Appalachian Daughter

by Mary Salyers

  Red-faced, Corie Mae shook her fist in Ray’s face. “And here you’ve got me pregnant again. I cook your food, clean your house, raise your kids, and work from daylight to dark. Seems like all you ever want from me is to spread my legs for you so we can make another baby. It don’t make no difference what I think about nothing.” She turned and slammed the door as she went into the house.

  Maggie sat in stunned silence and watched the puppies. Finally she looked at Ray, tears running down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean to make her mad at you.” Ray hung his head and sighed. “I didn’t know she’s pregnant again,” Maggie said.

  “She just told me a couple of days ago.”

  She moved to sit in the swing beside her father. “Daddy, do you really think it’s okay for me to make the trip? I mean, it makes me sad that Mama gets upset with you because of what I want to do, and now she’s expecting and everything.”

  “Maggie, your mother means well, but sometimes, she sort of gets carried away. I want you to go on the trip. You deserve to go. You’ve worked hard for it.”

  “Thank you, Daddy. I promise to do my best. Miss Erickson thinks I can win in shorthand and maybe in typing. It would be an honor to beat out students from all over east Tennessee. It will win honor for the school, too, if I can do it.”

  “Just do your best, Sunshine. That’s all I ask.”

  * * *

  The next Monday evening as Maggie walked back to the house after doing the evening chores, Mrs. Lewis drove up. She had brought Betty Lou home after piano practice. Maggie hurried to get the milk strained into the containers and the milk buckets washed so she could get in on the conversation taking place in the front room.

  Betty Lou held up a long white dress made of several layers of a sheer material. Tiny cap sleeves dropped off the shoulders. “That’s exactly the kind of dress I need for the banquet,” Maggie thought to herself when she walked through the doorway. She noticed her mother shaking her head.

  “This is the dress they want Betty Lou to wear for the music program on Friday night,” Mrs. Lewis explained “I thought we could dress it up a bit with these tiny pink rosebuds.” She held out a package of rosebuds made from folded ribbon.

  “I’m not wanting Betty Lou to wear nothing like that,” Corie May said. “I just don’t think a dress like that is right for a girl her age.”

  A skillful negotiator, Mrs. Lewis, within half an hour, had not only persuaded Corie Mae to make some needed alterations in the dress and tack on the rosebuds, but she also had gotten Corie Mae to agree to go to the program on Friday night.

  “I’ll pick you up at six thirty. I hope Ray will go too. He always enjoys hearing Betty Lou play. Jeannie needs to go because her class is singing, so we’ll make room for her and Betty Lou in the car.” As Mrs. Lewis stood in the doorway preparing to leave, she turned to Maggie. “I hope you’ll keep an eye on Junior and Jay while your mother and father are gone.”

  “I’d be happy to do that.” Maggie followed her out the door and down the steps to her car. “Thank you, Mrs. Lewis. I know Mama wouldn’t have agreed to go if you hadn’t persuaded her.”

  “I’m sure she will like how well Betty Lou plays the piano. I’m really proud of her myself. I think she has lots of potential as a musician.

  “You and Reverend Lewis are so kind to us. I appreciate it very much.”

  “Maggie, we help out wherever we can. We appreciate how faithful your father is to the church. I always know I’ll find him there in his usual place every Sunday.” She opened the car door and got in. “I appreciate you, too, Maggie. You help your family so much, and you set a good example for the younger children.”

  “Thanks, Mrs. Lewis.” Maggie waved as the car turned around and started down the road. Climbing the steps to the yard, Maggie smiled. She’s really something!

  * * *

  When the kids got off the bus the next afternoon, Joe McPeters pulled his car off the road and Ray got out with a fifty-pound sack of seed potatoes.

  “Hi Daddy,” Johnny Ray called. “You want to pull your taters in my wagon?”

  “Now, that’s a good idea, son.” Ray put the potatoes in the wagon and lifted Johnny Ray to sit astride the sack. “Hang on tight.” Maggie walked beside him as Ray pulled the wagon along the dirt road. “When you get the chores done, Maggie, I want you to help me cut up these taters. I’ll hitch up the horses and get the ground ready. We should be able to get them all planted before dark.”

