Read Online The Old Buzzard Had It Coming by Donis Casey - Free Book Online Page B

by.” She looked at J.D. for support, and he nodded at her.
    “Harley was always a rakehell,” she began, “and irresponsible, but he didn’t used to be as bad as he got. Nobody could be, I reckon. But he was a disappointment to our father. For years, Daddy kept trying to help him, don’t you know. Kept giving him money, getting him jobs. Why, Daddy bought this piece of property here and let Harley live on it for just a little rent. Thought that maybe if he couldn’t do nothing else, he could be a farmer. But Harley had big ideas. He didn’t want to work on an oil rig, or at the brick plant, or raise crops. He was always looking for some way to make a lot of money fast.”
    “All he ever found was ways to lose his money fast,” J.D. put in.
    “That’s the truth,” Zorah agreed. “Before John Lee got old enough to take over, Harley pretty much squandered any money he made on a crop. Gambled most of it away, I think. He reached a point where he couldn’t afford to buy seed, and had to go begging to Daddy for another loan. Well, Daddy give it to him. What could he do? Harley had a passel of kids to feed, and a new one every year. But he told Harley that that was the last money he was ever getting from him, and he better get to cracking.”
    “You can guess what happened, Miz Tucker,” J.D. took up the story. “Harley lost every dime of that money on a Choctaw horse race over in Okmulgee. That was the last straw for old Mr. Day. I don’t expect he wanted his grandkids to starve, but he figured that if he cut Harley off, he’d have to straighten up.”
    “Then Harley blamed Daddy for making him poor,” Zorah added.
    “Nothing was ever Harley’s fault, as far as he was concerned,” J.D. said. The silent Mrs. Day was solemnly nodding her agreement.
    “Well, I blame Harley for busting Daddy’s heart,” Zorah said heatedly. Her gaze flicked guiltily toward the parlor, where the said Harley lay in state, unable to defend himself. Zorah sat up straight, stiffening her resolve. “Daddy died just a few weeks after that. His heart give out, Doc Addison said. Harley was his only son, and expected to inherit most of Daddy’s estate. He actually gloated to me at Daddy’s funeral. Can you imagine that, Miz Tucker?” Two spots of color rose in her cheeks. “I wanted to poke him in the face right then and there. But Daddy had the last word in the matter. He left everything to me, except for this pitiful farm. I don’t think he would have left Harley that if it weren’t for the kids.”
    “Well, Harley was fit to bust,” J.D. went on. “He accused Zorah of turning their dad against him. He got him a lawyer and contested the will, but he lost, and then on top of everything, he was in debt to the lawyer. He threatened Zorah, said he’d hurt us somehow if she didn’t give him some of that money, but I absolutely forbade her to do it.”
    “I didn’t have no desire to, anyway,” Zorah said. “But I did want to help my sister-in-law and these kids. I’d come out here for a while after that, bring food and clothes, but finally Harley said I’d stole everything from him but this farm, and if I set foot on it again, he’d be in his rights to shoot me.”
    “I declare!” Alafair breathed.
    “Harley discovered moonshining after that,” J.D. informed her. “Then there was just no hope for him at all.”
    “He grew to like his product too much,” Zorah said bitterly. “Anyway, we saw John Lee every once in a while, and Maggie Ellen, when they come to town. Maggie Ellen had her a nice boyfriend in town, you remember that?” she asked Mrs. Day. “That Dan Lang who works over at Dasher’s blacksmith shop.”
    “Is he any kin to the Mr. Lang the grain merchant?” Alafair asked.
    “Yes, his second boy. I expected she’d marry up with him, but then I heard she’d found her somebody else. What ever happened to that Lang boy?”
    For the first time, Mrs. Day looked uncomfortable. “Oh, he stopped coming