My Children Are More Precious Than Gold (8 page)

The large man's faded, blue shirt she
wore billowed out at her middle. It was cinched down by a wide
black belt. The shirt tail draped over her broad, brown skirted
hips. The long, brown skirt stopped in folds at the toes of her
scuffed, high top, men's work shoes.

“
Afternoon, boys. What can
I do fer ya?” Genon pushed her hat back from her forehead, exposing
a long, wisp of wiry, brown, tinged with gray, hair that fell along
her cheek.

The boys laid their fishing poles down
in the yard and approached the porch.

“
Jest passen by and
thought we'd say howdy,” Lue replied nervously. He sat down on the
far edge of the porch, letting his legs dangle off the porch. He
wanted to keep some distance between Genon and himself. The other
boys followed his lead. They looked off down the hollow to avoid
looking at the spooky, medicine woman.

“
Unhuh.” Genon tapped her
right shoe against the porch floor, producing a rhythmic sound to
go along with the motion of rocking slowly back and
forth.

Miss Mitts, ya ever tried to get rid
of a haunt? Clearing his throat, Lue began as casually as he could,
pretending to concentrate on a squirrel running from branch to
branch in the ancient oak tree shading the porch.

“
Ya got a haunt ya want
rid of?” Genon looked piercingly down her nose at Lue.

“
We might have,” said Lue,
guardedly.

“
Who might this haunt be,
pray tell?” Genon asked, looking intently down her nose at
them.

“
Doak Woods thinks it’s
Haunt Dawson,” admitted Tom, gulping down a lump in his
throat.

“
He's in yer barn again, I
take it?” The midwife studied each of the boys for a
reaction.

Startled, Lou asked, “How did you know
that?” All of them twisted around on the porch to stare at the old
medicine woman.

“
I got my ways.” Genon
cackled, showing her tobacco stained teeth which slanted inward
from years of holding a corncob pipe. “Haunt Dawson is harmless
enough as haunts go. He'll go away sooner or later. He always
does.”

“
Yep, but he always comes
back the way we hear it. The noise is maken us all right skittish.
Cain't we get rid him so we don't have to listen to that hammeren
ever again?” Lue wanted to know.

“
Ya can try I reckon, but
y'all would have to mind jest what I say or it won't
work.”

“
All right, what do we
have to do?” Asked Lue, eagerly.

“
First ya have to hide in
the barn in the dead of the night, so to speak.” Genon put her hand
over her mouth. “ hee, hee” She sobered up and said, “Afore Brother
Dawson shows up, of course. I'll give ya some of my haunt scaren
off potion. Ya have to do and say what I tell ya to and jest hope
he leaves. Hee, hee.”

“
Jest hope he leaves? What
happens if he don't?” Sid exclaimed.

“
Then ya better skedaddle
if ya can. Hee, hee,” cackled Genon before she went through the
cabin door.

In a couple minutes, she was back,
carrying a small, black bag closed with a draw string and a brown,
paper bundle. “Here ya go. This bundle is bones. Place em on the
window sills and in the barn doorway.”

“
What kind of bones are
these?” Sid asked, slowly holding his hand out for the
package.

“
Ya don't want to know
that, Sonny. Jest take em.” The old woman chuckled coarsely,
thrusting the bundle in Sid's wavering hand. She reaching into her
shirt pocket. She pulled out four gray, fuzzy objects. “Here. Each
of ya take one of these fer luck. Theys hind feet offen rabbits I
caught in cemeteries,” she explained, handing one to each of the
boys. “Fer luck, carry em feet in yer pocket at all times. Now this
here black bag is the haunt potion. When Haunt Dawson appears, ya
open the bag and throw the powder on him and say exactly what I
tell you. Hear?”

Too awestruck to speak, the boys
nodded they understood.

“
All righty.” Genon
settled down in her rocker again. Relaxing back in the rocker, she
folded her hands in her lap. “Here's the chant. ‘Haunt Dawson, be
gone with ya. Ya are dead! This barn is fer the liven. Go back to
the beyond and stay there. Go away! Go away now!’ Ya boys got all
that?”

