Three Sides of the Tracks Read online

  Jessie stopped the car. “Get in, Caroline, and stop this crap.”

  Caroline continued walking.

  The Lincoln rolled slowly beside her for a few moments then stopped.

  Jessie leaped from the car, ran to Caroline, and grabbed her arm. He opened the back door and, with a strong hand gripped around her upper arm, practically slung her into the back seat.

  “I hate you. I hate you,” she screamed.

  “Maybe now you do, but you’ll thank me one day.”

  “For what? Bullying everyone and everybody? You’re an asshole, Daddy. An asshole.”

  Jessie leaned into the car and stuck a finger in her face. “You started it. If you’d listened to me in the first place, none of this would’ve happened. That scum walking into my church like he owned the place. And you waving at him. For everyone to see. How do you think that made me look? Everybody in church thinking you and that freak are friends. And me just sitting there.”

  “Me. Me. Me. It’s always about you, isn’t it, Daddy? If you feel that way, what about Mother? Shouldn’t she be included? But, no, it’s how would Jessie Whitaker look? What would people think of Jessie Whitaker?

  “Why do you hate Danny so much? He’s never done anything to you. . . . Oh, that’s it though, isn’t it? He and I are friends, and he won’t bow down like everyone else, and you can’t stand it. That’s it, isn’t it?”

  Jessie wiped his sweaty forehead with a trembling hand. If anyone, anyone at all other than Caroline talked to him this way, he would have beaten them to a pulp.

  “He’s from the wrong side of the tracks, always in trouble, and he’s trash. And that hair lip of his makes him a freak in my book. I won’t have my daughter sullying her and her mother’s and my reputation by hanging around with trash.”

  “He is not a freak,” Caroline screamed. “He’s the nicest person I know and would make a hundred of you. You have no idea what he’s like. When we first moved here, when you first started making all your precious money and bought the new house and I had to change schools, I was scared to death the first day of class. Danny was the first person I met. The only one who was kind to me. The others were saying the same thing to me that you are saying now about Danny. ‘She’s trash. She’s from West Benton. Look at those shoes, that dress, and, uugghh, that hair,’ ” Caroline said in a mocking tone. “All those highfalutin people you think so much of were the very ones whose sons and daughters were making fun of me. Then Danny came over and talked to me. He was so sweet and helped me stop crying. Then he called Lois Sims—you know, the Mr. Sims, the mill owner’s daughter—over and told her if she didn’t start treating me like her best friend right then and there he was going to tell everybody what he saw her doing in the auditorium dressing room the week before.

  “I was in the third grade, Daddy. Can you remember how scared you can be when you’re all by yourself and everyone is making fun of you when you’re that age? I doubt you can. You probably fixed things so that you’re always the big man.

  “And for your information, his grandparents have money too. How do you think Danny went to Lee Grammar School when he lived in another district?”

  “Shut up,” Jessie thundered and raised his hand. “I don’t need no lecture from you. I know his grandparents have money, and I know they cut his mother off without a dime. That ought’a tell you something right there. They think the same way I do. His momma married trash, and they cut her ass off just like I’ll do you if don’t stay away from that boy.”

  Caroline’s demeanor became steely. “Take a look at me, Daddy. Forget you’re my father for a minute, and take a look at me.”

  Puzzled, Jessie looked at his 18-year-old daughter. She was pretty, but, being her father, he didn’t really see the alluringly beautiful young woman Caroline had become. Fairly tall at five foot nine; her honey-colored hair with natural blond highlights framed a full face with high, rounded cheeks and strong jaw line. Long hours swimming sculpted her firm athletic body.

  Eyes the color of fresh clover flashed. “Do you think I care whether you cut me off or not?”

  Jessie’s expression was singularly bewildered. “What the hell is all this supposed to mean?”

  Marie couldn’t contain herself. She snickered. “Jessie, you’re one stupid son of a bitch.”

  3

  Martin

  Martin Townsend III barely nodded at Reverend Holcomb’s receptionist as he strode past.

