Song for Sue Anne
Mac Sledge turned off the truck and sighed. "I'll only be a few minutes" he told his wife and son.
"You goin' to see your daughter?" Sonny asked from the middle of the bench seat.
"Yeah, I am."
"You want me to come along?" Rosa Lee asked as she studied the face of her husband. It told her nothing.
"No, you two stay here. I gotta do this alone."
Mac opened the door and hopped out, mindful to not slam it shut with his family inside. He looked across the peaceful field and took a deep breath. No use putting it off, if he came this far he had to finish it. "Three over, four across" he thought to himself as he started walking on the grass. It was odd that the grass was green and lush, making it look out of place surrounded by so much dust and dirt. Even his boots had a light covering of earth from working in the garden that morning. He considered cleaning them on the backs of his jeans and decided against it.
He stopped walking, coming to a stop at the place he knew he'd have to stand his ground and began his speech. "Sue Anne, I've got a confession to make and it's taken me a year to work up the courage to say it so I'm gonna just get it out. You asked me before if I remembered singing a song to you when you was little, a song about a snow white dove, and I said no. I'm sorry, but I lied."
He gulped and continued quickly. "I know that don't sound right...and it ain't. I don't even know why I did it at the time, but I've been thinkin' about it a spell and I know why now. It ain't about you, it's about me. I was...was tryin' to forget about who I was back when you was little. That man's name was Mac Sledge too, but he weren't no real man. He wasn't a husband, he wasn't a daddy, he wasn't a friend and the only thing he was was hisself. He thought just because he had money and people knew who he was and clapped and cheered and shouted his name that he was anything he wanted and everything he needed. But the only thing he loved was hisself." He paced a few steps away and walked back as he continued.
"I hate that man; I know I should love him like I'm supposed to love everyone but I don't. Selfish, violent, arrogant and self-righteous as he was he didn't deserve a family, and didn't know how to treat 'em when he got one. He'd sing that song about love and purity and truth and think it was all about him; just thinkin' about it makes me sick now 'cause he had no idea what the song was even about. Sue Anne, I'm sorry you had to wait all these years for me to become the man that could be the kind of daddy you should have had when you was a baby. I won't pretend to make up for all those lost years, but I'll sing that song for you now." He began to sing
When troubles surround us, when evils come
The trouble and evils were mostly of his own doing, he thought. His voice warbled slightly as he choked back his emotions.
The body grows weak, the spirit grows numb
Drink and high living had certainly done that, taking its toll on the youth he used to have, he thought. He had grown unhappy and had no idea at the time why.
When these things beset us, he doesn't forget us
Tears formed in his eyes as he continued singing, remembering his daughter as a little girl. He faltered slightly at the chorus, but was joined by the soft voice of a woman.
A sign from above (sign from above)
On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove).
Rosa Lee stepped up and put her arm around her husband as he stared at the tombstone.
Sue Anne Scott
1967-1985
Beloved daughter,
gone too soon
Sonny cried out "Look!" as he pointed. A startled bird, a mottled dove, flew off from a few feet away and winged its way out of the cemetery. "It wasn't snow white, though" he said with a note of disappointment.
"None of us is, Sonny. We gotta keep workin' on losing those spots, and not gettin' any new ones."
"You reckon we'll ever lose 'em all?" Sonny asked.
"Don't know, but won't that be somethin' if we do" Mac said with a smile as all three walked arm in arm back to the truck.
"Do you think we spend too much time in cemeteries?" asked Rosa Lee.
"Nah," Mac said "it ain't like we're spendin' the night or anything. We'll be spend enough time here soon enough. like everyone else does eventually. But before we do, let's get an ice cream cone."
The End
A/N: Tender Mercies was a great film about a star who hit rock bottom and came out a better man afterwards, but it is also a very sloooooow moving story. The pacing gives time for subtle emotional impact to be felt.
About the only thing in the whole movie that bothered me was why Mac claimed he didn't remember singing the song to his daughter when she was small, but obviously did because he sang it after she left the room. There just had to be a reason why...