“
Yep, Miss Mitts,” Lue
confirmed. “Now what do we owe ya?”

“
Nothen yet. This ain't
fer sure to work on all haunts. Jest on certain ones so best come
back and let me know what happens, ifen yer able. Hee, hee.” Genon
winked mischievously at Lue.

At chore time when Pap wasn't looking,
the boys slipped around the barn to prepared it for the visit of a
haunt. They dispersed the bones on the window sills and on the barn
floor in front of the door.

That night after everyone had gone to
bed, the boys crept quietly downstairs and outside. Inhaling a deep
breath of the fresh night air, Lue smelled the strong, syrupy
fragrance of the gold and white honeysuckle blossoms on the vine
clinging to the yard fence. He looked up at the star laden sky.
Early in the evening, he’d sat with Pap, and the other children on
the edge of the porch, watching those stars. They passed Pap's spy
glass around, taking turns trying to find the largest, and
brightest star or the one that twinkled the best.

Now there was no time for that. Lue
and his brothers were on a mission to scare off Haunt Dawson.
Except for the usual night sounds, it seemed to be a quiet night as
Lue lead the haunt catching party to the barn. He unlatched the
door, and they melted into the dark barn.

“
It's too dark in here to
see where we're goen,” Don complained. “We needed the
lantern.”

“
Nope, we don't. We don't
want any lights,” Lue whispered. “We know this barn blindfolded.
Jest scatter out and find places to hide.”

“
I'd rather stay with
y'all,” Don stated, thinking there was safety in
numbers.

“
Me too,” agreed Tom
quickly.

“
I'm fer that, too.
Remember, boys, Lue's the one who’s armed with the haunt powder,
not us,” reminded Sid, always the sensible one.

“
All right, scaredy cats,
jest follow me and keep along side the barn wall until we get to
that empty stall next to the horses. We kin all hide in there,” Lue
decided.

He groped his way along the rough, log
wall, feeling the rough splintered wood under his touch. In the
lead, he felt taunt, dainty strands of a spider web wrap around his
face. He stopped to wipe the web away then moved his fingers along
the smooth edge at the top of the stall door, feeling for the
wooden latch. Lue touched something warm and soft. Quickly, he
jerked his hand back when he heard a grumbling protest, then he
realized it was only Pecker and his flock roosting on top of the
stall. The chickens must have thought it was too hot to roost in
the chicken coop.

Slowly, Lue opened the door, trying
not to disturb the chickens. The boys edged passed him into the
darkness. The clean straw bedding crunched underfoot.

In the next stall, the horses stomped
restlessly, aroused by the boys rustling the bedding. An occasional
low growl came from the chickens, uneasy in their slumber, as the
door moved back and forth with them roosted on it.

Plunk! Sid felt a warm
pressure on the top of his head. He ran his fingers through his
hair, touching a substance that was soft and
fowl
smelling.

“
Oh boy! What smells?”
Rasped Lue.

“
Ugh!” Sid croaked, wiping
his fingers on his pants. “We've got to get out of here or em
chickens are goen to have to move. It's not safe to sit under
em.”

“
They would make too much
racket if we try to move em,” warned Don.

“
Then I'm moven,” retorted
Sid.

Plunk! Plunk!

“
Good idea. Let's all of
us move,” Lue agreed quickly, fearing he would be the next target.
Staying at arm's length out of the chickens aim, he slowly opened
the stall door.

“
Where to now?” Sid asked,
easing out the door.

“
Let's get in the hay
manger,” whispered Lue.

The boys, staying close to each other,
felt their way back along the wall, past the now moonlit door. They
stopped at the manger's edge and crawled into what remained of the
sweet smelling clover hay that Daisy left at chore time. Snuggling
down, they peeked over the top of the deep manger to watch for the
haunt to appear.

Stifling yawns, Don and Tom leaned
back to relax their nodding heads and dozed off. Lue and Sid, too
tense to sleep, listened and waited. A quick and short, muffled
rustle sounded some place in the manger when a mouse scurried
through the hay. Crickets kept up a constant, irritating
chirp.

