nothin’ but a young’un herself and she ain’t gonna take in Clay’s kids. Ain’t even been back here, ain’t never even seen ’em. You’d be wastin’ paper and a stamp writin’ to her. Jewel got so she hated us all, if you remember. Don’t you recollect that she wrote that awful letter and called us lowlife, ig’nart mountain folks or did you forgit that? She’s prob’ly so high and mighty now she’d stick her nose up in the air and wouldn’t even speak to us if’n she passed us on the road.”
“I ain’t forgot ’bout that letter, Dorie. But she was prob’ly jus’ mockin’ what that old man told her. Jewel wouldn’t never think ’at stuff up by herself. I jus’ can’t see her gettin’ above her raisin’.” He walked back and crossed his arms on the banister of the porch, looking up at his wife. “She sends us Christmas cards. Don’t that mean she ain’t forgot ’bout us? Clay was her brother, same as mine, and like I told ya before, he took care o’ her one time fer two years like a baby. She’s gonna have to do her duty. Either that or they’ll go to a orphan’s home. We sure can’t take ’em fer any length o’ time ’cause o’ yer mommy and daddy. I wish to God we could ’cause I hate to see ’em raised by strangers.”
Clay and Shannon ran back around the house telling their Aunt Dorie and Uncle Clive that there was puke all over the back steps. They just looked at each other because Dorie had had to step over it when she went to get the milk from the cellar. Clive had seen it and thought the worst thing they coulda done was puke that stuff back up. But how do you stop yourself from puking when you got to? Their bowels had let go when they’d died and he swore he saw blood on the mattress. He thanked the good Lord that those young’uns hadn’t pulled down them covers.
Clive looked at the kids and didn’t say anything except that they would have to go home with them for awhile. Was Mommy and Daddy that sick? No, they’d gone to live with Jesus. Clay got mad, becoming very indignant, and argued with his Uncle Clive, saying that his mommy and daddy wouldn’t go live with Jesus without taking them. Shannon cried as her Aunt Dorie handed the baby to Clive and went back into the house to gather up what clothing she could find for the kids. Shannon didn’t want to go with them. She wanted to stay in the cabin, but Uncle Clive said they had to go. Why couldn’t they kiss Mommy and Daddy goodbye then, she asked her Uncle Clive.
“’Cause ya jus’ can’t. Jesus done took ’em.”
Uncle Clive was lying. Jesus didn’t come take them yet. Shannon could see her daddy’s bare feet through the door when Aunt Dorie opened it. Wanting at least to go tell them bye, she started to run back into the cabin. Shannon got as far as the steps when her Uncle Clive caught her by the arm and swung her around because he had baby Nate in his other arm. Holding onto her wrist, he practically dragged her all the way to the wagon they’d brought with them, lifted her up with one hand and set her down in the back and told her in no uncertain terms not to move. He did the same with Clay, Jr. which set both of them to crying their eyes out; not knowing exactly what was in store for them. Their whole world had fallen apart because Jesus done come and took Mommy and Daddy. Why’d He do that?
“Now you young’uns stay put!” Clive snapped at them. “This is hard enough without y’all actin’ up. I gotta do what’s best for ya since I’m about all y’all got left in the world.” They sat there and stared up at him, snubbing, trying not to cry because they could see that Uncle Clive was getting awful put out with them. And they sure didn’t want a whipping!
After a few minutes Dorie came out of the cabin with three pokes in her arms and Clive grabbed them and put the brown paper sacks in the wagon beside them. Shannon looked and saw that her clothes was in one bag and the others belonged to Clay and Nate. Their shoes stuck up out of the tops of the bags except Nate’s because he didn’t have no shoes.
Clay helped Dorie onto the wagon seat and handed Nate up to her. When he’d got all settled and started up the lane, he turned to Dorie. “I’ll take y’all home then I have to come back ’round here and feed the chickens and pigs. And th’ cow’s gotta be milked. Can’t let that go. After that, I gotta go down to Big Bend and see what I can find out about that feller that sold that stuff to Clay and break the bad news to Macie’s family. I sure dread doin’ ’at. And I need to see about somebody comin’ to get ’em. Don’t know how we’re gonna pay fer all this. I’ll call the funeral home at West Hamlin from the store. Mr. Simmons will open it up fer me even if it’s Sunday when I tell ’im ’bout Clay and Macie. I might have to take ’em down to Big Bend in the wagon. Go ‘round and get Sid Adkins to help.”
Clive was tore all to pieces, but he had to hold himself together. The kids wouldn’t understand and the last thing he wanted was to get them in an uproar again. They were sitting real quiet back there probably because they was scared to death he’d whip them. He’d never laid a hand on either one of them but right now they didn’t even know what was going on. With him so mad he shook all over, his knuckles on the horse’s reins were strained white where he was gripping them like he was taking out all his frustration on them reins.
“Senseless! Jus’ senseless!” Clive whispered to Dorie through his teeth. “It’s bad enough when people die from somethin’ likely or a accident, but this ain’t nothin’ but a downright waste o’ life!” The tears were pouring and he was fighting to keep from sobbing. Dorie laid her head against his shoulder, reaching over to pat his leg. It was all she could do.
Then her head come up like she’d been shot, emitting a bewildered sound. Clive turned to her, startled at the sudden outburst, and yelled, “What? What is it?”
“Oh, Lord, Clive.” She leaned over real close to him and barely whispered. “Shannon said that Nate nussed from his mommy this mornin’. It musta been after she was dead. Won’t he be poisoned, too?” She held Nate out in front of her, turning him all around, looking at him all over. He was just happily grinning at her like he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Don’t look like it hurt him none so far,” Clive said, “but we better keep a eye on him today.”
Neither of them knew that the cow’s milk bottle she fed him could have possibly helped baby Nate. Or maybe the moonshine Macie drank didn’t have time to get into her milk. He never got sick at all, but it might have been that he didn’t drink that much from his mommy or perhaps Shannon had been wrong and he didn’t get any milk from her at all. Maybe that was why he took to that bottle like he hadn’t eat all morning. But Dorie watched him all that day for any signs of a bellyache. She saw none.
What Shannon didn’t understand was why they couldn’t stay in the cabin. Why did they have to go and stay with Uncle Clive and Aunt Dorie when they had a house? She could even change Nate’s diaper. Aunt Dorie had told her that they would have their own bedroom, and that they were going to set up a little bed for Nate and she’d told the truth. When they’d got to Aunt Dorie’s house, the day that Mommy and Daddy wouldn’t wake up, everything was like she said, but Uncle Clive had to put together the bed for Nate that they’d got off Dorie’s cousin when she said she was finally expecting. He put it in the room they slept in though because Aunt Dorie would have to get up and fix Nate a bottle because she didn’t have no milk in her tits. Uh, breasts. Gosh! She was going to have to learn to say breasts, even when she was just thinking it.
When Uncle Clive left to go into Big Bend, Clay, Jr. and Shannon were sent out to play and they sifted sand from the road through a piece of screen that Aunt Dorie gave them to play with. They wouldn’t be going to church that day. They chased the dogs then the dogs chased them and when Aunt Dorie milked the cows she squirted some of the warm milk from the cow’s tits straight into their mouths. Mommy hadn’t ever done that. Did cows have tits or breasts? Shannon wondered about that. She was afraid to ask Aunt Dorie about it because she might get mad again and scrunch up her face. The milk was real warm and that surprised Shannon. Milk
