And Vigor did say the river wasn’t much.
Spring House
THE AIR IN THE SPRING house was cool and heavy, dark and wet. Sometimes when little Peggy caught a nap here, she woke up gasping like as if the whole place was under water. She had dreams of water even when she wasn’t here—that was one of the things that made some folks say she was a seeper instead of a torch. But when she dreamed outside, she always knew she was dreaming. Here the water was real.
Real in the drips that formed like sweat on the milkjars setting in the stream. Real in the cold damp clay of the spring house floor. Real in the swallowing sound of the stream as it hurried through the middle of the house.
Keeping it cool all summer long, cold water spilling right out of the hill and into this place, shaded all the way by trees so old the moon made a point of passing through their branches just to hear some good old tales. That was what little Peggy always came here for, even when Papa didn’t hate her. Not the wetness of the air, she could do just fine without that. It was the way the fire went right out of her and she didn’t have to be a torch. Didn’t have to see into all the dark places where folks hid theirselfs.
From her they hid theirselfs as if it would do some good. Whatever they didn’t like most about theirself they tried to tuck away in some dark corner but they didn’t know how all them dark places burned in little Peggy’s eyes. Even when she was so little that she spit out her corn mash cause she was still hoping for a suck, she knew all the stories that the folks around her kept all hid. She saw the bits of their past that they most wished they could bury, and she saw the bits of their future that they most feared.
And that was why she took to coming up here to the spring house. Here she didn’t have to see those things. Not even the lady in Papa’s memory. There was nothing here but the heavy wet dark cool air to quench the fire and dim the light so she could be—just for a few minutes in the day—a little five-year-old girl with a straw poppet named Bugy and not even have to think about any of them grown-up secrets.
I’m not wicked, she told herself. Again and again, but it didn’t work because she knew she was.
All right then, she said to herself, I am wicked. But I won’t be wicked anymore. I’ll tell the truth like Papa says, or I’ll say nothing at all.
Even at five years old, little Peggy knew that if she kept that vow, she’d be better off saying nothing.
So she said nothing, not even to herself, just lay there on a mossy damp table with Bugy clenched tight enough to strangle in her fist.
Ching ching ching.
Little Peggy woke up and got mad for just a minute.
Ching ching ching.
Made her mad because nobody said to her, Little Peggy, you don’t mind if we talk this young blacksmith feller into settling down here, do you? Not at all, Papa, she would’ve said if they’d asked. She knew what it meant to have a smithy. It meant your village would thrive, and folks from other places would come, and when they came there’d be trade, and where there was trade then her father’s big house could be a forest inn, and where there was a forest inn then all the roads would kind of bend a little just to pass the place, if it wasn’t too far out of the way—little Peggy knew all that, as sure as the children of farmers knew the rhythms of the farm. A road house by a smithy was a road house that would prosper. So she would’ve said, Sure enough, let him stay, deed him land, brick his chimney, feed him free, let him have my bed so I have to double up with Cousin Peter who keeps trying to peek under my nightgown, I’ll put up with all that—just as long as you don’t put him near the spring house so that all the time, even when I want to be alone with the water, there’s that whack thump hiss roar, noise all the time, and a fire burning up the sky to turn it black, and the smell of charcoal burning. It was enough to make a body wish to follow the stream right back into the mountain just to get some peace.
Of course the stream was the smart place to put the blacksmith. Except for water, he could’ve put his smithy anywheres at all. The iron came to him in the shipper’s wagon clear from New Netherland, and the charcoal—well, there was plenty of farmers willing to trade charcoal for a good shoe. But water, that’s what the smith needed that nobody’d bring him, so of course they put him right down the hill from the spring house where his ching ching ching could wake her up and put the fire back into her in the one place where she had used to be able to let it burn low and go almost to cold wet ash.
A roar of thunder.
