As Nurse Thompson led the way into the children’s ward, her stern face melted into a smile. She stroked a baby’s face as she passed her crib, perhaps only a comforting touch or a quick check for fever. In a different crib, she tucked a blanket around a sleeping child. The little boy’s bed was in the back of the room beside a window.
“Hello, Billy,” Nurse Thompson said. “Somebody’s here to see you.”
“Ma?” The child pushed up in bed to look toward the door.
“No, but I’m sure you’ll see her soon. This is Danny.” The little boy’s face fell as Nurse Thompson gestured toward Piper.
Piper pushed a big smile out on her face as she pulled a chair over beside the bed. “Hi, Billy. You care if I sit with you awhile?”
“I reckon you can sit wherever you want. They ain’t my chairs.”
“Be nice, Billy. Danny just got here from the city and she doesn’t know a thing about the mountains. She needs you to help her.” Nurse Thompson tapped Piper’s shoulder. “Somebody will be around if you need anything.”
Piper kept smiling as the little boy’s bright blue eyes zeroed in on her with some suspicion. His light brown hair lapped over his forehead to tickle his eyebrows. He seemed small for six, but kids came in all sizes. A bandage covered his left leg below the knee. On his arm, ridges of puckered red skin looked as if they might still be tender.
“I’m Danny.” She might as well get used to the name.
He didn’t smile. “The nurse done told me that. Where you from?”
“Louisville. I had to ride a train to get here.”
“I ain’t never been on a train, but I saw one once in a picture. I ain’t never been nowhere but here and where I live up in the hills.” He scooted back in his bed until he was leaning against the metal headboard. He grimaced but didn’t cry out when he shifted his leg. After he got settled, he asked, “You ever been up high on a hill?”
“Not until I got here. I rode a horse over some hills between here and Hazard.”
“Pa’s been to Hazard. Didn’t like it. Said it was too crowded with people practically pushing against one another. ’Bout like in here.” Billy looked over at the cribs where one little child still slept and the other kicked her feet and made the crib rattle. “Said he’d rather be up on our hill.”
“Must be a good place.” Piper smiled. “That hill. Why don’t you tell me what to expect when I go up in the mountains?”
“They’s steep. That’s what a feller needs to remember. My grandpa says sometimes they is so steep that if’n you aren’t careful, you can fall right off a path and roll clear back down to the holler, where you’ll have to start up the hill all over again. I ain’t never had that happen to me. I make sure to hug the ground.”
“That sounds like a good idea. I’ll hope my horse is sure-footed when I come up your way.”
That caught his interest. “If’n you go anytime soon, will you come get me? I wouldn’t mind going up home on a horse. My pa brought me down on his mule. Spec, he’s a right nice mule, but you can’t hurry him up. Not like some horses I’ve seen out the window here that flat-out run. That must be a fine way to get somewhere.”
“You’ve seen cars too, haven’t you?” The road came up to the hospital.
“I seen them, but ain’t no way they is ever going to make it up the hill to my house. Pa says they can run in creeks, but not straight up hills. Too many trees in the way. But a horse could make it.”
“I suppose you’re right about that.”
“Right as rain. ’Course some of the time we just have to shank’s-mare it if’n we want to go somewhere. Like to Grandpa’s house over the way.”
“Shank’s-mare?”
“You don’t know what shank’s-mare means?” A little smile sneaked out on Billy’s face as if he’d gotten something over on her.
Piper shook her head. “Afraid not. But I hope you’ll tell me.”
Billy actually laughed. A sweet little-boy giggle. “It means you ain’t got no horse and you’re gonna have to get wherever you go by walking on your own two feet. That’s how my grandpa goes everywhere. Says the good Lord give him feet, and a horse would just eat him out of house and home. He needs a mule, he borrows Spec.”
“Your grandpa sounds like a smart guy.” Piper smiled. “I hope I get to meet him someday.”
Billy’s face lit up even more. “You can.”
“Oh?”
“When you take me home on your horse. We can go by Grandpa’s house first.”
“Well, I might not be here when you’re ready to go home.” The little boy’s bottom lip jutted out a bit, so Piper hurried on. What difference did it make to let the boy have fun thinking about it? “You wouldn’t want to have to wait on me. But if I am around, we can see what the doctor says. Okay?”
“I reckon.” He pushed at his bandage.
“Nurse says not to bother that.” Piper gently touched his arm. “Might hurt if you do.”
“Did hurt. I was kilt. Not kilt dead, but ’bout that way. That’s why Pa brought me down here and said I had to be big and do whatever the doctor said. Dr. Jack, he gives me some sucking candy when he changes the bandage. Don’t hurt like it did, but I frown some anyhow so’s he’ll still give me the candy.” Billy suddenly looked a little worried. “You won’t tell him that, will you?”
Piper pulled her finger over her lips like she was zipping them. “My lips are sealed.”
That brought back Billy’s smile as he took his hand away from his bandage to make the same gesture across his lips. “Mine too.”
He was quiet a minute. “Does that mean we can’t never say nothing ever again?”
Piper laughed. “That would be too hard for me. I like to talk to people, don’t you?”
The little boy nodded. “Especially to my grandpa.”
“So, we can talk, but just not about that certain thing you want to keep secret. Have you ever kept a secret?”
Billy scrunched up his shoulders and squinted his eyes. “I can’t tell you.”
“That’s the perfect way to keep a secret.” Piper kept her face serious.
“I told you a secret.” He gave her a curious look. “You oughta tell me one.”
“Hmm. That does sound only fair. Let’s see.” Piper thought a minute. “Don’t tell anybody, but the first time I got on a horse, I was really, really scared.”
“Did you fall off?”
