Preacher
Donavan's Nephew
Jo
Ann Scott
Emma
Jean Morgan lived alone, with the exception of Milton. Milton,
her Calico cat, often sat on the front steps, amid the climbing
roses that pushed against the backdrop of lattice fencing, and
licked himself free of the morning dew he had collected upon his
ginger and chocolate fur while roaming for mice and crickets during
the early hour hunt.
Emma
was a tidy woman, her house spotless, her many crafts did not
litter her front parlor like most women her age, and she kept
those neatly stored in the fabric-covered ottoman that was trimmed
in the lace petticoat she had worn many years before.
Emma
Jean was above all else, a lady. She had kept her figure all these
years but would not succumb to wearing the filth that society
labeled as "fashionable" just to be with the in crowd.
She
donned overalls in the garden, and during the day she wore regular,
plain pencil or swing dresses, some with Peter Pan collars, often
emulating Donna Reed from the olden times. Lately she noticed
her flower beds were being trampled. No matter what kind of fence
she put up it was knocked down and her tulips broken. She bought
so many tulips lately that she was sure the old man at the greenhouse
thought she was calling on him. He offered her a discount just
a few days ago, if she was in need of more flowers. She decided
the prickly talons of roses suited her more than those of the
dainty tulips.
"Emmie
Jean!" It was her neighbor Louise. They lived just a hop,
skip, and jump apart and often hollered out the windows to one
another when Louise was down with her sickness. Emma Jean never
quite knew what that sickness was, but figured it was something
quite awful to keep someone away from her gardening and social
scenes.
"Louise!"
"Emmie
Jean, I need you over here. Something bad is happenin' and I need
you to hep me."
Poor
Louise, she always needed help from something every other day
or so. Louise was a frail, feeble woman who looked like the strongest
wind might blow her clean to the other side of town. Not only
that, it was like the woman was starved for attention and the
only one closest to her was Emma Jean.
"I'm
kinda busy, Louise. Is it an emergency?"
"I'm
dyin' Emmie. Hep me!"
Louise
had said the magic words. She could need a hair plucked or towels
folded and still think it was a dire emergency.
"I'll
be right over, don't you fret, honey!"
Emma
Jean, still barefoot and sporting her overalls and straw hat,
put on her flip flops and walked over to Louise's front door.
She did not bother ringing the bell. Louise knew she was coming
over.
Soon
as the door was open she saw the house was a mess. There were
dirty footprints all over the floor, mud tracked in from the morning
dew and the dirt path outside.
"I'm
dyin'," she said again from front parlor. "They done
took my house over."
"Oh,
Louise. I'm here, it's just fine. You just sit there and rest."
Emma
got the bucket from the hall closet and a mop. The floor needed
a good once over and then she could go back to gardening.
"I've
been sittin' at this winder for hours Emmie, where you been keeping
yerself?"
"Just
gardening. Who tracked mud on your floor?"
Louise
shook her head. "Why, my crazy son and his kids. They come
in like a band of wild horses and dirtied my floor, ate my food,
and left me with a mess."
"You
need to get onto 'em. Tell 'em you ain't puttin' up with it anymore."
"I've
done did it." Louise made a sour face. "Ain't no one
respects their elders no more. Ya think they'll be nicer when
you near to dyin' and they walk all over you for a few slices
of cone bread and some beans. I ain't gonna invite 'em in no more."
"Louise,
you say that all the time. They'll be over next week and you'll
be huggin' those babies and fixin' cornbread and taters like always."
"You
aught be one to talk, here I thought you done married that man
of yers." Louise said.
"Man?
Louise, I ain't got no man. I wouldn't have another unless he
was rich and made of gold." Emma had lost her first husband
during the Korean War. He contracted a nasty flu bug in the harsh
winter there and never fully recovered. She would rather be alone
than be with some man who could not understand her loss.
"Oh,
Emmie Jean. You needn't talk like that. I seen how that preacher
Donavan's nephew looks at you. He got his eye on you."
Emma
shook her head no.
"Leo?
He ain't lookin' at an old woman like me; he'll be lookin' at
them younger girls. Girls who can give him a family and babies,
that's who he'll be lookin' for. He ain't got no kind of life
with a run down ole woman like me."
"Don't
you be sayin' it, Emmie. You know yer still lookin' good as when
we were girls in our courting days. Sparking these days ain't
changed that much. And he was lookin', shore as I sit here today,
he was lookin'. I caught him last Sunday eyeing you. He tried
to laugh and say he ain't doin' it, but he was. He watched you
and then I seen him outside yer house after Sunday services. Why,
I thought he came callin' on you."
