Ghost on Black Mountain (4 page)

“He loved his mama.”

Aunt Ida placed fat pieces of fried chicken on a platter. One piece of that chicken would have fed two adults in the soup line.

“Lord, child, he was too close to her. She ruined him and then died. Took the wind right out of him. He was seventeen. Too young to be the man of the house.”

“Where was his daddy?”

“Oh, he was a walking dead man until he up and married Jack’s mama six months later. Hobbs never forgave him, or Jack for that matter.” She leveled a serious stare at me. “You’ve seen Jack. He’s calm where Hobbs is loud. He’s sweet where Hobbs has a mean streak. You think he ain’t mean, but girlie, you’re wrong. You best watch yourself and maybe you’ll be okay. Hobbs dug deeper into that pit of mean when his mama died. AzLeigh, his sister, loved Bess—their stepmother—better than anything. She loved Jack too. Hobbs saw it as betrayal even though he never talked about it. See, he loved AzLeigh and his mama with his whole heart. Something can be said for not loving a person like that.” She cocked her eyebrow at me.

“I got so much to learn about him, but we got a lifetime.” I gave her my brightest tone of voice.

“Maybe so.”

Her words sent chills up my neck. She was only jealous of me and Hobbs. Anyone could see she loved him like he was her own. Sometimes people turned mean and afraid when a new person came into the picture. Daddy was like that when Mama tried to do anything new. He got downright ugly with her. It was the only time I ever disliked him; that side of him was hard to swallow.

“Let’s get this supper on the table. I can’t imagine your mama never taught you to cook.” She smiled. “Hobbs didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Oh, he’s right. I’m a terrible cook.” I picked up the platter of chicken and went to the dining room; imagine, a dining room. I had moved into high society. The table was covered with lace and there were plates with gold rims. In the large
mirror over the fireplace was a girl as plain as plain could be. She was a girl who told lies on herself. Because she was a good cook. That was a fact.

“You go out and call Hobbs to eat. Maybe you shouldn’t worry so much on how you look.” Aunt Ida met my stare in the reflection.

I wandered out to the barn instead of standing on the back porch screaming my lungs out.

Hobbs’s voice was mean. “We got to get the Connors to give in, Jack!”

“I ain’t going to help with your business, Hobbs. I told you that when Clyde Parker got himself killed. And I made it real clear when you ran AzLeigh off. That was it for me.” Jack’s voice was as calm as a pretty little pond in the woods.

“AzLeigh wouldn’t listen. She brought trouble on herself. Clyde was a accident and you dern well know it. The Connors are too high and mighty. They’ll listen to your reasoning.”

“Like AzLeigh? You tricked me into thinking you cared about her loss too.” Jack’s voice never got a bit louder, but the words cut the air.

I should’ve stepped into the door, instead of hiding like some sneak, but I didn’t. I just listened.

“AzLeigh ain’t nothing to you.”

I could imagine the mean look on Hobbs’s face.

“Neither is the Connors.”

“We need them to play along.”

“Why? You afraid the whole mountain will turn against you? The Depression won’t last forever and these good folks will get back on their feet. Where will that leave you?”

“They can’t get their land unless I sell it back.”

“You can’t resist making the money. They’ll get their land back.”

Hobbs laughed.

“What’d you tell that girl in Asheville when you married your little wife?”

My heart started beating in my ears, and I stepped in the doorway. “You boys come eat. Orders from Aunt Ida.” My face burned hot.

Jack smiled. I got the feeling he’d known I was there all along. “Let’s go eat, Brother.” If he had been writing the word “brother” on a piece of paper, it would have been big and bold.

Hobbs cut a look at me. I was learning each expression meant something different. I looked at the ground. He was daring me to ask one little question. I knew to keep my mouth shut.

Five

S
helly knocked on the door the next morning just after Hobbs left out. He never told me about anything he did, and most of the time I couldn’t find the nerve to ask. He got so cranky.

“I thought we’d work upstairs today.”

“Yes ma’am.” She held on to the words, drawing them out with a sigh.

“Would you rather work in the dining room? We could go through that sideboard.” I didn’t much feel like working either. “How about we take us a walk first. I need to get out.”

Shelly’s face lit up. “Yes ma’am. That sounds real good.”

The sky was so clear and blue that I felt like crying. I was missing Mama. If I brought the subject up with Hobbs, he still growled how he had no use for the “woman.”

Me and Shelly walked into the woods near the hollow tree. We didn’t even speak for the longest time—the river was loud—and we probably wouldn’t have spoken at all if not for seeing that man again, the one I saw in the night. He was standing way down the path.

“Lordy be, I didn’t dream him.”

Shelly straightened her shoulders and looked at me.

“Sir!” I yelled. “Can I help you? Why are you here on my husband’s land?”

Shelly touched my arm. “You see him?” She seemed shocked.

“Who is he?”

The man wore glasses, but he was so far away I couldn’t make out any other details.

Shelly had stopped walking. “He be someone you don’t want to know, ma’am.”

The man stood stock still.

“I want a better look.” I walked toward him.

He moved in the direction of the river.

“I saw you the other night!” I yelled, but he was gone, just like that.

“It’s best we not go to the river, Mrs. Pritchard. It can be dangerous being so high because of the rain.”

I studied her face. “Shelly, you’re afraid of him.”

“Not me.” She didn’t look me in the eye.

“And don’t call me Mrs. Pritchard!”

Shelly gave me a mean look. “I’m not getting my tail whipped because of you.”

“Then call me Miss Nellie.”

She looked around. “I reckon.”

“Good.” I walked closer. “Now, tell me why that man is here.”

