The Wooden Nickel

by Alisha Paige

  “Sit down, dear,” Mama said as Louise continued to scan the room. “Oh, they’re on the porch. They already ate. Clifford said he wanted some fresh air, but I suspect he still isn’t completely comfortable in our home. It’ll take some time,” she said as she patted Louise’s hand.

  Lily frowned harder, staring at Louise as if she wished she were dead. Louise shuddered inside. Lily really must have a black soul. She had never seen meaner eyes. How could a pretty girl like Lily look so darned mean? Mean as a witch! Lily should have been one for Halloween. All she’d needed was Mama’s old broom. She already looked like one. The thought made Louise laugh out loud.

  “What are you laughing at, brat?” Lily hissed.

  “Lily! What has gotten into you?” Mama asked.

  Louise smiled back at her sister. Oh, this felt so good.

  “Nothing!” Lily spat back.

  “Now, listen here, young lady. You will not talk to me like that. Now I know you don’t fully agree with me and your Pa. I’ve already heard your concerns, but what’s done is done. Those two boys need our help. We must help those less fortunate and like it or not, you will show them your kinder side. Do you hear me, Lily?”

  Lily cut her eyes up at Mama, showing her a dark side that her mother rarely saw.

  “You do not stare at your mother like that, Lily!”

  Lily smiled a fake smile, full of venom and hatred.

  “I swear, Lily, I will tan your hide. Now what has gotten into you? Don’t make me tell your Pa about this,” Mama warned.

  Lily bit into her biscuit and ignored her mother.

  “Now, hurry up. The boys are waiting and I don’t want ya’ll late for school.”

  Louise popped the last piece of biscuit into her mouth and drank down the remainder of her milk. “Can I go on outside, Mama? I’m finished.”

  “Yes you may. Ida and Lily will be along shortly.”

  Louise grabbed her coat and flew out the front door where Cliff leaned against the house, beneath the porch with his hat tilted over his eyes. He didn’t move as she approached and she wondered if he’d even heard her come outside. Hank was standing in the yard kicking a rock. A board creaked as she approached and he looked up.

  “Hey there!” Cliff replied breezily as he chewed on a piece of yellow grass. His smile was brighter than the morning sun and Louise couldn’t help but smile straight back at him.

  “Hey yourself! I told you my Pa could help,” Louise boasted proudly.

  “He sure is and you know what? He’s gonna send a telegram to my mama and let her know what all the changes are occurring and he seems to think that it will settle her mind considerably.”

  “Oh, that’s so nice, Cliff.”

  “I thought so, too and you know what?”

  “What?” Louise asked, glinting up at him in the bright morning sun.

  “You were right all along. Your Pa is the kindest of men and I’m lucky to have met you.”

  Louise nodded happily. Things were looking up for sure. Maybe Cliff and Hank could earn enough money so their mama could keep her house. Hard to think of her taking care of two little girls with no house to live in, but Louise knew that it was happening all over America to some of the finest families ever.

  “I’m not just lucky cause your Pa is helping us and all.”

  “You’re not?”

  “Nope. I’m the luckiest mostly cause I met you for me.”

  “For you?”

  “Yes. You’re the best girl I’ve ever met and I meant what I said at the party.”

  Louise felt weak in the knees and suddenly she thought of their kiss just last night, but somehow it seemed like ages ago and almost like it had happened to another girl or she had seen it on the silver screen at the movie theatre. Cliff sure knew how to make her feel like a movie starlet anyhow.

  “About marrying you one day,” he said easily as he smiled down at her. Louise watched him chew on the piece of grass. She marveled at how the sunlight caught the copper flakes in his eyes that shot from his gaze and went blazing into her pounding heart.

  Louise sighed out loud and smiled back as the cold wind fingered her blond hair, sending a chill down her spine, though she felt as sunny as a blue bird. She shivered. Cliff took off his thin jacket, placing it over her shoulders, though she wore a much warmer coat.

  “Are you cold, sugar? Maybe you should wait inside. I don’t want you to catch a cold,” Cliff said with concern in his eyes.

