Fair and Tender Ladies (44 page)

Whoa!
Garnie shrieked like the wind, it seemed that his voice was the voice of the wind.
Listen here Ivy, now listen here!
and I knew that he was going to read out of his little Bible although I could no longer see him, nor could I breathe, caught up in the flapping sheet.
For a whore is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit,
Garnie went on,
These things doth the Lord hate, a proud look, a lying tongue, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief. And further, Ivy, further—Proverbs 6:27, Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Whoso commiteth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding. He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

What about the woman?
I said through the blowing sheet.
For that is all about a man.

In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride,
Garnie said,
you poor sinner woman you. Every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her own hands.

Listen then Ivy,
said Garnie,
for this is the story of a woman like you, a woman who thought she could take her fill of love until the morning, and our God has said of her in Proverbs 7:25, he has said it out loud and clear, Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chamber of death. The chamber of death Ivy, where you dwell now and will dwell forever along with that sweet baby LuIda down in the cold damp earth with her flesh rotting off of her bones while you pull down your pants for any—

But right then, three things happened at the same time.

The first thing was that my heart gave the awfullest leap, jumping up in my throat and pitching me forward just as the sheet flapped up in the wind causing me to stumble and fall to the wet ground, and in that moment when I fell forward on my face in the dirt, in that very moment I had a full good look at Garnie who was unbuckling his belt with a furious face and drooling spit and panting out loud like a dog. I reckon he was fixing to whip me with his belt, but I don't know for sure because all of a sudden there in the middle of it all was Oakley who was the last thing I saw before I pitched forward.

Goddamn you!
Oakley said,
goddamn you,
and Garnie grunted like a pig every time Oakley hit him. Then Oakley was helping me up and blood was running down my front from where I had bit my lip, but in spite of that I grinned to see Garnie stumble off down the hill like a fat little drunk, with mud on the back of his pants. He looked like a funny man in the movies. I was still holding Maudy's little yellow dress which I had been hanging up. It had got all muddy when I fell.

Well Ivy,
Oakley said. Oakley had one arm around my waist and held my elbow with the other one, very formal, as if we were going to promenade.
This sure is some family I have married into,
Oakley said.

We walked to the house like that, real slow and stately, and stopped at the back steps. My hair had tumbled down of course and kept blowing into my eyes. Oakley touched my hair, my bleeding lip. I looked back at the wash flapping on the line in the wind and it seemed to me like it was dancing, like all of my family and me was out there dancing to beat the band.

So I remain

 

Your loving, proud, and hellbent sister,

 

IVY.

 

P.S. I have forgot to say that when Garnie left town with his Crusade, Ruthie stayed! For it turned out that Garnie beats her up, and makes her do bad things. She told Geneva all about it, and Geneva said Hellfire honey, it is no use putting up with that! Now she is making desserts for Geneva which she is real good at. One boy, Corey, stayed behind with his mother, but the other boy and Mary Magdalene went on with Garnie and John Three Sixteen and the rest of them. Garnie got ugly at the last, but Geneva stood up to him and threatened to call the sheriff who is one of her old sweeties. And Ruthie told Geneva that Garnie has not really done it for seven years! He
can't
do it, Ruthie says.

I found Garnie's little white Bible, that he lost in the fight, and I am studying it. It is pretty good. You know how I have always loved a story. I will write more later.

July 10, 1944.

 

 

Dear Joli,

 

I am writing to tell you about Martha's little wedding which we held here, at the house, a week ago. Of course this is not regular but since Oakley and his whole family just about keep the church in business, and since they have got a new preacher down there more broadminded than old Mr. Dent was, it could be done as Martha wished. You know Martha has never before expressed a preference for one thing over another in her whole life, so I said,
Let her have her way for Gods sake!
And we did. What Martha wanted was not surprising to me, as she has not been out of this house hardly ever in her whole life since we came back here, except lately when she has took to riding with Rufus in his truck. And Rufus is just crazy about her, Joli! It would make you cry to see it. For he dotes on Martha in every particular. He has built her a house down there on Home Creek which is exactly like this one right down to the blue rag rug, so she will feel at home there.

Martha smiles whenever Rufus comes in the room, and follows him everywhere with her eyes. As for Rufus, he grins like a fool. Rufus Cook is the homeliest boy that was ever to walk the face of the earth, I might of mentioned that. He has got a big hook nose like his daddy, and no chin to speak of, and the biggest adams apple you ever saw. It wobbles all the time, and gives him a real high voice. But Martha thinks he hung the moon.

It is a funny thing to me, Joli. For I have figured out that the change in Martha must of occurred when I went off, that time four years ago, me leaving meant that Martha had to jump right in with me gone, she had to
do.
And she has kept on doing ever since, much more than you would of thought! I do not mean that she can read a book of course nor anything like that, but she can come and go and drive a car and do a lot better than you would of dreamed, five years ago. It is like a miracle to me.

And also it makes me wonder—if you
treat
somebody as simple, does it
make
them simple? For that is how we treated Martha for so long.

And if you love somebody, as Rufus loves her, does that bring them out?

