Chapter 20
Shifting her bag, Lauren moved toward the back of the car but was stopped as she reached for the door handle.
“You may have the sheriff wrapped around your little black talon, but you haven’t won, you bitch.”
Lauren sighed, she should’ve known she wasn’t going to be able to get away from court without some kind of confrontation with the Archers.
Ma Mable flung the passenger door of Lina’s car open and looked at Veronica Archer as if she’d just shit on her new dress.
Lauren froze, eyes wide.
It was a childhood response. It signaled that her mother’s veil of respectability was about to be ripped off, and somebody was going to get their ass beat.
“I don’t know how they do things up here in the Ozarks—”
Ma Mable knew exactly what part of the country they were in.
She taught history and sociology, plus a number of other classes over her teaching career.
The Appalachians, the Melungeon culture, Ma Mable’s pro blackness always had her exploring places black folks settled and thrived well before the end of slavery.
“But where I’m from, not even a dementia-rotted brain will save you from getting your ass whooped when you spout out racist shit.”
“The alcohol abuse probably makes the condition worse,” Lauren said. “Mrs. Archer has a reputation for taking a nip or five. She was just convicted for drunk driving and a host of other crimes.”
Lina rounded the hood of the car, standing at Ma Mable’s side.
“She’s the one I was telling you about,” Lina said to Ma Mable.
“Her husband was the old mayor? Her son is the new mayor?”
Lina nodded and pointed. “That’s Anderson Archer right there, the two of them pretending like everybody don’t recognize her for what she is just because she drinks from a beveled crystal tumbler.
My Santi wasn’t going to let the law ignore your family’s deceit and abuses of privilege forever, Veronica Archer. ”
Older women are scary, Lauren thought, not for the first time.
One minute they could be the most nurturing beings, then the next they turned their lifetime of wisdom and experience against you, and you woke up disoriented, afraid, or destroyed.
And they obviously didn’t prescribe to the adage about not hitting a person when they were down.
“This is my child,” Ma Mable informed the mayor and his mother. Then she looked at Lauren. “And I will fight a mayor and his convict of a mother to protect her from you if necessary.”
Tears welled in Lauren’s eyes.
Ma Mable’s words stretched the scars on Lauren’s heart and soul that began healing in Shrouded Lake, only to provide a salve that helped them continue on that journey.
Why hadn’t she had this same energy; expressed the same sentiment, when it came to Lahn and Derrick?
But that was Ma Mable, Lauren’s biggest critic had been her staunchest supporter.
Until it came time for Ma Mable to support Lauren over Lahn. Lahn was always the one person Ma Mable never had too much heat for, that she always held softness with.
“I clearly see where Ms. Green gets her charm. Bad genetics will always show through,” Veronica smiled.
“And who were the alcoholics genetically poisoning your family tree?” Ma Mable asked.
“Please everyone, lets maintain a modicum of decorum,” Anderson Archer said, sanctimoniously. Like he wasn’t a whole thief and liar…and maybe worse.
A cop cruiser pulled to a stop in front of Lina’s car and Sonny stepped out, frowning curiously at them all before walking over.
“Good afternoon everyone,” he greeted, his tone neutral, professional. Very different from the man who broke into Santiago’s house. Actually, he seemed to be embodying Santiago right now, observing each of them. “Everything alright?”
His gaze stopped on Lauren, and he cocked his brow.
She squinted at him, trying to read what he was about. His gaze turned to Anderson Archer.
“Mayor Archer, League...I mean Sheriff Stillwater is investigating a crash not far from here and wanted me to find you and see if you’ve heard from your son, Andy?”
“Was he in the accident?” Veronica Archer asked, wrapping her arms around her narrow chest, trembling slightly.
Lauren wondered if the woman was having DTS.
But it was the first time since coming to Shrouded Lake that Lauren witnessed genuine fear and concern from the other woman.
The fact that she could’ve lost her own life and was now experiencing real consequences for her reckless choices didn’t seem to affect her nearly as much.
“We’re trying to determine that ma’am.”
“He left the family home last night and we haven’t seen Andy since.”
“How was he before he left? Did he say where he was going?”
“He was being a pain in the ass, which isn’t anything—”
“He was upset, Anderson! If you would go easier on him, he wouldn’t fight you so much.”
“Easier? He has the easiest life a person could have. I’ve given him that and what has he done with it?” He stood straighter and adjusted his tie. “What does the sheriff want with my son, Deputy?”
