by Alan Black
Roy nodded. “That is true, but you won just the same. Say, I did like the sermon in your church today and I thank you for inviting me. I was…um…maybe…well, wondering if I could come calling, Miss Hazkit?”
Susanne held her breath. Reverend James asked her the same question just a few short hours ago.
LillieBeth said, “Did you ask my parents? No? Well, I did not think so. You get Art or Clare Hazkit’s permission to even ask me and then ask again. I will think about my answer, when and if you come back.”
Roy said, “It is 1920. Isn’t that a little old fashioned to ask for permission?”
LillieBeth nodded. “I guess it is old fashioned-”
Susanne interrupted, “Old fashioned or not, Mr. Turner. Manners are manners.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “LillieBeth, point out your father and I will go ask him now.”
LillieBeth looked him in the eye. “Roy Turner, if you do not know who my father is or if you cannot find out who he is, then I see no reason for any such muttonhead coming to call.”
Roy laughed.
Susanne was amazed, LillieBeth insulted this young man more than once, yet he just smiled and laughed. Maybe it was a city folk attitude.
Roy said, “I accept your task and the undertaking is at hand.” He winked at LillieBeth. “I will see you soon.”
Susanne watched Roy walk away. He walked over to another young man Susanne did not know. It appeared the Schmitt girls had brought their new beaus to church with them. She was pleased even though it meant Fern and Magnolia would probably be married soon and would most likely quit coming to school. It was no great loss as neither girl exhibited great potential in the mental arts. From the look of it Magnolia would beat her older sister to the marriage alter.
LillieBeth shook her head. “Boys and men. I do not know what to do with them. I mean, if they were mules, I would just take a switch to them all.”
Susanne nodded. “I know how you feel.”
LillieBeth said, “I like Roy Turner well enough, but I also liked the Braunawalls and you know how that turned out. I mean, how I am supposed to trust my own judgment?”
Susanne agreed, but she was unable to speak. She mistrusted her own judgment as well.
LillieBeth said, “And I liked Reverend James, too. Oh, I know he was not interested in a young girl like me, but I liked him anyway. And he was just horrible to you. So what does that say about me?”
Susanne started to defend James, but stopped. How could she defend him, when she felt exactly the same way?
LillieBeth said, “And look there. That is Steve and John Buckner with Fern and Magnolia. I saw them first, but I sent them off to see the Schmitt girls. Of course, it does not look like Fern and Steve are getting along as well as John and Magnolia, so maybe if Fern decides to not see Steve…no. That is not likely. Fern will get her claws in deep and not let go. She is worried about waiting too long to get married and becoming an old spinster.”
“Like me?”
“Heavens no, Susanne.” LillieBeth looked struck. “I would never think such a thing. Sure, you had your troubles, but I know with all the men coming back from the war, there is someone out there for you. Just as there will be someone for me, but I am going to ask Daddy’s opinion on any suitor coming to call.”
Susanne laughed. “Maybe I should do the same.”
“Maybe you should. We can ask Daddy later what he thinks.”
“Oh, I was making a joke.”
“I know, but I was not,” LillieBeth said. “If not Daddy, then maybe Clayton Grissom. He is a lawman and a lay preacher. If anyone can separate the wheat from the chaff it would be him.”
Susanne said, “Let’s go stand in the shade again. It is starting to warm up a bit.” She was not entirely sure it was the noon sun causing her face to flush.
LillieBeth still carried the small box she inherited from the late Mr. Hoffman. She had it in one hand and Susanne held her other hand as they walked back into the shade at the edge of the bald knob. Susanne glanced down at the box. It was very much like Hoffman. It had a twisted hasp, faded paint and was more than a little worn around the edges. Once LillieBeth pulled the stack of money from the box, giving it to her father to buy Hoffman’s land there was little left to explain the man’s life. His life had been in his land and the loneliness the land could provide.
Once in the shade, LillieBeth opened the box. It was evident that she was again excited to touch each of the five small stones in the chest. She said “It is a wonderment Mr. Hoffman found and saved each of the rocks.”
