They traveled in a more or less direct line within the cover of the deep woods for about an hour, then Jimmy Lee subtly changed directions, taking the travelers in large loops and switching back and forth several times. Sometimes he crossed nearly nonexistent trails, then followed them for brief periods before he left them again and cut through wild territory. Geneva admired his ability to confound the others, for no one but she seemed to notice that they were not headed in a direct route toward civilization. She did not mind. The more confused their trail, the safer Howard’s secret. She followed Jimmy Lee and Lamentations quietly.
Howard Graves did not speak to her much, perhaps mindful of her illness, she thought, perhaps because he sensed her desire to keep silent. Or maybe he knew what was in her heart. Sally Beth and Lilly lingered along behind, bickering but little. Everyone seemed to be wrapped in his or her own thoughts as they descended the mountain.
About mid-afternoon it began to rain. Sally Beth produced a little plastic hat out of her magical purse; the others were forced to slog on miserably through the downpour. Geneva did not care about the physical discomforts; her heart pained her so badly she hardly noticed the water streaming down her face and shoulders. With all of her soul she wanted to go back, back to the waterfall, to the mint bed, to Howard’s arms, but her feet carried her forward, farther and farther away from him, down this mountain, and away from her only hope of happiness. Down toward civilization, away, away. She moved through the weeping sky, dreading more and more the end of her journey.
Howard Graves occasionally expressed concern for her; he feared she would chill, would be fatigued, would stumble on the streaming trail, but she ignored him, merely walking on with her head down and her shoulders hunched.
The rain let up, but then a deep, dank fog rolled in, swallowing each of them into their own gray cocoons isolated from one another save for their voices, which called back and forth eerily in the mists. Sally Beth and Lilly caught up, instinctively fearing to lose their way. Jimmy Lee halted until everyone had gathered closely.
“There’s a little, narra trail right cheer, and I’m afeered it’ll be slip’ry. Innybody skeered o’heights?”
“I am,” came Lilly’s timid voice. She looked little and miserable, shivering in the damp cold, peering fearfully ahead into the mist. A sheer cliff loomed up darkly on their left, and a thin trail wound beside it. To the right of the trail, the mountain dropped off into nothing but mist.
Sally Beth spoke up. “She really is a fraidy cat, Jimmy Lee, and sometimes she just freezes up in high places. I cain’t do a thing with her. If I lead, will yew and Howard help her?”
Geneva realized they were shielding her from responsibility. All they expected of her was to cling to the cliff and get herself across the treacherous part. She felt bad about not being more helpful, but too enervated to offer more. She stood silently.
“Jimmy Lee, you didn’t bring us up this way. Why do we have to go across this at all?” questioned Howard Graves.
Jimmy Lee looked away. “This way’s a little quicker, and I figured we’d better git on down in a hurry. This bad place don’t last long. Mebe thirty feet. Hit widens out agin real quick.”
“Okay,” sighed Howard. “You lead Lilly, and I’ll come behind her. Geneva, will you be all right? Can you make it?”
She felt irritated at his solicitousness. “Of course, Howard. There’s nothing to it. The trail’s at least two feet wide. Lilly’s just got a problem with heights. Just make her close her eyes.”
Sally Beth adjusted her voluminous purse and started off confidently, but slowly along the rock face into the mist. The trail was not particularly dangerous; it was level and wide, and smooth enough to traverse safely if one did not step too close to the edge. Geneva kept one hand on the rock wall to her left and peered off to her right into misty nothingness. There was no telling how far this precipice dropped off. Moving closer to the safety of the rock face, she raked her foot through some loose shale and stumbled slightly. She caught herself before she fell, but a rock and some loose dirt had rolled into her shoe.
“Just a minute, Sally Beth, I’ve got a rock in my shoe,” she said, standing on one foot and trying to rake it out with her forefinger. “I can’t get it. Here, hold on to me while I take my shoe off.”
“Cain’t it wait?” asked Sally Beth. “It cain’t be much farther.”
Jimmy Lee halted. He was holding one of Lilly’s hands; Howard held the other. When they stopped, Lilly disengaged her hand from Jimmy Lee’s and, turning to Howard, buried her face in his chest. His arms came up automatically, wrapping tightly around her, and holding her close, he leaned her against the solid rock. They all stood quietly while Geneva lifted the irritated foot, but Lamentations, who brought up the rear, growled suddenly and frightfully, the hackles raising.
“No, it’s sharp, and it won’t take a minute,” Geneva replied, unlacing her shoe and removing it. “Here, you get it out. This fog is making me dizzy. And, oh, I’ve got dirt all over the bottom of my sock. Lamentations, don’t worry. I’m just taking a rock out of my shoe. Don’t get all bent out of shape.” Standing on one foot, she handed her shoe to Sally Beth and bent to dust the gravel and dirt away, then carefully she straightened and reached for her shoe again.
