by Lee Smith
But I have gotten off the track as usual, for right at the top of Company Hill is the superintendent’s house, this is what I want to tell you about, it is really something! There is not a house in Majestic that can hold a candle to it, nor anywhere else even France, I immagine. For it was built by the owner—that is one of the richest men in the world, the company owner—for a summer place, and Beulah says it has a ballroom, and a conservatory full of flowers, and five bedrooms with mirror doors. How Beulah’s eyes glitter when she describes it! The owner built it for his new wife as a surprise, and when she came here for the first time, they say she had 16 pieces of luggage which the colored men carried up the hill, and 14 hatboxes, and then two weeks later they carried everything back down because she hated it here, and said it is too depressing! So the owner never comes here any more, and Mr. Ransom the superintendent gets to live in the house with his wife who likes to put on the dog and does not find Diamond at all depressing. I would not either if I was that rich!
So this is it, Silvaney—Diamond, Va., picture it if you can. If you stand in the bottom by Diamond Creek looking up the mountain, as I did yesterday in the pale pearly early morning light when I had to run down to the company store for cornflakes, if you stand in the bottom and look up, you have to catch your breath, it is just fantastic! Row upon row of houses and people in every one like bees in a hive, you can not believe it is such a town! It seems to have sprung from the mountain already-made like mushrooms spring up on the mountain after rain. Or sometimes it seems to me like a toy town built by a big rich child. It is also like this for they have playmoney here, or scrip which it is called. You can spend it in the company store just like money, it is good as cash. The company will buy you everything if you live here, and take it right out of your pay so you do not have to worry about a thing. It seems like a giant play town to me, or like paradise.
But I see I have forgotten the main thing probably, which is the railroad that cuts through this bottom like a knife following Diamond Creek and then the Big Sandy—next stop, Hazard, Kentucky. The train comes along every morning and every evening just about suppertime, and I reckon I will never get used to it! I still drop whatever I am doing and fly to the door to see it pass through town, the locomotive puffing out great clouds of white smoke and shooting up columns of red sparks. It gives you a real excited feeling to watch the train. And sometimes when I take little John Arthur downtown to get him out of Beulah’s hair—for she has been short with him lately, ever since Curtis Junior has come—why then sometimes we will put our hands on the track and see can we feel it vibrate, or put our ears down there and see can we hear it hum. And little John Arthur gets so excited when he hears that whistle and then it really comes, he just has a fit. He puts his hands over his ears and holds his breath till his little face turns plum red—that funny face which looks so much like Daddy’s—and jumps up and down all over the place. I have to hold onto the back of his belt whenever we are downtown and the train comes. And it only stops for a second.
The depot is right in the middle of town, next to the company store. The train stops with its brakes screeching and white steam hissing all around, and the bell ringing like crazy. The men sling the bags down onto the platform, mail and packages, and pick up whatever the station master has got for them, and sometimes a passenger will come down the steps brushing himself off and looking around, and sometimes a person will be waiting to get on. It is all very loud and exciting and fast. There is not but one passenger as a rule or two at most, company men on company business, for this is a coal train and make no mistake about it! It is the Norfolk and Western Railroad. Then they are off again with a whistle and a grinding roaring noise, and the white numbers flash by on the passing cars.
The caboose is full of boys that tip their hats and yell and wave to little John Arthur and me, but they do not look at me like a girl since I am so big now. I can not get use to it. You know I wrote to you how the boys would stare and stare at me in Majestic, those boardinghouse boys, but now if these boys look, they drop their eyes real quick or look away. I guess they think I am a married girl. My stomach is so big that my bellybutton pooches out, you cannot immagine it! The boys in the street look away, the boys in the caboose tip their hats like I am a hundred years old. I stand real straight and stick my belly out and dont care what they think! They dont know I am ruint, nobody knows, nobody knows me here. I look them all in the eye till they look away. Then the train is gone, around that bend yonder, to the mine.
You cant see it from here. And if you walk up there, past the company graveyard, you still cant see much—the tipple, loading coal into the railroad cars, the old tipple beside it falling down, a mess of cars and trucks and such as that, and jerrybuilt buildings and shacks scattered all around, and the old pony pen where they used to keep the mine ponies, and then the mine itself which is not a thing but a hole in the side of the mountain that looks like a big old cave. And that is it! It dont seem like much, not like anything to get all fired up about, or build a town for. But this is it, Big Blue Diamond No. 9. That’s where the train is headed.
And then the train is gone and youre still standing there watching after it and the rails are still humming and youve got coaldust in your hair. It does get real dirty here in Diamond and thats a fact. Other than that, it seems like paradise to me!
Now it is summer of course and the mountains are pretty and green and you cant see the dirt anyhow. And it rains here most every afternoon, we have a thunderstorm, so all the houses and the fence rails and such as that gets washed off good. It would be a nice holler for a garden but you dont have to put in a garden, you can get what you want in a can from the store. Or those that did plant will bring you something, like that woman that brought Beulah some crookneck squash this morning. Oh, it is like paradise! So orderly and everything done for you, it is hard to beat. It is hard to believe the company will treat their own so good.
