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Arthur finally asked me to marry him at a beautiful place called Petit Jean park. I guess he was waiting until we graduated from High School. For a while I doubted it would ever happen, especially after everything that happened with Mama and Willie. Jonnie, bless her heart, really didn’t help matters at all. Arthur was a gentleman. He wasn’t accustomed to the insanity that I was. He had a normal home life with calm parents who didn’t get drunk in public and cause a scene. He had a fence that wasn’t broken, windows that still had glass, a roof that didn’t leak, and siblings who sat quietly in their rooms studying until called down for dinner. I had none of those things. I envied his life.
We flew to Petit Jean Mountain for a picnic that day. I’d heard of the place but didn’t know much about it. We flew overhead first, but we both knew that we wanted to see the legendary mountain in person and find somewhere for our picnic lunch.
The legend of Petit Jean started all the way back in the 1700s when a young Frenchman was planning to come to America to explore. He wanted to find a place to start a family with his love, a beautiful young woman from Paris named Adrienne Dumont. When he told her that he wanted to go to the New World to find a home for them, she wanted to get married right away so she could go with him, but he wouldn’t agree to that. Instead, he promised her that if he found a safe, suitable place for their home, he would come back for her, and they’d be married right away. But, like me, that French girl was stubborn and a bit of a rebel. She didn’t want to do what he said. So, instead, she disguised herself as a cabin boy on the ship and called herself Jean. I guess she did a good job because even her fella didn’t know who she was. Everyone on the ship called her Petit Jean. That’s French for Little John. Everyone liked her, including the Indians, when they landed. They came up the Mississippi River to the Arkansas River, all the way to the mountain’s base and that’s where they met the Indians. They called the mountain something else, but those French sailors couldn’t pronounce it very well. They spent the summer on top of that mountain and in the autumn they planned to go back to France. They got everything ready the night before they were supposed to sail. But that night, Petit Jean came down with something and got really sick. Nobody had ever seen that kind of sickness before. She had a fever, delirium, and even seizures. They all discovered who she was while she was sick because you have to inspect a body for strange bites when something like that happens. It didn’t take much to realize she wasn’t a boy. She begged her fella to forgive her for having lied to him about who she was. She even asked to be carried to the top of the mountain where she spent her final days and be buried overlooking the perpetual rainbow in the valley below if she died. The Indians made a stretcher out of deerskins and carried her up the mountain. They made it all the way up with her still alive but in a coma, but at sundown, she died. A few years before Arthur and I went up there, some explorers had found a little mound of earth. They figured that was Petit Jean’s grave, so that’s what they called it.
I’d heard the stories of Petit Jean, but I didn’t know that I ever believed them before our trip to see the mountain. They were just some legend, and that’s how so many things get their name in superstitious places, and Arkansas was always a superstitious place. But when we flew over I could see the little lake inside the mountain valley at the bottom. Over it was the most beautiful rainbow reaching across the whole mountain valley. I knew that if I’d died, that’s where I would have wanted to be buried too. It seemed too good to be real.
We landed the plane, grabbed our picnic lunch, and headed for the mountain. It was pretty easy getting into the valley as long as we followed the little river through the crevasse. It was shaded by flowers and ferns, and the rocks surrounding the entrance all looked to be made of cooled lava.
We got into that valley, and whole new world opened up for me. It was as exciting as the first time I went up in Arthur’s plane with him. It was almost as exhilarating as the first time Arthur ever kissed me squarely on the lips with purpose. I fell in love all over again.
“I always wanted to marry a tall girl,” he told me as we walked down the trail heading for the far side of the little valley. “I always wanted to have tall children.” Of course, I laughed at him, the silly goof.
“You ain’t even asked me yet,” I reminded him, and I kept right on walking while giggling away. But then I noticed he wasn’t following me and I figured he’d stopped to tie his shoe, so I turned around to check on him. Well, I guess you get a different view of that rainbow when you’re on the other side. The whole thing spread across that valley, clear from one side to the other, all stirred up from the mist created by Cedar Falls. In the middle of the trail, Arthur was down on one knee, holding a ring between his thumb and forefinger.
“Ruth Robinson, will you marry me?”
You could have knocked me over with a feather. He was probably getting down on his knee as I told him that he hadn’t asked me yet, and I didn’t have any idea. I felt silly right then, but who was I to feel silly when the man I loved was the one down on his knee? He really didn’t care if Willie or Mama gave him their blessing, he loved me, and he was going to marry me anyway.
