Free Final Justice by Patricia Hagan Page A

Patti Sue, isn't it? I remember your daddy telling me."
    "Yessir, it sho is, and I thank you, sir. Thank you so much." She hugged the doll tightly, glanced at the deputy fearfully, then turned and ran to disappear around the corner of the building.
    A small crowd had gathered, and Sara hurried on inside to buy the Bandaids. When she returned, Luke was back in the truck, and Howie was gone, but a few men stood just down the sidewalk, talking and looking in Luke's direction.
    "I wish you hadn't done that," she said nervously, turning the ignition key with a shaky hand.
    "You can't mean that. You actually wanted me to stand by and let that bully mistreat her? You heard her—she didn't steal anything."
    "You don't understand. Sheriff Grady isn't going to like your interfering, and he can be real mean, especially when it comes to coloreds."
    "Then he's got no business being sheriff."
    "I agree. He's up for reelection next year, but nobody wants to run against him because they're scared of him."
    "That's bullshit."
    "Easy for you to say. You don't live here."
    "I'd say it if I did."
    "But you don't," she repeated, then warned, "but your family does, so mind your own business, Luke, or Sheriff Grady could make it rough on them to get back at you."
    Taking a swallow of peanut-laced Coke, he said, "That would be his last mistake."
    * * *
    Ben Cotter, retired postmaster, Jubal Cochran, manager of the auto parts business next to Woolworth's, and Clyde Bush, owner of the Bulldog Cafe, stared after them as Sara drove away.
    "He sure as gun's iron stood up to Howie," Ben said.
    Clyde agreed. "Yep. And I always liked that boy. He was a good boy, too, which is surprising when you think of how some folks treated him because he's a bastard. I remember the time he broke the glass in the front door of the cafe when he got in a fight with that punk, Rudy Veazey. Whipped his butt, he did. And you know what else?"
    Ben and Jake shook their heads.
    "Gave me a dollar a week out of his salary at the A&P until he paid for fixing it."
    Jake mused aloud, "Well, it's a shame he don't live here. He'd be a good one to run for sheriff against Grady."
    "Maybe we can talk him into it," Ben suggested.
    Clyde snorted. "It'd take more'n talk, I'm afraid. Lot's more. 'Cause somethin' tells me unless something big happens to change his mind, when Orlena Ballard kicks the bucket, we've seen the last of Luke in this town."
    * * *
    Sara stopped at the front gate of the mill. Inside the fence, workers were sitting at picnic tables, taking their morning break for coffee and cigarettes. "I see Alma, and she isn't going to like your being with me, Luke. Hurry and get out and maybe she won't notice."
    He did not move as he looked at the woman who was his wife and wondered what it would be like to be married to someone he could look forward to coming home to... like Sara.
    Sara glanced at her watch. "I have to get back to the fields, anyway. Now you be sure and tell your momma I'm thinking about her, you hear?"
    "I will, and thanks for keeping in touch with her." He paused to gaze at her thoughtfully, then said, "She always hated that we didn't wind up together."
    "I know." Sara swallowed hard. "If not for Dewey, maybe we would've. But you're still my friend and always will be, Luke. I want you to know that."
    Suddenly he found himself asking the question that had burned in his gut ever since she first told him how it was with her and Dewey. "What makes him so special, Sara?"
    She stared through the window, beyond the mill and toward the Cheaha mountain range in the distance as she tried to frame her answer. "It's hard to explain if you've never been there, Luke... if you've never felt that way about anybody. It's a kind of warm, hand-holding kind of love that makes me feel like as long as I'm with him nothing or nobody can hurt me. And it doesn't matter if the sun is blazing down, or rain soaking me to the bone, or so cold my toe nails pop off.
    "He's in my heart, Luke,"