Her eyes looked up, then gazed three feet beyond Sally Beth’s shoulder. She gasped and froze in horror, for there, looming out of the mist, seemingly as tall as a mountain, stood a massive black bear, up on his hind feet and clawing at the rock face just beyond Sally Beth’s little turquoise plastic hat. The creature opened his ugly red mouth and roared.
Sally Beth whirled, catching sight of the shaggy, wet menace. Within an infinitely small space of time, she screamed, threw Geneva’s shoe at the bear, and ran hard into Geneva, who fell back onto Jimmy Lee, who fell over the side of the cliff.
General panic followed as Sally Beth and Geneva, screaming and insane with terror, crowded onto Lilly and Howard. Upon seeing the bear, Howard fled, yanking Lilly after him, and raced back along the trail in the direction from which they had come. No one stopped running until they had reached the safety of the forest and had scattered in all directions. Geneva and Sally Beth each climbed a tree, and Howard and Lilly cowered in a hawthorn thicket. They waited five, then ten minutes, hearts pounding, but the bear did not appear. Lamentations had vanished. No one wanted to mention Jimmy Lee’s name.
At last, Sally Beth broke the silence, her contrite voice drifting through the trees. “Sorry about yer shoe, Geneva.” She paused, then added, “It was an Eddie Bauer, too.”
Geneva looked down at her shoeless right foot. They were in trouble now. What had happened to Jimmy Lee? How could she get down the mountain without her shoe? How could any of them find their way back without Jimmy Lee? She fought to keep the panic from rising past her chest.
Sally Beth was moving along the forest floor, calling out, “It’s okay. Ya’ll can come on out now. That old bear is long gone by now; Lamentations must’ve chased him away. Geneva? Where are yew, honey? I really am sorry about yer shoe. Lilly? Howard? Ya’ll can come out, now.”
Geneva made her way out of the hickory tree. Stepping onto the wet ground, she grimaced as her sock wicked dampness up the sides of her foot. She gritted her teeth, determined to ignore it.
They found Howard and Lilly still crouching under the hawthorn. Lilly was sobbing into Howard’s chest, and he was stroking her hair and rocking her like a baby. Sally Beth and Geneva stood watching her through eyes glowing with grief and fear for Jimmy Lee, but neither of them would articulate what they dreaded. At last Geneva sighed, and said in a small, wavering voice, “I guess we’d better go back and see if we can find Jimmy Lee. Maybe he survived the fall,” she added hopefully. “The fog’s lifting anyway, so we can see a little better.”
It was true. The wind had picked up and was blowing away the deep, shrouding mist. They could see the blue sky revealing itself above them, and lambent sunshine filtering through the trees.
“I’m not going back on that trail again!” wailed Lilly. “I’m waitin’ right here until somebody comes to find us!”
Geneva considered this. No doubt Howard Knight would find them, although it could take him some time since he would not know the direction they had taken. Jimmy Lee’s careful path, which did not even resemble a trail, would no doubt prove impossible to follow. Dogs might work, though, she mused. She winced, thinking of yet another search party after her. How long would Howard be able to keep his gold mine a secret with people swarming over these mountains? She furrowed her forehead in dismay. She had caused everyone so much trouble, and it seemed it would never end.
Howard Graves stood up. “I’ll go find Jimmy Lee. Geneva, you and Sally Beth stay here with Lilly.”
Geneva was moved by his bravery. “I’ll go with you, Howard.”
“I’m goin’, too,” announced Sally Beth. “Jimmy Lee may be hurt real bad, and yew’ll need all the help yew can get.”
Everyone looked at Lilly. She sniffled a few more times, then dried her eyes and looked at them defiantly. “Well, I’ll be darned if I’m going to be a crybaby about this. I guess I’ll go, too.” She stood up and tossed back her wet hair.
They all feared to the marrow the worst about Jimmy Lee, but they murmured hopeful scenarios among themselves as they headed back toward the precipice. Again and again Geneva’s mind replayed the scene of his slight body falling through the cold mist. Jimmy Lee surely was dead. Who knew how high that cliff was? No doubt he would not be found for days, his poor body mangled and torn by the awful fall. Geneva shuddered at the thought. Poor Jimmy Lee! His death was her fault! She lowered her eyes sorrowfully to the trail and fought back the tears. She was a pitiful excuse for a human being.
Before they had reached the cliff, Lamentations met them, whining and wagging his nub of a tail.
“Lamentations!” cried Geneva, “I’m so glad you didn’t go over, too!” The dog licked her hand, then, still whining and wagging, he asked her to follow him back to the place Jimmy Lee had fallen.
