He said, “Want to ride in front? We’re about there.”
She slid toward the tailgate and said, “All right.”
Of course he helped her off the back of the truck because of her supposed back problem. And, Cornelia hopped out so she’d have to sit in the middle, and gave her a look that she ignored. No one talked much those last few miles. When they turned onto a dirt path, Rae Lynn detected nervousness coming off of Del in the way he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. They bumped and rolled along the dirt drive leading to the house, and his head swiveled left and right. Rae Lynn was certain they could walk faster.
She said, “How long since you been home?”
“Too, too long.”
Acre upon acre of longleaf on either side of the land caught Rae Lynn’s eye. Del pointed out they’d been planted some time ago by his granddaddy and his pap. Next were corn and bean fields, and last, a split rail fence. The opening led to a white clapboard, two-story farmhouse with a slate roof situated beneath a few large elms and white oaks. Rae Lynn watched Del, who sat smiling a little, hands resting on the steering wheel. After a minute, he got out and stood by the driver’s door, still looking around. A woman came out onto the porch, along with a tall, rawboned man. Two children, a boy and a girl, stood on either side of him, and he rested his hands on their shoulders. The woman held a hand to her brow and eyed the truck with suspicion. She wore a pale-yellow dress, and over it, a pastel-flowered apron. She reminded Rae Lynn of a garden filled with the soft blooms of spring.
Del called out, “Don’t you recognize me, Sudie May?”
The woman’s hand dropped from her brow and she brought both to her cheeks, and her voice raised the question in her mind. “Del?”
He held his arms out like he was leading a choir.
“Del! It is you! Oh, my word!”
She came down the steps, ran across the yard, and launched herself at him with enough force to make him stumble backward, laughing. He caught her up and spun her around in a circle. Rae Lynn watched, wishing for such a connection. The man and children stepped off the porch as she and Cornelia got out and stood by truck. Cornelia self-consciously pulled the hat lower on her head, while Rae Lynn worried about being a bother to this family. Del, his arm still slung across his sister’s shoulder, shook his brother-in-law’s hand. Next, Sudie May introduced the children. Rae Lynn caught their names, Norma and Joey. Del squatted in front of the children and started talking to them, and when he did, the red muscle beating in the center of Rae Lynn’s chest quickened ever so slightly. Del stood, pointed toward her and Cornelia. He leaned over to speak to his sister and her husband. Rae Lynn tensed, and Cornelia gripped her hand so tight her knuckles cracked. Rae Lynn had never felt so aimless, so without a purpose and disconnected, until Sudie May came toward them, arms outstretched, like a mother welcoming home two long-lost children.
Part III
Nest
Chapter 31
Del
The sun struck his face in the same spot as it had back when he was a kid sleeping in this very room. The moment he opened his eyes, and realized where he was, he was filled with comfort and a sense of well-being. He sat up in his childhood bed, his feet bumping against the footboard. Two windows, positioned side by side, had the very same curtains, yellowed with age, and through them, the warm beam slanted across his pillow. Outside those windows was a familiar scene, one he didn’t need to get up to see. Elms, oaks, acorn trees surrounded the house, and then there were the fields everywhere else, up to the beginning of the longleaf woods.
He rose, poured water in the wash bowl, rinsed his face, ran his fingers through his hair, and put on his clothes. As he went down the stairs, his fingers trailed along the dark wood banister. On the bottom step, he stopped, encountering the spot where he’d carved his initials on the underside of the curved post back when he was about nine years old.
He leaned over to look at the rough, etched out D.R. The house was wallpapered, the same pattern throughout, a cream background with bouquets of flowers. His mother used to say it was her inside garden. The only room different was the kitchen painted in light yellow.
Voices came from there now, and when he went through the door, everyone sat at a long table, drinking chicory coffee with Norma and Joey on each side of their mother, quietly eating fried eggs, tomato slices, and biscuits with molasses.
Sudie May said, “Morning,” and the others did too.
Del nodded. “Morning.”
Sudie May got up and poured him a cup as he sat down, staring around the table and thinking it was like being in another world. Two days ago, he’d been in Swallow Hill, and now, he was here with his sister, her family, Cornelia, and Rae Lynn. What a twist in events he’d never considered coming to pass. He sat back listening while the women resumed talking about the news. Sudie May was reading from a recent newspaper about the WWI Bonus Army camping out in Washington, D.C., awaiting news on their payout, and from an older paper about Roosevelt winning the Democratic nomination. Next, she read about the stock market. It was the lowest it had been since the Crash, and the paper said there’d been an eighty-six percent loss overall.