The Heavenly Table

47

ON THE EVENING of the third full day at the Fiddlers’, with the corn all cut and standing in neat shocks in the fields, and the wound in Cob’s leg healing over nicely thanks to Eula’s poultices, Chimney told Cane it was time to go. They were washing off at the well before supper. Cane agreed, though he did so a little reluctantly. For the first time since they’d fled Tardweller’s barn, he had seen Cob genuinely happy, and he hated to see that come to an end. But a promise was a promise, and Chimney had more than fulfilled his part of the bargain. Too, though the days were still warm, the nights were now cool and crisp. He didn’t know much about Canada, but he suspected they should probably try to get there before winter hit. “I’ll tell ’em after we get done eating,” he said.

“However you want to do it,” Chimney said. “Long as we go.”

They had one of the best meals of their lives that evening — fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans and apple pie — and then they all went out to sit on the porch just as the sun was setting. Chimney walked over to the barn and brought back the last of their whiskey to share with Ellsworth, and Eula even allowed him to splash a drop in her coffee. He figured he’d give Cane a few more minutes, but if he didn’t say anything by the time the yard turned dark, he’d tell them himself.

“He’s lucky, you know,” Eula said, nodding at Cob’s leg. Then she launched into a story about a Blosser boy just down the road who had died from an infected rat bite two years ago. Just a little nip on the finger, and within a couple of days, his arm turned green with poison. His parents sent for a Doctor Hamm in Meade and he sawed it off, but it was too late by then. “You could hear the mother cryin’ and screamin’ clear up here when he took his last breath,” Ellsworth added, taking another sip from his cup. The boy’s parents asked the doctor to sew it back on before they buried him, Eula went on, so that he wouldn’t be a cripple when he got to heaven, but then they couldn’t find it.

“What do ye mean, they couldn’t find it?” Cane said.

Eula shook her head. “Just that,” she said. “The doctor, he’d laid it off to the side of the bed in Mrs. Blosser’s roaster pan and it just disappeared into thin air.”

“You mean like a ghost?” Cob asked.

“Could be.”

“We used to have us some ghosts down where—” Cob started to say.

“Maybe a dog got it,” Chimney cut in. “Hell, a dog will eat anything.”

“Well, they did have one,” Ellsworth said, “a little feisty thing. I think they called it Leo or something like that. But he wouldn’t have been big enough to carry off something the size of an arm.”

“It’s a mystery,” Eula said, nodding her head.

“They was a worthless bunch,” Ellsworth went on, “especially the old man. He didn’t do nothing but sit on the porch all day while his wife waited on him hand and foot. I wouldn’t have put it past him to have stolen it himself.”

“Why would he do that?” Cob asked.

“Well, I figure with her makin’ such a big fuss over the boy dying and all, he got jealous. That’s the way he was, always had to be the center of attention.”

“Ells, now you know—”

It was then that Cane coughed, and Eula stopped talking and looked over. When he stood up and announced that they’d be leaving tonight, Ellsworth said, “Why don’t ye wait till tomorrow? You boys got to be wore out, as much work as ye done.”

“Yeah,” Cob agreed. “We can go tomorrow.”

“Well, we’d like to make it to Meade by morning,” Cane said.

“But, heck, one more day—”

“Ells,” Eula said, “leave it be.” She got out of her chair and went into the house. In the kitchen, she lit the oil lamp and started to rid the table, but couldn’t stop thinking about how Junior had said that morning that he wished he could live here forever, then picked up Josephine and kissed her on top of the head. Granted, she hadn’t expected them to stay any longer than necessary, but she also hadn’t expected that she’d start worrying about any of them, either. She thought for a minute, staring at the floor with her lips pursed. No, she had to say something. If she didn’t, she’d regret it, just like she regretted keeping silent about Eddie until it was too late. She placed a stack of dirty plates in the sink and went back to the front door. “Tom,” she said, “would you mind comin’ in here a minute?” Cane glanced over at Ellsworth, but all the old man did was shrug his shoulders.

He followed Eula to the kitchen. Pouring herself the last of the coffee in the pot, she sat down and looked up at him standing in the doorway. “Now I know I’m just an old woman, and it’s none of my business what kind of trouble you’re all in, but—”

“We’re not in—”

“Let me finish,” Eula said. “But that boy a-sittin’ out there on the porch with a bullet still in his leg don’t need to be a part of it. I been around Junior enough these last couple days to know that much. So maybe you should quit doin’ whatever it was that got him hurt, and just get to wherever you’re going.” Then she picked up her cup to take a sip, but her lip began to quiver, and she set it back down. She appeared about to cry, and Cane was touched that she could have such feelings for his brother.

He started to reassure her that everything would turn out fine, but suddenly, as he looked over at the kitten curled up in a tight ball on its bed of rags in the corner, that didn’t seem quite good enough. He owed her more than that. “His real name’s Cob,” he said, and then turned and walked back out to the porch.

They rode away an hour later with Ellsworth standing in the yard waving goodbye. Cob was still whining about staying one more day, but within a few minutes he was asleep, slumped in the saddle, his round head bobbing over the pommel. It was after midnight when they passed through Nipgen. Not a single light burned anywhere. A lone dog was howling somewhere far off in the hills. “So what’s the plan when we get there?” Chimney asked as they left the little burg.

“Well, one thing’s for sure, we can’t all ride in together,” Cane began. “I’ll keep Cob with me and you’ll be on your own. Need to stable the horses, get some new clothes. We’ll stay in different hotels, pick some place to meet now and then.”

“Sounds good,” Chimney said. “Anything else?”

“Yeah, you think you could learn how to drive an automobile?”

“What?” Chimney said.

“I been thinkin’ on it, and it just makes sense. The more we change things, the less chance of gettin’ caught.”

“Hell, yes, I could. I can’t imagine there’s a whole lot to it.”

“Well, then, once you get to town and get settled, you start lookin’ around, see if you can buy one. Just make sure it’s big enough to haul all three of us.”

“But what about the horses?”

“We’ll figure that out later.”

“Jesus,” Chimney said, shaking his head and grinning, “did ye ever think a few weeks ago that we’d ever be buying an automobile?”

Cane shifted in his saddle and looked back to make sure Cob was still behind them. “No,” he said, “I couldn’t have imagined any of this, no matter how hard I tried.”