Down on the end of the manger, a tom
cat emitted a low, mournful meow to stake out his territory,
warning a stray tom cat to leave. Illuminated by the full moon
beaming through the barn window, the two pairs of unblinking,
yellow eyes glared at each other. Soft threats began to rumble in
the crouching toms' throats like a volcano about to erupt. Their
tails swished slowly back and forth across the hay as further
warning of an impending battle.

Meanwhile as nocturnal creatures often
tend to do, a skunk was on his nightly prowl. The Bishop barn was a
good place to find mice, a nest of eggs, or if he was really lucky
a chicken dinner.

The small black and white form
scampered quickly across the moon lit barnyard, scaled up the
bottom door, and silently dropped to the barn floor. He paused to
listen for danger and sniff the air. The odor of chicken came to
him from nearby. With his nose to the floor, he slowly trailed the
scent, stopping at the stall door. He looked up, wondering if he
could climb that high, hold on and grab a hen. Just then the
haughty toms, tired of arguing, erupted into a blood curdling,
squalling free for all. That startled the boys as the cats turned
end over end down the manger toward them.

“
What's goen on?” Tom
cried, bolting upright.

“
Is Haunt Dawson here?”
Don asked, aroused from his slumber.

“
No, it's a tom cat fight.
They're comen this way. Get out of the manger quick!” Ordered
Lue.

The boys scrambled over the manger
just as the cats tumbled passed them. The trespasser broke loose,
jumped to the floor. Screeching menacingly, he crouched between the
boys and the barn door. The Bishop's tom cat pounced in front of
the intruder, yowling his warning to leave. Deciding he'd had
enough, the intruder turned and sped across the barn passed the
startled skunk. He darted up the stall door, knocking two hens off
balance, and they fluttered to the floor. Aroused from their
stupor, all the chicken began to cackle. Nervously, the horses
paced back and forth in their stall, whinnying loudly.

To make sure he won the battle, the
Bishop's tom cat took off in hot pursuit. He whizzed by the skunk,
scattering the chickens, just as the skunk was about to pounce on
one of the unsuspecting, droopy hens that had fell in front of him.
The irritated skunk decided he had been interrupted enough. He knew
how to quiet things down around him. He turned his back and lifted
his tail, spraying at the departing cats.

“
Oh no! A skunk’s in
here,” coughed Sid.

“
Let's get out of here,”
said Lue, gagging.

They raced for the door, only to stop
short. Above the half door appeared the glow of light they had
waited for and in the glow was the dark outline of a
man.

“
He's here! The haunt is
here!” Lue cried in a panic.

“
Lue, ya've got the
potion. Throw it on him,” Sid ordered, always the voice of
reason.

Oh, the potion. All right, but ya boys
have to say the chant. I cain’t think what it is right now,” Lue
said, fumbling nervously to untie the bag's knotted draw string. He
poured his hand full of white ash like powder and threw it in the
haunt's direction.

In unison, the boys chanted. “Haunt
Dawson, be gone with ye.”

“
Boys!” The form yelled
before he had a coughing spell.

“
Yer -- yer dead! This
barn is for the liven,” the boys screeched together, scrambling
backwards, holding on to each other to keep from falling
down.

Dark fingers gripped the top of the
door which creaked open to allow the glowing figure to enter.
“Boys, boys! What are ya yellen so fer?” The voice shouted. “Settle
down. It's Pap.”

“
Hush! Listen! It's Pap,
not the haunt,” Lue gasped in relief.

“
Oh, oh. I knew this was a
dumb idea,” softly grumbled Sid.

“
Ya boys like spenden time
with a skunk, y'all go right ahead. I'm getten out of here.” Pap
coughed as he raised his lantern to see behind him and retreated
outside into the fresh air.

His sons followed on his heels until
Jacob turned and raised the lantern to survey them. “Hold up. Don't
come any closer to me until yer cleaned up,” he
demanded.

“
Jacob, what's goen on out
there?” Nannie called from the porch.