sent for some of Liddys boiled custard, for Mama Marie continues to fail, and wont eat, and this is the only thing that will tempt her. Law Law! Aunt Cecelia said. Today of all days, and of course Virgil is gone, well I suppose Liddy can make the custard, but I just dont know how I can get it out there to Four Oaks. Aunt Cecelia patted her special handkerchief all over her face.
Mary White and me can take it! I said, jumping right up for I love that walk better than anything.
Now Molly, you know you must say, Mary White and I, she corrected me.
Mary White and I would love to take it, I said.
Yes, please please please Grandmother, please let us go, we can take it, we know the way, and we will come right back, we promise. You know you like for us to do good deeds, oh please let us go. Mary White hugged Aunt Cecelias fat waist and wound herself into her big skirts.
Oh I suppose . . . let me just speak to Liddy then . . . but first you girls must finish your sums.
Oh yes mam. We sat back down, surprised as could be, while she wentback to the kitchen. Mary White copied my numbers down fast, for I am always right.
So that is how we were excused from lessons and got to walk to Mama Maries on such a bright and frozen morning. Of course we have made this trip many times together in summer and in fall, yet never before in this biting cold when your feet crunch down the icy grass in the yard with every step. I could HEAR us walking! And when you breathe in, it goes straight to your brain like Uncle Junius liquor which we have tasted too. When you breathe out, your breath makes a cloud in the air. The sky was a bright deep blue, like the blue of Aunt Fannies Dutch plate which hangs on the wall in the dining room. We walked down the lane, through the whispering cedars, and set off on the path through the icy woods. Everything was sparkling.
Why look at this, it is a work of art. Mary White broke off a weed encased in ice and waved it shimmering in the sun. She danced along the path in front of me, light as a fairy in her red coat. I followed, feeling drunk. We passed through a dark stand of big pines whose sharp scent stuck in our throats. Oh look! Mary White was all ready back out in the sunlight ahead pointing up to where a hawk was making big lazy circles in the sky. When he swooped down low we could see the red on his wings.
Soon we came to the sandy spring, where we broke the ice with the gourd that lay on the rock just waiting for us. This is the best water in the universe, Mary White said solemnly.
On we went, her red coat flitting in and out of the trees ahead of me. Sometimes she seemed not even to touch the ground. We came into the clear and struck out along a fencerow surprising the little birds who flew up all around us. We passed that pile of rocks which used to be the chimney of an old homestead, we know because daffodils pop up there every spring. Fannie said, Daffodils remember when the people are all gone.
Finally we came to the bridge over the mill creek and crossed it carefully, holding hands with one hand while clutching our bottles of boiled custard tight with the other. The wild black river roared below us, edged in silver lace. Cold air rushed up under our skirts. The water wheel turned at the sidewith its dripping buckets, yet we saw no one. Shutters were drawn on the mill, like sleeping eyes. We saw no one at all, not even the crazy old man who so often sits smoking his pipe on the stone slab by the old red plank door, now closed and bolted tight.
I feel like we are the only people alive in the world, I told Mary White who said she felt exactly the very same way.
On we went speaking of this and that, I cant think what, for me and Mary White are such good friends it is like I am only thinking aloud when I talk to her. We passed by the fairy ring known only to us and then came to the biggest tree in the county, a tree so big that a man once lived in it, so they say, and we always go inside it where we
Mary White and me can take it! I said, jumping right up for I love that walk better than anything.
Now Molly, you know you must say, Mary White and I, she corrected me.
Mary White and I would love to take it, I said.
Yes, please please please Grandmother, please let us go, we can take it, we know the way, and we will come right back, we promise. You know you like for us to do good deeds, oh please let us go. Mary White hugged Aunt Cecelias fat waist and wound herself into her big skirts.
Oh I suppose . . . let me just speak to Liddy then . . . but first you girls must finish your sums.
Oh yes mam. We sat back down, surprised as could be, while she wentback to the kitchen. Mary White copied my numbers down fast, for I am always right.
So that is how we were excused from lessons and got to walk to Mama Maries on such a bright and frozen morning. Of course we have made this trip many times together in summer and in fall, yet never before in this biting cold when your feet crunch down the icy grass in the yard with every step. I could HEAR us walking! And when you breathe in, it goes straight to your brain like Uncle Junius liquor which we have tasted too. When you breathe out, your breath makes a cloud in the air. The sky was a bright deep blue, like the blue of Aunt Fannies Dutch plate which hangs on the wall in the dining room. We walked down the lane, through the whispering cedars, and set off on the path through the icy woods. Everything was sparkling.
Why look at this, it is a work of art. Mary White broke off a weed encased in ice and waved it shimmering in the sun. She danced along the path in front of me, light as a fairy in her red coat. I followed, feeling drunk. We passed through a dark stand of big pines whose sharp scent stuck in our throats. Oh look! Mary White was all ready back out in the sunlight ahead pointing up to where a hawk was making big lazy circles in the sky. When he swooped down low we could see the red on his wings.
Soon we came to the sandy spring, where we broke the ice with the gourd that lay on the rock just waiting for us. This is the best water in the universe, Mary White said solemnly.
On we went, her red coat flitting in and out of the trees ahead of me. Sometimes she seemed not even to touch the ground. We came into the clear and struck out along a fencerow surprising the little birds who flew up all around us. We passed that pile of rocks which used to be the chimney of an old homestead, we know because daffodils pop up there every spring. Fannie said, Daffodils remember when the people are all gone.
Finally we came to the bridge over the mill creek and crossed it carefully, holding hands with one hand while clutching our bottles of boiled custard tight with the other. The wild black river roared below us, edged in silver lace. Cold air rushed up under our skirts. The water wheel turned at the sidewith its dripping buckets, yet we saw no one. Shutters were drawn on the mill, like sleeping eyes. We saw no one at all, not even the crazy old man who so often sits smoking his pipe on the stone slab by the old red plank door, now closed and bolted tight.
I feel like we are the only people alive in the world, I told Mary White who said she felt exactly the very same way.
On we went speaking of this and that, I cant think what, for me and Mary White are such good friends it is like I am only thinking aloud when I talk to her. We passed by the fairy ring known only to us and then came to the biggest tree in the county, a tree so big that a man once lived in it, so they say, and we always go inside it where we
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