Ghost on Black Mountain (24 page)

J
ack was in and out of our lives, helpful but distant all the same. I wasn’t looking for a friend. One day while searching halfheartedly for Hobbs’s money, I found Nellie’s diary and a beautiful red garnet necklace pushed into a sideboard drawer. The necklace wasn’t worth too much but Nellie probably thought it was a treasure of rubies. Hobbs could have bought it for her, but his style was to win gifts at poker games. I fastened the clasp around my neck. The stones caught the sun. I liked the fact that I didn’t know its story or real worth.

I read the diary in less than thirty minutes. The few pages were revealing. Nellie started out innocent. Her last entry sent a shiver up my back. Hobbs destroyed something deep inside her. The thought crossed my mind to give the diary to Jack, but that would spoil the story that Nellie died because she walked off into the woods with a broken heart. Could Nellie have killed Hobbs? I burned the book in the fireplace.

*   *   *

Lonnie and I moved into a small bedroom tucked near the attic door at the end of the upstairs hall. This turned out to be Jack’s old room.

“You didn’t want the big bedroom?” Jack had stopped by to help with the garden.

“No.” I busted a dirt clod with the toe of my shoe.

“Why? Have you seen anything?”

“If you mean Hobbs, no.”

He nodded to the garnet necklace around my neck. “I was thinking more like my mama. I don’t believe in things like that, but Nellie said she saw her. That there is Mama’s necklace you got on.” He turned his head and the brim of his hat hid his eyes.

“I’m sorry. I found it in a drawer in the dining room. It’s not worth anything, so I thought I would wear it.”

He pushed his hat back. “I wonder how it got to the dining room. The last I knew, she was buried with it.”

The words made my thoughts scramble at once. “Oh, I can show you the drawer where I found it.”

He shook his head. “I don’t doubt you, Rose. I’m just wondering how the necklace got out of Mama’s casket. Maybe Henry James had a change of heart, but I doubt it.”

I took the necklace off and pushed it towards him. “The box is in the same drawer.”

Again he was still. “Don’t worry none. I don’t think you had anything to do with it.” He half grinned. “I mean, you weren’t living here then.”

“I’m glad you can joke.”

He shrugged. “It’s just another mystery on this mountain full of them.” But I could tell he was concerned.

I dropped the necklace into his open hand.

“I got a keepsake. There’s not many of those.” His finger curled around the red stones. His sadness stood between us.

“I chose the small room because the big bedroom is haunted with something besides ghosts. That room has Hobbs in every corner.” I watched his face become stern.

“I know you didn’t like Hobbs. I know he was mean to most of the people on this mountain, but he wasn’t mean to me, Jack. I loved him.”

He nodded. “Every person, mean or not, must have someone they try to love.” Then he cocked his head. “Did you ever go against him?”

“I told him he had to leave Nellie or else I’d go home.” A seed of truth. “He came back here to leave her.”

“We’ll never know.” He took his hat off and ran his fingers through his curls.

“Know what?”

“Whether he was going to leave her or not. Whether he was going to come back to you. Whether he would have been there for little Lonnie.” His words weren’t mean, but they did hit a mark inside.

Lonnie ran full steam across the yard to Jack, pulling on his arm. “Come and play, please.”

“Lonnie, Jack is busy with the garden.”

“Come play.” He tugged harder. “The man near the tree says you’re good at playing.”

“What did you say, Lonnie?” I looked around the yard.

Lonnie ignored me. “Come on. The man says you can teach me to throw a baseball.”

Jack looked at me. “What are you talking about, little man? What tree?”

“He’s right there by the tree with the hole. He’s watching us. He’s my friend.”

“I don’t see anything, Lonnie.”

My son looked at me like I had three heads. “He’s there, Mama.” Then he pulled on Jack’s hand. “Come on.”

Jack gave a little smile. “Does this man have a name?”

Lonnie shrugged. “He won’t tell me. He said it would upset Mama. He likes her a lot.” Hobbs was talking to my baby.

Jack looked at me. “Well, I think we should go play some ball.” The two of them walked off toward the barn. This quiet man was becoming part of my son’s life whether I liked it or not.

The shadow leaned against the hollow tree with its arms folded over its chest, a position I’d seen more than one time. “Hobbs.” The sweet scent of whiskey and cigarettes surrounded me. “Hobbs Pritchard,” I whispered.

Forty

T
he summer months were hot during the day and wonderfully cool at night. I was content in my new life. The small garden near the kitchen was full of vegetables. The tomatoes were big and red. My favorite supper was a yellow squash sliced with fresh onion and cooked in butter. Next spring I planned on having a larger garden near the front of the house. The mountain had become my home, a safe friend.
“You’ll stay here the rest of your life,”
it whispered in my ear.

Slowly Hobbs moved to the back of my mind. I went days without even remembering his face. Jack grew to be a silent friend, even though I knew nothing much about him.

“So, did you ever have a girl, Jack?” I said this in a matter-of-fact way. I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.

He paused ever so slightly with the maul over his head. “Yes I did. The problem is Hobbs had a liking for her too.” He lowered the maul. “We both know how easy it was for him to get what he wanted. Patty loved me, but Hobbs wouldn’t have no part of it. He followed her everywhere, making her life
miserable. Her daddy threatened to call the sheriff up here.”

“Why didn’t you marry her?”

His face turned trouble. “She came up missing.”

A prickle went down my neck. “What happened?”