  Jeannette had watched Martin grow up, so she didn’t utter a word when he blew by and opened Holcomb’s door without knocking. She’d never seen an expression on Martin’s face quite like the one she saw now.

  Holcomb sat tapping a pen on a stack of papers. The look on his face didn’t change, and he didn’t say anything as Martin’s long legs strode across the carpet in a posture formed by four years at the US Air Force Academy and six years as a fighter pilot. He was president of the family bank, the largest in Georgia between Atlanta and Savannah.

  He leaned down, both hands on the desk, and his square jaw hovered over Holcomb. “Have you completely lost your mind?”

  Holcomb sat silent.

  “Well?” Martin asked, raising his voice. His blue eyes, bristling with anger, bore into the preacher’s. “You look like crap.”

  “Been up all night. Ashamed of myself for giving in to that bastard.”

  Martin was mildly surprised at the language. “Not half as ashamed as you’re going to be when Belinda’s mom and dad get to you. They might have cut her off for marrying Robert, but she’s still their daughter, and, besides that, they’ll take it the same as if you had done it to them. You’ll be damn lucky if you make it out of this one, Reverend. Fortunate for you they go to First Baptist. Won’t matter much though, not with their influence.”

  A light came into Holcomb’s eyes for the first time. “But I thought that’s why you were here. Didn’t they call—”

  “How long you been here now, ten years or so?”

  Holcomb nodded.

  “You don’t know about Belinda and I?” skepticism apparent in his tone.

  Holcomb looked truly dumbstruck.

  “We were going to marry. We were inseparable all our lives, all through high school. Until . . . until I went to the Air Force Academy.”

  Martin saw the fear creep into Holcomb’s eyes. “Uh huh, you’re doggone lucky I wasn’t at the service yesterday. You know how it is. It doesn’t matter what comes later; you don’t ever, ever get over your high school sweetheart. There’s more to it, but . . . well, we’ll just leave it at that.

  “I had a hundred voice mails when I arrived back in town late last night. All morning too. I didn’t know whether to go to Belinda’s or come here first. I’ve never been to Belinda’s, not since she and Robert married.”

  Holcomb sighed and spoke gravely, in a depressed tone. “I know your families are close—”

  Martin waved his hand dismissively. “You don’t know the half of it. Never will.

  “From what I’ve been told, this Jessie Whitaker was involved in all this. That right?”

  Holcomb gripped the arms of his chair and pushed himself up. He held his hands out plaintively. “He threatened me, Martin. Threatened me. I tell you I was in such a state of mind that I didn’t know what to do. There wasn’t time to think. He just kept yelling at me. Vulgar, very vulgar. Spit flying from his mouth. Eyes bulging. Shouting, ‘Get that boy outta here. Get him outta here. Over and over. Threatened to cut off his contributions. You know I have to be responsible for the church’s finances, and Jessie, well, really his wife makes him, gives a lot, and I mean a lot of money to our general fund and subsidizes many projects also. Well, you see it in the bulletin. With him yelling at me like he was . . . and . . . I mean I didn’t want to do it. I begged him not to insist, but he was in a rage, a rage, I’m telling you. I don’t know what the boy has done to him, but it must be something very serious.”

  “You’re not using that as an excuse, are you? And what
Jessie Whitaker gives to the church certainly doesn’t add up to what the families you’ve insulted give. Mine included. And, damn it, Holcomb, the Sunday school building is named the Hathaway Building; Belinda’s grandparents built it. How could you forget that? Just because Belinda’s parents don’t come here anymore, it’s not because of the church.”

  “Oh no, no, no, no, I’m not excusing it, absolutely not. Forgive me or excuse me if it sounded that way. I’m just reliving how it was and what was going through my mind. It was hard to think with Jessie right in my face and shouting like he was.”

  An expression of utter distaste came on Martin’s face. “I’m surprised that man has the audacity to step foot in a church, much less ask for someone else to be removed. From what I understand, he’s totally despicable.”

  Holcomb nodded. “Well, I do hear things, and yesterday, the stale whiskey on his breath . . . whew.”

