The boys did as instructed, and she set the crawdad inside.
“Wow,” Victor said as they peered down. “He is a big feller.”
“This is so dang cool,” Denny said. “I wish Daddy woulda showed us this a long time ago. We coulda been catching crawdads our whole lives.”
Carla tousled his hair. “Why don’t you give him that ball of bread he was after?”
Denny perked up and Val and Victor fought over who got to remove the bait from the hook.
“Boys, you can all feed him,” Erica said, already pinching off small pieces of bread from the bag. They rushed to her, forgetting the bread on the pole, and Carla pulled off the wet bait and gave it to Denny.
“Go ahead, Bub. Toss it in there.”
He knelt and dropped it inside. The crawdad went after it, once again attacking it with his claw.
Denny beamed up at her. “He’s hungry, ain’t he?”
“Seems so.”
“What are we gonna do with him when Mama makes us quit?”
“We put him back in the water.”
“You mean let him go?”
“Uh-huh.”
“But I wanna keep him.”
“You can’t, Bubba. He wouldn’t live very long and we wouldn’t want that.”
“My papaw says we’re supposed to eat ’em.”
“Do you want to eat him?”
Denny looked at the crawdad and shook his head. “Nuh-uh. No way.”
“I never did either. So, I always just caught them for fun and then put them back. I thought it was only fair, seeing as how I got to go home at the end of day. They should be able to as well.”
The twins hurried to the bucket and knelt alongside Denny.
“Be careful, now,” Carla said. “Don’t get too close or you’ll get pinched. And let me tell ya, it hurts.”
The boys fed the crawdad and she stretched and looked back up the hill toward the house. A small group of women were headed their way.
“Looks like we’ve been found,” she said, already feeling exhausted at the thought of dealing with more well-meaning people offering their condolences.
She felt like she hadn’t had a single moment’s peace since she’d stepped off the plane. Someone was always interrupting or stopping by or needing her for something.
She should be getting used to it at this point.
But for whatever reason, she wasn’t.
Maybe that’s because there’s no end in sight.
Chapter Seven
Erica turned to see who was approaching.
She shaded her brow. “Who is that? Is that…who is that?”
“Looks like Darlene and her two daughters and…I think that’s Tonya.”
“Tonya? Isn’t that Mitch’s girlfriend?”
“Uh-huh.”
“What’s she like?”
Carla shrugged. “She’s all right.” She watched as Tonya and the other women, her distant cousins, approached.
“I think I’ve only met her once. Mitch don’t come around much anymore since he moved to Gastonia.” Mitch was Cole’s best friend from childhood, and though he wasn’t family, they all considered him as such.
“Ya’ll catch anything good for supper?” Darlene asked as they walked up and embraced Carla and Erica in hugs.
Denny straightened. “No way! You ain’t eating my crawdad.”
Darlene chuckled and held up her hands. “Okay, little man. I won’t even think about it.”
“What are ya’ll up to?” Erica asked.
Darlene started in on how she was aiming to get into Maurine’s to clean, so Maurine wouldn’t have to worry about doing it at the present time, which was her way of offering love and support rather than bringing food. But Carla’s focus went to Tonya who had come to stand next to her.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Tonya asked.
Carla was surprised by the request, but she sank her hands into the back pockets of her cutoff shorts and said, “Sure.”
They walked farther away than Carla expected, leading her to believe that whatever Tonya was about to say, she didn’t want it to be overheard.
“What’s up?” Carla asked when they finally came to a stop.
But Tonya, who was slightly older than Carla and a whole head shorter, wouldn’t look at her.
Uh-oh. This is not good.
“Is something wrong?”
She blew out a breath.
“Tonya?”
“God, I don’t know how to say this.”
Carla saw the distress on her face, and suddenly she had a feeling she knew exactly what was about to be said. She had experienced something similar with someone else on her last visit home, after she’d come out. Only that person had been an actual family member, someone who was blood related. Tonya, who she didn’t know well at all, was Mitch’s girlfriend. Even so, this felt strangely familiar and hauntingly awkward.
“I’m guessing this is something you haven’t told anyone else?”
She reddened, confirming Carla’s suspicion.
“No, I haven’t told a soul.”
“But you’re going to tell me because you’re hoping I’ll understand.”
She looked at her quickly, as if surprised at her correct assessment.
“I’m hoping, yeah.”
Carla glanced off into the distance, suddenly so very tired, like the wind had just left her sails. Dealing with her own emotion as well as trying to comfort everyone else with theirs, had really taken its toll. And now…this. Did she have enough strength left?
“Okay, so shoot.”
Tonya laughed, incredulous. “It ain’t exactly that easy.”
“It’s not going to get any easier by standing here either. It will only make your suffering and anxiety last longer.”
She still didn’t speak.
“Here, I’ll help,” Carla said, growing impatient. “You’re having these feelings…”
Tonya blinked and then appeared confused, like she didn’t know how she knew that.
“I’m…well, yes.”
“For anyone specific or just in general?”
Her discomfort seemed to intensify.
“Someone specific.”
“And I’m guessing we’re not talking about Mitch here, are we?”
“No.”
“I just wanted to be sure.”
Tonya was quiet again, which got under Carla’s skin, and she realized her irritability was most likely due to fatigue. But her foul mood continued, regardless of her self-awareness.
She went in for the kill.
“So, who is she?”
Tonya’s mouth fell open and she turned away. “How did you—”
“Know it was a woman?” Carla scoffed. “Come on, Tonya. Why else would you seek me out when there are plenty of others, who you’re a whole lot closer to that you can confess to? I mean, come on. You’re just so obvious.”
And I’m being a bitch.
I am.
But I’m just so fed up.
I just want this to be over so I can go find somewhere quiet to collapse. Where? I don’t know. I guess a damn closet would suffice at this point.