Suddenly I became uncertain and approached
Heath. “Maybe we shouldn’t. Don’t you think we have done
enough?”
“Stop being a baby, Lillian,” Betty said.
“Go ahead, Heath; throw them,” Clara
squealed. Heath wound up and belted the eggs, one after the other.
They splattered all over Old Man Powell’s front door.
“Run!” he hollered, as the front door flew
open. Ayden and I were the fastest runners, but Heath was not far
behind. We were all close until we heard the vicious dogs
barking.
“They’re after us,” Heath yelled. “Everyone
separate.”
We scattered into the woods. I thought Heath
was with Ayden and me, but when I looked back, he wasn’t there.
“Keep running,” Ayden said.
“Heath! Where’s Heath?”
“He’ll be fine; come on.” Ayden took my hand
and ran, pulling me onward. Finally, we made it safely to the
cemetery. In the distance, we could faintly hear the barking.
“What if the dogs catch them?” I asked
fearfully. Just then, Eleanor appeared, followed by Betty. We all
stopped to catch our breath.
“Did you see Heath?”
“No, we went around to the north side.
William, Heath, and Clara scattered in the opposite direction,”
Betty stated.
“We better get going,” they said.
“Shouldn’t you wait with us?” Ayden
asked.
“We have to get home. We’ll see you in
school,” they said, and left us.
It had been several hours since we arrived,
and the night air had gone from chilly to frigid. Ayden and I had
no candle, but luckily, the moon appeared out of the shadow of the
once overcast sky.
“What should we do?” I asked Ayden. “Should
we go and look for them?”
“No, they know how to get back here. We’ll
stay put.” Ayden noticed my shivering and gave his coat to me. All
around us was still and eerie because we could now see all of the
tombstones that surrounded us. Above us, in the tree, an owl
hooted, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“Don’t be scared, Lillian, please,” Ayden
begged.
“I’m not,” I insisted. But I was.
Alone, Ayden and I stood in the middle of the
cemetery for hours.
“I’m tired,” I cried. “What are we going to
do?”
“Maybe we should go to the harbor.”
I agreed. There was no sense in waiting any
longer. If Heath hadn’t returned to the cemetery, for certain he
would be waiting for us by the boat.
_______________
Heath was standing by the boat when we
arrived.
“Where were you?” Ayden shouted.
“I had to walk Clara home.”
“You were supposed to meet us back at the
cemetery,” I said.
He didn’t respond to that. Instead, he
shuffled his feet around in the ground and refused to meet our
eyes.
“How could you leave us ?” I cried. I was
angry and upset. Heath had forgotten all about us. Instead, he took
care of Clara.
“I’m sorry. She was scared; I didn’t want her
to walk home alone in the dark.” He was apologetic, but it was
obvious he had no regrets about his decision to stick with Clara
instead of us.
“You should have stuck to the plan, Heath,”
Ayden said, scowling at him.
“I know. It’s over now. Let’s get back to the
island before they figure out we’re missing,” he said. The three of
us climbed aboard, but it felt different. No longer were we the
Three Musketeers, like always. Heath had strayed, and all for the
sake of his adoration for Clara Roth.
Heath got us back to Jasper Island in record
speed. I was worried that Daddy would come to check on Momma and
find me gone. He would be beside himself, and I would certainly be
banished to my room. I was worried, while Ayden was still
fuming.
“You can’t just off and leave us. We were
waiting for you in that creepy cemetery for hours.”
“Can’t we let this drop?” Heath asked when he
pulled the boat up on shore.
“I’m not going next year,” Ayden said, and
stormed off.
“He’s right, you know,” I said, just before I
left him.
“I said I was sorry,” he replied softly.
“And what exactly are you sorry for?” I
demanded. I wanted him to feel guilty. I liked how our
interrogation was causing him to crack and feel some remorse.
“What else can I say?” he asked, his eyes
pleading for me to understand. I didn’t want to understand that he
loved her and not me. How could I accept that he obviously thought
she was the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on?
“Goodnight, Heath Dalton,” I said, and
stormed off, just as Ayden had.
