Skip Rock Shallows (16 page)

“Dr. Corbett?”

So deep in her own thoughts, Lilly was surprised to see Mrs. Blair standing before her. “Can I beg a favor?” the woman said.

Lilly patted the bench beside her. “Certainly.”

Mrs. Blair took an envelope from her pocket, then took a seat. She removed a letter and handed it to Lilly. “This is from my sister in Virginia. It came in the mail yesterday. I recognize her signature, but I can’t read the rest. I didn’t want to ask Jenny to read it, for it might be bad news.”

“‘Dearest Sister,’” Lilly read in a low voice and then continued through the closure. When she finished, she put her arm around Mrs. Blair. “I’m so sorry.”

Mrs. Blair tapped her lips with two fingers as if holding back a sob. “Ah, Mommy has been sick a long time. I kept thinking I should get somebody to help me pen a letter to her, you know? Something personal from me to Mommy.” Her shoulders shook but she held back tears. “It would have given her something to hold on to.”

“Should I find your husband?”

“No, I kindly want to think on this by my own self for a while,” Mrs. Blair said as she stood and slid the letter back into her pocket. “I ain’t quite ready to share it just yet.”

How sad, Lilly thought as she watched Mrs. Blair walk away. It reminded her of Lynn, the woman who had served her sumac-ade after Lilly tended to her toddler’s ears. She had noticed that many of the women she cared for here in Skip Rock could not read. Their children fared better because of the schoolhouse behind her, but it seemed as if it was too late for the Mrs. Blairs of the community.

Lilly placed her empty glass on the bench, then stood and regarded the brick school building. Curious, she turned the doorknob and stepped inside. Chalk dust and the smell of well-oiled floorboards reminded her of her own school days. She walked between two rows of double desks, dodging the potbellied stove smack in the middle of the room, to the heavy oak teacher’s desk.

A dictionary, several manila file folders, a ruler, a compass, and a wooden paddle were neatly displayed on the desktop. Lilly lightly slapped the palm of one hand with the paddle. She’d never felt the swing of it, but oh, she’d pitied the boys. Neatly arranging the paddle, she picked up the teacher’s handbell. She rang it lightly as if calling a room full of students to order.

A picture of George Washington hung from a nail in the wall. Lilly studied a selection of penmanship papers, which were displayed along the top of the blackboard. She looked for Timmy’s and smiled when she saw he’d erased his
T
so many times that he’d nearly worn a hole in the paper. Jenny’s, on the other hand, was letter perfect.

School was in session from late summer to Christmas. Although the coal camp children could have attended year-round, the students who lived outside the town wouldn’t be able to get to school in really inclement weather.

Suddenly, she was weary. She hadn’t stopped since being awakened by the storm.

The door cracked open and Armina slipped in. “I thought I seen you come in here,” she said.

“Are you ready to go? We should check on Aunt Orie.”

“One of the ladies fixed a plate for me to carry to her,” Armina said, holding it out for Lilly to see. “Folks are nice hereabouts.”

Lilly held the door for her. “Yes, they certainly are. Give me a second to take my lemonade glass back to the table.”

“Oh, I did that already,” Armina said, leading the way to the footpath. “Say, who was that fellow you were dancing with? He was right easy on the eyes.”

Amused, Lilly couldn’t resist a tease. “That was Ned’s uncle Turnip. He’s quite the dancer.”

“You know full well I ain’t asking about anybody what’s named after a vegetable. I’m talking about that tall, good-looking man. He don’t act like he’s from these parts. Plus, why ain’t you dancing with your doctor friend?”

“Dr. Hamilton is resting after the vigor of his day. You know, I should take him a plate also.”

“He can have this one. Aunt Orie can’t eat like this anymore. I just didn’t want to offend the ladies by not accepting it.”

“You’re a kind soul, Armina. Did you do any dancing? I noticed you were enjoying the music.”

“That was pretty—that dulcimer music. Say, what happened to Ned’s wooden leg?”

Lilly smiled to herself. Armina was paying attention to Ned. She didn’t know whether to be happy for him or to warn him to flee. Of course, it wasn’t up to her whether they became sweethearts or not. Love found its own course.

She relayed Ned’s accident as well as Paul’s offer. Somehow she knew Armina would keep her confidence—she wasn’t the type to blather.

Midway to the clinic, Armina caught her elbow and brought her to a stop. “Look,” she said, pointing to a meadow where thousands of fireflies displayed their diminutive lights in the dusk of the evening. “Don’t that make you sad?”

“It takes me back to my childhood and evenings spent catching fireflies in a fruit jar. I kept them on my bedside table. What about them makes you sad?”

