Chapter Seven

 

Even Melinda got the hang of catching worms. Except she made a hissing sound through her teeth as she dangled the slimy worm away from her. She looked revolted as though she was holding a mouse or snake. Once she got to the can, she dropped the worm in and went back for another one.

Melinda looked at the darkness outside the fence. She stopped walking and did a double take. In the direction of the timber, she saw a small light flashing, growing bigger and brighter. “Gracie, the timber must be on fire!”

“Where?” Gracie asked, straightening up.

“Over there,” Melinda said, pointing at the flickering light.

Shana said, “I see it, too. Will the fire come here?”

“I don't think it's a fire.” Gracie watched for a moment. “I think it's foxfire.”

“What's that?” Melinda and Shana asked together.

“When leaves and dead plants start decaying on rotted logs, they cause a gas that puts off a glow in the dark,” Gracie explained.

“Sure and tis spooky to know about,” Shana said in hushed voice.

Melinda scanned the dark trees. “So do the glows ever move?”

“Nope,” Gracie said.

Melinda pointed. “Well, how do you explain the yellow light moving along that end of the timber.”

Gracie said. “Someone is prowling around out there. Maybe it's the Indians night hunting for a deer.”

“How close do you think that lantern is to your cemetery, Gracie?” Melinda said in a hushed tone.

“Not far from the cemetery atall. I best take a walk through the trees along the lane, and see what's going on. Maybe someone is going to do some more digging in the cemetery,” Gracie said. “You two best go to the house with me. I'm going to see if Thad left his rifle in the bedroom wardrobe.”

“You can't go to the cemetery by yourself. I'm going with you,” Melinda said.

“Sure and I will go along,” Shana agreed.

“You better stay in the house, girl,” Gracie said.

Shana said, “You can't be after leavin' a child home alone when there's somethin' strange afoot, now can you? It wouldn't be safe for me.”

“Gracie, she's right. Shana better come with us,” Melinda agreed.

“Thank ye, Aunt Melinda,” Shana said. “Let's go before the lantern goes out so we know where to head.”

“We need to find a rock or small board to put over our worm can, or the worms will all crawl out before morning,” Gracie said.

Shana picked up a rock. “Will this do?”

Gracie set it on the can opening. “It will do just fine. Set the can near the porch door, girl, while I get the rifle.”

Shana raced to the house with the can. She set it on the porch and joined Melinda in the yard. Gracie came from the house, carrying Thad's twenty-two rifle. She handed Melinda the lantern and a handful of matches. “Now you two are going to have to learn to soft foot Indian style in the trees and no talking,” Gracie said softly as she slipped off the lane into the timber.

Melinda and Shana got in behind Gracie and eased along. Shana stepped on a twig. The snap seemed twice as loud in the quiet timber. Gracie uttered, “Shhh!”

“Sorry I'm, but I can't see where I'm walkin',” Shana complained.

“We cain't use the lantern until we're ready to go home. We want to surprise the person wandering around in the trees,” Gracie hissed.

They reached the edge of the timber where it met the evergreen grove behind the cemetery. Gracie held her arm out to stop Melinda and Shana. The glow from a lantern wavered over the stones. The person using it was a woman in a white dress. Her large brimmed white straw hat was tilted down, shading her face from view. She was dressed fashionably for the times, but usually, that sort of outfit was used for a garden party or a wedding. Other times, women wore white clothes to church and for special occasions. Wandering around in a timber at night and someone else's cemetery in the dark didn't exactly fit as a dress up occasion.

The woman set the lantern on the ground and leaned over the bare spot. She appeared to be gently patting the earth. She picked the lantern up and with her back to the watchers, she climbed over the cemetery fence.

“Hey, what are you up to, trespassing in my cemetery?” Gracie yelled.

The woman broke out running. Gracie yelled, “Stop or I'll shoot you.” The woman thrashed noisily over dried leaves and sticks. Gracie took off after her with Melinda and Shana racing along behind. The amount of noise they made was enough to warn any night prowling animal to leave the area.

The woman had too much of a head start. Once she got ahead of them, she put the lantern out. She seemed to know the area better than they did in the dark. The white dress, glowing in the moon light, was the only way the women barely made out the strange woman as she dodged through the trees. She soon disappeared from sight.

Gracie panted loudly as she leaned against a tree. Melinda tried to catch her breath. Even Shana was winded.

Finally, Gracie huffed, “We lost her.”

“Wonder if she will be back?” Melinda said between breaths.

“I don't know, but I sure hate to think about standing guard over the cemetery every night just to wait for her to show up,” Gracie groused. “I'm going to talk to Sheriff Logan first chance I get. He needs to investigate.”

Melinda said, “Maybe there's some mental patient loose that needs caught.”

