“A well....an old abandoned well...been here since I was a young stud freshly released from the command of General Robert E. Lee. I one worked at the Pine Crest saw mill here'bouts...before I went loggin' in Morgans Bluff. I camped in these parts when I hadn’t a place to lay my head. We all used a rock well back then...'til it dried up on us. I aim to find that well.” Buck stopped and wiped his brow with his bandanna, and took a deep breath: “You boys spread out and meet me back at the wagon at sunset.”
Deep below ground, surrounded by the stench of decay, Jesse breathed in and out slowly, each breath more ragged than the last. Earlier that day he thought he had reached the end: Domingo had come to the well, just as Jesse had reached the top. The massive frame of Lorena's henchman filled the opening above; large and looming, his frame blocked the sun. His boots ground Jesse's fingers as Jesse clutched the log at the edge of the opening. He knew, at any moment, the man would cause him to free-fall back to the bottom. All the while, his feet struggled to maintain his foothold on the inner wall. Jesse said a prayer and closed his eyes.
Then came the old haunting call of the wolf, as the misty haze billowed up to envelope his enemy. Domingo began to run blind, as if something had hold of him. As he ran, the fog grew thicker and enclosed him. His now distant screams were followed by the call of the lone wolf of long ago : the spirit of Tahsha. The fog lifted, and all was deadly quiet. For the second time in his life, Jesse had been spared because Annie's lifelong protector, Tahsha, knew she loved him. Yet, still, Jesse was running out of time and at the end of human endurance to thrive without nourishment .He was at that tipping point when he no longer felt thirst and hunger.
One thing he had managed with Domingo no longer in his way. He had reached the top of the well through superhuman effort and had used the muscles in his back to push the remainder of the lid from his space. Having room to work, he had eased just enough of his upper body weight over the log that the unexpected happened: the log rolled from the mud hole that gave it stability. It came forward with him half on and half off. He held on to it, falling to the depths from which he had worked so tirelessly to escape.
Before he hit, he instinctively rolled as far over the top of the log as possible, but he heard a snap as the log continued to roll with one leg trapped underneath Although the impact knocked the breath from his lungs, the log took the impact for his upper body. A searing pain shot through his leg.
He managed three words: “God help me.“
At that moment, he heard a voice from above him: “I aint God...but I am the answer to your prayer, Jesse McCann!”
“Who's there?”
“A very old one-legged lumberjack who will not leave until he's brought you up out of there.” Jesse looked up, and after a concentrated effort to focus his dry burning eyes, he recognized the face above the well—that grizzled, shaggy head he knew so well.
“Mr Hennessy!” His words came out in a whispery squawk that belied the joy he felt.
“It's just you and me, partner,” Buck called down to him. “The others are on another track. Just me and you to do what must be done.”
“I have their rope... around my chest... Domingo and a turpworker ... lowered me down here. Can you... somehow... hook something onto it? Mr. Hennessy? Are you still there?” Silence. Nothing. No one answered. What had happened to his dearest friend? Had the events been too much for Buck's tired old heart, or had something unthinkable happened?
When Jesse lost heart, he began to lose consciousness, traveling deeper and deeper down... down to where there was no fear, no pain, no sadness. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind, came the vision of Mama Kate the way she looked the day he left home. His entire life had been spent waiting to find his papa, wanting desperately to know that Clinton McCann was alive. He could see his mother sitting there on the porch with her mending, looking up into his eyes as he told her goodbye: “Give me your blessing, Mama.” he had pleaded. And Kate had replied: “I cannot give you my blessing...but I do wish you luck.”
Wish me luck now, Mama.
Jesse was jolted back to the present by the sound of a steam powered log skidder clattering down a tram track somewhere in the distance. The next sound, as it came closer and closer, was a victorious rebel yell rising out into the forest and carried on the wind. Jesse heard the clattering of deer hooves as they scurried to the bushes. The sounds repeated, came nearer, louder.
