Saturday morning by eight oclock the Warden was walking around Camp Green Lake, her hair already pulled back in a long, somewhat messy braid, her eyes watching the dusty road as she searched for the delivery truck though she knew she couldnt expect it for several long hours at the least.
Please be safe getting here. Lulu. She wrote, the morning sun glistening on her hair as she watched the road. She hoped, more than anything else perhaps, that Ruby might be early today, though she doubted that would be the case. She never really got the luxury of luck, not a single day in her life. Well, except the day her granddaddy died and she inherited this place. Not that it was much of a place. Her family, years ago had been rich, her granddaddy had owned the whole lake, and over half the town. Now it was hers, but it was just a great, dry dirtbed for miles and miles, No longer the beautiful green waters and bustling town it used to be, that she heard about in stories her granddaddy once told her when she was very small. He told her about the town, and the outlaw, Kissin' Kate. She used to stare at the pictures, the old newspaper clippings and wanted ads that hung on the walls, for hours and hours as a young girl.
She'd gathered more information about her story, and found that her granddaddy's version of events wasn't the truest. Kate had once been Kathrine, a beautiful school teacher who fell in love with an onion seller, a medicine man, who was the son of one of her father's former slaves. They had grown up together, best friends and then something more once Kathrine turned sixteen. They had kept it hidden, for fear of the town finding out, and were successful for several long years until Trout caught them in the school house. Kathrine's grief at losing her friend and lover turned her cold, and world weary. She dedicated her life to robbing from the rich, racist men who ran organizations such as the KKK. The Black folks called her the "Gold Ghost" On account of her hair, and the palomino stallion that she rode into their neighborhoods to warn them that the Klan was coming.
Legend had it that Kate had given birth to a daughter, stowed away at Sam's sister's place, and that the woman had raised that little girl up to be just like her mother. Many sought the descendants of that child, as had Trout for a long time, because it was said that the location of the treasure had been passed down for generations.
As for the treasure, Louise Walker decided that if she ever found it, she wanted to do some good with it. Oh, of course she would like the stereotypical things, like a nice house with a green yard, and a better car than the one she drove now, but her main desire was to undo, or make up for all the awful her Granddaddy Trout had inflicted upon the world. She tried, now, to do it with these boys, to be something good in their lives, but she couldn't do much, couldn't be out in the sun too long, not with her health the way it had been these last several years. The Doctor's thought it was cancer, but luckily she was cleared of that. They didnt know what it was, exactly, that made her weak in the heart, and slower than usual some days. She'd begun taking pills for depression, after The Incident, another reason she stayed as far away from the boys as she did now. She had been foolish back then, she realized. These boys were criminals, the whole lot of them, and she shouldve anticipated what happened, and taken steps to prevent it. Should've at least pressed charges. She was far too kind. Too kind for her own damn good.
Sighing softly, Louise made her way into the office, sitting down into the chair and began organizing paperwork, wanting to be there when Ruby drove up. This week had been a long one for her, longer than usual as she had lain in her hammock reading the pages of a well worn romance novel, wishing she had something new to read. She spent her days, mostly, texting with Ruby, finding herself smiling more and more each passing day. She was falling, head over heels and couldn't stop herself. My, My what a silly school girl she had become. The texts were not flirty, full of dreams of the future. No, they were simple, everyday, mundane things. They talked about Amarillo, and Ruby opened up more and more about her late fiance. Nora had been a kind woman who had lived a simple life. She was a flower cart girl at the local hospital, and enjoyed brightening the days of the patients. She had arranged the flowers into animal shapes for the kids, and always added a kind word to the adults.
Ruby had loved her, with every single piece and part of her heart. The man who ran her over, shooting her for good measure, was now in prison, for life, and it was discovered that he was a local businessman, a stalker Ruby didnt know she had even had. It broke her heart that hed killed her lover, as a means to try to get her hand. The grief was still fresh in her heart, and Louise would do anything she possibly could to take it away from her, for she too knew heart wrenching grief and pain.
She hit the keyboard, trying her best to get the damn thing to turn on, the memories threatening to spill down her cheeks. She remembered everything: The hot night air, the dirt crunching under her shoes, the heavy silence and the brightness of the stars. He had come seemingly out of nowhere, his hand clamping over her mouth, her eyes filling with terror at the knowledge of what was going to happen. She didnt see his face, she told Marion later, even then wanting to keep these boys safe, keep them out of prison, hoping that somehow, someway, this place might help them. She'd driven the five hours to a town, bought a pregnancy test, and got herself tested for diseases, crying in relief when she was found to be in good health. Her heart now, that was a different story. She had never ever liked men, and certainly never wanted to give her virginity to one, who wasnt even a man. Just a boy. A criminal, a noone, a rapist.