“Just to ask a few questions. The transport bus crashed on the way here and your son’s friend Tommy Lewellen seems to have fled the scene. Sheriff just wants us to check in with family, friends, and known associates.”
“Well, you’ve got your job cut out for you. The Lewellen family has lived in this town for generations. Come, Mother, we have other engagements. Ladies.”
He said the last word as if he didn’t believe that any of them actually were.
Lauren, her mother, and Lina watched the pair walk away, looked at each other, and burst out laughing.
“What’d I miss?” Sonny smiled confused.
“Nothing,” they said in unison and moved toward Lina’s car.
“Hey Lauren,” Sonny called out. She paused before getting in the back seat. “I did good just now right? Was professional and shit?”
She smiled. “You did so good I thought Santiago would leap out of your body at any minute.”
“Tell him that when you see him. Tell him how...comported I was.”
He thumped his fist against his chest twice and threw her a deuces sign before walking back to his cruiser and speeding off.
Twenty minutes later Lina dropped Lauren and Ma Mable at Lauren’s house and headed back to town without coming in.
Ma Mable frowned at Lina’s hazard lights as she sped off.
At the front door Lauren searched through her bag for her keys. Her heart was racing. Why was she agitated?
“It’s because the house and the lake are haunted,” she told her mother as she unlocked the door and walked in, disarming the alarm. “Lina sped off because she didn’t want to be invited in.”
But Lauren’s body wasn’t going haywire because of the ghosts; she was afraid of finding more animal parts inside her home.
“I’ve heard all about you buying a house of spirits,” Ma Mable said as she looked around. “This looks like you…but it doesn’t feel like you.”
“I’m not going to be here forever. I’ll probably rent it or sell it if I can find the right person. But baby girl has to give her stamp of approval. We can’t just have anybody living here. Not anymore.”
“So, you’re coming back home?”
Lauren frowned. “What do I have to come back to?” Lauren asked.
“I’m truly curious, Ma. Because if I remember correctly, my condo has new owners.
Am I supposed to…what, make up with Derrick and get back on the wedding train, or go down to Monterey to be an aunt-nannie for Lahn and Derrick’s child?
No? Okay, maybe I’m expected to move back in with you and Daddy and act like—”
“No, no more acting,” Ma Mable said, briskly. “No more acting for you, and no more pretending and accepting for me. I left your Daddy, and I left Lahn. I know it didn’t feel like it, but I always chose you.”
“No Ma! It very much didn’t feel like you were choosing me.” She felt a gentle pressure on her thigh and tried to reel her emotions in. Was she upsetting Deborah? She didn’t want to upset the young spirit, but she couldn’t step back from the precipice.
“Why are you always upending my life?” she shouted, shaking.
“You track me across the country and tell me this, expecting me to feel supportive so you can run from your guilt, leaving Daddy there to pick up all the pieces? Because really, who do you ever care about besides yourself and your precious Lahn? What the hell did I do, tell me, since we’re no longer pretending and all.
What did I do to make you hate me so much? ”
Ma Mable didn’t shout, didn’t get in her face, didn’t smack her. All those things Lauren would’ve expected. No, her mother looked hurt and stunned, two emotions Lauren didn’t recall ever seeing.
Like an automaton, Ma Mable walked to the back of the house, opened the door and stepped out on the back porch, where she sat heavily on the bench swing and looked at the lake.
Lauren felt visceral fear, panic even. Had she gone too far, broken a woman she always believed was unbreakable.
She didn’t know what to do. Go back in the house, ignore her mother, apologize, even though her anger was justified.
She took a deep breath and went to sit next to her mother who folded over, covering her face with her hands, crying.
Lauren’s heart arrested.
She felt like what little safe harbor she had was disintegrating around her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. Her voice sounded small, like she was the apparition trying to be heard and seen. She reached her arm around her mother’s back, resting her head against her shoulder and crying with her.
When Ma Mable seemed to be all cried out, she sat up and wiped away Lauren’s tears in much the same way she had all Lauren’s life.
“You’re my world. Always first in how I’ve made the choices I made. Hate you? Baby, my love was the reason you were raised with two parents in one home.”
Her mother sat back and seemed to meditate on the lake, setting the swing into its back-and-forth motion.
“It really is peaceful here,” Ma Mable said.
Lauren took in the lake, the trees, the mountain, Julian’s and Santi’s houses arcing around the shore.