He focused his eyes above to see Buck lowering a logging cable down, slowly and surely. “Stay with me, Jess! Stay alert. It's gonna take two of us. I need your help. You gotta grab hold of this cable and hook...and tie onto it with that rope. I'm gonna use this dad-burned steam donkey to lift you outta there, son!”
Jesse's head was light and fuzzy, and the sunlight from above blinded him. His hands lifted with robotic motion, his sore and stiffened fingers fumbled for the cable that now had become his final lifeline. After two attempts, his strength was almost spent: I'm trying, Mama.
Try again Jesse.
The third time, Jesse found the strength to latch on and hook cable to rope close at his chest. Every fiber in his body was on fire, and spots swam before his eyes; yet he had completed one significant task. But it may be too late was his last thought. Words formed in his head, and he uttered them from parched and cracked lips, without knowing for sure if he had spoken them:
“Annie....I'm sorry. If I don't make it...see you on the other side. I 'll be there waiting.”
Still the old steam engine hummed, the cable twirled , and the pulley whined. An unaware, unmoving Jesse McCann was lifted up, up into the natural world of fresh air and sunshine. He never even knew the difference. Jerod and Adam, having heard Buck's fierce rebel yell, had come running from the woods toward the sound. They joined in to help pull Jesse on up , unleash him and cradle him in their arms.
Buck Hennessy shut down the engine and sobbed his big heart out.
XIV: Boy Meets Challenge
Granny Minna made it her goal to keep Annie from feeling undue stress while she waited for news. She had packed a few things and had come, against Annie's protest, to stay until the baby was born. Now in her eighties, the Caddoan had grown feeble, but her fierce pride kept her active long past her prime. While Annie waited, Minna went about doing what needed to be done.
Then, after suppertime, Minna would take the the wagon out to the sacred burial mounds on the El Camino Real. There she could speak to the spirits of the long departed high priests of a tribe that had almost vanished from the earth. There, on quiet moonlit nights, the old woman could feel their presence and know that they lived on in another form. That belief was the only solace left to her.
Annie's unborn child had not stirred in several days, but Doc Pritchett had patted Annie's hand and told her it was sometimes that way. Still, it was worrisome. The seemingly endless days gave Annie time to think about her history with Jesse. She remembered the day she had first seen him at the Hotel Excelsior when she waited his table in the dining hall. How young they had been. She thought of the way she had left Jesse on the day of their first wedding so many years ago. She pictured herself standing beside him in her wedding dress, when the truth about her beloved preacher known as “Brother Wyatt” surfaced: the hard truth was that the very man who baptized Annie when she was a little girl, who had counseled her all her life, was actually Jesse's father, Clinton McCann.
Their marriage had almost been formalized by a fraud, a man whose fake signature on the marriage certificate would have made it worthless. The detective, who had, years ago, been paid, to lie to Jesse's mother by reporting Clint as dead was then paid by Lorena to tell the truth—all those years later—and for a different advantage to her. Truth was a commodity that she used only when it suited her schemes.
The man stepped forward right there in the church, disclosed Clint's true identity, and stopped the wedding.
Lorena would have done anything to spoil their plans. The marriage would validate Annie's share in her grandfather
's mill, leaving the disinherited Lorena furious to the degree only insanity brings. She was, after all, the man's daughter. For Lorena it was always went back to that. It was always about Morgan Mills. Even now. Even now, as she had Jesse for ransom for that final share in the mill.
Jesse had tried to warn Annie before the wedding. He had asked that they use any other official, but she would not listen, so loyal was she to her so called “preacher”. She had not given Jesse the chance to tell the truth. He had decided that she would be unable to handle it. It had taken the letter from Clint to make things right, when Jesse could not.
And when I was hit by the truth, I turned away from Jesse. That's how I handled it. You mustn’t win this time...not again Lorena.
In the middle of those thoughts, Minna came in with a basket of garden vegetables and saw the faraway look in Annie's eyes. “What's on your mind, granddaughter?”
“Granny, you know I shouldn't have run away the first time we tried to marry. I should never have blamed Jesse.”
“Say no more Annie. You think too much.”