“That isn't the way I saw it,” Shana said. “That woman was crying over a babe when she patted the bare ground. I'm thinking she buried her babe there by yer wee brother.”

“Oh, Gracie. Shana may be right,” Melinda said. “It did look that way.”

“Nothing wrong with that if that's the case. Except she should have asked my permission to bury a body in my family cemetery. That way I could tell her where to dig the grave. That spot happens to be my spot next to my baby brother. No one else should be using it.”

“Oh, Gracie, I'm sorry. That's too awful,” Melinda managed to say between pants.

“I don't think it's awful. I have always thought I'd be resting along side the rest of my family when I died. I shouldn't have to do any different,” Gracie barked.

Melinda swallowed hard. “Of course, you're right, Gracie. I meant it was awful for you that someone would use your plot without asking.”

“What do you figure to do about this?” Shana asked.

“Well, authorities need to know when someone dies. Maybe the sheriff already has word that happened in the area. I sure intend to find out,” Gracie said. “Now let's head back to the house. We need to get some sleep if we're going fishing in the morning.”

The next morning, Melinda started breakfast early. Gracie got a cup of leftover coffee out of the pot before Melinda cleaned it. When the cup went dry, Gracie was ready to go to the barn.

As she opened the kitchen door, she heard Melinda say, “Oh, no.”

“What's wrong?” Gracie asked, headed back across the kitchen.

“The lid was off the crock of last night's milk. A mouse is floating around in it,” Melinda said. “I hate losing all that good milk. What do we do with it?”

“The cat, dog and chickens will eat good for awhile,” Gracie said. “We can use it up pretty fast that way. You forget to put the lid on the crock?”

“No, I didn't,” Melinda said slowly.

“Well?”

“Shana must have forgotten to put it on after she strained the milk. She brought me back the flour sack she strained with so I could rinse it out and went on outside,” Melinda said.

Gracie shook her head. “I told that girl this would happen.”

“Now, Gracie, don't be too hard on Shana,” Melinda said. “All this is new to her.”

“You would do good not to mollycoddle her. She needs to do her chores right,” Gracie declared.

After chores, Gracie opened up Thad's tool shed and brought out three cane poles with string and hooks attached.

“I'll carry the poles if you can carry the worm can, girl. Melinda can bring the picnic basket,” Gracie planned.

Shana and she walked back to the house. Gracie leaned the poles against the porch wall and went inside. “Breakfast ready?”

Melinda smiled at them. “Yes. I suppose you two are wanting me to hurry up so you can go fishing.”

“Something like that,” Gracie said. “Oh, girl, Melinda told me she found a mouse floating in the milk from last night's milking. No lid on the crock. You know anything about that?”

“Oh, and for sure. that would be my fault. I forgot, Aunt Gracie, and sorry I am,” Shana said, looking like she really meant it.

“Well, how about you help Melinda carry the milk off by taking some to the cat and her kittens. Give Spot some and take some out to the hen house and put in one of the troughs. Keep checking. When the milk is gone, pour some more in. It might take a day or two to get rid of all that milk, but I'll have us some fresh pretty quick. Just don't forget again, Shana. That was an awful waste,” Gracie said.

“So sorry, Aunt Gracie. I will do better,” the girl promised.

After kitchen cleanup and the chores were done, Gracie called into the kitchen, “You ready to go, Melinda?”

“I think so. I'm going to borrow Thad's straw hat so the sun doesn't get on my face too much.” She took the hat off a peg and put it on over her gray curls.

“You carry the picnic basket. I got the poles and the girl has the bait. Reckon we're ready to go,” Gracie said eagerly.

“Oh, dear. I knew there was something I was forgetting. I haven't fixed the picnic lunch yet. I just finished doing the dishes and cleaning off the table. You two go on without me. I'll catch up as soon as I packed the basket,” Melinda said.

“Are you sure you want to walk through the pasture by yourself?” Gracie asked.

“Didn't you say the pond is over that first hill behind the barn?” Melinda asked.

“Yip.”

“Well, I don't see how I can get lost. I'll be along soon. Go on now and get started having fun,” Melinda urged.

Gracie picked up the poles and headed for the barn yard. “Come on, girl. Melinda will be along soon with the picnic basket.”

Shana skipped along beside Gracie as they climbed the pasture hill. Half way up, Gracie slowed down, breathing harder from the climb. Shana took her hand and said in concern, “Sure and do you think you should stop and rest a minute, Aunt Gracie?”

“Nope, we're almost to the top now. It's all down hill from there,” Gracie said. She glanced at Shana's hand in her's. She didn't try to remove the small hand that gripped her's as she started climbing again.

Just before they reached the top of the hill, Gracie said in a quiet voice, “Listen, we're close to the pond now.”

