The Southside of Paradise - Chapter 11

Chapter 11- Shadows Chasing Shadows

     The funeral took place on a Wednesday morning. It was in a drizzling rain. A cold breeze ruffled through the trees and caused the mourners to wish that they had worn a coat or something warmer. The rain was unexpected; the skies had been blue and clear, and the weather had been warm for the last several days. Now the skies were  more like ash gray, and all the mourners were huddled together around the gravesite shivering.

     All the old families from the south side of Concord were represented; so it was easy to tell that the deceased had been a well regarded member of their community.  Old Man Lee stood by a tree talking to Bobby Munoz, Sixto Garcia, and Hill O'Lowry. These men were the village elders of the Southside.The whole Carter family, all twenty of them, stood together behind and to the right of the podium where the Reverend Rob Martin was riffling through his notes.

   Glen and his friends Crazy Joe, Bones, Lucero, and Devil were talking among themselves. Occasionally his dad Ford Wilson would give them the stink eye about the noise they were making, and they would lower it to a whisper. Ford's wife  Mary Jean Wilson looked back nervously then rolled her eyes at her husband after he had turned back around.  Occasionally, she would touch a tissue to her cheek to catch a fleeing tear.

     Reverend Rob was finally ready and began to speak, " Friends and Family, we are gathered on this solemn occasion to bury one of our own." All the younger members of the Holy Savior Baptist Church hated the Reverend. First of all, he was never considered to be "one of our own".  He drove sixty miles twice every week to preach a sermon twice on Sunday and to conduct bible study on Wednesday night. Other than that, no one ever saw him, or cared to see him.

         Secondly, he had no real passion for the cloth. The kids could see it easily. They were living in confusing times and most of them were wrestling with temptations the likes of which they believed their parents had never known. What they needed from the church was sincerity above all things. They got enough judgement at home at the dinner table. They needed truths to tie them to the ground, and bread crumbs, so that when they did cross the boundary lines, they could find their way home. None of them believed that Reverend Ron was the slightest bit sincere. His words never measured up as guide posts either. He chattered like squirrel in a walnut tree, gossiping about every one and everything in sight.

       The older members of the church didn't seem too mind much about their preacher's shortcomings. They had their own ways of keeping faithful, and they relied on each other when things were tough. After most the mourners went home and took off their go-to-meeting clothes, it would be the old ones who would keep an eye on Dean and his siblings. 
    
     Holy Savior had a hard time keeping preachers though. The pay was modest and the complaints were many. The elders figured they would wear him out sooner or latter, or he would change for the better, and they would at least get a respite from having to dig up nuther un for a while.

       Danny, still on crutches, stood behind Dean. Dean sat at the end of the row of chairs staring stoically ahead while clasping his little sister's hand. When Dean's shoulders quietly began to shake, Danny placed his hands there till the shaking stopped.

      After all the droning ended and the final prayer said, Dean stood up and turned to make sure it was Danny that shook his hand first. Danny embraced his friend and Dean spoke lowly, "I don't think that cocksucker ever did like my old man. Not since Pop tossed him out in the yard.

    Danny smiled. He knew the story well. When he had first came to Concord, Reverend Rob had decided to a put on show  by visiting the strays. He arrived at Dean's house one night right after Jack had splashed on some Aqua Velva and was heading out the door. Jack made it plain that a poker game awaited, but the good reverend was being forceful and managed to get a foot in the door. Jack had  good raising, and he abided, and abided, and abided until the preacher said something disrespectful about Leroy Young, the  black man who helped maintain the church grounds.

    What the preacher didn't know was that Jack and Leroy had grown up living next door to each other in the farm labor camps, and Leroy was Jack's best friend ever since they were old enough to walk. What the preacher also didn't know was that his bigger city notions didn't carry much weight on the south side of Concord where most of the older folks had grown up working elbow to elbow in cotton fields and had shared life in farm labor camps where a man was measured by the strength of his truth, the goodness in his heart, and his willingness to pick up a hammer when someone needed a fence rebuilt.

       The Reverend was in mid shit-eating grin when Jack lurched  across the living room floor grabbed him by both arms, lifted him to his feet and tossed him out the door, across the porch and onto the front grass.

      Reverend Rob bounced right up and tried to smooth his ruffled feathers, trying to look worthy of his position but spitting out anger all the same, "You, sir are a perfect heathen! I am here trying to save your mortal soul, so you don't have to burn in that lake of fire! And what about your kids." 

    If Jack Lowell was mad before, he was Moses coming down the mountain mad after those last words. He stood on the porch with legs apart and hands on hips looking like Charleston Heston losing his shit over the golden calf. He was as insanely focused and enraged as Captain Ahab was when he was sinking with that whale. "You stay the fuck away from my kids, or you'll wish you hadda!"