Sunshine poured down. The narrow ledge suddenly looked wider and far less treacherous. Lilly hung back, but the others followed Lamentations, half eager to see where Jimmy Lee had fallen, half dreading it as well. Quickly they made their way after the dog.
For the first few paces along the trail, the rock dropped off for a hundred feet or more, but when they reached the spot where Jimmy Lee had fallen, they could look down and see a very large ledge, not fifteen feet below them. It was more than ten feet across and perhaps ten feet deep. Jimmy Lee was lying on his side beside a small pool. Water gushed from the side of the mountain into this pool, and in turn, the pool emptied into a small waterfall cascading silently over the side of the ledge into a vast emptiness. Geneva was so glad to see Jimmy Lee lying a mere five yards away that she nearly forgot her fear for his safety.
Lamentations barked, wagging his rear end furiously. Jimmy Lee moaned and moved slightly. Geneva scanned the rock below her to see if she could find a way to him. Yes. On the trail was an irregular place, and below that was another and another. She felt sure she could climb down to him. Quickly she ran up the trail and swung herself over the side.
“Oh, God, Geneva, be careful!” cried Howard, following her up the trail, then pausing to peer anxiously over the side when she began her descent. Sally Beth sat down and dangled her legs off the side of the cliff.
The way down was fairly easy. Geneva was grateful at the thickness of her sock, which cushioned her shoeless right foot against the sharp shale. She reached Jimmy Lee quickly.
“Jimmy Lee,” she said, kneeling down beside him and touching his head. He was warm, but pale, and blood trickled out of his mouth. She took his hand and felt for the pulse. It beat reasonably strong. Moaning, Jimmy Lee turned to her and opened his eyes. A light came on in his face. “Oh, Miss Geneva,” he sighed. “Yew really are my guardian angel. Ever since yew come in my life, yer allus there when I’m adyin’ or in trouble, and yew allus save me.” He grew rapt. “God musta give yew ta me. I’ll never stop lovin’ yew. Never.”
Geneva winced. Twice he had been injured, and both times it had been entirely her fault. And the poor boy could see only goodness in her.
Lamentations was pacing along the top of the cliff, whining and trying to find a place to descend.
“Jimmy Lee, you just lie still.” Geneva’s voice was shaking with fear and anger for herself. “Where do you hurt?”
“Nowheres,” he smiled, the light in his face growing brighter. “Now yer here, I don’t hurt nowheres.”
“Can you sit up? Does your head hurt? Jimmy Lee. Talk to me! Can you feel your arms and legs?” Her gaze ran down the length of his body and stopped at the shin of his left leg where there was a noticeable bulge underneath the denim. When her hands went to the spot, he yelped with pain and his face grew paler.
“Oh, Jimmy Lee, it’s broken, and it looks bad. Have you got a knife so I can cut away your pants?”
“In my pocket,” he gasped. He was beginning to feel all of his wounds.
The knife was not in his left pocket, and when Geneva tried to roll him over enough to try the other side, he groaned. Geneva stopped to think.
“How is he?” called down Sally Beth.
Geneva arched her neck upward. “He’s got a broken leg, but that’s all I can tell right now. Do any of you have a knife?
“I do,” called Sally Beth. She rummaged around in her purse and produced a Swiss Army knife, which she tossed down to Geneva. “Hold on,” she added. “I’m coming down. Lamentations, yew stay here. Yew cain’t make it down there.”
The dog sat whining, while Sally Beth eased herself down the rock face. Geneva knelt by Jimmy Lee’s leg and very carefully began cutting at the heavy denim, but he cried out when she tugged the knife upward. Sally Beth joined her presently, and so did Howard.
“Wait jist a minute,” cautioned Sally Beth. “I have some scissors here in my pocketbook. They’re real sharp, too. I carry ‘em with me everywhere in case somebody needs a haircut.” She began rummaging again.
“Sally Beth, do you keep a whole life in there?” asked Geneva. “How on earth can you carry all that stuff?”
“Oh, yew get used to it,” she answered mildly. “Here they are!” She triumphantly held up a pair of hair cutting scissors encased in plastic, then, very methodically, she removed them from their case and began cutting away at Jimmy Lee’s pants. He remained still while she cut a slit to the knee and peeled the denim back to reveal a bulging break at the shin. It was not a compound fracture, not quite, for the bone had not made its way through the flesh, but it was a very bad break indeed. It was obvious Jimmy Lee was not walking anywhere.
Sally Beth sighed. “I cain’t set a broken bone. Leastways not a break this bad. Can yew, Geneva?” Geneva shook her head. “Howard?”