"Ain't
nobody been to my house after Sunday services, Louise. You shore
you takin' your pills right?"
Louise
was well known in the neighborhood for skipping her pills and
walking in her slip to the local library for afternoon tea with
the ladies of the historical society.
"I
ain't missed my pills. He's been outside yer house every night
since Sunday service, he plumb near stomped out your tulips last
few nights. Weirdest thing I ever did see, he just stares at you
through yer winder and then goes home."
Emma
looked at her and shuddered at the thought. She believed it was
Danny Nelson's old German Shepherd running amuck in the nighttime
attacking her flowers.
"Why
law, Louise, I never knew he took a fancy to me. He shore ain't
got no business staring at me outside my winder."
"He
ain't got no kind of business staring at anybody around here.
Mighty creepy actin' boy if you ask me. You'd think his momma
would teach him better than that. Ain't got the manners God gave
a mule. You do know he comes by every night, dontcha?"
"Louise,
I'm gonna get to the bottom of this, shore as the sun is yeller."
"Whatcha
gonna do?"
Emma
thought for a moment. She pondered over the question of just what
could a woman her age do to a peeping tom. Then it hit her.
"I'm
gonna come over tonight to yer place, set up and watch fer him.
When he comes by, I'm gonna run out there and spray him down with
my garden hose. Ain't no dirty man gonna be watching me at night,
he can jest forget it."
Louise
grinned, her loose dentures shifted and popped back onto her gums.
"You tell 'im girl."
Around
eight-thirty that night, when it was just becoming dark and gloomy,
Emma Jean scampered from her back porch and across the lawn to
Louise's back door. She rapped on the hollow door and waited.
Louise had bad arthritis and needed a few minutes to get up from
her easy chair and hobble into the kitchen to the back door.
"Who's
it?" Louise hollered from behind the door.
"It's
me, Emma Jean." She did not look so glamorous at night, her
hair in big pink foam curlers, her face blotched with Noxzema,
and her fuzzy housecoat that looked more like a beat up old towel
than a robe.
"Oh,
Emmie." She unlatched the door and it creaked open. "Hurry
up, I got my shotgun awaiting. I ain't bout to let no good fer
nothings in my home this time of night. I'd blow them off the
back porch I catch'em lookin' in here at me."
"Oh, Louise. Lord! Put that gun away! We ain't got no need
for a gun tonight. He'll be too scared when we sneak up on 'im
with the hose. Why if you shot someone, how would we face the
congregation in the morning at Sunday services."
"I
ain't bout to sneak up on any feller hidin' in the bushes. I'll
pull out my shotgun and blow him out first."
"Louise, please. He ain't done nothing but peepin' round
the neighborhood. He only does it cause he ain't got caught."
Louise
shrugged and sat down slow and easy in her chair. She often popped
and cracked when she bent her knees the least bit.
"Lordy,
these ole bones of mine are dry and brittle as a dead twig. I
look to fall apart any day now."
Emma
Jean sat back on the couch; she kept a close eye out for the man
they wanted to catch.
"I
don't know about this, Louise. I think the gun's a bit too much."
"You
don't want to end up like them fellers on the news, do you? Those
old ladies up yonder in Harlan. They nearly got themselves killed
for a pack of cigarettes."
"In
Harlan? Now Louise, you got that all wrong. It was in Harlem.
And that wasn't two old ladies, it was two druggies buyin' themselves
some of those mary-wanna cigarettes. You shore you takin' your
pills? You want me to check the box, see if you took the right
pills today?"
"Oh,
hesh up, now. It's one thing to go correctin' my stories, but
another to go countin' my pills." Louise sat back in her
old rocker and kicked madly to build up her rocking speed. For
an old woman who needed help mopping, she sure could kick up a
mean rocking chair.
"You
check that winder yet, Emmie? Cause if I ain't mistaken, I see
him out there."
"I
see 'im!" Emma Jean said. "He's out there, jest like
you said. Look at 'im. That dirty thing is out in my yard and
alookin' in my winder like it was he who owned the place."
The
two elderly women watched as the man stumbled across Emma Jean's
flowers, knocking down tulips and other spring plants, and peeked
into her lit up home. She left the light on in the living room
and a TV going for cover.
