by Mary Salyers
The teachers won the coin toss, so they got the ball first. As Mr. Adkins started to pass to Mr. Moore, his donkey began to buck and the ball went wide. Mr. Moore jumped off to get the ball. He tried to hold on to the donkey’s bridle, but the donkey began pulling backwards. Mr. Moore turned loose and ran for the ball. When he turned around, his donkey had headed toward the door. The crowd went crazy. “Oh my gosh! I hope I don’t get that donkey when the girls play,” Mary Ann said.
Mr. Moore finally got his donkey back on the court, mounted up, and threw a long pass to Mr. Lee, but Billy Ray intercepted it. Almost immediately Billy Ray’s donkey sat down, and he fell off backwards. Meanwhile, another of the boys had retrieved the ball and trotted down the floor to make the first score. Billy Ray, still trying to persuade his donkey to get up, finally gave it a swift kick in the rear. The donkey stood, but as soon as Billy Ray got on, it sat down again. The crowd hooted.
“I’m glad I decided not to play,” Bud said to Maggie. “I think it’s more fun to watch the game up here with you.”
A few of the players began to get better control of their steeds, and the game moved along a little faster for the second half. The crowd continued to enjoy the spectacle, hooting, jeering, and laughing. Maggie heard one man say, “I haven’t laughed so hard since Aunt Bertha’s drawers fell off when she was singing a solo at Grandpa’s funeral.”
In the second game, the women faculty played the girls’ team. Kathy, Mary Ann, and several girls on the team had promised to play, but after seeing how much difficulty the men had controlling the stubborn beasts, some of the girls backed out. Kathy rushed up the bleachers. “Maggie, you’ve got to help us. We need another player on our team.”
“I can’t ride a donkey in a skirt.”
“We’ll have to find you some jeans right quick.”
“How’re you going to do that?”
Annie Marie stood “I’ll give you my jeans, and I’ll wear your skirt.”
“That’s a great idea.” Kathy grabbed Maggie’s hand and pulled her to her feet. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Maggie jerked her hand free from Kathy’s grasp. “I don’t think so.”
“Oh, come on, Maggie,” Bud said. “Be a good sport. Go show them how it’s done.”
Maggie reluctantly let herself be led down the bleachers, and soon she had on Annie Marie’s jeans, which reached only a few inches below her knees. If Mama saw me like this, she’d give me the thrashing of my life. The handler led her toward the only donkey left, the most stubborn one in the whole lot. Maggie balked and tried to back off the court, but the handler persuaded her to let him help her on the donkey.
Strangely enough, Maggie soon had the little jenny going wherever she wanted her to go. Maggie grabbed a rebound under her goal. Her donkey immediately headed in the opposite direction, but Maggie twisted around and put up a hook shot that swished the net. The crowd roared. Maggie, surprised at the applause, ducked her head in embarrassment. When she made the second goal, she enjoyed the approval from the crowd. The spectators came to their feet as her third shot went through the basket, and Maggie grinned and held up two clasped hands.
The cheerleaders yelled, “Two, four, six, eight. Who do we appreciate?” and the crowd replied, “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie.” By the end of the game, Maggie’s team had scored twenty points more than their opponents.
When the game was over, Bud waited for her. “Hey, girl, you are really a good shot. I can see why Coach Moore wants you on the team.”
People she didn’t know came by to congratulate her. “Why aren’t you on the team?” “You’re so good. We need you on the team.” Maggie thanked them and smiled. I really would like to be on the team.
Bud took her arm. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I’ve got to find Annie Marie and change clothes. I can’t wear these jeans home.”
“Well, I think they’re cute.”
Maggie saw Annie Marie and Ronnie making their way down the bleachers and waved to them. Annie Marie was so short Maggie’s skirt dragged the steps. When they got almost to the bottom, Ronnie stepped on the skirt and ripped it loose from the band. Ronnie was mortified, and Annie Marie could not apologize enough.
“I should never have agreed to do this,” Maggie sighed.
“Maggie, I’m so sorry,” Annie Marie said. “I’ll get you a new skirt.”