He looked stricken at the thought. Sally Beth thought briefly and continued, “Well, Lilly’s no good either. I reckon we’ll jist have to tie it up best we can so he cain’t move it. And I reckon we might as well get Lilly down here. No use leavin’ her up there to fall apart waiting for us. We’ll need some sticks. Geneva, yew and Howard go get some. I’ll go back for Lilly so we can decide what to do.”
Geneva’s estimation of her silly cousin moved up several notches. Nodding, she moved toward the rock face, but Howard stopped her. “I’ll go,” he said. You stay here with Jimmy Lee. Didn’t Howard give you some medicines? Is there something in there to ease his pain some?” He indicated the bag tied around Geneva’s belt loop.
“Of course. Willow bark. If I had a cup, I could mix it in water. It’s terribly bitter, especially if you chew it.”
“I have a cup,” said Sally Beth. “And I have some aspirin, and some Tylenol, too.”
Somehow, with much pleading and encouraging, they got the whimpering Lilly down to the ledge, put a splint on Jimmy Lee’s leg, and gave him enough aspirin and Tylenol to ease his pain. Geneva wiped away the blood on his face and discovered, to her relief, that it came from a cut lip. He was also bruised and scraped but otherwise unharmed. Geneva began to feel hopeful, but worry descended again when she realized that the afternoon was growing late. Howard, too, was becoming anxious. He glanced up at Lamentations, who lay with his head hanging mournfully over the edge of the cliff. “You suppose that dog could go for help?” he asked Jimmy Lee.
Jimmy Lee grinned. “Why shore! Hey! Lamentations?” Lamentations jumped up quickly and peered eagerly down at his master’s face. “Go fer help, boy! Go on home! Bring back Chap!”
The dog responded immediately. He circled around a few times, looking around him, then he grinned and panted back in Jimmy Lee’s direction. Excitedly, he tried to descend the cliff.
“No! Lamentations! Go fer help! Go git Chap. Go on, boy!”
Lamentations was puzzled. He sat down, his head cocked to one side, and looked at the group below him. “GO ON!” they all yelled. Lamentations gave them one mournful look and departed.
“Thank goodness,” sighed Geneva. “Maybe he’ll get home before nightfall and get Howard or somebody back up here. Sure hope we don’t have to spend the night here.”
“How far is it, Jimmy Lee?” asked Howard.
Jimmy Lee’s face clouded. “Not far,” he said evasively. He kin git there and back in a hour, I reckon.
Sally Beth stood up. “Well,” she declared briskly, “We’d better be prepared just in case. Howard might not be home, and once it gets dark, nobody’s going to find us here. Why don’t we try to build a fire, and fix us up something to eat.”
Geneva, suddenly ravenous, remembered that she had not eaten since the evening before. A cold pain clutched at her as the thought of the jerky and bread Howard had packed for her this morning. “Yes. I have some food,” she said, pulling the little bag from her belt.
“So do I,” said Sally Beth. “Yew never know when yer going to get hungry.” A bag of trail mix and a box of Fig Newtons appeared magically from her purse.
They were just beginning to portion out the food when they heard a whine from above.
“Lamentations!” cried Jimmy Lee. “What are yew adoin’ back here? Yer supposed to go git Chap!”
Lamentations wagged his stump pitifully and cocked his head, then tried to scramble down to the small group below him.
“Jimmy Lee,” said Howard sadly, “I’m afraid your dog isn’t very smart.”
Jimmy Lee looked sheepish. “Hit ain’t his fault. A eagle caught him when he was jist a pup and dropped him on his head.” He gazed at the women with a naked pleading. “He’s a good dog,” he asserted mournfully. “Jist ain’t got much sense.”
“Do you think he’s capable of getting his own dinner?” asked Howard.
Jimmy Lee grimaced apologetically.
“Okay,” said Howard. “It’s obvious he wants to be down here with you, so I’m going to see if I can get him down. Anybody want to help? Got any ideas?”
“I do!” cried Sally Beth. “We could make a chain! Yew know, Yew and me and Geneva and Lilly can climb up part way and pass him on down to each other?”
“Nuh uh. Not me,” said Lilly, shaking her head and cowering as far from the edge as she could. “I cain’t believe I got down here myself. I’m not going to climb up anywhere after a dog.”
“You don’t have to,” encouraged Geneva. “We’ll bring him down most of the way. You just climb up about two feet and catch him.”
“I believe I can get him to one of you, then I can climb down below and catch him again,” added Howard. “Shall we try it?”
Somehow they got Lamentations, carried and coaxed, down the precipice. Immediately he ran to Jimmy Lee and began licking his face.
“Yeah, yer a good old dog,” murmured Jimmy Lee. “Stupid as hell, but a good old dog.”