Dress and all, I ran straight to where he was kneeling, threw my arms around his neck, and bowled him right over backward. He hollered, and so did I, but I wasn’t about to let go. I had never loved someone so much in my life. I kissed him over and over and over again until both of us were giggling so hard we couldn’t breathe. Finally, he grabbed my hand, slid that pretty ring right up past the knuckle, and told me, “I guess that’s a yes then,” and we were engaged, just like that.
We set out our picnic on a couple of large rocks. We feasted on everything we brought, from cold fried chicken and potato salad to some of his mother’s homemade peach pie. Every bite was incredible, made more so by the overflow of emotions. We were both so happy. After eating, we laid down on the blanket, Arthur on his back and my head on his leg. He loved running his fingers through my hair and planning things for the future. We talked about where we would live and how many kids we wanted to have when Arthur dozed off, and I was soon to follow. By the time we woke up, it was nearly dark, and we both knew that it would be well past dark by the time we got home. We packed up as quick as we could and headed back. I already knew I would be in trouble with Mama, but I had no idea how his mother would react to his coming in late.
Willie went crazy on me that night. He was mad that I’d come in late, but more than anything, he was angry that he and Mama had to worry about feeding my sisters instead of just having me do it. He got so mad he started throwing things at me. Mama tried to defend me, and he punched her square in the jaw. That set me off, and I started swinging like a wild heathen. At one point, I jumped on his back, and wrapped my legs around his waist so I could use both of my hands to punch him in the face with as much force as possible. Mama was screaming at me to stop it the whole time, while Willie did everything he could to hit me with chairs and brooms and such. He wasn’t as tough as I was, though. He couldn’t get me to let loose. I just kept on hanging on for dear life. My sisters heard all the noise and came out to see what was going on. Not knowing any details, Jonnie went straight into kicking Willie in the shins and screaming at him like a banshee. She didn’t really need an excuse to get her licks in. She hated Willie as much as I did. Our littlest sisters ran back to the bedroom to hide, but the fight didn’t stop there. Finally, Willie grew some brains in that brick head of his and ran backward into the wall by the front door. I felt my spine crack, and I just crumbled. I don’t even remember falling on the floor, but I know I did. Willie then went to work on me, kicking me in the ribs and picking me up by my hair while I clung to his hands, praying it wouldn’t hurt as bad. He eventually pried open the front door and threw me onto the porch, my mother’s sobs reaching my ears. I was covered in cuts and blood, and I had no doubt that within a few short hours I’d have more bruised skin than normal looking skin.
Jonnie came from around the back with a wet cloth and a bite of bread. She started to clean up some of the cuts while I curled up on the porch and wept into her skirt. She tried to comfort me by putting a hand on my back, but I flinched so hard it frightened her, and she wasn’t sure what to do. I was pretty sure Willie had broken my ribs.
“What are you going to do,” Jonnie asked me. “I think you might need to see a doctor.”
“I can’t go see a doctor,” I explained. “Willie would just lie and say that Arthur did it to me, and that’s why I was out so late. I need to run away from home.”
“You can’t,” Jonnie started to cry. “You can’t leave us here. We’ll die without you.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” I scolded my sister. “You’d do just fine taking care of the others, and you know how to avoid Willie okay. But if I stay here any longer, he’s going to kill me. I can’t stay here anymore, Jonnie. You know that.”
“I know,” she agreed, wiping her eyes with the hem of her sleeve. She sniffled. “So what do we do for now?”
“I’m going to go find Arthur,” I told her. I was hurting pretty bad so it took everything I had to get there when I stood up.
“And I’m going with you. I’ll help you get there,” she stood beside me, resolute in her decision. I was in no shape to tell her not to, plus she was as stubborn as I was.
It took us all night to get across town to Arthur’s place, stumbling in the dark every step of the way. By the time we got there, the sun was coming up, and we were starting to get some strange looks from neighbors waking up for their day. I shuffled along, anchoring my right shoulder over Jonnie and keeping my ribs in place as much as I could with my left. My breathing got worse as we went. Everything hurt. My dress was covered in blood, and I was sure all of it had come from me. By the time we reached the road leading to Arthur’s family home, I was all but spent. I was ready to collapse.
“Jonnie, it’s that one,” I pointed at the huge house at the end of the dirt drive. “I need you to go get Arthur.” Suddenly I couldn’t go on, and I couldn’t stand the thought of his mother and father seeing me like that. I collapsed in the grass, and the last thing I remembered seeing was Jonnie running up the drive screaming out Arthur’s name. Her braided pigtails bobbed while she ran on, not daring to look behind her.