“It’s not the skirt I’m worried about. It’s what my mother’s going to say when she finds out I did this.”
* * *
“No, I will not!” Corie Mae’s shrill voice roused Maggie from a light sleep. Wondering what brought that on, Maggie crept down the stairs and sat on the bottom step where she could hear without being seen. Daddy must have found out about me riding the donkey last night. She had managed to get into the house without anyone seeing the torn skirt. And although Betty Lou had entertained the family at the breakfast table with the antics of the donkeys, she’d kept quiet about Maggie’s participation.
After Corie Mae’s outburst, they had modulated their voices so Maggie had to concentrate to hear. “She’s always trying to make herself look better’n us,” Corie Mae complained. “And you always take her side against me. It looks like you care more about her than me.”
“Now, Honey, you know that ain’t true.” Maggie heard a chair leg scrape the floor, and then a moment of silence. “Reverend Louis explained to me that being on the team helps the girls learn to work together and builds their confidence. Says it helps them learn stuff that’ll be good habits when they grow up.”
“I don’t care what they say. It ain’t right for a girl to be playing ball out in public.”
“I wanted to talk to you before I said anything to Maggie. I think it’d be good for her to play on the team, but if you’re against it, I won’t say nothing. She told me this afternoon when she helped me saw firewood she wanted to play on the team, but she didn’t want to if you objected. She said she sometimes feels like the town kids look down on her–like she don’t belong.”
“Good. I don’t want her being like them kids.”
“But, Corie Mae, it’s a terrible feeling to be a outsider. When you said you’d marry me, you made me the happiest man on earth. I wanted to marry you more’n anything. But when I left Harlan and came down here, nobody accepted me. Even your family treated me like a stranger for the longest time. I missed my family and friends so much. I used to take my gun and go to the woods to get us a rabbit or squirrel. When I got out in the woods with nobody around, I’d sit down against a tree and just bawl my eyes out.”
Nobody said anything for several minutes. Maggie, shivering from sitting on the cold step in her bare feet and night gown, crept back up the stairs and crawled into bed. She was now wide awake. Daddy would agree for me to be on the team if Mama wasn’t against it, and the preacher is on my side too. If I practiced with the team, Daddy probably wouldn’t get mad. Maggie finally quit shivering and began to feel sleepy.
On Monday morning, she found Mr. Moore. “I can’t be on the team, because my mother is still against it, but I think my father wouldn’t object if I practiced with the team.”
“Then I’ll expect you at practice today.” Mr. Moore smiled and patted her on the shoulder.
CHAPTER 6
Campbell Holler–March 6, 1887 Damn Harvey. Always has to be right. Says the man is head of house. When crossed gets violent. Scared for the children. Caught me wearing necklace that’s been in family for generations. Jerked it off and broke the chain. Don’t know what he did with it.
(Diary of Mary Louise Campbell)
Spring 1950
Humming softly, Maggie walked along the fence row next to Grandpa’s woods. Here and there purple violets peeked from heart-shaped leaves. The yellow violets that had first bloomed in February had long ago faded away as had the little pink flowers Grandma called “pissy beds.” Soon the May apples would make their appearance, and if she were lucky she might see a jack-in-the-pulpit. Dogwood and redbud trees dotted the ridges
with blobs of white and pink.
Shortly after she got home from school, Corie Mae had said, “Maggie, before you do the milking, I want you to find us some poke weed so’s I can make poke salat for supper. Be sure to pick only the tender young plants,” Corie Mae had cautioned, “and don’t get none of the root cause it’s poison.”
Maggie had picked enough of the shiny green leaves to fill her water bucket to the halfway mark. The kids had picked along their fences for several weeks, so Maggie had gone back of Grandpa’s house where more fresh sprouts grew. As she bent to cut some poke shoots, she heard some movement in the nearby woods. She watched warily while squatting behind the honeysuckle-covered fence. The honeysuckle fragrance contrasted sharply with the strong bitter smell of the poke weed in her bucket.
Then Audie Lee stepped from behind a bush and began lurching toward her. Realizing he had seen her, she stood and watched suspiciously as he waddled closer. I’m glad he’s on the other side of the fence.
