Chapter 2: The Reckoning
The time on the train flew by. I had found a seat in an empty compartment, which suited me just fine. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I needed the time alone to think, and to prepare myself. All of my life, I felt that I had to prepare myself for conversation with Uncle Rhett, even under the best of circumstances. And this was hardly the best of circumstances.
The train had been less than half full, and the platform at the Charleston station was all but deserted. I hurried along, worrying. Not about the crowd, or lack thereof, but about Uncle Rhett.
I didn't want to be a disappointment to him, and consequently, a disappointment to Mother. A fancy carriage was parked on the cobblestone road in front of the station. Sleek horses and a colored coachman waited. Uncle Rhett's carriage, it had to be.
Another train had pulled in in the meantime, and a fresh group of disembarking passengers swept past me as if I were a piece of dung. I thought that I caught a whiff of verbena, which always reminded me of Mother. I half expected to see her standing before me; but it was Uncle Rhett instead. I stared at him, struck dumb in his presence after being so long absent from it. He looked fit and robust, in a fine grey suit and silk cravat. He looks well, I thought to myself…guiltily, he looked as though he had been faring better away from Mother.
He greeted me with a big squeeze, then a handshake.
"How have you been, Wade?"
"Well."
He motioned to the waiting driver to see to my things, then opened the door and motioned for me to enter.
A veritable feast of tiny cakes was waiting for me, along with cold lemonade and what looked like a bottle of brandy, although I did not partake.
"Are you staying out of trouble?" Rhett inquired, adjusting himself in the seat opposite me.
"Yes sir," I responded, feeling awkward in his presence.
His grin was jovial, but I knew better.
"Come now, Wade, just because I haven't been back to Atlanta to visit you and Ella doesn't mean I haven't been keeping an eye on you."
There it was. Something was coming. I nibbled on a piece of a cake.
His eyes appraised me. "That's a handsome suit. I was afraid that we would need to make a stop at the tailor's."
"Mother had me fitted before I left Jonesboro."
"Ah, yes. I had anticipated her to dump you off on her sister."
"She didn't dump us. She was there as well."
I felt my jaw tense, which seemed to amuse Uncle Rhett.
"You've had a haircut, too. And even started to shave I see." He stuck two fingers on the side of my cheek. "I thought I might have been the one to show you how."
"Uncle Will did," I retorted back, growing weary of the inspection. "Why did you ask me to come, Uncle Rhett?"
He laughed mightily. "Straight to the point, aren't you? I knew you had to have a little Scarlett in you. As for poor Ella…she's more than a little touched."
"She is not. She's slower, that's all. But she's smart and sweet and doesn't cause any trouble."
His eyes met mine. "I'm sorry, son. I love Ella very dearly, and that was wrong for me to say about her."
"I'm not your son," I retorted, feeling newly entitled to be blunt. "You haven't seen me in almost a year. Why did you ask me to come?"
He leaned back in the seat, shrugging his shoulders. "I simply wanted to see you. Spend some time with you. Make sure that you have the support you need. I know better than most that people can be cruel at your age."
It was my turn to shrug. "I'm doing fine."
He raised a dark eyebrow. "Not as I hear it."
"People talk." I pondered his words. "But…how? You haven't been there."
"But as I mentioned, I keep informed."
"They talk because you left."
"Well," he drummed his finger on his chin. "…truthfully, young Wade, they talk because your mother makes poor decisions."
"Which caused you to leave?" I pressed him.
"It had a part in it. I also needed some time alone. I thought, actually, you would benefit from the same. Time spent away from your mother, I mean."
"I don't have a problem with Mother."
"I don't expect you to feel free enough to express it, but she has been verbally and emotionally abusive to you as long as I can remember."
"She also never abandoned us, no matter how bad things got."
That shut him up, albeit briefly.
"Very well," he sighed, "I am gratified that you're so charitable toward your mother. I shall endeavor to keep my criticism of her parenting to a minimum while you are here. If you are so happy with her, and she with you, why ever did she agree to allow you to spend the summer with me?"
My mouth was dry. Mother's last words to me had been to give him her love. He deserved none of that love.
"I suppose that we should count ourselves fortunate that she was inclined for you to come. Did she return with Ella to Atlanta?"
How did he know Mother wasn't still at Tara?
"Ella's not in Atlanta," I mumbled, seeing his game.
"Ah. At Tara, I take it?"
I nodded.
"Let me see now," he reflected, "your mother now has a child free summer. And a free Ashley Wilkes…"
I sank back in my seat, beaten. I liked to keep my ears above the fray. That rumor had gone around school several years back. Nobody spoke to me directly about it, and Aunt Melly had called it a load of tommyrot.
I felt trapped, powerless to defend Mother but feeling obliged to her to continue to play my part in this charade of a visit, wherever it led me.
