BOOK ONE: DECEPTIONS
Chapters One to Twenty Six
Vignettes 1 - 140

BOOK TWO: YESTERDAY ECHOES
Chapters 27 to
Vignettes 141 -

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Vignette #70: Questions

Ian was afraid of the next question; it was the answer to it that ha had always feared. “Was Uncle Nate my Daddy?”

“No.” Was the quick definite answer.

Ian breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”

“Boy he weren’t no relation at’all.” Jude looked at Ian. “You really don’t know nothing?”

“Only what little I overheard, talk in town...things I picked up from my hidey holes.”

“I knowed you was watchin. I knowed you was in the barn, hidin, I just didn’t know where and I couldn’t figure for the life of me how you was getting in and out. I figured you was safe though, and if you wanted to talk about it you would…”

“I still don’t understand…why Jude, why did Uncle Nate hate me so?

Jude shook his head. “Lord knows, child, Lord knows. He wasn’t allus a drunk, but by the time I got back, he was a eat up, just pure eat up.”

“With what?”

“Guilt I think. I jus’ remember bits an’ pieces of that night, Ian. The night…” Jude looked down at the root of the old tree. “The night yer mama died. Ian, it took me a while, but I’m purdy sure that Nate was the one drivin’ that truck. I know he was there, he swore he wasn’t an’ I couldn’t prove it.”

“Well, a couple things make more sense now.”

“How’s that?”

“Why Uncle Nate hated me so. My being around probably reminded him.”

“Son, there was so many reasons why Nate acted the way he did, but he weren’t your Daddy. I know that fer fact.”

“Do you know who my father was?”

“No son, I don’t. All I know is your mama run off one time. Miss Leatha, that was who ya called yer Grandmaw, finally tracked her down and drug her back a kickin’ and a screamin’. Weren’t long after we realized she was pregnant. Some man she met while she was gone. That’s all I know. Lylah never said nothing about that time. Not t’me anyway.

“Lylah? That’s my mama’s name? Lylah?”

“You don’t know?”

“Who was around that was gonna tell me, Jude? Uncle Nate? When he wasn’t drunk he only spoke of the little black haired whore.”

“She weren’t no whore. She never touched but me and whoever was yer Daddy. She was what they call high strung, but she believed in love. Lylah was a dreamer jus’ like you. Only dif’ernce is you’re a makin’ yer dreams come true. Layla, she never had a chance.”

“Do you have any idea where she went when she ran away?”

Jude shook his head. “I do know when you was born, they tried to find your Daddy. Miz Hillary and Nate both, but all they had was a name on your birth certificate and the name of a town on a bus ticket.”

“Jude,” Ian looked at the ground and then back up into the other man’s eyes. “There are lots of things that never added up, things that I only heard whisps of, so forgive me if this sounds accusatory but, what did you and Aunt Hil do to my birth certificate?”

Jude looked at Ian and smiled. “You knowed about that?”

“I overheard you and Aunt Hil talking.”

He looked Ian in the eye. “See I knowed you was ever where.” He looked off into nowhere. “Some man come around when you was about Ronnie age, said he was from social services. Thought at first Nate had called, he was allus tryin to send you off somewhere, afraid you’d find out that his Mama had left ever thing to you and not him. But your Aunt Hil knowed he wasn’t from the gover’ment. He had a lawyer wif ‘im. They demanded to see a birth certificate.”

“What you do then?”

“Showed ‘em Bethany Jane’s”

“Bethany Jane?”

“A little girl a’ Mizz Leatha’s that died about the time yer mama showed up. Said it was yer mama’s. Man and his lawyer got mad and never saw ‘em again.”

“What if he was my daddy, Jude?”

“At most he was yer granddaddy, a strange little fat man. When he told yer Aunt Hil his name, she turned whiter than me.”

“What was his name?”

“I’m sorry, that I don’t recall. I only saw ‘em oncet. I was in the backfield and saw ‘em talking. Didn’t hear what they was sayin, but saw enough to turn off the tractor and get a rifle to run ‘em off. Yer Aunt Hil was scared. That’s all I can tell ya.”

“Any idea where my mama’s birth certificate is Jude?”

