thirteen

The rain was still coming down the next morning when Susannah awoke. She found the sound of the steady rain on the roof soothing, and there was a fresh scent in the air, since their fire had long ago burned out.

Rubbing her eyes, she slowly turned toward Bobby’s sleeping pallet and found it empty. She pulled herself up slowly, cringing when her muscles refused to do what she wanted them to do. The floor hadn’t been the most comfortable place to sleep!

But it hadn’t bothered her at all while she slept, because she had dreamed the most wonderful dreams. Most of them in-volved Bobby and herself. In one, they were on a picnic, and Bobby was picking her flowers to put in her hair. In another, it was Christmas and Beth was with them as they unwrapped their presents while sitting by the tree. Bobby had unwrapped his present pulling out a hand-knitted sweater that she’d pain-stakingly made for him. He’d reached over and had given her a gentle kiss on the lips. What was so strange about this was that Susannah couldn’t knit! But all the same, she’d felt such a feeling of contentment and happiness. Much like she imagined that the Davises must feel. Much like she wanted to experience in real life.

Shaking herself from her musings, she looked about the large room, listening to see if anyone else had awakened. The light was dim, but she had no idea what time it was because she knew the weather would have darkened the sky.

She could hear sounds coming from across the open hallway, and she figured that they’d all gone over to the kitchen.

Sighing, she crawled out from under the covers. Then, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders, she walked outside, steeling herself for the trek she needed to make to the outhouse.

Taking a deep breath, she covered her head with the blanket and ran down the steps of the house, into the backyard. Rain pelted her as she ran to the little wooden building that sat too far from the house, as far as Susannah was concerned!

She ran under the tiny overhang that did little to keep the rain from hitting her and pulled at the handle. It appeared to be either stuck or locked. Knocking, she called out to see if anyone was in there.

A high-pitched child’s voice called out that Rupert was occupying the outhouse at the moment.

Well, little Rupert took his time, but finally he opened the door. And just as he skipped away, he sang out, “Be careful of Freddie!”

Susannah sighed in frustration, thinking “Freddie” was another one of the Davis children. But when she stuck her head in, she saw that the interior was empty. Shrugging, she went on in and shut the door.

But the mystery of Freddie didn’t take long to reveal itself. Just as she was about to exit the outhouse, “Freddie” met her face to face.

A scream escaped before she quickly squelched it with a hand over her mouth. Horrified, she cautiously took a few steps backward, until she had no more room to move.

Above the door was a ledge, and lying on that ledge and hanging down from it in front of the door was the most massive snake Susannah had ever seen. Actually, it was the first snake she’d ever seen, but it most certainly had to be abnormally large!

Praying for a window was futile, since she knew that the only openings were a few holes cut high on the door and the sides of the building for air.

She stood frozen, watching in horror as the snake moved this way and that, looking at her with much too much interest.

After a moment she realized that she had to get her thoughts together and find a way out. She wished she knew more about snakes; she had no idea how to identify them by species.

She remembered a story that Rachel Stone had told her about a snake that almost bit her daughter. Her husband had shot and killed it before it could strike, but she’d said the snake had been a venomous one.

Oh, what kind was it? she struggled to remember. A rattler! That’s what she’d called it, because it had a tail that rattled.

Well, she hadn’t heard a rattle, at least not yet, from this one. Carefully she stood on her tiptoes and looked at its body.

No rattle.

Her relief only lasted a moment before she realized that it could well be one of the other varieties of deadly snakes that lived in these parts. She’d heard the boys in her class talk about them, so she knew they existed. This particular snake was dark colored and had three pale strips running down its back. Was that good or bad? She just didn’t know.

Maybe she could distract it! If she could get it to slide over, she could make a run for it!

She said a quick prayer under her breath, then scooted over, away from the door. The beady eyes followed her, the evil-looking tongue darting at her as if the animal were making fun of her.

“Uh. . .here snakey, snakey,” she called, feeling silly. Just how did one call a snake, anyway? “Come here, boy. . .or girl. . .whatever you are.” But the snake just hung there in its spot, looking at her.

Feeling desperate, she held up her arm, trying to get the snake’s attention. Well, this got its attention, all right. It moved its head toward her hand, nearly bumping into it.

With a squeal, she pulled back her hand. The snake went back to where it had been before.

At least it hadn’t bitten her, she thought, though that brought little comfort. It didn’t mean that it couldn’t bite her if it wanted to.

The thing was, she just didn’t have the nerve to chance it.

So she slowly sank to the wood-plank floor and pulled her knees up to her chin, where she was as far from the snake as she could possibly be.

She would just have to wait for help.

❧

Bobby Joe had searched the whole house twice over and still had not found his wife. Where in the world had she gone? It was raining too hard for her to want to go for a walk, and he’d just been out at the barn and knew she wasn’t there. It just didn’t make sense. He reached up to scratch his head, but when he encountered the bandage, he grimaced and lowered his hand. He needed to do something about taking that bandage off!

He went back into the kitchen, where all the Davis kids and their parents were preparing breakfast. That, too, seemed to be a family affair.

“I can’t find Susannah anywhere! I just don’t understand where she’s run off to!”