We were fortunate enough to have returned
before Daddy had a moment to check on Momma. I had just jumped into
bed when I heard him walk down the hall. He quietly opened my door
to make sure I was sleeping soundly. Then he proceeded down the
hall, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was close, too close. I
didn’t ever want to take that kind of chance again. I wasn’t ever
again going to allow Heath to talk me into mischief, just to
abandon me anyways. I learned something that Halloween night. I
learned that Heath was like any man and would bite off his own arm,
for the sake of possibly winning the love of a beautiful girl.
The very next day, the entire village was
talking about what occurred at the Powell farm. Edward, who had
been to the mainland, brought home a copy of the local
newspaper.
“Some kids really made some trouble for the
farmer on Halloween night,” Edward said as he peered over the paper
to catch our reactions. “Apparently, Mr. Powell witnessed a tall
lad no older than sixteen running away from his house after
throwing some eggs.”
“That is just terrible,” Opal said, pouring
Edward another cup of coffee. Daddy came in, looking typically
exhausted, sat beside me, then said, “Nothing for me this
morning.”
“Are you certain, Garrett?” Opal asked. Daddy
had no appetite when Momma was sick. Daddy had lost weight since
Momma fell ill, so much so he asked Opal to take in his uniform
trousers, as his belt had no more buckle holes left.
There was nothing Momma could do to make
herself well, but Daddy had a choice. He needed to take better care
of himself.
Edward folded up the paper, and cleared his
throat, then revealed a fact that made Heath turn white as a ghost.
“The cows that were let out—one of them was ours.”
Daddy was startled. He hadn’t heard what went
on the previous night.
Heath and Ayden looked guilty as sin. I kept
a straight face. It was easy because Edward wasn’t directing his
suspicions at me.
“You know what I think would be a good idea?”
Edward said. He winked over at Opal, who was in the dark over what
he was about to suggest. Daddy sat back and crossed his arms over
his chest after Edward handed him the paper to read.
Ayden and Heath sat in silence as Edward told
them he had already volunteered them for the cow round-up.
“That certainly is a good idea,” Daddy said.
“Plans were to transport the cow to the island tomorrow.”
“We can finally have fresh milk. I can’t
wait,” Opal said. Edward stood, and the boys followed suit.
“I think now is a good time to set out,” he
said to them. Their guilt-ridden faces were all I saw as they were
marched out of the house.
“There is definitely one good thing about
having a little girl,” Daddy commented. Opal gave a little smile.
She was thinking that she might be lucky enough to have one, while
I was thinking about how naïve Daddy was.
I went to the bluff to watch the boys row
back to the mainland. When they saw me, they waved. They weren’t
mad that they had taken full blame, and I was relieved. I was
amazed and grateful that Ayden didn’t turn me in. Over the past
several months, he had passed into maturity. Although he was
terribly mad at his brother, he had learned to stay loyal to him.
That was more important than anything.
“Hurry back!” I called to them, though they
couldn’t hear me over the November winds. They were almost gale
force, and Heath struggled to row. When I could no longer see them
clearly, I turned and saw Momma looking out the window. She was out
of bed. I had to warn Daddy.
“Come quick,” I said. “Momma is awake.”
Daddy rushed to the house, through the front
door, up the stairs, and fumbled with the key to unlock the door.
Maybe he thought she had come out of her trance and was fully
recovered. Was there any chance at all? I came in right behind
him.
“Amelia, you shouldn’t be out of bed,” he
said, guiding her back.
“I saw the children. I think they want me to
come and play,” she said. Momma was as confused as ever. “Hattie
and Jacob-Thomas went out on the river. I want to go watch them,
Garrett. Can’t I, just this one time? I promise we won’t get caught
again.”
Daddy threw up his arm and pointed for me to
leave.“You must leave.”
“But Daddy,” I cried.
“Now!” he yelled. I turned and ran down the
hall to my room. I heard him slam the door closed and lock it from
the inside. I lay down on my bed and cried, just as I had done so
many times before. Daddy had never raised his voice to me, not
once. He should have yelled at Momma and told her to stop thinking
she was a little girl. She was his wife and a mother. Why did she
continue to think she was somewhere else, in another time and
place? Didn’t the powders help at all? Weren’t there any doctors
that could make Momma come to her senses?
