No One Believes Me

The sun was going down by the time I pulled the skiff up onto the bank and wrapped the anchor rope around the mimosa tree. I hadn’t caught any fish. I hadn’t really tried. I’d just wanted some time alone to try to figure things out. I was positive that Jess had been the one that killed Kate. What I couldn’t figure out was why Pye had run away. While I was out on the creek, I’d had an idea. I would write a letter to Aunt Pearl and beg her to come and get me.

I scrambled up the bank and sat under the mimosa tree. Tears rolled down my cheeks. My eyes remained fixed on the creek.

I planned the letter I would write to Aunt Pearl. I would put everything in the letter. I wouldn’t hold anything back. I would tell her how Mama had chopped off my hair. I would tell her how she punished me all the time with switches she made me cut myself from the sycamore. I would even tell her about Jess – what he did to me and to Kate. If she loved me, she would believe me, and she would come down to Pungo Creek and rescue me. I went inside and spent the rest of the evening writing my letter. Before I sealed the envelope I put in a picture that Uncle Benjamin had taken of me sitting in the back of my skiff. The picture was taken just before Mama cut my hair. I hated to part with the picture, but I wanted Aunt Pearl to see it.

The wind came up during the night. A storm was running up the coast. It would rain tomorrow. I had to pee real bad but I didn’t want to get out of the warm bed. Across the room Ivy was sleeping soundly. In the dim light of the moon I could see her curled up under a rosebud print spread that matched the one I had kicked to the floor as I wiggled around trying to get comfortable. My bed was pushed up against the windows. The wind caused the forsythia branches to scrape against the glass.

It was that scraping that woke me from a disturbing dream in which Kate was floating over her bed. In the dream Kate had been floating over my bed and calling to me.

“Come with me, Clara. I don’t want to be alone.” It was the same dream I’d every night since Kate was buried in the little cemetery beside Sidney Freewill Baptist Church.

That had been an awful day. Kate was wearing her favorite dress. It was lavender with a lace bib collar. Her hair was combed so you could hardly see where the oarlock had hit her on the forehead. Everybody said how pretty she looked.

“Lucky you found her before the foxes got to her.” I turned around to see Rupert Norfleet grinning at me foolishly.

“Rupert, that was a stupid thing to say – even for you.” His expression didn’t change. He just gawked at me with his usual gaped toothed grin.

Ivy edged cautiously up to Kate’s coffin. She grasped Mama’s hand tightly. “How will she breathe when they close up her coffin?”

“That’s the same thing that your big sister asked me once. She doesn’t need to breathe anymore, Ivy.” She lowered the lid of the coffin. That’s when I fainted and that’s the first time I had the dream.

In the dream Kate and Pye are sitting side by side in the back of her skiff. I can’t hear what they’re saying to each other but they’re heads are close together and they’re laughing like they are sharing a joke. I edge closer, careful not to make any noise.

“We have everybody fooled, don’t we sugar?”

“They’re fooled okay. But you went overboard with that oarlock, Pye. You almost knocked my head off.”

Kate reaches up and cups Pye’s chin with her hands and kisses him.

I am astonished by what I am seeing. A flood of emotion washes over me – betrayal, envy, confusion – but I don’t have time to process my feelings because at that moment I see Jess approaching. I try to call out to warn Pye and Kate but my words are stuck in my throat. I watch in horror as Jess leaps onto the skiff.

“You little whore. I might have known. You’re just like your mama. Just white trash.” He picks up an oarlock from the bottom of the boat and throws it at his sister. The oarlock misses Kate and hits Pye in the head. He falls backwards into the shallow water. Blood is streaming from the wound on his head. He lies very still. Kate tries to get up, but Jess pushes her back down. He doesn’t say a word but there is a terrible sneer on his face. He unfastens his pants and lowers himself down. I can only watch helplessly as Jess viciously rapes his sister. She cries out and he covers her mouth with his hand. She fights hard. Scratching his face. When he’s finished he picks up the oarlock, bends over Kate and slams it against her head. She immediately crumples up. Jess drops the oarlock next to her head, zips up his pants and strolls casually away. I try to get to Kate but I can’t move. I know she is badly hurt. I try to scream. “Wake up, Pye! Wake up!”

* * *

“Clara! Clara! Wake up.” I awoke on the floor next to Kate’s casket and everyone was staring at me. Mama was kneeling next to me with a worried look on her face and Ivy was crying.

“Did I have a shaking spell, Mama?”

She shook her head. “No, Clara. But you were having one hell of a dream.”

I opened my mouth to tell her what I had seen in my dream but stopped. It was more than a dream. Somehow Kate was communicating with me, letting me know what had really happened. I had to figure out a way to prove that Pye was innocent, but I knew no one would believe me.