Buddies (2 page)

Ernie quickly ate his half and reached into his coat pocket for the wad of chewing tobacco that he had saved. He said “What’cha wanna do this mornin’, Joey Frank? You wanna walk around doin’ nothin’, or do you wanna ketch a few balls?”

“If it suits you, Ernie, we’ll just walk around doin’ nothin’ ‘cause I don’t care about ketchin’ no balls this mornin’.”

“Heck, I don’t either, an’ anyway I need to save my energy for all them chores I’m gonna hafta do this evenin’.”

The boys decided to walk out into the woods behind the schoolhouse. They picked up acorns and threw them against the trees to hear them pop. After awhile Ernie grew bored, so he plopped down on the ground and leaned back against a tree and said, “Joey Frank, I’ve got to where I just hate comin’ to school. A fella’s head can hold just so much, an’ I thank that mine is about full up; ‘specially on that dumb ole war. We’ve been a-readin’ about that thang for over two weeks now. Heck! I’m tired of sech myself.”

“Yeah, I am too, Ernie, but I reckin we gonna hafta do it where we like it or not, ‘cause that’s what our folks sent us here for.”

Ernie spit then explained, “Joey Frank, let’s don’t go back to school today. Let’s stay out here in the woods and ramble around some. Heck, it ain’t gonna hurt to miss one day a-studyin’ about that danged ole war. We’ll catch up on that thang later”.

“I don’t know where we oughta do that or not Ernie. We could git in a heap a-trouble for doin’ sech.”

Ernie spit again and then he sputtered, “Well, I ain’t skeered a-gittin’ in trouble. I’ll thank of somethin’ to tell ole Miss Lester why we ain’t goin’ back.”

“We’d better not, Ernie. We’ll git ourselves caught forshore.”

“Well, who’s gonna ketch us, Joey Frank, some big olegaint?”

“Heck, no, I ain’t talkin’ about nothin’ like that, I’m talkin’ about our folks. If Mama ever found out I’d went an’ done sech, there ain’t no tellin’ what she’d do to me.”

“Joey Frank Cooper, I don’t believe that yore skeered of yore Mama no more than I believe a billy goat can fly. I thank that yore just makin’ scuses myself. I thank that you’ve got chicken blood a-runnin’ through them veins of yores.”

Joey Frank hated that remark, and he blew up saying, “Dang yore hide, Ernie Brown, don’t you commence on me about havin’ chicken blood in my veins. I don’t wanna hear sech outta you.”

“Well, if you don’t wanna hear sech, then why don’t you prove to me you ain’t got sech by not goin’ back to school.”

“Ernie Brown, sometime I’d just like to ––!”

“But you won’t.”

“Well, it ain’t ‘cause I got chicken blood in my veins that I won’t.”

“You ain’t proved to me that you ain’t got it in you. You ain’t said that you won’t go back to school have you?”

“But what about my lunch pail? I’ll hafta go back an’ gitit.”

“Then you’d better git goin’ before ole Miss Lester rings the bell an’ starts a-countin’ heads.”

“Okay, then, Ernie I reckin I’ll go. I guess I’m gonna git in a heap of trouble but I’ll go. I’ll meet you back here in a little bit.”

Joey Frank rushed back to the schoolhouse. Miss Lester was facing the blackboard writing the noon lesson when he entered the classroom. She didn’t notice him as he eased to his desk like a panther that had spotted prey to retrieve his lunch pail. He picked up the pail quietly, put it under his coat, and tiptoed back across the classroom and out the door he went. He ran past the children playing in the yard and on to the woods where Ernie anxiously waited for him.

“Did ole Miss Lester ast any questions, Joey Frank?” Ernie asked suddenly.

“She didn’t never see me. She wuz busy writin’ the lesson on the blackboard.”

“Then I’ll bet’cha it’s the first thang her ole hawk eyes ever missed seein’. Now come on an’ let’s git goin’ before she find’s out that we ain’t there an’ comes a-lookin’ for us.”

The boys moved quickly going farther and farther into the woods. After awhile, Joey Frank asked, “Where are we goin’, Ernie?”

“Just as for away from that danged ole schoolhouse as we can git; that’s where.”

On and on, farther and farther, the boys went. Ernie queried, “Joey Frank, how much more grub do you have left in that pail?”

“One tatter an’ three jam biscuits.”

The woods seemed endless until the boys finally came to an opening by a road that neither of them recognized. Ernie exclaimed, “I wonder which way wud be the best way for us to go, Joey Frank?”

“Heck if I know, Ernie. Maybe we oughta go back the way we come, we could git ourselves lost.”

“Don’t you commence to chicken out now Joey Frank Cooper. We’re just gittin’ started good, but before we decide on which way that we gonna go, let’s sit down here an’ eat that tater an’ biscuits. I’m a-starvin’.”