  “Okay, Daddy.” Maggie noticed her father’s eyes didn’t have the usual twinkle. She guessed Mama was still mad. Corie Mae hadn’t spoken to her for the last two days either. Feeling guilty for causing the distance between her parents, she frowned and turned her head toward the woods where she saw Audie Lee. “Daddy, Audie Lee’s standing behind those trees over there.”

  Ray looked toward the trees, raised his hand, and waved. “Hello there, Audie Lee. How’re you doing?”

  Audie Lee took a couple of steps and returned the wave. Then when Maggie waved, he grinned and began to lope back toward his house. “Sometimes I have the feeling he spies on me.”

  “Nah, he don’t mean no harm. Don’t worry about him.” Ray gave Maggie a faint smile.

  By the time Maggie milked the cows and finished the chores, Ray had the rows laid off for the potatoes. Now he and Maggie sat on the edge of the back porch, cutting the seed potatoes into a bushel basket placed on the ground between them. “Just make sure each piece has at least one good eye,” Ray instructed.

  “I’ll be glad when we get taters big enough to eat,” Maggie said. “What’s left of the ones we put in the root cellar last year are all shriveled up so they’re not much account.” When they were almost finished, Maggie said, “Daddy, this boy at school that I like has asked me to go with him to the Junior-Senior Banquet next week.”

  Ray didn’t say anything, but seemed to concentrate really hard on the potato he was cutting into chunks. He reached for another potato and turned to look at Maggie. “What’d you tell him?”

  “Told him I’d really like to go but would have to ask you and Mama.”

  “Humnn.” Ray began to chop up the potato. “So what do you think your mother would say?”

  “She won’t like it. Seems like she’s against everything I want to do anymore.” Ray didn’t respond. Maggie began cutting another potato. “JD tried to get me to say Mrs. Jenkins wanted me to work at the restaurant again and go to the banquet instead. But I decided I couldn’t lie to you and Mama like that. When I told Bud, I couldn’t do that, he said he respected my decision.” Ray continued cutting potatoes without saying anything, so Maggie added, “I thought he’d be mad at me, but he said he wasn’t.”

  “Did you say his name was Bud?”

  “Bud Summers. His dad runs the service department at the Ford place. He’s one of JD’s friends. I think he’s a nice fellow. If you all will let me go with him, we’ll go with JD and his girl friend.”

  “What do you think will happen if you ask Corie Mae?”

  “She’ll get upset. With all that’s happened lately, and her being pregnant and all, she’d probably get one of her sick headaches.”

  “I think you’re probably right. So maybe we better not mention this to her.” He put his hand on Maggie’s back. “Sorry, Maggie, but I think you better not plan on going.”

  Maggie hung her head. She swallowed back the tears. She wanted to go so much, she had dared to dream her father would tell her she could go. “Okay, Daddy,” she mumbled, but she didn’t look at him.

  Ray took the last potato from the sack. “I’m proud that you didn’t try to sneak around and not tell us. It would break my heart to think I couldn’t tell when you’s lying and when you’s telling the truth. I’m sorry to disappoint you, ‘specially when you was honest about it.” He threw the last pieces of potato in the basket and stood “Let’s go get these taters in the ground.”

  * * *

  On Sunday Grandma had invite
d the family to a birthday dinner for Corie Mae. JD had gone to town to bring Aunt Lillian. “You better enjoy this beef stew. It’s the last can of beef we’ve got. I saved it special for Corie Mae’s birthday,” Grandma said. “The last of our carrots, taters and onions, too. I’m glad we’ve got garden planted so we’ll soon have fresh stuff cause all our stuff from last year’s ‘bout gone.”

  “I sure do like these leather breeches, Grandma,” Junior said.

  “I’ve only got a few messes left, Honey, but I’ll make sure you get some the next time I cook up a mess.” Grandma looked across the table. “I heard you had a big program at school, Betty Lou. Your mama told me you played the piano for all the kids to sing. She showed me the pretty dress you wore. I wish I could have went to see it.”

