How the Soul Sings

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

               Like Evee told them to, by the time the war was over, Caesar finally came back home with wife, child and all. A plump, sun kissed rambunctious little boy, Marcos. He was hearty and sturdy, built like his grandpa, Jesse Sr. and not so much like his father, who was barely five-five and hardly any meat on his bones. It's funny, when Caesar and my brother left, I was just some waif of girl and now, here I was, pretty much a full grown woman and taller than Caesar.

In the summer of '75, when Caesar came home, Daniel finished college out here in Oklahoma and accepted a scholarship to graduate school at Cal-tech. In the fall, I would be a senior in high school.

And Evee had already been gone a year.

Then of course, like in most stories, came a day where there was some sort of turn of events, almost always starting with a knock at the door. Even though Evee had left us, she wasn't gone from our lives; some part of it always managed to creep right on back in. I had the luck of being the one who answered that knock at the door and outside on our front porch was an old man, gaunt and hunched over a walker, with one of those trucker's style VFW ball caps on his head.

"Can I help you?"

The old man cleared his throat. "I'm hoping you can... I'm sorry to bother you, but I hope I have the right place, is this the old Doc Lawson farm?"

I smiled. "Yeah, he was my grandpa, but he's not alive anymore."

"No, no, I didn't think he would be. I was told that he knew somebody that I'm lookin' for and that I could still possibly find her here."

At first, I thought maybe he was looking for my mother, but then a cold current shot right through me and I got slightly dizzy when it hit me. I don't know how I knew, but I just did; he was here for Evee.

"Who's at the door, Charlotte?" I hear Willa Jane say, walking up behind me, rubbing her hands with a dishtowel. It was canning season again.

"Hello, ma'am." He says to Willa Jane, then this tall, thin lady gets out of this green, four door Chrysler that was parked behind him.

"Gran' daddy, you sure you got the right place?" She hollers.

"Just give me another minute." He says without looking back at her. "Excuse me, but would any one of you ladies know of a Evelyn Willard?"

"Why yes, yes we did; she was my husband's grandmother." Willa Jane smiled. Me? I damn near fainted. It was him, it was Evee's beloved Jacob.

"She's been waiting for you." Was barely a whisper past my lips that came from outta nowhere, all the breath that was within me had gone.

Willa Jane gave me this cockeyed look. "Girl, you know who this is?"

"I do. You're Jacob, Evee's first husband? He's Jesse Sr.'s maternal grandfather." I tell Willa Jane. "You wanna come in?" I say holding the screen door open.

"What's all the commotion?" My mother says.

"I have no idea, but apparently Miss Charlotte here knows this gentleman."

I carefully help lead Jacob, trembling over the threshold of our front door, into the front parlor and over to the first chair. His grand-daughter quickly followed inside, just as confused as everyone else.

"Pardon me," He starts out. "but did I hear one of you correctly, but you said was, as in I'm probably too late, then?"

"I'm afraid you are, mister." Willa Jane answers him. "She done passed away a little over a year ago."

Jacob takes off his cap and wipes his head with a handkerchief he pulled from his front shirt pocket. "I was afraid of that... You know no one lives forever and... and some things you just shouldn't put off."

"Well, I'm sorry that you missed her-" My mother says.

"We all miss her." I quickly throw in. I'm sitting on the arm of the couch closest to Evee's Jacob.

"Peacefully, I hope?" He says next.

"She died right over there at that kitchen table." Willa Jane points. "I'm sorry, but how just do you know my grand-mother-in-law? I know Charlotte here says that you were her first husband? 'Cause we only know of one."

"I'm sure you do." Jacob pauses for a moment, then goes on. "It was illegal back then, ya know. No white and no negro could be joined in holy matrimony just about anywhere."

"I better go get Jesse Sr." Willa Jane excuses herself.

"But you did, anyways," I add in. "because you were in love and so you kept looking until you found someone that would marry you, eloping after running away and had your own farm." I toss out there to the stunned room.

Jacob nods his head. "I see she's told you, but I perhaps not the rest of you." He said, gathering from the look on everyone's faces after looking around the room. And of course, all eyes were on him and me, especially heavy on me. "Do you know what became of the baby?" I knew that he was more or less asking me, than seeing if anyone else knew.

"She had a boy, gave birth to him in this house, right upstairs." I tell him with my eyes pointing upward. "He's Willa Jane's husband's dad, Marshall, but he's gone now, too. Evee's burred next to him out at the Everlasting Hope Cemetery, down the road from the First Baptist Church."

My mother hands Jacob an open photo album. "Here's a picture of her, it's from a couple of Easter's ago."

Jacob chuckled. "My God, she still had that same smile, you know, the one that can make everyone else smile, too and that sparkle in her eye."

About then, Willa Jane came back with an entourage of Jesse Sr., Jr., Caesar, wife and baby all in tow. My mother then catches them up and Jesse Sr. says he needs to sit down. The whole thing was dizzying.

"Can you take me to her?" Jacob asked, but it was more like a plea. "If it's not any trouble"

"I will." I immediately offered up.

Jacob and his grand-daughter followed behind us down the long stretch of road until it turned off to the next stretch past the church. Momma and Willa Jane rode with me, Jesse Jr. and Sr. went in Sr.'s truck. It was like a belated funeral procession going out to that cemetery, but I can't see no one other than the great Grandma Evee who was worthy of having not just one, but two services, of sorts.

I could feel my heart jumping in and out of my throat the entire way. I didn't know if I was going to cry or shout out for all the world to hear that Evee and Jacob would be together, again.

But as we got there, I felt the mania drain right out of me as the realization of what this all meant came rushing in. This sucked. They weren't going to be together again; it was too damn late. She's already gone and he's barely hanging on. He's been looking for her for all these years and just when he's found her, it's too goddamned late. We all park under a row of shade trees at the edge of the cemetery and I lean my head against the stirring wheel, crying hysterically. I feel Willa Jane's and my mother's hands touch my shoulder.

"You alright?" Willa Jane says to me.

"It's not fair." I say sucking in a mess of tears. "She really loved him and she waited for him and he looked and looked for her and all for NOTHING. She will never know that he finally came back for her and he will never know just how much she still loved him after all this time. No matter what anyone did to her... It's just NOT fair."

I watch Jacob slowly bend down, steadying himself with one hand on top of the marker and kiss Evee's headstone. We offered to have them stay for supper, but they declined. I watched them drive away, longing to know more, wishing that Evee were still here and hoping that they both got some closure.