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Jim Strecker The Curill Tamara R.Baxter Me and Judy Renfro had it all planned out perfectly. Mama told me already that I could play after supper if I got the eggs in and I hurried to finish up so I could go up to the Renfro house and watch Granny Renfro cure a baby. Mama didn't know I was going to the Renfro's or I would have got a good hiding. Mama said the Renfro's were just poor trash and I was supposed to be polite but I wasn't supposed to associate with them on any account. But with 13 this curin and all I figured it was too important a thing to pass up. Judy told me it was a big secret the way Granny could cure babies and nobody was supposed to see when she cured a baby or it would be a curse for sure. But Judy had a good plan figured out just the same so we could watch through a crack in the wall while Granny cured this sick baby. Judy had it figured that if Granny didn't see us watching it wouldn't make any difference anyway. I went up the dirt road after supper making tracks in the red dust so clear I decided I had better drag a bush behind me like the cowboy did in those Zane Gray stories Mama read to me and my little brother. Just so no one could track me, you understand. My brother was always following me wherever I went even when Mama told him he couldn't and this was too secret and too important a thing to get messed up by some snivelling little brother. Besides, I had to give Judy my Indian Head Penny made in 1871 just to watch this curin. About half way up the road I met Judy running down the hill toward me in one of her feed-sack dresses and waving her arms in the air like a wild woman. She was hopping over the scant gravel with her bare feet like they were red hot coals. "Theys come! Theys come!" She was trying to shout in a whisper. "Theys come and brung their baby to get cured. Hurry up so's we can get in the back door fore granny takes the baby in or we'll be caught fer sure!" Judy turned and broke up the hill in a run over the hot gravels and I decided I'd better drop the brush and leave off the camouflaging. Judy humped over a little and motioned for me to do the same and we ran up behind their brown-shingled house to see what would happen next. A nearly-new Ford car was parked down in front of the red bank below their house and this young couple came up the path to the house with their baby crying and kicking something awful. "I spose that baby don't wont no curin the way hit's carryin on," Judy whispered. I nodded my head and agreed with her because she was four years older than me. We sat in the same row at school but just the same, Judy said being older meant knowing more and I generally took her word for everthing. We could hear Granny talking to the man and woman and then Judy's mama and daddy and her older sister came out on the front porch to hear what was being said. "Come on, now's our chance." Judy whispered. So we sneaked up the back steps and went through the kitchen toward the back bedroom. As we passed through I could still smell the green onions they must have had for supper. The cups of cornbread and milk were still setting on the kitchen table unfinished . "In here," Judy motioned and we tiptoed into the back room and made ourselves comfortable on a corner of the big corn-shuck bed. Judy told me in a proud way this was her room. Well, almost her room. Just her older sister slept there too. There was newspaper all over the walls and when I asked Judy what it...

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