Ruby wiped her hands on her apron and shook her head. “Goodness me! I can’t imagine where she might be!” She looked at her children. “Have any of you seen Mrs. Aaron?”

They all shook their heads.

Bobby Joe scratched his head in bewilderment. “I guess I’ll go see if she’s outside.” He started to leave, but then he felt a tug on his pant leg.

“She’s with Freddie,” he told him, looking up at him with big hazel-green eyes.

“Excuse me? Did you say she’s with someone named Freddie?”

“Yep!” he answered, then walked away.

“Wait, uh. . .” He looked at Ruby. “What’s his name?” He pointed to the little boy, who was now trying to take a fried potato from the counter.

“Oh, that one’s little Rupert.”

“He said something about Susannah being with Freddie. . .?”

Ruby’s eyes widened. “Freddie? Oh, dear!” she exclaimed, putting a hand over her mouth. Laughter was gleaming from her eyes.

Bobby Joe’s concern was fading and jealousy was rearing its ugly head. “Just who is Freddie?” he demanded, putting his hands on his hips.

“Oh, now, don’t get your back up! Freddie is a garter snake that sometimes visits the outhouse. I think if you go outside, you’ll find her there. Poor dear is probably scared to death.”

His hands fell back to his sides. “A snake?” he asked, dumbfounded. “Rupert, did you see Susannah go into the outhouse?”

The child nodded. “Yessir,” he said, his mouth full of fried potato. He reached for another piece, but got his hand slapped for the effort.

Bemused, Bobby turned toward the door. “Then I guess I’d better go and fetch her!”

“Why don’t a few of you go with him to round up that snake,” Ruby ordered.

Not a few, but the whole horde of Davis children followed him out to the outhouse. They squealed when the rain began to hit them, but soon they were enjoying it.

Bobby tried the door, but found it locked. “Susannah? Are you in there?”

From inside the building he heard a frightened voice call out, “Bobby? Is that you?”

Trying to control the laughter bubbling up within his chest, he answered, “Yes, it’s me. You need to unlock the door.”

“I can’t! Bobby, there’s a snake in here, and I’m afraid it’ll bite me!”

“It’s just a garter snake, Red. It’s not going to bite you. Now, hurry! I’m getting soaked!”

“Are you sure?”

That question brought a round of giggles from the children, who were listening as they splashed around him. He had to chuckle himself.

“Yes, I’m sure. Trust me.”

From inside he heard a shuffling around. Then he heard her talking as if she were speaking to a scared child. “All right, snakey. I’m just going to reach around you and unlock this little old door, all right? Now, don’t look at me like that, snakey, because my little old heart just can’t take it. That’s a good boy. There, there. . .Eek!” he heard her squeal.

“Susannah? What’s wrong?” Bobby called out.

“It touched me! Eeeew! Yuk! It was horrible.”

Bobby was soaked from head to toe, but it was worth it just to hear her carry on.

“He’s not. . .going. . .to hurt you. Open. . .the door!” he said between chuckles.

“Bobby Joe Aaron, are you laughing at me?” she asked, clearly outraged.

“Uh. . .sort of.”

The door flew open, and she walked carefully around the hanging snake. Just when she was almost home free, it swung up and touched her nose. It was enough to send her screaming out of the building and into Bobby Joe’s arms.

Bobby Joe held her, but he couldn’t prevent himself from laughing.

When she realized this, she flung herself from his arms and began to pelt his chest with her fists, not even noticing that her blanket had fallen to the ground. “Will you quit laughing? I was scared out of my wits!”

He caught her hands. “I’m sorry, Susannah, but you’ve got to admit it was funny.”

She jerked her hands loose and backed away, glaring at him. “I see nothing funny about it! And I think it’s highly ungentlemanly of you to say it is! I thought it was a poison-ous snake, you fiend. I could have died!”

“Oh, Red. Garter snakes won’t kill you,” he tried to placate, as he brushed a lock of wet hair from her forehead.

Obviously that wasn’t the right thing to say. “I didn’t know it was a garter snake, Mr. Smartypants! If I did, I wouldn’t have stayed in there!”

“Of course you wouldn’t have,” he said, biting his lip to keep from laughing.

“You don’t believe me!” She shook her head in exasperation. “Well, you just believe what you want! I don’t have another thing to say to you!” And with that she sniffed, picked the blanket up off the ground, then thrust her nose into the air and marched around him. Water was streaming down her face and hair as she walked away, toward the house.

“I think you made her mad,” one of the older children said.

“I think you’re right,” he answered as they all started to follow her.

“You ought to talk to Pa about that. He’s always good at calming Mama down when she gets upset.”

Bobby looked at the boy thoughtfully, then nodded. “You may just have a good idea, there, uh. . .what’s your name?”

“Thomas Jr., sir. Everyone calls me T.J.”

“All right, T.J. Let’s go find your pa.”

He had some other things he wanted to discuss with Thomas also. The man had been married for eighteen years, so he obviously knew more than Bobby did about marriage!

But before he could do anything, he had to get out of his wet clothes. Looking around at the children, he knew he wasn’t the only one. One by one, they all sloshed into the house.