by Mary Salyers
“Do you think Great-grandpa, you know, messed with her?” Maggie frowned and looked at her grandmother with one eyebrow raised.
“I suspected it, but no one ever told me for sure. Granny wouldn’t talk about it. It broke her heart to be separated from Helen. That’s why she went up there and spent the whole summer after Harvey died. I guess he knew Granny might take Doug off somewhere, too, if he mistreated him. So after Helen left, he calmed down a little bit.”
“Was Great-grandpa ever mean to your kids?”
Grandma smiled. “He threatened to whip Thomas once, but I told him if he ever laid a hand on one of my kids, I’d kill him. If one of my kids needed a thrashing, he could just tell me, and I’d do it. He knowed I meant it, too. He’d saw me shoot many a rabbit. He knowed I never missed my target.”
Maggie swallowed. She’d never heard her grandmother talk this way. They worked quietly for several minutes. Maggie went into the house to get a drink. When she came back, Grandma continued the story. “Sometimes he was as sweet as could be. He’d take the boys fishing, and he taught both of them to hunt, but I always made sure he was never alone with Corie Mae. She loved to sit on his lap while he told her Bible stories, and he whittled little wooden animals for her to play with.”
“But if he was such a religious man, what made him get so mean sometimes?”
“You know, he got wounded in the Civil War, and he always walked with a cane. I don’t know if his nerves was shot because of the war or if they was something wrong with his mind. It just seemed like sometimes the littlest thing would set him off, and he was like a raging bull. He was really bad if he’d been drinking.”
“I didn’t know he ever took a drink.”
“Actually he even made the stuff. You know that flat place up on the ridge where you kids used to camp out? That’s where he had his still. He’d raise corn and make his whiskey. It was easier to sell the whiskey than to sell the corn. I was glad he destroyed his still before Doug and me got married. Granny told me once that Doug really liked to slip up there and help hisself to some of the drippings when his daddy was doing something else.”
“So did Grandpa ever drink after you married him?”
“Sometimes. And when he did, he’s almost as bad as his daddy. You know your grandpa’s got some a that same meanness in him too. I learnt right away not to argue with him. I just listened to him carry on, and then I did whatever I wanted to when he wasn’t around.”
“I don’t think I ever saw Grandpa when he’d been drinking.”
“He don’t do it much anymore. He knows it makes him mean.”
“I’m glad my daddy isn’t mean.”
“You’ve got the best daddy I ever saw. When he first come here and wanted to marry Corie Mae, I was against it. She was so young, and I didn’t know him from Adam. Granny said he was a very nice boy from a good family. I guess she got to know him that summer in Kentucky. I was so scared that things wouldn’t work out for Corie Mae, but he was just wonderful. He moved right in the house with Granny and took care of her like she was his own mother. I’ve never heard him raise his voice or say a single cuss word. I thank God ever day that He sent Ray to our family. I think it’s helped Doug to settle down to have Ray around, too.”
“Well, Grandma, looks like we have all these beans broken. While you wash them, I’ll go to the well and draw some water so we can wash the canning jars.”
“Honey, It’s good of you to help me this way.”
“I’ve really enjoyed it, Grandma, especially getting to talk to you and all.”
“I guess you better not tell your mama all that I told you. I’m not sure she’d want you to know.”
“Okay, Grandma, but thanks for telling me, anyway.” As Maggie walked to the well, she thought of all Grandma had told her. I’ll be glad when Grandpa gives me the diary so I can learn more about my family’s past. In many ways Corie Mae reminded Maggie of her great-grandfather–the way she liked to think she obeyed the Bible, the stubborn way she refused to accept someone else’s opinion, the way she lost her temper and lashed out at whoever crossed her.
A couple of days later, Maggie dried dishes while Corie Mae washed. “Mama, Grandma told me she used to hunt rabbits. Did you ever see her shoot a gun?”
