Appalachian Daughter

by Mary Salyers

  “You canned the meat?”

  “We put the hams, shoulders, and bacon in salt to cure. After they’re cured, we’ll smoke them, and they’ll keep through the winter. But we have to preserve all the rest so it won’t spoil, and canning it is the best way we know. We also cut out the fat and rendered it into lard, and my arms ached so bad from turning the sausage grinder I couldn’t sleep last night.”

  “You make sausage too?”

  “Yeah,” Maggie grinned. “My grandma says we use all the pig but its squeal.”

  Miss Erickson laughed. “I got so interested I almost forgot why I wanted to talk with you. Mr. Adkins asked me to suggest a student who could help out in the office this period, answering the phone, taking messages, and so on. I wondered if you’d like to do that. It would mean you’d lose this study hall, but I think you’d do a good job. What do you think?”

  “Aren’t the office helpers juniors or seniors?”

  “That’s true, but I think you can do all that Mr. Adkins needs. Your typing is accurate, and your speed will get better. Having some office experience will help you get a job after you graduate.” Miss Erickson paused for a few seconds. “You don’t have to give me an answer right now. Maybe you can think about it and tell me tomorrow.”

  As they started out the door, Maggie put her hand on Miss Erickson’s elbow. “Thank you, Miss Erickson, for asking me. I’d really like to be an office worker.”

  “Let’s go talk with Mr. Adkins now, and you’ll be ready to start tomorrow.”

  After meeting with Mr. Adkins, Maggie met Bud Summers in the hallway.

  “Hi, Maggie, what’s up?” He wore a blue shirt that made his eyes seem even bluer. Maggie loved his dimples.

  “Hi, Bud. On my way back to study hall. What you up to?”

  “I’m tardy. Got to get an admit slip from the office.”

  “Just came from there. Guess starting tomorrow I’ll be the office worker this period.”

  “No kidding? That’s great. Say, Maggie, how about going out with me sometime?”

  Maggie’s eyebrows jumped up to her hair line. “You asking me for a date?”

  “You could say that. Would you?”

  “Oh, Bud, I’d love to, but Mama says I can’t date until I’m sixteen.”

  “Well, shucks. I’ll graduate by that time.” He pushed his blond hair off his forehead.

  “I’m sorry, Bud, I truly am, but thanks for asking.”

  “It’s okay. Just remember we have a date as soon as you’re sixteen.” His smile made Maggie’s heart skip a beat. “Well, better get my admit slip and get to class. See you around, Maggie.”

  When she got back to study hall, she almost skipped toward her place at the study table. I can’t believe he asked me for a date! Bud was one of the most popular students in the junior class–active in sports and other extra-curricular activities. His friendly good nature and genuineness made him a favorite of teachers as well as students.

  I wish Mama would let me go out with him. She frowned when she remembered how many times she had seen him talking to different girls in the hallway. What if he’s just teasing me? But she opened her notebook and wrote “Bud Summers” on the inside cover below her name.

  When the period ended, Maggie found Mary Ann, Annie Marie, and Ronnie waiting beside her locker.

  “Hi, Maggie.” They all greeted her.

  “Did you get all them hogs killed?” Mary Ann asked.

  “Sure did. Had to come back to school to rest up.”

  “Say, Maggie,” Annie Marie asked, “did you read that story for English?”

  “I read it on the bus this morning. It seemed pretty dumb to me. Did you read it?”

  “I plumb forgot about it until Mary Ann asked me during math class.” Annie Marie hung her head in mock regret.

  “I didn’t read it neither,” Ronnie admitted. “In fact, Maggie, we wondered if you’d help us out. Since you always get all the answers right on those silly true-false test she always gives, we thought maybe you could signal the right answers to us. You know, hold your pencil with the eraser up for true and down for false. What you say; will you help your old buddies out?” Maggie didn’t say anything. “Please. Just this once. We promise we won’t never ask you again.”

  “Don’t you think if we all have the same answers, she might get suspicious?”

  “What if we all missed a different question?” Mary Ann suggested.

