CHAPTER
three
“Dolly, m’dear,” Si called into the kitchen, where his wife was making a fresh pitcher of lemonade.
“In here, Si.”
“Come with me. I’ve got somethin’ to show you.”
She followed him through the dining room and into the front hallway, where he stopped. “We’re goin’ into the parlor,” he whispered. “But don’t say nothin’ while we’re in there because the windows are open. I just want you to see what Anna and Jesse are doin’ on the porch.”
Dolly and Si walked quietly into the front parlor, where they could look out the windows and see Anna and Jesse sitting next to each other in rocking chairs. The young couple would go for minutes on end rocking in silence before one of them would make a feeble attempt at conversation and the other would struggle to reciprocate.
“Did you enjoy the message today?” Anna asked.
“I did. He’s a good preacher.”
Silence.
“What did you think of the music?” he asked.
“Oh, I loved it. Never heard anything quite that lively in church.”
Si motioned for Dolly to follow him back to the kitchen where they could talk.
“That was downright painful to watch,” Dolly said.
“I know. What we gonna do about it?”
“I don’t know what we can do. Those two have plumb forgot how to talk to one another.”
“Mm-hmm,” Si said.
“Why, they’ve got no idea how to enjoy each other anymore.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“And they’re young! They ought to be havin’ the best time!”
“Tell you what. Let’s take ’em to the slough. We’ll be away from everybody else, enjoyin’ some of the prettiest spots in the county. Maybe if we can give ’em somethin’ to talk about, we can help ’em find their way to a conversation. And them rocks in the creek’s mighty slippery. He’ll prob’ly need to hold her hand.”
Si, Dolly, Jesse, and Anna left their shoes on the creek bank and stepped into clear, cold water that was about a foot deep. The creek bottom was ideal—soft but firm enough so that you didn’t mire up.
As they reached a shallower stretch of the creek, Si said, “Dolly, you’d best hold my hand goin’ over these slippery rocks—wouldn’t want you to twist your ankle or anything.” Dolly took his hand and glanced over her shoulder just in time to see Jesse taking Anna’s.
“This is the prettiest creek I’ve ever seen!” Anna exclaimed.
“It sure is a nice one, Si,” Jesse agreed.
The Tanyard was a beauty, crystal-clear water seamlessly flowing from deep to shallow and back again, accommodating a lush, wooded landscape as it drifted along. The section they were wading now was far beyond the lake. Here the water was shallow and swift, flowing over flat rocks as big as coffee tables.
“Right up yonder around that bend, there’s a little slough that’s great for fishin’—or swimmin’, dependin’ on your mood,” Si told Jesse over his shoulder.
As they neared the slough, Dolly winked at her husband and said, “You better not let me slip and fall in like I did last time, or I’m not fixin’ you a bite o’ supper.”
“Better hang on to ’em, Jesse,” Si said as he put his arm around Dolly and looked out over the perfectly oval pond that bowed out from the creek. “Unless you’re a better cook than I am, we need to keep our ladies dry.”
Jesse put his arm around Anna and helped her wade a little closer to the spot—about eight feet wide—where the creek spilled into the slough.
“Man, Si,” Jesse said. “When you pick a fishing hole, you don’t mess around.” The water was like glass—smooth and clear—forming an idyllic pool, sunny and bright at its center with overhanging shade trees around the edges. It was about fifty yards across.
“She’s somethin’, ain’t she?” Si said with a big smile.
Dolly, who had never once fallen into the slough, looked into the clear, gleaming water. She gazed at a reflection—Jesse with one protective arm around his wife and the other pointing to a jumping fish so that Anna wouldn’t miss any of the magic this place held. And it held plenty.