Дэвид Балдаччи - Wish You Well

Diamond could contain himself no longer.

“Johnny Booker’s pa said some fellers been looking round his place.”

“What fellers?” asked Louisa sharply.

“Ain’t know. But they’s asking questions ’bout the coal mines.”

“Get your ears on the ground, Diamond.” Louisa looked at Lou and Oz. “And you too. God put us on this earth and he take us away when he good and ready. Meantime, family got to look out for each other.”

Oz smiled and said he’d keep his ears so low to the ground, they’d be regularly filled with dirt. Everyone except Lou laughed at that. She simply stared at Louisa and said nothing.

The table was cleared, and while Louisa scraped dishes, Lou worked the sink hand pump hard, the way Louisa had shown her, to make only a very thin stream of water come out. No indoor plumbing, she had been told. Louisa had also explained to them the outhouse arrangement and shown them the small rolls of toilet paper stacked in the pantry. She had said a lantern would be needed after dark if the facilities were required, and she had shown Lou how to light one. There was also a chamberpot under each of their beds if the call of nature was of such urgency that they couldn’t make it to the outhouse in time. However, Louisa informed them that the cleaning of the chamberpot was strictly the responsibility of the one using it. Lou wondered how timid Oz, a champion user of the bathroom in the middle of the night, would get along with this accommodation. She imagined she would be standing outside this outhouse many an evening while he did his business, and that was a weary thought.

Right after supper Oz and Diamond had gone outside with Jeb. Lou now watched as Eugene lifted the rifle off its rack above the fireplace. He loaded the gun and went outside.

Lou said to Louisa, “Where’s he going with that gun?”

Louisa scrubbed plates vigorously with a hardened corncob. “See to the livestock. Now we done turned out the cows and hogs, Old Mo’s coming round.”

“Old Mo?”

“Mountain lion. Old Mo, he ’bout as old as me, but that durn cat still be a bother. Not to people. Lets the mare and the mules be too, ’specially the mules, Hit and Sam. Don’t never cross no mule, Lou. They’s the toughest things God ever made, and them durn critters keep grudges till kingdom come. Don’t never forget one smack of the whip, or slip of a shoeing nail. Some folks say mules ’bout as smart as a man. Mebbe that why they get so mean.” She smiled. “But Mo does go after the sheep, hogs, and cows. So we got to protect ’em. Eugene gonna fire the gun, scare Old Mo off.”

“Diamond told me about Eugene’s father leaving him.”

Louisa glanced at her sternly. “A lie! Tom Randall were a good man.”

“What happened to him then?” Lou prompted when it appeared Louisa was not inclined to go on.

Louisa finished with a plate first and set it down to dry. “Eugene’s mother die young. Tom left the baby with his sister here and went on over to Bristol, Tennessee, for work. He a coal miner here, but lot of folks started coming round to do that too, and they always let the Negroes go first. He got kilt in an accident afore he could send for Eugene. When Eugene’s aunt passed on, I took him in. The other’s just lies by folks who have hate in their hearts.”

“Does Eugene know?”

“Course he does! I told him when he were old enough.”

“So why don’t you tell people the truth?”

“People don’t want’a listen, ain’t no good what you try tell ’em.” She shot Lou a glance. “Unnerstand me?”

Lou nodded, but in truth she wasn’t convinced she did.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

When Lou went outside, she saw Diamond and Oz over by the split-rail corral where the horse was grazing. When Diamond saw Lou, he pulled a sheet of paper and a tin of tobacco out of his pocket, rolled the smoke, licked it closed, struck a match against a rail, and lit up.

Oz and Lou both gaped, and she exclaimed, “You’re too young to do that.”

Diamond casually waved off her protest, a pleased smile on his face. “Aww, I all growed up. Man a man.”

“But you’re not much older than me, Diamond.”

“Different up here, you see.”

“Where do you and your family live?” asked Lou.

“On down the road a piece afore you get somewhere.”

Diamond pulled a cover-less baseball from his pocket and tossed it. Jeb raced after the ball and brought it back.

“Man give me that ball ’cause I tell him his future.”

“What was his future?” asked Lou.

“That he gonna give a feller named Diamond his old ball.”

“It’s getting late,” Lou said. “Won’t your parents be getting worried?”

Diamond stubbed out the homemade smoke on his overalls and stuck it behind his ear as he wound up to throw again. “Naw, like I say, all growed up. Ain’t got to do nothing if’n don’t want to.”

Lou pointed to something dangling on Diamond’s overalls. “What’s that?”

Diamond looked down and grinned. “Left hind foot of a graveyard rabbit. Aside fur heart’a calf, luckiest thing they is. Shoot, don’t they school you nuthin’ in the city?”

“A graveyard rabbit?” Oz said.

“Yessir. Caught and kilt in graveyard in black of night.” He slipped the foot off its string and gave it to Oz. “Here, son, I always get me ’nuther, anytime I want I can.”

Oz held it reverently. “Gosh, thanks, Diamond.”

Oz watched Jeb race after the ball. “Jeb sure is a good dog. Gets that ball every time.”

When Jeb brought the ball and dropped it in front of Diamond, he picked it up and tossed it over to Oz. “Prob’ly ain’t much room to throw nuthin’ in the city, but give it a whirl, son.”

Oz stared at the ball as though he’d never held one. Then he glanced at Lou.

“Go ahead, Oz. You can do it,” she said.

Oz wound up and threw the ball, his arm snapping like a whip, and that ball sprang forth from his small hand like a freed bird, soaring higher and higher. Jeb raced after it, but the dog wasn’t gaining any ground. An astonished Oz just stared at what he’d done. Lou did the same.

The cigarette fell off a startled Diamond’s ear. “God dog, where’d you learn to toss like that?”

Oz could only offer up the wonderful smile of a boy who had just realized he might be athletically gifted. Then he turned and raced after the ball. Lou and Diamond were silent for a bit and then the ball came sailing back. In the gathering darkness they couldn’t even see Oz yet, but they could hear him and Jeb coming, a total of six spirited legs flying at them.

“So what do you do for excitement in this place, Diamond?” asked Lou.

“Fishing mostly. Hey, you ever skinny-dip in a gravel pit?”

“There are no gravel pits in New York City. Anything else?”

“Well”—he paused dramatically—“course, there’s the haunted well.”

“A haunted well?” exclaimed Oz, who had just run up, Jeb at his heels.

“Where?” asked Lou.

“Come on now.”

Captain Diamond and his company of infantry cleared the tree line and plunged across an open field of tall grass so fine and uniformly placed, it looked like combed hair. The wind was chilly, but they were much too excited to be bothered by that slight discomfort.

“Where is it?” asked Lou, running beside Diamond.

“Shhh! Getting close, so’s we got to be real quiet. Spooks round.”

They kept moving forward. Suddenly Diamond called out, “Hit the ground!”

They all dropped as though attached by taut rope.

Oz said in a trembling voice, “What is it, Diamond?”

Diamond hid a smile. “Thought mebbe I hear something, is all. Can’t never be too careful round spooks.” They all rose.