Chapter 3 The Burial
Clive had been so very right when he’d told Dorie that other people had probably died from drinking that moonshine. He didn’t have to ask Mr. Simmons to open the store because the door was standing wide open. He’d no sooner got down off his horse in front of the store where a bunch of people was standing around, than Tom Rawlins and a couple of other men came running to tell him that Ben Cutler had died of moonshine poisoning, but that the doctor said his brother was gonna pull through.
“They was drinkin’ pretty good last night, down on the river bank,” Tom said, telling Clive his part in the sordid affair. “I was down there with ’em for a while, but thank goodness, I didn’t drink none of that there stuff.” Clive hated to tell him about Clay and Macie, but he had to. It was hard for him to talk about it but the ripple went back through the crowd of men who stood there shaking their heads as if something like that just couldn’t be happening. And Tom was taken aback that Macie had died till Clive explained that it was Macie’s birthday and they figured Clay talked her into drinking some. Everybody knew that Clay drank quite a bit, but not Macie. And Tom was very sorry about Clay. They had all grown up together and had known each other since they were kids.
“How many more they gonna be, Tom? That guy was sellin’ that stuff left and right yesterday. Do you know of any more that died?” Clive was as sure as he was standing there, that there would be more deaths from that tainted moonshine.
And Tom didn’t know of anyone else. Just Ben and now Clay and Macie. “Lord, Lord. This is jus’ awful, Clive. What’s this world comin’ to? Ya cain’t trust nobody no more. And nobody’s seen ’im since he was here yesterday, neither.”
“I gotta go tell Shelmer and his wife. Tate and his. They’re gonna hate that they lost their sister. Good thing Macie’s mommy and daddy has already passed on. Would you mind goin’ with me, Tom? I dread it like the plague.” And Tom answered that he would.
They found out from talking to different people that at least five people they knew died that night in and around Big Bend and that several others got sick. According to how much they drunk of it, Clive figured because the ones that didn’t make it died pretty much the same way Clay and Macie did. And the ones that didn’t were sick as dogs. Tom told Clive that the doctor said something about the poison messing up their hearts, and they’d just stop and it didn’t take much if it was wood alcohol. They’d heard about wood alcohol poisoning all their lives! You just never thought it would happen to you.
Clay and Macie Logan, Ben Cutler, Amos Knotts, and Earl Davis had all died. Some young, some old. Ben Cutler was only twenty and Earl Davis was in his seventies. Amos Knotts left a wife and a whole bunch of young’uns. They’d be going to a lot of funerals in the next few days and the moonshine poisoning was the main topic of conversation in the small community for months and months. Some said they’d bought some, but thank God, hadn’t drunk any of it yet. They were the lucky ones. It sure cut down on the sale of moonshine, though, and several people quit drinking it altogether, unless they ran the still themselves. And the night five people were poisoned was brought up periodically for years afterwards.
The man who sold them the poison liquor was never found. The sheriff from over in Hamlin looked and looked for the man, but could get few leads on him. Clive told Dorie that he hoped the man drunk some of it himself and rotted in hell. Dorie said something about forgiving them that sin against us and Clive countered with, “How can ya fergive somebody that killed yer only brother?” And Dorie didn’t say anything else about them killing themselves by drinking the stuff.
Aunt Dorie had some beans and cornbread cooked and it tasted real good. Shannon ran the bread all around the bowl, sopping up what little bean soup was stuck to it. There was all kinds of dishes on the table, but they just wanted beans. They didn’t know what all that fancy food was except the chicken and Clay, Jr. eat a piece of that. They got two glasses of milk to drink with a piece of pie and that was a treat. They only got one glass at home, but Uncle Clive had two cows. Shannon thought they was doing good, getting cake last night and pie tonight. She could have had cake tonight, too, but the pie was special because it had browned egg white icing on top. One of the ladies she’d seen at church said it was lemon meringue pie, but Shannon didn’t know what that was. She just knew it was good.
That night, they slept in the big bed in their own bedroom. It was strange sleeping in there away from Uncle Clive and Aunt Dorie. They’d always slept in the same room with Mommy and Daddy, but maybe that was because they only had the one room. Aunt Dorie even had what she called a sitting room with no bed in it at all. Just a couch and two chairs and tables and little pretty things setting all around on doilies that they weren’t allowed to touch.
That sitting room was full earlier that evening as people found out about Clay and Macie and all the women from the church come by with dishes of food. They all cried and hugged Clive and Dorie and then they’d look down at Clay, Jr. and Shannon with sad faces and put their hands on their heads, patting them as if to make them feel better. It seemed everybody passed around little Nate till he got fussy and Dorie took him and fed him another bottle.
They laid there and whispered to each other about Mommy and Daddy going to live with Jesus, neither of them understanding just what had happened and why they had to go. “Why can’t we live in the cabin, Clay? We can take care o’ Nate.”
“They’s more to it an ’at, Shan. We can’t milk the cow, and butcher the hog. I helped Daddy, but I never done none o’ ’at stuff by myself.” A picture of his Daddy unhitching the horse the day before entered his troubled mind and he turned over and buried his face in the pillow, crying softly to himself.
Uncle Clive came to the door and told them to hush up and get to sleep, that they had a big day ahead of them tomorrow. That only served to get them wound up again, and it took them a long time to get to sleep.
The next few days were like shadows to Shannon. She faded in and out, not knowing exactly what was going on. She just did what any grown up told her to do. Holding her Aunt Dorie’s hand, she walked up the hill to where Uncle Clive and some other men had cleared off a space of ground up in the woods and dug some holes. It was right next to where Mommy had said their big brother was buried, but she couldn’t say for sure if it was a brother or a sister. Wasn’t big enough to tell, she said. Shannon kept asking her mommy questions about that baby that mommy didn’t know was a boy or a girl, but Mommy always started crying. It made her feel bad, so she didn’t ask no more. Shannon just knew it was a boy and tried to tell her mommy that, but mommy wouldn’t listen.
She was glad her mommy and daddy was gonna be close to the cabin and next to their big brother. She understood that Mommy and Daddy were in those boxes that Uncle Clive and some men from down in Big Bend let down in the ground with ropes. She understood when Mrs. Waters explained to her that only their bodies were there; that their souls were in Heaven with Jesus. Shannon knew she had a soul. She could hear it beating in her sometimes if she got real scared or if she run real fast. Mommy and Daddy’s souls had to be with Jesus because neither one of them was beating. She’d listened for the thump-thump down at the church when Uncle Clive held them up so they could hug Mommy and Daddy goodbye. They sure was in some pretty boxes. Shannon hoped when Jesus come and took her soul she’d have a pretty bed like Mommy did.
Clay, Jr. pitched a fit and didn’t want them to put Mommy and Daddy in the ground. He kicked out at one man from the funeral home and Uncle Clive threatened to whup him good if he didn’t stop carrying on so. They had to put them in the ground! Jesus done come and took their souls and when that happened you had to go in the ground! Evidently Clay didn’t believe Mrs. Waters about just their bodies being there and their souls being with Jesus, but Clay, Jr. straightened right up when Uncle Clive threatened to whup him. Maybe if he didn’t, Jesus would come and take
