Ask Louis

By Codename Emi

  “HEY!” I called. “Leave him alone.” I started to move between the two boys.

“No! Stay back Louis. I can handle this,” Jessie Jacobs said loudly. Then he went up to Douglas Major and said, “I’m warnin you, if ya don’t get outta here and leave me and my buddies alone then…” His voice trailed off.

“What? Are you scared? You know you can’t hurt me!” Doug yelled at him. “Ya big chickens.”

Then my little brother, Kyle, stepped up; “You quit callin us chickens!”

“Okay, he asked for it,” Jessie said through his teeth. He turned around to go and we followed him.

“Chickens, chickens, they’re just a bunch of chickens!” Doug and his gang chanted behind us. Then Jessie stopped and let out two long whistles.

“Oh no. No way,” Kyle complained, “you couldn’t, you wouldn’t, you can’t!”

Jessie nodded and said, “I won’t let ‘em hurt ‘em. It’s just to get ‘em outta here for a while.” Then, suddenly, there was a loud howl in the bushes.  Doug and his gang stopped chanting and then three big wolf dogs jumped out. Jessie whistled a command to the wolves and they started to run after Doug and his gang.  “Go on get um!” Jessie yelled and gave a big whoop.

“I’ll get you for this Whitman! I’ll get you,” Doug hollered back at us as they ran. We laughed and raced off toward our house.

 

  OH, Hi, now that you have a sample of what my life with Jessie Whitman and his ‘magical powers’, as the girls say, you might want know who I am. I’m Louis Magregor. I’ll be 15 next December. What? Who are my friends? Oh, okay, there is, of course, my little brother Kyle, who is 10, my little sisters, Kate and Emily, both 7, then Jessie Whitman, and no one knows his real age but him.  Who is Douglas Major? Well, Doug is sort of the neighborhood bully. What did you say? Okay, so you want to know more about Jessie. I can tell you a lot about him, but why don’t I go back to a time when he was just an orphaned boy, living in the woods. Back to when Kyle found him… 

 

  ONE fine day Kyle went out hunting with Kenny, our hunting dog. I would have gone with them but Mama insisted that I go to town with Papa. Papa and I were gone all day, she expected that, but when Kyle and Kenny weren’t back by the time it began to get dark, she began to worry. When we got home, she was sitting at the table, just about to cry, with the girls comforting her. When we walked in, she jumped up and ran to Papa.

“What’s the matter, Mama?” I asked.

The girls came up to me and Kate said, ”It’s Kyle, Louis.”

Then Emily finished,  “He hasn’t come back yet.”

“Oh,” was all I said.

We all just stood there until Papa said, “What are we all standing around for? Let’s go find him.”

I was instructed to search the woods on the left side of the house. I was walking on an old trail when suddenly my lantern went out. I kept walking. Then I began to cry out, ”Mama! Papa! Kyle! Somebody! Anybody!” I began to run. I came to a clearing and there was a fire in the middle. I noticed that there was a dog lying by the fire. At first I thought, “Oh it’s just some stray dog sleeping by this nice fire.” Then the more I thought about it; the more it started to look like Kenny. Then I suddenly thought, “Wait a sec. that dog isn’t breathing, and it is Kenny!”  Then I yelled “Oh, my gosh they killed Kenny!”

I turned around and ran down the path screaming.  Suddenly someone pulled me down onto the ground. They wrestled with me a while, but I had to give up because they were just too strong.

I heard a voice, ”There, that’s right. Be still. Be quiet. Please, don’t give me away.”

“Ok fine, but only if you let me get up,” I answered.

“Oh, sorry,” he said as he got off me. I got up, but he still kept a hard grip on my wrist. I surveyed my captor. I had expected him to be a grown man with huge muscles, but he was just a boy, not much taller than Kyle, wearing only some raggedy old breeches.

“Why,” I said in surprise, “you’re just a boy.”

“Yes,” he answered, “but I have wrestled bears and won.”

“Who are you? Where’s my little brother? And why is my dog lying by your fire, dead?” I asked in rage.

“Follow me,” he said with almost a growling tone and started off toward the clearing where I had seen Kenny before.

“Like I have a choice,” I thought and stumbled on behind him. When we got to the clearing Kyle was sitting by the fire. I went over and sat down beside him. “Where have you been?” I asked. “Mama’s worried sick!”

“Oh, sorry,” he said and looked at me.

“Oh my gosh, Kyle! What did you do to your head?” I demanded.

“I’m not sure,” he explained. “Jessie,” he motioned to the boy I had wrestled earlier, who was now crouched on the ground eating something. “Says that I was hit by a falling tree but that I should be okay.”

“So,” I said, jumping up and going over to the boy named Jessie, “you’re the one who hurt my brother and my dog. You’re going to pay for this!”

Here by the firelight I could see him better. His tanned face wore a white scar that reached from the top of his right eyebrow down past his nose. His dirty black hair, carelessly shaved around the back of his neck, hung loosely over the tips of his ears and forehead. It cast an eerie shadow over his startling grey-green eyes. 

He ignored my shout so I went over and kicked him. As soon as my foot hit him he jumped up and had me pinned down quicker then you can say ‘Johnny, be good!’

Then he told me, “Fine then! If you don’t believe me go tell your mummy and your daddy and whomever else you want to tell, but I want you to remember, I have wrestled bears and won.”

I laughed a mean laugh, helped Kyle up and lead him into the woods.

After a few minutes Kyle asked, “Louis, do you know where we’re going?”

“Of course I know where we’re going, dummy,” I answered. Then after a few seconds I groaned, “No wait, I don’t have a clue where we’re going!”  Then Jessie strolled out of the woods with the lantern that I had dropped earlier, fully lit. “ Gimme that!” I hollered as I grabbed the lantern out of his hands.

“I just thought that you might need some light,” he said, “and I hope ya know that you’re house is back thatta way.” He pointed back the way he had come. “The way you’re going you wont ever find your way out.”

“Humph,” I answered and turned around.

Kyle smiled and said, “Thanks for bringing our lantern. Why don’t you come with us? Our parents would love to meet you. Besides you saved my life.”

“Oh that was nothin,” Jessie said. “No thanks, though, I won’t come with you.”

“Oh, come on!” Kyle whined.

“Oh all right. I’ll walk with you to the end of the woods and that’s it,” Jessie replied.

“Okay,” Kyle said and ran up the path to catch up with me. When we got to the edge of the woods, Jessie jumped up into a large apple tree, got comfortable, and started snacking on an apple.

As soon as we got close the twins ran up to us and said, ”We heard you screaming. We thought something had happened to you.”

“No,” I said, “No, we’re okay now. I’ll go get Mama and Papa.” I began to call, “Mama! Papa! I found him! I found Kyle!” After a few seconds, Mama and Papa ran out of the woods.

Mama ran up to Kyle, hugged him, and said, “Oh Kyle, sweetie! You worried me sick. Thank heavens you’re safe.” Then she saw his face. “What happened to your face? Does it hurt? We should get a doctor right now.”

“No Mama, I’m alright. Jessie treated it,” Kyle told her.

“Who’s Jessie? Is he some new neighbor or a hunter?” Papa asked.

“I dunno. All I know is that he reminded me of the boys in the stories that you used to tell me. Remember? The ones about wise animals and orphaned children,” Kyle said.

“Yes, I remember,” Mama acknowledged.

“Come on, Kyle. How many times have we told you not to make up stories?” Papa said.

“But Papa,” Kyle protested.

“No buts Kyle! Go to bed,” Papa ordered. Kyle didn’t argue, he just hung his head and walked into the house with the girls following.

I felt sorry for him so I began to tell my side of the story, “Wait, Papa, I saw him too. I wrestled with him.”

“Stop standing up for your brother, Louis. He knows not to make up stories just to get himself out of trouble,” Papa said.

“I’m not lyin’, Papa. Jessie’s up there in that apple tree,” I told him.

He walked over to the tree, looked up, and asked, “Where Louis? Show me where this Jessie of yours is.”

“He was up there,” I complained.

“Good night, Louis,” Papa said.

“Papa, why don’t you believe me?” I questioned.

“Good night, Louis,” Mama and Papa said together.

“Fine,” I answered and stormed up to my room. When I got there I lay down on the bed and thought, ”I’ll get you for this Jessie. Whoever and where ever you are!”

Then I heard Jessie’s voice in my head, “Yeah. Sure. That’s what they all say.” I jumped up off the bed and looked around. There was no one in the room, but the voice sounded like he was standing in the room talking to me. Then I instantly felt sleepy, so I lay down on the bed and went to sleep.

 

 I suddenly jolted awake. Was that a scream I heard? Yes! It was!  I jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs. Papa had beaten me there and had helped Mama to the table.

          “What happened?” I asked.  Kyle walked into the room.

          “I opened the door,” Mama explained, “and there was Kenny. He didn’t jump up and bark when I opened the door, so I looked closer and he wasn’t breathing. I looked up and there, sitting on the porch swing, was a boy. He was eyeing me with frightened green eyes. Then, all at once, he jumped up and ran into the woods.”

          “See, I told you he was real!” Kyle voiced.

          “Kyle,” Papa said warningly.

          “But he’s real, Papa!” Kyle griped. “Louis and Mama saw him too!” Papa looked at Mama and me. I just smiled.

Mama shrugged and said, “Please, Dennis.” Papa suddenly lost his temper, took Kyle by the collar of his shirt, and started dragging him out toward the barn. Mama and I ran after them. We tried to stop him but he was out of control and just brushed us off. At that moment, without warning, there, in front of the barn door, stood Jessie.