  Martin stopped glaring for a moment, and his eyes turned pensive. “What did Belinda say when you told her Danny had to leave?”

  “I don’t . . . she couldn’t believe what was happening, I think. She just fainted. She was stunned, as I am now when I reflect on what I’ve done. How could I let that man bully me like that? I’m ashamed of myself beyond words,” he said, lowering his eyes.

  “Well, that’s a good thing, Reverend. You should be. How’d the boy take it?”

  “With remarkable restraint, I’d say. Especially when Jessie came out after Belinda fainted. He made some very unkind comments, and the boy reacted, but then held himself back. I remember him saying his mother wouldn’t want him fighting in church.”

  Holcomb remembered the scene and the expression on Danny’s face, the unusual shade of blue in his . . . The eyes. He looked quickly at Martin.

  4

  Reacquainted

  Martin paced the front porch after the customary three knocks. He hadn’t seen Belinda in over a year, much to his surprise when he tried to remember the last time, which to the best of his recollection had been at a fundraiser to keep the local playhouse open. He was stunned when the chairperson of the local arts committee broke down the cost of putting on a play.

  The door opened a crack and eyes peered out, then the door flew open and Belinda grabbed Martin’s arm, pulled him inside and hugged him tightly, all without saying a word.

  Martin wrapped his arms around her and squeezed Belinda to him. Their clenched bodies did the talking, and they held each other and swayed back and forth as if in a slow dance.

  “I hear you had a rough time, yesterday,” Martin whispered after a few moments.

  After a throaty chuckle, Belinda said, “Is there no end to people’s stupidity?”

  “Not as far as I can tell,” Martin replied. “I don’t mind it so much as long as it’s not harmful, but this fool preacher asking Danny to leave church might just be the icing on the cake.”

  Belinda turned her face to Martin, her cheek rested on his shoulder. “He called right before you knocked. I gather you weren’t very kind to him.”

  “He did? What did he say?”

  “Oh, he rambled on about how sorry he was and ashamed for being so weak. Then, well, frankly, he was rather odd. Asking about Danny and then going on to say that he didn’t realize or know that you and I—”

  “That was partially my doing. Without going into any details, I just told him you and I had a relationship that went way back and that—”

  Belinda put a finger to his lips. “Come sit down. It’s time I told you something.”

  The creases on Martin’s forehead couldn’t have been much deeper. “I hope it’s not another surprise like the one yesterday. Much more of that . . .”

  Belinda guided him to the sofa and sat down beside him, her mood changing perceptively, and Martin knew that what came next wouldn’t be about church.

  “How long has it been since you’ve seen Danny?” Belinda asked.

  “Hmm. I wouldn’t know. A while. You know I only see you on a regular basis at church, and I have to snatch a look as best I can without getting caught or making people talk.”

  Belinda fought to ignore the smile she’d always adored. It was hard enough to tell him what she had to next without having to do so with a melting heart.

  “Martin, he looks so much like you at that age it’s scary.” She squeezed his hand. “Danny’s your son. Yours and mine.”

  Belinda was surprised by the change of expression that grew slowly on Martin’s face. Still a smile but one that might appear on an indulgent father who is arguing with his son and the son in a flash of insight finally understands what the father is trying to tell him.

  “I was expecting you to be shocked. Mad. Betrayed. Anything but . . . but this. How long have you known and how did you find out?”

  Martin stroked Belinda’s hands. “It took me a long time, but I finally figured out why you married Robert so suddenly and without telling me. When I heard you’d had a son, it never occurred to me that he might be mine. Yours and mine, that is. Then, one day at the Academy, my mind wandered, just daydreaming about nothing in particular, and the whole thing made sense, or so it seemed. Professor Oglethorpe actually stopped class and asked if I were ill. Said he’d never seen anyone turn green. Anyway, my pride finally allowed me to understand you would never have done what you did without a very good reason. Why in the hell didn’t I see that to begin with? As well as we knew each other.”