“Wait a minute, Ernie, looka yonder! Somebody is a-comin’ this way!”

“Danged if they ain’t. We’d better git back up here in the woods an’ hide ‘cause it could be somebody that ole Miss Lester’s got out a-lookin’ for us.”

The boys went quickly back into the woods. They hid behind some bushes and watched as a shiny black surrey pulled by a well-groomed horse slowly approached. It stopped close enough for the eager-eyed boys to peek through the bushes and see a well-dressed man and woman get out. The man had a box in his arms, and the woman had a shovel. The couple looked up and down the road as if to make sure no one was in sight then walked up into the woods close by where the boys were hidden.

“What’cha reckin they’re gonna do, Ernie?” Joey Frank whispered.

“I wudn’t know but we’re gonna find out for shore. Let’s squat down here to watch an’ see what they gonna do.”

The boys separated the bushes to get a better look. Ernie whispered, “Joey Frank, them folks looks like Banker Tolbert an’ Miss Rene, don’t they?”

“Yeah, I believe that’s them. What’cha reckin Banker Tolbert’s a-diggin’ that hole for?”

“To bury that box in; that’s what for.”

“What’cha reckin he’s got in it?”

“Beats the devil outta me, less’n it’s money.”

“They must have a heap of money if that big bank of theirs won’t hold it all.”

When the banker had finished digging, he laid the shovel to the side and took the box from his wife and put it in the hole.

Joey Frank whispered, “Ernie, look at Miss Rene, she’s a-startin’ to cry. What’cha reckin she’s doin’ that for?”

“’Cause she loves money, I guess; some folks is crazy about that stuff; an’ look at her now. She’s down on her knees like she’s a-prayin’.”

When Miss Rene arose, Banker Tolbert began to shovel the dirt in over the box. When he finished, he packed the loose soil down firmly with his feet, gathered up a large handful of dead leaves and bark then sprinkled them over the new dirt. He took Miss Rene by the arm as they walked back to their surrey.

Ernie said, “Joey Frank, we’ll give’m time to git outta sight good, an’ then we’ll go over there an’ find out how much money they went an’ buried in that box.”

“Don’t you wanna eat first, Ernie? You said back yonder that you wuz hungry. I could eat some myself.”

“This ain’t no time to thank about grub, Joey Frank, when there’s work to be done. Now come on, they’ve had time to be outta sight. Let’s git over there an’ dig-up that box.”

“An’ just what in the heck are we gonna dig with?”

“We gonna dig with these two thangs that we got a-hangin’ right here from our arms. That’s what! Now let’s git started; we ain’t got all day.”

The boys went over to the spot where Banker Tolbert had dug. They got down on their knees and began to scratch away the dirt from the hole. After awhile Ernie felt the top of the box. “Here it is, Joey Frank,” he screamed “now you git a-hold on that end an’ I’ll git this side, an’ we’ll lift it out.”

Before Joey Frank got hold of the box, he looked back toward the road and said, “I shore hope Banker Tolbert an’ Miss Rene don’t decide to come back an’ ketch us a-doin this. There ain’t no tellin’ what they might do to us.”

“They ain’t gonna come back, Joey Frank. Now will you hush up an’ let’s git this thang outta here.”

The boys worked the box out of the hole. Ernie said, “Whow! This dang thang’s heavy as lead. There must be a heap of money in here, an’ it must be all bills, too, ‘cause I don’t hear no change rollin’ around in there, do you?”

Joey Frank looking back toward the road answered “No.”

“Do you wanna open it, Joey Frank, or do you want meto?”

“You go on an’ open it, Ernie, ‘cause it wuz yore notion to dig it up.”

Ernie began to untie the twine from around the box, he said “Dang, they shore did tie this here box up good. I ain’t never seen this much twine on one thang in my life. They must not been aimin’ on leavin’ it here too long either, or they’d used a tin box instead of this here pasteboard thang. Wudn’t you say so?”

“Yeah, it looks like they wudda done sech, Ernie.”

When Ernie opened the box, a smile came across his face, “Well, I’ll just be dang. Will you look a-here at this? Banker Tolbert an’ Miss Rene’s got this money all wrapped up in this pertty pink blanket. I reckin they wuz afraid that it’d git cold. Lordy, lordy, I’ve seen ever’thang now.”

“Me too!” Joey Frank said, “I ain’t never heard tell of sech doin’s!”

Ernie pulled back the blanket from the bundle, hoping to start counting all the cash. Instead he shouted, “Holy thunder, Joey Frank Cooper, this here ain’t money; it’s a dang baby.”

Joey Frank sprang to his feet and backed away. “Is it alive, Ernie?”

“Well, heck no, it ain’t alive, dumbbell. How can you thank sech a thang?”