“Uh, hi, um, uh” he said with a frightened grin on his face, “I’m Jessie.”

Papa let go of Kyle’s shirt and looked each of us in the eye before he grumbled, “I’m going to town,” and went into the barn to get his horse.

After he had departed, Jessie said, “I’ll best be going now, but before I do I have something for you.” He whistled and a small yippy dog ran up to him. He picked up the dog and handed him to Kyle. “This is Tide. Take good care of him for me, kid.”

“Thank you,” Kyle said as Tide licked his face.

“No, wait,” Mama called to him, “why don’t you stay for breakfast?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t stay, ma’am,” Jessie told her, “but thanks anyway.”

“But look at him, boys,” Mama said to us, trying to convince him to stay, “his clothes are about to fall off of him.”

“His hair’s so dirty you could probably see yourself in it,” I said taking Mama’s example. Tide jumped out of Kyle’s arms and ran up to Jessie.

“Tide wouldn’t want you to leave so early,” Kyle added.

“Oh, alright,” Jessie said as he gave in, “but just for today.”

 

  “EEEK! Mama who is that?” Katie yelled as the girls walked into the kitchen.

          “Good morning ladies,” Jessie said, now cleaned up and in some clean clothes. “I’m Jessie Whitman. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”  He rose from the table, made a weak bow, and extended a hand to each of the girls.

          “I’m Kate,” Kate said beaming.

          “And I’m Emily,” Emily said smiling at him.

          “He’s the one that rescued me last night!” Kyle told them.

          “Pancakes,” Jessie offered the twins at seat at the table, “made by your beautiful mother.” Mama smiled as the girls took their seats at the table.

“Is there anything I could do for you, madam?” Jessie said, turning to Mama.

          “No thanks, dear,” Mama said, “just sit down and finish eating your breakfast.”

          “Yes ma’am,” Jessie replied sweetly. I about puked he was being such a goody-goody.

          “As soon as you’re finished eating it’s off to your chores, kids,” Mama reminded us, “and remember girls today is the day that you are to collect the eggs.”

          “Oh please can I help with the eggs ma’am?” Jessie outburst suddenly.

          “Alright, alright,” Mama said, “but only after you finish your breakfast.”

          “Oh, yes ma’am,” he said sitting down quietly. Mamma walked out of the kitchen and went to her room. Jessie was eating as fast as he could. We were all staring at him. He stopped eating, put down his silverware, and asked, confused, “What? What did I do? Did I spill something on my shirt?”

          “Oh no,” I muttered, “it’s just that you came in here and started messing with our lives…”

          “Louis,” Emily said, interrupting me. “So,” she said, speaking to Jessie, “Kyle said that you saved his life. Is it true?”

          “Sure is,” he said. “You see, I was looking for me somethin’ to eat for my supper when I saw a big lightning bolt flash across the sky. I thought little of it at the time, but on my way back to my camp, I came across a tree that had been struck. Underneath the fallen tree lay your brother and his dog. Your dog was dead; your brother was just knocked out. I took both of them with me to my camp.  I bandaged up Kyle’s head and left him by the fire while I went back to look at the tree. That’s when I found Louis.”

          “Where? Where’d you find, Louis?” Kate asked mesmerized by his tale.

          “In trouble,” I muttered under my breath as I sunk down in my chair.

          “Well,” Jessie began, “Louis was running down the path screaming.”

          “Why was Louis screaming?” Emily asked with a giggle.

          “Cause he was having fun,” Jessie explained. I let out a sigh of relief.

          “Louis was having fun looking for Kyle?” Kate questioned.

          “I guess so,” he replied. He looked at me from across the table. I must have given him a funny look cause he laughed and continued his story. “Anyway, Louis was running down the path, screaming, and about scared me to death. I knew that he was going to hurt himself running down that path in the dark, so I stopped him and lead him back to my camp. Then he saw Kyle and took him home.”

          “Wow,” Emily murmured, gazing up into his wistful eyes.

          “Well,” I said getting up from the table, “we better start our chores now that we’ve all finished eating.”

          “Okay,” Jessie said. Kyle and I went to our chores as the girls led Jessie off toward the hen house.

          A while later after Kyle and I had finished our chores, we were in the kitchen playing with Tide when Mama came in and asked, “Do you boys have any idea where your little sisters are?” In response to her question Kate, Emily, and Jessie burst into the room covered in egg. “Where have you been?” Mama demanded of them.

          “At the hen house, looking for eggs,” Emily replied.

          “And does looking for eggs require getting covered in them?”

          “No ma’am,” Jessie answered.

          “Well then how did you get covered in them?” she questioned. They didn’t answer her. She began to search their faces for an explanation. First, she looked at Emily. Emily looked at Jessie and then grabbed his hand. Mama then looked over at Kate. Kate began to cry.

          “Oh please don’t cry, Kathryn. It’s alright,” Jessie said kneeling down and giving her a small hug. “Please ma’am, ‘tis all my fault. Don’t punish them too harshly. It all started when one of the hens I was trying to get at dropped an egg on my head.”

          “Wait, stop right there,” Mama interrupted, “how does a hen drop an egg on someone’s head?”

          “It was up on a rafter with its nest and when I tried to get at it, it scooted back and pushed an egg down on my head.” Mama nodded and he continued, “The girls began laughing at me so I picked up an egg and threw it at them. Then we sort of had an egg fight.”

          “’Sort of’?” Mama asked

          “Ma’am—“ he began.

          “Enough,” Mama said. “Girls go get cleaned up while I speak to Jessie. Louis, Kyle, why don’t you take Tide outside for a while?”

          “Yes ma’am,” we said and went outside. I was interested in what was going on inside so I sat on the porch swing and listened to them through an open window.

          “You poor boy,” Mama said. “Come here. Why don’t you sit down and tell me a little about yourself? What happed to your family?”

          “Well, madam, I’m sorry to say but I never knew my mother, she died soon after I was born,” Jessie explained. “My father ‘twas a good man. When he died, I was heartbroken. I took to the woods for comfort. I learned how to live off the land and one time I just didn’t go home. I’d been livin’ out there ‘til last night when your son found me.”

          “So you have no home?”

          “No, ma’am, no home at all.”

          “Before you left did you ever have to collect eggs?”

          “Yes ma’am, often I had to get eggs for my father.”

“Did your father ever allow you to have ‘egg fights’ at home?”

“No, ma’am,” Jessie replied shamefully.

“Well then what possessed you to have an egg fight with my girls?”

          “I-I do not know.”

          “If you were one of my sons then you would be whipped, but since you are not my son and I have no right to whip you, a different punishment must be made.”

          “Undoubtedly, ma’am.”

          “First, you shall pay me the money for every egg that is lost.”

          “How much would that be, ma’am?”

          “Two cents for every egg. Yesterday we had 32 eggs, so 32 times two is 64. You owe us 64 cents all together and I shall not let you leave until you pay me my 64 cents.”

          There was a pause and then, “Ma’am, here hold your hands out, I have something for you.” He unbuttoned his shirtsleeve and out fell five uncracked eggs. “I was going to keep them for myself but now that I have broken all of your other eggs…” he stopped and looked up into her eyes.

          “Bless you, child.” She paused to go put down the eggs and on her way back she picked up a ruler.  “I was going to give you a schoolhouse whipping but now that you have given me those eggs I have decided against it.”

          “So now I only owe you 32 cents!”

          “Oh no, dear, you did the math wrong. You have to take 32 subtract the 5 eggs that you gave me and then times that by two.”

          “Which would equal 32!”

          “No it would equal 54. So now, you only owe me 54 cents. Go get that egg out of your hair and if you see the girls tell them I would like to talk to them.”

          “Yes ‘m,” he replied. As soon as Jessie walked out of the room, Tide jumped into my lap and Kyle called for me to come play.

 

  THAT night in the middle of a conversation about mocking birds at supper, Jessie slipped under the table. We kept asking him why he was under the table but he wouldn’t answer. We heard the front door shut and Papa walked into the room. He sat down at the empty seat that Jessie had left.

          “Amelia, why does this food look like it has been picked at?” Papa asked Mama.

          “Because it has been, dear,” Mama replied.

          “By whom?” he asked.

          “By Jessie,” Mama answered. “Louis, would you please get your father a clean plate?”               

          “Yes ma’am,” I responded as I stood up.

          When I returned with the plate, Papa asked me, “Louis, before you left there was a roll on this plate. Am I right?”

          “Yes sir,” I replied, for I had noticed that Jessie kept trying to give his roll away but had no luck in succeeding.

          “Do you have any clue where it could have gone?” he questioned.

          “No sir, not a clue,” I answered truthfully and went to sit down again.

           “If that boy’s food is still here at the table, where is he?” Papa inquired.

          “Under the—“ I began as a fork clattered to the floor. Suddenly we heard a loud “ugh” and some coughing from under the table. I assumed that Jessie had just been kicked in the stomach. Papa bent down and reached under the table. Out came Jessie holding his stomach, coughing, and sputtering.

          “Wa’did ya do that for?” Jessie asked.

          “What are you doing in my house?” Papa demanded.

          “Your wife invited me in,” Jessie replied.

          “Ah,” Papa said, “well now I’m uninviting you, so get out!

          “Yes sir!” Jessie said and started out of the room. Then he caught Mama’s eye. He turned around and told Papa, “Sir, I can’t leave.”

          “Why not?” Papa questioned.

          “I-I just can’t,” he answered.