Anyway, Martha's little wedding was short and sweet and Rufus did not do a thing but wear a clean white shirt tucked in his jeans with his carpenters rule strung to his belt as always. Mister Blue, that is the new preacher, made it quick. Oakley's folks do not like Mister Blue because he said from the pulpit that he does not think that Catholics are going to hell for the worship of idols, not necessarily. Mister Blue is one of these new kind of preachers that has gone to school for it, not just got the call. Anyway, all he did was get Rufus and Martha to repeat the vows.

Maudy was so excited she liked to have died, you would of thought it was
her
getting married instead of Martha! Geneva had bought Maudy a sailor dress and we pulled her hair back with a big bow, she looked so cute, she looked like Shirley Temple in a movie, or somebody about to bust loose in a dance. You know she is 8 now, it don't seem possible. LuIda would of been 9.

And Martha is going to have a baby, so it all goes on, I reckon.

And speaking of young love, what are you going to do about yourn? Taylor Cunningham the Third I mean. He sounds like a King to me. Ha ha, just joking. I don't know what you mean,
a good catch.
I think you have been away from here too long, Joli. I think you ought to come back and let Geneva feed you some lemon chess pie and let me talk some sense into your pretty head. I guess I sound like old Granny Rowe, before long I will look like her too. Your daddy and me are getting
old,
Joli, it hit me yesterday as we were standing up there with Martha and Rufus and I thought how we stood up ourselves to marry, all those years ago. I looked over at him and I could tell he was thinking the same thing or damn near similar. He squeezed my hand. Your daddy breathes heavy now, you can hear him all over the house, I guess it is all those years in the mine. But he is such a good looking man, I think. He is better looking now than ever.

Anyway Joli, I hope you will think twice before you haul in this good catch of yourn. You better think if you could keep your job on the newspaper too, after the war I mean, or if you would have to just be Mrs. Taylor Cunningham the Third. It might be a full time job!

But here now.

I've saved the best for last.

Because
Violet
showed up, yes Violet Gayheart, Martha's mama, after all these years! I could not believe it and neither could anyone else. I would not of known her either. For Violet is all business and tough as nails, these days. You know she lost Rush in the mine. Now she has lost R.T. in the war, a year before it even started, on a Navy ship. But this has not slowed her down any, only made her more determined. For Violet Gayheart is a famous woman now, and looks it. She holds herself real tall and dresses up, nice seersucker suit, big black hat, and her face—which was always haunted, some way—has turned into a face you can not forget, for her eyes burn now with what she believes. It is like a part of who she was—the fun Violet I knew back in the Diamond days—has been burned clean out of her. She is a different woman now. I feel like she sees more than I do, and more than I want to see. This is true in fact as well, for she got into an argument right before she left with old Delphi Rolette and his boy Gus over the little truck mine that they are running now on some land they own down by the river. Of course they are not union! There is only five of them working it, and hauling it out in a truck. This is true all over the county which has never been big for the union as there is no real big mines here, not like over in Harlan for instance, or at Diamond. Not since Consolidated Coal pulled out. There is tipples falling down all over these hills.

Listen here,
Violet said to Gus.
You have got your rights too. You deserve better.

I deserve the right to make a living if I can do it,
said Gus Rolette in no uncertain terms.
Come on Daddy,
and he pulled old Delphi away who did not understand what all the fuss was about or who this dressed up woman was that talked so fast and sounded so definite.

Nor did Martha! I introduced them on the porch before the service, and said real clear,
Now Martha, this is your mother, who has come from a long way off.

I'm getting married,
Martha said to Violet, who said,
I know it, dear. That's why I came,
and kissed her. Martha giggled, and seemed to know her then, and Violet helped me fix the flowers in her hair. Rufus sat out back on the steps smoking one Lucky Strike after another. We wouldn't let him come in until we were ready, then Maudy went out and got him.

To the surprise of all, the new preacher said right at the end like he was inspired,
Let us not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment,
and everybody stared at him. But I said without thinking,
Shakespeare.
It was like an old rusty door swung open in my mind. He—Mr. Blue—looked at me very careful and nodded. I felt a pain shoot through me, like an arrow in my heart. Oh Joli, you get so various as you get old! I have been so many people. And yet I think the most important thing is
Don't forget.
Don't ever forget. I tell you this now, in particular. A person can not afford to forget who they are or where they came from, or so I think, even when the remembering brings pain.

After the little service everybody gathered around for the Lady Baltimore cake that Ruthie had made, and ginger ale. We did not have any liquor out where you could see it because of Dreama Fox and Edith Fox and Ray Senior, and of course the preacher—who might not of minded at all! I cut the cake and gave Martha a piece and she gobbled it right down without passing it around first, and everybody laughed.

That baby is going to be well nourished, the preachers wife said, laughing. She is a plain, cheery woman from the North.

Now pass it around, I said.

Would you like some of this cake mam, Martha said then, giving the next piece to Violet, you couldn't tell if she really knew who Violet was or not. And why would she? For Martha has lived with us all of her life while her mother acted on principle, which I have not.

Would you tell Ivy that I'd like another little piece of that cake? Dreama said to Oakley. She was wearing her awful hat.

I was right there, of course, not ten feet away from Dreama myself, serving the cake. But she will not speak to me.

Ivy, Oakley said, winking at me, Dreama says she wants another piece of cake.