“Don’t you see, Granny? Its life and death events like this that brings it all back...as if we can see the past with new vision. He was denied by his father and denied by me...at least for awhile.”
“But you went on to marry and have a good life together! Annie girl...what good does it do to dwell on the past...unless you can forgive yourself? Let it be.”
Minna picked up her basket. “ Now how about I start some nice vegetable soup for supper. We need to keep up your strength, and that baby needs nourishment.”
Still, Annie had business at Morgan Mill and would eventually at Pine Crest as well now that Jesse was missing. There were people counting on her: problems to resolve, bills to pay, even if her world was spinning out of control:
“I think I'll ride out to the mill, Granny. The men need their pay. They have families to feed. They cant live on the tab at the Mercantile forever.”
“Suit yourself ...but I 'm going with you .” Granny Minna wiped her hands on her apron and pulled the soup pot from the heat.
“No.....stay here. I need you here when they bring word of Jesse. I've rested all day, and I feel fine. Besides, I would like for you to be here when Katie gets back. She left this morning to go on an outing with some of her friends. She needed to get her mind off her papa.”
“Which of her friends?”
“Oh...I'm not sure. She went over downtown to meet up with them. Why do you ask?”
“I'll bet I know who...and its just one...it's that young Yancy fella she sat next to at church last Sunday. Seems like she wants to keep things a secret. She needs to stay close to the house right now...if you ask me.”
Annie rolled her eyes. “ She's twenty years old, Granny. She can see who she pleases. I'll just take Cal with me in the Model T. It will be less bumpy than the wagon. The boy gets on your nerves, and he needs my firm hand. I'll be able to keep an eye on him...and keep him out of your way.”
Minna slid the pot back on the stove and began to stir furiously. “Are you afraid I won't treat the child kindly? I know he can't help his upbringing...but just the same...I tried to warn you about trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. I'm sorry for him that his ma is dying...but mark my words... you're going to get stuck raising him.” When Annie said nothing in reply, Minna softened her words with a smile: “You've always had a heart for the children of Shanty Town. I won't speak of this again. Go on to the mill and take care of business...but don’t stay too long and overtire yourself.”
Annie kissed her on the cheek and went to the back porch to call the boy to the house. Cal was nowhere to be seen. He could faintly hear her calling him from a great distance—there in his perch in the secret tree-house he had built. He had made up his mind that when and if Beulah Birdwell came to take him to the orphans' home, he would have a place to hide.
Now afraid his hideaway would be discovered if Annie came looking, he scrambled down and ran as fast as he could across the length of the McCann property.
Annie and Cal's drive was uneventful—at least in the beginning. The day was hot now that August had set in. The strange haze that had lain like a thick blanket had lifted, as if some supernatural force had worked either evil or good and then moved on. On the way to the mill, they heard the tram running in and out of the deep forest and timber crashing to the earth They were sounds so familiar They went almost unnoticed. It had become, over the years, as natural a sound as the birds in the trees and the flow of the Big Muddy.
The workers greeted Annie warmly and asked if there had been word from Jesse. Though her heart was not in it, she reassured them that she would be hearing something any minute. She then paid the mill hands, the loggers, and the salesmen and balanced the books. The last thing she did was name a trustworthy man to run the mill in Jesse's absence. It felt to her almost like a betrayal and denial of her husband's existence. Yet she had done what had to be done.
After leaving the mill and driving toward home, Annie began to feel pain: first a dull ache and then increasingly sharp contractions that were haphazard at first and then regular. She was in labor. It was too soon. All of Annie’s senses were heightened, as if nature had given her an extra adrenaline for what lay ahead. She fought to remain calm but inside she was horrified. Its too soon. Dear Lord. What will happen to this baby?
As they reached Dead Mans Bridge, the pain caused her to bend double and gasp for breath, but as soon as the contraction ended, she turned to the frightened boy beside her:
“Do you think you can learn to drive …right now?”
“Uh-huh. I can try.”
