Goodbye Earl(96)

ON: Y’all took that to mean he was threatening your husband’s life?

LK: Right. Then the next week when I ran into Maxwell on my walk, he said that maybe he and I could work out a deal.

ON: What did he mean by that?

LK: Maybe he meant sex? Maybe he meant…I don’t know. I ignored him, but at that point I think Max saw that weed wasn’t making enough money anyway, because everyone wanted pills. None of this will leave this room, right?

ON: Everything you and I are discussing will remain confidential.

LK: Thank you. The Foxberrys operate differently and everyone in Goldie knows it. It’s not just Goldie, though; it’s all these little towns. If someone killed Trey Foxberry, it could’ve been anyone. Do y’all think someone killed him or that it was an accident?

ON: Right now it’s a death investigation.

LK: Well, nothing would surprise me. I’m not one to willingly come down to the police station and tell anyone my business, but we love Caroline like she’s our own. There have been other…things that have happened in this town…things I wish God had reached down and stopped. Like what happened to my friend Angie Fritz. I miss her. So much. She didn’t deserve that and neither did Caroline. I wouldn’t be surprised if God Himself came down this time around and snatched Trey away to make sure he couldn’t touch Caroline again. I bet, as long-suffering as the Bible tells us He is…that even God can only take so much.





45





Caroline


Caroline was released from the hospital on the Fourth of July. Grandma Mimi took her to the trailer and had a big pot of Caro’s favorite homemade vegetable soup on the stove and a berry flag pie cooling on the counter. Caroline’s shoulder was secure in a sling, but her eye was still swollen enough that looking through it made her feel dizzy, and the dizziness gave her a headache. Had it really been not even two weeks ago that Trey had done all this? You’re the one who needs help were the last words she ever said to him, and she hated herself for not saying more. For not telling him that no one had ever crushed her like he had and she’d make sure no one ever could again. When she checked her heart for grief, she didn’t find any for Trey or even for what they once had, because those fleeting moments felt foolish and one-sided now after all he’d done.

What she found was grief for the woman she was before she married him. The woman she was in that trailer with her grandma and the woman she was when she was with her sisters. She wanted to make sure her sisters never had to suffer for protecting her. It’d be too much to bear.

She’d gotten into the habit of putting her hand on her stomach to protect the baby, even though she knew it was safe and snug. Trey could never hurt either of them again. The urge to cry about it was overshadowed by the flood of joy she got thinking about how quick and easy Beau had agreed to pretend to be the father. That filled her aching bones with light.

Kasey had invited her to come stay at the farmhouse, and Ada told her she was welcome to stay with her if she didn’t mind the boys tearing through the house or the noise that came with it. Rosemarie also offered up her parents’ place, which had always been a spot of comfort for Caroline with its rainbow colors and clucking chickens. But it felt so natural and normal to be back in Grandma Mimi’s trailer, even though Caro had been living in that big house for the past six months or so—a big house she’d never set foot in again. She was glad it was tucked away on a side street she didn’t ever have to drive down if she didn’t want to. The house was never hers to begin with; her name wasn’t on anything. It all belonged to the Foxberrys. Caroline didn’t have a house, but she’d get one. She’d get a little house and raise her baby in it. A little house on the water, nowhere near where they found Trey.

Caroline kept telling Paula that she didn’t know what happened to Trey, but Paula was having none of it. She’d been in a rage after they found Trey’s body, and made such a scene at the hospital that an officer had to tell her to calm down or he’d have to ask her to leave. He apologized when he said it, but hospital security was involved at that point, and Caro’s doctor had told Paula the stress would be too much for her; Caro prayed she wouldn’t put it together that she was pregnant yet. She was so grateful when Paula left. But before she walked out the door, Paula told Caroline that she had warned Trey he shouldn’t marry her, because she came from nobody, and that if anyone had harmed her son, she’d find out. Caro felt nothing. She was floating, and the painkillers either emptied her out completely or turned up her emotions as high as they’d go. She was up by the ceiling while Paula went on and on about how worthless she was, and Caro’s feelings circled the drain and disappeared.



The feelings were back now, and she felt a lot of them about being on the couch in Grandma Mimi’s trailer again. She felt a lot more complicated feelings when Beau stopped by later to see how she was doing.

“I’m not gonna stay too long; just wanted to drop by. I’m glad you’re home,” Beau said, standing by the door. The trailer park was filled with firework smoke already, and Caro could smell it slipping inside. The word home smoked through the air too and wrapped itself around her. She was tired and thirsty, and this was home. She was tired and thirsty, and Trey was dead.

“Come in here and sit down, Beau Bramford,” Mimi said, waving him all the way in. A small, rowdy group of laughing children and a yellow mutt tore through the gravel behind him. Caro watched them disappear.