Lamentations sniffed at Jimmy Lee, then pressed himself up close by his side. He laid his head on Jimmy Lee’s shoulder and sighed.
Howard interrupted the reunion, “It looks like we may be spending the night here. I doubt if they will search for us much today, if at all. Howard may not even know we’re missing if he went back to his cabin.” He bit off a hunk of beef jerky and chewed thoughtfully.
Lilly put her head on her knees and wept softly.
“Oh, Lilly, quit being such a sissy,” admonished Sally Beth. “We’ll get outta here tomorrow anyway, and we can build us up a big fire and pretend we’re camping out!”.
“I’m jist tired,” sighed Lilly.
“I didn’t say we couldn’t sleep!” her sister cried. “And look! We’ve got plenty of water. Shoot, yew can even take a bath if yew want to.”
Lilly just kept her head on her knees and rolled her head a little.
“Aw, Lilly. Come on, be a sport,” she coaxed. “I’ll do yer nails fer yew.”
Geneva was tired, too, so tired of spirit that she wanted to die. Being here was not horrible in itself. She had spent nights in the woods before, and she knew they were safe perched on this ledge on the high precipice. Surely the bear would not return and venture down the cliff face. But the darkness in her heart overwhelmed her and made her want to cry out for her lover, to call and call, like a whippoorwill, until the echoes reverberated across the mountains and hollows and he came to her. She gazed at the horizon and found no joy in her soul.
Howard Graves put his hand on her shoulder. “You feeling bad, sweetheart? Do you want some Tylenol?”
“No, I’m fine, Howard. I’m a little blue, is all.” She smiled wearily. “I appreciate your coming to look for me. Sorry I’ve caused you all this trouble.”
He smiled a strangely gentle smile and followed Geneva’s gaze out over the distant blue. “Would you believe me if I said this is no trouble for me? Being out here has been invigorating. I can see why you love it here.”
He stood. “But it’ll get cold tonight, and we need to see about getting a fire going. Want to help me gather wood?”
“Sure. But everything’s wet. I don’t know if we can get anything to burn.”
“Maybe so. Let’s see what we can find up on the trail. If we can get enough dry stuff to get a good blaze going, maybe the damp wood will burn if it’s not too wet.”
“I’ll help,” added Sally Beth. “Lilly, yew stay here and take care of Jimmy Lee.”
“Yes, I need to find my shoe, too, if I can,” said Geneva. “I sure hate the thought of walking all the way home with one bare foot.”
They set out in search of wood and Geneva’s shoe. They did find reasonably dry wood in the hollows of rocks, but the shoe did not materialize. Wearily, Geneva returned to the ledge to sort through slightly damp pine knots and cedar splinters. Jimmy Lee patiently whittled out enough cedar shavings to lay out a hopeful fire start. They added some larger, damp, but not soaked, firewood. The rest they stockpiled to last the night.
“Sally Beth, do you have any matches?” asked Howard, winking at Geneva.
“Why, sure. Right in here somewhere.”
Before long they had constructed a nice fire, which blazed merrily in the cooling dusk. They ate the rest of their food and drank from the spring gushing out of the side of the mountain, then watched the stars come out and the moon climb over the far ridges. Sally Beth gave Jimmy Lee more aspirin and they moved in close to the fire, huddling together to keep off the chill. Howard stirred the coals and settled back next to Geneva.
“Well, that was a pretty good supper, considering,” said Lilly thoughtfully. “But to tell yew the truth, I could go for some real food—even for some of Miss Nancy’s pet chicken.”
Sally Beth laughed. “Me too. I probly could eat the whole thing myself right here and now.”
“Who’s Miss Nancy?” asked Geneva.
Sally Beth laughed again. “I don’t know if yew ever met her. She was Grandmamma Tate’s neighbor for a while, before she moved!”
Lilly hooted at this.
Geneva perked up. “There’s got to be a story here I haven’t heard before.”
Sally Beth began, “Well, there was this chicken…”
“No, Sally Beth, yew have to start from the beginning,” broke in Lilly. “Let me tell it.” She turned to the others, her face alight with pleasure. “Well, it all started the summer Sally Beth turned sixteen. She flunked her driver’s license test…”
“I didn’t know yew had to take a written test!” exclaimed Sally Beth. “Shoot, I’d been drivin’ since I was twelve, and I could drive better’n anybody in the family, even Daddy!”
“Well, that’s what yew get for not tellin’ anybody yew was going to take the thing,” asserted Lilly. She turned to the others. “She’d been drivin’ for so long without a license that everybody sort of forgot that she needed to get one. But the day after her sixteenth birthday, she decides to get one, so she puts me in the car and we go down to the courthouse. And she marches herself in and says, ‘I want a driver’s license.’ And the deputy there says, ‘Well, little lady, yew’ve come to the right place. Where’s yer mama or yer daddy?’