          “Dennis,” Mama said, “can we please talk about this in the other room and let the others finish eating.”

          “Sure, why not,” Papa said and headed toward the parlor. Jessie tried to slip away but Papa grabbed the collar of his shirt and said, “Oh no you don’t, you’re coming too.”

          “Yes, sir,” Jessie sighed and walked into the room with him.

          Although they were in the parlor, we could hear them as well as if they were in the kitchen.

          “Now then, why can’t you leave?” Papa asked Jessie.

          “Because,” Jessie said.

          “Because why?” Papa asked.

          “Because he owes us 54 cents,” Mama said.

          “And why does he owe us 54 cents?” Papa requested.

          “He owes us 54 cents because he had an egg fight with the twins this morning and broke all but five of them,” Mama informed him. Papa looked at Jessie.

          “Sir,” Jessie said, “I am ashamed.”

          “You ought to be,” Papa told him. “Sit down.”

          “Yes, sir,” Jessie answered and obeyed.

          “Boy, do you know how much those eggs are to this family?” Papa demanded.

          “N-no, sir,” Jessie replied.

          “More than 54 cents, no doubt!” Papa hollered.

          “I can pay you any amount you require, sir,” Jessie said.

          “Hush!” Papa commanded.

          “And so he must stay until he has paid all of his debts?” Papa said to Mama.

          “Yes, for if we let him go he may never come back,” Mama told him.

          “Well then how will he pay us for the services we will give him?” Papa asked.

          “I can pay in money or in work,” Jessie said.

Suddenly we heard a chair crashing to the ground and Papa yelled, “Hush, homeless filth!”

Standing up and looking him straight in the eye, Jessie said, “Sir, hit me again.”

“Why would I do that?” Papa asked.

“Because it says in the Holy Bible, ‘To him who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other to him also,’” Jessie told him.

“Dennis, please,” Mama whispered and touched his arm.

We heard the sound of a slap and Papa muttered, “Run-away scum.”

“’And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either,’” Jessie mumbled dumbly.

There was a pause and then Papa said, “50 cents per month, and it will be doubled until you can pay the 54 cents you owe us for the eggs.”

A muffled “Yes, sir” came from Jessie as Mama and Papa walked back into the kitchen.

Then Mama asked Kyle to go show Jessie to the guestroom. Kyle got up and left.

Soon after, the girls and I asked to be excused from the table.  We raced up the stairs to the guestroom where Jessie and Kyle were sitting on the floor playing a card game.

“Hi Jessie! Are you alright?” Kate asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Jessie answered. He didn’t look fine, though. The look in his eyes had even more longing than before and his cheeks had a flushed color to them.

“Yes! I won!” Kyle exclaimed as Jessie pocketed the cards.

“You’re good, no one’s ever beaten me before,” Jessie said.

“Thanks,” Kyle said.

“Hey Jessie,” Emily asked as she and Kate sat down by him, “would you tell us a story?”

“Sure,” Jessie said. “What kind of story would you like to hear?”

“Any kind.”

“How ‘bout one about an animal?”

“Okay.”

          Then Jessie began his story, ”There once was a young wolf. He was a happy wolf; he had all that he wanted. A brave father, a beautiful girl wolf, whom he loved very much, and a small pup of his own. He liked to frolic in the woods with his girlfriend and his pup. He also enjoyed the few hunts he was allowed to go on. His mother wolf had died soon after his eyes opened so he never knew her, although he had often dreamed of having her back. His girlfriend came from another pack; they had met in the woods one time when he was daydreaming about his mother.

“He went out with her one night and they heard an angry mob howling out in the darkness. He thought nothing of it but his girlfriend did. She ran back to the cave where they had left their pup. She grabbed the pup and quickly explained to him that they had to leave now. The wolf couldn’t leave his pack so his girlfriend ran off into night alone with the pup, never to be seen in those woods again.

“The wolf returned to his pack heartbroken and alone. The angry mob had come to his camp and was out talking to his father. He approached them with caution and went to stand by his father, listening intently. The mob was yelling at his father accusing him of taking a wolf girl from their pack. His father kept telling them he was innocent. Then the leader of the mob turned to the young wolf and sniffed him. Then they turned to his father and told him that he had to of taken her because his son had her sent rubbed on him. This was true and no one could object. Then the mob told them that they better have the girl by tomorrow or the young wolf belonged to them.” Jessie stopped here, sighed, and kept gazing out the window.

“What happens to the wolf?” Emily asked.

“Oh, yes,” Jessie said, “the wolf. The wolf’s father did not know about the girl wolf running off and the young wolf did not know where she would of gone. In the morning the mob showed up again and the wolf’s father told the wolf to run out the back and keep running until he couldn’t run any more. The wolf obeyed and as soon as he crossed the river, he heard a horrible sound and then all was quiet. The wolf knew what it meant, he knew, his father had been killed.”

“Is that the end?” Kate asked.

“Yes,” Jessie’s reply sounded sad, “It is for now.”

Mama walked into the room and asked, “What are you all doing in here?”

“Jessie was telling us a story,” Emily answered.

“Good,” Mama said, “It’s time for bed now, children, off to your beds.”

“Yes ma’am,” we all chorused. Everyone but Jessie and I got up and left. I sat there and stared into Jessie’s eyes. He was gazing out the window, again. He looked away from the window suddenly and looked down at his hands. He then clenched them into tight fists and looked up at me. As soon as he met my gaze I knew that the story he had just told was not just one he made up for the girls.

“Come on, Louis, bed time,” Mama said returning to the room.

“Yes ‘m,” I replied and let Jessie be for the time.

That night in bed I thought about his story and what other meaning it could have. He acted as if it had a deep, personal meaning for him. It could be something about his past. He could be a wolf turned into a boy, I’d heard about things that that.

On the other hand, it could mean something totally different. If nothing else, I believe it did tell something, this boy Jessie would be faithful to whatever promises he would make.

 

  THE next morning Jessie didn’t come down for breakfast. The girls kept asking me where Jessie was. I was also curious so right before lunch I went up to the guestroom. Jessie was asleep, but he wasn’t sleeping in the bed. He was sleeping in a hammock that he had stretched across the bedposts. I went jumped up onto the bed. He didn’t stir. I shook him lightly.

He rolled over and mumbled, “Oh, leave me alone, love. Can’t you see I’m sleeping?”

“Oh shut it,” I said as I pushed the hammock over so that he toppled out onto the floor.

He sat up, yawned, looked around, and then said, “Good morning Louis!”

“Good afternoon, Jessie,” I replied, scornfully.

“Afternoon!” he exclaimed. “I better get goin if I’m gonna get there on Marty’s shift!” He jumped up, grabbed his jacket, and ran down the stairs. I followed him.

“Boys, boys,” Mama said as she stopped us in the hall, “where do you think you’re going in such a hurry?”

“To get a job,” Jessie told her.

“Come get something to eat first,” she said.

“Oh, no thanks. I’ll get something when I get there,” he said.

“Where’s there?” she asked but he had already ran past her and out the door. I shrugged and ran after him. On the way through the yard, Tide came running after us.

“Where are you going?” Kyle asked on the run.

“To get a job,” Jessie hollered. “Wanna come?”

“Sure,” Kyle said.

We kept running until we got to the small pub that is along the road to town. Jessie did a back flip through the door. Kyle and I followed him in.

“Hey Jake!” Jessie called to one of the men.

“Hey Big Man. What’s new?” Jake asked.

“Oh nothin’ really, but if you wanna know the truth then,” Jessie leaned over and whispered in his face, “I got me a family.” They both looked over at Kyle and me.

“That’s a good one, Big Man,” Jake laughed and clapped him on the back.

As we walked up towards the counter, a few more men had called out “Hey Big Man!” and Jessie had called back to them all by name. He knew every one of these men. When we got up to the bar Jessie climbed up into one of the big stools. Some of the men had moved over so we could sit on either side of Jessie. They had also said hi to ‘Big Man’.

A lady, behind the counter, wearing a sequin, leotard type dress came up to us and said, “Hi Jessie, how’s it goin?”

“Just perfect, thanks,” Jessie replied.

“Well then what’ll it be?” she asked.

“The usual for me,” Jessie said, “hot cocoa for my boys, here, and somethin’ to eat.”

“Sure thing, Big Man,” she said.

When she returned with our drinks Jessie asked her, “Hey, Michelle, Marty around?”

“He’s in the back,” she replied.

“’K thanks,” Jessie said. “Don’t go away, boys, I’ll be right back.” He jumped off the stool, walked around the counter, and went into a door. He shut it as he went in so we couldn’t hear what was going on.

A few men walked up to us and one that Jessie had called Jim said, “So, your friends of the Big Man.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I replied.

“He saved my life!” Kyle shouted.

“Really?” another man asked slyly. “Well he saved mine too!”

“How’d he save your life?” Kyle asked.

“Well, first, he strolled on in here bought me a drink, like it was nothin’,” said the man, “an’ then I met him along the road an’ he let me ride his horse home.”

“And how did that save your life?” I inquired smartly.

 “It didn’t!” the man roared as they all laughed.

“Andrew!” Jessie called to the man as he walked up to us. “Leave my boys alone, they don’t know their way around here.”

“Yess-sir!” the man called as he backed away with a laugh.

“Come on, guys let’s get out of here,” Jessie said to us. On the way out he did a back flip through the door. I asked him why he did this and he said it was a symbol.

“A symbol of what?”

“A symbol of being the Big Man.”

“What’s ‘the Big Man’?”

“Well it’s kind of like being the leader or something. They get all their drinks for free and they get the respect of all the guys.”