"Lou, what in the Sam Hill you doin?" Her head shot up, as Marion dropped a bag of sunflower seeds next to her on the desk. "Stop fiddlin round that computer and go relax. Waitin round aint gonna make her get here any faster."
"No. It aint." She conceded, standing up and walking out of the office, back across the 'yard' to her cabin. She sighed in relief at the air conditioning, kept intentionally cooler than anywhere else. She had hot water too, and as much of it as she could likely ever want. But this place was empty, devoid of life, lonely. She needed someone to share it with, someone to bring life and light into this place, if it ever could have it. She wanted to crawl into bed at night, to fall into the arms of someone who loved her, to wake in the morning to the smell of coffee and frying bacon. If she was especially lucky, she might find love. True love, like Sam and Kathrine had once shared. But, she was sure, she was a Walker, and Walkers never got happy endings. They just got endings.
Her Granddaddy had taken her in after her daddy ate his own gun, but that was more of a curse than a blessing, at any rate. From that day forward she was made to dig a hole every single day of her life, since her Granddaddy's only desire in life was for the treasure of Kissin' Kate Barlow. As a result, she didn't have much in the way of a social life, and she took school by mail, her only other human interaction was her granddaddy, which wasn't very good company. She escaped, when she went off to college, but her Granddaddy's death and her health brought her back here, to this place. Years of digging caused her to have back troubles, some days being too difficult to get out of bed at all. She tried though, and succeeded, mostly, though the pain was nearly a constant companion. Her knees also troubled her, and she knew she had the beginnings of arthritis, though she would never admit it, even to herself. She was a stubborn woman, and would not be broken.
Lula Bell, Im ahead of schedule, i'll be there in four hours.
She laughed, her face flushing at the sheer absurdity of it all. Lulu, Lula Bell, LuAnn, Geez Louise, How many more silly nicknames would this lovely woman come up with for her? She didnt mind, that was true, but she did wish she had the privilege of coming up with something for her. Rubes was lame.
Look forward to it. Drive safe.
Lousie Annabell Walker lay down in her bed, curling around herself as she allowed sleep to wash over her, content in the knowledge that when she awoke, Ruby would be pulling into Green Lake.
Ruby set out early that Saturday morning, when the world had just gone to sleep. She loaded up her truck at two o'clock, taking care to make sure everything was packed securely, so that it wouldnt fall or break. She placed the cooler full of Rocky Road in the back, making sure the ice around it completely covered and prevented it from melting. Her overnight bag rode in the front with her, as did the sweater with the big rose blooms. It was too hot to wear such a thing, impractical on a nine hour drive in the hot Texas sun. The thermometer already read one hundred and six, even at two thirty in the morning. It was going to be a hot one today.
In the front of the cab sat her food bag, her overnight bag, sweater, and the three jugs, two filled with ice, and the other with ice and water. She had packed two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, an apple, and a bag of fritos, knowing that a nice meal was waiting for her by the time she arrived at her destination.
Her muscles were tired as she pushed the last box up the ramp and pulled the door down, locking it securely, checking the oil and filling up on gas, making sure she had her spare twenty gallons, though she knew she could fill up when she got there. It was too dangerous for her to get stuck out in the desert, without a gas station for miles. She had made that mistake once, and wouldn't make it again. Didn't want Lou to send Marion out with the gas tank, or worse, to come herself. No, Ruby thought. She would be perfectly fine this trip.
Yawning, she put the truck in drive, her tumbler of black coffee sitting in the cup holder, iced, not hot, at Lou's insistence. She turned the dial until she located her favorite country station, humming along as she drove out onto the highway. She checked her phone for texts, sighing as she didn't see any. She didn't expect it, didn't expect her friend to be awake at such an hour. Who, after all, other than the unlucky few, truck drivers and the like, were voluntarily awake at this hour of night? No. It would be, for most of the trip, a lonely ride.
"Well Mcgraw. Guess it's you and me."She hummed along as she drove, a comfortable seventy miles an hour, making better time this week because she hadn't gone and dehydrated herself. She didn't exactly HATE driving. She enjoyed the three hours before the sun rose, pulling off to the side once she saw its face above the mountains beyond. She climbed on top of her truck, taking a selfie with the sunset as the backdrop, laughing as she sent it to Lou.
Outlaw on the interstate. Sunrise now, Sunset later.