He
moved closer, closer to her window, the light illuminating his
cap and jacket. Sure enough it was Preacher Donavan's nephew like
Louise had said before. He always wore that same cap with a plaid
jacket.
"That's
him, same coat! That dirty rascal, let's go git 'im now, Louise."
They
snuck from the back door and porch and as Louise clutched her
shotgun, Emma Jean crept closer to the peeping tom in slippers.
Louise
switched on the hose and felt the stream of water rushing forward,
the hose jumped slightly and then moved freely as Emma Jean pulled
it behind her.
Suddenly
she jumped from behind him, held the hose out, and sprayed him.
The cold water hit him in the back, then chest, then knocked him
down into the tulips, and he fell over one of her many garden
stones and gnomes she had collected over the years.
"I
GOT YA! Ya dirty scum bag, git off of my lawn. Git your sorry,
no good, peepin' tom tail off of my property. Go on, git!"
Emma yelled.
"Git
'im! Git 'im!" Louise screamed in her hoarse little voice.
She jumped up and down in the wet grass.
Suddenly,
Louise slipped backward and cracked her elbow on the brick wall,
and the shotgun exploded in the air. The mighty boom echoed through
the neighborhood, lights on every porch switched on, and dogs
bellowed throughout the night. Emma jumped, her hands going over
her ears, and dropped the hose. Louise threw her gun down and
ran, and both stumbled into the kitchen and looked outside the
large picture window.
The
man tripped, then fell into the roses. He limped his way from
her lawn, the water having soaked him head to toe.
"We
shore did git him good, Emmie," Louise said as she flipped
the stove on for some late night tea.
"Shore
did. He'll be limpin' for a week over that. I bet those roses
cut him up good."
The
Sunday morning services were at 10:00. Louise and Emma got there
early and waited outside the church for Leo. He ran up to them
and smiled. He was wearing a blue polyester suit.
"Hello,
ladies. Beautiful morning, ain't it?" He bounced through
the crowd and shook hands with the men.
"Louise.
He ain't limpin'."
"Well,
he ain't foolin' nobody. He just thinks we're too old to recognize
him."
They
went inside to take a seat. On their usual front row pew, Louise
pulled out her old paper fan with the Good Shepherd painting printed
along the creased paper and the Donald's Drug Store phone number
and logo running down the huge tongue dispenser-like handle. Louise
was just about to throw it down when she noticed there was no
preacher.
"Emmie,
where you think that Preacher's gone off to? He didn't even show
to welcome us this morning to service."
"I
don't have the slightest notion, dear. He probably has important
church work to do and lost track of the time."
Just
then the preacher's nephew, Leo, walked briskly to the pulpit.
His cap now off and his hair all combed slick with gel, he looked
around nervously and raised a hand to quiet the congregation.
"Folks,
folks, can I have your attention, please. My uncle called me early
this morning and he can't come in for this mornin's service. He's
ill."
"Oh
my goodness," Louise said as she and Emma Jean both shook
their heads. "Praise God and bless that poor man."
"Praise
God," Emma Jean replied. "We should pray for a speedy
return and recovery. What is he ill from, honey?" Emma Jean
often forgot and called everyone honey. She hoped no one thought
of this as flirting. It was only her southern charm shining through.
"My
dear sisters, you are just so caring," Leo said. He gave
them a complimentary smile and understanding gaze. "He's
got himself a cold."
"We
should bring him over some homemade chicken soup," Louise
replied. "I have a great recipe from my grandmother, use
fresh cooked chicken. We'll have him back in no time."
"Good
idea sister," Emma Jean said.
"Yes,
that would be so thoughtful ladies," Leo said. "Oh,
and he has a sprained ankle, too. He must have twisted it when
he fell down into the roses outside his house yesterday afternoon,
but we should pray he has a speedy recovery from that, too."
Emma
Jean and Louise looked over at one another in astonishment. Emma's
eyes were now big as saucers and Louise could not see to close
her mouth.
"Oh,
my God!" Louise said.
"My
Lord!" Emma replied.
"Emmie,
you thinking what I'm a' thinkin?" Louise whispered.
"I
shore am."
They
shook their heads and bowed them to pray. Preacher Donavan did
not receive chicken soup from the ladies, not that day or any
other to follow. Emma Jean was never bothered by the pesky peeping
tom after Saturday night on Morgan Avenue.
***
Jo
Ann Scott lives in the mountains of Southwest Virginia and
has been published in the local literary magazine General's
Dreams.
©
Jo Ann Scott