“If you think you’re upset, you should have heard the Jeffries when she showed up,” Joe informed him. “Her being black and all shore didn’t help. They’d been helpin’ themselves to the water right up to the day she showed up on the creek banks with the shotgun. She stared them down and told them to get. I guess she wouldn’t have done that, but
I told her about the Jeffries and what they tried to pull on you and Dil. She didn’t waste any time getting down there either. She run them off and then went to the judge and got some sort of writ statin’ that anyone wanting water rights would have to talk to her.”
Lee tried to understand it all, but nothing made much sense. And the way Joe defended the woman had him reeling in disbelief. “What didn’t the Jeffries believe?”
“That you’d ever agree to a Negro ownin’ this land.”
“She has every legal right to be here, Joe.” Lee frowned at Ole Joe.
“Lord have mercy, what now?”
“It’s okay, Joe. You did alright.”
“I didn’t aim to bring this on you, Mr. Lee.”
“I know, it wasn’t your fault. I figured on maybe Gloria and them bein’ here. I had plans to work it all out with her and Dil.”
“Yes sir, I reckon so. It don’t upset you that she’s a Negro?”
“You know me better than that. I’ve always thought Negro women were beautiful, and said so.”
“That’s a fact. I remember that. I remember how Mr. Dil used to give you fits about that too. But you never took it back. Well…this one is for shore. And it sorta looks as though you noticed.”
“I noticed Joe. In fact, it will be hard not to claim her as my own.” Lee’s brow furrowed.
“You sayin’ you care about her?” Joe cried, his face screwing up into a frown. “But–how could you? She was just a kid when you met her.”
“I’m no idiot Joe. I know what it would mean to take a black woman as my wife. But if I could…if there was a way…yes…to answer your question…I care about her. I’ve cared about her for a long time.”
Joe looked at Lee. “She don’t know you care about her?”
“No, besides, she thinks I’m dead.”
“Maybe it’s best she don’t know you’re alive then…at least it would be safer.”
“I agree Joe.”
“I wish I could have told you about Dil a little easier, but I didn’t know how but just to say it,” Joe defended again, his eyes still filled with tears. “Ain’t no fittin’ homecomin’, sure ain’t.”
“Where did you get the idea I was dead? That’s what I want to know.” Lee shook his head, trying to fit all the pieces of this puzzle together.
“It were in the papers. The newspapers. Your name on one of them roll calls.”
“The papers, huh? But I’m not dead, so now what?”
“It’s good that you ain’t dead, Mr. Lee, ‘cause the whole town’s been trying fer a while now to get her out of the place. And things are getting a mighty scary too. Even though she legally has a right to half the house. I mean I think she has a right. Lord, I don’t know now.”
Joe shrugged, a frown lining his brow. “I reckon it’s all up to you, Mr. Lee.”
Lee felt suddenly like some caged animal. He hadn’t expected to come home to this. But what was he going to do about it?
“Mr. Lee…” Joe studied Lee’s face for a long time. “That woman, she talks about you like you was some saint or something. I’d say she cares a lot about you, too.”
Lee hung his head. “I’m glad, but it’s kind of a dangerous situation…it’s too soon, folks hadn’t got over the war yet. I don’t think anyone told them the war is over. And just because it is, doesn’t mean their minds are going to be changed overnight. She’s black, I’m white, it won’t work here, not yet. So maybe it’s best she don’t know who I am…”
“She even buried you, Mr. Lee. Well not you, sir, but she made a grave and put a headstone up for you. Right along with Dil. They shipped his body here, and she took care of everything, just like it was her duty or something. And you never seen the tears like she made. She cried for three days after she got them headstones up. Why, I think she loves you.”
Lee tried to smile. “I want to protect her, Joe. She’s makin’ a good life. Just because I’m home that shouldn’t change. But between you and me…she’s all I thought about during the war.”