“I remember lots of times when we ‘d run out of meat, and Mommy’d take her gun and go get us a squirrel or two to make a stew. They’s one time I won’t never forget. I was about six or seven, and I had this cat named Whitey. I loved that cat more’n anything. One day Mommy had just finished a new quilt and put it on her bed. She went in there and Whitey had messed all over her brand new quilt. She got so mad. She grabbed that cat by the scruff of the neck and took her shotgun. She threw the cat out in the backyard and blowed it to pieces. I never seen her so mad before or since. Scared me plum out of my mind. I ran and hid under my bed and didn’t come out for hours.”
“It doesn’t pay to mess with Grandma, huh?”
“I think all us kids was scared to cross her. She never had to take a switch to us or nothing. I never thought about it back then, but I guess she scared Papa too. He would lose his temper and beat up on Thomas and WC. He’d say, ‘He that spareth his rod hateth his son,’ and beat the boys black and blue. But he never so much as threatened Mommy that I knowed about.”
“Did you ever go hunting?”
“I didn’t really want to kill anything, but I did shoot a rat one time.”
“When was that?”
“I was probably twelve or thirteen, before I come to live with Granny. Something was killing my baby chicks. Finally one evening just about dark, I saw a big rat coming out the hen house. Next evening, I got Papa’s shotgun and sat out on the back porch till I saw that rat come sneaking up to the hen house. I’d never shot a gun before, and I didn’t know how to hold the gun against my shoulder. I aimed at that rat and pulled the trigger. That shotgun banged against my shoulder so hard it knocked me backwards. Made me black from my waist up to my ear, but I got that old rat!”
Maggie smiled. She seldom heard her mother brag. My mamma’s really got the guts. She surprised herself with feelings of admiration. “Mama, do you think Johnny Ray’ll be able to go to school when it starts next week?”
“Don’t know. He really worries me. Just don’t have no spunk for nothing. I’m afraid that high fever might did some damage to his brain or something. I guess if he says he feels like going, I’ll let him go and see how he does. I’ll be depending on you girls to look out for him and for Junior, too. It’ll be strange when you all go off to school, and I’ll only have Jay here. The house will seem so empty.”
“Well, it won’t be for long. That little one growing in your tummy will be here before too long.”
“I’m thinking this one will be a girl. If it is, I want to name her Helen.”
Later Maggie reflected on the summer and how well she and her mother had gotten along. Of course, she hadn’t really asked to do anything her mother might object to. But it suddenly occurred to Maggie that her mother missed having Lillian and Opal around. I reckon she’s lonely. That’s why she’s talked more to me this summer. Then Maggie thought about Great-grandma, who had come to the holler when she was only twenty, and the nearest house was nearly a mile away. She had left her family in Kentucky and come here to be alone with a husband who was not very companionable to say the least. I guess I don’t know how good I have it.
.
CHAPTER 8
Campbell Holler–August 8,1888 New one-room school at the crossroads. Harvey will let Johnny and Jimmy go until they are 12. Then they must stay home to work. Never thought he’d agree.
(Diary of Mary Louise Campbell)
Sophomore Year 1950-1951
“JD picking you up?” Maggie and Wanda had finished cleaning up after a big dinner at the café.
“Didn’t ask him to.” Wanda threw the dirty towels into the laundry basket. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but lately he’s about as much fun as a to
othache. Not interested in nothing but running around with that bunch of roughnecks that hangs around the filling station. I’m about ready for a new boyfriend.”
“Gosh, Wanda, you’ve been a couple the whole time you’ve been in high school.”
“I know. But JD’s not going to stay around when he finishes school. It’s probably going to happen anyway, so why not get it over with?”
Maggie sighed. “I wish he’d get some sense. He keeps talking about joining the army.”
“I told him if he ever came to pick me up with liquor on his breath again, that’d be the end.”
“I heard his mother tell Mama that he came home drunk last week. Aunt Opal said she wished he’d stayed in Detroit last year.”
“I hate to see him throw his future away. He’s smart, he used to be fun, he could make something of his life. I don’t want to have a loser for a boyfriend.” Wanda took off her apron and got her jacket from the closet beside the back door. “See you at school Monday.”
