December 19, 1945
Ben hated being stuck in the house. He’d already stacked more wood in the woodbox on the back porch and shoveled off the steps three times. He was restless. No doubt about it. Antsy. Even when the ice pellets started hitting the windowpanes, he still tried to think up a reason to head outside.
Not only outside. If he was honest with himself, it wasn’t simply outside he wanted. He wanted to saddle up Captain and ride down the mountain. Shovel some paths for Francine. Maybe a path to her heart.
But he couldn’t tell his mother that. She knew, but didn’t either of them talk about it. Not anymore. She’d said her piece that night in the cornfield. She didn’t approve. As far as that went, he didn’t approve. He had better things to do than fall in love. Especially with a city girl who would never give him a second look.
That wasn’t entirely true either. She did sometimes give him a second look. It might be easier to keep his wits about him if she didn’t. But sometimes those soft eyes landed a look on him that made his stomach go all weak. It was a look he wanted to see again and again.
So any day he could come up with an excuse to ride down to the center, he did. Woody didn’t need an excuse. He just went to see Jeralene. But Jeralene was one of them. If she and Woody ended up together, nobody would be the least bit bothered. Francine Howard and Ben Locke, that was a different matter.
He would have gone down the mountain today with or without an excuse, but first thing after breakfast, Ma said he needed to stay close at hand.
“I’m some worried it might be Becca’s time.” She kept her voice low so Becca couldn’t hear.
“The nurse was just here yesterday. She said Becca was doing fine, didn’t she?”
“Yesterday she was. Today things are looking different. I’m thinking it might be time, and I know those nurses have a heap of training, but I’ve had a heap of babies.”
“You want me to go fetch the nurse?”
Ma frowned. “Not yet. But best stay close in case the need does arise. Being as how this is the first time for Becca, there’ll be time and more to get the nurse when I’m sure it’s the baby causing her to be punishing.”
Across the room, Becca groaned as she shifted in her chair. “Ma, do you think a hot water bottle would help my back?”
Ben followed his mother into the kitchen where she picked up the teakettle to fill the hot water bottle. “Did you tell her about the letter you got from Ruthie?”
Ma shot a look into the next room at Becca. “Not yet. And don’t you either. Let her get this baby here before she has to be worrying about where Carl has got off to.”
Ben’s sister had written that Carl had walked away from the factory job he’d found in Ohio and nobody had seen him since. Ruthie wrote that he should have a little money jingling in his pocket, but she wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. The young man seemed unsettled in Ohio. Claimed being shut up in a factory was near as bad as being down in a mine. Ruthie hadn’t been surprised when he went missing. She liked Carl, but some boys just didn’t know how to start being men. She was fearful Carl was one of them.
So Ben had no choice except to hang around the house and wait out the day. Woody was reading an adventure book his schoolteacher had loaned him. Ma took the snowy day to work on the quilt she was making for Becca’s baby. Sadie was learning stitches beside Ma. Becca lay down after the noon meal and went to sleep. That seemed to say the baby wasn’t ready to come, but Ma said it didn’t prove anything except Becca was worn out from carrying that baby load.
Ben tried to settle down. He leafed through his father’s Bible, and his restlessness was somewhat eased by reading passages Pa had marked. Here and there he had made a notation about a sermon, and Ben wondered if it was one his father had heard or one he might have preached at a meeting when no preacher showed up. Then he was moved nearly to tears when he found a note stuck in the back of the Bible. A prayer list with the number of Ben’s unit and the first names of some of the men Ben must have mentioned in letters home.
As he shifted in his chair, the envelope in his pocket crinkled. He’d been carrying around the letter from the college detailing the classes he’d signed up to take come January. The GI Bill seemed too good an opportunity to pass up. But now he didn’t know how he could ride down off the mountain and over to Richmond every Monday morning and leave these here to shift for themselves all the week long. It was surely a crazy dream for him to think about studying long enough and hard enough to be a doctor.
He hadn’t told anybody about considering medicine as his life’s work. Best see if he could take the first step down the row, as his pa used to tell him, instead of wanting to skip to the end. If it was meant to happen, the Lord would open up a path. Another of his pa’s sayings.
He supposed the same was true about Francine. If it was meant to happen, it would. At the same time, his pa did say a person had to do the stepping down the row toward whatever end he was searching out. But sometimes a path closed up.
That seemed to be what kept happening every time he thought about confronting Homer Caudill. He would set out to go have it out with the man, and something happened every time to change his direction. Maybe his mother was right and it was best to leave the thought of vengeance in the Lord’s hands. He certainly had enough to keep a worry cloud over his head without stirring up trouble with the Caudills.
Still, a man shouldn’t get away with sending his boy to shoot another boy without some justice being served. Even if the boy that got shot was ready to sweep it all under the rug. The thing was, Woody could have died. Some things shouldn’t be forgiven without some kind of repentance. Ben didn’t think Homer Caudill was sorrowful about anything he’d done.
