A Tale from the Hills (13 page)

When he saw the river he felt like Huckleberry Finn. It was the largest body of water that he had ever seen. It was wide and it looked deep and dangerous. He was hypnotized by the swirling motion and the rapid flow of the water. He stood there for several minutes before a croaking frog brought him back to reality. Darkness was falling rapidly and he hoped that the river house was soon to be close by. When he rounded the next turn of the great river, he could finally see the imposing house straight ahead.

Obviously very wealthy people once lived in the huge old structure. William could not understand why the house was deserted. It looked in need of repairs, but still it looked incredible on the outside. He hoped that the inside was secure enough for him to be able to sleep. He wished that he had some of the nice warm hay that he nuzzled in the night before. He cautiously opened the front door and stepped inside.

“Hello. Hello. Is anybody here?” he asked in a semi loud voice.

There was no response. He repeated the words, and again no response.

“Good.” he said. “I am all alone.”

He was going to lock the front door, but the knobs were missing. He leaned an old tobacco stick against the door so at least he would hear if someone pushed it open. Since he was all alone and there was still some daylight, he decided to explore the cavernous old house. He hurriedly walked through the rooms downstairs and double stepped the stairs to the second floor. The second floor was empty too. At the end of that hallway was a small set of stairs that led to a third floor. William was amazed. The old house was even bigger than Mountain School. He climbed the stairs to the third floor and to his surprise it was a large open room. There were several pieces of furniture and an old steamer trunk stored in the far corner. William was about to examine the contents of the old trunk when something else caught his eye. Huddled deep in the corner like a scared puppy dog was another boy. He looked to be about the same age as William, maybe slightly smaller in size.

“Hey,” William said, “You startled me. Didn’t you hear me shouting when I was downstairs?”

“Yes.” said the obviously very shy boy.

“Then why didn’t you answer me?”

“I, I. I was afraid that you were looking for trespassers.”

“No, I was just trying to find out if anyone else was here. I would like to sleep here if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t care. You can stay up here with me. I don’t like it in here by myself anyway.” said the boy.

“Have you looked inside of the trunk?” asked William.

“No.”

William opened the trunk and there were papers and some old clothes and several old quilts packed inside. He could not understand why anyone had not found them before.

“I wonder why these are still here?” he asked.

“Probably because the door has been locked.” theother boy explained. He pulled an old skeleton key out of his pocket and flashed it to William.

William was impressed.

“By the way, my name is William. I am on my way to somewhere. I just have not figured out exactly where yet.”

“My name is Hank.” the shy boy responded. “I am from Ashe County. I ran away from home because I am mad at my daddy. I want to go far away but I am afraid. My daddy always tell me that the Klan will get me if I leave home. I have nightmares about those men in hoods and white robes, burning crosses and hanging people like me.”

“You have nightmares too? I have them about an old man who terrifies me to the bone.”

William had no idea who the Klan was because he had never heard of them before that moment.

“Maybe we could travel together?” William added.

Hank got up from the corner and came closer to his new friend. The two of them were almost exactly the same size, but William noticed that Hank was different in another respect. Hank was not exactly white. He was not black either. He was more of a light brown color.

“I am mulatto.”

Hank must have noticed the puzzled look that William had on his face.

“My momma is almost white and my daddy is dark.”

“How old are you Hank?” William asked.

“Fourteen, you?”

“Almost thirteen. I have a daddy but my mother died when I was still a baby. I don’t remember her at all. I have three brothers and a sister who is dead like my mother.” William added.

He felt sad as soon as the words came out of hismouth.

“I have two sisters but no brothers. My daddy works me too hard. If I don’t do all of the chores while he is at work, he whips me. He hits me hard, look here.”

Hank showed William his arm and there was a dark bruise next to his shoulder. William could not ever remembergetting a whipping from his daddy. He corrected his children in other ways.

William took the rest of the bread and the jug of water out of his knapsack. He and Hank shared the supplies and laughed and talked about all of the things that they had in common. It seemed like they were good friends right from the start. By the time that they had finished eating it was almost dark inside the house. Hank had some candles that he sneaked away from home, and he looked around until he found something fireproof to set them on. The boys rigged up a makeshift tent with one of the old quilts, so that the light from the candles would not filter into the rest of the large room. They did not want anyone to know that they were in the house and with small windows in each corner, the candles would have created a glow. They closed the door leading to the downstairs, and locked it with the skeleton key.

They had no sooner locked the door when they had to unlock it, because both of the overly excited boys had outside duties to perform. They walked quietly down the stairs just in case someone had entered the house while they were busy eating and talking and laughing. They ran back up the stairs like cattle on a stampede after they had finished peeing off of the front porch. They felt very secure after they locked the upstairs door again, and settled into the makeshift tent for the night.

They had scattered some of the old clothes on the floor of their tent to make a mattress, and each of the boys had a quilt. They shared a quilt for a pillow. They lay on their backs and watched the light from the candle dance on the inner walls of their home for the night. William was glad that he was not alone in the old house. He would take Hank with him on his journey of discovery, and they would look out for each other. Their legs touched in the semi darkness and it was good.

Both of the boys went to sleep easily and neither of them dreamed about anything at all. It was still very dark outside when a loud noise suddenly woke them up.

Someone had slammed the door downstairs. There was no sound for a couple of minutes and then they heard loud footsteps coming up the stairs to the second floor.

A man’s voice burst through the silence.

“Hank, are you in here?” You had better answer me boy if you are in here.”

Hank started whimpering and shaking uncontrollably. William put his arms around him to try and calm him down.

