We almost didn’t get the pudding because Aunt Radene dropped it. Arvie Joe was asking Carl Ray if he was sure he hadn’t seen any murders yet in The City, and Carl Ray said, “The only dead body I’ve seen was—” but he didn’t finish because that’s when the pudding slipped out of Aunt Radene’s hands. She doesn’t like to hear about dead people—I can tell.
Then, while Aunt Radene was scooping up the pudding, Arvie Joe asked Carl Ray about his job in the hardware store, so Carl Ray told them about stocking and orders and all that boring quintessence. Arvie Joe said, “They sure must pay you a lot, if you can afford that car.”
Carl Ray looked right at me, and I knew it was a warning, so I didn’t say anything—not until Arvie Joe kept going on about how much money Carl Ray must be earning. Just to participate a little in the conversation, I said, “Well, Carl Ray’s lucky. People keep giving him things—”
Carl Ray gave me a dirty look.
“Like what?” Sally Lynn said.
I was in trouble now. I fished around and fished around. “Well, like a job…” (Carl Ray relaxed a little) “…and a ring…” (Carl Ray gave me the dirty look again).
“A ring?” said Aunt Radene.
I was about to explain that it was the ring from Uncle Carl Joe, but then Uncle Carl Joe said, “A ring? What the blazes for?” Everybody looked at Uncle Carl Joé. I think those were the first words he said to Carl Ray since we arrived. I couldn’t tell if Uncle Carl Joe was pretending he hadn’t given the ring to Carl Ray or if he thought I meant that Carl Ray had been given another ring.
Carl Ray was staring at me. Then I realized that Carl Ray knew that the only way I could have known someone had given that ring to him in the first place was if I had been snooping in his drawers and read that card. I tried to move on. I said, “Oh well, he gave it away anyway.”
“You gave it away?” said Aunt Radene to Carl Ray.
“You gave it away?” said Lee Bob and Sue Ann.
“What did you go and give the ring away for?” asked Uncle Carl Joe.
But it was about this time that Aunt Radene fainted dead away on the floor (fortunately she missed the pudding mess), and Uncle Carl Joe and Sue Ann and Lee Bob all jumped up and started patting her face and everybody else was crowding around and then they carried her into her bedroom.
Carl Ray stayed in the room with her and the rest of us went back out and ate dessert. Sally Lynn said we could eat the pudding because the floor was “clean enough to eat up off of” and it “wouldn’t hurt us none.” It was good, even though I did find a dog hair in mine, but I didn’t tell anyone.
So then Sue Ann, Sally Lynn, and Brenda Mae did the dishes (I asked if I could help, but they said no) and now everybody’s getting ready for bed and I’m sitting here in the kitchen writing by the kerosene lamp. Aunt Radene is still in bed, but I can hear her voice. She’s talking to Carl Ray, so she must feel a little better.
I sure would like to know why Uncle Carl Joe seems so mad at Carl Ray and why they don’t talk to each other. And I sure would like to know when Carl Ray’s going to tell everybody about the money and the college education. Maybe he wants them all to believe that he is making a ton of money working in a hardware store.
I’m going to the outhouse. I can’t put it off any longer. If I don’t come back, tell Alex I lovvvve him. And my parents too. And Maggie, Dennis, Dougie, and Tommy.
(I survived the outhouse.)
After breakfast, I went with Lee Bob, Sue Ann, and Sally Lynn to the swimming hole. It is the greatest place in the world. You have to climb a big hill out back and then go through some woods and then down a steep hill by way of a narrow path, and at the bottom of this hill is a creek and you follow the creek along for a while and then you come to the swimming hole. It’s not very big, maybe fifteen feet across, but it’s pretty deep in the middle. There are trees hanging over it, so when you float on your back, you can look up and see tons of leaves. All around the edges are old fallen logs. One of these sticks out into the water and Lee Bob dives off it. No one else is brave enough to.
Well, we were having a great time. I thought I was in a magical place. But all of a sudden, Lee Bob yells “Snapper!” and everybody starts flailing around trying to get to shore. I didn’t know what was going on. They were all yelling at me to get out and hurry up and, boy oh boy, I scrambled out so fast.
They were all pointing over to one side. “What is it?” I kept saying.
“Snapper! Snapper!”
“What’s a snapper?”
They all looked at me like I was an imbecile.
“Snapping turtle, dummy,” Lee Bob said.
“You mean there’s a snapping turtle in there?” I said.
“Couple of ’em. You gotta watch it or they’ll get your toes.”
After a while, everybody went back in the water. Everybody but me. I’d had enough swimming for one day.
I was suddenly reminded of Mr. Furtz. Swimming in that hole all happy and everything and then hearing “Snapper!” reminded me of how we were going along all cheery as clams when the phone rang that day and we found out Mr. Furtz was dead. Snapper! It makes you a little afraid to get back in the water. Is that a metaphor?
I’m the same age as Sally Lynn, but the funny thing is that even though I’m from The City, she and Sue Ann seem a lot older than I am. They’re always talking about boys, and you can tell from the way they talk that they’ve been going out with boys for a long time. Sue Ann said that three of her best friends, who are the same age as she is, are engaged to be married!!!! Imagine!!! And Sue Ann’s best friend, who is sixteen years old, is pregnant! And no one seems to mind! Some things seem a little advanced here in West Virginia. What’s the hurry??? My mother would have a fit.
Sue Ann and Sally Lynn kept asking me about Alex, but I kept trying to change the subject, because I knew they would want to know what-all we did (in the way of messing around) and I was pretty sure they’d think that what Alex and I did was pretty babyish. I mean, if they knew that we hadn’t even kissed, they would laugh themselves silly. Maybe Alex will kiss me when I get back. I ought to practice.
I’ve been “settin’” on the porch reading the Odyssey. Odysseus finally reaches Ithaca (his home), and instead of going right to his house (as I would have) he goes to an old shepherd’s hut, disguised as a beggar.
Telemachus (his son) comes along, and at first Odysseus goes on pretending he is a beggar, but then finally he lets his son know who he is. That’s a nice part, because they both start crying and all. I liked Odysseus better then, because I was beginning to wonder if he had any feelings. It was beginning to seem like all he did was sack cities and poke out the eyes of monsters and go on and on about how clever he was.
Aunt Radene said she was feeling “a mite better,” but she didn’t look well at all. Her eyes were all puffy and even her freckles were pale.
Do you know what she asked me? (Of course you don’t.) She said that Carl Ray told her all about the money he received at Mr. Biggers’s office and about the college education. “Any idea who that was from?” she asked.
“Nope,” I said.
“Well,” she said, “I’m gonna ask you something strange, and if’n you’d rather not do what I’m gonna ask you, you just tell me straight on out and I’ll abide by that. But if’n you’ll do what I ask, I’d be beholden, Mary Lou Finney.”