These High, Green Hills (56 page)

“How’s your wife, I saw her the other day, she was at the food bank givin‘ a ton of stuff, all I took was sweet potatoes and cream of mushroom soup, do you think that’s OK? Do you know what all you can
do
with cream of mushroom soup? It’s more versatile than Cheez Whiz, you can pour it over chicken and bake it covered, and Lord, it is the best thing you ever put in your mouth, Mule loves it, do you ever use it? Well, you should, you can also pour it over a roast, but you have to wrap that thing like a mummy for it to work, at least two sheets of foil, and let it go on three fifty for two hours.

“Speakin‘ of foil, I’m learning to highlight with foil, I used to use a cap, but that is outdated, nobody does that anymore who’s up to the minute. Do you know what it costs to be up to the minute in this business? I went to a convention in Charlotte, you wouldn’t believe the hotel rooms down there, they cost an arm and a leg and you open your curtains and all you see is a brick wall.

“Speakin‘ of walls, I hear Cynthia knocked holes in your kitchen, I said, ’Mule, what is that
about?‘
Is that the latest thing, to knock holes in your wall? He said, ’Fancy, if you knock holes in our walls, I will personally knock your head off,‘ ha, ha. I’m sure she had a reason, she’s so smart, we all like her, I think you did really great to get her.

“Oops, there I go, pokin‘ you with these nails, they’re acrylic, mine won’t grow because I never drank milk as a kid, don’t you think it’s awful the things you do when you’re young and have to pay for down the road? Like layin’ in th‘ sun. Look at these wrinkles around my mouth, see that? Sun! Too much sun. But I say, why quit now, if it’s goin’ to kill me, I’ve already had enough to keel me over two or three times.

“Speakin‘ of keelin’ over, I hated to hear about ol‘ Miss Baxter, was she a friend of yours, I hope she left you some of that money she’s been hoardin’ back all these years. Whoa, baby, wouldn’t it be a deal for a preacher to have big bucks? What would you do, probably go to the Caribbean on a cruise, I have always wanted to go on a cruise, Mule says next year. Have you ever been on a cruise? Do you think you would throw up? I might throw up. I hear that is the worst sick anybody can get, but the food, they say you eat twelve or fourteen times a day, which is enough right there to make you throw up.

“Sit still! I declare, men squirm like babies in this chair, I don’t understand it. Did you know Buck Leeper had th‘ guts to come back and set down where you’re settin’ and was nice as anything you’d ever want to see? Remember I nearly scratched his eyes out th‘ last time because he sassed me so bad?

“Do you know who else comes in here? Adele Lynwood. Have you heard she goes out with J. C. Hogan? Can you believe it? Who would go out with J. C. Hogan? She’s really nice. You ought to talk to her sometime, she has a son who’s a cop in Deerfield—is that Connecticut or Massachusetts? And two of the cutest little granbabies you’ll ever lay eyes on. Seriously, what do you think she sees in him? It is
beyond
me.

“Lord! Look at this stuff, I need a hay baler and a combine to clean up after you.

“But let me tell you, honey, it is lookin‘
good
, your wife will eat you with a spoon! And I
am
talkin’ a
spoon
!

“See there? What do you think? That’ll be six dollars, you’re clergy.”

“Any infection?” he asked Hoppy.

“Nothing. No setback, no pneumonia, no infection.”

“An answer to prayer?”

“I don’t know. There’s no way to know. But I have my opinion, and it’s yes.”

“So is this a miracle?”

Hoppy ran his fingers through his unruly hair. “Definitely untypical. Definitely a minor miracle.”

The rector grinned. “So why split hairs?” he asked.

He called Olivia. “How’s it going?”

She laughed.

“Thank God you’re laughing.”

“One must, Father, don’t you think?”

“Yes, and I need desperately to remember that. Tell me everything. How is she?”

“Very solemn. Did you know her mother has agreed to come out? They’ll be putting her in a women’s shelter in Wesley on Tuesday.”

“Excellent! I’m relieved to hear that.”

“I only hope this removes the impulse for Lace to run away. She’s quite a character, I must say, but more than that, she has character.”

“Yes. I think so, as well.”

“She likes Hoppy enormously! Oh, and I’ve cleaned her up and she looks wonderful in a dress, but I don’t think she likes it. Actually, I know she doesn’t like it, so we’ve washed and ironed all her old clothes and will keep them in her closet.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a handle on it.”

“I don’t know, Father, I think we mustn’t try and remove all her identity at once. The way she dresses seems rude and unworthy to us, perhaps, but it’s who she is, and we must let her grow up into a new creature without much forcing.”

“I like your style.”

“That hat, though...”

He laughed. “A test, Olivia, a test.”

“Mercy...”

“I’ll be up to look in on you. Does she think I had anything to do with what happened?”

“She’s generally distrustful of us all. I’m only hoping she doesn’t run away. But I don’t think there’s anywhere to run, now that her mother is leaving the Creek.”

“I hope you’re right. Has she mentioned Poobaw?”

“She said he was living under the house with her. They slept on a pile of blankets under the house, right under her mother’s bed. She said she could remove the floorboards and go in and out of the house without being seen. She knew they were looking for her, and thought they’d be looking for the boy, too. She was protecting him. She said it was the only child Pauline had left.”

“Where is he now?”

“She left him under the house when she went out to get food, and that’s when she was picked up.”

He wanted to move to Nova Scotia, one of the few places left that had home milk delivery, and be a milkman. It was not a high ambition, but the thought had always consoled him in times like these.

“I like your hair,” said Puny, who was peeling potatoes at the sink.

“I like yours.”

She laughed.

“Where are Luke and Lizzie today?”

“
Who?
” She turned around and stared at him, blankly.

“Uh-oh.” Luke and Lizzie, Sissy and Sassy, Jessie and Kenny ... how he’d ever keep them all sorted out was a blasted mystery.

He went to the phone to call Miss Sadie and tell her that Dooley’s mother was improving. He had his hand on the receiver when he stopped and shook his head, realizing all over again that Miss Sadie was not there.

“Father,” said Nurse Kennedy, “someone was here to see you about Miss Barlowe, but he didn’t stay.”

“Who was it?”

“Mr. Leeper—he’s the supervisor at Hope House. He said he heard Dooley’s mother was in here and he was sorry.”

He was dumbfounded. Buck Leeper?

“He left this for Miss Barlowe.”

Nurse Kennedy handed him a rose in a vase.

The man who had smashed furniture against his walls had left a rose in a vase?

He shook his head with a kind of wonder.

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you, Father,” said Nurse Kennedy, walking with him along the hall.

“Shoot.”

“Why is it God so often breaks our hearts?”

“Well. Sometimes He does it to increase our faith. That’s the way He stretches us. But there’s another reason, I think, why our hearts get broken.”

She looked at him.

“Usually,” he said, “what breaks is what’s brittle.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “So we have to be careful of getting hard-hearted?”

“Bingo,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulders as they walked to the end of the hall.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“IT’S OUR RETREAT for the month,” Cynthia announced, “and you have to come.”