Chapter 34

Ada June didn't let Preacher Gordon see her even though she knew he was looking to talk to her. She didn't want to hear more about the Lord's will. That's what she'd heard folks say about Pap Leathers and her ma.

Maybe the Lord had wanted Pap Leathers to come on home. He might've wanted to sit and talk with him a spell. Pap always had something fine to say. He'd know something good to say to her right now if'n he was there with her.

Preacher Gordon might too if she let him see her, but she couldn't be sure of that. Once he went on past her toward Elsinore's cabin, Ada June considered turning back to see about Miss Mira. She hadn't seemed hardly able to make it across the holler, but she might be ready to say those same kinds of things as Preacher Gordon. Ada June couldn't hear that right now.

Her ma freezing in the snow couldn't be something meant to be. Nobody good would will that. And the Lord was good. Ada June wasn't doubting that. She reckoned he wanted folks to get well. Wasn't the preacher always talking about how he healed people right and left in the Bible? One of them the preacher had said came right up to Jesus and told him he could heal him if he wanted to. Right off Jesus said he wanted to.

Elsinore wasn't asking Jesus to heal her, but just a couple of Sundays ago, Preacher told about this pa asking for healing for his daughter. And that happened too. Could be it didn't always happen. Could be the Bible writers only put in the times it did happen. But some folks thought he still did some healing. Wasn't no reason he couldn't send down staying-alive blessings on Elsinore. Or her ma back when she needed it.

She pushed that last thought away. Wouldn't do no good to think about her ma. The only place she could live now was in Ada June's heart.

Ada June trailed along behind Preacher Gordon to Elsinore's house. After he went inside, she crept up to a spot under the side window. Bo settled beside her, like as how he knew she wanted to be hid. Same as when Connor hunted them to do something mean.

The wooden shutters that covered the window were partly open. She reckoned they needed to let in air. Sounded like more folks than Mr. Horace and his ma with Elsinore now. She held her breath and listened. Miss Effie told the preacher to come in, and then Miss Nicey Jane spoke up loud, like a body did when somebody was hard of hearing, to tell Elsinore he was there.

Elsinore never was that. Unless she'd gone past hearing. That thought froze Ada June's heart, but then she heard Elsinore murmuring something. Not loud enough to make out words, but it was her. Maybe she was telling them to stop being so noisy before they woke up Selinda.

The baby must be asleep. Ada June listened close to see if she could hear a gurgle or whimper, but she couldn't. That was good. And Elsinore talking, even if it was weak, had to be good too.

Preacher Gordon was praying over Elsinore. More good happening. Ada June curled her knees up close so she could lean her head down on them. Bo didn't move. She couldn't hear Preacher Gordon's prayer words, but she knew some of her own. Please, Lord. Selinda needs Elsinore. I need Elsinore.

Elsinore was her friend. She acted like Ada June was more than just somebody to pack in wood or water. Same as Miss Mira was now. Ada June felt ashamed for running off and not listening when Miss Mira called for her. She should've stopped. Miss Mira would have understood she needed to go see about Elsinore. She wouldn't have fussed.

But now here she was sitting on the outside, scared to go in and see Elsinore so poorly. Better to think on how Miss Nicey Jane would probably shoo her and Bo back out the door. At least here by the window, she could be close enough to listen with Bo beside her.

In the soft murmur of voices, Ada June caught a word now and again, but nothing she could make much sense of. The sound wrapped around her and she dozed off. She had no idea how much time went by before Preacher Gordon saying her name jerked her awake.

For a second, she thought he might have come around the cabin and found her and Bo hiding there. But no, he was still inside.

"I'll tell Ada June, Elsinore." His voice sounded funny. Sort of like he was extra tired.

Ada June held her breath and scooted up on her knees to get closer to the open window to hear better. She touched Bo to let him know to stay still.

"I mean it. I want Ada June to have Selinda," Elsinore said.

Ada June let her breath out as quietly as she could, but it wouldn't have mattered since Miss Nicey Jane was doing some huffing inside. Preacher must have found a way to stop her saying anything, although Ada June didn't think Miss Nicey Jane let anybody keep her from talking. If she wanted to say something, she did.

But it was Preacher Gordon that spoke. "Ada June isn't but ten, Elsinore."

"Plenty of girls has had to take over raising little ones around here when a mother passes on." Elsinore's voice was a little stronger, sounding determined for them to pay mind to her words.

Ada June wondered if she sensed her out there listening, but she couldn't know that.

"Them that have places to live and a pa to provide for them." Miss Nicey Jane didn't stay quiet long.

"She's got Miss Mira and Preacher here," Elsinore said. "You ain't arguin' agin that, are you, Preacher? Miss Mira aims good for Ada June and Selinda too."

Her voice got low and then she coughed. Not like she was coughing before. This wasn't much more than a rattle. Ada June's heart hurt, but Preacher Gordon didn't sound any different when he answered her.

