Tannin sat down next to her.“He ate a sandwich,” he told her.
“I’m glad he got one.”Maudie came over and handed the boy a cookie.
Little Micah made sure to look at his mother first.
At Bethy’s nod, the boy grinned and reached for the cookie.He whispered athank youand nodded at Maudie.
Maudie smiled and gasped at his good manners.Then she turned back to her kitchen and began humming under her breath.
King just watched her and shook his head at the change in her body language.This pregnancy was a moody time.He smiled to himself.He looked over at Bethy and said, “Maudie has a heart of gold and she knows everyone that lives here.It hurts her heart to know someone was in need and she didn’t know it.”
Bethy nodded.“Yeah, that’s Ms.Maudie.”She sighed hard.She reached up to rub her forehead.“It’s been hard...what with Ma leaving like she did.I mean I was fourteen and she didn’t even try to explain or take me with her.I had a hard time with that.It wasn’t like her at all.After she left, my dad just crawled into a bottle and decided to stay there.”She turned and looked at Tannin.“Then a few years later, I met Tannin and fell in love.Him and his brothers decided to go off on their own for a bit but all I knew was that he was leaving and I felt abandoned yet again.Then my dad found out about him and boy did he rail.You see he never told me but after Ma left, he made a deal.A deal with some older guy to marry me for a price.But the man wanted a pure woman and well that wasn’t me anymore.Not that I will ever regret what I did.”She turned her head back to gaze at Tannin then she looked down at her son.Reaching out she placed her hand on the boy’s head.“I never knew real love until the night he was born.”Shaking her head she laughed.“And boy, he decided he’d been inside me long enough.I didn’t even have time to seek Ms.Maudie’s help.One minute I was at the Farmer’s market and the next, I was pushing out a baby.Mrs.Keptner was buying my potatoes then she was catching my baby in her hands.He surprised both of us but the moment I held him, I knew I loved him.”
“And your pa?”Colt asked.
Bethy studied her son for a moment then she shrugged and replied to his question, “He wasn’t happy back then.I think it wasn’t until three days later that he even noticed Micah.Let’s just say they aren’t real close and let it go.”
Tannin muttered under his breath, “Let it go...”He seethed.
Everyone there glanced at him but remained silent.None of them wouldlet it go, they all knew this.
“Were you able to grab anything you and Micah needed before you left this morning?”Tannin asked as he seemed to fight off anger.
Bethy shook her head but wouldn’t look at him.“I just grabbed the most important thing I had and I ran.”
Tannin reached out to grasp her hand and joined their fingers together.“You done right, bae.We can get you everything else you two need once we have your dad and these other people settled.”
Bethy stared at him for a minute then she nodded.Turning her head to look at King she told him, “That couple is bad,realbad.I knew it the minute I laid eyes on them yesterday.Months ago, my dad started going someplace early every morning.He never told me where he was going or why but then he never did talk to me.He wasn’t drinking so much, so I didn’t care what he was doing.I thought maybe he was working again but he never brought any money home.Then one day, I got curious and after he left I followed him.Like I said, I got curious.”She paused then shook her head.“I should have stayed home.He drove that damn truck three miles and stopped at an old, abandoned house, only it looked almost new, and it was made mostly of mud bricks.I didn’t know it but someone had taken the time to rebuild it with those same mud bricks.I didn’t get close enough to see what was going on inside but I could picture it in my head.You see, during that time my dad would come home with black powder on his clothing.He would yell at me to wash his clothes and have them ready the next morning.For a long time, I just did what he asked because it was easier than arguing with him.Then one day, I made the mistake of shaking out his pants too close to the fire I had going outside.I was burning trash and as soon as I shook those pants, the barrel that had the fire in it almost exploded in my face.”
The room remained quiet as some of them shook their heads.
Bethy went on, “Dad came running out of the house while screaming at me, he was saying something about how I better not have burned his pants.I just stood there staring at him like he was crazy.What about me burning up?Then he smacked me and told me to be more careful.He went back in the house and took a stiff dive straight into the bottle.I didn’t put it together until last night when I heard Lou ask him about how the inventory was coming along.They were complaining about trusting the wrong men when they paid someone named Dale to do a job.He had failed them big time.”
Shay looked over at King and then to Boomer.He finally looked at Bethy and asked, “Do you remember where this other house is?Can you tell King where it is or how we can get there?We really need to see what’s inside that building.”
Bethy just looked at them for a moment then she asked, “My dad’s in really big trouble, isn’t he?”
King nodded slowly.“Yeah, he might be, but we don’t know that yet.That’s why we need to know what he’s been up to.”
Bethy thought for a long moment then she looked at Maudie.
Maudie seemed to feel her stare and she stopped stirring the pot of soup she was making and slowly turned around to stare back at her.She felt the air shift around her and shook her head.“No, no, he wouldn’t dare.”
Bethy nodded.“He did.”
Maudie growled, “I’mma gonna beat that stupid selfish man to death, then bring him back to life then do it all over again.”
King was puzzled.“Maudie, what the hell are you so angry about?You know about this mud house?”
Maudie nodded harshly, “Weh cher, I know this house.Everyone here knows it.It’s the only place that had been made outta bricks in this swamp.”
King blinked at her then realization crossed his face.He bolted up from his chair so fast that the chair hit the floor with a thud and the sound echoed off every corner of the room.“The old Baptist church?The church that was nothing more than ruins more than fifty years ago?”He then turned to pace furiously.“That’s where he chose to build his bombs?On holy ground!”
Bethy nodded.“He rebuilt part of the walls and tarped the missing roof.But he didn’t do a very good job.The mud bricks he formed are falling apart.He didn’t pack them right I suppose?He’s just lucky we haven’t had any rain lately.”
“Damn, more bombmaking.”Shay reached for his cell.When he got his party on the phone, he ordered a full team to come in ASAP.He claimed he had eyes on Salvador and Louise and they needed to get here quickly.He also said to bring in a bomb tech crew as they might have found a bomb making plant.They had no idea how careful the bombmaker had been when throwing the bombs together.
King paced the room and Maudie furiously cooked at the stove.