  My, how she loved it when he called her sugar and talked to her like he really cared. Was it possible that this boy that had come to her on a train really loved her and hated to see her cold? He took care of her like he was her own Pa and somehow it made her feel safe and gave her a nice tingling in her belly.

  The screen door slammed as Lily and Ida stepped onto the porch.

  “Are we all ready?” Cliff asked, smiling up at Lily who simply stared back as if he were invisible.

  Louise answered for her. “Sure, let’s go.”

  She took hold of Ida’s hand and all five of them took off, with Lily hanging way back. Hank walked on a few steps, kicking that same old rock he seemed to kick every day.

  “So, what do you think about what your Pa said last night?” Cliff asked, wanting her honest opinion.

  “Which part?”

  “About our future. He thinks Hank ought to try to get on with that new project that President Roosevelt set up.”

  “The one that will bring electricity to all those folks living in the Tennessee Valley?”

  “Yep,” Cliff answered.

  “Well, I think it’s a fine idea. Pa said that the president is helping to rejuvenate the whole dang country.”

  “Yeah, I suspect it will, too. It’s a big, big project and I hear talk of it lasting for years,” Cliff added.

  “That’s what I heard, too. Pa says it will help gives lots of folks new jobs so they can provide for their families.”

  “Yeah, that’s what your Pa explained to us, too. I just wish I could go with Hank. I know I could do the work and I look older than fourteen.”

  “Well, you sure act older,” Louise commented.

  “Thanks, sugar. I sure feel it powerful enough.”

  “I think you’d make a fine writer, too. Pa’s right. You do have a very intelligent collection of words in that head of yours.” Louise blushed when she said it. His charm had won her over from the start and she suspected that his certain way of putting words together just might have something to do with it.

  “You really think so?”

  “Oh, yes. You have a way with words. There’s no denying it.”

  Cliff took her hand in his and squeezed it tight. Ida was humming to herself and Cliff and Louise exchanged smiles.

  “I wish I was a kid again,” Cliff said. “I bet Ida don’t know and don’t care what’s going on in the world right now. I bet she don’t have a worry in her cute little head and that’s a good thing, too.”

  “I suspect so,” Louise agreed.

  “Say, I promise not to tell her if you promise not to tell her, too,” Cliff offered.

  “Okay. Let’s let her be a kid, not grown up folks like us.”

  “That’s a deal,” Cliff said smiling into the bright sunshine.

  Louise closed her eyes for a moment and pretended that she was already married to Cliff and Ida was their daughter. Oh, how she wished it were true, but it was easy enough to imagine and she decided it was a beautiful memory to file under the color orange.

  “So when do you think Hank will leave to go to work?” Louise asked.

  What about school? Most boys Hank’s age didn’t go to school anyhow. Most of them were helping out their folks on the farm or looking for other work. And when would Cliff start working with Pa at the newspaper? Louise could already see Cliff’s proud name in print, underneath the front page story. He would make a fine reporter, just like Pa said and she was glad he wouldn’t have to travel far away to work like Hank. Maybe he would lik
e writing and stick with it, but somehow Louise knew that he would follow his brother. Every day would be precious now. The older he got, the closer he got to leaving and the thought clung to Louise’s heart like a hungry leech.

  “Your Pa said he’d write some acquaintances he has. Somebody that works on another newspaper in Tennessee and see if they can help get Hank on there. I suspect it might be a while and he said that he wants us to celebrate the holidays with ya’ll since they’re creeping up so close, so I bet he won’t be going until after Christmas.”

  What a glorious holiday season it would be! Louise could barely contain her excitement. She wanted to kiss him right then and there and she wanted to shout in Lily’s face. Merry Christmas, Lily! Merry Christmas! Hope you don’t mind sharing your holiday with my “convict lover”! Oh, she could just imagine her face crinkling up like an old dried up prune. Why, Lily might just kill over right then and there. The only thing that might make Louise’s Christmas any merrier would be if Pa shipped Lily off to work for the TVA before December twenty-fifth.