“Shh.” William whispered. “Your daddy will hear you. Shh. He can’t find you up here. Remember the door is locked.”

Hank quieted but he continued to shake. They heard footsteps on the stairs outside of their room, and the doorknob turned ever so slightly, but the door would not open.

“Thank God that we locked the door.” William whispered.

The footsteps echoed back down the stairs and eventually the boys heard the front door slam shut. William breathed a sigh of relief but Hank was crying again.

“I have to go home. Daddy will kill me now.” Hank said through heavy sobs.

“No. Stay here. You can leave with me in the morning.”

“Daddy will find me, or the Klan will get me if I run.”

“No they won’t. We can look out for each other.”

William and Hank slept close together for the rest of the night in a way that brothers would sleep.

The next morning when William woke up, Hank was looking out of one of the small windows.

“I’m going home as soon as daddy goes to work.” Hank exclaimed.

“But I thought that you were going with me?” Williamsaid.

“I just can’t. I need to be there for my momma and my sisters. I am going to work real hard all day so daddy might not be too hard on me when he gets home.”

“I wish that you were going with me.”

“I know, but I had better go home. If you ever come back this way, look me up, ok?”

“Ok.” William replied.

Deep down each of the boys knew that they would never see each other again. They shook hands, patted each other on the back, and headed in different directions once they left the old mansion. Each of the boys had his own destiny to fulfill.

***********

Chapter Six
 

William wanted to get as far as he could before he had to stop again. He was not hungry and besides he was out of bread anyway. If he found some apples or berries along the way, he would eat them. Hopefully by the time that he needed substantial food, he would be somewhere that could supply it to him. He had almost all of his money and he knew that it would last him for several days or even longer.

He stopped at a swift section of the river and filled his jug with water. He wished that he had a barge or a raft because the river was deep and swift, and he could travel much faster with either one of them. He already missed Hank. He wished that they had more time to become better friends.

William remembered that the black man had told him yesterday that if he followed the river until he came to a long trestle, he would be able to finally get back to the railroad tracks. He needed to make sure that the train was no where near the trestle when he crossed, because he definitely could not outrun it. The trestle was one of the longest in the entire region. William could not wait to see it. Something about trains and trestles and the dangers associated with them was intensely exciting to him. William forgot to ask the man if there was a store or trading post, or restaurant near the river. He would have to find that out for himself.

There was a trail along the banks of the river that would eventually lead him to the great trestle. He wondered how many people had walked that same path that he was now using. He wondered if they, like he, were running away from something or someone. His mind became filled with questions that had no answers. He was not paying close enough attention to where he was going, because he almost walked into the middle of a hobo encampment. He smelled smoke and looked up just in time to avoid being seen. There were three hobos sitting around an open fire and three more lying around the fire, asleep. William was taught to be suspicious of strangers and gypsies, but most of all, to beware of hobos. Ever since he was a little boy living beside of the tracks, his daddy had warned him to be careful of hobos. Tom never told his kids that hobos were bad people, but he told them that hobos might be dangerous. Deep in his subconscious mind William associated the old man from his nightmares with hobos. In his bad dreams the old man was on the tracks, or close by the tracks like these hobos at the river.

William quickly and quietly moved off of the trail. He was going to sneak passed the hobos and quickly be on his way. But the closer that he got to their camp, the more that he realized that he could not go passed them on land. The hobos were camping beside of a sheer rock cliff and William knew that he could not get across it. He would either have to get into the river to pass them or wait until they had moved from their camp. He decided to wait them out. The river looked much too dangerous for an inexperienced swimmer like himself. He would climb up on the rocks on the side of the cliff just high enough to feel safe from them, and keep an eye on them at the same time. Lucky for William there was an apple tree close by. He picked enough apples to fill his knapsack because he did not know how long that he would have to wait.

The hobos went about their business ignorant to the fact that they were being watched. The men who were sitting by the fire were passing a bottle around to each other. As the morning wore on the men got louder and louder, probably as a result of the contents of the bottle. When it looked like it was almost empty, the men began to argue. William decided that they were arguing over who would get the last drink from the bottle. It did not turn out to be much of an argument because the biggest man in the group turned the bottle up and instantly it was all gone. William got tired of watching them and decided to take a nap. He felt safe. They could never find him because he was hidden in the rocks.

He slept longer than he had planned because the Sun was straight up in the sky when he finally woke up. And it had gotten unseasonably hot. He took an apple out of the knapsack and took a big bite out of the middle of it. Down at the hobo camp all of the men were up and about and drinking from another bottle. Some of the men must have been hot too, because they were shedding their clothes and walking naked toward the river. William watched closely as they jumped into the water and were thrashing about like hairy little boys. One of them scooped water into his hands and threw it at the men who were standing at the edge of the river. One of the bystanders began to curse loudly. Obviously he was very angry because he picked up a rock the size of a man’s head and threw it at the men in the river. The huge rock struck one of the men in the face, and even from his safe distance away, William could see blood spewing from the poor man’s nose. The man fell backwards into the water and disappeared. All of the men in the water and some of the men on the bank of the river tried to find him. He was gone from sight. They dived frantically under the water but without success. After a few minutes all of the men got out of the water and quickly dressed. They hurriedly scattered without even drowning their campfire.

William watched the scenario take place with his eyes and his mouth wide open. He wanted to scream but the men would have heard him and probably killed him too. He had been a witness to a murder and he knew that hehad better keep his twelve year old mouth shut. As soon as he was sure that the men were gone, he ran until he almost lost his breath.