Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23

The box trailer was a parting gift from Earl. The piano strapped onto the trailer—the same one from the bar that Lovesong used to play every night—was a gift from Maybelle.

“What am I gonna do with it now?” Maybelle said to me and Lovesong as we hitched the trailer onto the back of Joan Collins. “Nobody else in town knows how to play it, so it might as well go on an adventure with you. Besides, I got my eye on one of them newfangled jukeboxes. Maybe Clara’s Crossing is ready to step into the twentieth century.”

“Maybelle, we’re in the twenty-first century now,” I laughed.

“My point exactly!”

While Lovesong said his goodbyes with a series of sweet and heartfelt hugs for Ida-May, Eloise, Lucy, George, and Auggie, I turned to Leroy and Cybil who had just arrived home from hospital the day before.

“Thanks for hitting me with your pickup,” I said jokingly to Cybil.

“Thanks for getting in my way. That crash could have been a lot worse,” she joked back.

I wrapped my arms around her. “Look after yourself. No more heavy lifting, you hear?”

I turned to Earl and gave him a hug next. “This one’s from Joan Collins. She’s in better shape than ever thanks to you.”

“Guess that makes me a mechanic to the stars now.”

I shrugged. “Something like that.”

I stepped over to Leroy, who was crying like a baby. “I ain’t no good at sayin’ goodbye.”

“Then maybe a hug can do all the talking for us.”

Leroy grabbed me and lifted me off the ground, squeezing me so tightly I thought another few ribs were about to break.

“Easy there, tiger.”

“Sorry.” He put me down, then pulled out a hanky and blew his nose.

Maybelle was busy getting her last goodbye kisses from Chet before she finally handed him over. As I slid him onto the passenger seat, Maybelle took my face in her hands. She kissed me on the left cheek and said, “This is so you look after Chet.” She kissed me on the right cheek and said, “This is so you look after Lovesong.” She kissed me on the lips and said, “And this is so you look after yourself.”

“Thank you. Thank you for everything.”

Maybelle grinned. “Thank you for breaking down… exactly where you needed to.”

Opening the passenger door, I said to Lovesong, “You ready to go?”

He nodded in my direction, tears in his eyes. “As I’ll ever be.”

I helped him into his seat, picking up Chet and putting him on Lovesong’s lap before I fastened the safety belt for him.

I climbed in behind the wheel.

I started the engine.

And with a honky-tonk piano bouncing on the box trailer behind us, Lovesong and I waved goodbye to Clara’s Crossing.

We drove between cotton fields.

We reached the crossroads.

And suddenly I had to think. “Shit, which way is New York?”

Lovesong laughed. “You tell me.”

I turned right, and as we drove away, I couldn’t help but look in the rear-view mirror, expecting to see little Iggy Spoons dancing in the crossroads.

But there was no sign of him.

It seemed his job of fending off the Devil was finally done.