“She’s gonna be a good’un,” Daddy said, pleased. He rubbed her ears and praised her some more before A.K. carried her back to her box in Daddy’s pickup.
The process was repeated with three more dogs, then Andrew decided one of his rabbit dogs needed reinforcement about ignoring deer scents.
“Where’s that piece of deerskin?” he called.
“You don’t need it, Uncle Andrew,” said Jessica. “Just turn Reese in and let him run around the pen.”
Reese rolled his eyes at me. “I’m gonna hear about that damn buck till the day I die, ain’t I?”
“Till the day I die, at least,” I promised, squeezing his shoulder.
Eventually, four or five young littermates were put in the pen to get used to the smell of rabbits. Supervision of the little kids was turned over to some of the nieces and nephews as we joined Daddy inside the shack.
It was a bit crowded: Robert, Andrew, Haywood, Seth, Will, Adam, Zach and me. Young Bert was perched sleepily on Daddy’s lap.
“You want me to take him out?” asked Jessica.
“No, let him stay. You can stay, too, if you keep what’s said here in the family.”
Jess nodded solemnly and sat down on the arm of Seth’s chair.
Daddy looked around the small room. “Who’s missing?”
“Herman,” said Haywood, “and I reckon I can tell him what happens.”
“I wish Frank and Benjamin and Jack was here, too,” said Daddy, “but they ain’t.”
His eyes traveled around and met each of ours in turn. “Now, y’all know how things been changing around here. What some of y’all
There was some surprised and resentful muttering at that bit of news, but Daddy sailed on.
“—and he’ll probably buy Jap Stancil’s land once the title’s clear on who owns it. Best we can find out, he wants to dredge out the creek, build a lake and put up lots of big fancy houses for rich people.”
I was not the only one who sighed.
“I know, I know,” he said. “I don’t like it neither. But Talbert’s set on doing this. Best we can hope for is a chance to help make it into something we can live with.”
Lulled by the rumble of his great-grandfather’s voice, little Bert lay back against Daddy’s chest and fell asleep.
“Now, nothing’s gonna happen till after Cherry Lou’s trial, so we got us a little time to talk about what we want to let’s do.”
“Seems to me like Adam went ahead and decided all by hisself,” said Robert. “He ain’t got nothing more to sell, have you, Adam?”
Before Adam could answer, Daddy said, “No, not right now, he ain’t, but he will when I’m gone, when what’s mine gets split up equal between all of y’all.”
There was an uncomfortable stirring. The boys don’t like to think of that day any more than I do.
“Besides,” said Daddy, looking at Robert, “he didn’t decide all by hisself. He asked my advice and his need was great and I didn’t see as it’d make any difference in the long run.”
Andrew and Haywood snorted at the idea of Adam being in need. I knew what was running through their heads—a million-dollar house in California, swimming pool, kids in private schools?
Adam took a deep breath and finally swallowed his pride. “You guys think I’m loaded, right? Sorry. I got downsized in February,” he said in a tone that dared them to offer sympathy. “No golden parachute, no job, no income. Dick Sutterly was fronting for G. Hooks Talbert and they wanted my three acres so badly that they gave me sixty thousand for it.”
“Sixty thousand!” Will was incredulous.
Each of us owns outright between a hundred and two hundred acres and I could almost hear my brothers mentally multiplying their own land by twenty thousand an acre even though it was unlikely Talbert would be offering that much on land that was less strategic.
Adam’s chin came up defiantly. “I needed the money and I took it.”
“That’s how we know for sure that Talbert’s serious about developing that whole section,” said Seth.
“Maybe we ought to’ve talked it over with all of y’all first,” said Daddy, “but it won’t gonna change Adam’s need.”
Haywood was distressed. “How come you didn’t say nothing, son? We’d’ve helped your ox out of any hole you was in. Right, boys?”
“That’s what family’s for,” Robert said gruffly.
Before everybody got so uncomfortable that we all wound up in one of those sloppy group hugs, I said, “You talk like we have options, Daddy. G. Hooks doesn’t give a d—”
Daddy cut his eyes at me. He does not like to hear a lady use strong language and he particularly doesn’t like it used around small children, even if the small child in question is sound asleep.
“—doesn’t give a darn whether we can live with his plans or not. In fact, he probably hopes we’ll hate it enough to sell out.”