“Well, I guess because he had a falling-out with Hobbs, or that’s what folks claim.”

“So you know him?”

She didn’t look at me. “No, can’t say I ever spoke to him.”

“What kind of falling-out did him and Hobbs have?”

This time she met my stare. “I ain’t going to talk about
Hobbs Pritchard behind his back. I ain’t stupid. No disrespect intended.”

“Hobbs wouldn’t hurt you, Shelly.” We were walking side by side.

She looked at me like I lost my mind. “Don’t take no hurt on this, but there’s a lot you don’t know about your husband.” She let this sink in. “I reckon you better take me on back to that dern house so you can work me some. I ain’t a good liar.”

I studied her for a minute. I bet she knew about that girl in Asheville. “I know folks have a quarrel with him.”

“Yes ma’am.” Shelly grinned and broke into a run. “If you is so young like me why don’t you race me to the house?”

I broke into a run, giggling like a schoolgirl. The world passed by me in a blur. Wonder if I could run right off that mountain? Then I thought of the man we seen in the woods. What did Hobbs do to him? What kind of husband had folks roaming on his farm looking for him, anyway?

Six

H
obbs had two boys come to the house and chop wood for the winter. The job should have been done in the summer so the wood could cure, but seeing how Hobbs had no idea we’d be marrying and moving in the house, he could be forgiven. But I was a little nervous about a mountain winter without plenty of wood.

“Don’t be silly, Nellie. I can get all the cured wood I want. You won’t be cold this winter.” He was knocking around the kitchen while I cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast. I wanted to ask him why he didn’t just buy all the wood and not bother with them boys, but I kept them thoughts tight in my head. Wasn’t no use to cause trouble. Like Aunt Ida said, he had his ways. I’d seen them that very morning when he found where Shelly left a cleaning rag in the dining room and promised to beat her. I told him it was my rag and for a minute I thought he’d slap my nose off my face.

“Where did them boys come from?” The bacon popped grease on my arm. I dearly hated bacon. The boys were
Connors, but I wanted to hear Hobbs’s answer. I was still thinking on all Shelly had said or hadn’t said.

“The tall one is Maynard and the short one is Oshie. Both of them are Connors. At least they see some reason, but their daddy don’t. He’d beat them if he knew they were here. I can’t figure why they agreed to come.”

“How much is their pay?” I placed the platter of bacon on the table.

Hobbs threw his head back in a big laugh like I’d told some kind of joke. “I don’t pay for work, Nellie. People pay me. You’re dumber than a mule.”

The words stung like one of those switches Daddy used on my bare legs when I was young and did something wrong. He’d send me out into the yard to find a switch that had a good snap to it. “I just thought since they’re working for us …”

“Well, I didn’t marry you to think, now did I?” He pulled me to him, and I nearly dropped the basket of raw eggs. “You’re funny, Nellie. Just keep entertaining me and I’ll stay around.”

“What do you mean? Are you going somewhere?” Heat moved through my face.

His grin made him hard to figure. “I got to work sometime, Nellie.”

Now he had a good point. “What kind of work, Hobbs?” That was a stupid question for a wife to ask her husband. “You don’t farm.”

Again he threw back his head and laughed in a mean way. “I’d rather die. I’m a businessman. It’s tough to do business up here, so I travel around. You’re going to have to get used to that now, sweetie. I just can’t sit here all the time.”

He hadn’t sat at home. A big lump got stuck in my throat. I counted the eggs in the bowl. Hobbs had brought them home from someone who owed him money. He was smart like that. Mama would call him slick. “I thought maybe we could have
Mama come visit.” I drew in my breath and cracked each one of the eggs into the cast-iron skillet.

“That woman wouldn’t even come to our wedding. I can’t tolerate her. You don’t need to be talking to her.” He piled a bunch of bacon on his plate. “You got all you need right here on this mountain. Just put that nonsense out of your head. You don’t need your mama like some baby girl.”

The eggs went to bubbling in the pan. I kept my mouth closed tight. What was I thinking? Mama hurt him, and who could blame him for being upset? Some folks weren’t as easy to forgive as me. I looked at the side of his face. How in the world had I got such a fine man to notice me? He could have had any number of girls with his charms. If Hobbs hadn’t come along, who would have? He was mine.

“When you leaving?” I scraped the eggs onto a plate.

“Now, don’t go worrying on that. I’ll let you know in plenty of time. Is that why you want your mama? You’re going to miss old Hobbs too much? You need him to protect you.” Little bits of bacon flew out of his mouth as he pulled me on his lap. “I picked you cause you’re strong. You’ll be fine when I go away.” He pinched my leg. I looked away to hide the tears.

“Now, let’s eat. I got to visit the Connor farm and I ain’t relishing the idea. Will you be okay here with them boys?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” All them mixed-up thoughts rushed out with a attitude.

But Hobbs didn’t notice. “Those boys don’t like me much, but they listen to reason.”

“I can’t see they would cause anyone a bit of harm.”

He looked at me a little sharp. “Whether you’ve noticed or not, folks up here don’t care for me. So you got to be careful, Nellie. They’re jealous cause I’ve made something out of myself. I can’t help I got some sense.”

“Why are they jealous?”

“Ain’t nothing for you to trouble your little mind over.” He slapped me on the bottom.

After breakfast Hobbs took out of the house like it was going to fall in on him, but not before he warned me to stay away from the Connor boys. I stood in the kitchen window and watched them work their fool heads off. They weren’t talking or even looking at each other like most brothers would when saddled with a day’s work. It looked to me like they needed some cheering up. And I was a grown-up woman with just as much sense as Hobbs. I could take care of myself.