Alafair Tucker 01 - The Old Buzzard Had It Coming

heard in the last year or two about John Lee Day in conjunction with Phoebe. In fact, she had heard little enough about John Lee at all since his father had forced him to quit school and work the farm. She and Shaw and their friends and neighbors had all known of and deplored the situation at the Day place, but it was not unheard of for a man to drink to excess, or to determine that work was more important than education for his children, or to keep his wife at home. It was no one else’s business, and none of the neighbors would have interfered. They would have helped any member of the family who asked, but no one had asked.
    Shaw was playing his guitar now, and singing.
    “The old gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be,
    Got stung by a bumblebee,
    Climbed up the apple tree…”
    Little Sophronia, scandalized, cried, “Oh, Daddy!”
    Alafair got up and began collecting popcorn bowls to carry back into the kitchen. It seemed increasingly obvious, she thought, that Phoebe had not only kept in touch with John Lee, but had developed a relationship with him. She couldn’t quite figure out how Phoebe had gone about it so thoroughly in secret. She wasn’t surprised, though. If she had learned anything in all her years of motherhood, it was that children have lives, inward or outward, of which their parents know nothing.

Chapter Five
    Alafair ran the hat pin through her good black felt bonnet with the bunch of carved cherries on the band, anchoring it to the thick knot of dark hair at her crown. It was an ongoing battle of hers to keep her hair neatly pulled back out of the way, but it seemed to have a mind of its own, and exasperated tendrils were always escaping any coif she attempted. She spent a moment trying to force a few tresses back into place.
    As her mother arranged herself in the mirror by the door, Phoebe stood aside, clutching a covered dish before her in two hands. In the mirror, Phoebe could see the dart of Alafair’s sharp brown eyes as she sized up Phoebe’s reflection. Apparently, she passed muster, since her mother offered no criticism.
    ***
    The Day farm was a sad, sorry place. The frame house had been white once, but no more. The yard was scattered with trash and rusty farm implements, rangy chickens, a cat or two and a yellow dog. The thought of lockjaw immediately entered Alafair’s mind as they rode up the rutted drive. “Watch where you step, sugar,” she said offhandedly to Phoebe.
    A well-appointed buggy stood incongruously in front of the the house, the horse hitched to a porch railing. “Looks like Miz Day already has some visitors,” Phoebe observed.
    Several children stood on the porch and watched them as they halted the shay in front of the house and climbed out. The eldest child, an ephemeral brown girl, stepped toward them. “Good morning, Miz Tucker,” she greeted with an adult solemnity that startled Alafair enough to make her look at the girl more closely.
    She was a small girl for her age, which Alafair judged to be early teens. She looked stringy and malnourished, even wrapped in a coat two sizes too big for her. Her Chickasaw ancestry showed in her high cheekbones and broad forehead, and her dark coloring. She bore a striking resemblance to John Lee. She had the body and face of a young fairy maiden, but the black eyes that scrutinized Alafair were the eyes of a forty year old woman who had not led a particularly pleasant life.
    “You must be Naomi,” Alafair acknowledged. “Will you please tell your mama that she has some callers?”
    The girl smiled a weary smile. “Yes, ma’am. We’ve had a passel of callers today. Won’t you ladies please come on in?”
    “Why, thank you,” Alafair responded, careful to accord this girl the respect that any civilized woman would show to another.
    Naomi nodded, and her gaze shifted to Phoebe as they walked up the steps. “Hello, Phoebe,” she said. “I’m glad you come.”
    “I didn’t know you two were so well acquainted,” Alafair said.
    “We have spoke,” Naomi informed her, as she led them inside. The knot of urchins followed silently.
    Mrs. Day met them just inside the door, and Naomi took her place at her mother’s side. “Y’all come into the parlor and look at how Harley turned out,” Mrs. Day invited, “then have some tea with us in the kitchen. Naomi, take that there dish from Miss Phoebe and put it on the table with the others.”
    Alafair removed her coat and handed it to one of Mrs. Day’s