Moonshine Hollow

Chapter Ten

The next afternoon after lunch Rose and Miss Lilly sat out on the porch together. The sun was shining and Rose had something on her mind. She waited until the boys loaded up in the truck and drove off before she turned to Miss Lilly.

"Miss Lilly may I ask you something?"

Miss Lilly looked up from the bowl she was shucking peas into and nodded. "What can I do for you Miss Rose?"

"Miss Lilly, do you think I'm making a mistake?"

"Why on earth would you think you that?" she asked in genuine shock.

"Well," Rose said sitting down and taking a handful of peas. "Preacher Franklin said-"

Miss Lilly snorted in disgust. "And what does the good Preacher have to say?"

Rose looked up surprised by Miss Lilly's hostility. "He told me that being around the boys was dangerous, that they were violent...and that if I wasn't careful I would get hurt, like their sister..." Miss Rose dragged off looking down uncertainly at her hands. She picked at her thumb nail but couldn't bring herself to continue. She looked up and met Miss Lilly's gaze. Miss Lilly's eyes were burning with an anger Rose couldn't understand.

"He mentioned their sister?" Miss Lilly asked, her hands gripping the peas in her grasp much too tightly.

Rose looked down and away, suddenly not wanting to continue this conversation. "Yes," she said meekly. "And their father...the preacher said Forrest-"

Miss Lilly shot to her feet in outrage, knocking the bowl of unshucked peas all over the porch. "The Preacher said Forrest what?!"

"He said that Forrest-" Rose started to explain but Miss Lilly cut her off.

"-that old self righteous bastard wouldn't know the truth if it bit him on the nose. He is more than happy to hang those and many other sins on Forrest's head. Insinuat'in that Forrest had something to do with the little girl's death is as ridiculous as it is heartless." Miss Lilly stooped down and started shoving the peas back in the bowl with such vehemence that Rose was almost afraid to help. "There weren't nobody loved that little girl more than Forrest."

Miss Lilly climbed back into her chair arranging the bowl on her lap. "The Garret's was a happy family. Mrs. Garret is the one who brung me here, down from Chicago. She was a society lady. She met Mr. Garret and runned away with him. She was so beautiful." Miss Lilly smiled at the memory, shaking her head fondly. She chuckled once. "Course obvious ain't it – just gotta look at them boys." She gave Rose an appraising look before she continued. "Mrs. Garret died bringing her baby girl into this world. You shoulda seen Rosemary. She was the prettiest little girl..." Miss Lilly dragged off and didn't continue until Miss Rose reached forward and took a handful of peas to continue to shuck.

"Mr. Garret was a god fearin man, but when Mrs. Garret died he took to the bottle and when he drank he was mean...and he beat on them boys." She looked down at her hands. "All the time."

Rose found her hands were shaking. She bunched them in her skirt to stop their shaking. "So that's why they are..."

Miss Lilly snorted "They are nothing...he...he terrorized those boys for almost ten years...one day he was in a rage and went after Arthur. Forrest stopped him. He beat on that boy, but Forrest just took it. Finally, Forrest stopped him. After ten years he hit his father back, laid him out too. Next day Mr. Garret kicked Forrest out the house. The boy was only fifteen." She shook her head. "Me and my Dan took him in. He insisted on payin' us. That boy would never take a lick of help. I owed it to his mama. He worked in Dan's lumber camp. Worked harder than most grown men...I stayed on with Mr. Garret, to look after Rosemary.