Maggie locked the door and watched through the glass as Wanda disappeared into the darkness beyond the back fence. She sighed again and turned to Aunt Lillian. “What do we need to do to finish up here?”
“If you’ll fix the coffee maker so we just have to turn it on in the morning, that’d be good.”
Later Maggie stretched out on Aunt Lillian’s couch and tried to sleep but couldn’t stop thinking about JD. He seemed headed for trouble, but worrying about it only made her wider awake.
* * *
J“I love this time of year!” Maggie picked up a bright red sweet gum leaf and twirled it with her fingers. “The mountains look like some giant artist has gone crazy with his paint brush.”
After Sunday dinner Maggie had suggested that she and JD walk up to the ledge. Their feet rustled the colorful leaves carpeting the ground. On the way up the ridge, they twisted back and forth past huge clumps of mountain ivy and among poplar, pine, locust and sourwood trees, all arrayed in glorious fall colors. As they passed a large hickory, adorned in bright orange and yellow, a squirrel quarreled at them from its perch high on a limb where he hulled the nuts before carrying them to his winter cache.
“I’m surprised that squirrel has found any hickory nuts. Stuart and Kenny have gathered about a bushel. Grandma told them if they would gather the nuts she would pick out the meats to sell and they could have half the money.” Maggie dropped her leaf and pulled her skirt close to her legs to avoid a cocklebur bush.
“I should of brought my gun,” JD said. “We’d have squirrel dumplings for supper.”
“I’ll be glad when we kill hogs again. We haven’t had any good meat lately. Daddy and Stuart have hunted rabbits and squirrels quite a bit even though the season isn’t open yet.”
They climbed the last steep incline and stood looking out over the hollow. The ledge, one solid rock thrusting out of the ridge, made a flat area as large as Maggie’s front room. Maggie took a deep breath and stretched her arms in a wide gesture. “I love it. Just look at all that color! See those bright red sumac bushes over behind Grandpa’s barn. Like flames of fire. And the goldenrod growing along the fence row. I think I’ll pick some of that to take home for a bouquet when we go back. And some of that purple iron weed to mix in.”
“I don’t know if I’d do that. Some people are allergic to goldenrod. With all the trouble Johnny Ray’s having, it might not be good for him.”
“You’re right,” Maggie sighed. “I worry about him so much. He’s not gone to school for a couple of weeks, and when he does go, Miss Ward says he puts his head down on his desk and doesn’t do anything.”
They stood without speaking for a few moments as they studied the view. JD pointed to the right. “We should go back the other way and see if we can find any hazel nuts in that grove over by your back pasture.”
Maggie nodded and sat down on a large boulder near the back of the ledge. “Grandma told me awhile back that Great-grandpa used to have a still up here. Did you know that?”
“No kidding?” JD sat nearer the front of the ledge and threw rocks at trees down below. Then he turned to look at Maggie. “Wish it was here now. I’d make a bundle selling moonshine. I know lots of people who’d buy it.”
“I don’t know where he actually had the still. I don’t think he’d have kept it out here in plain sight, would he? It must have been back behind that clump of mountain ivy over there.” Maggie pointed to the left.
She followed as JD stood and walked toward the tangle of bushes covered with green shiny leaves. They had to crawl on their knees to penetrate the tight thicket, but once inside they found an open space, covered with dried leaves and completely surrounded by the thick growth.
“Wow! Wonder why we never discovered this before?” Maggie looked around the enclosure. “This would be the perfect place to hide a still. He probably used the ledge as a lookout.”
“I doubt that, Maggie. He could have hid the jugs of moonshine here, but it takes a fire to make whisky. He wouldn’t want a fire in a place so small where the bushes and leaves might catch fire.
“Oh, shows you what I know about how to make moonshine.” Maggie noticed some dried leaves mashed down on one side of the small room-like space. “I think something has made a bed here. Look. Here’s a gap on this side that’s easier to get through.” She pulled the limbs back and walked through. A path led from the gap to another clump of bushes.
