Dance With Me

-A Rock and a Hard Place-

It was nearing early afternoon by the time I arrived at the hospital. A light breeze was rustling the leaves of the trees, and the cicadas were feeling mighty talkative. Their shrill buzz cut through the thick air and echoed around the quiet property as I climbed out of the Chevrolet that Forrest had given me. It was a pretty little thing, blue as a midnight in New Orleans, and had been sleeping out back behind Blackwater Station. I was putting it to good use.

Things were always quiet when I came in around this time of day. Now that I had transportation, I could work later shifts, which also meant I didn't have to come in first thing in the morning anymore. The change seemed to work out for everybody; most of the nurses were wives and mothers, and couldn't stay too late into the evening. The hospital appreciated the extra help at night. By the time my day was over, unless there was a scheduled run, Forrest would be closing up the station and I would arrive to a quiet, empty place. He knew I liked it that way.

I hurried to seek relief from the scorching sun, dropping my hand from shielding my eyes once under the shade of the porch surrounding the building. It was going to be an awful summer in Franklin. It came early, like I'd wished, but was bringing with it a record drought. They made the prediction last month, and we hadn't seen a drop of rain since. A constant overcast trapped the heat in. It felt like sitting next to a blazing fire, wrapped twice around in heavy wool blankets all the time. Dust hung in the air everywhere we went, and I swear it was turning everyone into housecats. Breathe enough of it in, and suddenly all anyone wanted to do was eat and sleep. They were impatient as all hell, yet moved at half the speed they were capable of. Wasn't like I wasn't guilty of it either. The heat had crept in, and it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. I found myself wishing for just a day of snow. Or rain, or anything that would provide some sort of relief from a summer just getting started.

The Doctor was in the small staff room when I walked in to slip on my apron. He was conversing with some man I never seen before, dressed in a nice three-piece suit. I wondered how he could bear so many layers on a day like this, but I didn't say anything to him about it. The man looked professional and I didn't want to speak out of turn. I figured it was an associate of the Doctor's. Maybe an accountant, or an old friend, though the stranger looked at least twenty years the Doctor's junior.

"Afternoon, Doctor," I said quietly as I slipped the neck of the apron over my head and stretched to tie the strings behind my back.

"Hello, Edie," he peered over his spectacles at me with a soft smile. "Say Edie, you got a minute before you go out there?"

My gaze shifted to the stranger peering silently at me, but only for a moment. "Sure," I said, stepping forward. "What you need?"

"Edie, come sit down," the Doctor pulled out the empty chair beside him, adjacent to where the stranger sat, and I had a feeling that this man was far from an accountant. I felt myself hesitate, heart jumping all around in my chest, but I slid into that chair, knowing I looked like a child in trouble, waiting to be chided for my wrongdoings. "Edie, this here is a man from Richmond," the Doctor explained, "and he's hoping he could talk to you. I'll let him introduce himself."

I turned my head to focus on the stranger, and he gave me a winning smile. The smile of a salesman; one that said I could reap the benefits of cooperation, but that cooperation would come at a price. Somewhere deep inside me registered who this man was before he opened his mouth. But he did open his mouth, and what he said made me want to run. Run from the hospital, run from the county, run from the state and never look back.

"Afternoon, Miss Ellsworth. My name is Jacob Lehman. I'm a Senior Special Agent for the Bureau of Investigation." He extended his hand, and I grasped it briefly in silence. Suddenly I preferred the thought of roasting outside in the sun to having to talk to this man. "I'd tell you why I'm here and why I'd like to talk to you, but I'm sure you already have some kind of idea." He flashed me another one of those smiles, and I wondered if my life was about change drastically within the next few minutes.

Agent Lehman looked past me to the Doctor. "Dr. Andrews, thank you for speaking with me. It was a pleasure to meet you, but I was hoping to speak with Miss Ellsworth alone."

This was bad. I knew it was bad. I was going to be interrogated, and I was going to be horrible at hiding what I knew. I was going to let something slip without realizing it, and it was going to get the Bondurant brothers locked up. Probably get myself locked up, too. I looked at the Doctor, and I could tell he saw my worry by the way his lips tightened in a thin smile. His brow furrowed a little, and when he stood he gave my shoulder a light squeeze. His white coat rustled behind him as he walked out the door, and when he shut it behind him, I forgot how to breathe.

"May I call you Edna?" Agent Lehman asked, capturing my attention again. I nodded. At my consent, he produced a crème-colored folder that must've been hiding in his lap under the table, and flipped it open. He picked up two photographs and slid them towards me. "Have you ever seen either of these men before?"