He glanced down at the Bible, where it had fallen open to Colossians 3. His father had underlined verse 13. Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Ben ran his finger over the verse. It’s not that easy, Pa.
He could almost hear his father speaking inside his head. Ain’t nobody ever promised easy.
Ben blew out a sigh. Pa was right. Ben had just been to war and lived to come home. No sense starting another war here on his home ground. The law would catch up with Homer Caudill.
Outside, Rufus barked and then Bruiser started in. That started up Sadie’s pup inside.
Ma looked up from her stitching. “Somebody must be out there. Coming on a day like this. I hope it’s not trouble.”
Ben stood up. “I’ll go see.”
“Ma.” Becca was up, leaning on the doorframe into the bedroom. “I’m having pains.”
Ma shoved aside the quilt at the same time somebody banged on the door.
Ben pulled open the door to a man with a scarf wrapped around his head and snow on his hat. Before Ben could say anything, the man pulled his scarf down and stared across the room. “Becca.”
“Carl, is that you?” Becca moved a couple of steps toward the door.
“I’ve come home to you.”
Becca gasped, then grimaced and grabbed the back of a chair.
Ma was beside her at once with an arm around her. “Don’t hold your breath, honey. The pain will pass in a minute.”
Carl’s eyes got wide, and Ben pulled the man inside before he could think about running back down the hill. “You’re about to be a father. Get on in here and dry out so you can be some help.”
Becca straightened up as the pain eased. A tear slid down her cheek as she looked at Carl. “I’m glad you’re here. I wanted our son to have a daddy.”
Carl shrugged off his wet coat and kicked off shoes that were soaked through. He squared his shoulders and headed across the room.
“I’m ’bout froze, Becca, but if’n you was to smile at me, I know my heart would warm right up.” Carl reached out to brush the tear off Becca’s cheek.
“Your hand’s like ice.” Becca grabbed Carl’s hand and held it between both of hers.
“I ain’t worried about that till I see you smile so’s I know you ain’t holdin’ it agin me being gone so long.”
“For a truth, I wasn’t sure you’d ever come back.”
Becca and Carl stood in the middle of the room paying no mind to Ben and the rest of the family watching them. Carl didn’t even seem to notice Sadie’s pup jerking on his pants leg. They were focused on one another as more tears flowed down Becca’s cheeks.
“But I had to. My Becca is here. If’n only she’d smile for me, I’d kiss away them tears right in front of her ma.”
Becca laughed, but then she gasped as another pain grabbed her. Carl started to hold her, but Ma stepped between and pushed him back.
“No need getting her soaked. Woody, get Carl some dry clothes.” Ma looked at Ben. “Best go for the nurse and don’t be tarrying none.”
“Right.” Ben grabbed his coat.
“Take the horse. No sense getting stuck in that vehicle and having to walk.”
“Yes’m.”
The ice-encrusted snow crunched under Ben’s feet as he made his way to the barn. His mother was probably right. The truck might slide off what passed for a road up the mountain. Captain was the better way.
Francine was on the porch of the center with Jeralene when he rode up. She rushed over to his horse before he could dismount.
“Becca?”
“Ma says it’s time.” He slid down off Captain to stand beside her.
She looked around at the snow-covered ground with a worried frown.
“The horses can make it,” Ben said.
Her eyes came back to his face. “Yes. No need worrying about more until we have to.” She turned away from him, but not before he noted her worried look hadn’t eased. “I’ll saddle up and be ready in a few minutes. At least the sleet has stopped, but it’s still treacherous walking.”
As if to prove her words, she slipped and nearly lost her footing. Ben stepped closer to take her arm. “Hold on to me.”
Francine grabbed his arm as she slipped again. “I was ready for snow, but not this ice. And it’s not even January when Betty says it’ll be worse.”
“Sometimes we have January weather in December.” He hoped that if she noticed he sounded out of breath, she’d think it was due to how he was stomping through the snow and not the real reason. Her leaning so close against him. He wanted to put both arms around her and just hold her there in the middle of the snowy path. But he needed to think of Becca now.
With his help, Francine was riding out of the barn in minutes. The mare stepped gingerly into the snow at first, but then got more confident of her footing. After Francine got her saddlebag, Ben led the way on Captain. Sarge trailed behind Francine’s mare.
The horses’ hooves breaking through the ice crust made too much noise for them to talk. Better to concentrate on making it up the hill as fast as they could anyway, since they were at the edge of darkness. But the snow glistened in the fading light to keep night at bay.
When they passed the truck, snow was piled around the wheels and ice lay heavy on the windshield. As soon as the weather cleared, he needed to get that road cut through the trees to the house and build some kind of shed for the truck.
Maybe Carl could help with that. Carl being home might be a path opening up, the Lord making a way. Carl didn’t like mining and factory work, but could be he would like keeping the farm going while Ben went off to school.
He glanced back at Francine as they rode into the yard. Maybe more paths would open up. Given more time.