“Well, we had to admit that we hadn’t brought anybody along with us, and of course he figured out in about two seconds that she had driven down to the courthouse without a license.” Lilly began to giggle. “But Sally Beth just stands right up to him and declares she’d been driving better’n anybody in the family since she was twelve, and somehow talks him into letting her take the test, thinking that all she’d have to do was drive around the block. Yew should have seen her face when he tells her to sit down and take a written test!”
“It was awful,” asserted Sally Beth. “It took me completely by surprise! I bet I didn’t get half of them right!”
Lilly went on. “So then, when she ups and fails it, the deputy gets all hot and tells her she’d better never let him catch her driving without a license, or there’d be hell to pay, and then he won’t let us drive back, but puts us in the squad car and takes us home himself. Daddy had to go pick up the car down at the station!” At this Sally Beth and Lilly broke into gales of laughter.
“So what does this have to do with Miss Nancy and her chicken?” asked Geneva.
“Oh!” exclaimed Sally Beth. “The next day we went over to Grandmamma Tate’s. I drove, of course, ‘cause it was only a coupla miles, but she wasn’t there, so we just decided to wait on her. Then Lilly sees this cute boy next door at Miss Nancy’s, come to find out he’s her nephew, and Lilly, she gets to flirting with him, and then she ups and invites him over for supper that night! But then we get to thinking about what we’ll have, and we have no idea when Grandmamma will be back, and we get to thinking maybe we’d better do something ourselves, but there isn’t much in the house that would make a company kind of supper, so we decide to drive to the store and get some chicken.”
“Now, remember,” broke in Lilly. “I’m just fourteen, and Sally Beth has flunked her driver’s license test the day before, but who cared about what that silly old deputy had said? He couldn’t stop us from getting in the car and taking off. Well, we get to the end of the driveway and Sally Beth’s about to pull out into the road, when guess who drives by. The deputy who had just told Sally Beth the day before that he’d better not catch her drivin’!
“Well, he just about busted something getting his car stopped and gettin’ over to us, and he was all red and hollerin’, and tells us he’s going to arrest us both. And Sally Beth just sits there as calm as an ice cube, and when he finishes, she just says, ‘Deputy, I’m jist driving up and down my grandmamma’s driveway, and this is private property, and yew can’t stop me.’ Which was true, but that made him even hotter, and he said he was going to park his car right on the road there and make sure she didn’t try to drive anywhere outside that driveway, so we had no choice but to go on back to the house.”
“By that time it’s about three o’clock,” added Sally Beth. “And we still didn’t have anything for a company dinner, and then Lilly sees this funny little chicken running out in the yard, and she gets the bright idea to catch it and fry it up.”
Lilly giggled. “It seemed like a real good idea at the time. But have yew ever tried to catch a chicken?” she asked the group in general. They all laughed, except Howard, who looked askance and asked, “What’s so hard about that?”
The others just laughed harder. Jimmy Lee slapped his thigh, then winced and moaned.
“What did you do?” asked Geneva.
“Well, we chased it around for about half a hour,” said Lilly, “and then when it was getting obvious that we weren’t going to get anywhere, Sally Beth went in and got Grandpa’s shotgun and came charging out to shoot it. She missed, of course, but got birdshot in the cow’s rump, which she tried to get out with tweezers…”
“I did get it out!” declared Sally Beth. “By that time, yew were too excited to remember anything! I got it out and rubbed it down with alcohol, and Grandmamma never even noticed the Band-Aids I put on it!”
Geneva stifled a snort.
“Anyway, we ended up catching the chicken,” continued Lilly. “Sally Beth got out Grandpa’s fish net and caught it on the fly. But catching it turned out to be the easy part!”
“Shoot, the rest was easy for yew!” asserted Sally Beth. “After we caught the thing, we didn’t know how to kill it. I wanted to chop off its head, ‘cause I knew if I shot it up close it would be full of birdshot and not fit to eat, but Lilly wouldn’t hold it, and she wouldn’t chop, either, so finally I had to put my foot on it and try to chop it off all by myself. But just as the ax came down, it jerked away, and I only got about half of its neck chopped.”
She began laughing uncontrollably and slapped her knee several times. “Oh, it was awful! Blood was squirting out everywhere, and the chicken took off running with its head sort of flopped over, jist sorta hanging on by its skin! And Lilly started puking, and then she passed out right there in the back yard! I was afraid the chicken would get away, and I didn’t know what to do about Lilly, so I jist grabbed the chicken, and honey, blood was just squirting out! And Lilly was laying there, dead to the world, so I had this squirting chicken in one hand, with its little legs moving like they was still runnin’, and Lilly in the other hand, and me trying to bring her to! Yew can just imagine!”