Susanne glanced at the only other two things stored in the chest. There was a button from a Confederate States uniform and a faded picture of a faded and worn woman, Hoffman’s mother.
Clare Hazkit and some of the other women stepped into the shade and clustered around LillieBeth and Susanne. Clare reached over and pulled the picture of Hoffman’s mother from the chest, stared at the woman’s likeness and passed it on.
Clare said, “Strange how fashion and hairstyles haven’t changed that much around here in the last sixty or seventy years.”
LillieBeth’s eyes rolled skyward as they often did when she was working math in her head, “Seventy-three years, Mama. That is if the 1847 date on the picture is right.”
Susanne, always a schoolteacher, nodded in agreement and satisfaction.
Clare said, “LillieBeth, tell us about your stones.”
Susanne said, “There does seem to be a story behind them. Do you know what kind of stones they are, LillieBeth?”
LillieBeth sighed. “Jasper, Miss Harbowe, but how come they are so smooth?”
Sliding easily into her teaching role, Susanne said “Jasper is correct. Glacial action smoothed them thousands of years ago. Ice and snow pressed the silica together to make the stone. Then the ice, snow and water rolled the stones around smoothing them off. They can be quite pretty when polished up. Those white rings around them were formed by impurities in the minerals as they were pressed together to form the stones.”
One of the women said, “Minerals? Huh, figure Jasper is worth anything like amethyst or onyx?”
Susanne shook her head. “I doubt it. It is far too common to be worth anything, but they can be pretty. Is that why Mr. Hoffman had these stones? From what I hear, he did not seem to be the type of man to take stock in something just because it was pretty.”
LillieBeth shook her head. “Oh, he liked pretty very well, but he kept it at a distance. He had a pretty house, but did not live in it. He had real pretty horses, but he rode an old gray jug-headed mule. He had a pretty piece of land, but did not seem to notice it around him.”
One of the women said, “Sounds crazy to me. Everyone says he was a bit touched in the head.”
LillieBeth nodded as if she couldn’t help but agree. “I do not want to speak ill of a recently deceased friend, but it sounds that way. I think he kept pretty things around him, but kept them at arm’s length to punish himself for the bad things he did in his life.”
Susanne said, “That is a very reasoned thought. Is that why he kept the jasper? It seems to me there are prettier rocks to keep than these old common brown stones.”
LillieBeth said, “These are a…a… an image, a sign thing…”
“Symbol,” Clare supplied.
LillieBeth said, “Exactly. They are a symbol of the friendship between Mr. Hoffman and me. The first time we met he threw this stone at me to chase me off his property.” She pulled out a small egg sized stone with a white ring around the middle and held it up. “He hit me with it too.” She rubbed her backside. “I still have the bruise.”
“LillieBeth!” Clare said. “You never told me that. Why, I would have never let you go back to see that old man!”
LillieBeth shrugged, “And that is why I never told you. I picked up this stone after he hit me with it and told him it was a symbol of my friendship with him. It was a stone yesterday, a stone today and it will be a stone tomorrow. I to
ld him my friendship for him was stone solid yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
Susanne said, “And he saved the stone in remembrance. How very nice, almost poetic.”
LillieBeth said, “No, ma’am. He chucked it into his field as far as he could throw it. It disappeared into the deep grass and I never saw it again until I opened this little chest when Sheriff Grissom told me Mr. Hoffman had been killed.”
Clare fingered the small stone. “It must have been quite a chore for Mr. Hoffman to find one specific stone in any field hereabouts.”
Everyone agreed, as even a casual traveler passing through the Ozark Mountains realized, the Ozarks were more stones than dirt, more boulders than trees, and more rocks than God put sky above the hills.
LillieBeth held up another small stone. “I gave him this one the next day, this one the day after, this one the following day and this one the last time I went to visit him. I let him know by the stones that I was and would remain his friend.”