  “That’s a smart idea.” Ronnie patted Mary Ann’s shoulder. “So I’ll miss the second one; Annie Marie, you’ll miss the forth one; and Mary Ann, you miss the sixth.” They all nodded in agreement.

  Maggie still looked unhappy. “Oh, all right. But remember, never again.”

  “Thanks, Maggie, you’re a real friend.” Mary Ann gave Maggie a hug.

  “I’ve got something important to tell you at lunch,” Maggie whispered to Mary Ann.

  When the teacher read out the first true-false question, Maggie hesitated. She thought about giving the wrong signal or no signal at all. Finally, she marked her paper with a T and held her pencil with the eraser up. Miss Phillips, her least favorite teacher, never led any interesting discussions. She always read the questions from the teacher’s manual without paying any attention to the students. Serves her right. She should do something besides give us a true-false quiz every day.

  * * *

  “Here kids, gather around the stove and warm up.” Corie Mae greeted the children as they came in from the bus stop. She moved her rocking chair back to make room for them near the stove. “Your cheeks and noses is red as fire. I knowed soon as we kilt hogs it’d turn winter.”

  “Did you all get the canning done?” Jeannie asked.

  “Most of it. We canned fifty quarts of sausage today. Grandma’s making head cheese tomorrow.”

  “I sure hope she don’t give us none. I hate that stuff.” Jeannie held her hands closer to the stove.

  “I hope she doesn’t give us any.” Maggie corrected. “Use correct English.”

  “Maggie, leave her alone!” Corie Mae yelled. “She talks just fine. Don’t be putting highfalutin notions in her head. You think you are so smart, but you’re not one bit better’n the rest of us, so don’t go putting on airs.” She turned to Jeannie. “Don’t listen to her, you hear?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Jeannie hung her head. When Corie Mae left the room, Jeannie looked at Maggie and mouthed, “I’m sorry.”

  Maggie shrugged. She turned to hide the tears that stung her eyelids and fled upstairs, her teeth clinched, her hands balled into fists. She took off her coat and sat on the bed in the unheated room. Why does she hate me so much? After a few minutes, she wiped the tears from her eyes with the hem of her skirt. She shivered and draped her coat over her shoulders. Finally, she stood, looked into the small mirror hanging on the wall, and ran her fingers through her hair. She hung her coat on a peg and descended to the warmer front room.

  “Mama, can I get up now? I’m so tired of laying here.” Johnny Ray called from his bed, which had been set up in the front room where he would be warmer.

  “Johnny Ray, you already been up two hours this afternoon,” Corie Mae scolded. That’s all you’re allowed. Now stay in that bed till supper time. The doctor said in two more weeks you can stay up most of the day. So just be patient.”

  “It ain’t fair,” Johnny Ray whined. “Maggie, can you read me a story?”

  “I will in a minute. I got a book of Christmas stories from the library today. I’ll read you one of my favorites.” Maggie blew on her cold hands and rubbed them together.

  “Can I listen, too?” Junior begged.

  “You sure can.”

  Maggie put her school books away before she led Junior over to Johnny’s Ray’s bed. She propped herself against the headboard with the boys on either side so they could look at the pictures. She chose “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, which she had read for her English class. Having spent hours looking up the big words as an as
signment, she knew the boys wouldn’t understand if she read it to them, so she began to tell it in her own words.

  “What’s a Magi?” Johnny Ray asked.

  “You remember in the Bible how the wise men came to bring gifts to baby Jesus? Magi is another word for wise men. This story explains what kind of presents wise people give.

  “So is this a story about when Jesus was born?”

  “Not really. It is about the true meaning of giving presents.”

  The boys interrupted her several more times as she told the story. “Did Della and Jim have as much money as us?” “Was Della’s hair as long as yours used to be?” “Why didn’t you sell your hair for a lot of money?”

  “Wait a minute,” Johnny Ray cried when Maggie told them that Jim had sold his watch to buy the combs for Della’s hair. “Now they’ve both got stuff that’s no good. I don’t like this story. I don’t think they was very wise. Now they ain’t got nothing.”

  “Let’s think about it. What was the most precious thing Jim owned?”

