We went inside the coffee shop and ordered pie and coffee. I wished we hadn’t seen the film.
“Is something wrong, Jo Anne?”
“Somebody broke out the back windows of my house. I also lost my scholarship at the juco.”
“When were your windows broken?”
“Two nights ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to go after Darrel Vickers.”
“Are you sure he did it?”
“Take it to the bank,” she said.
“What happened with the scholarship?”
“Henri is my academic adviser. He told the dean my commitment and my attendance had become erratic and he couldn’t recommend me any longer.”
&
nbsp; “I wish I had known.”
“What would you have done? Beat him up again in his office?”
I remained silent while the waitress put down our coffee and pie. Outside, a woman was chasing her hat in the wind. On it was a long feather like a thin black quill. The feather went one way and the hat another. “I’m sorry, Jo Anne.”
“Stop it. It’s just the way things are.” She gazed at the woman outside. “That poor lady. Somehow she makes me think of my father.”
I really didn’t want to hear it, but I said, “How so?”
“He believed nature was his friend,” she said. “Then a cyclone pulled him into the sky. Sometimes I think he’s still out there, wandering in his blindness.”
Chapter Sixteen
AT NOON MONDAY Mr. Lowry came to the dining hall door and signaled to me at the table where Spud, Cotton, and Maisie were eating. I took my coffee with me. “Yes, sir?” I said.
“Wade Benbow wants you to call him,” he said. He handed me a slip of paper with a telephone number on it. “He doesn’t want it known he’s contacting you.”
“Has something happened to Jo Anne?”
“He just said he wanted to have a private talk with you.”
“I’m sorry all this trouble keeps overflowing on your farm, Mr. Lowry.”
“Maybe it’s time to stay away from the wrong people, Aaron.”
“Sir?”
“Trinidad is a small town. I heard about you knocking around that art professor. You think that achieved something?”
“He did serious injury to Jo Anne, Mr. Lowry.”
“You made him the victim and yourself the villain. I’d call that a bad trade.”
He walked away without saying goodbye. He had never corrected me before. My coffee cup felt like lead in my hand.