Alafair Tucker 01 - The Old Buzzard Had It Coming

was halfway into the yard when he realized that John Lee had followed him outside. He turned around to face the boy, but neither said anything for a minute.
    “I expect you think this family is cursed,” John Lee opened.
    “I think your curse has been removed,” Shaw told him.
    “Sir, I imagine you’ve heard that Mama intends to sell the farm and move back to Idabel with the kids.”
    Shaw nodded.
    “I can’t get her to change her mind, and I can’t say as I blame her. She wants to get out of here, and she needs the money.”
    “Can’t say as I do, either,” Shaw agreed.
    “But I ain’t going, sir,” John Lee informed him.
    Shaw raised his eyebrows, but he didn’t seem surprised. “You ain’t?”
    “No, sir, I am not. I’ve already talked to Mr. Francis at the brick works about a job. Mr. Turner at the livery, too. He’s going to let me sleep up in the loft for part time work when I’m not at the brick plant. I’m saving every penny I make for as long as it takes, until I have enough to set myself up. Then I’m going to ask for Phoebe’s hand in marriage.”
    Shaw nodded. “That may take several years,” he warned.
    “I don’t care, Mr. Tucker. Phoebe said she’d wait for me. I’ll do whatever I have to in order to be deserving of her.”
    Shaw’s mustache twitched. “We’ll see how determined you are after you’ve worked yourself to a frazzle for a couple of years.”
    John Lee drew himself up tall. “Yes, sir, you will see,” he assured Shaw.
    Shaw turned and took a few steps toward his horse, then turned back to John Lee, as though something had just struck him. “By the way,” he said, “it seems you haven’t heard that I’m buying the farm from your mother.”
    John Lee blinked, not sure he had heard correctly. “Sir?”
    “I’m buying the farm from your mother,” Shaw repeated. “It’s good farm land with a creek and buildings, and adjoins my farm as neat as you please. It’s a good deal for me.”
    “You’re buying this farm?” John Lee managed stupidly.
    “I am,” Shaw confirmed. He placed one hand on his hip and waved the other hand expansively over his new domain. “I’m planning on tearing down this poor house, if it don’t fall down before I can get to it. I think I’ll put in a few acres of beans the first year. Good for the soil. Might use some of that back acreage for horses.”
    John Lee stood gazing mutely, his eyes wide and his bottom lip caught between his teeth, wondering why on earth Mr. Tucker was going on so gleefully about his purchase.
    “Yes, indeed,” Shaw was saying. “I believe I’ll build a little house over there in that pretty copse of oak behind the barn.”
    John Lee straightened. “Another house,” he said. “Why? You planning to lease it out?”
    “Best way to go about it,” Shaw affirmed. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “A sharecropper, I think. I’m going to need a tenant…” he began.
    Before he could finish, Phoebe burst out the front door and flew across the yard into her father’s arms. “Oh, Daddy,” she cried, “thank you, thank you!”
    Shaw laughed as Phoebe squeezed the breath out of him and John Lee pumped his right hand maniacally. “Where’d you come from, you little busybody?” he asked his daughter wryly.
    Alafair and Alice stood behind the screen at the Days’ front door, watching the action in the front yard, arm in arm.
    “When did Daddy offer to buy the farm?” Alice asked her mother, surprised.
    “After it looked like she was going to be released, Daddy rode in to Muskogee and talked to Miz Day about it.”
    “That was a mighty big thing to do.”
    “Oh, I don’t know,” Alafair said. “It’s really a good deal for us. It’s just lucky that it kills a couple of birds with one stone.”
    “This is a real good thing for us, too, Miz Tucker,” Mrs. Day interjected, and Alafair turned to face the woman, who was still wiping tears, but bearing up better now. “And I think a good thing for John Lee, too. He’s a hard worker, you’ll see. I think he’ll make something of this farm. He’d take real good care of Phoebe. I’d be proud to see one of my kids happy.”
    “Miz Day,” Alafair asked, out of the blue, “what is your Christian name?”
    Mrs. Day paused, and her forehead wrinkled, as though she couldn’t quite remember what her name was herself. “Why, it’s Nona,” she said finally.
    Alafair nodded. “My name is Alafair,” she informed the woman.