“What did ya have to do to be the Big Man?”

“I had to arm wrestle Marty, he was Big Man before me, and Marty had to arm wrestle the Big Man before him.”

“So did you get a job?” Kyle asked.

“Yep.”

“What do ya have to do?”

“Clean tables after closing.”

“For how much?”

“Two cents a day.”

“Is that enough to pay rent so you can stay?”

“How do you know about that?” he exclaimed.

Tide suddenly came out of nowhere and ran in a circle around us.

“Hi, Tide! Where did you go, you little rascal?” Tide answered him by jumping up into his arms and barking.

“He knew where we were going.” Jessie scratched Tide’s ears.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, some of the guys don’t like him, they say he makes too much noise. But you know what I think?”

“What?”

“I think they’re afraid of him!” We laughed. Tide suddenly jumped out of Kyle’s arms and stood in front of us. He was growling at something coming up the road. “What is it, boy?” Jessie asked and he bent down so he could look at Tide’s eye level. Then we all saw what it was, four boys walking up the road shooting a popgun.

“Well, by golly, look who it is boys, it’s the Magregor dopes!” It was Douglas Major and his lame gang. “Oh look at the cute little doggie,” Doug said sarcastically as he bent down and tried to scratch Tide’s ears. Tide barked and almost bit him on the hand. “So who’s the new guy, Magregor?” Doug said, backing away from the dog.

“The names Whitman, Jessie Whitman,” he said coolly, and offered his hand to Doug. Doug didn’t take it though; he just scowled at it. 

“What is a guy like you doing with these dopes?” Doug asked Jessie, “They’ll make you lose your cool!”

“Hey look!” Jessie replied, “I won’t lose my cool, but you would, if you had any. Now bug off.”

Doug’s gang hissed and Doug said, “What if I don’t?”

“Well,” Jessie said pounding his fist into his other hand, “I could have my dog eat you.”

“Oh really?” Doug said. “That little thing! Ha!”

“No, not their dog, my dog.” Jessie growled.

“What is he? Invisible?” Doug laughed. “Come on, let’s go. These dopes aren’t worth talking to.” Doug and his gang started to walk away. Then Tide started barking and running up and down the road.

“Oh, what is it now?” I grumbled.

 “I don’t know but, it smells like,” Jessie sniffed, “like cat and,” he sniffed again, “and sweetness.”

“Sweetness?” I asked confused. “You’re crazy.”

“Yes I know,” Jessie replied with a laugh, “many people have said that I am, but look at me, I have the senses of a dog, I live like an animal, and I’m stronger than a bull. Maybe I am a little touched in the head.”

Tide kept barking and running around. Then we saw what it was he was barking at. An orange striped cat on a red leash was running at top speed toward us, pulling a girl behind him.

“Help! Help! Stop that cat!” she cried as they approached us.

“Stop It!” Jessie shouted firmly, “That is enough!” Suddenly both animals, dog and cat, stopped what they were doing. The cat began to groom its self. Tide rolled over and stuck his feet in the air. “That your cat?” Jessie asked the girl.

“Yes,” she replied.

“May I pick it up?” he asked politely.

“Yes,” she answered sweetly. Jessie bent down and scooped up the cat.

“Let go of its leash,” Jessie said, “It won’t get away now.”

“Okay,” she replied. The cat purred contently as Jessie stroked its back.

“Does he have a name?” Jessie questioned.

“Yes,” she returned, “Cory.”

 “Well he’s a sweet little thing, he is,” Jessie said, handing him back to the girl.

“Thank you,” she beamed at him. “I’m Marie.”

“And I’m Jessie,” he echoed.

Then Doug was back. “Stay away from her,” he whispered in Jessie’s ear, “she’s mine.”

“Okay, Okay,” Jessie said as he began to move away.

“Are you coming Marie or are you just going to stand here and talk to these losers all day?” Doug said aloud.

“I’m coming,” she answered. Doug offered her his arm but she didn’t take it. Then they started off.

After they had gone on down the road I raced Jessie back to the house and of course, I won, but when I got to the door Jessie yelled, “Open the door, Louis! Open the door!” I opened it quickly and Jessie did a flip into the house. Then Kyle ran in with Tide at his heels.

“Nice flip,” I said to Jessie.

He laughed, “Getting to be Big Man for a while always puts me in a good mood.”

“Back already boys?” Mama asked, coming into the front room. “Did you get the job, Jessie?”

“Yes, ma’am, sure did,” Jessie answered.

“How much does it pay?” Mama asked.

“Two cents a night ma’am,” he replied.

“Hmm,” Mama said, “That will be 62 cents a month. What will you do about your other fees?”

“I plan to get tips, ma’am,” he answered.

“That’s good,” Mama said. “Run along now boys, your sisters are waiting for you out back.” We nodded and walked back outside. Tide ran around the house and we followed him.

 

  As we walked down the street toward the church after Mama and Papa, I watched Jessie do a few cartwheels and a back flip in front of a group of tall       city girls. Then he did a few jumps and grabbed the roof above where they were sitting. They laughed and giggled when he moved up farther on the roof. Then, with one flying leap he jumped down and did a few flips, landing on his feet. The girls giggled and clapped when he removed his hat and bowed with a flourish. 

Momma and Papa had already reached the church and Papa said, “Call that boy,” before entering the big white doors. [JH1] 

          I yelled out to him, “Come on, you windbag! It’s Sunday!”

          He waved a farewell to the ladies and rushed down the street.

          We entered the church together and looked to Papa who was talking with one of the men. As he saw us enter he nodded to the man and led us into our usual pew, giving Jessie a look that said, I’ve got my eye on you.

          Jessie scuffed into the pew between Kyle and me. We sat quietly for the first part of the service, and then I noticed Jessie getting restless.

          I saw Kyle reach into his pocket and pull out a tiny green grasshopper. Jessie reached over and took it in his hand. He let it explore in his palm for a moment and then it suddenly jumped into the air. I stifled a laugh as I watched it land on the back of fat old Mrs. Hedigwig’s neck.

          She shot up with a scream. Chaos broke out as everyone around her rushed to help. The pastor rambled on with his prayers.

          Mama threw us three laughing boys a look which meant, You are in trouble!

          We immediately fell to standing up straight and pretending to pray along with the pastor. I looked sidelong at Jessie and he grinned and looked at his feet.

          Papa reached over and grabbed the back of our necks. “Come on boys, we’re going home,” he said and dragged Jessie and I outside with Kyle following.

          “Alright, which one of you did it,” he roared as the doors to the church slammed behind us.

          None of us answered, while Jessie lounged coolly on the steps.

“I’ve just about had it with you boys,” he grumbled as Mama and the girls walked down the church steps to stand next to Papa.

“Kyle, take anything else you’ve got in your pockets out, and let’s calmly make our way home, without picking anything else up, please,” Mama said and started down the road.

“Jessie, I would like to talk to you, if I may,” I heard Papa say.

“Sir?” Jessie replied.

“Boy, you cause embarrassment to me and my family, and if it weren’t for my wife persisting that you must stay, I would order you away this instant.”

“I try to be better, sir, I’m sorry, it’s just hard going from the woods to things like church and stuff, ya know?”

“Okay, but if anything else happens I’ll lock you in the chicken barn for the next two weeks!”

“Yes, sir,” Jessie replied and quickly fell in step between me and Kyle.

I don’t know how Jessie managed to stay out of the chicken barn, but I do know that I never saw the inside of that church again.

 

 “Hey, you two wanna come walk with me for a while ‘fore I have to go work?” Jessie asked me and Kyle as we sat around on the porch.

          “Sure,” I said and jumped up     (this will be continued ASAP, sorry)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  I guess this is the part in my story where it comes back to the present. Doug and Jessie have still been at it, non-stop. They’re like a couple of wild animals, fighting over the same piece of land or something. They just can’t cut it out. Many other things happened between the end of what I told you and now, but they are unimportant. Papa has finally gotten used to Jessie being around and has even started to like him, we all hope he has anyway.

          “Louis could you please pass the butter?” Jessie asked me. I passed it down to him. We were all sitting at the table eating supper like any other day. The girls were arguing with Kyle about how many rabbits they saw in a field that morning. Papa was talking to Mama about the milk cow. Jessie and I were just sitting there eating. Actually, I was watching Jessie eat. He always ate in very particular ways. Either he ate very quickly or he mashed all the food together and ate very slowly. Today he had mashed everything but his roll and the peas together. He had pushed it all around and was now was spreading butter all over his roll. He put it down and asked, “Excuse me, Mrs. Magregor, but may I go now?”

          “You didn’t eat anything, are you alright?” she asked.

          “Yes, ma’am, I’m okay. Just not hungry” he replied.

          “Alright then, go on,” she said. He nodded and then went outside. A while later I finished and went outside with my brother and sisters. Jessie was lying up on top of the hill.

As we ran up towards him he called out to us in a soft calm voice I had never heard him use before, “Slow down you’ll scare the animals.” We obeyed and when we got closer, we could see that he was covered in animals of all shapes and sizes.

“Oh how cute! Can I hold it?” Kate exclaimed, she was talking about a white rabbit that was lying on his chest.

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask her yourself. Her name’s Lavender,” Jessie said.

“What about this one?” Emily asked about a small bird.

“That’s Mickey,” Jessie explained. It went on like this until a cat crawled out of the woods and came up to Jessie.

