A Question of Mercy by Elizabeth Cox Page A

She had been stunned to see the ike Ike sticker on the bumper. That’s when Jess became more vigilant, and wished she had something better than just scissors.
    At a garage repair shop near Dalton, Georgia, Jess used the restroom to wash thoroughly with soap and water. She chopped off her hair to barely shoulder length and pulled it back into a short ponytail. She decided to buy crackers or chewing gum but, as she rounded the corner of the station, she saw a state police car and two troopers talking to the owner. They stood with feet apart, looking staunch and immoveable. They blocked the door to the station.
    Too late to turn around , she thought. I need to go in, as though nothing is wrong .
    She squeezed by the men and walked toward the rack of crackers and gum. The men looked her over—with pleasure, she felt, more than suspicion. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a man’s plaid shirt from somebody’s clothesline. Her hair, still wet, was clean, and she smelled like soap.
    â€œYou’re new around here,” one trooper said, smiling.
    â€œJust passing through,” Jess told him. “I’m staying with some folks down the road.” She hoped they wouldn’t ask for a name. On the wall calendar, next to the phone, a girl in a red bathing suit sat on the hood of a car. She held a Coca-Cola bottle near her breast. The day was May 29, 1953.
    The owner was listening to a radio broadcast, and turned it up.
    The body of a young man was found in the French Broad River fifty miles from his home in Goshen, North Carolina. The cause of death was drowning. The man, identified as Adam Finney, was almost twenty years old. His body floated downriver for four days before he was found by a passer-by who said that he saw the young man’s body lodged against a tree. His clothes were torn and he had lost one shoe .
    â€œCould I:
    The mother, Clementine Finney, claimed that the boy was retarded, and that he had disappeared the day before he was being committed to the Cadwell Institution, near Raleigh, North Carolina. When asked if the death could have been a suicide, Mrs. Finney said no, she did not think so. The young man had been with his step-sister, Jess Booker, who has also been missing since that day. Miss Booker is seventeen years old. The police are searching for her now .
    Jess wondered if this day might be the end of her running. She felt slight relief at the thought of regular food, or shelter—even in a jail cell.
    The cause of death was drowning, but the coroner is looking for any other signs of trauma. No suspects have been named. Anyone knowing any information about this incident, please call your local police station .
    As Jess paid for the packs of gum she could not make her hand let go of the two nickels, then she dropped them; but as she leaned down to pick them up, her eyes went blind for a moment. She brushed her hand on the floor to find the nickels; then stood, not even blinking. She handed the man the change and reached to take the packages of Juicy Fruit. She opened one stick of gum and moved it to her lips. While tasting its sweetness, her sight came back; but her mind quivered. As she left the repair shop, she felt herself moving quickly past the two troopers; but, in truth, she moved deliberately, like a turtle—one slow step, then another.
    She imagined Adam’s shy face floating above the water. She saw his muddy shoes, his hair fixed flat against his head. Then her mind saw himrunning down the stairs to dinner, hiding in the yard with his dog, or letting a blue balloon float across the river. Her mind held images like a box of coins.
    A woman drove up in a large Studebaker with the engine smoking and the car making a grinding sound. She screeched to a stop in front of the troopers. “Looks like you got some work ahead of you there, Charlie,” one said, pointing to the smoking car. They told Charlie goodbye, and did not look back. As Jess left, she heard