He came back in, sat down, pulled off his socks, and grinned. "I’ve really never been this happy in my life."
Stanley slapped him on the back. "That’s your first payday, serving Jesus."
"Well, I guess you’re right," beamed Brother Ira. You know what...I’m going to spend the rest of this Christmas Day with my family and ask my Dad if I can go to work for him tomorrow. Sister Dicey, could I come back on weekends? I could build on Saturday and go to church with you Saturday night and Sunday."
"I’d be so pleased to have you!"
"Wow—my head is clear. Everything is going to be all right. Thank you, thank you Jesus."
"We’ll be glad to take you home, son. You might sink in a snowdrift if you try to go up over the mountain today."
I watched them go. His tent and sleeping bag were still on the porch. I started heating some water for dishes. It was so very quiet.
Chapter 6
I had to fight doubts and fears all that week. Was his experience real? Would he be tempted to take up cigarettes? Would his Dad allow him to work now? What if his fears were still there? What if he gets killed down under there?
But I’ve been a Christian for years, so I know how to fight those black things that come at you from every corner of your mind. You sing as loud as you can while you do your necessary work, then you take off and find someone to help.
I heard that Sister Ryan had a sick child, so I packed up the rest of my applesauce cake and hiked on down there. She was very glad to see me. Her husband is overbearing and bad to drink.
The child turned out to be her young lady, Katy, aged thirteen, who was having another round with tonsils and earaches. I helped hang out the clothes and tidy up the kitchen.
Katy woke up from a feverish nap. We gave her some spicewood tea with honey and had a good prayer for her. She sat up and asked about the two girls who had visited.
"Do you know them, Sister Dicey?"
"Not really. I never did find out their names."
"Well, the blonde one is Debbie Harless and the other is Drema Adkins. They go to my school, but they’re in the tenth grade. All the boys like them. They like Debbie because she’s rich and Drema because she’s pretty."
"She sure is a doll. Does she have a boyfriend?"
"No, her parents won’t let her look at a boy."
"Well, she is mighty young."
"Is the Harless boy really building a house in our hollow?"
"He’s cut a bunch of logs and has them curing there in the clearing above me. He’s a real worker."
"Why doesn’t he work for his Dad? Maybe he’s like a hippie?"
I laughed hard. "Maybe he is, but he’s in disguise because his hair isn’t long. And besides, maybe he does work for his Dad."
"We don’t ever see him coming up the road."
"He comes over the top. He’s strong and it only takes him thirty minutes to walk up and over. His Dad’s house is on this same property, but it’s on the other side. You’ll be well by Saturday night and you’ll see him at church! (I hoped.) Maybe you could invite Debbie and Drema to church."
"I believe they would be ashamed to come to our church. Besides, they’re big shots in the young people’s group in town."
Katy snuggled down into her pillow for some more rest. And we went to the kitchen table to sew on some buttons.
"Did you all have a good Christmas, Sara?" I asked.
"Dicey, you know how it is. The money we could have used for the children’s presents went for drink, so we went into debt again. But I’m beginning to see a ray of hope. He seems to take more interest in the children these days. He even asked me if I wanted to take Katy to the doctor when he gets home tonight. You know how he’s always been about doctors."
"She’s asleep again. If he had let her have her tonsils out long ago...but let’s keep praying."
"Dicey, I hear awful things go on at that young people’s group in town. The preacher lets them have parties and dances in the basement. Some of the kids sneak upstairs and fool around on the carpet in the church. Katy hears them giggle about it at school."
"Oh my goodness! No wonder our kids say they feel like oddballs."
"The parents are pleased that the children are at church, so they don’t know to worry or check into it."
"I’d sure hate to see those two girls fall into trouble."
Chapter 7
I was out at the pump that morning pouring some hot water over the handle joint, loosening up the ice, getting it to prime, when I saw Ira come running through the trees, red-faced. He began to yell at me.
"Get in the house! Get in the house!"
I laid down the bucket but grabbed the teakettle and held open the door for him. He snatched it shut and ran for the nearest window.
Nothing.
"Maybe I’m going crazy," he muttered between gasps of breath.
He looked out again, then opened the door a crack and peered around the yard.
"Sister Dicey, I wonder if you will believe me. Something was after me."
"Was it a person?"
"I don’t think so, but it did cry like a woman or a kid. I was right up on top of the mountain where the briars are so thick in the summer, and when I heard it I stopped and looked because I thought somebody was up there hurt, somehow."
"Back in the old days, panthers roamed here and cried like babies."
"Well, something black jumped at me from behind —see my shirt is ripped a little...I picked up my bag of clothes and swung them and then started clearing out...I believe it was behind me all the way ‘cause, rolling down that path, slipping and sliding, there seemed to be two of us. I never did see it again. Fact is...I didn’t slow down to look. Learned that in the Boy Scouts. In a race, don’t look back to see if you’re ahead. I guess I won. Wow."
"Son, we should have warned you that a new Christian is often attacked."
"By what?"
"The Enemy. Old Satan is mad when he loses a soul. He’ll fight to get it back. Sometimes he can scare a person out of his faith."