She was at the door in a second. Had to see the lightning. Caught just the last shadow of the light but she knew that there’d be more. It wasn’t much after noon, surely, or had she slept all day? What with all these blackbelly clouds she couldn’t tell—it might as well be the last minutes of dusk. The air was all a-prickle with lightning just waiting to flash. She knew that feeling, knew that it meant the lightning’d hit close.
She looked down to see if the blacksmith’s stable was still full of horses. It was. The shoeing wasn’t done, the road would turn to muck, and so the farmer with his two sons from out West Fork way was stuck here. Not a chance they’d head home in this, with lightning ready to put a fire in the woods, or knock a tree down on them, or maybe just smack them a good one and lay them all out dead in a circle like them five Quakers they still was talking about and here it happened back in ‘90 when the first white folks came to settle here. People talked still about the Circle of Five and all that, some people wondering if God up and smashed them flat so as to shut the Quakers up, seeing how nothing else ever could, while other people was wondering if God took them up into heaven like the first Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell who was smote by lightning at the age of ninety-seven and just disappeared.
No, that farmer and his big old boys’d stay another night. Little Peggy was an innkeeper’s daughter, wasn’t she? Papooses learnt to hunt, pickaninnies learnt to tote, farmer children learnt the weather, and an innkeeper’s daughter learnt which folks would stay the night, even before they knew it right theirselfs.
Their horses were champing in the stable, snorting and warning each other about the storm. In every group of horses, little Peggy figgered, there must be one that’s remarkable dumb, so all the others have to tell him what all’s going on. Bad storm, they were saying. We’re going to get a soaking, if the lightning don’t smack us first. And the dumb one kept nickering and saying, What’s that noise, what’s that noise?
Then the sky just opened right up and dumped water on the earth. Stripped leaves right off the trees, it came down so hard. Came down so thick, too, that little Peggy couldn’t even see the smithy for a minute and she thought maybe it got washed right away into the stream. Oldpappy told her how that stream led right down to the Hatrack River, and the Hatrack poured right into the Hio, and the Hio shoved itself on through the woods to the Mizzipy, which went on down into the sea, and Oldpappy said how the sea drank so much water that it got indigestion and gave off the biggest old belches you ever heard, and what came up was clouds. Belches from the sea, and now the smithy would float all that way, get swallered up and belched out, and someday she’d just be minding her own business and some cloud would break up and plop that smithy down as neat as you please, old Makepeace Smith still ching ching chinging away.
Then the rain stacked off a mite and she looked down to see the smithy still there. But that wasn’t what she saw at all. No, what she saw was sparks of fire way off in the forest, downstream toward the Hatrack, down where the ford was, only there wasn’t a chance of taking the ford today, with this rain. Sparks, lots of sparks, and she knew every one of them was folks. She didn’t hardly think of doing it anymore, she only had to see their heartfires and she was looking close. Maybe future, maybe past, all the visions lived together in the heartfire.
What she saw right now was the same in all their hearts. A wagon in the middle of the Hatrack, with the water rising and everything they owned in all the world in that wagon.
Little Peggy didn’t talk much, but everybod
y knew she was a torch, so they listened whenever she spoke up about trouble. Specially this kind of trouble. Sure the settlements in these parts were pretty old now, a fair bit older than little Peggy herself, but they hadn’t forgotten yet that anybody’s wagon caught in a flood is everybody’s loss.
She fair to flew down that grassy hill, jumping gopher holes and sliding the steep places, so it wasn’t twenty seconds from seeing those far-off heartfires till she was speaking right up in the smithy’s shop. That farmer from West Fork at first wanted to make her wait till he was done with telling stories about worse storms he’d seen. But Makepeace knew all about little Peggy. He just listened right up and then told those boys to saddle them horses, shoes or no shoes, there was folks caught in the Hatrack ford and there was no time for foolishness. Little Peggy didn’t even get a chance to see them go—Makepeace already sent her off to the big house to fetch her father and all the hands and visitors there. Wasn’t a one of them who hadn’t once put all they owned in the world into a wagon and dragged it west across the mountain roads and down into this forest. Wasn’t a one of them who hadn’t felt a river sucking at that wagon, wanting to steal it away. They all got right to it. That’s the way it was then, you see. Folks noticed other people’s trouble every bit as quick as if it was their own.