“Hey isn’t that Marie’s cat?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah, I think it is,” Jessie said putting down a raccoon that didn’t want to be held by anyone but him. “Come here, Cory. Yeah that’s it, no one’s gonna hurt you now.” It slowly approached Jessie and he picked it up.

“It’s a mess,” Kyle said. “I wonder what happened.”

“I don’t know,” Jessie said, “but I bet Marie’s probably worried about him.”

“Yeah let’s go see if we can find her,” Kyle said. Jessie and I agreed but the girls opted to stay. That was fine with us and we set off down the road with Tide barking after us.

When we past by the place where Doug’s fort is a black scout ran up to us and demanded, “What are you doing here? You know you aren’t allowed.”

“We’re looking for Marie,” Jessie explained. “Is she here?”

“I don’t know, I’ll go see.” The scout ran to the fort and returned with Marie.

“Oh my poor Cory!” Marie cried and ran up to Jessie. “Where did you find him?”

“He wondered up to us today and we just thought that you might be wanting him back,” Jessie answered and handed the cat to her.

“Oh yes! He has been gone for at least five days now and I had almost given up hope,” she said. “Thank you!” Tide started barking again and she backed away from him with the cat.

“Quiet, Tide,” Jessie muttered. Tide whined.

“What are you doing here?” Doug growled as he walked up.

“We just came to return Marie’s cat,” Jessie answered.

“Well now that it’s returned get outta here.”

“Alright,” Jessie replied and turned around. Tide didn’t follow. “Come on, Tide! Let’s go.”

“The dog doesn’t want to go, it wants to stay here with Mr. Perfect.”

“And who is this Mr. Perfect you’re talking about?” Jessie whirled around to face him.

“You’re looking at him!”

“Oh really? Come on Tide!”

Tide suddenly jumped forward and pushed Doug into Jessie and before anyone could stop them, they were rolling on the ground, shouting and punching. Then suddenly a man on a midnight black horse rode up, jumped down, and started pulling the boys apart.

“Hey! Hey get off of him!” the man yelled. He finally got them away from each other. Then Jessie looked up at the strange man. He jumped up, a scared look on his face, and, wiping the blood away from his busted lip, ran into the woods.

The man made no movement to go after him, but when Kyle and I tried to sneak away the stranger yelled, “Oh no you don’t! Get back over here!” We did as we were told. The man made us hang around until he got our names and then he let us go. We ran all the way home. There were many questions awaiting us there when we came back without Jessie. After we had told the story for what seemed like a million times we went to bed.

 

  JESSIE didn’t come back that night and he wasn’t there the next morning. On the third night Jessie hadn’t been back, Tide was restless. He kept pulling on my pant leg and trying to get me to follow him. I kept pushing him away and he went on to pester the next person. He finally got the girls to go.

          “Mama you have to come now!” Kate said. “Emily’s waiting outside with him. He needs our help!”

          “Who needs our help?” Mama asked.

          “Jessie does! Hurry!”

          “Okay, okay, just wait a moment.”

          “No, now!”

          “Alright, let’s go.”

They were gone a few minutes and then Mama came back in dragging a half-dead body behind her. I went and helped her get him to the couch and then she began to give orders, “Kyle, go get me a wet rag and a glass of water. Emily, go get me the antiseptic that I keep in the bathroom. Kate, bring me some bandages. Louis, come help me here.” I approached the couch to see Jessie lying there. He was ripped apart, covered with cuts and scratches from head to toe.

“What happened?” I exclaimed.

“Hold him up,” Mama commanded as she stripped off his shirt.

“The bear,” Jessie gasped, “the bear…” That was all he could manage.

“What about the bear?” I asked.

“Attack,” he groaned. Kyle returned with the wet rag and the water.

“See if you can get him to drink this,” Mama handed me the glass. I put it to his lips and he drank it very slowly.

“Food,” he muttered.

“Kyle, go get me a roll from dinner,” Mama said. She began to put the antiseptic on his cuts. He moaned and began to whimper. Kyle brought the bread over.

“Allow me,” Kate said and took the bread from Kyle. She tore it off in little bits and put them one by one into his mouth. He forced a weak smile onto his pain-stricken face.

Mama called for Papa and told him to go and get a doctor. When they returned the doctor took a good look at Jessie and said that his leg was broken.  After the doctor finished operating on him, he took a good long nap.

When he awoke we all wanted to know what had happened, even Papa.

So he began to tell, “Well, you know, I had that rumble with Doug and that got me all upset. I had finished cleaning up at the stream and was throwing rocks across the water when a huge grizzly came up. He wasn’t doing anything, just came to get a drink, but I was so mad that I threw a rock at it. It just looked up at me and seeing me as a friend, went back to drinking. I threw another rock across the water. I just happened to hit this bear again. It looked up. It saw me and, since I was the only living thing around, charged at me. I was too tired to fight back so it just ripped me to shreds. After it left, I used all the strength I had left to make it to the back of your barn and that is where Tide found me.”

“You poor thing,” Mama said.

“You must be crazy,” Papa said, “throwing rocks at grizzlies!”

“At least you’re alive,” I remarked.

“Yeah, at least I am for now,” he mumbled.

 

  JESSIE’S leg laid him up for about a week or more. It drove him crazy. He tried to sneak out a couple of times; once he even tried to bribe me to help him out, but Mama always caught him. Papa went and bought a new milk cow yesterday and so far, no one has been able to milk it. Jessie has been begging to go and see the cow. He says he can help.

          “Please, ma’am,” Jessie pleaded, “I can help! All the cow needs is a little coaxing!”

          “Yeah and all we need is our money back,” Mama answered.

“Just let me go and talk to it! Please just once!” he said.

“No you have to stay here and rest,” Mama replied.

“Rest, smest,” he retorted, ”I need to see the cow.”

“Oh come on, Amelia. Let the kid have what he wants, it can’t hurt him,” Papa said.

“But the doctor said—“ she told him.

“It doesn’t matter what the doctor said. It’s just out to the barn,” Papa answered.

“Okay fine,” she said, “he’s all yours.”

“Come on Louis,” Papa called, “help me. Kyle, go set up a chair in the barn.” Then Papa and I half-dragged, half-carried, Jessie out to the barn and set him down in the chair that Kyle had set up for him.

He immediately began talking to the cow, “Hello, cow, how are you doing? Me? I’m Jessie. Oh her name’s Molly and she doesn’t like it when you slap her like that.”

“Yeah and we don’t like it when she kicks us like that either,” Papa said.

“Do you hear that Molly? Don’t kick. Let them milk you. What, you mean you don’t like it when they do that? Well you have to or else they’ll take you to a factory where they turn cows like you into meat.” The cow mooed and held still while Papa milked her. Jessie kept talking to her until the job was done. Then we brought Jessie back inside and he started telling Mama that it did help to go and talk to the cow. She just laughed.

The next time I went to milk the cow she refused to let me. I begged Mama to let Jessie go out to the barn and finally she gave in. Kyle and I helped Jessie limp out to the barn where he talked to the cow again. When we were about halfway finished Mama came in and told us that Jessie had a visitor.

“I wonder who it could be,” Kyle said as he helped Jessie up.

“I don’t know,” Jessie replied with a yelp as Kyle accidentally put a finger near one of his wounds. We dragged him up the porch steps where Marie was waiting for us. She jumped off the swing so we could put Jessie down.

“Hi Marie,” Jessie said, struggling to sit up.

“Here, let me,” she replied and helped him.

“Thank you,” he said and cringed as she ran a hand over a large gash that ran from the top of his shoulder to the middle of his bare chest. “Please, don’t.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she took her hand away, “I didn’t realize. What happened?”

“I was attacked by a grizzly,” was his pathetic reply.

“But why? Grizzlies don’t normally attack people, unless they’re mad—“ Jessie held up a hand to silence her.

“I threw a rock at it.”

“A rock?”

“A rock.”

“Why?”

“I was upset.”

“Why? Where you upset about the fight with Doug?”

“Do you have to ask so many questions?”

“Yes. My mother says I should be a writer for the newspaper.”

“That would be one good newspaper.”

Mama opened the door and Tide came running up to Jessie. He jumped up into Jessie’s lap with his paws on his shoulders. Jessie howled with pain.

“Bad dog, you!” Marie said and pried the dog off Jessie.

“I’ll take him,” Kyle said and stepped forward to get the dog.

“It’s time for supper now, boys,” Mama said. “Marie would you like to stay?”

“Oh no thanks Mrs. Magregor,” Marie replied, “I’ve got to get home, my mother’s waiting.”

“Okay, hurry then, boys, don’t let your food get cold,” Mama said and went back inside with Kyle and Tide at her heels.

“Anyway,” Marie said drawing our attention back to her, “I just came to see how you were, Jessie. By the way, in that tussle that you and Doug had, you just happened to bruise his rib and his mother is hopping mad about it. I’d just thought I’d warn you that she keeps saying that she’s going to come and have a talk with you, so watch out.”

“Thanks,” Jessie said.

“Good-bye Jessie,” she called as she walked away, “Bye Louis.”

“Bye,” Jessie and I chorused. Then I helped Jessie back inside and went to eat.

Later that night, after dinner and after I had gone out and finished the milking, Jessie was napping, Kyle and the girls were playing a card game, and I was petting Tide, when some one knocked on the door. Papa answered it and invited them in. I went to see who it was. It just happened to be Doug and his mother. They were arguing with my parents about Doug’s bruised rib. 

“It’s that boy’s fault my little Dougie has a bruised rib so why shouldn’t he have to pay for it?” Mrs. Major yelled.