"Oh. Maybe that’s what was happening in the mine."
"Did you go to work?"
"Sure did. I’m glad that my old man would give me a chance. You should have seen how surprised he looked! But Wednesday afternoon, I was in a twenty-six inch seam and a big piece of slate fell out of the top right behind me. It would have smashed me flat if it had fallen one minute sooner."
"Were you scared?"
"Sure...but not in the way I used to be. I was mostly thankful."
"See now, you’ve had two close calls, but you were kept safe. Remember that: you will have all sorts of troubles, but the Lord will keep you safe in all of them. Don’t fear anything. I didn’t expect to see you so early."
"Well—I didn’t mean to get here quite so fast," he laughed. "Brother Stanley and Brother Bob said they would meet me here at ten o’clock."
"Well, you have time to tell me about the girls. How are they?"
"Fine."
"Is Debbie glad to have you at home?"
"Yes."
"You might never think of this, but if you are a grown man living at a boarding house, you should pay for your room and meals."
"I guess you’re right."
"Your Mom will respect you for it."
"I’m hoping to get a car so I can haul stuff up here."
"That’ll save you a lot of trouble coming over the top," I laughed.
"Say, that’s right!"
"Do you owe anybody anything?"
"Well, I guess I owe my Dad more than I could ever pay him."
"You’ll figure out some way to do your part."
"Uh huh."
"It looks like it’s going to be a good day for your work."
"Hmm?"
"Wonder how many logs you’ll need for a house? Say, what’s on your mind?"
&n
bsp; "Nothing."
"Is it a pretty girl by any chance? Now, for instance, that Drema."
Ira sat straight up. "You know, when I went into the Army that girl was just a kid...her teeth were too big for her face...she was fat and had stringy hair. I never noticed that she was a girl."
"Really?"
"One night, soon after I got home, she was spending the night at our house. They were fixing their hair. She was sitting in front of our big round mirror. Well...."
‘°Well?"
"I believe I hear a car coming up, or a truck."
"Sure is. That’s the men. I’ll fix a cup of coffee before they start."
Chapter 8
The day that Stanley and Bob helped Ira, they got down thirty more logs. I pulled the strips of bark off and some neighbor men came up with regular logging tools and got the logs up off the ground. They rolled them out on other logs like tracks.
Every Saturday Ira came, three more times over the mountain, then driving an old station wagon.
We had wonderful times at church. The Saturday night service was always full of the Spirit and much singing. Sunday morning was for studying the Bible and Sunday night was more worship. Ira would drive home Sunday night, and come back to work the next Saturday.
During the cold weather, he hauled rocks and dug his outhouse pit. Sometimes people would help him, but he was man enough to know that it was all up to him.
One day he had a bunch coming to raise the logs, just like in the old days. He had invited his family to come and help, and to meet his new neighbors, and to go to church with him.
I cooked everything I could find. The sun was on full bright. The wild Iris were decorating the creek bank with blue-purple and the forest birds were darting in and out of the clearing.
We hadn’t had this much excitement up here since the mine opened up in 1943.
I wondered if the girls would come. Maybe they would help in the serving.
Old Man Edwards promised to come.
The station wagon came...and the girls were with him. I was tickled to see some young’uns learning these things.
"Come right on in. I believe everything is going to be beautiful today. I’m so glad you girls could come. Are you going to stay for church?"
"Our church is having a party tonight," Debbie replied. "But we’ve promised Ira that we’ll come to church at least once. He’s been practicing a song on the guitar and we said we’d stay to hear him."
"Lots of our men help with the singing." I added, "Ira has a good voice."
"I always thought he would be too shy to do anything," said Drema.
"Well, I believe he’s kind of forgotten to be shy since Christmas," I said. "He doesn’t have to worry about himself so much now."
"He really does seem like a different person," said Debbie. "He said he’d been born again and I thought it was kind of funny. But he really acts like he had been born into somebody different."
"Do you girls get a lot of good teaching at your church?" I quizzed.
They looked at each other, grinned, and ducked their heads.
“Yes, ma’am," said Drema.
I wondered.
We took out the first tray full of doughnuts, coffee and orange juice. So far, five men had come.
Some women could wash logs, we were told, so I sent the girls back for rags and basins.
The power saw was making an awful racket, but everyone was encouraged. It could take such fast bites out of those big logs.
Ira was measuring and marking the logs while Old Man Edwards gave a lot of advice.
I was amazed at how good everything was set up. When Tim and I were trying to build, we seemed to do everything backwards. Ira wasn’t making any of our mistakes. But, how many boys will listen to advice? He’s a special one, that Ira.
Sister Ryan, Katy and the little boys had come. The boys were told to put the leftover chimney rocks under the first round of logs. That would help keep the rain from splashing up on the timbers. They were happy and busy while we scrubbed the old sap and dirt from the logs.
Ira would mark. We would scrub. Stanley would notch with the axe. The mule would pull and...up another log!
A pickup truck pulled in. I was delighted to see three of our best carpenters. They got out their tool boxes and pulled off their good jackets.
