The Legacy

The Legacy

Jesse Weeks and his wife, Delores, who lived in Summerville, South Carolina, had just finished dinner when Jesse’s cell phone rang.

On the cell phone screen, it read “Private” and Jesse was ready to decline the call, as he did with all calls where he did not recognize the number.

But something told him to answer this call.

“Hello.”

“Hello,” said the voice on the other end, “is this Jesse Weeks?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Mr. Weeks, my name is Robert Witherspoon, Charles Conyers gave me your name.”

“Charles from Sumter?”

“Yes. I’ve been recently working on my family history. Charles said he thought you and I may be related and that you might be able to answer some questions I have, since I don’t know a hell of a lot.” said Robert.

“Well, how is Charles doing and how do you know him?”

“He’s doing quite well. We have a mutual friend who lives here in Philadelphia. They went to South Carolina State together. His name is James Robinson. I don’t know if you know him too.”

“Can’t say that I do. Well, at my age, my memory isn’t all that great. Did your family come from South Carolina? From Pinewood?”

“Yes, as far as I’ve been able to piece together. My great grand father’s name was Rufus Witherspoon and my grandfather’s name was Samuel Witherspoon. My father, Edward Witherspoon and his twin brother Frank, moved to Philadelphia at an early age and for some reason they never kept in contact with their South Carolina roots,” said Robert.

“So, what is it that you’re looking to find out?”

“Well, when we were growing up, my Dad would never answer questions about his parents. It was a taboo subject and I often wondered why. It was as if there was some deep dark secret everyone was trying to keep. Did you know any of my family from Pinewood? said Robert.

“Yes, I knew your family well.” said Jesse.

“So, do you know anything about all of this mystery?” said Robert.

“Do you have kids Robert?”

“Yes, I have two boys.”

“Have you ever visited Pinewood?”

“Yes, I have, and I was even able to find the church graveyard, New Hope, where most of my family was buried. I tracked down some of the older church members living there but really didn’t get answers to any of my questions.”

“Yes, there is a lot of history in that cemetery- quiet history. Have you ever considered that your family may have had their reasons for not talking about certain things? I’ve learned over my lifetime that sometimes it’s better to let sleeping dogs lie. We have enough problems dealing with our current issues rather than digging up stuff from the past,” said Jesse.

“You may be right, but this keeps gnawing at me and I need to find out what I can.

“Well, I still have a lot of family in Pinewood including some old folk. I’ll drive down there and talk to some folks and see if there’s a real mystery or not. I’ll get back to you,” said Jesse.

“Thank you so much and I hope I wasn’t too much of a bother.”

“Not at all, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Who was that and what was that all about,” said Delores, who had been eavesdropping on one end of the conversation.

“That was a cousin of mine.”

“I didn’t hear you tell him you were cousins.”

“No, because I didn’t want him to know what I know about his family. I’ve got to think about how I want to handle this,” said Jesse.

“Handle what?”

“Well it’s one of those family secrets that everyone has sort of agreed never to talk about.”

“Not even to a wife? Whatever happened must have happened a hundred years ago and who the hell cares. Most of your family is dead anyway and these young kids sure as hell don’t care.”

“Well, I care. We’ve managed to keep it quiet for all these years and I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag now.”

“Now you’ve got me all worked up. you’re going to tell me what the story is or else!”

“Well ok. But I’m warning you if you breathe a word of it, I’m going to have to kill you.”

“Really,” said Delores.

“Well to cut to the chase, Robert’s father and uncle are not Witherspoons at all.

Their family name is Coakley and their father was Henry Coakley and their mother was Rebecca. Rebecca and Samuel’s wife, Helen, were sisters.

Now I hear Henry Coakley was a son of a bitch and he and Rebecca had what you might call a rocky marriage. He was a heavy drinker, a womanizer and an abuser. But Rebecca was known to be give him a run for his money and always protective of her boys.”

“And Edward and Frank grew up in that household?’ said Delores.

“Yes.”

“The story is one Saturday night, Henry, in a drunken stupor got into a fight with Rebecca which was more violent than their usual fights. Rebecca fearing for her life picked up a butcher knife to defend herself. Henry blind with rage struck her and she fell over hitting her head against the stove,” said Jesse.

“Oh, my God!” said Delores.

“They say the boys having witnessed what happened ran a few doors down to the Witherspoons and told them what had happened. Samuel picked up his shot gun and told the boys to get the Sheriff.

He returned to the house to find Henry sitting at the kitchen table sobbing profusely and murmuring, “I didn’t mean to kill her!”

“Did he shoot the son of a bitch?" said Delores.

“No, he just made sure he didn’t leave until the Sheriff arrived.”

When the Sheriff arrived, he handcuffed Henry and took him off to jail and the Coroner removed the body. Samuel took the boys back to his house.

A couple of days later they say, Henry Coakley showed up at the Witherspoon’s house. Rebecca’s death had been ruled accidental.

“I’ve come here for my boys,” he said.

“Henry, if you think Helen and I are going to let you put these boys back in that hell hole, you’re crazy! They’re going to stay with us.”

“They’re my sons. not yours!”

“We ain’t going to stay with you,” yelled Edward, “you killed our mother!”

“So, get off my porch. It won’t take much for me to blow your brains out,” said Samuel. “And don’t come back.”

“Don’t worry,” said young Frank, “he definitely won’t be back.”

So, the Witherspoons changed Edward and Frank’s name to Witherspoon and raised them as their sons.

“So, what’s the mystery?” said Delores.

“Well, it’s said Henry went back to his house and after a week he was never seen again,” said Jesse.

“Did anyone say what happened to him?” said Delores.

“No, but my Dad says his Dad remembers seeing Edward and Frank carrying something out of the Cokeley house down to the wood yard, but he never told a soul.

“Wow, do you plan to tell your cousin any of this?”

“No way, there’s an old Latin phrase ‘quieta non movere’ which means- do not move settled things- and that’s my position.”

“Well, I promise you my lips are sealed,” said Delores