  “His watch.”

  “And what was the most precious thing Della had?”

  “Her hair.”

  “Why would people give up the most precious things they have to buy a gift for someone else?”

  After several seconds, Johnny Ray said, “I guess it means you love someone.”

  “I think you’re right. What better gift can anyone have?”

  “I want more than love for a Christmas present,” Johnny Ray argued. “I want a bicycle.”

  “I want a cap gun,” Junior added.

  “Don’t get your hopes up. We have to pay Johnny Ray’s doctor bill before we can start buying presents.”

  “Maggie, you know that pretty thing we found that time, that you gave to Audie Lee? Do you think if we still had it we could sell it for a lot of money?”

  “I don’t know, Buddy, but we don’t have it, do we?”

  “I think somebody should make Audie Lee give it back. We found it and finders keepers.”

  “I told you Daddy said we should let Audie Lee keep it. Just forget about it.”

  Johnny Ray pouted. “I still wish I had it. Maybe someday I’ll ask Audie Lee to give it to me.”

  “Oh, that’ll be the day. You’re scared to walk past his house by yourself, let alone talk to him.”

  “I’m not scared anymore.” Johnny Ray puffed up his chest and raised his chin like a bantam rooster. “Someday I’m going to tell him to give it back.”

  When Maggie closed the book and stood, Johnny Ray said, “I didn’t like this story. Can you read us a better one?”

  “Not right now. I have to do the chores. I’ll read you another story later.”

  As she left the room, Maggie heard Johnny Ray ask Junior, “If you had a watch, would you sell it?”

  “Yeah, if I had one, I’d sell it and buy Mama a new bowl cause hers got broke yesterday.”

  * * *

  “Mama, will we have money to buy presents for Christmas?” Maggie sat at the kitchen table doing homework while her mother ironed clothes.

  “I don’t guess we’ll have any. Ray ain’t had no work since before Thanksgiving. We even had to use the egg money to pay the electric.” After a few minutes, she added, “I ain’t in the mood for Christmas nohow. Reminds me too much of how Elsie Mae died on Christmas Day last year.”

  “I know, Mama. It makes me sad, too. I miss her so much. But, Mama,” Maggie said after a bit, “ Johnny Ray and Junior are hoping to get something for Christmas. Johnny Ray told me today he wanted a bicycle, and Junior wants a cap gun.”

  “I can’t help it. We ain’t got no money. Probably the church’ll give out little sacks of candy and fruit after the Christmas program, and I’m trying to make the boys new shirts. I guess that’ll be it. They might as well forget bicycles and cap guns.”

  Maggie finished reading her English assignment. “Mama, Miss Erickson asked me today to be an office worker during my study hall period. Mr. Adkins wants me to start tomorrow.” Maggie watched her mother who concentrated on the ironing. She gave a big sigh and pursed her lips, but she didn’t say anything. “I’ll get good experience that should help me get a job when I finish school.”

  “Maggie, I ain’t expecting you to get no job when you finish school. The Bible says a woman’s place is in the home.”

  “But, Mama.” Maggie’s voice rang with desperation. “What about all the women who are nurses and teachers? Don’t you think it’s good when women do work like that?

  “I don’t want my girls to be worldly women. I want them to be like the women in the Bible.”

  “I already told Mr. Adkins I’d be an office worker.” After another long period of silence, Maggie sighed loudly. “Mama, seems like you’d be proud that I’m doing well enough in business classes that Mr. Adkins would ask me when I’m only a freshman. All the other office workers are either juniors or seniors.”

  “The next thing you know, you’ll get a job and forget about your family. I’m getting tired of you doing things against my beliefs.”

  Corie Mae finished the last piece of ironing, put away the ironing board, and left the kitchen without saying “Good night.” Maggie stared at her Civics book. She thought her mother probably would get really angry if she knew how she had helped her friends cheat in English class. Maggie regretted she had done that, but at least she had made it clear she would never help them again. When she reached the bottom of the page, she realized she couldn’t remember a word she had read. She rested her head on the table. What do I have to do to please her?