Hatrack River
VIGOR LED THE BOYS in trying to push the wagon, while Eleanor hawed the horses. Alvin Miller spent his time carrying the little girls one by one to safety on the far shore. The current was a devil clawing at him, whispering, I’ll have your babies, I’ll have them all, but Alvin said no, with every muscle in his body as he strained shoreward he said no to that whisper, till his girls stood all bedraggled on the bank with rain streaming down their faces like the tears from all the grief in the world.
He would have carried Faith, too, baby in her belly and all, but she wouldn’t budge. Just sat inside that wagon, bracing herself against the trunks and furniture as the wagon tipped and rocked. Lightning crashed and branches broke; one of them tore the canvas and the water poured into the wagon but Faith held on with white knuckles and her eyes staring out. Alvin knew from her eyes there wasn’t a thing he could say to make her let go. There was only one way to get Faith and her unborn baby out of that river, and that was to get the wagon out.
“Horses can’t get no purchase, Papa,” Vigor shouted. “They’re just stumbling and bound to break a leg.”
“Well we can’t pull out without the horses!”
“The horses are something, Papa. We leave ‘em in here and we’ll lose wagon and horses too!”
“Your mama won’t leave that wagon.”
He saw understanding in Vigor’s eyes. The things in the wagon weren’t worth a risk of death to save them. But Mama was.
“Still,” Vigor said. “On shore the team could pull strong. Here in the water they can’t do a thing.”
“Set the boys to unhitching them. But first tie a line to a tree to hold that wagon!”
It wasn’t two minutes before the twins Wastenot and Wantnot were on the shore making the rope fast to a stout tree. David and Measure made another line fast to the rig that held the horses, while Calm cut the strands that held them to the wagon. Good boys, doing their work just right, Vigor shouting directions while Alvin could only watch, helpless at the back of the wagon, looking now at Faith who was trying not to have the baby, now at the Hatrack River that was trying to push them all down to hell.
Not much of a river, Vigor had said, but then the clouds came up and the rain came down and the Hatrack became something after all. Even so it looked passable when they got to it. The horses strode in strong, and Alvin was just saying to Calm, who had the reins, “Well, we made it not a minute to spare,” when the river went insane. It doubled in speed and strength all in a moment, and the horses got panicky and lost direction and started pulling against each other. The boys all hopped into the river and tried to lead them to shore but by then the wagon’s momentum had been lost and the wheels were mired up and stuck fast. Almost as if the river knew they were coming and saved up its worst fury till they were already in it and couldn’t get away.
“Look out! Look out!” screamed Measure from the shore.
Alvin looked upstream to see what devilment the river had in mind, and there was a whole tree floating down the river, endwise like a battering ram, the root end pointed at the center of the wagon, straight at the place where Faith was sitting, her baby on the verge of birth. Alvin couldn’t think of anything to do, couldn’t think at all, just screamed his wife’s name with all his strength. Maybe in his heart he thought that by holding her name on his lips he could keep her alive, but there was no hope of that, no hope at all.
Except that Vigor didn’t know there was no hope. Vigor leapt out when the tree was no more than a rod away, his body failing against it just above the root. The momentum of his leap turned it a little, then rolled it over, rolled it and turned it away from the wagon. Of course Vigor rolled with it, pulled right under the water—but it worked, the root end of the tree missed the wagon entirely, and the shaft of the trunk struck it a sidewise blow.
The tree bounded across the stream and smashed up against a boulder on the bank. Alvin was five rods off, but in his memory from then on, he always saw it like as if he’d been right there. The tree crashing into the boulder, and Vigor between them. Just a split second that lasted a lifetime, Vigor’s eyes wide with surprise, blood already leaping out of his mouth, spattering out onto the tree that killed him. Then the Hatrack River swept the tree out into the current. Vigor slipped under the water, all except his arm, all tangled in the roots, which stuck up into the air for all the world like a neighbor waving good-bye after a visit.