I said as much to Violet Gayheart, they live next door, yesterday when I was out stringing up our wash in the yard, and she was out there stringing theirs. Violet has got one baby and one big boy. Violet looked at me good. Huh! she snorted. Then she rolled her eyes up like a negro and busted flat out laughing. She has a high wheezing laugh like a horse.
What are you laughing at? I asked her. I didn’t say nothing funny.
You, Violet Gayheart said. What is the matter with you? You are so ignorant. You act like you came from the moon.
What do you mean? I said. This here looks like a pretty good set up to me. It looks like the nicest place I have ever lived by a long shot, with a free doctor and all, and I think there is a good feeling of neighborness here too. Maybe you are just used to it, I said to Violet Gayheart. Didn’t you say you all have been over here ever since this camp opened up?
Violet looked at me close and said, May be. Then she put her wash back down in her basket and took the clothespins out of her mouth and pushed back her curly black hair and said Listen here, honey. Violet Gayheart is tall and bony, with pale blue eyes and a wide full mouth. She wears red lipstick all the time. Violet is not too much older than me I would bet but she looks older, she seems older too. She is not from around here. She and her husband came up from someplace in East Tenessee I believe, and he has got a job about as good as Curtis I reckon, which is how come them to live as high up on Company Hill as Beulah. Violet’s husband, Rush, sets timbers in the mine, he is in charge of that.
Close up, Violet’s eyes look washed out and old. She licked her lipstick and put one hand on her hip and walked over towards me. I’ll tell you the God’s truth, Violet said, but I do not know what this is since just at that minute, Beulah came out on the porch and called me in because she was not feeling too good. Later she said she thinks Violet Gayheart is too rough. Rough! I was tempted to say. Rough! Well I don’t care a fig for rough, since I am ruint anyway which is worse, but I held my tongue. For Beulah has got good intentions I know, and her and Curtis are so nice to take me in.
&nbs
p; But it is a funny thing about being beholden, once you get beholden to somebody you are likely to hate them a little bit although this does not make a bit of sense as they are just being nice. I have been thinking about Daddy and the time he said to Mister Brown, We will not be beholden. Now I see why.
Anyway it is not long now, not long Silvaney, before my baby comes. I remember all the things we used to think about babies, do you? or that people used to tell us—like the hoot owl will bring you a baby, or a girl can find a baby underneath a cabbage leaf in the garden. I watched Momma get bigger and bigger with Garnie and didnt have no idea that’s where he was, or that there was any baby in there atall! I remember how surprised I was to come in that afternoon and find Momma holding a baby, which was Garnie.
My baby kicks and kicks, she is full of life, sometimes she keeps me awake all night long but I will not take a sleepy dram from Doctor Gray nor anything else that might slow her down. She is coming soon, I can tell it. She is riding low now and this makes me pee all the livelong day! I have already got a stack of little sacks for her to wear. And do you know what, Silvaney? I just cant wait to see her. And I know what I will name her too, but it is a secret so far. I have told no one. Her name is Joli which is French, it means Pretty and reminds me of Mrs. Brown. Because my baby will be pretty, and go to France. I will be so glad when she gets here! Because the truth is Silvaney, I am a little bit lonesome here in Diamond, Va. in spite of being stuffed in a four room house with Beulah and Curtis and little John Arthur and Curtis Junior, I know it sounds crazy to say so, what with so many people all around us living on this mountain like bees in a honey comb. So many many people, yet I am lonesome, and cant explain it. There is nobody for me to talk to here but when Joli comes, I will talk to her. And I cant wait!
Your loving sister,
IVY ROWE.
Dear Miss Mabel Maynard,
I know you will be interested to hear from me because you acted so mean to me always and then you felt of my stomach the day I left, and ran off crying. You can not deny you did this, because you did. And since I got up here, I have had some time to think about it, and reflect. So I have something to say to you.
Miss Maynard, do not pity me.
Do not even bother to dislike me, nor pity me, nor anything else, because I do not need anything from you, nor want it either.
My little baby Joli Rowe was born September 10, 1918. She is all mine, I have never had a thing of my own before. She is the most beautiful baby in the world.
So, I pity you!
Your former aquaintance,
IVY ROWE.
Dear Geneva,
It was sure good to get a letter from you in spite of all the bad news! For you know how much I love letters.
But I have to say, I can not stand to read the one you sent here from Lonnie, I sat and looked at it for three days solid and then I threw it in the fire. I have made my bed and I wish everybody would let me lie in it.
