A Tale from the Hills (15 page)

The woman had come to run off another of the seemingly endless supply of hobos. It seemed like she spent half of her time running them away from her farm. She had an ongoing dispute with the railroad concerning them. But there was nothing short of having engineers all along the line to keep them away from the properties that bordered the tracks. Even she knew that was impossible for many reasons.

She felt genuinely sorry for this young hobo. He was in the worst shape of anybody that she had seen in a long time. At the same time she wanted to laugh at him. she drove her horse and buggy over to where the boy was crying, and got down to offer her assistance. She always carried a rifle along with her on her morning rounds, but this time she left it in the buggy. The boy did not look like a threat to anyone except maybe himself.

“What in the world has happened to you?” sheasked.

“Oh, its a long story.” he sobbed. “You would never understand.”

“Ok then, one thing at a time. What’s your name?” “William.”

“What are you doing here William?” she asked. “I left home three days ago to start a new life formyself.”

“Aren’t you a little young to be leaving home?” “No, I’m practically thirteen. My daddy left home when he was fifteen.”

“Did your daddy make you leave?” she asked. “Heavens no. I just wanted to be grownup.” “That’s a big step for a boy that’s almost thirteen. You should try to stay young for as long as you can.”

“Being young is not always such a good thing.” hereplied.

“William, my name is Eunice. You are trespassing on my farm.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize until we get you cleaned up and straightened out. By the way, what in the world happened to you?”

He was not about to tell her about eating all of those green apples and getting the stomach ache, and all of the things in between.

“I got sick.” was all that he said. “I can see that. Let’s get you cleaned up.” They climbed into the buggy and rode over the hill away from the scene of his great misfortune.

“Do you have a family Miss..uh..Eunice?” “Not really. By the way my last name is Hill.” William’s eyes lit up. His daddy had a sister named Eunice. He remembered his daddy talking about her once in a while. But he did not dare speak up, he listened instead.

“All of my family died years ago in the flu epidemic after the Great War. I have a brother named Tom who is supposed to be somewhere in Virginia I think. But I have not heard from him in years. For all that I know he could be dead too. I work the family farm or it works me, and I have a helper. She and I do all of the work.”

William listened intently to every word that she said. She was family but he decided to keep that fact to himself, at least for the time being.

“I am William Blevins.” he lied.

“Then lets get you cleaned up William Blevins.”

She stopped the horse and buggy in front of a two story farm house. It looked old but in good shape. She got out of the buggy and reached for William’s knapsack. He handed it to her and proceeded to get down from the other side. He did not want to expose his naked legs to his newly acquainted aunt.

“Come on in the house.” she said.

She walked toward the back door, opened it, and stepped inside. He followed her looking in all directions at the same time. Another woman who looked to be about the same age as Eunice, was standing at the old cook stove.

“Look what I found.” Eunice turned and moved her arms toward William.

The other woman had a puzzled look on her face. She obviously thought that he looked like a walking disaster.

“This is William Blevins and he needs our assistance. William this is Samantha. I call her Sam and she calls me Ernie.”

“Its nice to meet you William.”

“Thank you Samantha.”

“You can call me Sam too if you like.”

“Ok.”

“Lets get you cleaned up. Ernie take his dirty clothes. I’ll heat some water for him to take a bath.”

Eunice showed the boy to the washhouse which was located behind the kitchen. There was a bath size washing tub in there, and clean clothes stacked in the corner.

“I saved my family’s clothes after they died. I’m sure that something in here will fit you.”

“Thank you.” was all that he could say.

**********

Samantha poured scalding hot water into the washing tub while Eunice poured cold. When there was sufficient water for his bath, both women left the room so that William could have some privacy.

“Yell when you are finished and I will help you with the clothes.” Eunice said.

“Ok.” he replied.

She had already seen him at his worst, so he did not really mind if she saw him at that moment either. He stepped into the water and eased his naked body down into it. The water was hot but it felt wonderful. He felt so relaxed that he closed his eyes. Eunice came through the door with a bar of handmade soap.

“Oops, I forgot to give you this.” she said.

“Thanks again.” he replied.

He scrubbed and then soaked and then stood up and then scrubbed again. He sat back down and the color of the water changed from clear to cloudy gray and dingy. There were three days worth of dirt and grime showing or floating in the water. The smell of something that had to be delicious was permeating from the kitchen. He was lost in the warmth of the water and the aroma of the food. Eunice came into the washhouse to ask him if he was ready to get out of the water. Reluctantly he said yes and started to stand up. She covered her eyes and scurried from the room like an innocent school girl. He had not known her but a couple of hours but he knew that she was a good person. He suspected that Samantha was too.

The clothing that Eunice brought to him might very well have once been his daddy’s. They were slightly larger than he actually needed, but he enjoyed wearing something that was fresh and clean. The clothes were comfortable and fresh smelling. He dressed and crossed the back porch to the kitchen door. Samantha motioned for him to come on in.

He ate like he had not eaten for days. Samantha had prepared a country style breakfast of biscuits and ham, and eggs and grits. He had never eaten grits before and he was hesitant about trying them. Eunice fixed him a bowl exactly the same way that she liked them, with milk and sugar, and he naturally loved them.

After they ate, William began clearing the table and preparing to wash the dishes. The two women were a bit surprised to see him so ambitious. But he was grateful for their kindness and he wanted to be able to show it. The three of them worked in unison to get the job done.

“What happens to you now William?” Eunice asked as he washed and she dried.

“I guess that I will get back on the tracks and keepgoing.”

“You are more than welcome to keep those clothes, and if you wait until we can wash your other clothes, you will have spares of everything.”