“Because this boy doesn’t have the money to pay for something like that,” Papa said. I was surprised to hear him standing up for Jessie.

“So neither do we! Doug says that the only thing that boy got out of there with was a busted lip that he got only because he bit it himself. Whereas my Dougie here came out with a black eye, a bloody nose, and a bruised rib!” Doug’s mom answered.

“Mrs. Major calm down,” Mama said. “The boy is in worse shape than you think, go see for yourself.”

“Lead me to him!” she growled. Mama, Papa, Doug, and his mother came storming out of the parlor and into the den where Jessie was sleeping.

“Jessie,” Mama said shaking him lightly, “Wake up, we need to speak to you.” He groaned and tried to roll over. She shook him again, “Jessie, dear, Jessie, wake up.” He opened his eyes slightly and looked up at her.

“What now?” he asked dazedly.

“Someone here would like a word with you,” she answered. Jessie sat up with help from Papa.

“Hello,” Jessie said to Mrs. Major.

“Hello,” she replied, “I believe you are the one that had a fight with my boy here. Am I right?”

“Yes ma’am,” he answered, “I believe you are.”

“Did you know that you left him with a black eye, a bloody nose, and a bruised rib that will need operation?”

“No, ma’am.”

“What did my Dougie do to you in that tussle?”

“Nothing, I bit my own lip in fury, but that’s about it.”

“How could you get away with just that and do all this to my Dougie?”

“I-I-I, I don’t know.”

“I believe that since you are responsible for the bruised rib that you should be the one paying for it.”

“But ma’am,” he faltered, “that would cost at least fifty dollars. I don’t have that kind of money!”

“You have a strong body don’t you? Then you can a least work it off!”

“I guess I could, once my leg heals.”

“What’s wrong with your leg?” she asked and in reply Jessie let the blanket that he had wrapped around him fall. Mrs. Major gasped. “My Dougie didn’t do that did he?”

“No, ma’am. A grizzly bear did all this. Doug didn’t even touch me.”

“A grizzly?”

Jessie hung his head, picked the blanket back up, and replied shamefully, “Yes ma’am, a grizzly.” He paused and then said, ”I’ll be happy to work for you soon as I get back to my normal self, ma’am.”

“Alright then, as soon as you are able to work you come out to our place. The deal will hold for, say, maybe two or three years.”

“Two or three years!” he gasped.

“Yes, the money to pay for an operation like the one Doug will be needing is about three years wages for a average family. So do we have a deal?”

“We need a contract. It needs to be on paper.” I heard this, went into the kitchen, and returned with paper and a pen. Mrs. Major wrote a few sentences onto the paper and then handed it to Jessie.

“Louis, could you read this aloud so everyone could hear?” Jessie asked. With out knowing what I was doing my curiosity had drawn me to stand over Jessie behind the couch.

“Sure,” I replied as he handed the paper up to me. It read, “’In an unfair fight this boy, Jessie Whitman, bruised Douglas Major’s right rib and it now needs operation. Since he does not have the money to pay, he is bound to serve at the Major’s farm for two and a half years from the day he heals after a bear attack.’” She had signed at the bottom, ‘Mrs. Charlotte Major’. There was also a line for Jessie to sign. I handed it back to him.

 “It wasn’t an unfair fight! It was as fair as fair can be!” he protested.

“It sure looks unfair to me! I mean with all you got and all my Doug got,” she said.

“Please, change it,” he pleaded.

“Okay, fine,” she retorted and crossed out the word ‘unfair’ on the paper. “Are you happy now?”

Jessie looked up at me with his glistening green eyes pleading for help. He quickly glanced down at the paper and then back up at me. Then I saw what he was getting at; he couldn’t read. That was why he had me read it aloud and now he wanted me to tell him if what Mrs. Major did was right. I gave a slight nod and winked just to tell him that his secret was safe with me.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, turning back to Mrs. Major.

 “Then, if it’s agreed, you need to sign here,” she pointed at the bottom of the page.

“Okay,” Jessie faltered nervously and took the pen. He looked up at Mrs. Major, then at Doug, then Papa, who nodded, then up at Mama, and finally at me. There was a worried look in his eye. It frightened me a bit and I had to look away. He sighed and scribbled a small J.W. onto the paper.

Mrs. Major quickly whisked the paper away from him and said, “Now that that is taken care of we’ll go now. Nice talking to you again, Mrs. Magregor.” She headed out of the room and to the door with Doug following. I sniggered quietly at Doug when he walked past me.

He leaned over and whispered to me, “You better shut up Magregor and tell that friend of yours that my mother’s not sympathetic even with sissies like him. If we’re lucky she’ll work him to death the first day!”

“Come on, Dougie!” his mother called from the door.

“Yeah go on little Dougie, you wouldn’t want to keep your poor mummy waiting,” I plagued him as he walked away.

 

  The next day the doctor came, gave Jessie a pair of crutches, and told him he could walk on his leg a little. The first thing he did was to run out of the front door and fall down the porch steps.

          “Hallo! Could I get some help here?” Jessie called from the bottom of the steps.

          “Sure thing,” I said in-between laughs.

Even though he could now hobble around on his own he wasn’t able to do much. He keeps begging me to give him 55 cents but I don’t have 55 cents to give him so he’s going to have to find the money somewhere else.

          “Please Louis! I need the money!” he begged.

          “Like I said before I don’t have any money to give you,” I answered.

          “Yes you do! You just don’t want to give it to me!” he complained.

          “No I don’t have any at all,” I confirmed. Then Papa came in and went to the kitchen.

          “Well then if you won’t give it to me I’ll just have to go see how he takes it,” he said and went into the kitchen. “Sir, could I have a word with you?” I caught him ask and crept closer so I could hear better.

          “Why sure, Jessie,” Papa replied.

          “I-I-I,” he fumbled for the right words.

          “What did you do this time?” Papa asked sarcastically.

          “Sir, I don’t have the money to pay rent,” he said quickly.

          “That’s alright.”

          “You mean you’re not mad?” Jessie asked, baffled at his response.

          “Nope.”

          “Not one bit?”

          “Not one bit. You know who you remind me of, kid?”

          “No, sir. Who?”

          “You remind me of myself when I was about seventeen. I was just like you, except I had a family, seven brothers and sisters! Can you believe that? Seven! I was forever running off into the woods trying to get away from everything. My pa always found me though. It was hard. I was always a bully magnet and constantly getting into fights. Never was a day when I didn’t have a black eye or a bruise of some kind. You know you’re one lucky lad, you hear that, one lucky lad.”

          “Yes sir,” Jessie replied, “One lucky lad.”

          Papa laughed. “I like you kid, I didn’t used to, but I do now. If you wish maybe we could adopt you someday.”

          “Do you mean it? You would adopt a tramp like me?”

          “If you would like it.”

          “Oh would I! But—“

          “But what kid?”

          “I don’t know if she would like it.”

          “Who? If who would like it?”

          “My friend. I’ll have to check with her first.”

          “Okay, you do that and then get back to me.”

          “Alright, I will.” Jessie started to walk into the room and I ran quickly over to the couch, picked up a book, and then pretended to be reading. Jessie turned around and stuck his head back into the kitchen, “Thank you, sir, I appreciate it very much.” He came up to me tossing an old baseball up in the air. “Whatcha readin’?”

          I looked at the cover of the book I had picked up, it read, “’How to Sew’, by Natalie Griffith”

          “Why would anyone want to read that?” he asked.

          “Oh, it’s one of the girls old books,” I replied, embarrassed. Oh why did I have to pick this book?

          “Oh,” he said, “want to go play catch?”

          “Sure,” I replied as we went outside. I had to help him limp down the stairs since he still couldn’t do it himself. Then we played catch until we got tired and I dragged him back up the steps. He sat on the porch swing while I went to get us some water to drink. While I was inside, I heard a horse whinny and a man’s voice talking to Jessie.

          “Mr. and Mrs. Magregor, Louis! I think you better come out here,” I heard Jessie call. I abandoned the drinks and went out with Mama and Papa to see a large man, a black boy, and a coal black horse and buggy. I recognized the man from the night when Jessie got into the fight with Doug. I wanted to know what he was doing here.

          “What is going on here?” demanded Papa, laying his hands on Jessie’s shoulders.

          “I have just come to claim my slave boy,” the man answered.

          “What slave boy?” Papa asked. “We don’t own any slaves here.”

          “Why that boy right there! The one you’ve got your hands on. He’s my slave boy,” the man replied.

          “He is not anyone’s slave boy,” Mama voiced. The words ‘slave boy’ sounded like a curse on her tongue. “He has been living with us for at least four months now and he’s a good young fellow. He says he never knew his mother and that when his father died he ran off.”

          “Well that’s absolutely right, ma’am, but I’m afraid that’s not the whole truth,” the man said.

          “It’s not?” I questioned, not able to hold my tongue any longer.

          “No, lad, I’m afraid it’s not. You see the boy’s master stole my maidservant and then he went out and died. So since he was not able to return my maidservant the boy now belongs to me,” the man told us.

           “Is this true?” Papa questioned Jessie. Jessie shook his head.

          “Mama!” Emily called from inside the house, “Supper’s ready!”

          “Will you join us?” Mama asked the man.

          “Yes, I believe I will,” replied the man. “Oh and by the way, I am Mr. Biff Gilliton and this is my lackey, Nick.” The boy bowed low when he was introduced and Mr. Biff held his hand out to Papa.

          “I am Dennis Magregor, this is my wife Amelia and my son Louis,” Papa said.

