by Maureen Mancini Amaturo
The day Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge, there was a twister the likes of which our town ain’t ever seen. Ol’ Emmett’s gas station, the McCallum’s fruit and vegetable stands, trucks, tractors, and parts of the Tallahatchie Bridge itself got picked up and blown clear into Choctaw Ridge. It was the third of June, and Billy Joe couldn’t have picked a worse day to jump.
They never found Billy Joe. His body never washed up on the Tallahatchie River bank. They looked high and low for the boy, all around Choctaw Ridge, too. They searched for him for ‘bout a year, and when it was time to give up, the folks here paid their respects at our church, and Brother Taylor, a nice young preacher new around here, said some prayers over a headstone with no grave.
A lot of neighbors must have been prayin’ for a miracle, ‘cause a miracle is exactly what we got. As if the August State Fair wasn’t thrill enough for this dusty Delta town, the Fair’s opening day is the day Billy Joe McAllister came home. Walked straight up Maize County Road, he did. Dirt all over his boots, and he walked sure as you please right to the main gate, passed the prize pig corral, and he went right through the fair grounds and up to the old man and his hot air balloon. That old man returned to these parts not long ago himself. No one knew where he disappeared to. Must have gone out seekin’ somethin’ better, I guess. Was gone a while, too. The old fella used to call himself Professor Marvel at one time. Lived in an ol’ wagon on the outskirts of town. Pretty much a snake oil seller, if you ask me. Told fortunes for a livin’. Not much of a livin’, I’d say, but the Lord gives us each our lot, and so be it. Anyways, when Professor Marvel did come back, he had himself a new name. He called himself “The Wizard.” Heck, I ain’t ever seen him do anythin’ wizard-like. He didn’t even dress like one with that old tail coat and that big, ol’ floppy neck bow hangin’ under his jaw. But there he was, back at the State Fair sellin’ hot air balloon rides. It was enough surprise to see old Professor Marvel, I mean, The Wizard, back in town. Sure as heck never expected to see the McAllister boy.
Now, Billy Joe McAllister was gone so long, lots of people didn’t remember him and paid him no mind. But the old-timers at the fair that day, like Miss Almira Gulch, she caught sight of Billy Joe McAllister and nearly fell off her bicycle. Still ridin’ around town, that old witch, pardon my irreverence. When Billy Joe clomped by in those boots headed straight for The Wizard, us Tallahatchie old-timers had our jaws in the mud. Crowds began to gather. They all start to callin’ out to him. “Why Billy Joe McAllister, that you?” “Where you been, boy?” “Praise the Lord, I don’t believe my eyes.” The more things started to rustle, the more folks come gatherin’ ‘round the boy. Old Sheriff Heffield came walkin’ up, too. And good thing, ‘cause Billy Joe had enough of starin’ The Wizard in the eye right then and, sure as you please, just hauled off and pounded him in the jaw. Sent him to the ground.
Billy was yellin’, “You left me there, you Humbug. You fake, you lyin’ liar.”
The Wizard tried to protect himself best he could, but there seemed to be a lot of years of angry in Billy Joe McAllister. I could see The Wizard tryin’ to talk, but Billy Joe wasn’t havin’ none of it. He was about to give The Wizard a kick right in the side of that fancy vest he was wearin’ before Sheriff Heffield grabbed him. The sherriff yelled, “Hey, boy, now you stop actin’ like you ain’t got any brains at all.”
Billy Joe was still kickin’ up a fuss at The Wizard. “You’re a …you’re a bad man, a very bad man.”
When Billy Joe backed a mite away, The Wizard caught his breath a little and had his say. “No, I’m a very good man. I’m just a very bad wizard.” The old man was huffin’ and puffin’. “I didn’t leave you, my boy. You left me. You jumped out of the basket. The ropes were already loosened. It was a highly irregular procedure. I couldn’t stop the balloon.”
“Lyin’ liar,” Billy Joe yelled.
“No, son. That’s just exactly what happened. Why I had every intention of granting your wish, to take you home. My boy, you made it impossible. You know, once the ropes were loosened, up it went. I told you I didn’t know how to stop that thing.”
Billy Joe had his finger pointin’ right in The Wizard’s face. “I yelled come back.”
“Well, anyone with a brain would know that yelling couldn’t stop a balloon of that magnitude. Why, you could have gathered up the courage to leap into the basket instead of standing there like some pusillanimous creature.”
“What’d you call me?”
“Um, uh, buh..never mind,” the Wizard waved his hand. “Never mind.”