She didnt actually expect a response, and wasn't upset when she didn't receive one, after all, it WAS six o'clock in the morning, and she doubted Lou was even awake yet. She sat there for a while, watching the sun rise and the sky change colors, until she felt like it was far too hot for her to be outside the air conditioning, and climbed back into her truck, setting off again, singing along to "On the Road Again" She didn't MIND, exactly, she told herself. No. No she didn't. But she wanted to be there, wanted to hurry the heck up and get to her destination. Funny, she thought. She couldnt remember being this excited last week. Well, she thought with a huff. She barely remembered last week's drive.
As the morning dragged on, long after she had lost the station, and began making her own music, singing every song she could think up, the boredom began setting in. She was tired, but she couldnt let herself fall asleep. She was driving in front of a yellow bus now, had been for several long miles, nearly an hour or so, and she wondered why on earth a school bus was driving so far out here. What field trip would a group of school children be going on, on a Saturday and so far away from a town?
Growing up, Ruby had loved school. Her Grandmother, who had died long before she was born, had been a teacher, years ago in a beautiful one room school house. Mom told her about Grandmother, who she had never met either. She told her about how Grandmother had lived her life doing something very brave, saving people who couldn't save themselves, after her Grandfather had been murdered. She had never felt closer to her Grandmother as she did the night after the accident. She looked up to the stars that night, and asked her Grandma Kathrine to look after her beloved. She knew, or at least hoped, that she had heard.
Her mother, had been raised on the outskirts of San Antonio, by a kindly old Washwoman who worked for the Alamo. She was Grandpa's sister,and it was from her that Ruby gained her love of animals. She had met Auntie Alice when she was a little girl, and lived with her for a bit after Mama died, but she wasn't welcome there for very long. Integrity comes at a price, Grandmother had written in her journal, and Ruby now knew that to be the coldest, hardest truth she had ever known.
But she had made her way, though it had been hard. She had graduated high school, paying her own way once Auntie Alice tossed her to the wind, cleaning stables and shoveling manure at the carriage rides downtown. She worked hard, long days, and grew strong from shoveling the manure and grooming the horses. Nothing, absolutely nothing fazed her, made her divert from her goal of graduation, and she felt her Grandmother there, watching with pride as she crossed the stage in her cap and gown. It felt good to work hard for something.
She had tried college, but had discovered she was better suited to a life on the road, her heart longing to travel, to see places she had never before seen, a part of her searching for something that seemed to be missing from her life. She didn't know what she was searching for, until now, until she awoke Monday morning, with a peace in her heart she hadn't felt for a long, long time. She resisted, once she discovered what she was searching for. She didn't want her life to become some sort of Cliche' romance novel. She had hated those prissy girls on the playground, picking daffodils and playing "loves me, loves me not" while they ripped up the flowers. She saw no sense in it. She was never popular, always the weird girl with glasses and an Austen or Bronte novel, the star of the Shakesphere plays in middle school, and until Sophomore year, when she was forced to make her own way. But still, even with all that, she knew, the broken road was leading her somewhere, and she believed, that now, she had found it.
She ate her lunch on the road, not stopping again until she reached her destination, the yellow school bus pulling in behind her. She turned off the truck, the sweater tied around her waist as she entered the office, earning a side-eyed glance from Marion, who sat at his desk, looking up at her when she walked in.
"Got orders not to give ya nothin caffeinated. Got some lemonade if you want some. We'll check the inventory. Boys'll put it away. You go on over. Lou's been driving all of us mad since seven this morning."
"Thanks." Ruby dropped her clipboard onto the desk, walking back outside and opening the back of the truck, grabbing the cooler of ice cream, her bag on her shoulder. She walked across the hot, dry, dusty ground and knocked on the cabin door.
"Hey! Lulu, I'm here! Finally!" She called out, worry creasing her brow when she didn't hear an answer. "Louise! Hey, come on now!" The door, she discovered, was not locked, slightly ajar, which sent alarm bells ringing through her head. She dropped her bag, and set the cooler down, pulling out her knife as she made her way carefully, stealthily, silently, into the house. She looked around, wondering if one of the boys had found their way in here, but didn't see anything out of order. At least, that she remembered it.
"NO" The scream made her hair stand on end, and she bolted, taking a flying leap over the coffee table and couch, barrelling down the hall and into the bedroom, eyes searching for the fiend that caused the scream of agony and fear.
Oh. Ruby sighed in relief, seeing Lou sound asleep, the scream induced by what was likely a moved so she was standing beside the bed, closing her knife and sitting down.
"No..Please.." Ruby sighed, placing a hand on Lou's shoulder.
"Lulu, hey...come on...you're dreaming...its alright." She yelped in surprise as she was thrown backwards, her head slamming against the wall, the deafening crack heard through the house.