  Betty Lou smiled. “I guess I did okay. Mrs. Lewis helped me learn the pieces.”

  “I tell you, I was proud of her. She looked so pretty.” Ray beamed at Betty Lou. “I never knowed she could play the piano so good.”

  Perplexed, Maggie marveled that her mother would brag to Grandma after putting up such resistance to letting Betty Lou wear the dress and insisting up to the last minute she didn’t want to go hear her play. I guess I’ll never understand her.

  As usual, the women cleaned up the kitchen while the men sat on the front porch and smoked. Almost as soon as Maggie came out onto the porch, JD announced he had to take Aunt Lillian back to town and go to work at the station. When JD and Aunt Lillian got into the car, Kenny got into the back seat.

  “Where’d you think you’re going?” Aunt Opal yelled.

  Kenny just waved and closed the car door.

  Aunt Opal jumped off the porch step and ran toward the car. “You come back here. I never said you could go nowhere.” But JD backed the car into the road and drove away.

  “Them boys don’t never do a thing I say.” Aunt Opal stepped onto the porch.

  “They ain’t never had no father to make them mind,” Grandpa said. “I told Thomas when he went to Detroit he was deserting his family and someday he’d be sorry.”

  Maggie smiled to herself. If only you knew.

  Grandpa relit his pipe and crossed one leg over the other leaning forward with his forearm on his knee. “Ray, I’m starting a new church.”

  “Oh? Why’s that?”

  “I been talking to Brother Hicks and some other folks. Seems like that James Lewis down at the Baptist church ain’t gonna rule out this new Bible. Lots of folks is saying that church ain’t never been spiritual noways. Haskins down here says he’ll donate ground right there on the highway.” Grandpa took a couple of puffs on his pipe. “Reverend Hicks wants me to be the preacher. Says he’s not able to do good preaching no more cause of his bad heart. I guess he’s found several people who’ll donate timber. They think they’ll be ready to start building by summer time. I asked Corie Mae and she said she’d like to join up with us.” Grandpa sat back and smiled.

  Ray looked around for Corie Mae, but she had gone home to put Jay down for a nap. “We ain’t discussed it, but after all the Baptist church has done for us, they’s no way we will desert it.”

  “Not even if they is using this new Bible?”

  “I asked Reverend Lewis about that. He explained to me that the Bible was first wrote in old languages, not in English. So nobody could read the Bible in English until King James had it wrote out. But that was nearly four hundred years ago. So this new Bible is just a newer translation from them old languages into more modern English. That don’t sound bad to me.”

  “But they say this new Bible denies the virgin birth. ‘Stead of calling Mary a virgin, it says young woman. I don’t think it’s right to change the scripture that a way.”

  “Reverend Lewis said that’s the word the first languages used. So it’s the King James Bible got it wrong. This’un just tried to fix it back right.”

  “The Bible says not one letter will be changed, so it’s a sin to change any of the words.”

  “But if that’s true, then we should still be reading it in those first languages, shouldn’t we? It should never been writ in English at all.”

  “Well, I ain’t going to no church that uses this new Bible. The King James is the only true Bible.”

  Maggie looked at her father with raised eyebrows. She had not known Ray had had such a discussion with Reverend Lewis, and she’d never heard her father dispute anything Grandpa said about religion. But she was impressed with how well Ray could make his point.

  “Grandma, that was good birthday cake. Is they any more? I’d sure like another piece.” Johnny Ray stood next to Grandma on the porch. He and Junior had been sitting on the back steps throwing rocks at a bucket.

  “Honey, I give it to your mama to take home. You’ll have to get a piece when you get back to your house.”

  Ray stood. “Well, kids, I guess we better be getting on home. Thanks for the good dinner, Mama Campbell.” Ray hoisted Johnny Ray up on his shoulders, and they walked down the road. Ray turned to Maggie who walked beside him. “This Summers boy, what’d you say his name was?”

  “Bud”

  “I’d like to meet him. Reckon he’d come out here and sit on the porch with me sometime so’s we could get to know each other?”

