Down at the landing, I wasn’t surprised to see Uncle Owen’s boat gone. I stepped into Grandpa’s boat that still rested in the brush at the swamp’s edge, grabbed the pole, and shoved off. My chest tightened as I felt the boat slide out into the waterway.
This was the first time all summer I’d been out in the boat without Huck, and it was the first time since Henry and I began searching for those hog bandits that he wasn’t with me either.
As I looked around at all the trees tangled together with one another and saw the smooth tea-colored water lapping up against the boat as it cut through the surface, I felt the humid, swampy air pressing my sadness down upon me, and I wondered how I’d ever be able to live without Huck and the Okefenokee Swamp.
And then something pressed down on me so hard I thought it might choke me, and that something was that I was the one who brought on all this sadness. It was all on accounta me wanting so desperately to be a hero. I wished like anything I could go back to the beginning of the summer and do everything differently.
But I somehow had to put my own sorrow aside, at least for a while, because Henry James was out in the swamp alone, sinking in his own sadness, and soon it would be dark. Funny how not all that long ago, I wouldn’t have cared one little bit about Henry and his preaching parents, but now my heart was just about breaking in two thinking about how awful he must feel.
I pushed hard on the pole, making the boat go faster. I already had a pretty good idea where Henry was, so I pushed the boat along until I was right up next to the narrow channel leading to Hollow Log Pond. I turned the boat between the trees and pushed myself deep into the dark waterway.
If I knew Henry like I thought I did—and I was pretty sure I really did know him after spending every single day with him for practically the whole summer—he’d think that if he went back to Hollow Log Pond by himself, he’d be so scared it might help him forget how sad he was. He also knew getting himself really scared would be the best way to make himself pray, and if anything would cheer Henry’s soul at all, talking to the Lord would surely do the trick.
I made my way into the damp darkness that led to Hollow Log Pond, and when I got close, I called out to him, “Heeeeenry! Heeeeenry Jaaaaames!”
I waited and listened for him to answer.
Then I called again, “Heeeenry! Are ya here?”
I was almost all the way to the pond, and I was sure if Henry was there, he could certainly hear me by now. My eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness around me as I searched for him.
Because I had been there so many times with Huck and Henry, Hollow Log Pond felt so familiar now that, for me, it wasn’t the least bit scary anymore. But now that Henry wasn’t answering me, I felt fear creeping through the tangle of trees, and it was beginning to turn to dread. What if Henry James wasn’t here?
“Henry, if you’re here, you better answer me!” I called out, my fear sounding like anger.
Not having Henry answer was much scarier than being shot at or being worried that the hog bandits lay hiding somewhere waiting for me.
“I’m right here,” I finally heard Henry say.
Now that I’d heard his voice and looked in the direction where it had come from, I saw Uncle Owen’s boat wedged between two rows of trees at the far end of the pond. Henry sat on the middle seat with his elbows resting on his knees and his chin resting in his hands. No wonder I hadn’t seen him in the darkness until he answered me. It was hard to see him now when I was looking right at him.
“Henry James!” I said, sounding completely exasperated with him. “Why didn’t ya answer me? Ya like to scared me to death!”
He didn’t even look up, but instead kept staring at the bottom of the boat.
All I could think when I saw Henry was that with as much fussing as Mama did with me about doing my chores and coming home on time for supper and with all the scolding Daddy did about my table manners and getting my schoolwork done, I knew if they ever just up and left me, I’d be about as lost as a gator without water. Besides that, how downright disappointing would it be to have a mama and daddy who stole money from God and then ran from the law?
Now that I was here… Now that I had found Henry… I didn’t know what to say.
“I decided somethin’ t’night, Elsie,” Henry said, filling up the quiet, cool darkness with a voice that didn’t sound at all like the one he’d been using to practice his preaching all summer long.
“What?” I asked, moving Grandpa’s boat closer so I was just on the other side of the long row of trees right in front of Henry. I looked past the tall, skinny trunks growing up out of the water to stare at Henry, hoping to get him to look at me.
“I’m not gonna be a preacher no more,” he said, looking up at me.
I could see why he felt that way. All this time he’d been imitating his daddy, and now he knew his daddy was a big, fat phony.
But the thing was, even though his daddy was a phony, Henry wasn’t one. He was sincere. His words were always from the heart. And I could tell he really believed what he said when he preached his sermons. No one should give up on what’s in their heart, no matter what.
“Awww, Henry,” I said.
“I’m no good at it anyway, and now I know why. It’s because my daddy’s no good either,” Henry said. “He’s no good at bein’ a preacher. He’s not even good at bein’ a man.”
What could I say to that? Henry’s hopes for his life were dashed, and his mama and daddy didn’t even care enough about him to turn themselves in so they could come back for him.
I couldn’t believe that just a few hours ago, the two of us had been the biggest heroes in all of Charlton County, but now I felt like both of us had great, big burdens we’d be carrying around with us for the rest of our lives.