He wore the same old hat as last summer when he had confronted Maggie at the clothesline. His overalls hung loosely on his small frame. Even on this warm day, he wore an old coat, ragged at the cuffs and, as usual, had slung a dirty tow sack over his shoulder. As he came closer, his beady eyes squinting against the afternoon sun, he smiled and held out a handful of poke leaves. Somewhat alarmed, she wondered how long he had watched her. It made her feel a little spooked, but apparently he only intended to help, so she held up her bucket, and he dropped in the poke weeds.
“Thanks, Audie Lee.”
“Hunnnn.” He pointed to the burlap bag he had removed from his shoulder and held open.
“What?” She took a step back from the fence.
He grunted again and began rummaging around in the bag. After a bit, he pulled out a small tobacco sack and loosened the strings. He poured the contents into his hand and held them out for her to see. Maggie cautiously stepped closer to the fence and leaned forward to look over the odd assortment: a couple of colorful rocks, some buttons, a marble, some nuts and bolts, and even a “vote for FDR” button. She nodded and smiled. “That’s nice.”
Grunting and gesturing, he held his hand closer to Maggie and pointed to the various items. Obviously from his grunts, he wanted her to do something. She glanced around her feet for a small rock or something to add to his collection. He squinted and frowned, his grunting and gestures growing more insistent. He held the marble out to Maggie.
“Do you want me to take it?” She timidly held out her hand palm up. Audie Lee placed the marble in her hand and grinned, showing his tobacco stained teeth.
Maggie admired the red and green colors. “It’s pretty.” She held her hand out so he could take back the marble, but he began to put all his trinkets back into the burlap bag. He threw it over his shoulder, and began to stumble away.
“Thank you, Audie Lee.” But he never turned around. Now that was interesting. She dropped the marble into her bucket.
Once she had picked enough poke, she started toward home, going the shorter way past Grandpa’s house where she saw Jeannie and Stuart in Grandpa’s barnyard. Grandma and Grandpa had taken a Greyhound bus to Oneida to see Grandma’s sister and planned to be gone for several days. Jeannie and Stuart had promised to milk their cow and feed their animals. Jeannie was crying, and Stuart yelled at her. “It’s not my fault. You’re the one who thought up the stupid idea.”
“But what’ll we do? We can’t let her go like that,” Jeannie wailed.
Maggie walked closer. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, Maggie, something awful’s happened.” Jeannie wiped at her tears with the back of her hand.
“What’s that?”
Jeannie and Stuart looked at each other for several seconds. Finally, Stuart hung his head and said in a soft voice, “Grandpa’s mare’s got a pitchfork in her tail.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s tangled up in her tail and when she walks, it punches her and that makes her jump and then it punches her again.”
“How’d that happen?”
Jeannie took a deep breath. “When we got to the barn, the horse had got in the feed room.”
Stuart jumped into the story. “She had all four feet in the feed room with her head in the feed barrel, and only her rear end sticking out the door. We tried to make her get out, but she wouldn’t.”
“We threw rocks at her and yelled, but she just stomped her feet and kept eating.”
“I even went around back and beat on the wall,” Stuart said, “but it didn’t do no good.”
Maggie knew the big white mare frightened the kids. Actually, Maggie considered her dangerous too. Once the mare had gotten angry with a little goat that grazed in the pasture and stomped it to death. She did not like to pull the wagon, and Grandpa had to pull hard on the reins to keep her from bolting when he hitched her up. She nipped at the kids if they got close enough to her and kicked the dogs if they came around her back feet.
“So, how’d the pitchfork get in her tail?”
“We finally climbed up in the hay loft above the feed room. We leaned over the side, and we could see her rear end sticking out,” Stuart explained. “I picked up a pitchfork and poked at her with the handle, but she wouldn’t come out. Then Miss Smarty Pants here got the bright idea of twisting the prongs in her tail. She said ‘Let’s see if we can pull her out by the tail.’” Stuart pointed at Jeannie. “She said we should brace the handle against the edge of the loft and pull down on the handle so’s we’d get some leverage. Then she said ‘One, two, three’ and we pulled down with all our might.”