  * * *

  Maggie looked up from the desk where she typed a letter for Mr. Adkins when Coach Moore walked into the office and leaned on the counter. “Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Moore?”

  “Yes. You’re Maggie Martin, right?” Maggie nodded. “I watched you playing basketball in gym class the other day. You’re really good. I wondered if you’d join the team?”

  Maggie grinned. “I’d like to, Mr. Moore, but my parents would never allow it.”

  “Have you asked them?”

  “My daddy really had to put his foot down just to get my mother to agree for me to take gym. She’d never allow me to be on the team.”

  “Would you mind if I talked to your parents?”

  “I guess it’s okay to talk to them, but I can tell you now, it won’t do no good, I mean any good.”

  “I’ll try to get out to your house one evening soon. I’d like to have you on the team. We might win some games this year for a change.”

  “Thanks for asking, Coach.”

  After the bell rang, Maggie started to her next class at the end of the hallway. About midway, Bud passed her going in the opposite direction. He didn’t say anything, but when their eyes met, he winked.

  * * *

  When the kids got home from school, Mrs. Lewis had finished reading a story to Johnny Ray and Junior and looked up over her glasses to greet the children, who gathered around the stove to warm up.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Lewis, for bringing the boys storybooks and reading to them,” Corie Mae said when Mrs. Lewis stood. “You’ve been so nice to visit with the boys since Johnny Ray took sick.”

  “I love to read to them.” Mrs. Lewis reached for her coat and gloves. “Corie Mae, I’ve a favor to ask of you.”

  “I’d do anything for you I could. You’ve always done so much for our family.”

  “Did I tell you that Ruth Ann and Harold are coming home for Christmas?”

  “I reckon you’ll be happy to see them. How long they been gone?”

  “We haven’t seen them for two and a half years.”

  “I couldn’t stand it if one of my kids went away like that, even if they was serving the Lord in a foreign land. I’d never forgive them.” She looked at Maggie.

  “I’m very excited about their visit. That’s why I need to ask a favor.”

  “I’ll sure do my best.”

  “Actually, I wanted to b
orrow Maggie and Betty Lou for the next two Saturdays. I want to paint and paper the guest bedroom before Ruth Ann and Harold’s visit. If the girls can help me, I think I can get it ready.”

  “I reckon neither one‘s ever done any painting or papering.”

  “I’m sure they can learn quickly, and their help will get the job done in plenty of time–that is, if they’d like to help me.” Mrs. Lewis raised her eyebrows in Maggie’s direction.

  Maggie smiled and nodded her head. “I’d love to help you, and I know Betty Lou would, too.” She turned to her mother. “Is it all right with you, Mama?”

  Corie Mae hesitated, looking down at the floor. “If Mrs. Lewis thinks you all can do the job, I reckon I can do without you for two Saturdays.”

  “I’ll have James come to pick you up Saturday morning. Is eight o’clock too early?”

  “They’ll be ready, Mrs. Lewis.” Corie Mae walked to the door as Mrs. Lewis buttoned her coat and put on her gloves. “Thanks again for bringing the books.”

  “Wait, Mrs. Lewis,” Junior called as he jumped off Johnny Ray’s bed and threw his arms around her. “Thank you for my book. I love it so much.”

  “I’ll tell you, Junior,” she said as she smoothed his hair, “that hug made it well worth it.”

  * * *

  After selling a pencil and a pack of notebook paper to a student, Maggie closed the cash drawer and looked up to see Mr. Moore coming through the office door.

  “Maggie, I’m so sorry about how my visit with your folks turned out. I’m afraid I may have upset your mother.” He leaned on the counter.

  “Mr. Moore, I’m not one to say ‘I told you so,’ so I won’t say it.” Maggie giggled.

  “I hope I didn’t make things difficult for you. That certainly wasn’t my intention.”

  “I guess Mama thinks high school’s a bad influence. After you left, she threatened to make me drop out of school, but Daddy told her that would never happen.”

  “I’m so sorry, Maggie. I don’t understand why your mother opposes your playing with the team. Certainly I can’t understand why she would want you to drop out of school. If I caused that, I’m really sorry.”