“They’re just so hopeful—you know? Spending what little time they have on earth pining for something they probably ain’t going to get.” Armina held the dinner plate close to her chest. A light breeze ruffled her long skirt. “There’s something mournful about this time of day. Aunt Orie calls it the gloaming, when the sun’s setting and everything gets real still—makes you lonesome like. Was you ever setting on the porch on a night like this and heard a train’s low whistle or the coo of a mourning dove? It’ll flat out give you the shivers.”

“Goodness, Armina, you should write poetry.”

“Like anybody would ever read it . . .”

Lilly touched her lightly on the arm. “I would read it.”

They walked on in companionable silence. They were nearly to the clinic before Armina spoke again. “So you never answered my question. Who was that fellow?”

“You know, Armina, I don’t really know anything about him.”

“Maybe you should try finding out. You looked like you was made to be in his arms.”

“Armina—”

“Don’t fret. I ain’t gonna say anything to anybody, but you don’t want to spend your life like them lightning bugs, flitting all around looking for love when it’s right in your face.”

Lilly was flustered by Armina’s suppositions. How ridiculous, thinking she would fall for a man because of his looks. After all, Paul was handsome in his way and successful. Besides, Lilly was not the type to go from one man to another.

Truthfully, she had not been attracted to Paul when they’d first met. As a beginning student, she had no social life to speak of, and besides that, she found Paul brilliantly intimidating. She often felt he was talking down to her.

When he began to single her out, first for study sessions and then as an autopsy partner, she was guarded. As she got to know him, she learned he really was as smart as he seemed, and he was also a kind and gentle man.

The engagement ring on her finger slid out of position. It needed sizing. “Paul is my best friend,” she felt compelled to say. “Don’t you think it is important to be best friends with the person you marry?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never had a best friend. I figured I’d know the right one when I saw him.”

Lilly couldn’t resist the chance to turn the tables. “Have you seen the right one, Armina?”

With one hand, Armina held Aunt Orie’s supper; with the other, she caught a lightning bug and let it walk the plank of her thumb. Its tiny lantern flashed brightly before it flew away. “I’m still figuring,” she said. “It’s a right smart harder to discern than I thought it would be.”

Light shone from one window of the clinic. Lilly caught a glimpse of Paul bending over the sickbed.

Beside her, Armina caught her breath. “Do you think Aunt Orie’s taken a turn? Why else would that doctor be there with her?”

“I expect Dr. Hamilton is just checking on her,” Lilly said. Hiding her own surprise, she opened the door.

Armina rushed past her. “I knowed I shouldn’t have left her!”

Aunt Orie rested on the operative bed. It was up as high as it would go. A metal rolling table was pushed up to the side. Wearing gloves, Paul was attaching a long needle to a hypodermic syringe. A surgical packet wrapped in heavy brown paper lay open on the cart.

Myrtie James, her face as lined as tablet paper, stood across the bed from the doctor. She held Aunt Orie’s hand.

“Stay back!” Paul barked.

Armina stopped, but her narrowed eyes and jutted chin threatened a coming storm. “Who said you could go operating on her without me being here?” She put a hand to her heart. “She looks like she’s already passed on.”

“She’s mildly sedated. Young lady, you need to wait outside.”

“But I don’t understand. What are you fixing to do?”

“I’ll explain to you when I’ve finished. Mrs. James—if you’d escort Miss Eldridge out.”

Myrtie wrapped an arm around Armina’s waist. “Let’s take this plate to the front room,” she said, peeking under the wax paper cover. “What did you bring her?”

“Paul, what happened? What are you doing?” Lilly couldn’t keep the exasperation from her voice. He had no right to treat her patient without her present, and he had no right to speak harshly to Armina.

“Her heart has been compromised. I’ve got to drain some fluid or she’s not going to make it through the night,” Paul said matter-of-factly while undoing the packet of sterile surgical drapes. “How was the shindig? Did I miss anything?”

Lilly was flummoxed. Paul might as well have been dressing a side of beef. She opened her mouth to correct him but didn’t. This was not the first time she’d accompanied him in a surgical suite, nor the first time she’d witnessed his change of personality. Paul didn’t like to immerse himself in his patient’s world. He was all business, and he was the best. Aunt Orie was blessed to have him, and so was she.

Hours later, Lilly woke with a start. She’d fallen asleep in a chair at Aunt Orie’s bedside. Armina sat across from her, alert as an owl at midnight.

“She’s turned a corner,” Armina said. “She ain’t slept this sound in a coon’s age.”

Lilly put two fingers to one side of Aunt Orie’s throat to check her pulse. “I’m sorry you were so frightened earlier, Armina.”

“It was the shock—that’s all. I appreciate everything Dr. Hamilton has done for Aunt Orie.”

Lilly looked around the small room. “Where is Paul?”