"Miss Mira holds you in great favor, Elsinore. She will come with me to see you in the morning."

"You mind my words, Preacher." Elsinore sounded a little put out.

"You rest now, Elsinore. Try to sleep."

"I am bone weary." Elsinore's voice faded.

After a few minutes of silence, Granny Perry said, "The poor girl's sleeping now."

The chair scooted on the floor, and then Miss Effie said, "Breathing some easier too. Could be our prayers are bearing fruit, Preacher. You go on and see to your missus and Ada June. The child is bound to be overcome with sadness."

Ada June sank back down to the ground and made herself as small as possible. Preacher Gordon wouldn't have any reason to come around to the side of the house, but were he to look back once he went a ways from the steps, he might spot them there. Soon as the preacher stepped out the front door, Bo lifted up his head. He was probably thinking they would go with him, but when she didn't move, he dropped his head back on his paws.

She kept her face down as the preacher moved away from the cabin. For a few seconds, she wanted to jump up and run after him, but she didn't. He might think she shouldn't be hiding out to sneak a listen. Could be he would be right.

For a while, the night was silent except for an owl screeching somewhere off in the woods and the chunk of Mr. Horace's axe on wood behind the cabin. Ada June had about decided the women inside must have nodded off, like as how she had earlier. She shivered and wondered if they would chase her away if she and Bo sneaked in to sit by the fire. She couldn't see how that could bother anything. And Elsinore never cared about Bo coming inside.

She was thinking on standing up when Granny Perry started talking. "My Horace says Elsinore here don't have no family to speak of. I'm reckoning that's why she took so to that Ada June child."

"That could be," Miss Nicey Jane said.

"Ada June has been a help to her since Benny went off to the mines."

Miss Effie's words made Ada June tear up a little. She had tried to be a help to Elsinore and Selinda.

"It's sorrowful. Poor Elsinore losing her folks to the white plague and then poor Benny gettin' kilt dead in the mines." Granny Perry clucked her tongue before she went on. "As to the girl, well, if Ada June's got folks, they's not admitted to it. Hain't never heared of nobody ever claimin' kin to her ma."

"Who would?" Miss Nicey Jane said.

"We claim kin to some as bad or worse, Nicey Jane," Miss Effie said.

"That's a truth," Granny Perry said. "And there's some what always figured her pa must be here in Sourwood. Could be she has folks around these parts somewheres. I heared tell back when they first brung the child down off'n Leathers Hill that the girl claimed a man was after her ma and that's why they was out in the snow. I reckon that was afore she quit talking."

"Nothing but tales." Miss Nicey Jane sounded like she wasn't about to listen to any such nonsense.

"I never knowed Ada June to lie," Miss Effie said.

Miss Nicey Jane made a humph sound. "Can't lie when you ain't talkin' to nobody."

Granny Perry didn't seem bothered by Miss Nicey Jane speaking against tales. "Reckon that feller what was after them mighta been the girl's pa?"

In the cabin, the women fell silent again. She guessed they might be pondering Granny Perry's question. For sure Ada June was. She hadn't ever thought about that man, who wasn't much more than a dark shadow in her memory, being her pa. Why would her ma be running away from Ada June's pa? Scared like.

She shut her eyes tight and tried to pull up that night to bring up that man in her mind's eye. But it was like trying to see what was moving on the far side of a hill when dawn was barely breaking.

Her ma had been sick. She remembered that. Coughing something like Elsinore. Ada June didn't rightly recall if her ma wouldn't eat or if there wasn't nothing to eat. Seemed it might've been the nothing to eat since they went out most days looking for hickory nuts or chestnuts.

After Pap Leathers passed, they never had much on their table. A time or two Ada June sneaked down the hill to steal eggs out of somebody's henhouse or some corn out of the corncrib. Her ma said surely wouldn't nobody shoot a little girl.

Ada June never knew who she was stealing from. Not even after they brought her down from the hill. Everything looked different then. But she'd always thought that man came after them because she'd stole a chicken. Her ma was running just so the man wouldn't get Ada June.

She didn't know how she could remember all that stealing and couldn't remember that much about her ma telling her to hide while she ran on down the hill. Ada June had hid like she said, but after the man left, she crawled out and followed her ma's tracks.

She found her where she fell and rolled down the hill into a tree. She wouldn't answer when Ada June talked to her. Ada June tried to pick her up, but she wasn't strong enough. All she could do was wait for her to wake up. Her mother felt so cold that Ada June lay on top of her to keep her warm. Next thing she knew, another man with traps swinging off his belt had pulled her up and carried her to Miss Nicey Jane's house.

She hadn't asked what they did with her ma. She wouldn't have known what to ask even if she hadn't quit talking by then. She knew they buried Pap Leathers. She'd been there for that, but she hadn't known what to think about her ma. She just knew she was gone.