The face of the man on the left was long and bony, with a strong jaw and a straight nose. He had hooded eyes, and dark hair parted thickly down the middle, slicked back with grease. The other was a stout man, with a short face and small, dark eyes, and a hairline receding into thinning gray curls at the top of his head.

"I don't know this man," I said lowly, pushing the first picture forward. "But this other one, that's Carter Lee. The commonwealth attorney." When I looked up, he was scrutinizing my every move, rivaling Forrest in the art. I hoped he believed me, because it was the god-honest truth. Though, I could probably take a gander at the identity of the first man, and come up right.

Agent Lehman reached a hand across the table to pick up the photograph of the first man. Instead of withdrawing his hand, he leaned forward and offered the photograph to me. I took it from him, holding it delicately between my fingers as I wondered why he was giving it to me.

He sat back in his chair with a quiet huff. "That man right there is Charley Rakes. I know you've heard that name before."

"Yeah," I admitted. "He was a prohi. They found his body out along Maggodee few months ago." I tried to hand the photograph back to him, but he stopped me.

"Edna," Agent Lehman leaned forward, narrowing his eyes as he folded his hands together on the table. He spoke softly, "We understand that you have a close connection to the Bondurant family, and might feel inclined to protect them with your silence. In all truth and honesty, your silence will have the exact opposite effect."

I tried to form my words carefully before voicing them. "I ain't exactly sure what you're wanting from me, sir."

He shifted into a comfortable position, and an easy smile stretched on his thin lips. "Look, you seem like an intelligent woman, Edna. And you aren't from around here. Neither am I. These people are born of a different stock, which is why I have no trouble telling you that we have more eyes around here than these backwater hicks know how to count. We know of every moonshine operation in the county. We know what they're doing, who's doing it, and how much they're getting paid."

I didn't understand. "Well, then why do you need to talk to me, if you already know all of that? Why don't you go bust 'em all?"

"Because some things are more important than others," he explained. "The Prohibition was a mistake if I ever saw one. It's closing on its final days, due to end any time now. The big operations? Sure, we'll hunt them down and try to clear them out. But our priority is in racketeering. Do you know what that is?"

"Not exactly."

"It's sort of like a business agreement between two parties. A 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' kind of deal. We're seeing a lot of it throughout the country, and it's coming in the form of law officials allowing bootleggers to safely run their businesses for a fee. Now we want to catch these officials and deliver them justice. Put them away where they belong, because if they see no problem in aiding criminals in illegal alcohol distribution for money, it's hard to predict what else they'd be capable of doing. Do you understand?"

I allowed my brain the time to filter through that information before responding. "I suppose. You think that's happening here?"

"Yes," he said. "We suspect the commonwealth attorney and Agent Rakes were in charge, but it takes a whole lot more to build a case than just suspicion. We need evidence, and testimonies from credible witnesses to back the claim up. The people here look out for their own self-interests, so with the right prodding they'd turn on anyone. Slip a couple dollars into the front pocket of a man's shirt, and he'll tell you anything you want to hear. So it has been confirmed that Rakes and Carter Lee had some kind of deal with the bootleggers, but the credibility of the men who made those statements will have trouble holding up in court."

"I don't know all that much about it, sir," I said, though I don't think he believed me. "I don't think I could be much help to you."

"Actually, I think you could be of great help to us." Agent Lehman sucked in a breath and glanced down as he flipped over a page in the folder open in front of him. "A common response among those that we talked to was that the Bondurants refused to pay any kind of fee to the commonwealth attorney. If this is true, and we could get the brothers to testify to it, we could have ourselves enough to present this case to the grand jury."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Before I say, I need to ask you something first. I apologize if the question is forward and inappropriate, but it's important for us to know. Are you married to Forrest Bondurant?"

The question made my heart jump, and I could feel the heat rising in my face. Why would he need to know that? "No, sir," I said.

"Do you plan to marry him?"

"I-I don't know." Why was that important?

"Would you cease intimate association with Forrest Bondurant if it meant his freedom?"

My eyes snapped to his, and he patiently waited for my answer. "What do you mean by that? You said they had nothing to do with that racketeering."

"But they are active bootleggers, confirmed in documentation," Agent Lehman said lightly, shifting to cross his legs. "We know they murdered Agent Charley Rakes last spring. We are willing to set those two facts aside if they agree to testify against Carter Lee and those who involved themselves in the racket. If they don't, then they'll be tried separately on those counts, and be put away."

It wasn't fair. But I suppose fairness was something illusory when it came to a man on a mission. The brothers seemed to be the only thing standing between these feds and outing an entire conspiracy. They'd do what they had to, to gain their cooperation. "What if I said yes? To – you know." I couldn't bring myself to say it.