Fury steamed out of Billy Joe like breath from a bull. His arms were stiff as firewood, stickin’ straight out from his sides. His hands balled into big, tight fists the size of new melons. Sherrif Heffield was tellin’ Billy Joe McAllister to back away from the old man, but Billy Joe paid him no mind. Folks kept yellin’ at Billy Joe. “Where’d you go, son?” “How’d you get back here?” “Why you been gone so long?” He never even looked in their direction. He did look up, though, when he heard a dog bark and the sound of a voice as familiar to him as his own sweet mama’s. There she was, Dorothy Gale came runnin’ and callin’ for him. Dorothy and Billy Joe was sweethearts before the twister. Town gossips was sayin’ Billy Joe McAllister jumped off that Tallahatchie Bridge ‘cause Dorothy was plannin’ to leave town, leave him, leave everythin’, except her dog, Toto. That girl took her dog everywhere. Had a special basket just for him, too.
I swear, the very day Dorothy, her Aunt Em, and Uncle Henry moved here, Billy Joe McAllister’s heart was fixed on the girl. Her family lost all they had in a twister back in Kansas. Worse, the girl lost her mama and daddy in that twister, too. Her aunt and uncle were the only folks she had left in the world. So Em and Henry and the girl came here to Mississippi to start over. Laid down a new farm with some pigs, chickens, horses, the like. It was one of their farmhands, Hunk…no Hickory…no, was Zeke…I think Zeke’s McAllister’s uncle…he brought his nephew to the farm one day as an extra hand to mend the pig pen. The girl, Dorothy, was around and climbin’ up on somethin’ she ought not to be climbin’ on and toppled down into the pen. Zeke was about to jump in and grab the girl, but Billy Joe jumped in first. Not a too romantic a start, but there you have it. From that day on, these two youngins was tight as a harness. And that was a whole new bucket of trouble. Dorothy’s people didn’t like the boy. Henry said Billy Joe McAllister never had a lick of sense.
Billy Joe McAllister and Dorothy went sneakin’ ‘round in order to be together. Folks knew. They’d seen ‘em over in Choctaw Ridge, on the grass by the delta, behind the sawmill, over in Carroll County at the picture show, here and there. Folks gossip. Now, I ain’t never found out the truth ‘bout this, but the bit that had people chirpin’ like newborn chicks is when Brother Taylor said he seen Dorothy and Billy Joe McAllister throwin’ something off the Tallahatchie Bridge. A few days later, the McAllister boy jumped, and we got hit by that twister.
Every day after, Dorothy Gale went up to that bridge all hours, sometimes, skippin’ school just to pick flowers and throw ‘em off the Tallahatchie Bridge into the muddy water. If anybody gonna be knocked to the ground seein’ Billy Jo McAllister back here in these parts, I’d say it’s the Gale girl.
So, anyways, was no surprise Billy Joe McAllister forgot all about The Wizard right then at the fairgrounds with his sweetheart comin’ up on him.
Dorothy Gale put her little dog down and was fixed there like a scarecrow. When Billy Joe made his way over to Dorothy Gale, the sheriff followed. It was dead quiet. I could hear the buzzin’ in the hive two trees over. Folks’ ears was leanin’ in to hear what these two were ‘bout to say.
Dorothy looked that boy right in the eye. “You coward.” She started to cryin’. “Why did you leave? You heartless–”
“No, no.” Billy Joe wiped her tears with his big, dirty thumb. “I sure have a heart.” He put his hands on Dorothy’s shoulders. “Oh, I know I have a heart ‘cause it’s breakin’. Right now, it’s breakin’ just seein’ how much I missed you.”
The Gale girl, well, it seemed her knees gave out, and there she was sittin’ in the dust, her pinafore dress puffed around her, and her little dog jumpin’ up on her.
Billy Joe plopped right down next to her. “I’m gonna tell you everythin’, baby girl. You probably won’t believe me, but if I have to, I’ll grab that weasel Wizard over there,” Billy Joe pointed behind him, “to back me up. I got one crazy story to tell. Where I was, I seen a cryin’ tin man, a talkin’ lion, flyin’ monkeys, lots o’ witches–one of ‘em was a good witch who got around in a bubble–and a whole town full of little people. Some of them had lollipops big as a peach bushel.”
From the look on Dorothy Gale’s face I can’t say she was believin’ any of it. Can’t say I blame her.
Billy Joe McAllister moved a bit closer to Dorothy. Thought he might give the girl a kiss, right there in front of the whole town. But he just had more talkin’ to do. “Let’s go somewhere, where I can tell ya everythin’.” He turned to the sheriff and gave him one of those excuse-me looks. Sheriff actually took a few steps back. Then, Billy Joe grabbed both Dorothy’s hands in his. I walked in a little closer to hear. Billy Joe said to her, “Our bridge. Walk with me to the Tallahatchie like we used to.” Billy Joe looked around. “There’s the road. C’mon, baby girl. We’ll follow that brick road to our spot.”