          “Show them in, if you please, Dennis,” Mama told Papa, “we’ll need more eggs since they are staying.”  Papa took Mr. Biff and his ‘lackey’, as he called him, in. Mama whispered us some instructions, “Louis, go to the hen house with Jessie here, and on your way hide him in a cave or someplace where he can’t be found. Then come back here with some eggs. We can say that you were attacked by a pack of wolves and got separated.”

          “But Mama, wouldn’t that be lying?” I protested.

          “We could make it work,” Jessie answered. “I could call up my pack and they could chase us. Then it wouldn’t be all bull.”

          “Good boy!” Mama said patting his shoulder. “We’ll get you out of this somehow, but for now I wish you luck.” She bent down and kissed his cheek. “Go on now boys! Hurry!”

Then we ran off into the woods. Jessie whistled for his wolves and they chased us until we dived into a badger hole. He shoved his crutches into a corner while I wished him well and got up to leave.       

          “Wait, Louis,” he called, “please stay.”

          “I’ve got to get back,” I replied, “I’ll bring you somethin’ in the morning if I can. Don’t worry.”

          “Please, just for a while.”

          “Alright.” I went and sat down beside him. He was trembling. “What’s the matter? Are you cold?”

          “No. I’m just fine.” I felt his forehead to make sure he didn’t have fever. He didn’t, but his hair was damp with sweat.

          “Why are you so sweaty?”

          “I don’t know.” He was nervous, I could tell by the way his voice quivered.

          “Yes, you do.”

          “Alright, I’ll just admit it. I’m afraid of Master Biff.”

          “Master?” I was totally confused. “What are you talking about?”

          “Here,” he rolled up his pant leg and took out a handful of papers. “This should explain a lot.”

          I took the papers and went to the front of the cave. They told that some slave named Jacob Whitman was free. I went back to sit by Jessie, still entirety baffled. “Who’s this Jacob Whitman, he your servant?”

          “No, you’re looking at him,” he told me. I just gaped at him.

          “You mean to tell me that you really were a slave boy and that-that man, that Mr. Biff Gilliton, set you free and now he wants you back?”

          “No, my father set me free.”

          “Was your father a slave too?”

          “No he was a white man, although he always set his slaves free.”

          “So why does this Mr. Biff say that he owns you?”

          “Do you remember that story I told Kate and Emily that first night I stayed?”

          “Yeah, the one about the wolf.”

          “Yep, you see Master Biff had a slave girl that I was madly in love with and he wouldn’t let us get together so one day she just decided to take out and run away.  They tracked her all the way to our place where she had come to say good-bye. They couldn’t track her anymore because she had caught a ride on a passing wagon and made it across the river.

          “That day just happened to be the weekend that my father bought a new girl at an auction. They found this girl and thought they she was theirs, but it turned out that my father had set her free the day before. So he told her to run off and find herself a job of some sort. She did so and Master Biff couldn’t track her because she wasn’t their girl.

          “They blamed my father for helping her run. They wanted her back, and if they couldn’t have her, they wanted me instead. But, you see, this wasn’t meant to be because in the previous year my father had set me free. So I ran, but still stayed in the shadows to see what would happen. The next day they came back and wanted what was theirs. My father couldn’t give them that and so they took him and-and—“ He couldn’t go on and began to sob uncontrollably into my shoulder.

          “What did they do?”

          “They-they-they hung him!” He wailed.

          “That whole story’s crazy!”

          “No, no, I won’t let ‘em have me, Louis! I won’t let ‘em have me!” He was still crying on my shoulder.

          “Don’t worry, we won’t let them find you. I’ll keep you safe.”

          “Thanks, Louis, thanks a bunch.” He sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve. Then he leaned back over on me, his hand feeling along my chest.

          This action alarmed me and I asked tightfisted, “What do you want?”

          “Your hand, Louis, where’s your hand?” I relaxed and touched his arm. He took my hand and gave it a squeeze. Then he leaned on my arm and we sat there like that until I fell asleep.

          Suddenly I jerked awake. I was having a horrible dream. Jessie was telling me he was a freed slave and we were hiding in a badger hole. Oh no! It wasn’t a dream! I was really in a badger hole with Jessie leaning on me as he slept. I guess I had better get back then. I left my jacket for Jessie as a pillow and went off to get some eggs. As I climbed out of the hole, I noticed that it was beginning to get dark.  Had I really been asleep that long? Better hurry then, I thought. I ran to the hen house and then went home.

          “Where were you?” Papa asked when I burst into the room.

          “Getting eggs,” I replied.

          “What took you so long?”

          “A bunch of wolves came out of nowhere and chased us!”

          “Where’s Jessie?”

          “I don’t know, we got separated. I think they got him!”

          “Well don’t jump to any conclusions, we’ll find him.”

During all the questioning, Mr. Biff was watching me with a suspecting eye. I handed the eggs to Kate and went to eat. While I was eating, all I could think about was Jessie all alone in that cave, just waiting for Mr. Biff to come find him.

          “So the boy ran,” a voice said, coming into the kitchen, “I don’t blame him.” Then I saw who the voice belonged to, it was Mr. Biff’s ‘lackey’, Nick.

          “Go away,” I ordered, “I’m eating.” He didn’t leave.

          “You do know that no matter what Master’s gonna find him,” he taunted.

          “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied, wishing he would let me be.

          “Yes you do, don’t lie.”

          Tide growled from his place next to my chair, and I said, under my breath, “He’s a free man, now go away.”

          “Does he have papers?”

          “Yeah and they’re even signed and dated.”

          “That figures, the last guy that did that was caught and they hung him and the man that took him in.”

          Okay this boy better leave right this minute or I’ll beat him up so bad that he won’t have a bone left in his body. “Go away!”

          He still didn’t move. “You know they’ll find him, Master’s already sent for some hounds.”

          “Get out of here!” I hissed and stood up with my fork in hand.

          “Alright suit yourself,” he said and finally went away. I made a mental note to keep my eye on him.

          Then Mama came in and sat down beside me. “Everything alright?”

          “Yeah, the badger’s fine now.” I replied telling her in code that Jessie was all right and in a badger hole.

          “Will he need food in the morning?”

          “Yeah. He was pretty frightened.”

          “Why?”

          “Those hunters killed his father because he stole their deer.”

          Mama nodded. “Tell me about it later, dear. I’m worried about him, though.”

          “It’s alright, it’ll be fine. It’s used to being out in the wild.”

          “I’m sure it is,” she replied sadly.

 

  IN the middle of the night Papa woke me up and told me to come out to the barn. Mama was waiting there for us with a lantern. They wanted me to show them where Jessie was hidden. So I led them into the woods and on the way, I told them all that Jessie had told me.

          “Jessie! Hey Jessie Jacobs you down there?” I called into the hole.

          “Quiet! You never know who could be out there,” he replied sticking his head out. “Hello Mrs. Magregor, Mr. Magregor.”

          “How come you never told us about this?” Papa questioned.

          “About what?” Jessie was not about to tell them all he had told me.

          “About you being a run away slave. Why didn’t you tell us?”

          “I’m not a run away slave! I’m a freed slave!”

          “But that still doesn’t answer my question, boy. Why didn’t you tell us about it?”

          “Because I was afraid you wouldn’t let me stay. I mean I am a free man but some people just don’t like blacks like me in their houses. Half white or not.” 

                   “Oh, we wouldn’t have minded,” Mama said kneeling down and giving him a slight hug. “Would we, boys?”

          Papa and I exchanged looks and Papa said, “We would have kicked him out first thing for sure.” He laughed.

          “That’s not funny!” Jessie complained. Papa continued to chuckle. Jessie made a face at him. “What’re we gonna do?”

          He had turned back to Mama and she replied, “Can I see these papers of yours?” He again rolled up the leg of his pants and took out the papers. She took a good look at them and then handed them to Papa. “Do you have anything else hidden in there?” She felt along the bottom of his pant legs.

          “I’ve got this,” Jessie said and took out an old photograph of a black woman and a tall white man. The woman was holding a baby. “This was taken when I was three months old. That’s my mother.” He pointed to the woman in the picture.

          “And what is this?” Mama questioned as she pulled a small stack of papers out of his left pant leg.

          Jessie quickly grabbed the papers out of her hands and shoved them into his pocket. “Telegrams,” he told her.

          “From who?” she asked.

          “My friend,” was his simple answer.

          “Who is this friend?”

          “My amiga.”

          “What’s this amiga’s name?”

          “I ain’t tellin’!”

          “And why not?”

          Jessie grinned and dove back into his hole with an “It’s a secret!” echoing behind him. I dove in after him and pulled him back out.

          “But I thought that you couldn’t read,” I affirmed.

          He glared at me. “I can’t.”

          “Well then how do know who those telegrams are from?”

          “I get Marty to read them for me.” He suddenly crawled back into the badger hole. “Please, leave me be. I can’t stand all this.”  

          I began to go after him again but Mama stopped me, “He’s frightened. We’re intruding in on his personal life. He probably wanted to start all over again but now here we are asking him all these questions.”

          I looked over at Papa. “She’s right. Let’s go. We know enough already. Probably too much for our own good,” he said and helped me up from my seat on the ground. Then we made our way back to the house.

          That morning Mr. Biff came to breakfast hopping mad. “Where’s Nick?” he shouted. “Where’s my lackey? Which one of you took him?”

          “What makes you so sure we took him?” Mama questioned.

          “Because you all were up last night running around!”

          “We were, but we didn’t even go near your room.”

          “Well then what were you doing up?”