"Then you would give a statement legitimizing the innocence of the Bondurants. As you live at their station, you are a key witness on the inside. You see and hear things that the rest of us don't. Your testimony would back up others in confirming that the Bondurants were not involved, but yours alone will solidify their credibility. If anyone finds out you are involved with Forrest Bondurant, anyone, the defense will deem you a bias witness and your statement will be worthless."

It made sense, though I didn't want it to. I'd lie for Forrest if it meant his freedom. And though I wouldn't be lying in this case, I could see why some might suspect I would. Humans go to great lengths to defend their loved ones. The image of Forrest standing on the beach between two large heaps in the sand flashed through my mind, and I fought a shudder.

Agent Lehman rubbed his chin as he regarded me, allowing me the time to collect my thoughts. He was an extremely patient man, and I didn't doubt that he was excellent at his job. "Dr. Andrews speaks fondly of you, you know," he said suddenly, and I looked up into his face. "Says you're a real smart woman. Real kind. A headstrong kind of gal. And you like art?"

I tilted my chin back a little, and could feel the apprehension rising in my chest. He shifted the conversation for a reason, and it couldn't be anything good. "Yeah," I told him.

He gave a wide smile, one that flashed a set of straight teeth. "Me too," he said. "You know, I met Patrick Henry Bruce once, about ten years ago, just walking around New York."

My voice was flat when I said, "I don't know who that is."

He snorted quietly, and glanced down at the folder briefly. "That's right; Dr. Andrews said you were fonder of eighteenth century movements. Rococo, neoclassicism and such? I have something for you, Edna." He thumbed through a small collection of loose papers, gathering them together and handed them off to me. I skimmed over the top page but did not read it. "That is an application to UVA. Now the deadline for fall admission has already passed, but the bureau is willing to pull strings and get you in and pay for the first year for your cooperation in this case." He paused, before continuing in a softer tone, "You understand, that once you give your statement and you leave for the University, you can't come back here."

"Why?"

"Because we cannot allow the risk of someone connecting you to them." He stressed his seriousness with a hard stare and a pointed gesture of his hand. "Right now, the people of Franklin see you as a woman stopping by long enough to make some money on your way to somewhere else. They assume you stay at the Bondurant station for cheap rent in exchange for working the grill on the weekend. They don't suspect your relationship with Forrest Bondurant extends beyond that. But they will. Accuse a man of a crime, and he'll be searching for any excuse that might get him out of trouble. You'll make your statement, you'll go to the University in the fall, and you'll move on with your life. The only time you will come back here, is during the trial when you are scheduled to testify."

I brought the back of my hand up, fingers to lips as I stared down at the application. The brothers would agree to testify. I knew they would. They didn't owe any of those people anything, and if it meant their freedom, it was good enough for them. They would return the justice that Carter Lee paid to them, and to all the other moonshiners that had turned their backs on them when they refused to join the conspiracy.

But their word had to be trusted in a court of law, and I suppose I was the one who was able to say it could be. I didn't understand the legal system, and why it had to be like that. But Agent Lehman did, and he was adamant about it. If I left, it was a goodbye to Forrest that couldn't be undone. It was for forever, but it would mean his freedom. If I refused to go, it could crumble the case that was building, and it could mean losing him anyway to a guilty sentence and jail time.

The answer was clear, and my decision was made almost instantly. I thought of Forrest, of waking up next to him while he still slept. Still and straight on his back, eyes closed, chin tucked, and brow furrowed in a natural scowl. I would rise up on one elbow, and Forrest was such a light sleeper. He would always hear it, or feel it, or maybe both, and his lids would part to reveal those shining grays. They'd squint a little, and then eventually close again. But then he'd shift, and his arm would be around me, tucking my head down into that little crook between his neck and shoulder. I wished we'd met in another life, Forrest and me.


"The next hurt is always coming, always close by, Forrest had said. The only way through it is to bury it deep in your gut and let the hot juices work on it for a while. Soon enough you forget whatever it was that pained you to begin with." The Wettest County in the World, Matt Bondurant, pg. 70.

For those of you reading my Warrior story, I'm so sorry about the extended wait on a new chapter. I'm taking extra time on it due to the sensitive subject matter, but it should be up within a week. So sorry!

The next few chapters are going to be character studies. I feel like I'm flying through the progression of Edna and Forrest's relationship to establish a plot. Now that I have, we're going to slow it down a little and really get to know and understand what they feel for each other, and why they feel that way. Take a peek into day-to-day life with Forrest. I hope you won't mind that ;)

All right! Let me know what you think! I know you'll have some opinions about this one.