Now I know if her Uncle Henry or Aunt Em was there, she wouldn’t go a step with Billy Joe McAllister. But they was nowhere in sight. Em, God rest her soul, passed on. Somethin’ with her heart. Collapsed on her bed a few months after the twister and went to meet her maker. Ol’ Henry, well, since Em passed, he don’t come out much. Stays back and tends his farm waitin’ to be with Em again, so Brother Taylor tells.
Dorothy Gale pulled herself up starin’ into Billy Joe’s eyes like he was magic. For a minute there, I thought the girl would forget her dog, but she scooped up Toto, and the three of them went strollin’ out the fairgrounds headed for the brick road. They passed right by me, and I heard Billy Joe say to her, “Baby girl, I been over the rainbow, and it was pretty, but it weren’t nowhere as pretty as you. I kept tellin’ everybody that I just wanna go home. Walk with me, baby girl, and I’ll tell ya the whole truth.”
Sure as corn is yellow, seemed like she was about to walk off with that boy, but she stopped right quick and said plain and loud, “No.” Well, the McAllister boy looked like he’d just been knocked in the head with a sack of flour. The girl put her little dog down, and she had a right more to say. “Aunt Em always told me to find a place where I won’t get into any trouble. And you’re trouble, Billy Joe McAllister. You can keep your truth and your stories and brick road and that wicked old bridge. I’m staying right here. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Just then, that scrawny fella Dorothy had been keepin’ company with for some time came walkin’ up to the fairgrounds. Tall and lanky, he is. Hair like straw. Clothes a mite raggedy, patches here and there. Not too steady on his legs. Walks like he was full of moonshine, but he never touches the stuff, far as I know. Think he’s just weak in the knees. They’re always givin’ out on the poor fella. Wears a strange, pointed hat with a rope band, and every time I see him, I can’t help but remember the ol’ scarecrow that used to stand guard at the Gossett’s farm back before the twister. Anyways, Dorothy waved to him then turned back to Billy Joe McAllister. She picked up her dog’s paw and said, “Say good bye, Toto.” Turned around and walked right away from Billy Joe, headed straight for the scrawny fella.
Well, I don’t know exactly where the McAllister boy had been all this time, but from the look on him right then, I believe he wished he was back there. I’m supposin’ there’s no place like home wasn’t ringin’ true for Billy Joe McAllister.
Just then, Billy Joe ambled on over to the Wizard. Thought for sure he was set to bring his fist to the ol’ man’s face again. Guess the sherrif thought the same. He walked right behind Billy Joe. Folks started to back away, but Billy Joe just hung his head. Never even turned once to get a last look at the Gale girl. He set to cryin’. Yep, the boy broke down right there in front of the ol’ Wizard and his balloon basket. The Wizard pulled over a bound hay bale. He put his hands on the boy’s shoulders. “Sit, my boy.”
McAllister dropped onto that bale like he was ‘bout to melt right into it. “Take me back there.” Billy Joe buried his face in his hands. “Get me out of here.”
Plain to see the Wizard was as surprised as a bingo winner in the church hall. He was playin’ with that floppy bow tie of his and lookin’ flustered. “My boy, you don’t know what you are asking.”
“I sure do. I wanna go back.”
“But that won’t be possible.”
Billy Joe looked up at the ol’ man. “Lyin’ liar.”
“No, my boy. I mean…”
“You mean we’re going back.” The McAllister boy leaped into the basket and began to untie the ropes himself.
“Stop! You don’t know what you’re doing!” The Wizard ran right over. Didn’t think the ol’ man could move that fast. “See here!”
Billy Joe paid him no mind and went right on unrolling those ropes. When one side of the basket started to lift, the Wizard grabbed onto it and threw one leg over the side and tumbled inside himself. The ol’ Wizard bobbed around like a loose row boat for a bit there. When he got his footing, he set to wavin’ to the crowd. “Good bye, folks.” He was smiling.’ But heck, that weren’t no real smile. Looked right scared to me. “This is highly irregular,” the ol’ man yelled. The Wizard kept right on wavin’, but the McAllister boy didn’t look at not even one of us standin’ in the fairground’s dust below him. Looked right somber, the boy did, for someone soaring through the sky.
Wonder how long he’ll be gone this time.
© 2023 Maureen Mancini Amaturo All rights reserved.
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