(Now, you might think that all mountain people work together like this. That’s a tale in history books. But that day...it really happened once more.)
The carpenters looked through the lumber that Ira had been buying and hauling in each weekend. They got the 2x4’s and sized up the space to be floored.
"That boy is so lucky and doesn’t know it," I sighed. It must have taken six weeks for me and Tim to get our floor down, and before that, about a month to get the roof up. But with good tools, good friends, and all the supplies...it was going to be a great day.
At this moment, one of Sister Ryan’s little boys began to scream. "Get it off! Get it off me! Help! I’ll die."
He was bawling and panicked when the first man got over to him. A huge copperhead was hanging to the boy’s wrist. Its orange head glistened. Its chunky body writhed in the air.
"Lay it on the ground, son," the man yelled.
Another man knocked him to the dirt while a third man laid a big stick across the snake’s neck and stood on both ends.
The snake let loose. Everyone was squealing. The child’s arm was already swelling. I bowed my head. Oh, thank goodness there was Someone Big who cared.
Sister Ryan called for order. Her long years of hardship had made a tough saint of her.
"Now, most of you people here are brothers and sisters. You know our Lord promised us that snakes could not harm us. You know how our brother St. Paul in the Bible was busy about the Lord’s work when the snake bit him. He didn’t die. Now you and my boy here have come to help today. You are busy about the Lord’s work, and my boy is not going to die. Now, all believers pray."
She called two men to lay their hands on her boy’s head. She put a dab of spit on her finger and laid it on the bite. (There was no time to get anointing oil.) She spoke quietly to her Father in Heaven, reminding Him of Jesus’ promise.
The child began to vomit. Everyone moved back. He lay down in the grass nearby. Someone fanned him with a piece of newspaper. Someone brought cool water from the creek, and sponged his face. Someone laid a handful of wet mud on the two punctures on his wrist, while another squeezed his arm in a tight knot above his elbow. His body jerked for a few moments and then it looked as if stillness came over him. His eyes were closed. Katy began to cry.
His mother never looked down. She kept her eyes focused on a spot up there in the blue sky. She just kept thanking the Lord over and over, and smiling, and humming little parts of old hymns. Others began to follow her example and quit staring at the motionless body. It seemed to me that a breeze came up, for I noticed that the treetops swayed for a while. I guess we stood there fifteen or twenty minutes before we heard a noise from the ground.
"Mom."
We saw two blue eyes looking up, and maybe a tiny smile on that boyish freckled face.
"Mom," he whispered, "something came over me. Something warm is poured all over me. See what it is."
"Oh, honey, it is the good warm love of Jesus. In a few minutes, you see if you can get up and walk around."
He raised his head a few inches, then waved his arms around. He tried bending his knees and they both seemed to work. He rolled over to the right and then back to the left. He doubled up there on the ground into a tight ball and then got up on his feet.
We all cheered. Within minutes, the saw was going again and the rock crew was at it again this time pushing the stones with a big stick first.
Do you know what became of the snake? One of the men kept a cage in the trunk of his car and had a pronged stick to catch any poison snake he could find.
He was happy to have this snake to take to his church. We didn’t care for that at all, but the man loves Jesus and he was always eager to help people. (His bunch was often condemned as the Holy Rollers or the Snake Handlers.) There are a lot of things in this old world that I don’t understand, and this is one of them. May the Lord have mercy on all of us critters.
I went on back to the house to tend to my cooking. Who should come up on the porch but Mrs. Harless? And there was Old Man Harless going over to join the men.
"Why, Mrs. Harless, this is a happy day. So glad you could come. You have a son to be proud of—a real man."
"Sister Dicey, may I call you that? Ira always does."
"Why certainly!"
"Thank you for taking him in on the weekends. He seems to like you very much. You’ve been real nice to him."
"Can you picture that it did me good to have some young life around here, Mrs. Harless? This house-building is so exciting to me. But, most of all, I’m proud of a boy who would look ahead and prepare himself for a family. Ira seems so sensible for his age."
"He was just as light-headed as any other kid when he went off to service. We wanted him to go to college, but...I think he must have sobered up a lot overseas. He never talks about it."
"He’s talked late at night here after church. He says he read the Bible a lot over there and he saw a lot."
"Really? Well, maybe that’s what kept him. We were so afraid he would be killed or be one of those who got on drugs. Say, do you know how he happened to quit smoking? He says he’ll tell us someday."
"I’m sure he will."
"I wish he’d tell me now. Say, I brought some potato salad and some baked beans."
"Good. I’ve got pies and Ira bought this ham and had it sliced. Did you know he’s hoping to sleep over there tonight?"
"But he can’t! There might be bugs or snakes...."
"Oh, that boy’s not scared of anything," I laughed.
"Well, he always used to be."
"Did he invite you to hear him sing tonight?"
"Yes, but my husband simply won’t go. I told Debbie she could, since Ira begged her so much."
"Mrs. Harless, you come and join us whenever your husband says you can. You might be surprised."
We had a real good dinner. Some other families walked up to see how things were going. Round after round of logs were lifted. The mule pulled the cable, the cable pulled the log and the men swung it into place.