Tilly had given up looking for Capp on the grounds and decided to focus on the seats in front of her. And that was when she saw him. It was the movement of Capp and Mary changing seats that caught Tilly’s eye. She refocused her binoculars and aimed them directly at Capp. She had never seen him in a suit before, but his signature Stetson was there. She noticed that when Capp sat down, he leaned into a young woman and whispered in her ear. She felt a rush of jealousy followed by a tinge of anger. With the binoculars securely set on the scene she identified the people around Capp. Mr. and Mrs. Glidewell and that girl Maizie. She put the binoculars on her lap, gripping them tightly while her jealousy simmered.
Once again she raised the field glasses to her eyes. Her throat tightened as her fingers gripped the binoculars. What Tilly saw next she found maddening. Capp, in a gesture of sweetness, helped the young woman take off her coat and placed his hand on the small of her back, again leaning in, smiling and talking. Maizie moved slightly closer to Capp. He put his arm around her as well and pulled her toward him, and the two smiled. Capp seemed to be having a good time. Tilly’s feelings escalated into an angry boil.
Chapter 77
The Return
"Mon dieu, I don’t know what else we can do with Josie,” Leon said to Sugar.
“Doesn’t seem right that we aren’t askin’ the Glidewells first,” Sugar said.
“Well, they are not ’ere, so we cannot ask,” Leon reminded her. “It eez so sad, mon amie. She eez just une jeune femme and so sick.
“They will say no. Didn’t you say they fired her?”
“Oui, oui, and she was supposed to go to ’er papa, but ’e wouldn’t take ’er in. I found ’er lying on the road. Can’t we use one of the cabins? For a week or two. Until she’s better.”
“I sure don’t want to lose my job over this.”
“Please Sugar, come see ’er.”
Sugar put down her mop and followed Leon out to the Packard. He opened the back door of the touring car and there on the pristine leather upholstery lay a sick, filthy, and bald Josie. Flushed with fever, her hands on her abdomen and her legs pulled up into a fetal position, she moaned softly.
“Why is she bald? She looks like she’s been sheared like a lamb.”
“I took ’er to the doctor in Springfield. They wouldn’t treat her until ’er head was shaven. She had head lice. Her case was as bad as they’d ever seen. The nurse took ’er outside and shaved ’er. Threw ’er hair on a garbage heap.”
“Poor child. Where’d you find her?”
“I saw ’er walking down the road near the homeless camp. Corky asked me to take the left-over canned foods from the mess hall and give them to their soup kitchen. And then she collapsed, fainted right in front of my eyes.”
“You stopped for her?”
“Mais oui. She needed ’elp.”
Sugar put her hand on Josie’s forehead and could feel the intensity of her fever. “She’s a child of God. I know that. We got to take care of the less fortunate.”
“Yes, and she’s Josie, Sugar. Can we hide ’er ’ere and when she gets better, I’ll take ’er back to town? Maybe the shelter will take ’er in if she’s clean.”
“I sho’ don’t like not tellin’ the Glidewells.”
“I’ll tell them when they get home. I’ll tell them I forced you. That you said non.”
Sugar smiled at Leon and put her hand on his shoulder. “Now we’s in this together. You hear? I figured it out. We doin’ God’s work for him ’cause he ain’t got the time to worry about this poor girl.”
“Oh mon amie, merci, merci. I felt so bad when she was fired. She seemed so alone. I know she did wrong, but…”
“I say we put her in the small cabin farthest from the track. Don’t nobody go there. I’ll get my bleach and swab it down.”
“Merci.”
“What’s all wrong with her? She gonna give us all something. She don’t have the influenza, does she?”
“Doctor says she has the clap.”
“The clap. Well, that ain’t good. She got head lice and the clap. Now what we gonna do with her?”
“They cleaned ’er ’ead. The nits are all gone. She got pneumonia too. And she eez unclean in that other way. Doctor says ’e’ll come treat ’er for a few months, but the pneumonia eez bad.”
“Leon, we‘ll put ’er in the small cabin. I’ll find ’er some clothes. Burn the ones she’s got in the incinerator. But she can’t stay here for months. She’s so sick she gonna need several people to take care of ’er.”
Sugar looked at Josie and picked up her hand. Josie’s face was riddled with pain, her hand gripping tightly to Sugar’s dress. There was desperation in the young girl’s eyes. She tried to say something, but Sugar couldn’t hear her.
Leaning closer she heard, “Please. The pain. I’m so tired.”
“Doc give you any medicine, Leon?”
“Says to give ’er aspirin.”
Sugar looked into Josie’s eyes and said softly, “Now look here, child, you’ve had one hard time. Ain’t no one here gonna bother you. Sugar, she take care of you.” Sugar again felt her forehead. Josie reached weakly and put her hand on Sugar’s.
Leon felt a rush of relief. The world may be a hateful place, but Glidewell wasn’t. Within the Osage orange-tree fence, people walked safely, were fed, and had their needs met. That’s how he felt being here. A man who loved another man was only safe at Glidewell. And he sensed that, despite her history, Josie might be safer here too.
When the cabin was scrubbed and clean linens were on the bed, Leon and Sugar helped Josie up the cabin stairs and into a chair next to the bed. Josie was so weak she found it difficult to sit up. “Leon, help me