“That brought her out in a hurry.” Jeannie flipped her braids over her shoulder. “But she jerked backwards so fast she pulled the pitchfork right out of our hands. The handle plopped down on the ground and she backed out right onto the prongs. And that made her jump, and the pitchfork punched her again, and she jumped again. And there she went right out the barnyard gate leaping every time that pitchfork punched her again.” Jeannie moved her hand like the pitchfork poking the horse’s rear with every leap.
“Where did she go?” Maggie looked around the barnyard.
“She’s clear up at the other end of the pasture. She finally quit running, and she’s eating grass, but the pitchfork’s still in her tail with the handle dragging on the ground. If Jeannie hadn’t said we should pull down on the handle, it wouldn’t of happened.”
Jeannie made a face at him. “But she’d still be eating the cow feed, wouldn’t she? At least it got her out of the feed room.”
Maggie smiled as she visualized the mare leaping across the pasture, but she knew they’d have to do something to get the fork loose. She set her bucket of greens in the feed room and latched the door. “Jeannie, go get Grandma’s scissors from her sewing box in the bedroom. Stuart, get two or three ears of corn.”
Armed with the ears of corn, they warily climbed the ridge toward the big mare. Stuart stood in front of the horse and held out an ear of corn at arm’s length. He let her nibble it, being careful to keep his fingers out of her reach, and then began slowly backing up so the horse would follow, reaching for the corn. Maggie stepped behind the mare and gingerly lifted the pitchfork, holding it away from the horse’s rear. They formed a strange procession as they slowly snaked their way down the hill to the barn and into a stall.
“Jeannie, put some cow feed in the feedbox so she will eat while I cut this pitchfork loose.” Maggie’s hands trembled so much she could hardly grasp the scissors. “If she kicks me, it’ll probably break my ribs or worse,” she said to Stuart and Jeannie who stood at the door looking in. She took a deep breath and began to cut. In a few snips, the pitchfork fell loose, and Maggie released her breath.
Once outside the stall with the pitchfork in hand, Maggie’s legs gave away, and she staggered crazily, grabbing at the wall. She slowly slid down the wall and sat in the straw. She took a couple of deep breaths. I will not faint!
“Are you okay?” Stuart hovered o
ver her.
Maggie took another deep breath and nodded her head. Then she began to laugh. “I can’t believe you thought you could prize that mare out like pulling the cork from the vinegar bottle.”
“Well, let’s not tell nobody. Okay?” Stuart pulled Maggie to her feet.
* * *
“Giddy up, horse,” Johnny Ray commanded. He sat in the little red wagon while Stuart pulled it along. The doctor had recommended he return to school. However, his damaged heart could not pump blood efficiently enough for Johnny Ray to exert much energy. After the smallest activity, his lips turned blue, and he got short of breath, so every morning one of the kids pulled him in the wagon down to the bus stop and pulled him back home each afternoon.
Johnny Ray loved being catered to and took advantage of every opportunity to get special treatment. If he didn’t get his way, he would begin to pant and keel over pretending to pass out. Corie Mae always caved in to his demands. In fact, she had wanted him to stay home and not go back to school at all, but when Ray insisted, she finally relented.
Now on the way to the bus stop, Maggie walked along lost in thought. Last night after the kids had gone to bed, she told her parents that Miss Erickson had said the students with the top grades in business courses would go to Cookeville to the East Tennessee Business Education Conference at the end of April. Each student needed to pay thirty dollars to cover transportation and overnight lodging. Corie Mae lividly explained no way could they afford thirty dollars for such a trip, and even if they could, she did not want Maggie going on an overnight trip with a bunch of high school kids. Maggie had asked if she got the money somehow, then could she go? Corie Mae shook her head vigorously. “I already said I didn’t want you going on no overnight trip.”
Frustrated and angry, Maggie had trudged up the stairs for bed. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not like I’m doing something bad. She lay in the dark staring at the reflection of the moonlight in the small mirror.