“No. I figure they’s somewhere in Miz Hilary’s, and yer real one’s prob’ly there, too. We’ll find ‘em if they there.”

Ian looked at Jude. “But why did you change the names on my birth certificate?”

Jude noddedd. “Mizz Hil was scared, begged me to help.”

“What was she afraid of, Jude?”

He turned back and looked at the fresh grave. “Son, all I know was I had sumpin’ ta do with yer mama. Miz Hil never ast me for anythin’, I just jumped right in and helped. That’s what family’s are for, Ian, and she was family in some sorta trouble. So we made a new certificate for ya without the father’s name.”

“My father’s name? You knew my father’s name?” Ian balled up his fists.

“Don’t get riled, son.” Jude continued with regret. “There was a big ol’ brawl over yer name when you wuz borned. I don’t know what it was about, I just remember hearin Miz Leatha and Lylah scream at each other from the other side of the mountain.”

“They argued about my name?”

“Ya know you was born in Miz Hilary’s house, don’tcha, not a hospital? Miz Hil was a whatcha call it for all us poor folk, said it was a trade passed down in her family.”

“A wet nurse?” Ian was surprised.

“Yeah, I thinks that’s it. If you wuz colored or poor, Miz Hil was the one you sent word to when it wuz yer time. She tuck care of ever thing, right down to takin’ the birth certificate down to city hall to register it. That’s why it was easy to make a fake’n fer you.”

“I don’t remember Aunt Hil ever doing any thing like that.”

“Well, things changed and they made Miz Hil stop unless she got some sorta trainin’ or somethin’. You was prob’ly one a’ the last babies on the mountain she helped birth.”

Ian wanted to get back to the subject. “My father’s name?”

“I don’t know. Miz Hil did. I just give her the iddy and took it an’ soaked it in some tea ta make it look old.” Jude looked up at Ian. “I’m sorry, boy. It seemed right at the time, her bein’ sa scared an’ all.”

Ian nodded his head. “This man that came, he was looking for my mother and not me.”

“Miz Hil said that she made a promise she’d keep your mama safe, that no one could ever know where she came from. I reckon she thought whatever might happen to Lylah would happen to you, too.”

“But why?”

“Ian, you’ll have to ask her.” He pointed toward the dirt mound in front of him. “All I know is that Miz Hil brought her here, or someone brought her to Miz Hil. It was the late fifties and they wasn’t about to let a black woman raise a white child, let alone a little girl. Leatha Ransom had just lost her husband and a baby all in one year. All she had was little Nate and this ol’ farm. She took her in. Raised her as her own.”

“And Aunt Hil?”

“She was from out West I believe, married a man who used to work on the farm when it was doin’ good. When he died, she stayed here, cleaned people’s houses or whatever she could ta make ends meet. Miss Leatha, left her the house and the lil piece a land it was on when she died. That didn’t make yer Uncle Nate happy, neither.”

Ian looked at the dry grass at his feet. “I guess we should head back. I wish I had more answers, but if that’s all there is I’ll do my best to move on.”

“We done ya wrong boy…I’ll do ever thing I can to help. Yer Aunt Hil, ya know she left what little there is to ya. We’ll go through ever nook and cranny and I’ll find anything I can. I know’d there has to be something there that will help you figure it all out.”

“I appreciate it, Jude. Maybe it’s not important. I just wanted to know who my father was, if anyone did.” They got in the car and Sonny started the engine. “And you have no idea where my mama ran off to?”

Jude shook his head and scratched his chin. “No, she told Nate she was gonna go to Hollywood and be a star. I think he said she was gonna get what was hers. He allus thought she was uppity, and he was tickled pink when Miz Leatha drug her back kickin and screamin and then turned out to be knocked up…”

“Hollywood?” Rease turned to Ian. “Maybe she brought back the painting?”

Ian turned to Jude. “Do you recognize that painting in the back seat with you?”

Jude picked it up. “Law no, I’d remember something like that.”

“Then how did it get in your tack room behind some sheet rock?”

“No iddy, boy…”

“Do you know if my mama made it to Hollywood?”

“No, she would never talk about it…why?”

“Because that’s where that painting came from. It matches one in my living room and they were both painted by the man who built the house I live in.”

“Hmmm…” Jude’s eyes got wide. “Look out!”

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