      Dean told Danny later that his dad had won a thousand dollars playing cards that night. Jack came home drunker than hell, tossed the money on the red checkered kitchen tablecloth, and said, "Maybe I oughta toss a preacher out more often." He laughed a  laugh soaked in nicotine and whiskey, crushed out his cigarette in the ashtray that Dean had made for him in the sixth grade, and stumbled off to sleep. The church came near to firing the preacher and made him apologize to Leroy. Leroy shook his hand because he was a forgiving man who believed in the power of the Word.

       There was a gathering after the funeral at the Church. Dean, Danny, Billy Gillespie and few of the boys sat around in back of the dining hall where there was picnic table set up in the shade of a couple of old ash trees. They could smoke back there and pass Jack's silver flask around without being noticed. Dean had filled it with Four Roses for the occasion.

        The friends were mainly there to hear about Danny getting jumped and what he planned to do about it, but Danny was being kind tight lipped on the subject. He explained the particulars but didn't appear over enthusiastic about the revenge part.

          He sat a few feet apart from the others in a old director's chair because of his leg. His  hair was in a pony tail, and he was wearing a white shirt and narrow black tie. There was a few stitches above his right eye and a cut on his lip. He grimaced and grunted when he leaned forward to take the flask.

      "Them sumabitches were waiting the whole time. I was love blind; I admit it. I was in a fucking trance and didn't see nuthing till they came out from behind my car. Rigo was in the front, crouched down real low, and when he lurched at me, he was still in a crouch with that big fucking chin just hanging there. I kicked that mutha fucka so hard it knocked him clean out. When he fail, No Neck flew over the top of him and tackled me, but my knee was right where his balls were, so I made him pay dearly for the tackle. He might not have any kids which would at least make the beating worth while.  It was Mickey who turned my lights out. He hit me with something, something hard. I heard a big THUD, and it got dark in a hurry." Danny fingered the gash over his eye. "After that, I don't remember much till I was laying on my back and staring at the lights in the Emergency Room.

    Dean took the flask from Dumbass Earl Brier and added, "They must have kicked you a shit ton while you was out too! You don't crack a rib with no love tap. I wish I got there earlier; I'd cut that sorry mutha fucka's head clean off with that machete."

     "You coulda been, if you hadn't been bumping uglies with Sylvia Longoria." Danny acted aggrieved.

       Dean turned away and mumbled, "Sorry, man. No excuse for that shit."

      Danny laughed and toasted Dean, "As long as it was for the higher good. I'd probably done the same thing if I was in your shoes. You saved my life, fool. You even got my car home that night. That's above and beyond."

        Dumbass was curious, "Where you rustle up four good tires up that late at night?"

        "Handsome Bobby. It pays to have friend with a gas station."

       The guys went silent as they remembered the reason they were there. No one talked, they just brushed away flies and look around nervously as if to say I don't want to think about Jack.

     Finally, Dean broke the silence. His eyes were dry but his face was flushed, " My dad's dead, Danny. Wha I'm supposed to do?"

     The others looked at Danny like those ancient Greek dudes probably looked at Socrates. Danny felt like letting a fart to shatter their expectations, but didn't, "What you mean what you sposed to do? You go on living. Jack ain't wholly gone as long you, your brother, and your sister are still alive."

      He paused to measure the power of his words. The others thought about what he said then nodded in agreement. "My advice to you, is to find yourself a girl who can stand your sorry self more than a minute, settle down,  and have yourself a passel of kids."

        It took a second for the words to sink in; then Dean cried. He lowered his head and sobbed. Danny felt his friend's pain but was also thinking how glad he was that it wasn't his dad that they had buried. The other two guys silently fought over who got the last of the Four Roses.

       Dean finally stopped sobbing and raised his watery eyes to Danny's. "But who though? " He was having a hard times getting the words out, "Where am I gonna find a girl like that? Most of these fillies here bout afraid to make eye contact with me." He wiped his nose with the back of his hand.

      Danny thought for a moment and then laughed out loud. "Fuck, Dude you gotta quit mauling them when they get in your car!"

      Dean thought about it for a moment then laughed too. "Can't hep myself. I think that it might be the last time I get laid, and I go crazy."

      "Well, you better learn. I told ya before, people gotta change. They got to get shed of their old skin,  put on a new skin."

     Dean smiled a crooked smile, "I use a rubber, man, does that count as new skin?" Danny laughed. Dumbass, Billy G. and the other dudes were fucking clueless. 

        It was Dumbass who asked the question the others wanted answered. He didn't want to step on Danny's toes or anything, but his curiosity was killing him. He scratched his nuts, flicked a cigarette beneath the picnic table and blurted, "Well, hell man, we gonna do something to get those fuckers or not?"