Page 21 of Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Book
“What?” Darlene asked.
“Well, the guys who attacked you can’t go unpunished. I respect your decision, and I understand why you don’t want to go to the police. But would you allow me to make sure they think twice before raping another girl?”
The ten Troy High School cheerleaders stood side by side at the game that Friday, in front of the entire town. Only three people were missing from the stadium. Randy Sykes, Brian Frizzell, and Jason Johnson. They’d beenwarned by the captain of the football team himself that their presence that Friday—or any other—would not be tolerated. For the rest of the year, they slunk through the halls and avoided all parties, hiding from the cheerleaders, who made their life hell, and the linemen, who kicked their asses for sport.
Darlene and Matt’s first date had been a double date with Trip and Beverly. Then Beverly got her father to recommend Darlene for a summer job at the courthouse that paid three times what the ice cream shop did. When Darlene needed recommendation letters for colleges, Beverly and her mother called in a dozen favors. With the help of the Wainwrights, Matt and Darlene both won scholarships to Chapel Hill. Darlene went on to medical school, where she studied psychiatry. She and Matt lived in a lovely house in Savannah with their gorgeous twin girls.
The sad irony was, Darlene made it out of Troy, but Beverly never did. Her mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and Beverly dropped out of college to nurse her. Three years later, her mother died and Beverly called Darlene to say she was pregnant. After she and Trip married, Beverly took care of baby Lindsay while her husband went to law school. When he graduated, they settled in Troy, where Beverly spent her days organizing bake sales, fundraisers, and luncheons for the town’s charities.
Beverly didn’t change Troy. There was only so much one person could do, even if they were Beverly Underwood. But there was no doubt at all that she had saved Darlene’s life. And though she had never—not once—asked for anything in return, Darlene had been waiting nearly thirty years for an opportunity to pay her back.
Darlene’s twin girls, Eleanor and Julia, were now the age she had been that night at the lake. She’d never told them what had happened. She knew she wasn’t protecting them by hiding the truth, but she just hadn’t been able to find the words. She discovered them on a family trip to Troy.
Her mother died a year after Darlene graduated from college, but Matt’s mother still lived in the house where he and his brother grew up. Darlene and her brood visited several times a year. Ordinarily, these were peaceful trips. Darlene adored her mother-in-law, Margaret, who’d been the nurse at the elementary school for four decades. But this year, sweet eighty-year-old Margaret Honeywell, who was still in possession ofalmostall of her marbles, could hardly sit still, she was so consumed with rage. One of the very worst children she’d ever had the misfortune to know was plundering the local libraries and making off with important books.
It took Darlene a moment to realize that the “child” to whom Margaret was referring was, in fact, forty-three-year-old Lula Dean. It took a bit longer to explain to Margaret why she was laughing.
“I’m not kidding around. She is awful,” Margaret told them. “I hate to say such things about a child, I really do. But I worked with a lot of tough kids. Thieves and liars and bullies and malingerers. I tried my best to love every one of them. But I couldn’t find it in my heart to love Lula Dean. That child is Satan’s seed.”
Darlene didn’t know much about Lula—only that Beverly Underwood had never cared for her, either. The year they cheered together, Beverly wouldn’t let Lula anywhere near her. Darlene couldn’t recall Beverly ever mentioning what had inspired such hatred, and Darlene had never bothered to ask. As far as Lula’s personality was concerned, it seemed like there were plenty of loathsome qualities to choose from.
Margaret Honeywell’s greatest disdain had been reserved for Lula’s library. “That fool went and bought a bunch of crap at a used bookstore, shoved it into a cabinet, and is passing herself off as a great philanthropist. You know what I saw in there?The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette.Can you believe it? My generation had to fight like hell to get rid of gloves, hats, and pantyhose, and now Lula Dean wants to bring it all back? I am not giving up pants. I don’t care what that horrible woman says!”
Following the rant, Margaret’s two granddaughters immediately set outacross town to see what all the fuss was about. When they returned, they brought a book with them.
“Mom,” Julia said. “We went to that Lula lady’s little library. The Southern belle book was gone, so Eleanor picked this one.”
She held up a copy of a book,The Clue in the Diary.On the cover, titian-haired Nancy Drew ran from a burning building while a man hid in the bushes.
“Yes, I’m sure Lula thinks all fifteen-year-old girls should stick to reading books written a hundred years ago,” Darlene said. “Though I don’t remember ever seeinghertouch a book back in the day.”
“I don’t think she touched this one, either.” Julia handed her motherThe Clue in the Diary.“When we opened it up, there was another book inside. We think it’s one of the books on the banned book list Grandma showed us.”
“Weknowit was banned,” Eleanor corrected her sister. “We found a clip online where Lula Dean called it pornographic.”
“Really?” Darlene took off the dust jacket. The title of the book was emblazoned on the front.Speak. She recognized the title. Troy wasn’t the first town to have banned the young-adult book about a girl who’d been raped. “Do you mind if I look through this?” she asked her daughters. “I’ll give it back to you as soon as I’m done.”
“You don’t need to,” Julia said. “We’ve already read it.”
When Darlene finished, she was glad they had. She’d never censored her conversations with her girls, but she hadn’t been able to prepare them for the reality of rape. The worst thing you could do as a parent, she thought, was to shield young women from the ugliness of the world—then blame them when they did not see it coming. Darlene knew the time had come. She needed to tell her girls everything.
The next day, Darlene sat down and wrote her own story. She left nothing out but the names of individuals. But she included all the details peoplein Troy would need to identify those responsible for hurting her. No villains were spared, not even her mother. No detail was too minor. Everything Darlene remembered went down on the page. And when she was done, Darlene posted the story on her Facebook account. Then she walked to the kitchen, poured herself a giant glass of red wine, and guzzled it. Then she poured herself another.
By the time she got back to the computer, the post had blown up. Her phone, which she’d left on the desk, was ringing. She wasn’t surprised. Two years earlier, Randy Sykes had been elected Troy’s mayor. Jason Johnson owned a successful software company in Memphis, and Brian Frizzell was dead of an opioid overdose.
Darlene ignored the first three calls. Then Beverly’s number appeared on the screen.
“You did it,” she said when Darlene answered. “I’m so proud of you.”
“I was worried it might be too late to make any difference.”
“It’s never too late,” Beverly said.
“For you, either,” Darlene reminded her.
Chapter 10
Secret Keeper Girl
