Fair and Tender Ladies (14 page)

Revel is a man born to love women, it is plain to see, and if I was Mister Brown I wuld not even feel bad that Mrs. Brown loved him. I wuld try not to take it too personal. And when I grow up and become a writter, I will write of such a love and I will write of a man like my uncle Revel who can come like a storm in the nigt and knock a born lady off her feet.

I am hoping to heer from you Molly I am hoping they will give you this letter and that you will sneak and write to me for I am so sad about all of this and in spite of all I will remane forever your devoted best frend,

 

IVY ROWE.

My dear Daddy,

 

I reckon this to be the lastest letter I will ever write you in this world. And it migt be the last letter I will ever write ether. For I feel we have come to the end of all things. We are picking up and moving on, Momma says we have got to, I gess she is rigt but it pains me so, for all I have loved is here. Daddy Daddy I hate to leave you most of all. When I think of you laying up ther in yor little gravehouse it hurts me almost past baring it, laying ther by yorself all winter under the snow.

Now it is Febuary. It is the thaw. It has been a slow little gray rain for going on three days sollid. We are packing up all we own wich will not take long. Oh Daddy Daddy this letter is so sad it does not make sense I will bring it up and put it in yor gravehouse when we go to berry Danny, that will be this morning come full ligt. Oh Daddy this little gray rain blurs the edges of everthing, it is like all the world is nought but shadders and soft edges. I want to tell you what all has happend. Well you know that Babe got murdered and Silvaney got sent away, Victor is in the Army, Ethel is working in town where Beulah and Curtis Bostick is to be maried. See how many people this is, gone!

And I have lost my Molly, and Mister Brown and Mrs. Brown, as surely as if they was relly dead. They are dead to me now. Revel has gone away for ever too, it is the most unselfish of anything he has ever done he toled Momma. But Mrs. Brown toled him he wuld leave her if he loved her, so he done it. Revel says he will never love anybody else, nor settle down, nor be happy.

Granny Rowe is setting up by Danny now, she has set up all nigt by him, her and Tenessee. When Danny died, Garnie went out and rung the bell. Then he prayed and prayed over Danny but Momma said, Cut it out, Garnie Rowe! I dont know what Jesus ever had to do with usuns anyway. Then Garnie said he wuld pray for Momma too wich made her mad as fire. Garnie is a real case Daddy, and dont none of us know how he got this way.

But little Johnny is the one will miss Danny so much, it will be like me and Silvaney, when they took her away it was like they had took a chunk of my hart. I dont think Johnny understands yet what all has happend. Momma says that me and him and Garnie will go to school, the regular schoolhouse in Majestic not what used to be Mrs. Browns schoolhouse at Daves Branch, we will live in Majestic where Mommas frend Geneva Hunt has inherrited a big house, and Momma and Geneva will take in borders. Lots of folks have come in ther now with the lumber business, its a boom town Momma says. So we will go.

But Daddy I dont know as I will like it ther. May be I am like you, and need the pure high air, and a mountain to lay my eyes aginst. We will not sell this place, you can rest assured of that, Momma says she wuld die first. We will only leave it for a while. It is the chance of a lifetime, Momma says.

So I am writting you this letter Daddy, to say goodbye. We will be back before you know it! Oh Daddy Daddy when I think of all them that are dead and gone, and of all that has happend, I dont want nothing else to hapen to me, ever. I do not even want to be in love any more, nor write of love, as it is scarry. Too many things can happen in this world. It dont seem like no time since me and Victor and Silvaney and everbody was playing hide and go seek after supper, and putting lightning bugs in a mason jar, and playing Party, or since you was showing us how to make a froghouse in the yard. When I am quite it seems that I can still heer the notes of yor guitar on the air, and how you used to lagh and tell so many storeys before you got little and dreamy and took to laying up beside the fire. I think I can still see Whitebear Whittington laying under the tree. I can hear the awful sound of that ringing bell for sure. The neghbor people will be coming up the holler now, to berry yor boy Danny. It makes me so sad because Danny never was rigt he had no more chance in the world than a snowball in hell Granny said. He went throgh his life on a slant. I gess we will have to walk on up ther now in the rain, it is not a hard rain relly but more of a drizzle, it makes everthing look like its covered with dimonds. You ougt to see Tenessee she is wearing a great big hat, who knows where she got it ether.

It is time to go now. Oh Daddy dont you rember how you took us up the mountain ever year about this time to gather birch sap, it was so sweet and tart on yor tonge, and you said,
Slow down, slow down now, Ivy. This is the taste of Spring.

I remane yor devoted daugter,

 

IVY ROWE.

To A Nurse.

 

 

Dear Madam,

 

Please read the enclosed letter aloud to my sister Silvaney Rowe, she can not read unlessen you have taught her wich I never culd. And I hope you are good to her too. I remane your grateful,

 

IVY ROWE.