Lilly took over again. “By that time, I didn’t care if we ever ate again or not, but Sally Beth just threw water on me then told me to go lay down, but I couldn’t even make it to the living room, so I just laid on the kitchen floor, and Sally Beth, she set about to plucking this chicken because she said she’d be damned if a scrawny little chicken got the best of her. It had these real long, downy feathers, so she decided to save them and make a pillow, so once she plucked it, she put all the feathers in a bag, and then she skinned it and gutted it and cooked the thing. Made a chicken pot pie with mashed potatoes and gravy and all the fixin’s. She was real proud of herself.”
Sally Beth laughed. “It really did turn out right tasty. And this boy just bragged on it all through supper, and then I made the mistake of telling the story of how we got it.”
“‘Course we all just laughed and laughed, and then Grandpa got real quiet for a minute, and then he said, ‘That wasn’t our chicken!’” Lilly screamed with laughter and she and Sally Beth leaned against each other and laughed until they had to wipe their eyes.
“And of course that made us laugh all the harder,” choked out Sally Beth, “until this boy, what was his name, Lilly?”
“Charles,” her sister prompted. “Charles Harris. How could yew forget his name?”
“Oh, yeah. Charles. Anyway, all of a sudden, he stops with his fork halfway to his mouth, and he says, ‘Was it a Silkie chicken?’”
“We just looked at each other. We’d never heard of that kind before, and he said, ‘Long, fluffy feathers, more like fur than feathers?’ And we had to say ‘yes’, and he turned just as white, and he put his fork down, and said, ‘That’s my Aunt Nancy’s pet chicken, Geraldine! She’s been searching all day for it.’”
Both girls broke into mighty gales of laughter again, and Geneva and the men caught their hysteria. “And then, the worst thing was,” chortled Lilly, “that Sally Beth got up and gave him the bag of feathers she had plucked off it and said, ‘Here, I know yer Aunt Nancy will be wanting this!’”
They all laughed until their sides and faces ached, and then they continued to giggle for several moments as they calmed and the fire burned low.
Sally Beth sighed deeply and started to say something, but instead she gasped. “Look!” she cried, pointing up. “A shooting star! Oh, and there’s another one! And another! It’s a meteor shower!”
Geneva felt the sudden stab of memory. Howard’s long, lean body worshipping her as meteors arched across the black sky. Howard leaping and singing and holding her high as she threw back her head and drank in the wild, sweet night air. Howard loving her and filling her with pleasure and happiness with all that he had to give. She nearly groaned in her agony, but she bit back the tears and listened quietly as the others exclaimed and the night wore on.
Presently, they quieted in the face of the night’s splendor, and in the silence, Lilly began humming in her sweet, low voice. Sally Beth joined in with a soprano harmony, and soon they had merged their voices into a lovely old song Geneva remembered hearing at her grandmother’s knee.
Though the mountain is high and the valley deep
Though there’s wind and there’s rain and there’s snow.
I come to you with my love to keep
On trails through sunshine, starshine, and willow
On trails of willow, I’ll come to you
Though the darkness blind me and the sunshine burn
Through trails of willow, my heart stays true.
And for your love I’ll always yearn
Howard put his arm around her, and Geneva fought the tears as she thought of the other Howard somewhere in these mountains, watching these falling stars and thinking of her. It was almost more than she could bear, listening to the old, beloved melody and staring into the fire. At last she put her head on her knees and hugged her grief unto herself. Presently, the tears began to roll silently.
“What’s the matter, Geneva? Are you sick?” came Howard’s voice beside her.
“Oh, Howard, I’m just confused. You wouldn’t understand.”
“I think I might.” He hesitated, then continued, “Something happened up there on that mountain, didn’t it?”
Geneva did not answer.
“It’s okay. He’s a good man. And I haven’t been. I guess I have a lot to learn about the people here.” His arm tightened around her. “I’ve already learned that I’m not better than them. I used to think that I was a good judge of people. Now I realize I’ve had my head up my ass most of my life.” He stopped while they both stared at the fire, then continued, “I like it here. If I came here to live, would I have a chance with you?”
This last comment so astonished Geneva that her tears ceased and she stared at him in disbelief. He chuckled.
“Surprise,” he sang out softly. “I’m not saying I’d exactly be in my element. Lord knows, I couldn’t take up any worthwhile trade fitting for here, but you can be a stock market analyst anywhere. And I’m willing to do it for your sake, if you’ll have me.
“You’ve got to be kidding. You’d never survive here. Besides, I’m not so sure I like you here. You’re a city slicker.” She rubbed at the dull ache in her forehead.
