.”

He looked at his daughters to see if there was any reaction from either one of them. When there wasn’t any, he went on.

“Ya ain’t gonna be able to git one of ‘em like ya did ‘at Borden boy. Teacher probably heard ‘bout dat and won’t go fer it. You’ll hafta grab ‘em while ‘ere outside playin’ or sumpin’.”

“What if we get a chance today?” Sally said flatly, raising her head to look at her father.

“Then go ahead’n take it, but make durn sure ya can git ‘em. If ya don’t get a chance, at’ll be okay, just wait’ll ta’morrow.”

Sally sat there a split second more then stood, turned and started walking toward the car. Katie glanced at her father then jumped up and trotted after her sister.

It seemed as if nothing was going right for Parker and Marshall. As they got ready to leave, Parker realized he had locked his keys in the car and it took them almost an hour to get the door open.

Then, because of the excitement and irritation concerning the keys, Parker forgot to get gas. So when they were about eight miles west of Picayune, some five mile into the Louisiana boot, the Chevy came to a sputtering stop. They were halted on a rise and they could see there was nothing for at least three miles in front of them. That meant, the closest house was about two miles back, so they locked the car, Parker making sure he had the key, and headed back to the house.

Once there, almost as they expected considering their luck for the day, they found no one home and nothing around that had gas in it. So they got back on the road and after walking almost another mile, they came to a second house. There they found gas as well as a ride back to their car. By the time they finally got back on the road it was after lunch so they stopped and got some cheese, fruit and crackers at the next country store they passed. They sat in the car and ate, then headed west toward Baton Rouge, ninety or so miles away.

“Let’s see,” Parker said, grinning. “if we can go at least a couple of miles this time without a problem.”

“Hope so,” Marshall said then took a bite out of a bright red Jonathan apple. “When did’ja say you were supposed to meet ya girlfriend?”

“Wednesday or Thursday. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

As Parker said this, there was an explosion and the car suddenly careened out of control. It tipped up on it’s two left wheels and seemed about to flip when Parker managed to get control and they finally slid to a stop.

Neither Parker nor Marshall said anything for a few moments as they let their racing hearts slow down some. Looking around, they realized they had gone through a barbed wire fence and were some two hundred feet into a cow pasture. Finally, Parker cleared his throat and spoke.

“I think we had a blowout.”

Marshall nodded. They got out of the car to see what damage there was and, as Parker suspected, the right front tire had blown.

“What next,” He said to which Marshall simply shook his head.

He went to the trunk to get the spare, but found none. Parker proceeded to say a few, Marine appropriate words then calmed down enough to tell Marshall, “I just requisitioned this car last Friday and they said it’d been checked out. Just goes to show that you need to make sure about some things yourself.”

“Guess so.” Marshall agreed.

“Well, looks like we need to start walkin’ again,” Parker said.

“Yea,” Marshall said. “But we need to fix that first.”

Marshall nodded toward the hole they had made in the fence. Then he pointed to the dozen or so cattle ambling toward the opening. “We need ta plug that hole somehow.”

Marshall didn’t wait for a response from Parker, but just ran toward the the hole and herded the cows away from it. He and Parker then managed to string together a makeshift barrier good enough to keep the cows in. Once satisfied the repair would hold, they walked to the ranch house a half mile or so up the road.

They found help at the house and after getting the tire fixed, plus helping mend the fence, they were back on the road by 4 p.m. But, then, due to road construction at 6 p.m. they were still nearly fifty miles from Baton Rouge at a place called Hammond. So they stopped there for supper and decided to spend the night just outside of town. They found a couple of cabins at Frenchie’s Landing Motor Hotel and Bait Shop on the Canie River, ten miles from Lake Pontchartrain.

“Wouldn’t blame you a bit,” Parker said as they went to their separate cabins, “if you wanted to high-tail it away from me after the day we’ve had. You would have almost gotten farther walking than riding with me.”

Marshall grinned and said, “I told ya I wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere in particular so don’t worry about it. If ya still want me with ya, I’ll be glad to keep ridin’.”

“Suit yourself,” Parker said chuckling and shaking his head at the same time. “See ya tomorrow. Maybe we can get more than fifty miles then.”

“Maybe we can. G’night.”