  “Because you were hurt.”

  “Yes, but I should have known it would take a damn good reason for you to marry Robert so quickly, and what else could it have been? What an idiot I was.”

  “It would have destroyed you,” Belinda said softly.

  “So you let it destroy you instead. Was that right? I should have run home the minute I heard you got married.”

  “And done what? And it didn’t destroy me because I did have you.”

  Martin looked puzzled.

  “Danny.”

  Martin lowered his eyes and nodded. “Has it . . . has it taken anything away from you? I mean, You?”

  “I don’t know the answer to that, Martin, except I deeply regret losing a lifetime together. What would I be were I carefree, knowing you were coming through the door at any minute, every day, instead of daydreaming of our life together? I guess I would answer that I would be full of joy, complete. I wouldn’t need anything else. Danny has been my joy, but different. Not my friend, partner . . .” A tear slid down her cheek. . . . “Lover.”

  She looked up, and Martin saw in her eyes the face of a thousand thousand lost lonely days. Gone.

  “Have you ever felt, and I mean in a weird sort of way, that I was right here with you? Because I find myself carrying on conversations with you almost every day. You’ve never been out of my thoughts for very long. Never for more than an hour. Frankly, Belinda, I’ve never made love to Angela. It’s always you I see.”

  Belinda raised her face and kissed him softly on the corner of his lips. “I know. Same with me and Robert. And I must admit feeling guilty about it because he adored me so. I didn’t want a child with Robert, although I know that’s brutally selfish and unfair, and Robert seemed to be content. If he ever suspected Danny wasn’t his, he never let on. Or maybe he was just smart enough to not say.”

  Belinda suddenly chuckled then laughed and covered her face with her hands. “Robert must have thought I was the easiest girl in Benton when we started dating.”

  “I wondered how you pulled that off.”

  “Well, Robert had always flirted with me, and I did like him. He was a nice guy and devilishly handsome back then.”

  “Yeah, I remember him. I remember he never had any trouble getting a date but he didn’t stay with anyone very long,” Martin said.

  “He claimed he was waiting for me,” Belinda said and smiled.

  “So how long was I gone before he asked you out?”

  “Oh, he’d asked me out plenty of times before you left. Of course, he knew I’d never go out w
ith him, but he put it in a teasing way. Say something to make me laugh but let me know he was interested at the same time. He was quite a charmer.”

  “He asked you out before I left, while you and I were . . . were . . . whatever we were?”

  “ ‘Inseparable’ would be the word, I think,” Belinda said. “And don’t be so like a man and get your hackles raised. I’ve seen you flirt with plenty of girls, and Robert wasn’t disrespectful. Like I said, anyone could tell he didn’t seriously think I would ever date anybody but you. He was just being like the rest of you boys.” Belinda punched him in the ribs.

  “But to answer your question, I don’t recall exactly, but it wasn’t more than a few days after you left that he asked me to go to a dance with him, and, then when I missed my period and bought one of those pregnancy tests, I led him on pretty darn quick I’ll tell you, so nobody would be suspicious or at least couldn’t prove anything.”

  Martin raised one of Belinda’s hands and kissed it. “I’m guessing it was your mother who deserted you?”

  “Mother was behind it. Daddy went along. He knew he’d better or there’d never be any peace, although I can’t say he won my admiration. I can’t imagine abandoning your own child because they marry someone you don’t approve of.”

  “Was that all it was? Did they know you were pregnant?”

  “They didn’t bring it up during our battle . . . or war,” Belinda said with sad smile. “It was probably the most horrible day of my life. I couldn’t think of anything else to do but marry Robert. Stay here and be ostracized. Be talked about by everybody. You know what would have happened, and I wasn’t going to let it. I was not going to let them kill a child that was yours and mine. And you know that would have been their decree. Damn the baby. ‘We can’t have Martin and Belinda bringing shame on our families,’ ” Belinda said in a mocking tone. And, if I hadn’t married Robert, you know what Danny would have been called? I wasn’t going to let him bear the brunt of our mistake.”