I took my beautiful doll and placed her on my
lap. She kept me company on the days that Daddy stayed locked away
with Momma and Heath and Ayden were too busy with chores to play
with me. Jane listened to all my worries. I could tell her
anything; I could reveal my most cherished secrets. Even though she
looked back at me with eyes as glass as Momma’s, she was all I
had.
As the day went on and turned colder, the
temperature in the house dropped dramatically. I crept out of my
room and listened at Momma and Daddy’s door. I didn’t hear them. I
suspected they had fallen asleep. Daddy must have forgotten to
stoke the fire. When I got downstairs, I noticed the fire was
completely out. I stood there shivering, not sure what to do. I
would either have to wake Daddy or do it myself. Edward and Opal
had done so much for us already. Our family needed to be
independent some of the time.
I brought some wood in from the large stack
near the house. The wind was strong, and I had trouble closing the
door behind me. I had never made my own fire, but I’d watched Daddy
do it thousands of times.
“Put the matches down,” Daddy said from the
top of the stairs. I was startled to see him. “I’ll do that.”
I handed him the matches and stepped aside.
In a moment, he had a small fire going. I watched the soft glow
light up his tired face as he knelt on one knee. What were Daddy
and I going to do without Momma? We both missed her laughter and
gentle touch. And as much as I missed it, Daddy missed it twice as
much, if not more. Momma loved me, of course, but when it came to
Daddy, it was like no one else in the world could ever love him the
way she did. She put all of Daddy’s wants and needs first, and she
would have chosen nothing less. Now he was empty.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you,” Daddy said,
motioning for me to come to him. I stepped forward and allowed him
to hug me. “I am so sad when your momma is like that. You can’t be
around her when she is in that state of mind. Do you understand me,
Lillian?” he asked. He was determined to keep me away from her, far
from her delusional world.
“Who are all those people she talks of?”
“She is imagining things. Those people are
just figments of her imagination. Please don’t listen to anything
you might overhear. Can you promise that to me?” His eyes pleaded
for me to obey. As much as I wanted to think what was in Momma’s
mind was purely in her own imagination, it all seemed too real. She
believed Hattie was here with her, and she longed to play with
Jacob-Thomas. Could they have been characters in a book she read as
a child? But she always knew who Daddy was. If she was completely
delusional and her friends were all make-believe, how could he play
any part in her distorted state of mind? I agreed just to appease
him, but I had so many questions, most of which I believed Daddy
could indeed answer.
The cow was finally found and brought to
Jasper Island. No harm had been done, no punishment handed out.
Luckily, Farmer Powell couldn’t confidently identify Heath. Heath
knew he was lucky, and vowed never to cause so much trouble again.
What also ended up in his favor was Clara agreeing he could be her
beau. Heath didn’t tell Ayden or me that he was going to ask her. I
found out during recess.
“I’m so happy, Lillian, I can’t even begin to
tell you,” she sang. As happy as she was, I was twice as unhappy.
“He is so smart and handsome. I’m the luckiest girl in the
village.”
It sickened me to hear her talk of Heath like
that, and I walked away without remark. She was right; she was the
luckiest girl. Although he had been my best friend, my closest
confidant, something about Heath continued to change. All he wanted
to do in his free time was be with Clara. They would sit in the
field and eat lunch together. Sometimes he would push her on the
swing, and other times, he would read poetry that he wrote
especially for her. Ayden found the poems in Heath’s room. It was
apparent he had been snooping around. I didn’t approve of it, but I
didn’t reprimand him for it, either.
“Those poems he wrote make me want to heave
up my breakfast,” Ayden said as he handed several pieces of paper
to me then went to use the outhouse. I had just finished hanging
the wet clothes on the line. I wiped my hands on my apron to dry
them then slowly read Heath’s private words to Clara. My heart
raced as he described her uncompromising beauty and his yearning to
have her be forever his. Heath wrote in some of his poetry that
when he stared up at the night sky and gazed at the sparkling
stars, he saw her eyes. I read each poem, one at a time, until I
got to the last one. Then it was snatched from my hands. Heath
stood looking at me in disbelief, repulsed. I couldn’t speak; I
couldn’t find the words fast enough to excuse why I had, in my very
hands, his most personal possessions.