“I hung on to the reins and the horse’s mane and pretended I wasn’t afraid. Nobody knew. Well, except the horse. Horses always know, but this was a nice horse and he just kept walking the way he was supposed to, like I was guiding him instead of being petrified.”
“Pet-tri-fide?” Billy said the word slowly and frowned. “What’s that mean?”
“So scared you can’t move.” Piper held out her arms and froze them in place.
“But the horse moved.”
“He wasn’t scared. He was probably laughing inside at the silly person on his back.”
“You reckon horses can laugh?” Billy wrinkled his brow thinking about that.
“Sure. They curl their lips back, show their teeth, and shake their heads at you. But this horse didn’t do that. Good thing too. If he’d shaken his head, I might have fallen off.”
“You ever really fall off a horse?”
“A time or two. It happens, but that was after I wasn’t scared anymore.”
“How did you get over being skeered?”
“I just kept getting on horses until I wasn’t scared anymore. But I wouldn’t want anybody to know what a scaredy-cat I used to be.”
“Can you ride good now?”
“Pretty good. But you will keep my secret, won’t you?”
Billy ran his finger over his lips. “I ain’t telling nobody.”
“Telling anybody what?”
Piper had been so intent on talking to Billy she hadn’t noticed the doctor coming into the room. She looked up at him. “Billy and I were just talking about secrets. Nothing important, right, Billy?”
“Nope.” Billy put his hand over his mouth, but his eyes were smiling.
“I see.” The doctor smiled too. “So who’s your friend here?”
Billy took his hand away from his mouth and peeked at Piper. “I don’t reckon that’s a secret, is it?”
“Not at all. I’m a new courier. Piper Danson, but they’re all calling me Danny.” Piper stood up to face the doctor. He was a few inches taller than her and slim. His brown hair was going gray at his temples and a few wrinkles gathered around his blue eyes. He had a pair of glasses propped on top of his head. “Nurse Thompson said I could talk to Billy for a while.”
“Well, it appears the two of you had plenty to talk about. I’m Dr. Jack.” The doctor smiled at Piper and then looked back at Billy. “Time to make sure your leg is doing all right, Billy. You ready?”
Billy flashed a look at Piper before he pulled a sad face. “I don’t know, Dr. Jack. I’m skeered it’ll kill me.”
The doctor reached in his pocket. “Maybe something sweet will help.” He held out a piece of candy.
“I’m thinking it might.” Billy took the candy and popped it into his mouth. He looked as pleased as the cat that swallowed the canary.
“Tell you what,” the doctor said. “Since Danny is here, why don’t you let her hold your hands while I give your leg a look?”
The doctor nodded at Piper, and she took the little boy’s hands. The doctor gently cut the bandage and lifted it away. Piper managed not to shudder at the sight of the wound. A nurse came up beside the bed with a pan of water and new gauze. She smiled over at Piper.
“You must be the new courier, Danny. I’m Nurse Greene. I see you’ve met our Billy. He’s quite the brave little guy, aren’t you, Billy?”
The doctor took a cloth and gently bathed Billy’s leg. This time his grimace didn’t look at all pretend as he gripped Piper’s hands tighter.
“Almost through, Billy.” The doctor patted the leg dry and spread a salve over it.
“Can I go home now?” Billy asked.
“Not yet. But maybe soon.”
“Can Danny take me on her horse?” Billy looked from Piper to the doctor.
Piper shrugged a little when the doctor looked at her. “He asked a while ago. I told him I might not be around at the right time, but if I was, he could ask the doctor. I guess he’s ready to ask now.”
Dr. Jack laughed. “Seems like he might be. Well, Billy, we’ll have to wait and see about that. Danny might be off at Redbird Creek when you get ready to go home.” He glanced back at Piper. “What did you say your last name was?”
“Danson. That’s why they’re calling me Danny.”
“I met a girl named Danson once. In Louisville a long time ago.” He began carefully wrapping Billy’s leg. “I just happened to be visiting my cousin, and he wanted to go to this party. So I tagged along. I met the most remarkable girl that night.” He got a soft smile on his face.
Could he be talking about Truda? Or perhaps some other girl named Danson. Did she dare ask?
He went on. “It was something like that fairy tale ‘Cinderella.’ We were at the ball and saw nobody but each other. But we didn’t dance and she didn’t run away and lose her glass slipper.”
“That’s a dumb story,” Billy spoke up. “You’d be plain stupid to wear glass shoes.”
Dr. Jack smiled. “Doesn’t sound too practical with the trails we have to travel, does it, Billy boy?”
“Or doing jigs,” Billy said.
“We didn’t do any jigging. Just sat and talked. Can’t remember a time I felt that good talking to a girl. I was always backward with girls.”
“Come now, Dr. Jack,” Nurse Greene said. “We all love you.”
“But none of you ever wanted to marry me.”
“Did this girl?” the nurse asked.
“We only met that one time, but I liked to imagine she would have.”
“She must have kept you imagining about her since you never found another girl.” The nurse teased him.
“You all keep me too busy to go courting.” He fastened the last end of the bandage. “Folks getting sick. Boys like Billy having accidents and wanting to ride a horse with a pretty girl.” He lowered his voice to a pretend whisper. “You might be too old for her, Billy.”
“Oh, Doc.” Billy yanked his hands away from Piper’s. “I ain’t wantin’ no girlfriend. I jest want to ride a horse.”
“That’s good thinking, Billy.” Piper winked at Billy, then looked at Dr. Jack. Her curiosity got the best of her. She had to ask. “What was that girl’s first name? Do you remember?”
“Oh yes, I remember.” He stared out the window and smiled as if seeing something none of the rest of them could see. “Truda. Truda Danson.”