One of the women laughed. “Glory be. I wished I’da married me a rich man who gave me diamond-type stones every day to show how much he loved me.”
Another woman said, “Diamonds? I’d be happy if I had a man who brought me a squirrel each day for the stew pot.”
Clare said, “The only rock I need every day is the Lord Jesus Christ. With that and my family, I can do without diamonds. Still, those stones are a good remembrance of Mr. Hoffman.”
Susanne said, “I think you got 420 acres of remembrance when Art bought the Hoffman place.”
LillieBeth nodded her agreement. “Daddy would not have been able to buy our new farm if Mr. Hoffman had not put a small fortune in cash in the chest with the friendship stones. It is still a sad day.”
Grace Grissom, standing as tall and strong as her husband, said, “Losing a friend is a hard thing, cuz friends are hard things to come by.”
LillieBeth said, “I know we needed a new home and I am glad Daddy trusted me to buy Mr. Hoffman’s place, even though he had never laid eyes on it. But I would rather have Mr. Hoffman alive and as a friend than murdered and gone.”
Susanne could see that not everyone in the crowd around her agreed with LillieBeth.
Clare said, “LillieBeth, you go say goodbye to your friends and I will find Daddy. We need to pass up the picnic lunch today and get on home. Mrs. Bailey’s family will be here tomorrow and we need to be out of the cabin by then. We have our belongings to pack and a lot of cleaning to do. I won’t leave a dirty house behind me.”
LillieBeth said, “I will not have to say goodbye. I will see everyone at school tomorrow.”
Clare shook her head no. “You will have to miss school this Monday. But don’t you worry, I am sure Susanne can give you twice as much school work the next Monday.”
MONDAY – BEFORE DAWN
Susanne sat in the seat of the Grissom’s wagon. It was all she could do to hold back the tears. She had not known who or where to turn.
Clayton and Grace Grissom were friends and they were the closest neighbors to her little room at the Hollister’s place. So, she had walked to see Grace, carrying a few of the small possessions she owned. Mr. Hollister promised to watch the remainder of her belongings until she sent someone to collect them. He said very pointedly that she should send someone else as he did not want her around his own children anymore.
She had cried most of the night in the Grissom’s kitchen. Grace Grissom tried to console her, but the woman did not have answers to any of Susanne’s questions.
Why was this happening to her? Of course, she was not perfect, but she did not deserve this. Mr. Hollister had told her he did not think it was her fault, at least. She was not sure she believed him when he claimed it was not his fault either, only that it had to happen. The school board had voted two-to-one; she was out as the teacher. She had to move out of the Hollister place since the school board paid for her room.
Susanne was without answers, without a job, without a place to live and nowhere else to turn. Grace suggested they try to catch up to Clayton and Art at the Hazkit place. It had been a cold early morning ride and Grace was a comfort, but yesterday’s events kept coming back to her. No matter what she thought, she could not think of anything she could have done differently. There were things she should have done differently, but nothing that she could have.
She should not have trusted Trance Braunawall to go on the walk. How was she to know he was not to be trusted? No one had given her warning. Clare had told her that she now knew the Braunawalls had attacked other women. Given that the inevitable had finally happened, she knew she should have spoken up two years ago. Maybe no one would have believed her claim of force. Whatever the outcome, she would not be any worse off than she was now. Maybe, just maybe, her speaking up would have been a warning to some other woman not to trust the Braunawalls.
Sure, she should have spoken up. However, she knew she could not have done so. The fear had been too great. She thought of Job 3:25. ‘For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.’
She had a clear memory of the scripture. She had silently rehearsed it over and over. Until yesterday, she had not taken it as a warning in her life. Fear had kept her from speaking out. It had come to pass anyway. It would have been better to face the fear and confront it, rather than anguish about it for two years.
She saw LillieBeth in the road as their wagon neared the Hazkit place. Susanne tried to put on her bravest smile through her drying tears. She could see by the gray light of early dawn that Grace had been crying as well, but the big woman had a smile on her face. Susanne broke down and began crying again when she looked at LillieBeth as the wagon creaked to a halt.