Some time later, Miss Effie told her they did right by her ma and buried her in the Leathers grave place right next to Pap Leathers. It took a while, but Ada June found the graveyard a couple of years ago. Since nothing marked her mother's grave, she picked flowers and spread them on both sides of where Pap Leathers' grave was marked by a rock sitting up tall at the head of it.

Thinking about her ma's grave made Ada June start shivering. She wanted to go get in her bed at Miss Mira's house, but she couldn't leave Elsinore. Bo scooted closer against her. She could go inside and at least warm up a few minutes. They'd quit talking about her. At least she thought they had.

But then Miss Nicey Jane's voice pricked up her ears again. "Ain't no reason to dredge up all them tales from back when. We did all right for Ada June."

"Didn't always seem so right." Granny Perry wasn't giving in to Miss Nicey Jane how most folks did. "A man should own up to havin' a child."

"If'n he knows 'bout it," Miss Nicey Jane said.

"I figure a man knows when he plants seeds whether he sees the crop come up or not." Granny Perry sounded more than sure about that.

"We ain't talkin' about planting corn." Miss Nicey Jane had her cranky voice that always made Ada June hide out.

Granny Perry didn't appear worried by that. "No'm, we are not. We're talking about a man doin' right 'stead of wrong."

Miss Effie had been quiet so long Ada June had almost forgot she was in there with the others until she spoke up. "Stirring in the past can be like plucking feathers in the wind. You don't end up with nothing you can hold on to whilst bits of story drift around with no way of knowing what chicken it came from. Ada June don't appear to be too burdened down. Leastways not since the preacher's missus has took a shine to her."

"She don't have much to say," Granny Perry said.

"She speaks when she wants to," Miss Nicey Jane said.

Ada June guessed she was remembering her "please" word that day she needed to get Bo away from Marv's big hound.

"That's so. Horace said he heard her singing to the baby here a time or two. Claims the girl has a purty voice. Reckon her ma had a singin' voice?"

Granny Perry's words brought up the memory of Ada June's ma singing to her when they were traipsing out in the woods hunting something. Sometimes food. Sometimes a flower. Her ma did love the flowers and the stars and the birds. Ada June smiled, glad to remember.

"Can't see how that has any matterance now," Miss Nicey Jane said.

"I reckon not," Granny Perry said. "But you know, I did hear my Horace say once that Elsinore here could do some singing now and again when her breath wasn't too labored. Could be Ada June is some kin to her and that's how come they's so close."

Ada June didn't think that was so. Elsinore would've told her if'n it was.

"Figure we can't know 'bout that, with all Elsinore's folks gone past telling," Miss Effie said.

"True enough." Ada June could almost see Granny Perry nodding her head to that. "But that don't change my feelin' that there's some folks in Sourwood that know more than they is wantin' to speak aloud."

"We ain't gathered here for Ada June, but for Elsinore and her sweet baby." Miss Nicey Jane had a way about her of having the last word, and didn't either Miss Effie or Granny Perry say any more.

The sounds of the woods came back to Ada June's ears then. The owl again. A whip-poor-will. Bo breathing against her leg. She didn't hear the chunk of Mr. Horace's axe now.

After a while, she had no idea how long, she stood up and went around the cabin to the back where the wood was stacked. Mr. Horace had enough wood piled up to last a year, maybe longer, and now it was likely Elsinore might not even need the first chunk. Mr. Horace had sunk down on the back step, his head in his hands. The man's shoulders were jerking.

It took Ada June a minute to determine he was crying. She hadn't oft seen any grown-up shedding tears and never a man. She stopped still in front of him. Bo stopped too like he was just as surprised.

She wasn't rightly sure what to do. Maybe she should go on back around to the front door and act like she hadn't seen him. But he raised his head and looked straight at her before she could decide what was best.

"I loved her, Ada June. I knowed I was too old fer her, but I wanted to do for her."

Ada June hadn't ever said the first word to him, but she pushed some out now. "You did fine for her, Mr. Horace."

He sniffed and brushed his overall jacket sleeve across his face. "I did." He pulled in a shaky breath before he said more. "You best go on in and see her. I'm thinkin' she won't make the sunrise."

She wanted to argue that. To tell him how Preacher Gordon had prayed and about all those healings in the Bible, but she didn't. Instead, she just nodded and edged past him to the door. Bo came with her.

The women around Elsinore's bed didn't look the first bit surprised to see her. Miss Effie nodded at her. "Come on in, child."

Ada June pointed Bo toward the fireplace and he settled down there. She brushed off her dress tail to make sure she hadn't brought in any leaves and went to peer down at Elsinore sleeping peaceful like. Ada June took off her shoes and climbed into the bed to cuddle up right against her. Without waking up, Elsinore put her arm over Ada June and whispered something.

"What'd she say?" Granny Perry asked.

Nobody answered her. Guess Miss Effie and Miss Nicey Jane didn't know, but Ada June knew. Elsinore had spoke Benny's name, like as how she thought Ada June was Benny come home to her at last.

Mr. Horace was right. Elsinore slipped away before the sun came up.