"GET THE HELL OUTTA MY HOUSE!" The gun was cold against her forehead, and she was shaking in fear, unable to move, or to speak. Lou's eyes were feral, frightening, and the long nails were like talons at her throat, cutting off the air, not that she could've breathed anyway. For several long moments she was held there, wondering whether the trigger was going to be pulled, whether she would die here, in this place, by having her brains blown across the room. What had she done? The door had been open. She hadn't broken any laws. She didn't realize she was whimpering, didn't realize she was shaking until the brown eyes changed, the feral replaced with absolute horror, the gun falling to the floor with a thud.
"Oh my God. Ruby!" Lou whispered, pulling her close, now fully awake, no longer in the dream induced haze, no longer thinking Ruby was someone else. "Im so so sorry. Are you alright? Did I hurt you? Your...Your head? Youre bleeding. Damn. How bad is it?"
"Not..Not bad. Just...a scrape. Nail on the wall. Can...can I...What did I do? Why...the door was open a bit. I wouldn't have come in here, but I heard you yell, and I..I um..Im sorry. Please...Please dont hurt me."
"I aint gonna hurt you. It wasnt...I didnt realize, I really shouldnt sleep with a gun, 'specially when I know you're showing up Saturday's for delivery, and I told you to come here. I couldve...I coulda killed ya." The last part was whispered so quietly Ruby almost didn't hear it at all.
"Shhh. You didnt. You didn't. Its alright. It's ok. Its over. I'm fine. Scared as hell, but fine." Ruby moved to get up, her head pounding from an already beginning headache, still feeling the cold barrel of the gun above her nose. "My question is Are YOU ok?"
"Me? I put a gun to your head, and you're worried about me?" Louise asked, incredulously. "I'm alright. Just had the dream again. Here. Come on. Sit down." She stood, going over to the closet in the bedroom and punching in the combination to the safe, placing the sapphire tipped pistol inside it, slapping the safe when she closed it. "Come on in here. Let me do something bout that scratch."
Ruby sat still as her hair was parted, barely wincing as the alcohol was poured onto the cut on her scalp and the scratches along her throat, the soft salve put on afterwards reminding her of the stuff Auntie Alice used to use. "What is that?"
"Onion Salve. Found a couple boxes of it here when I inherited the place. Granddaddy had no use for the stuff, but I find it very useful. It's better than the store bought stuff nowadays. Why? Does it hurt?"
"No Not hurt, exactly, just...well,Auntie Alice, she used to use onion salve. It's my Grandfather's recipe. I know a little bit about how to make it, make them, I mean. Salves, and tonics and what not. Just..reminded me of her that's all." She twitched suddenly, a yelp escpaing her as she felt the salve placed on her scalp."
"Deeper than I thought it was. Might need stitches. Wait here." Ruby didn't have much choice. There wasn't anywhere she was heart set on going anyways. Well, maybe to the floral couch, to have a nap. She was tired now, apparently hitting your head does that.
"Hey. Hey...Oh no you dont. " Lou was back, soon as she sensed Ruby nodding off. "Im sorry Angel, but you cant sleep after knocking your head like that. Might have a concussion. Ive got to keep you awake at least an hour, likely longer. Gotta watch you."
"Oh, come on, I aint that interesting. You dont want to watch me." Ruby joked, smiling when Lou playfully swatted at her.
"Shut up." The arms that wrapped around her were warm, but the hug was brief. "Think you can be brave while I stitch that up for ya? I've got blueberries. Canned, but they're blueberries."
"Can I bake you a pie?" Ruby asked quietly, her eyes fluttering, not even wincing as Lou began stitching up the headwound. "I think Im ok.I...I um..OW" She yelped. Louise stopped instantly, moving to kneel in front of her.
"Hey…." She whispered, cupping her chin softly. "You'll be just fine. Either I have to stitch it, or I hold you down while Marion stitches it, and I really dont think you want that. So sit still while I finish these last two stitches, and then yes, We can bake a pie. Hell, I'll make you a hundred pies, just sit still!"
"OK Lulu." Ruby whispered, earning an eye roll and a squeeze of the hand. "I'll be good."
"I know you will Darlin." The endearment sent shivers down Ruby's spine, giving her something else to think about than the sharp pain. One hand on her own, giving her something to grip onto, Louise finished the stitching, softly placing a kiss to the finished work.
"There. Rubes," She whispered, her voice oddly tight, like she was struggling to hold back tears. "Now it's better."
"Yeah." Ruby responded, "Now, I think someone promised I could bake her a pie?"