“You were so beat, you fell asleep setting up,” Armina said, rubbing her eyes. “The doctor is in yonder sleeping on a gurney, and Ned Tippen is a-setting on the porch.” She barked out a laugh. “I reckon they don’t think you and me can take care of her without their aid.”

As if he’d been summoned, Ned appeared in the doorway to the surgery. “There’s a fellow on the porch, says you told him to fetch you when his wife’s time was near.”

Lilly searched her memory for who it might be and remembered the couple who lived in the meadow, Hiram and Lynn. She could nearly taste the too-sweet sumac-ade.

Paul entered the room. How he could look so together after the day they’d had puzzled Lilly as she neatened her hair with pins and combs.

“What now?” he said.

“Want to help deliver a baby?” she asked, pulling two walking sticks from a tin umbrella stand.

Paul threw his hands up. “Why not? It will be the perfect ending to a perfect day.”

“Will you be okay, Armina?” Lilly asked. “I might be gone awhile.”

Ned slid into the chair Lilly had just left. “I’ll stay.”

Armina cut her eyes sideways at him. “I reckon we’ll be fine—fine as frog’s hair.”

The hardwood forest was vastly different at night. A breeze whispered hauntingly through the treetops, and the ground murmured with the sound of small creatures scurrying about in the dead leaves and fallen branches. A high yellow moon beamed through the interstices of the towering trees, but it was not enough light for a person to note landmarks. One tree looked like another in the near pitch dark. One could get very lost very quickly in such a place, Lilly thought. She marveled at Hiram’s sure-footed progress through the woods.

“We seen a panther here once,” the man said, pointing with his ever-present shotgun. “Black as the ace of spades. Hit was crouched yonder on that high boulder. I drawed a bead, but I couldn’t pull the trigger—thing was just too purty for killing.”

Paul nudged Lilly with his elbow. She knew he didn’t believe Hiram’s story. “How did you manage to keep the wildcat from jumping on you?”

“Throwed a rock,” Hiram said. “Thing took off like Snyder’s hound. We ain’t ever spied it again.”

It was daybreak before Lilly had the newborn and her mama tucked safely in bed. Hiram had constructed a bed frame to hold the corn-shuck mattress since Lilly had last visited. He ran his hand over the headboard, proud as punch, as he told Lilly of his handiwork. Lilly was proud of him. He was trying very hard to provide for his family.

Paul turned down Hiram’s offer to see them back to the footpath that would lead them to Skip Rock. “Thank you, but we’ll manage quite well,” he said, striding across the yard as if Lilly was going to follow in his wake.

Lilly lingered on the porch. There was an art to taking your leave—Paul just didn’t know that. “Take good care of Lynn and the children, and fetch me if need be.”

“I aim to pay you for your service,” Hiram said.

“No need to think of that today. Maybe bring me some sumac grapes next time you have some.”

Cleve pulled on his daddy’s arm.

Hiram bent over to allow the boy to whisper something in his ear. “That’s a good idea, boy. Go fetch one.”

Lilly was nonplussed. She supposed she would have to carry something like a chicken tied up by the feet or half a bushel of shelled corn back to town.

The boy slid under the porch and came back with a coonhound puppy.

Lilly rubbed the little fellow’s head. “Oh, my, I couldn’t take the children’s pet.”

“Take him,” Cleve said. “We got more.”

The puppy’s fur was silky smooth, his eyes brown and sparkly, but his belly was as round and tight as a pumpkin.

“He ain’t been wormed yet,” Hiram explained.

“Lilly?” Paul called from across the yard.

“Just a minute, Paul,” Lilly said, holding up her index finger. “What do you use for worming?”

“A drench of linseed and spirits of turpentine should turn the trick,” Hiram said, depositing the wiggling pup in Lilly’s arms. “Ye can repeat in three days if need be, but I ain’t never had to do it but once.”

“Thank you. He’s a beauty.” Lilly nuzzled the top of the dog’s head with her chin. “May I have permission to name him Cleve?”

“That’d be all right,” Cleve said with a grin.

“What do you say to the lady, Son?”

“Please and thank you, ma’am.”

“You’re welcome, Cleve. Come and visit your namesake anytime you want.”

Paul was out of his element. He led Lilly around in circles for half an hour—Lilly biting her tongue, not wanting to penetrate the hot air of his pride—before she heard the splashing spring and spied the tulip poplar. “It’s a straight shot from here, Paul,” she said, shifting the heavy pup from one arm to the other. The puppy kissed her chin with his petal-soft tongue.

“You know that thing’s full of parasites,” Paul said.

“An easy fix. Isn’t he the sweetest?”

“You’re not thinking of keeping the dog? What would we do with him in Boston?”

“I would like nothing better than to keep this puppy, but I won’t.”