Alvin was so intent on watching his dying son that he didn’t even notice what was happening to his own self. The blow from the tree was enough to dislodge the mired wheels, and the current picked up the wagon, carried it downstream, Alvin clinging to the tailgate, Faith weeping inside, Eleanor screaming her lungs out from the driver’s seat, and the boys on the bank shouting something. Shouting, “Hold! Hold! Hold!”
The rope held, one end tied to a strong tree, the other end tied to the wagon, it held. The river couldn’t tumble the wagon downstream; instead it swung the wagon in to shore the way a boy swings a rock on a string, and when it came to a shuddering stop it was right against the bank, the front end facing upstream.
“It held!” cried the boys.
“Thank God!” shouted Eleanor.
“The baby’s coming,” whispered Faith.
But Alvin, all he could hear was the single faint cry that had been the last sound from the throat of his firstborn son, all he could see was the way his boy clung to the tree as it rolled and rolled in the water, and all he could say was a single word, a single command. “Live,” he murmured. Vigor had always obeyed him before. Hard worker, willing companion, more a friend or brother than a son. But this time he knew his son would disobey. Still he whispered it. “Live.”
“Are we safe?” said Faith, her voice trembling.
Alvin turned to face her, tried to strike the grief from his face. No sense her knowing the price that Vigor paid to save her and the baby. Time enough to learn of that after the baby was born. “Can you climb out of the wagon?”
“What’s wrong?” asked Faith, looking at his face.
“I took a fright. Tree could have killed us. Can you climb out, now that we’re up against the bank?”
Eleanor leaned in from the front of the wagon. “David and Calm are on the bank, they can help you up. The rope’s holding, Mama, but who can say how long?”
“Go on, Mother, just a step,” said Alvin. “We’ll do better with the wagon if we know you’re safe on shore.”
“The baby’s coming,” said Faith.
“Better on shore than here,” said Alvin sharply. “Go now.”
Faith stood up, clambered awkwardly to the front. Alvin climbed through the wagon behind her, to help her if she
should stumble. Even he could see how her belly had dropped. The baby must be grabbing for air already.
On the bank it wasn’t just David and Calm, now. There were strangers, big men, and several horses. Even one small wagon, and that was a welcome sight. Alvin had no notion who these men were, or how they knew to come and help, but there wasn’t a moment to waste on introductions. “You men! Is there a midwife in the road house?”
“Goody Guester does with birthing,” said a man. A big man, with arms like ox-legs. A blacksmith, surely.
“Can you take my wife in that wagon? There’s not a moment to spare.” Alvin knew it was a shameful thing, for men to speak so openly of birthing, right in front of the woman who was set to bear. But Faith was no fool—she knew what mattered most, and getting her to a bed and a competent midwife was more important than pussyfooting around about it.
David and Calm were careful as they helped their mother toward the waiting wagon. Faith was staggering with pain. Women in labor shouldn’t have to step from a wagon seat up onto a riverbank, that was sure. Eleanor was right behind her, taking charge as if she wasn’t younger than all the boys except the twins. “Measure! Get the girls together. They’re riding in the wagon with us. You too, Wastenot and Wantnot! I know you can help the big boys but I need you to watch the girls while I’m with Mother.” Eleanor was never one to be trifled with, and the gravity of the situation was such that they didn’t even call her Eleanor of Aquitaine as they obeyed. Even the little girls mostly gave over their squabbling and got right on.
Eleanor paused a moment on the bank and looked back to where her father stood on the wagon seat. She glanced downstream, then looked back at him. Alvin understood the question, and he shook his head no. Faith was not to know of Vigor’s sacrifice. Tears came unwelcome to Alvin’s eyes, but not to Eleanor’s. Eleanor was only fourteen, but when she didn’t want to cry, she didn’t cry.
Seventh Son Page 2