“Well, I didn’t know. I don’t know nothin’ about babies.”

“Well, I got anuff sense to know that it cain’t be alive, an’ I know that it ain’t s’pose to be buried away out here from nowhere too; that’s for shore.”

“Whata we gonna do with it, Ernie?

“We gonna put it right back here where we got it; that’s what,” Ernie said as he pulled the blanket back over the baby. “Now will you quit standin’ over there astin’ dumb questions an’ come on over here an’ give me a hand?”

Joey Frank didn’t want to, but he knelt down by Ernie, while Ernie retied the box. Together they put it back into the hole and covered it up. They got up, brushed away what they could of the wet soil from their hands and breeches, and walked away from the grave. Joey Frank asked Ernie, “Reckin why Banker Tolbert an’ Miss Rene went an’ buried that baby way out here from nowhere?”

“To keep anybody from knowin’ about it, that’s why. If they hadn’t been tryin’ to hide it, then they wudda had it buried at a graveyard where folks is s’pose to be buried.”

“Reckin who it belongs to?”

“I guess it belongs to Banker Tolbert an’ Miss Rene; that’s who.”

But then Ernie rethought, he said, “No-oo, I take it back, Joey Frank. I don’t guess it does neither ‘cause I see Miss Rene in Ruby Creek all the time, an’ she ain’t never looked like she wuz uh-uh. You know what I mean.” Ernie held his arms out from his stomach in a round position.

“Do you mean bein’ big in the belly, an’ a’fixin’ to sprout?”

“Yeah, that’s what I mean, but that still ain’t the right sayin’ for it. Heck, it don’t matter no how. Lets git outta here.

By the time we find our way home, I guess it’ll be nearly chore time.”

“I hope we find our way home before dark ‘cause if I ain’t there by then, Mama’s gonna be awful mad.”

“Don’t commence to frettin’, Joey Frank. We’ll find our way back before dark. We’ll follow Banker Tolbert’s surrey tracks. They oughta take us straight to Ruby Creek.”

The boys followed the fresh surrey tracks down the road. When they spotted a creek, they went down and washed their dirty hands. They recognized the creek and knew it wasn’t far from town. They had plenty of time before dark, so they sat down and ate the potato and biscuits from Joey Frank’s lunch pail.

They talked about the baby. Ernie exclaimed, “It wud be best not to tell anybody what we seen.” He also admitted, “If Pa ever found out that I left school, he’d horsewhip my hide.”

Joey Frank promised, “I’ll never tell nobody what we found. If Mama ever found out I left school, she’d horsewhip me for shore!”

Ernie thought up a story to tell Miss Lester about not returning to class. “I’ll tell her you stepped of in that quicksand hole behind the school house an’ I worked for hours to keep you from goin’ under. She’ll believe ever’ word, an’ that’ll be all there is to it.”

When the boys got to Ruby Creek, they saw Banker Tolbert’s shiny surrey with its muddy wheels parked in front of the bank. They looked at each other and without a word they went home.

CHAPTER TWO
 

The next morning Mama came to the kitchen with Gloria’s best clothes. As she placed them on the back of a chair to warm them by the cook stove, she said, “Joey Frank, Gloria didn’t sleep well at all last night. Whatever she has, it’s gotten worse. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to miss school today. Go out, hitch the wagon, and we’ll go to Ruby Creek and let Doctor Black look at her.”

The trip was cold and uncomfortable for Gloria. She kept her pale face buried against her Mama’s shoulder to keep from breathing the cold air that caused her to cough uncontrollably. Her thin legs shook so that Mama could hardly keep the blanket tucked around them.

When they arrived in front of Doctor Black’s office, Mama stepped from the wagon, straightened her shawl, looked up at the sky, and spoke with relief “Well, at last we’re here, and I do believe that the sun is going to show it’s face for a change. Thank the Lord!”

As Joey Frank took Gloria’s hand to help her step from the wagon, he saw Banker Tolbert’s shiny surrey pulling up in front of the bank. His concentration was interrupted and he stumbled, almost causing Gloria to fall. The surrey’s wheels had been washed clean, as though they had never been through the rough, muddy countryside.

“Joey Frank Cooper, watch what you’re doing, for heaven’s sakes,” Mama scolded. “This is no time to be daydreaming.”

“Yes, Mama.” Joey Frank obeyed as if to admit he were “daydreaming”, and not thinking about what the banker and his wife had done the day before.

When Gloria stepped into Doctor Black’s warm office, she began to vomit. The doctor got up from his desk and opened the door to the examination room, telling Mama “Please bring her inside.” Joey Frank took a seat in the waiting room, feeling very worried about his sister. He couldn’t remember Gloria’s being able to stay in school a full term, but she always passed her grade with help from him to keep up her studies.