The dog squirmed in her arms. She set him on the forest floor and let him explore for a moment. He tried to climb over a fallen limb but rolled over instead, lying like a turtle on its back. Laughing, Lilly scooped him up. “I know the perfect home for you, Cleve,” she said as they continued on. “Mr. James is going to love you.”

On the outskirts of Skip Rock, Paul slowed his step. “What’s on your agenda, Lilly?”

“Agenda?”

“Any other patients at death’s door? Any other women due to give birth?”

“No, nothing pressing. Why do you ask?”

“I’m taking the first train out tomorrow, darling girl.” He caught her free hand and brought it to his lips. “I’ve taken the liberty of securing a ticket for you also.”

“But . . . but, Paul,” she stammered, “I thought you would stay longer.”

Dropping her hand, he pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. “I can’t continue without the proper spectacles. Besides, I think I’ve had quite enough of Skip Rock.”

Her head whirled. She needed time to think. “I can’t just leave on a whim, Paul.”

“Hardly a whim, Lilly. I am to be your husband, after all.”

She rested the puppy in the crook of one elbow and laid her free hand against Paul’s cheek. “I know, but who will care for these people? I can’t leave until the coal company provides a replacement doctor for the clinic.”

“The clinic is little more than a first-aid station.”

Lilly’s anger boiled over. “How can you say that after you saw what I did for Darrell Tippen? After Aunt Orie?”

“I’m not saying you are a poor doctor, sweetheart—far from it. I am saying you’re wasting your considerable talent in this backward, forsaken place.”

“I’ve told you my history. I was raised in a place much like this. I am one of these people.”

He circled her with his arms. She didn’t resist, but she didn’t put the puppy down; he provided a needed barrier at the moment.

“But you rose above. You are no longer a part of them.” Paul leaned back so he could tip her chin. “You belong in Boston with me.” He chuckled as if he was trying to lighten the moment. “Besides, the sooner you come, the sooner you can help Mother with the plans for the wedding. It’s going to be quite the social event.”

Lilly stiffened in his arms. “Were you not listening when I explained about the need for my family to have the ceremony in Lexington? My aunt Alice has her heart set on it.”

“A small detail,” he said, “one we can work out with Mother. But first things first. I’m sure Mrs. James will pack your things . . . and, let’s see . . . we’ll need to leave for the depot at six in the morning. I’ll have Ned procure a carriage.”

Lilly broke from his embrace. She had to stop this runaway train. “Paul, I will not leave these folks in a lurch. I can’t think you would expect me to do such an unprofessional thing. I have a letter of intent already prepared to post to Dr. Coldiron. It states I will finish my time here as planned.”

They’d reached the clinic door. She walked up the steps, but he didn’t follow.

“Why, Lilly, I thought you’d be more than happy to leave. I don’t understand.”

Setting the puppy across the threshold, she turned to face him. “I’m not sure that I understand myself.”

“Ah, well, I shouldn’t have pushed you. We have plenty of time. I only want what’s best for you, dear.”

She was touched by his sweetness and reminded of why she’d agreed to marry him in the first place. “It will all work out; you’ll see. Now go and pack; then come back to take the noon meal with me.”

He held his arms up in mock surrender. “Between the storm and the quicksand, I have little to pack, not to mention I’m leaving my dearest behind.”

Lilly threw him a kiss. “I’ll see you at lunch. We’ll have some time together, I promise.”

Inside the clinic, Lilly sank into the rolling chair, folded her arms on the desktop, and rested her head on them. She’d never been so weary, not even following long days and nights on duty during medical school. Like liquid lead, the tiredness seeped into her very bones. She needed to check on Aunt Orie, but her legs refused to lift her from the chair. Perhaps she could catch a quick nap where she sat.

But her mind was in too much turmoil to let her rest. It should be easy to leave this place like she had planned. What was keeping her here? And why did every decision seem so daunting? She twisted the ring on her finger as a sinking feeling settled in her chest. Paul would not be happy, but she wasn’t ready to leave, not even in September. This place, these people, had kidnapped her heart much like she had been abducted so many years ago.

Her mind hiccuped on the word
abducted
. As a girl she’d liked learning the meanings of words, and she would often repeat a new one many times a day. In medical terms,
abduct
meant to carry away from the median. That’s what had happened to her when she was kidnapped. She had been carried away from the median, the nucleus—her family.

Irritated, she chastised herself. Why was she obsessing on that worn-out theme again? It was years ago, and no lasting harm had come to her, after all.

She’d best be thinking about how she would explain her change of heart to Paul. The very thought filled her with dread.

The puppy growled and tugged on one of her shoelaces. Lilly laughed despite herself. She’d check on her patient in the surgery room, then carry her furry gift to the Jameses. Sleep would have to wait.