“How can you know that?”

“Hear the water tumbling over the dam and going down the gully. The pond always gets too full after the spring rains,” Gracie said.

At the top of the hill, Shana said, “Sure enough, the water is comin' out of the pond.”

When they reached the pond bank, there was a big splash in the water.

“What was that?” Shana asked.

“A frog. Look over the side the bank. You might see little green heads watching you. The frogs are usually half out of the water, waiting for a bug.”

As Shana peeked over the bank, a frog let out a deep “Ribbit.”

“That's what the frogs sound like when they're talking to each other,” Gracie said, laying down the poles. “Frog legs are good fried. One of these days, we'll come frogging if you want. Now I always sit under this big burr oak tree. We have shade when the sun gets high and hot.”

Shana picked up one of the poles. “Sounds good to me, Aunt Gracie.”

Gracie studied the girl a moment. “Where are you getting that Aunt business? We aren't related.”

“I call Melinda aunt. She said I could, and we aren't related, either. I don't think it matters as long as we like each other. Do you?” Shana said.

“You're right sure you want me for an aunt?” Gracie asked.

“I don't have any other relatives except Mama and Papa Lang and the babes. You don't have any kin so why can't we be kin?”

Gracie shrugged. “No reason that I can see right now. If I come up with a reason down the line, I'll be sure to let you know.”

“Sounds good to me, Aunt Gracie. Now is there a certain way to put the worm on the hook?” Shana asked.

“Just start running the hook through the inside of the worm until it's threaded on the hook. If the worm is too big to get all of it on the hook, break the worm off. Put it back in the can for the next baiting,” Gracie said. “Only if we were to want to save what worms we have left for another time, we can't leave the broken worms in the can. They die and cause the other worms to die so we have to sort them out.”

“Sure and it tis, I understand.” Shana worked a worm on her hook as Gracie talked. “I got the hook baited so am I ready?”

“Yip, just get over some so you got room to throw without hitting me or the tree. Hold the pole over your shoulder then give the top end a toss and the string goes out in the water. Just stay away from the tree until the line is in the water so you don't get the hook caught in the limbs,” Gracie said.

When Melinda showed up, she was tuckered out. “Mercy, that seemed like a lot farther to walk than just over the hill, Gracie Evans.”

“Sit down and rest a while,” Gracie invited, grinning as she inspected her empty hook.

“I intend to. How far is this pond from the house?” Melinda asked.

Gracie rubbed her chin. “Oh, I expect it's a quarter of a mile.”

“No wonder I'm tired,” complained Melinda.

“Well, you're the one that thinks walking is good exercise,” Gracie said, threading another worm on her hook.

“Walking on flat ground in the city is a lot easier than up and down hills in this rough ground,” Melinda groused. “Catch any fish yet?”

Shana pulled the stringer out of the water to show Melinda. She pointed out her yellow bellied bullhead with pride. She whispered, “The wee one is Aunt Gracie's.”

“You're doing so well. I better get my hook in the water and catch up. We want plenty of fish to fry for supper in case Mr. Sokal comes tonight.” Melinda looked sideways at Gracie.

“Did you have to bring that up?” Gracie groused. “Just the thought of that man at our supper table and eating our fish spoils my day.”

Melinda waved her hand at Gracie and laughed.

“Can I go around the other side of the pond and try my luck, Aunt Gracie?” Shana asked.

“I don't care. Just be careful when you're close to the bank so you don't fall in.” Gracie asked as an after thought. “Can you swim?”

“Not a drop,” Shana said.

“I can't either so you're on your own if you fall in the pond,” Gracie warned the girl.

Melinda cast her line into the water and sat down by Gracie. She held onto the line, feeling for a bite. “It's nice that Shana calls you Aunt Gracie now?”

Gracie grunted.

“I don't see anything wrong with it. Do you?”

“It's all your fault. She says you said it was all right to call us aunt since she doesn't have any kin,” Gracie said.

“I did say something like that to her about myself, because I like it,” Melinda whispered. “I didn't include you, but I think it would be good if you let her call you aunt.”

“And why is that?”

“Shana really likes you, and she looks up to you,” Melinda declared.

“I don't know why she would want to do that,” Gracie said bluntly.

“Frankly, I don't either. I think I make a much better role model, but sometimes, a child sees things differently,” Melinda said frankly. “Maybe it has something to do with you being so bluntly honest with her. Or, maybe it's because you're teaching her new and fun things to do like going fishing.”

“Don't ruffle your feathers. I told the girl it was all right to call me aunt until further notice. If I change my mind, I told her I'd let her know,” Gracie said firmly.

Melinda shot a searing glance at her and back at her line. “Honestly, Gracie, sometimes I don't understand you.”