PART
TWO
CHAPTER
30
Nova Jones
BULLOCK COUNTY COURTHOUSE UNION SPRINGS, ALABAMA
It was around eleven o’clock on a hot Monday morning in late August, and Nova Jones was wishing she was somewhere else.
Whenever Nova had a rare opportunity for alone time, she would walk to the nearby pond.
Nova once read that trees and plants benefit from being spoken or sung to, so one day she tried it with the ones surrounding the still water. It was a relief for her to lay her soul bare to these beautiful beings. She found peace in their presence. She felt them listening to her confidences with patience and love, which was something she hadn’t experienced with people since Granny died.
Nova missed her granny dearly. She missed her wrinkled hands. Her favorite days were when she wore her blue cotton dress withthe yellow daisies. Her granny had embroidered the flowers for her when she was alive. The dress was tight on her now, but she didn’t care.
Her love of nature and the library was born from her granny, who had read to her at night and guided Nova’s hands in the dirt to search for roly-poly bugs and pick cherry tomatoes in the summer.
Nova felt closest to her granny when she was at the library or sitting in the grass reading the books she’d checked out about gardening, herbs, and other natural phenomena. Nova’s favorite books were about Indigenous practices in plants and healing. She learned to propagate and identify different varieties of hibiscus. She read about the Creek people who once roamed the lands she walked on. They cared for the earth and nurtured it with their mind, body, and soul.How beautiful to love and be loved in this way,she thought.
Nova felt alone all the time—at school, with her family, and at church. When she walked into a room, she could feel everyone’s eyes on her, like a caged animal at the zoo. She heard their whispers, saw them furrow their brows and shake their heads in disapproval. This small pond was the only place where Nova felt truly seen, away from the people who called her names likeheiferandslut,away from the parental responsibilities that came with being the oldest child.
She’d rather be with the wind and the trees than where she was now. Waiting on a hard wooden bench in the courthouse, right in the middle of town, where everyone could see her.
Nova could tell that people walking by her in the courthouse knew who she was. They gave her nosy looks and nudged each other as they passed by. She slid down in her seat, ducked her head, wouldn’t look at them.
They all thought she was a heifer—that’s what her mama would say. A whorish heifer. Nova wanted to hide, but she didn’t have a chance of going unnoticed. Not a prayer. Not here.
On top of that, her baby brother was screaming his head off.
Her sisters, Arbonne and Reba, and her other brother, Tre, were all over at the elementary school right behind the courthouse. But Mama couldn’t find anyone to watch Caden. She’d called a few women from church, but not one stepped up. That didn’t seem very Christian to Nova.
And now Caden was pitching a fit. Big tears rolled down his chubby cheeks, snot running from his nose.
“You get him to hush up,” Mama said. “Or I’m going to give him something to cry about.”
Nova bounced her brother on her knees. She wiped his nose and whispered, “You better be good, you hear?”
Caden stuck his thumb in his mouth and sucked on it, looking around him with those big wet eyes. They sat that way for a while. Nova could tell that her mama was nervous, jiggling her foot like she always did when she was edgy.
The door at the end of the hallway opened up and a man in a suit walked out. Nova recognized him right away. It was Mr. Reeves, the man who told her she’d need to be part of the trial—the one about the abortion. Nova had been scared when he said it. And Mama had flipped out. “Are they gonna put my child in jail?”
Mr. Reeves said no, nobody was trying to put Nova in prison. She wasn’t in any trouble, he said. So long as she cooperated.
He said the only person who was going to prison was Dr. Gaines. That scared Nova, too. Because it didn’t seem right.
How could they put a doctor in jail for helping somebody?
As Nova twitched on the hard bench, Mr. Reeves walked right up to where they were sitting. “Morning, Nova.” Then he lookedat her mama. “Ms. Jones, thanks so much for bringing Nova in today.”
Mama gave him a bright smile, the smile she gave to people who were in charge—school principals, cops, welfare investigators. Especially if they were men.
“Glad to help out. Me and Nova, we available anytime, anything you need us to do.”
Nova jiggled Caden on her knee as a woman walked up and stood beside Mr. Reeves. White woman. Pretty. Wearing a nice blue outfit. Nova had never seen her before.