My dear Silvaney,

 

I think of you so much, and I wonder, now how is my Silvaney? And how is she keeping today? I hope you are well, I have got this adress from old Doc Trout, I went over ther and got it yesterdy at closing time. His ofice is up a big long stairway over Sharps Mercantile, they is nought but a door with a pane of frosted glass up ther at the end of it. They was not a sole in the ofice, not even a nurse, and dust everplace, you culd see the dust just whirling around and around in these little bars of ligt that come down threw his high funny winders. It is dirty to be a doctors ofice. He is not much of a doctor if you ask me. Doc Trout, Doc Trout, I hollered and I heerd a sound then but it was not exackly a anser nor yet exackly a word, I culd not of said what it was. So I went on in ther passed the chairs where you sit, now this was where
we
sat, Silvaney, the day that we brung Danny to town and got his tonnick. And then I dont know what got into me, I went passed those chairs and strate on into Doc Trouts ofice where he sat with his feet up on the desk drinking outen a fancy coffee cup, he was not drinking coffee ether. Doc Trout looked at me real lazy. Well Miss Rowe, is it not? he said, Is it not one of the Misses Rowe? I can tell by that pretty red hair.

It is me Ivy Rowe, I said, and I have come to get the adress of the Elizabeth Masters Home where you have sent my sister Silvaney wich I am still mad about. For I will take you out of ther one day Silvaney and bring you back home to Sugar Fork. But now we are living in town you know, and I will write you all about it as soon as I finnish with old Doc Trout.

So he looked at me awhile and drunk outen his green china cup and said, Well sartinly Ivy Rowe, you are braking my hart, and he rumpled around in the drawer of his desk and come up with a envelop that had this adress in the corner and handed it over to me. Do you want it back I said, and he said, No, Lord no honey, you keep it and write to your sister Silvaney and tell her that old Doc Trout says hello ther why dont you, say hello from old Doc Trout. And then he comences to laghing a lagh wich you dont want to heer, it sounded just like a green persimmen tastes, a lagh like bitter gall. Go then Ivy Rowe, go on, he said, you had best make haste and get out of here, be on your way. Doc Trout was looking at me very hard, he is not so old ether. So I grabbed up the envelop and took off down his long dark stairway and run like hell all the way back threw the streets of town, feeling funny.

It is the same with the men at the bordinghouse Silvaney, I see them starring at me sometimes it makes me feel funny and bad. I know lots of girls my age is maried but I do not wish to be maried nor have them star untill it is like ther eyes are touching my boddy underneath my dress. I am reading a grate book Jane Eyre, about a orphan, wich I have borried from one of the lady teachers. Now Jane Eyre in the book is little and plane so far, she is like a elf or a fairy. I wish it was me, insted I am getting a bosom like Beulah, this is what they star at threw my dress.

Oh Silvaney, have you growed too? And wuld you know me? I know you can not write to me so I will dry my eyes up now and try to look on the brigt side as Geneva Hunt tells me to do. For I will come to get you bye and bye.

And in the meantime they is so much hapening, I will dwell on this, and tell you all, so you may feel that you are here in truth as well as spirrit. Well we come to town in a big March wind, Mister Delphi Rolette brung us down here with everthing we own piled up in his wagon, this is not much. This is me and Momma and Garnie and Johnny. It rained off and on that morning, I did not care if it rained or not, nor if I was wet nor dry, I was that sad to be leaving Sugar Fork. Momma sat on the seat by Delphi Rolette and starred strate ahead, I did not see her turn back oncet as we come down the holler. I rember I looked back when we crossed Sugar Fork for the lastest time and I seed that Blue Star Mountain was all covered in mist and low clabbered clouds, and then the wind blowed strong for a minute and I thoght I seed our house, then it was gone. I cryed all the way from Home Creek to Daves Branch, and Momma said nary a word. Finely Mister Rolette said Now Ivy, what ails you? Your mother will need you to be a big girl now, come on, you used to have so much spunk. And looking at Mommas face then I sat up and tryed to quit crying and tryed to say something back to Mister Rolette whose so nice, and something to Garnie and Johnny in the back of the wagon so good and quite. By the time we come into Majestic it had quit raining and the wind was whipping little stringy clouds around in the blue-blue sky and everbodys cloths was blowing on the line like people was in them dancing. The pale yaller sunligt shined offen tin roofs and mailboxes, and when we pulled up to Geneva Hunts bordinghouse, buttercups was blooming early by the gate. I had no sooner clumb down than here come Geneva Hunt herself tearing out of the house like she was blowed by the wind, I had never seed her in person afore this time.

Maude, Maude, she said pulling Momma up close for a hug—she is as big as two women, Geneva is, or as big as a big old man—Maude, Maude you look like the wrath of God, and you are so skinny, you look like something the cat drug in. We will soon fix that! Geneva cryed, for she is a famous cook. And look at these poor little old boys here, why this one is the spitting image of John Arthur she said, meaning Johnny for Garnie is not. Geneva says, I have got some speshal cookies back ther in the kitchen but I gess I will have to throw them out if I cant find no little boys to eat them. And Garnie says, where is the kitchen at? And then Geneva laghs a deep lagh, I think you wuld call it a chuckle. Ludie, take them on back ther, she says to a fat girl whose come out the door now, and Ludie does, and all of sudden the bordinghouse yard is plum full of people and it dont take a minute for so many hands to carry our things inside.