“I guess he had several places to stash his corn squeezings up here. Reckon we might find a jug of Great-grandpa’s white lightening?” Inside the next enclosure, they found a half-gallon jar with some clear liquid in it. JD quickly opened it and took a sniff. “Nope, it ain’t moonshine.” He carefully tipped the jar to his mouth and took a small taste. “It’s just water. Looks like someone’s been staying here.”
“Maybe it’s that bear the sheriff claims someone saw last week. But I don’t think a bear’d have a jar of water.” Maggie laughed. “I bet it’s Audie Lee. He roams around all the time.” She ducked out of the enclosure. “Let’s follow the path and see where it goes.” The path wound around the ridge and led them back to the ledge from the opposite side. They stood once more gazing out over the holler where they had lived all their lives.
“Remember that time we brought the kids up here to camp out?”
JD laughed. “Soon as it got dark, Jeannie started making excuses to go home.”
“Yeah, and then Kenny said, ‘I smell a skunk,’ and everyone began packing up their blankets.”
“Me and Kenny have spent the night here lots of times, even this summer. Sometimes it’s the only way to get Mama to shut up. We just have to get out of her sight. Seems like she’s getting worse about getting on our backs.”
“Do you think,” Maggie chose her words carefully, “she’s just more worried about you?”
JD picked up a couple of small stones and threw them at a dead pine tree. “I guess I do give her a hard time, but she picks at me constantly. She just won’t give me no peace. Sometimes I think I can’t stand it a minute longer.” He threw another rock.
Maggie sat down again. She wanted JD to talk to her, but she knew if she said too much he would clam up. She watched as he kept flinging rocks at the tree, missing every time. Finally she asked, “Do you ever wish you had stayed in Detroit?”
“No.” He answered quickly. “Daddy and me would be worse than Mama and me. If I’d stayed up there, him and me would of had it out ever’ night. Ain’t no way I could of stayed there any longer than I did.”
“You know, from what Grandma tells me, our great-grandpa had a terrible temper. I guess he was a madman when something set him off. Sometimes I wonder if that bad temper got passed to later generations. Your daddy and my mama seem to have gotten quite a bit of it.” Maggie stood and picked up a small stone. She walked to the front of the ledge. “Do you think Uncle Thomas will ever divorce Aunt Opal and marry Stella?” She hit the tree.
JD looked at her with wide eyes. “How’d you do
that?”
“You just have to focus your aim. Think that your hand is following right along with the rock toward the spot you want to hit. That’s the way I do it.” She sent another one crashing into the tree.
JD picked up a pebble, held it in front of him as he sighted down his arm like a gun and then drew back and threw, missing the dead tree by only a few inches.
“See, that’s better. Keep practicing, and you’ll get the hang of it.” Maggie hit the tree one more time.
“Show off!” JD sat down again, propped his elbows on his knees, and put his head in his hands. “To answer your question. No. Daddy won’t divorce Mama. He won’t never come home to live with her though because they can’t get along. But he won’t marry Stella neither. It’s her house, and when she gets put out with him, she sends him packing. She did that twice while I lived there. I don’t think she’d ever agree to marry him even if he wanted her to.”
JD sat up and wiped his arm across his forehead. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Mag. I’m so restless. I hate school. I hate the way Mama treats me. I hate Daddy for treating Mama so bad. I hate myself for the way I’ve treated Wanda lately.” He kicked some rocks off the side of the ledge. “Sometimes I can’t stand myself. I think I’ve got to get away from here.” He stood up, picked up a rock, took aim, and hit the pine tree.
Maggie grinned at him. “I told you you’d get better if you focus on your aim.”
* * *
The last week in October the weather suddenly turned unusually cold. Johnny Ray had gone to school the last three days. As the children walked home from the school bus, a cold rain began to pelt them mercilessly. Maggie and Jeannie tried to protect Johnny Ray with their jackets. They stopped under the big beech tree hoping the rain would let up, but by that time, the rain had soaked them good. When they reached home and lifted Johnny Ray out of the wagon, his blue lips trembled with cold.