“Listen to me, Calvin. I need you to get me back to the house, and then I need someone to call Dr. Pritchett. Understand?”
“I can do it. I watched Mr. Hennessy drive his Lizzy. I think I know how.”
Annie struggled to move to the passenger side as waves of pain washed through her. Taking his place in the driver's seat, Cal stretched his legs to reach the pedals. The Model T lurched forward, and so began the harrying ride over Dead Mans Bridge. In the middle, they were approached in the opposite direction by an overloaded hay wagon . Cal jerked the wheel in panic as bale after bale came rolling down in front of the Model T.
He stomped the brakes just as he swerved into the wooden bridge railing. His heart pounded as he stared down into the swift current of Caney Creek. His face went pale and and his palms grew sweaty upon the wheel . But the wagon passed, and Cal proceeded.
By then the pains had consumed Annie. She was wrapped in a steel cocoon of unending pain in that way that imminent child birth possesses a woman's body and spirit. There was nothing outside of herself and the pain—no human thought except to find relief as fast a possible, no goal but to bring the child safely into the world. Early or not, the baby was coming.
Finally they arrived at the entry of the McCann estate, and Minna came out to open the gate, as quickly as her advanced age would allow. They two helped Annie inside and into her bed where she lay groaning and writhing and calling for Jesse. Granny wiped her brow and looked over her shoulder at a trembling knight in mended britches:
“Calvin, have you ever used a telephone? Tell the operator to put you through to the doctor. I can deliver this baby myself...but its an early baby. We have to have Doc here...in case...well...in case there's a problem. Now go on and call. This is womens work.”
Cal cranked up the telephone and shouted into the receiver: “Ma'am, can you put me through to Doc Pritchett? It's an emergency.”
The operator switched through to the number but all Cal could hear was an unanswered ring.
“No one answers,” said the operator “...but try again later.”
“No...I recon not,” said Cal. “ We got to do something now.”
Cal hung up. “Granny Minna! He ain't answering!”
Minna stopped bustling about, rummaging for a fresh nightgown for Annie. She pursed her mouth and frowned : “He's laid up on his d
ay off again. Spent to much time at Percy's tavern as usual. What a time for Katie to be gone off with some fella. I need her to drive into town and wake him up. ”
“I drove this far. I can get to town,” said Cal.
From her room, Annie’s moans were growing stronger, prompting a harried Minna to fire off orders :
“Alright then. Listen closely boy. Do as I say: Go on down Main Street. You know where Doc's place is. Pound on the door. Wake him up! Rouse him any way you have to. Tell him Annie needs him. Tell him the baby is coming.”
Cal didn’t hesitate, though his heart was beating against his chest like a caged bird. He was on the mission of his life. Once in the Model T, he couldn’t figure out reverse, so he simply made a circle in the yard running over shrubs and flower beds. Yet he managed to get past the gate and down the road into town. For the second time that day he had no choice but to do what needed to be done―though he could barely see over the steering wheel. For once in the boy's life he was serving an important purpose. For once in his life, he was needed.
He made it to Main Street and pulled up to Doc's home and office: a two story attached between the Mercantile and Clancy's Barber Shop. He looked up to the top floor where Doc slept. He could see that, even in the heat of the day, the windows had not yet been opened. The doctor was sleeping off a long night at Percy's Tavern. The boy could see, through open curtains, the big ceiling fan suspended above the bed, cooling Doc and most likely blocking noise as well.
Then a desperate thought : What if I can't wake him up! What will I do? Tears of frustration stung Cal's eyes.
He pounded on the door with both fists, hoping the sound would be heard upstairs: “Doctor Pritchett, it's me... Calvin Conner. Annie needs you!Please wake up!”
No answer.
After several attempts, Calvin Conner decided there was only one way―even though he risked being sent away for his second offense. He picked up a rock. The sound of breaking glass brought townsfolk running into the street to stare at the hapless culprit in disbelief. One of those people was Miss Beulah Birdwell herself:
A Mist in the Pines: Jesse's Quest (The McCann Family Saga Book 2) Page 7