  “Suppose he might. I’ll ask him. When would be a good time?

  “See if he can come this Friday night.” He winked at Maggie.

  At first she was puzzled. Then she squeezed her father’s hand. “I’ll try to arrange it,” she said, “and thanks, Daddy.”

  * * *

  The next Sunday afternoon, Maggie took her homework and walked toward the big rock down by the spring house. As she approached the rock, she saw Jeannie digging in the dirt with a hoe. “What’re you doing?”

  Jeannie jumped in surprise. “I ain’t doing nothing.” She clapped her hand over her mouth. “I mean I’m not doing anything. Besides, you’re not supposed to know about it.”

  “About what?”

  “You’ve spoiled it. It won’t work now.” Jeannie turned angry eyes toward Maggie.

  “Sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Maggie sat down against the rock and opened her notebook.

  Jeannie came and sat beside Maggie. “Did I show you this wart that’s come on my finger?”

  “Let’s see it.”

  Jeannie held up her hand so Maggie could see the wart. “I asked Grandma what to do to get rid of it, and she told me to steal somebody’s dish rag and bury it and don’t tell no one–uh, anyone. She said the wart would go away in two weeks.”

  “So you stole a dish rag?”

  Jeannie hung her head. “I took Aunt Opal’s when she wasn’t looking yesterday. But now you know about it, so it won’t work.”

  “Maybe it’ll still work if you bury it somewhere else. I won’t look.”

  “I guess it won’t hurt to try.”

  Jeannie stood and began chopping at some weeds with the hoe. “Maggie, why’s Mama so mad at Daddy? She won’t look at him and won’t hardly even answer him when he asks her a question.”

  Maggie took a deep breath. “I guess it upsets her when Daddy doesn’t agree with her. Once she makes up her mind about something, it’s hard for her to change her thinking even when she needs to. I’ve heard stories about our great-grandpa Campbell who came here from Kentucky and built our house. I guess he was as stubborn as the day is long. Probably Mama inherited some of his ways.”

  “But what did they disagree about?”

  “Lots of stuff, I guess. You know they had a big argument the other day after Grandpa told Daddy Mama wanted to be part of that new church. And then Mama gets all upset when Daddy tells her she’s babying Johnny Ray too much.”

  They didn’t used to have arguments. It scares me.”

  “I wish they could agree on more things. Guess it’s partly my fault. I wanted to go on a school trip, and Mama said I couldn’t go. Then Daddy said I could go. So Mama got mad when he overruled her.”

  �
�So are you going?”

  “Yeah. We’re leaving on Thursday after school, and we’ll stay until Saturday. It’s a business education conference where they’ll have competitions for business students. Miss Erickson thinks I stand a good chance of winning in shorthand and maybe in typing too.”

  “Why didn’t Mama want you to go? What’s wrong with it?”

  “She said she didn’t think I should stay overnight in some strange place with other students, which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.” Maggie threw up her hands. “I don’t know what she really doesn’t like about it.”

  “I thought she was mad cause that guy came to visit you on Friday night. He seemed real nice. Is he your boyfriend?”

  “He’s a friend. Mama says I can’t go on dates until I’m sixteen, so I guess for now we are just friends.”

  “So is he going to come see you again?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. He didn’t say anything about it.” Maggie didn’t tell her that she and Bud planned to meet when she gets back from Cookeville on Saturday and spend the evening together until JD gets off work and can bring her home.

  Jeannie picked up the dish rag. “I’ll go find another place to bury this. I just hope it works.”

  Maggie opened her shorthand book. She wanted to learn as much new vocabulary as possible before the trip. She began making neat transcriptions in her notebook. She smiled when she remembered that Bud had agreed to come to her house on Friday evening instead of going to the Junior-Senior Banquet. Her father had talked with Bud for half an hour on Friday night and then said, “Well, why don’t you and Maggie go for a walk.”

  CHAPTER 7

  Campbell Holler–July 15, 1887 Sad Day. Buried our baby boy. Born 3 months early. Lived only a few hours. Harvey made the coffin. Neighbors helped dig grave in cemetery at Freedom Church.