“I know that. But Geneva, I’m willing to fight for you. If I could get you back to DC, I know I’d stand a better chance, but where things stand now, I’ll take whatever comes. Of course, if you would agree to come back with me, I promise you I’ll make it all up to you. We could buy a house in the suburbs, or even a nice little cottage in Maine, or here, or wherever you want, so we could get away. We wouldn’t have to be city dwellers all the time. Just enough to keep life interesting. What do you say?”
“Howard, this is beyond me. I don’t know what to think.”
“Me either. I just know that I’ve changed my priorities over the last few days. When I left Hutterton, I was so mad that I wanted to come back and just lay waste to everything in this state. I even called my lawyer and tried to initiate a lawsuit. And when I came back to find you last night, I was ready to tell you that you weren’t good enough for me.
“But when it became evident that you were missing, I had a complete change of heart. I realized how much I love you, and I just started thinking about how fragile we are and how we try to insulate ourselves from really living—and loving. And how stupid we can be,” he added. “I had always thought that money is power. Being in these woods makes me realize how silly even the concept of money is.” He chuckled again. “I’ve got about five hundred dollars in my wallet. I’d gladly have burned it if it meant getting this fire going.”
Geneva spoke slowly. “Howard, I’m glad to see you feeling sorted out this way, but I have to tell you…” He put his fingers on her lips.
“Hush. Not now, darling. I know I’m competing with a man twice, three times my size. But I also know that he doesn’t know how much better he is than I am.”
“What makes you say he’s better than you?”
He gazed into the darkening night. “He doesn’t lie very well, especially about you. I could see how much it took out of him to say what he did to protect you, and yet he did without hesitating. I almost think he would have fought me to the death if I had questioned his defense of you.” He smiled. “I remember how I acted that day in Hutterton when I accused you of having something going with Jimmy Lee, and I don’t think I compare very well.” He let a few silent moments slide by. “Besides,” he went on. “The measure of a man sometimes lies in how a woman feels about him. And I saw the way you looked at him.” He looked away and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“You don’t think badly of me?”
He said lightly, “If I made you feel guilty right now, would it help my case? But no. I can never think badly of you. I love you. The thoughts of what happened between you tears my guts out, but I don’t blame you.”
Sally Beth’s pure, high voice floated around them and lent a sweetness to the night. Geneva listened to the sounds and thought about Howard’s words. She wanted to tell him how much she loved Howard Knight, but he began speaking again.
“Time and place change things. I’m hoping that once we get back to civilization, you’ll see that you really belong with me. I understand the draw this place has for you. Every time I look at the distant hills or come up on another waterfall, I find myself thinking of coming here to live. I could stand it. The work I do seems awfully shallow to me right now. But wherever you are, Geneva, I intend to court you as gallantly as I can. And I hope you’ll be able to find some goodness in me to love again.”
She did not answer, but let herself be absorbed into the falling quietness. In the drowsy moments that followed, Sally Beth spoke up quietly, “I think maybe we all ought to pray.”
Geneva sat up and glanced around. Sally Beth, sitting close by Jimmy Lee, looked expectantly at the others. “It’s going to be a long night, and Jimmy Lee could use some healin’. We should pray over him.”
Lilly sighed. “Sally Beth, yew are always prayin’, ever since you got to be a preacher. Do you reckon it will do any good? I mean, really?”
“Sure it will do some good,” answered her sister. “Prayin’ always does good.”
“Sally Beth, you are a preacher?” asked Geneva incredulously. The girl was full of surprises. “How did that happen?”
“Oh, it wasn’t a big deal or anything. Last summer when Ruth Leigh wanted to git married up on Jacob’s Bald, the preacher couldn’t make it ‘cause he’d had a stroke, and so I got ordained so she wouldn’t be disappointed. Nobody else wanted to do it. That’s all.”
“But your church let you do that? They let women get ordained?”
“Oh, shoot, Geneva. Quakers don’t care if a preacher is a man or a woman. We’re all the same in God’s eyes, and He just looks at our hearts. Now, who wants to pray first?”
They all prayed, one at a time, encouraged by Sally Beth. Even Howard lifted his voice up into the night and asked for deliverance and for healing for Jimmy Lee, and Geneva felt her soul quiet as each spoke in turn. Jimmy Lee glowed with gratitude, then, as the prayers ended, each of them settled easily onto the hard ground and listened as Sally Beth and Lilly once again took up their sweet harmonies. Geneva though it was too bad they couldn’t get along in life like they did in song. She let the music and the sounds of the night wash over her while stars rained down upon them and the moon rode across the horizon. She fell asleep in Howard’s arms, dreaming of the other one.