Susanne was shocked to see the girl had a revolver in a shoulder holster. She recalled the girl had carried a .22 caliber rifle to school last Monday, but she assumed it had been for hunting. A handgun was not a normal hunting weapon. She realized that might depend on what or who you were hunting.
Grace waved at the girl.
LillieBeth waited until they came near before speaking. “Good morning, Mrs. Grissom and Miss Harbowe. I am surprised to see you both, especially since it is Monday and school will be starting soon. You will not have time to get back.”
Grace changed the subject before Susanne had a chance to speak. “What are you doing in the road before the sun even comes up?”
LillieBeth said, “We have a busy day today. Mama has a long list of things to be done, so I came down to start setting things out and get them ready for the move to our new place. I only had time to put out a few things before I heard your wagon coming.”
Susanne could see some saddles and tack were stacked on and around the corral fence. A small pile of gardening and hand tools lay near the fence. LillieBeth had even stacked a dozen bales of straw just outside the corral. She doubted if there was much hay left in the barn this far into spring.
LillieBeth reached up and patted the horses. They were a matched set of Belgian draft horses. They were huge, strong and would not quit at any task their master set them to. The Grissoms owned two such matched pairs. Clayton and Grace was a matched pair themselves. He was a big man, not fat, but big and strong. Grace matched him inch for inch, pound for pound and muscle for muscle.
Clare must have heard the wagon from a long way away as she came running from the house. Susanne practically fell out of the wagon into Clare’s arms.
Grace looked down at LillieBeth. “I would be much obliged if I could pull the team off the road and use your corral’s water trough. We passed by the creek back aways without stopping and if you can spare it, I would like to water up the boys.”
“Of course, we have plenty of water. I do not know how much remains in the trough. There is only Naomi to drink anyway since Daddy took Ruth. I can refill it if we need more.”
“I need to pull off the road anyway. I don’t want to block the way.”
“Block the way?” LillieBeth asked in surpris
e. “We haven’t had another wagon through here for a week. Probably won’t be another along until way after noon when the Bailey’s come home.”
“You would be surprised, child. Another team is not far behind us, led by a buggy of some sort. We were hoping to catch up to Clayton and your Pa. It may be that the wagon behind the buggy is him.”
“Daddy is coming around this way?” LillieBeth sounded excited. “Did you hear that, Mama?”
Clare said, “Of course I heard it, LillieBeth. Susanne is crying up a storm, but she isn’t so loud I can’t hear.” She pushed Susanne away just far enough to look at her face. “You stop blubbering now. Nothing is so wrong we can’t figure a way to make it right.”
Grace said, “That is what I thought, but I can’t figure it. I was hoping to lay this all in Clayton’s lap and let him tell us what to do.”
Clare said, “Sound’s serious. I suspect we ought to make our way inside and get some hot tea into you both.”
Grace said, “I have to tend to these horses.” Mrs. Grissom swung the team around with a sure hand on the reins. She put the horses within easy reach of the water trough without any backing or repositioning.
Looking on, Susanne thought Grace was better at driving a team than any man was.
Grace smiled from her high perch on the wagon seat. “Why there is plenty of water here. David and Solomon won’t be that thirsty from dragging this mostly empty wagon around.”
Naomi nuzzled up to the drinking Belgians. Mules and horses generally were not friendly, but they were cousins and on speaking terms. With Ruth off with Art, the mule took what company it could get.
Grace pointed down the road. “Yonder comes more of this parade.”
LillieBeth nodded. “I expect it is Mrs. Bailey and her son. I should wait here for them.”
Grace said, “That ain’t a buggy. It is Clayton’s high-sided wagon with Art’s mule tied on the back. Maybe they passed the buggy or maybe they cut in between us and the buggy somewhere. It sure ain’t the Bailey’s.
Art and Sheriff Grissom waved from the front bench.