Child of the Mountains

7





It’s about how BJ ended up going to Ohio.




SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1953

I noticed Aunt Ethel Mae didn’t leave no meat out to thaw afore we went to church this morning. I asked her iffen she wanted me to pull some leftover turkey out of the freezer. I almost jumped out of my skin on account of the hard look she gived me.

“I don’t want to fret about that now, Lydia.”

“It ain’t no trouble, honest.”

“Get on out to the car so’s we ain’t late for church, you hear me?”

I skedaddled!

On the drive, Aunt Ethel Mae put her hand on Uncle William’s shoulder. He shrugged it off.

“William, honey, it just occurred to me that I plumb forgot to lay out some meat to thaw afore we left this morning.”

My eyes opened wide! She didn’t look at me. Something told me I’d best keep my mouth shut.

Uncle William rolled his eyes and made a grunt that sounded almost like a growl.

“Well, it’s a pretty day and all,” Aunt Ethel Mae said, “and since we don’t have nothing to fix for supper anyways, I thought we might take us a little drive and go out for supper after church.” She gived him what I figure she thought was a sweet smile. It looked more like gas pain to me.

Uncle William sighed like he was a-trying to blow out some weight inside him. “Where did you have in mind?”

“If you’re sure it’s okay, I thought we might go down to Point Pleasant. You know, they’ve got theirselves such a cute little restaurant that’s open on Sunday.”

Uncle William mumbled something real low about him thinking God said a man’s supposed to rest on Sunday, not go driving around all of creation. At least I think that’s what he said. I couldn’t hear him too good.

Aunt Ethel Mae’s gas pain smile turned into a real smile. She hummed the rest of the way to church.

Uncle William rolled his eyes and didn’t say nothing else.

After church, we headed for Point Pleasant. Aunt Ethel Mae jabbered the whole entire way up and back. “I sure wish we could drive to Myrtle Beach right now,” she said at one point. “Don’t you, William?”

He looked wide-eyed at her and then real quick back at the road. “In the middle of winter? What are you talking about, woman? The ocean would be freezing this time of year.”

“I’m just saying, you know, iffen it was warm and all.” Then she went on about all them trips they had tooken to Myrtle Beach. Uncle William turned on the radio. He kept turning it up a little at a time. Aunt Ethel Mae just kept on talking a little louder than the music. It got to the point that I wanted to put my fingers in my ears. Uncle William finally gived up and turned off the radio. Aunt Ethel Mae kept on talking, but quieter after that.

I stretched out in the backseat the best I could with keeping my feet on the floor. I sure didn’t want to get Uncle William’s car seat dirty.

Uncle William didn’t seem to like hearing all the talk about Myrtle Beach, but I sure did. I ain’t never been to the beach. I wondered what sand felt like when you walked on it in bare feet. Was it scratchy or smooth? Aunt Ethel Mae said the oceans had waves that made a sound that could put you to sleep. I heard the noise the creek makes lots of times when it ripples over rocks. Does the ocean sound like that? I wondered. And how did the ocean sand stick together to make a sand castle? I imagined BJ and me running in that water and building castles in that sand. Tears started to burn my eyes, so I tried to imagine Aunt Ethel Mae running in the water in her bathing suit and bathing cap. Pretty soon I had to hold back giggles instead of tears.

When Aunt Ethel Mae stopped talking about the beach and commenced to gossiping about some women at church, I quit listening. Instead, I started thinking about all of them trips we made in Uncle William’s car, taking BJ to the hospital in Ohio. BJ was three years old and I was seven when Doc Smythson comed up to the cabin all excited one day. Doc said he found out about a children’s hospital that might be able to help BJ. They would treat BJ for free on account of them wanting to study about kids with cystic fibrosis.

We was all happy. Uncle William even said he would take us up there in his car.

It was a long, long drive. We felt all tired and hot and sticky by the time we got to that hospital. Mama sat in the front seat with Uncle William. Gran sat between BJ and me in the back. I felt mighty glad that Aunt Ethel Mae stayed home. We would have been scrunched, and she would have wore our ears out, for sure and certain.

To make the time pass faster, Mama had me and BJ find the alphabet on license plates and figure out who had the most cows on their side. Then we sang for a spell until Uncle William told us to shut our traps so he could pay attention to all them cars on the road.

BJ put his head down on Gran’s lap and fell asleep. Gran poured some water from a jar on a clean rag and wiped the sweat offen BJ’s face.

I felt too hot to take a nap. We went round and round and round them curvy roads until my stomach started going round and round and round, too. All of a sudden, my breakfast of biscuits and gravy and buttermilk sloshed in my lap and on the car floor.

Uncle William said a bad word as he pulled to the side of the road.

“P.U.!” BJ sat up and leaned his head out of the window. He closed his nose with two fingers and gagged like he might throw up, too. “What did you have to go and do that for, Lyddie?” he asked.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” I said as tears poured down my cheeks.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Gran said as she put her arm around me. “It ain’t your fault you got a weak stomach. You know what they say. There ain’t no use crying over spilt biscuits, gravy, and buttermilk!” She winked at me, and I felt a little better.

Mama laughed, but Uncle William just rolled his eyes. Gran and Mama done the best they could to clean me and the car up with the jar water and rags. Then Gran gived me a piece of hard ginger candy to suck on to settle my stomach.

We stopped at the next gas station to get soap and water from the restroom to finish cleaning up. Gran said the restroom smelled worse than me and the car. I told her I thought it smelled worse than any outhouse I ever used. We learned real fast that we best do our business at home and try to hold it until we got to the hospital. Most times, Uncle William would pull offen the road, and we would find us a tree to hide behind.

We felt all grouchy and plumb tuckered out when we got to the hospital. A doctor took BJ to check him out real good. Gran waited in the lobby for the doctor to finish up with BJ. Mama had to sign some papers, and me and Uncle William went with her. Mama commenced to read the papers, and she started up asking questions.

The lady behind the desk let out this real long sigh, but she didn’t even look up at Mama. She had some other papers she was busy writing on and shuffling around. “You are not going to understand these papers anyway,” she said. “If you want your boy to get the help he needs, just sign them.”

Uncle William’s face got mater red and his teeth clenched tight like he had lockjaw. “Now see here, lady …,” he said, looking at her with burning eyes like he wanted to melt her into a puddle. She looked up at him like she dared him to finish what he planned to say.

Mama put her hand on my uncle’s arm. “William, we need this hospital to help BJ,” she said real soft.

Uncle William snorted, got up out of his chair, and shoved it back under the table so hard I was afeared it might break. “I’ll wait outside with Mom,” he said as he stomped out of the room.

“Where do I sign?” Mama asked the woman.

Later, Mama said that she made the biggest mistake of her whole entire life when she signed them papers.