We were all surprised and sorry to hear about Lois Branham killing herself. I know it is awful for Stoney and the kids, but I hope in particular that Ethel is not too wrought up about it. I bet she is though. Their family must of become like her own family by now, I reckon. Stoney is lucky he has got her to run the store if you ask me. And as for Lois Branham herself, well I am real surprised! So is Beulah, we have been talking about it. It seemed to us both that Lois Branham was just one of those women without any get up and go, and a husband rich enough to where she could lay in the bed if she wanted. So I cant see it. She had everything a person could of wanted, it seems to me. I guess you never can tell. I will tell you one thing, though—if I was going to kill myself, I would never do it the way she did. You can just immagine the position you would be found in! And I can just immagine poor Ethel coming down the stairs to get breakfast started, and then smelling the gas. I can not believe it! It seems to me that it ought to take a really wild and dramatic person to do something like that, such as when Mister Brown tried it on the willow tree and Revel cut him down in the nick of time—but not a puny little lady like Lois Branham who was always getting Ethel to bring her some prunes for constipation.
I am also sorry to hear about Miss Maynard going all to pieces but to answer your question, I am sure it didnt have a thing to do with my letter. I think she has been spoiling for a nervous breakdown all along. Dont you remember how she stayed in bed the whole time Momma was laid out in the sitting room?
Please tell Doc Trout and Judge Brack hello and give Garnie and Johnny a big kiss for me whether they want one or not! It is a funny thing to me how far away you all seem, for I am here in the house with my baby and that’s about all. She is just beautiful, Geneva, I cant wait for you to see her. I will bring her to Majestic bye and bye.
Did you know that old Granny Rowe and Tenessee came over here when she was born and stayed two days? Beulah was fit to be tied, but there is not a thing you can do with Granny once she settles her mind on a thing, and I was so glad to have her! I was so glad she was here. They just appeared, smack out of the blue, we were sitting on the front porch drinking ice tea, it was a hot night. What’s that? asked Beulah real sharp, and it was Tenessee giggling. Big Curtis stood up. Why hello there, he said. Curtis is nicer in some ways than Beulah. You ladies have come from a long way off. Now come up here and sit for a spell. What are you all doing over here anyway?
Granny Rowe sat down and took off her hat, that man’s hat she wears all the time, and lit up her pipe before she answered. I figured Ivy would be needing me, she said.
Then Beulah popped up and said, Why that is just ridiculous, Granny! You know nobody can tell exactly when a baby is coming, especially a first baby.
And I could almost hear Beulah thinking, Oh no, here they are and they will stay until this baby comes which might be weeks, for Curtis is too nice to run them off. Oh no, Beulah was thinking.
But Granny laughed, and in the dark you could see her pipe shine red when she pulled on it. It’s the full moon, honey, she said. Just look at it.
And sure enough, right as she spoke, the moon came up over the top of the mountain as big as I have ever seen it in my life. It is funny how in a town like this, there is so much to see and talk about that you forget to notice things like the moon. I looked up at it that night and it was like I had never seen it before. It was huge.
Well, I wish you’d look at that! Curtis said. Now aint that pretty? And then Beulah gave up and went and got them some ice tea and some vanilla wafers which Tenessee just loves, and we all sat up late and talked, while Rush Gayheart fiddled right next door. And then after while I got up to pee and my water broke all over the porch.
So Granny was here and they never even went for Doctor Gray at all, which suited me fine, they got Violet from next door since Beulah turned too fainty to help much. And Joli is not a bit pointy-headed, she is beautiful, and she is all mine! So far I have not done a thing since she was born except look at her and count her fingers and toes—I even sit and watch her sleep. You know we were short on play-prettys, growing up—I do not recall but one doll-baby ever, and Silvaney used to grab her and run off. Well, now I have got a doll-baby all my own, and nobody can take her away. I sit out on the porch and nurse her and look down on the town which is very busy, what with the war and all.
Sometimes three or four trains will come through in one day, and they have put on a hoot owl shift at the mine now. The company has got too many people over here to put them all up so a bunch of men is living right out in the woods now, I dont know what will happen when it gets cold. It is getting rough around here, as Beulah says. It is a boom town. By the way, Oakley and Ray Fox are over here now, working, I saw Oakley down at the store and he looked just the same as he did when a boy, I would have known him anyplace. He said him and Ray have been over here for three months now but I didnt know it as I dont go out much, I stay home with Joli all the time. The only place I go is to the store for Beulah and down to the school, they will let you borry books every week n
ow. You can get six, which I do. I read and read, you know how I love to read! I remember you and Momma saying it was foolishness. Well Beulah thinks so too, I can tell I am getting on her nerves. I know she thinks I ought to go out and get a job soon and so I will have to, but I can not bear to leave Joli just yet. You know I have lost so many that I love, I am determined to watch over this one good. And so I sit and rock her, and sit and read and watch her sleep. But I often think of you and thank you for your kindness, especially to Momma,
IVY ROWE.
Dear Ethel,
Thanks for writing. Your letter was the first we had heard of it, as a matter of fact. You could knock me over with a feather! as Geneva used to say.
But I think it is fine, believe me. Anything that makes you happy makes me happy too. I want what you want for yourself, Ethel, you ought to know that by now. And I still remember that you did not ever tell me to marry Lonnie Rash when everyone else did!