“They found her two weeks later, dead.” He took a deep breath as if the whole scene still lived in him. “I was the last to see her alive. I walked her home from a church social and left her at the top of her drive. I should have walked her to her door, but she shooed me off. Henry James could get upset if I was late coming home.” He leaned on the maul. “By the time they found Patty, well, it wasn’t pretty. Animals got ahold of her.” He looked away.

“How horrible.”

“Could have been a bear that killed her. They will do that if they’re caught off guard. But I don’t think so.” Then he looked me dead in the eyes. “Sometimes you just know something but you don’t have no proof.”

A thickening in my breath made it hard to speak. “You think it was Hobbs?”

He looked at me with a wiry smile. “If I could have proved it, I would have killed him myself.”

I looked at my feet. I didn’t want to know this about Hobbs.

“Did you ever think, Rose, you didn’t really know him at all?” Jack hoisted the maul over his head and split the log in half.

Searching for Hobbs’s money became serious. I wanted Hobbs’s treasure. Then I could live anywhere and do anything. So, one morning bright and early I decided to go snoop around the hayloft. I dug through the hay like some kind of fool.

“What are you doing?”

I jumped a foot. “Good Lord, Jack!” I fell back into the hay and laughed harder than I had in the months since I came.

“What you digging for, Rose?” He wore a half smile.

For a minute I thought of lying, but my new life deserved better than that. “I’m looking for money.”

“Ah, Hobbs’s loot. You must have been talking to our good ladies on the mountain. Before you came, I had to run kids off from up here all the time.” He laughed.

“It’s not funny. I want to find that money so I can do what I want for the rest of my life.”

“You don’t have to leave here, Rose. I’ll help.”

His words sat on my shoulders. We were quiet. I was afraid to look him in the eye for fear I’d see pity.

“Now, don’t go getting mad cause I offered to help you.”

This made me warm in a silly way. “I’m trying to make it on my own. You’ve done way too much.”

“You let me decide that.” He held out his hand. “Get out of the hay, Rose. You make too pretty of a picture there.” His cheeks were pink.

I took his hand and allowed him to pull me out of the hay.

Forty-one

S
eptember, with the last of the summer heat, rolled in with no signs of cooler weather. I woke one morning in our quiet little bedroom. The sun was bright. The river churned, and even though I couldn’t see the water the sound seemed to fill the space in my mind. I closed my eyes and melted into its music. What would happen if I followed the river up the mountain? I needed to clear my mind. I’d been spending too much time with Jack beginning most of my thoughts.

“Mama, what you doing?” Lonnie’s curls fell over his forehead, making me think of Hobbs in the morning.

“We should get out of this house and go on an adventure.”

Lonnie sat up and clapped his little hands together.

“Come on. We’ll follow the river up the mountain. I hear there is a waterfall somewhere.”

“Yes, yes.” He jumped up and down on the bed.

The sweet sound of my own laughter surprised me. I was healing. I was moving past the tethered places inside me. “Breakfast first.”

*   *   *

Lonnie ran ahead of me. The wind was blowing, keeping the heat of the day away. The red bee balm dotted the sides of the road. The bell tower of the church hung in the sky ahead, a simple, quiet plainness. The river was to our right. The banks were covered with smooth moss-coated rocks.

As Lonnie and I followed the path the river grew louder. Lonnie would run to the water and dip his feet in, throwing rocks. I stood still, allowing my many thoughts to disappear. We moved at our own speed. The trail forked. One snaked through a thicket of trees. The other was steep, climbing higher up the mountain. I was pulled to the lower path. Sunlight sprinkled the packed dirt. A cluster of monarch butterflies sat on the edge of a mud puddle. They appeared connected, their wings opening and closing at different times like a silent orchestra.

Lonnie smiled at me. Open and close. He ran right up to them but they continued to work their wings. Then I walked closer, and they burst into a graceful, gliding flight around our heads, like a magnificent dream. My heart opened with the dance they performed in the air. My boy whooped and stomped but still these beautiful creatures fluttered around in no hurry. One landed on my chest, opening and closing its wings, so delicate it looked like paper. Slowly each butterfly moved into the forest until only my guest was left.

“She likes you, Mama.” Lonnie watched in awe.

“It seems so.”

“Touch her, Mama,” Lonnie begged.

I ran my finger close to her feet. She hopped on in one flutter. I held her close to his face, and just as I went to touch her wings, she took to the air. Twice around our heads and then into the woods. The sound of the water moved around us, a melody running through me. Life was right there waiting in the
same place it had always been, waiting for me to catch up, to see my new way, new road, a butterfly in flight.

“Mama, look.” Lonnie’s words were almost lost to me.

The water tumbling over the sheer rock cliff stopped me in my tracks.
If there really was a God, He was right there in the water, the rocks, the butterflies, and the forest, not in a church with a bunch of people.
At the foot of the waterfall, before it took off as a river, was a pool surrounded by rocks. Then I noticed an opening behind the wall of water.

“Come on, Lonnie.” I took his hand, and we picked our way over the rocks until we stood under the cool wet overhang. The waterfall fell in front of us. A cool spray hit our faces.

Lonnie smiled, holding out his hand, touching the water, splashing it back on us. “We’re the waterfall.”

And we were the water. I closed my eyes and allowed my wings to emerge, cracking open my tough skin. I slid off my shoes. The water was so cold I couldn’t catch my breath. The wind blew through the tops of the trees and I shivered. Hobbs stood on the bank, watching. Everything went dark. Lights, truck lights, crashed through small trees, settling with a loud hissing sound into a good-size tree trunk. I wrapped my arms around my waist. The vision disappeared.