I thought of Reese’s dogs and went cold somewhere; that one spot in my heart has never kindled again.
‘I believe that in his final moments Reese Corn opened his heart and he was saved.
‘You all knew Reese. Miss Alexander was his sister-in-law. Nine years ago we laid her loving sister to rest.’
Miss Alexander sat next to me. Her eyes were dry and there was a slight smile on her face.
‘You know when Reese’s wife died,...’ Reverend Peters leaned his elbows upon the podium. ‘He was broken. You could see that he lost faith because he let his house fall into disrepair. He didn’t have any kind words to say because he felt that the Lord had abandoned him. He stopped saying good morning and left the church. He lived a lonely mean life out there on his farm, and who knows? Maybe that loneliness called out to the poor boy who followed him there. Maybe it was the Lord in his infinite wisdom calling Reese Corn home.’
Ernestine started crying, and Jo folded the girl under her arm.
‘That boy was a messenger of the Lord, calling out. And once Reese came back to the Lord’s house that messenger was sent to Reese. Because everything we do is governed by God. If you wake up in the morning and hear the whippoorwill or if you meet a young girl and fall in love, that’s God workin’ on ya. If you find yourself full of strength choppin’ cotton on a beautiful Tuesday morning and you breathe in the sweet smell of earth, well you know the Lord is with you then.’ The minister held up his opened hands and stared into his palms, then he put them back down. ‘But when your babies get grippe and the life burns out of them before your eyes; when you tear at your clothes and beg God to take you instead; when you’re left in the room with a dead child innocent as can be — the Lord is with you then too.’
‘Yes Lord!’ the old woman, in the same raspberry dress, shouted.
‘Yes the Lord is a hard master! Because you know you cain’t raise a child right if you don’t raise your hand.’ He paused. ‘And we are the Lord’s chirrren. Reese and that boy Clifton were the Lord’s chirren. He’s called them home. And in callin’ them home he’s taught us a lesson; a hard lesson. In despair comes ruin, in despair comes ruin. Reese tore down his house. Yes he did. He knocked the what-do-you-call-em?’ He looked around as if there were someone there to answer. ‘Yeah, he knocked down the beams, the main beam of his house, and the walls fell in. The walls fell in on Reese and he turned his back on the Lord. There’s a lesson in that. I don’t know what happened to that boy Clifton. I hear that he was violent man, a man who lived by violence. It’s said, I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s said that he killed someone in Houston.’
The minister looked up at the ceiling and shook his head as if he were arguing with the next words the Lord was putting in his mouth. Finally he returned his gaze to earth. ‘What is our lesson? That’s what you wanna know. What is God trying to say to me here today? Well... no one can truly understand the mind of God because the mind of God is what we call infinite. That means he’s everywhere. As far as you can go God is there. He’s at the bottom of the ocean and he’s way out past the moon and stars. He’s in this room right now, sittin’ next to ya. Reese is with him now, and if Reese could pierce the veil I think he’d say the lesson is the infinite forgiveness of the Lord...’
The minister kept going in that vein but I was distracted by an amazing sight: There were tears streaming down Mouse’s face. He was crying outright. You’d think that real love was pouring out of his heart onto the floor at his dead stepfather’s feet. ‘What could it be?’ I thought, but no answer came.
Miss Alexander leaned to my ear and whispered, ‘I want you t’com’on wit’ me when it’s over, Easy. I wanna make sure that bastard who kilt my sister is dead.’
Those were the only words that crossed her lips about Reese. And it came to me that they were all happy to see him dead. The minister had remarked that it was ‘the Lord’s infinite mind that called his stepson back,’ to be there when Reese died.
Reese was a hard man and an angry man. He had turned the whole world against him and no one cared to look beyond what seemed to be the story.
It was told that Reese was out at his house when a fugitive from Houston came upon him to steal his money. The fugitive, Clifton, had heard that Reese was rich from Raymond Alexander who was coming to tell Reese about his coming marriage. Reese shot Clifton but Clifton managed to get his gun and shoot Reese before he died. Mouse came upon them when he’d come to tell Reese that he was returning to Houston.
There was no money found.
Big Jim, the colored deputy, was at the funeral, and I think he suspected that there was more to the story. But you don’t go doing police work for a colored killing when you got an answer lying cold at the back of the barber’s shop.
Jim warned Mouse that Navrochet wouldn’t take it so easy. He said that Mouse’s stepbrother would wonder at how Clifton got to Pariah. But Mouse just smiled and shook his head.
‘...The Lord is with you, brothers and sisters... keep him in your hearts. Because no matter how hard you hurt, he will comfort you as he did brother Reese in his last moments. Amen.’
‘Amen,’ we all said.
‘Time t’go, Ease,’ Mouse said. We were standing in Miss Alexander’s general store. Everyone was there. There was homemade wine and cornbread and people from all over the county. Theresa was standing next to Mouse; she and Ernestine were the only ones who truly looked sad; they both lost men that day.
‘Yeah, I’m ready,’ I said. I couldn’t even look him in the eye.
‘Easy.’ Her voice came from behind me.
‘Yeah, Jo.’
‘I guess you ain’t comin’ back out here soon.’
‘I don’t know, Jo. You never can tell what might happen.’
‘Well I think me an’ Dom an’ Ernestine might be comin’ to the weddin’.’
‘You know I’ll be there.’ I looked up into her flat, dark eyes. She put her hand to my throat again.
‘Bye, Easy!’ Domaque yelled. He and Ernestine were standing dose together behind Jo.
‘Bye, Dom. I’ma start my readin’ soon as I get home.’
