Madewell Brown by Rick Collignon

Author:Rick Collignon [Collignon, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Published: 2009-08-27T04:00:00+00:00

The next morning before dawn, Rachael threw a blanket, a pillow and Obie’s old suitcase that she’d packed the night before into the trunk of her car. She wiped the dew off the windshield with her hand and then climbed into the front seat. It was damp and still out, the sky to the east was hazed and dark. The crickets had fallen quiet, and the only sounds were the dripping of water and the muffled wails of the infant next door. Rachael unfolded a tattered road map and laid it out on the passenger seat. She put Madewell Brown’s letter beside it. Then she folded her hands in her lap and looked at the darkness around her.

There’s nothing about this place I’ll miss, she thought. Next door, a light came on in the bathroom. Through the shade, she could see the shadow of the woman moving about. “I’m leaving,” Rachael whispered and took one last look at her house.

The porch lit up in a halo of yellow, and a second later, Sewell walked out the front door in baggy underwear that hung low on his waist, his skinny legs sticking out. He stopped at the edge of the steps and peered around in the darkness.

“Rachael,” he called out. “Rachael?” His voice was hoarse and sad, like he’d spent the whole night thinking something like this might happen. When his eyes finally settled on the windshield of the car, Rachael started the engine and backed the car around.

“What are you doing, Rachael?” Sewell said.

“I’m leaving, Sewell,” she said out the open window.

“Don’t do that, baby,” he said. “Come back in and we’ll talk.”

“I don’t want to talk,” she said, her voice calm. “I’ve got to go see for myself.”

Sewell’s shoulders slumped and he shook his head. “There ain’t nothing to see, Rachael,” he said coming down the porch steps. “There ain’t a damn thing out there.”

Rachael pushed the car into gear. “Good-bye, Sewell,” she said softly. As she pulled onto the road, she could see him in the rearview mirror standing at the edge of the porch light. A tall, thin man watching her drive away.

Right off, Rachael found that it wasn’t so hard to be gone. She took the bridge over the river and a few miles down the road crossed into Missouri, leaving South Cairo behind.

Other than a couple of stops for gas and roadside coffee, Rachael drove straight through the morning. Long before the sun had risen, she’d rolled down all the windows, letting the wind pull at her hair and run cool down the back of her shirt. And as she drove that highway, the day passed soft and easy and full of promise.

By noon, she was out of Missouri hill country and into Kansas. The land began to flatten out, and the air grew hot and dry. The highway stretched out for as far as the eye could see, and the sun glared off it in the distance like a shimmer of water. The towns she passed by were stark little places set among squat grain silos and railway track crossings.

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