Southern Discomfort

'Yeah, but does Cindy listen?'

She shrugged. 'The thing is, what if it's not that? What if they had a wreck or something?'

'Maybe she's called Paige by now,' I suggested. 'If you don't hear from her in the next couple of hours though, I think you're going to have to tell her mother.' *      *      *

Annie Sue'd had to put away her choir robe and I'd been stopped by a dozen people who had seen the story on the WomenAid house in the morning paper (I was in the foreground of the picture and, yes, they'd spelled my name right) and either wanted to know if I'd ever met Rosalynn Carter ('She and Jimmy are doing such fine work with Habitat') or wanted to know how I liked being a judge. As a result, we were a good fifteen minutes later than Nadine and Herman in getting away from church.

By the time we arrived, the kitchen smelled of biscuits in the oven and a fresh ham roast sat on a platter waiting to be carved. Nadine wore a butcher's apron over her Sunday dress and her plump face was flushed.

'Oh, good,' she said when we stepped through the back door. 'Annie Sue, Cindy's called twice since we got home. Would you please go call her and tell her not to call back till after dinner?'

'Yes, ma'am,' Annie Sue said and darted down the hall to her bedroom.

I took an apron from the pantry and moved to the sink to finish grating the carrots for Nadine's vegetable salad. 'Where's Herman?'

'In the den. He said to watch the news, but I think he just wanted to stretch out a minute.' She quit stirring the gravy and looked at me with anxious eyes. 'I'm starting to get real worried about him, Deb'rah. He's never been sick hardly a day in his life and he just won't admit he is now and I never could make him do something he didn't want to.'

So what else was new about most of these Knott men? Nadine could fuss and nag like the rest of my sisters- in-law, but so far as I know, Mother was the only female who could ever turn them all west when they had their minds set to head east.

Dinner was strained. Herman filled his plate with sliced meat and vegetables and pretended that his appetite was normal so Nadine wouldn't fuss, even though it was clear he was merely pushing the food around his plate. Nadine pretended she wasn't noticing, and she and Annie Sue both pretended they were interested in the conversation I was pretending—well, you get the idea.

As soon as I'd helped clear the table and the dishwasher was loaded, I pleaded things to do, told Annie Sue I'd give her a call after court the next day, and escaped.

It was just as well that I went home early. The phone in my sitting room is on a separate line from Aunt Zell and Uncle Ash's and there was a message on my machine from Ned O'Donnell.

'Had calls from Zack Young and Graham Ogburn yesterday,' he said when I returned his call.

'Oh?' Graham Ogburn was the influential owner of Tri-County Building Supply and father of Layton, Zack's young DWI to whom I'd given that ninety-day jail sentence.

'Zack's petitioned me for a writ of habeas corpus. You mind telling me how come you set such a high bail?'

As a superior court judge, O'Donnell had the power to overrule me and we both knew it. As objectively as possible, I detailed Layton Ogburn's DWI priors. 'I figured a half-million cash bond might keep him off the road a while.'

There was a long silence at the other end of the wire. Finally I heard O'Donnell sigh. 'Well, if that's what you're aiming for, I reckon it will.'

'Well, well, well!' said the pragmatist.

'See?' said the preacher. 'Not everybody goes by what's politically expedient. Go thou and do likewise.' *      *      *

Monday's court was last Tuesday all over again: same song, different singers. During one of the breaks, I collared Reid and cross-questioned him about Carver Bannerman.

'Bannerman? What about him?'

'For starters, how old is he? What's his background?'

My cousin wrinkled his handsome brow and tried to remember details. 'Twenty-five or -six. Comes from Goldsboro originally. Took civil engineering at State. I think he has a double-wide over in Magnolia Park off Seventy. That's where his wife lives, anyhow.'

'Wife?'

'Yeah. He's sort of married.'

'How can you be sort of married? As if I didn't know.'

'Well then, hell, Deborah. Why you asking me?'

'I just love listening to how you rationalize things like that.'

'Don't go laying Bannerman's morals on me,' Reid said righteously. 'Why do you want to know about him anyhow? From the way you came down on him about those traffic violations, I thought maybe he rubbed you the wrong way. What'd he do? Wait around to carry your briefcase after court?'

'If I came down on him, it was nothing more than he deserved,' I said. 'Flying through a residential zone where some child could have been playing? Failure to pull over for an ambulance? Shows a real selfish lack of concern for anybody besides himself, don't you think?'

Reid tapped his watch. 'Didn't you tell them you'd resume court at ten-thirty?'