  “Oh, we’ll have a wonderful Christmas together,” Louise beamed, squeezing Cliff’s hand tighter and swinging Ida’s arm as they walked hand in hand.

  Cliff remained silent and Louise looked up at his profile. His jaw seemed tight and a shadow crossed his face. “What’s wrong, Cliff? I thought you’d be happy about that.”

  Cliff gave her a crooked grin, trying his best to save the moment. “Oh, I am, sugar. I’m powerfully happy about it.”

  “Why do you look so sad?”

  “Just thinking about Mama and Mary and Cecile. I can’t really have a very merry Christmas without them.”

  “Oh, I see what you mean,” Louise breathed softly.

  The school was looming up ahead. Old Crowfoot was standing on the top of the school house steps, looking stricter than ever. Both of them noticed it and exchanged glances.

  “What’s up her craw you think?” Cliff asked.

  “Who knows? Old Crowfoot is always looking like that, but she does look a might worse today.”

  Lily entered first, trudging straight to her seat and Cliff dropped Louise’s hand so she could enter with Ida. Louise turned and looked at him and he nodded. After settling Ida in her seat and handing her some paper and a pencil, she turned to Lily who ignored her intentionally.

  Louise tapped her sister softly on the shoulder with one finger. Lily continued to ignore her and began skimming through her reader.

  “Lily, I know you feel me and hear me,” Louise whispered.

  Lily snapped her head around to face her sister with eyes of pure fire. “What in damnation do you want, Louise?” she spit out under her breath.

  “You really shouldn’t use such language,” Louise whispered back sweetly.

  “What is it?” she spat.

  “Oh, nothing important. I just wanted to tell you that you better get busy sewing two more stockings for Christmas.”

  “What for? We don’t know anyone whose having a baby, unless it’s you, harlot!”

  Louise’s hand flew to her mouth in horror. She did not just suggest that her “convict lover” had already done the unthinkable. “You are bad, Lily!”

  “Not as bad as you. You’re embarrassing, Louise! You’ve got Pa all wrapped up in those two hoboes. Now they’re practically living under our very roof! You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Lily whispered as Crowfoot made her way to the blackboard.

  “Pa is not wrapped up in them! He wanted to help them, just like grandpa helped him.”

  Lily rolled her eyes. “Oh, pooh. You are a very dumb person. I can’t believe I’m your sister. God surely gave me all the smarts. Looks like he was fresh out when it came to you.”

  “What does that mean?” Louise whispered, now madder than ever.

  “You and Pa are just alike. Let’s just see what happens when we let two perfect strangers live in our home and eat from our table. Why, I just want to run away. It’s embarrassing.”

  “Well, why don’t you do it then, Lily? No one would miss you!”

  Lily’s head snapped forward. She pretended to concentrate on her reader and what Crowfoot was saying. She pulled a piece of paper out and began copying down the arithmetic problem even though it was for the younger kids. Louise couldn’t help but say something so mean, but she still felt bad for it, especially when tears dripped on the paper beneath Lily and she saw Lily’s hand shaking so. Louise touched Lily’s shoulder, making her flinch.

  “Don’t you dare touch me, Louise. I don’t need you or Pa or Mama for that matter. Maybe I will run away. You’d all like that wouldn’t you?”

  “No, I wouldn’t.”

  “Why’d you go and say an awful thing like that for then?” Lily asked between quiet sniffs.

  “Cause you said a lot of awful things, too. How come you don’t care for Cliff and Hank? They’re just like us and they have two baby sisters, just like you. They’re hungry and need help, that’s all. Why can’t you be nice to them?”

  “Because.”

  “Because why?”

  “I love him, that’s why.”

  “You love who?”

  Lily raised her head and for the first time in a long time, she looked into her sister’s eyes with pain and sorrow. For once, Louise didn’t see her as a demon. She saw her as her sad sister, hurting badly for the heart of a boy.

  Her boy.

