Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia

from Christy

CATHERINE MARSHALL 383 CHRISTY (1967) from Chapter Thirty-eight How can I ever forget that day in early October when Fairlight Spencer sent Zady to tell me that she needed me. Would I please come as soon as possible? No clue was offered as to what the need was. Only Zady's dark brooding eyes and thin face screwed up with worry underscored the urgency. Nor would the child leave my side until she had seen me saddling Buttons . Then her mission accomplished, without another word she bounded off toward home, streaking across the mission yard, leaping from rock to rock across the creek, running like a brown-legged deer diagonally up across the face of the mountain. I followed by the more tedious trail, giving Buttons the rein up the low foothills. But as we reached the first heavily wooded spur from which the path rose steeply, my mare was forced to a slow walk. The rhododendron leaves were still straight and shiny, like summer leaves, not beginning to curl as they usually did in the fall. At moments the silence of the woods was so intense that the patter ofacorns falling from the oak trees onto the dry leaves sounded like gentle rain. Though Buttons and I had made this trip often, the mare had never been sure-footed on the heights and she was always skittish about the final ascent to the Spencer cabin. As I rode over the crest ofthe last rise, I saw that all of the children-except John and Zady-were in the yard watching for me, their faces solemn. "What a nice welcoming committee," I greeted them. But there was no gaiety in their response. Clara came to help me dismount. "Been waitin' for you." She spoke softly, taking the reins from my hands. "I'll hitch the post to Buttons." Such a funny way to say it! "Where's your mother?" I asked. "Mama's inside." The tall girl's face was expressionless. She would not look me in the eyes. "She's abed." I hurried on into the cabin. From the open door, brilliant autumn sunlight spilled across the floor. But the cabin, usually noisy with activitychildren 's voices and laughter, kitchen sounds, Jeb's music-was so quiet it seemed deserted. Then I saw her, Fairlight, lying on the bed, the outlines of her body defined by the quilt tucked in around her. Her face was flushed with a heavy look about it that changed her features. Her eyes were open but bloodshot and dull, her head moving 384 LISTEN HERE restlessly from side to side on the pillow. I felt her forehead. Hot! Incredibly hot! "Christy-" One hand crept across the quilt toward me. "You've come." "Ofcourse, I've come, Fairlight. Why didn't you send for me sooner?" "My side hurts-here-so bad." Her breathing was heavy with such wheezing that I thought she might have pneumonia. But it was so earl] in the autumn. We haven't even had any cold weather. The children had trailed me into the house and were standing at the foot of the bed, watching me carefully. Their mother held her right hand up in front of her face. "It's bigged. All swelled up. Why is it so big?" I looked at the hand. Perfectly normal except that the skin was so dry that it was pulled taut. Fairlight's lips, cracked from the fever, were twitching in a strange way. "Clara, how long has your mother been like this?" "Mama was ailin', right bad offall last week," the girl answered. "Complained of a-hurtin' in the head. Yesterday had the trembles. Shook allover like an aspen tree in the wind. But she wouldn't take to her bed." "Where's your father?" "Took the hound-dogs, went ba-ar huntin'-over Laurel Top somewheres." "How long has he been gone?" The girl thought a moment. ''I'm not certain-sure. Left at day-bust, 'twas three days ago, reckon." "Christy-" the voice from the bed sounded desperate. Fairlight raised her head offthe pillow to look at me, but I had the feeling that her eyes were not focusing. The pupils looked dilated. "Christy, tell them ro take the chairs off'n me. All that house plunder they're a-pilin' on me. The chairs-all them chairs. Tell them- They're a-smashin' me. Tell them-" She began coughing , a deep racking cough, painful to hear. I...