“I probably should go on. I need to cover a lot of ground today.”

“Why today?” she asked.

He did not tell her that he wanted to get as far away from the men at the river as he could. He simply shrugged his shoulders as a means of answering the question. The two women left the room for a few minutes and returned with smiles on their faces.

“We have talked it over and we would like for you to stay with us for a while. There are plenty of things to do around the farm and we will give you a place to stay and we will feed you well. We can’t pay you very much, but you will be safe and sound.”

William thought deeply about their proposition. Even though Eunice did not know it, he was a part of her family, and she was a part of his. If he decided to stay for a while, he might even get around to telling her. She and Samantha had been very kind to him and he liked the security of being with others. He could do much worse than stay. He could even run into those men again. Or he could get sick like last night and be all alone in some remote place. Or he couldrun out of money, or even get hit by the train. He was practically at the mercy of everything that surrounded him. He decided that staying might not be such a bad idea.

“Ok.” he said while smiling back at them.

***********

The End of Part Three

Part Four
 

Chapter One
 

The days and weeks and months passed quickly for William on the farm with Eunice and Samantha. The three of them celebrated birthdays and holidays just like a close knit family. They shared a bond that was as natural to William as the relationships that he had on Jewel Ridge Mountain. There were a few surprises for him at first, however. He would have to reevaluate the meaning of what constituted a family before too many days had passed with the two women.

When he first arrived on the farm, Eunice informed him that her had a helper. Samantha was then introduced to him as that helper. He found out soon after his arrival that she was much more than that to Eunice. The two women shared everything. They worked together, played together, ate together, and as he found out quite by accident on his second night in the house, they slept together.

The old farm house had five rooms downstairs and four rooms upstairs. The rooms upstairs were larger than the rooms downstairs because they were used as bedrooms for the Hill children growing up. The children would have been William’s daddy and his aunts and uncles. The parent’s bedroom was off of the dining room and that was Eunice’s bedroom now.

The first night that William was on the farm he went to bed earlier than the two women. Eunice prepared a roomfor him at the top of the stairs. It could very well have been his daddy’s former room. She told him that there had once been ten children living in that house. She used the upstairs now for storage. She told him that there were a lot of memories stored behind those closed doors, but she did not go into any kind of detail.

William was so tired on that first night that he slept in a real bed, that he hardly disturbed the covers. He did not wake up a single time all night. The smell of baking bread and coffee brewing woke him bright and early the next morning. He and Eunice worked the farm all day that second day. He enjoyed working and being with her. He enjoyed the closeness of being with his only aunt. Samantha had supper ready when they came back to the house in the evening. They sat on the front porch and Samantha strummed an old guitar until almost bedtime.

He went to bed first again. He was tired and like the night before, he went to sleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow. A disturbing dream with hobos chasing him across a long trestle woke him not long after he fell asleep. When he realized that it was still quite early, he decided to visit the outhouse, because he did not think that he could wait until morning. He eased down the stairs as quietly as he could because he did not want to wake up Eunice. He thought that Samantha was in the room next to his upstairs. He noticed that a light was still burning inside Eunice’s room and he also thought that he heard voices. He tiptoed over to her door and he heard the two women talking about their plans for the next day.

“I am going to take William into town tomorrow to buy some wire for the fence. Do you want to go with us?”

“No.” Samantha answered. “I will stay here so that lunch will be ready when you get back. Besides, I don’t like the way that the people at the hardware store look at us.”

“To Hell with them.” Eunice declared.

“Oh, I know, but sometimes it bothers me.”

“I understand. Let’s get some sleep. I love you Sam.”

“And I love you Ernie.”

They both said goodnight at the same time.

William knew just then what the old busy body at the trading post was whispering to her husband about. Eunice and Samantha were together as a couple. It had never occurred to him that two women could be together that way as a couple. But they seemed to be very happy.

He wondered if they would be comfortable with him knowing what was going on. He decided not to let the cat out of the bag until an appropriate time. After all, he had his secrets too. When and if the time was right, maybe they could all share a secret or two with each other.

He almost gave himself away the next morning at breakfast.

“What time are we going to the hardware store?” heasked.

“What?” Eunice said.

He realized immediately just what he had done.

“When we were checking fences yesterday, you said that we needed to go to the hardware store to get wire.” he lied.

“Oh yes, maybe today.” she replied.

When it became obvious that William was comfortable with their relationship, the two women were not as secretive anymore. Although they did not show outward affection for each other in front of him, they acted very similar to a married couple. He could see that they made decisions and shared responsibility together. His time with them would have been ideal if it were not for the nightmares.

Not long after he moved upstairs in the old farm house that was filled with family memories and secrets, his nightmares returned. At first they were vague and lacking in detail. Many of them did not even make any sense to him. They were about hobos, hateful men with shotguns, and men in white robes and hooded faces. As the bad dreams progressed however, a pattern seemed to be forming. There seemed to be a definite relationship forming between William, the old man, Alice, and even their dead mother. Inpast dreams the old man hinted to William that he would find out in time exactly what the dreams meant.

The first series of recurring dreams went back to the time when Alice disappeared. She was the same age as when she died but William was his age now. She left for school just like that fateful Monday morning. She ran ahead of her brothers and off in the distance William could see the old man peeping out from behind a tree. William was the only one who could see the old man. The old man stayed out of sight but he moved almost along side of little Alice. When she got to the footbridge she saw that the water was deep and very treacherous, so she stopped running. The old man came out from behind a tree and pushed her screaming into the raging water. All the time the old man was looking at William and smiling.