  “I’m sorry, Louise, but I loved him first.”

  “What are you talking about Lily?”

  “I’m talking about Cliff,” Lily said, wiping the tears from her eyes and glancing over her shoulder at their topic of discussion.

  “Cliff?”

  “Yes, I love him and he loves me, too.”

  The classroom was suddenly bright white and Louise thought she would surely throw up. Was she having a nightmare? Her very own flesh and blood sister did not just tell her she was in love with her future husband, right? Louise shook her head and closed her eyes. The light was so bright and she was suddenly overcome with heat.

  “Louise, are you okay? You look pale and sickly, too.”

  Lily raised her hand and called out to Mrs. Crowfoot.

  “What is it Lily?” Crowfoot asked with eyebrows arched over her spectacles.

  “I think Louise is ill. Can I take her outside?”

  “By all means. If you’re sick, you don’t need to bring the disease to school!”

  Cliff was at her side as Lily helped her stand. “I’ll help her, Lily. You can stay with Ida.”

  “Thank you, dear Cliff,” Lily crooned as she placed a quick kiss on his cheek.

  Cliff was stunned at her change in behavior and even more stunned when Louise collapsed into his arms. He hoisted her up and carried her out into the sunshine. He laid her across his lap under the nearest tree where the cool wind blew softly, tickling her nose and teasing her awake.

  “Hey, sugar. What happened? I think you’re coming down with something. I better get you back home and in bed.”

  “How could you, Cliff?”

  “How could I what?”

  “Love Lily?”

  “What are you talking about, Louise?”

  “Lily told me that she loves you and you love her back,” Louise said sadly, looking up into his eyes as his bangs dangled onto his lashes.

  “When did she say something so ridiculous?”

  “Just now.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, right after we sat down.”

  Cliff laughed and Louise watched the roof of his mouth and his perfect white teeth open as he let out a good whoop. “Is that so?”

  Louise nodded as he played with her hair and stared at three freckles on her tiny nose.

  “Is that what got you so upset in there?”

  “I guess so?”

  “So much so that you fainted?” Cliff asked in disbelief.

  “I suspect so. It was quite a shock.”

  Cliff laughed harder, hugging her to him. “I don’t love
that girl,” he said easily.

  “You don’t?” Louise asked, relieved beyond her senses.

  “Why not?” Louise asked, now skeptical. Were they hiding their love from her? She had heard of such stories. Of love triangles and such that sounded too strange for her young ears to hear.

  “I love you, sugar,” he said plainly. A smile wrapped around her face as he said it.

  That darn Lily! She was just trying to upset her and she’d done a bang up job of it, too, causing her to faint dead away in school of all things.

  “I better go on in,” Louise said.

  “What for? You’re too sick to go to school.”

  “Ah, heck. I’m okay now and I have to look after Ida.”

  “I have a better idea.”

  “What?”

  “Let’s play hooky.”

  “No, we can’t,” Louse said, stunned that he would even suggest such a thing.

  “Sure we can. Lily got you kicked out and Old Crowfoot doesn’t want to see the likes of you and your disease today anyhow. Let her take care of Ida. Let’s go fishing!”

  “You really think we can get away with it?” Louise asked, sitting up.

  “Sure we can. We’ll just get home before Lily does and then you can pretend to be sick and that way, we’ll be getting Lily back for playing a terrible joke on you, too.”

  “Oh, that sounds grand, Cliff!”

  “Come on then,” Cliff said as he helped her to her feet.

  They walked home and took the long way around her house, slipping unseen behind the old barn. Cliff had seen an old ball of twine and he snatched it. He knew he’d be able to collect some sticks near the creek.

  “I’ve never been fishing,” Louise confessed as they headed to the creek.

  “You swear?” Cliff asked, unable to believe that someone this close to a creek had never fished in it.

  “Swear.”

  “It’s easy. You just sit there. There’s nothing to it. I guess that’s mostly why I like it so much, cause it’s a good excuse to pretend you’re doing something useful, when really all you’re doing is relaxing the day away.”