          “Milking the cow,” I cut in, for just then, I had opened the door and there, sitting on the bottom step of the porch, was a pail full of milk. Jessie came back last night and milked the cow for us, I thought.

          “In the middle of the night?” Mr. Biff asked.

          “Yup,” I replied, “It likes to be milked at night better.” Mr. Biff just scowled at us.

          As soon as breakfast was over, I set out to see Jessie again. I brought Tide with me for security, to make sure no one was following. When we approached the area where Jessie’s cave was I heard shouting. Tide started barking. I began to run. I stopped though, when I saw what it was that was shouting.

          There was Mr. Biff’s lackey, Nick, and he was yelling at Jessie, who was sitting on his back teasing him by waving a gold whistle in front of his face.

          “What is going on?” I outburst.

          “He tried to attack me this morning on my way back from your barn. You did find the milk didn’t you?”

          “Yeah. You didn’t have to do that.”

          “I wanted to. I mean it gets pretty boring sitting in a dark hole all by yourself.”

          “Yeah,” I laughed and kicked some dirt into Nick’s face.

          “You lowdown, good for nothin’ scum! When I get outta here I’m gonna tell Master Gilliton exactly where you are and he’s gonna come and hang the whole lotta ya!”

          “What makes you so sure you’re gonna get outta here anyway?” Jessie taunted and waved the whistle in front of his face. He snatched at it but Jessie moved it out of his reach again.

          “You fool! You can’t keep me here forever!” Nick shouted again.

          “No, but I can sure try,” Jessie laughed. “Eat dirt,” he said and kicked some dirt into his face. “Got a kerchief, Louis?”

          “Yeah, I think so,” I replied and pulled one out of my pocket. He took it and tied it around Nick’s mouth so he couldn’t shout anymore.

          “There that’s better. Now what’re we gonna do about him?”

          “We could go throw him in a cave.”

          “We could. We’d need some rope first though, to tie him up.”

          “Yeah that would be neat, but what if somebody found him?”

          “Then we’d be in big trouble,” he paused, “Wait, I know the perfect place! Go get some rope so we can tie him up first.”

          “Okay,” I replied and ran back to the barn with Tide. I grabbed some rope and on my way out, I found an old buggy whip. I brought that too. Then I ran back to Jessie’s cave, cracking the old whip behind me.

          When I approached, Jessie jumped up and yelled, “Louis! What are you doing with that thing? Put it down!”

          “But I thought it would be fun to pretend—“

          “Put it down.”

          “Okay, okay.” I sighed and dropped the whip at his feet. He kicked it and spit on it with a disgusted scowl.

          “Okay gimme the ropes,” he said as I handed him the rope. He told Nick to stand up and then he tied his hands behind his back. Then he led us off into the woods. We got to a cave and Jessie told me to hold Nick while he went inside. I heard him whistling and talking to something inside the cave.

          “Whoa! What are you doing?” I whispered to Jessie as he walked backward out of the cave with a huge black bear following him.

          “Mr. Black meet Mr. Nick, your new roommate,” Jessie chuckled and took Nick inside the cave.

          This left me outside with that huge bear. I looked at him and he looked back at me with his huge black eyes. I ran into the cave after Jessie. He had tied Nick to a big rock by his legs.

          “There, that oughta hold him for a while.” Jessie laughed as Nick made squealing noises from the ground. “Let’s go.” On the way out Jessie called to the bear, “Sorry we bothered you, Mr. Black. Hope you like your new roommate.” Then we ran back to Jessie’s hole, laughing and giggling like crazy.

          “Thanks for comin’, Louis, that was real fun,” Jessie told me when we got back to his burrow.

“Wish we could do that every day.”

“Yup.”

“Wonder what Mr. Biff’s gonna do when he finds out what happened to his ‘lackey’.”

          “That oughta be a real show.” He laughed again.

          “Do you think we should charge one cent or five to see?”

          “Five, we’d be rich by the end of the evenin!” We laughed again and sat there for quite a while until Jessie looked up into the sky. “It’s about noon now. Think ya oughta be getting back?”

          “Yeah, probably, don’t want to though.”

          “Wish you could stay till this thing’s all over.”

          “I do too, Jessie, I do too.”

          He smiled over at me from his seat at the bottom of a large pine. “One, two, three! I’ll race you to the top of the coconut tree!” he outburst suddenly and was up to the first branch before I could even reply.

          “There aren’t any coconut trees around here, dummy!” I stood up and ran over the bottom of the tree. It was a huge tree and I couldn’t get enough grip to climb it. I heard a laugh and a hand was stuck in front of my face.

          “All ready been to the top and back, slowpoke!” he said. He was hanging by his feet on the lowest branch. I grabbed his hands and he pulled me up. From there, it was easy climbing, just like being on a ladder, and soon we were at the top.

          “I love it up here,” Jessie half-whispered to me.

          “Why?” I asked.

          “You can see everywhere,” he replied dreamily. He was right, you could see everywhere. He leaned over and put a shoulder into me. I had to lean back twice as hard to keep from toppling out of the tree. “You see that roof over there?”

          “Yeah. What about it?”

          “That’s the Major’s house.”

          “Really? How do you know that?”

          “I been there. You see that one over there?”

          “The black one, yeah.”

          “That’s Marie’s house.”

          “You been there too?”

          “Nope, not yet.”

          “Where’s our house?”

          “Back behind us.” He pointed. It wasn’t as hard to see as the others because it was closer. You could also see our hen houses and our barn. “You can see where the road goes, too.”

          “Whoa, from up here it looks like a snake, pushing down the grass as it slithers through an endless field.”

          “It sure does.” There was a pause and then he asked, “Louis where’s California?”

          “Way out to the west, along the Pacific Ocean.”

          “Louis, what’s the Pacific Ocean?”

          “It’s one of the two oceans on either side of America.”

          “Louis, what’s an ocean?”

          “It’s a big huge gigantic lake that goes halfway across the world. It has salt water in it, too.”

          “Louis, have you ever seen an ocean?”

          “Nope, not for real. I saw one in a book once.”

          “Louis, if you lived in California would you see the ocean?”

          “I guess so. I don’t know much about California.”

          “Louis, do you think you can see California from here?” He stood on the branch that he was sitting on and looked out toward the west.

          “No, I don’t think you can.” I pulled him back down. “You’d have to be able to see all the way across the Territories.”

“All the way across the Territories,” he echoed dumbly.

Suddenly he was off and jumping from limb to limb all the way down to the bottom. I was after him as soon as I realized what was going on. When he got to the ground, he started running toward the west. I ran after him until he got to a cliff.

“I’m coming to California to get you! I’m coming! I’m coming!” Toward the end of this shout the words died into sobs and he was down on the ground with his head in his hands. I went and sat next to him.

“I want to come back with you, Louis,” was all he said to me.

“You can’t, I’m sorry, Mr. Biff’s still there.”

“Can you please find some way to get rid of him?”

“I’ll try, okay? But for now I had better get back or Tide will lead them all back here. I should’ve kept my eye on him and not let him go back.”

“That’s alright. If he was coming, he would’ve already been here. So get goin!” We jumped up and Jessie started play snarling. “I’m a big mad wolf dog and you’re a hunter! So run!”

I started yelling, “Ahh! Mad dog! Mad dog! Boom! Boom!” I shot him with my air gun. He howled and began to limp. We kept running. When we got to the place where his lair was I shot him with my air gun again. He fell down on the ground and began to whine like a dog.

I bent down and looked at his face. He had his eyes closed and was playing dead. I laughed. He didn’t move. “Jessie. Hey Jessie that’s enough now! You can wake up!” He still didn’t move. I leaned over and shook his head around. He still didn’t open his eyes.

“Okay that’s not funny anymore. You’re scarin’ me,” I said. He still didn’t respond. I got right up to his face to listen for his breathing. He suddenly opened his eyes and screamed in my face.

We both jumped up and started laughing. “I can’t believe you fell for that!” he gasped.

“Well I did! This time I’m the sucker!” We sat there and laughed for a while. Then I stood up and began to get ready to go.

“Buh-bye, Louis.”

“Bye, Jessie. I’ll come back tomorrow okay?”

“Okay, see ya tomorrow.”

“Yeah, tomorrow.” He smiled and watched me walk away.

 

 MR. BIFF was still mad about Nick being gone and it was hard to keep from laughing. So, I got out of there as quick as I could after breakfast and went to see Jessie again.

          “Jessie! Hey Jessie! You down there?” I called into his lair. There was no response. “Jessie Jacobs! Jessie! Wake up!” Still no answer. I climbed down into the hole. No Jessie.

          “Nooo! Noo! You can’t!” yelled a voice. It was far off and I couldn’t make out who the speaker was. I climbed back out of the hole to listen again.

          “Please no! Nooo!” the voice again. Still couldn’t figure out who it belonged to.

          More shouts. I followed them. They led me to the cliff where Jessie and I were the other day.

          “Jessie! There you are!” I called, for he was standing on the edge of the cliff. He whirled around to face me when I called out.

          “Oh Master Biff! I’m so sorry! I just had to get away!” he cried. He ran up to me and fell at my feet.

          “What’s going on Jessie?” I asked. He hugged my knees.

          “Please, please Master Biff! You can’t do this to me!” he shouted again.

          “Jessie! Come on you have to get a grip on yourself!” I pried him from my legs and sat down beside him.

          “No! You can’t have her! I won’t tell you!”

          “Tell me what? What are you talking about?”

          “No please you can’t do this to me! You can’t! You can’t!”

          “Settle down, Jessie! It’s me, Louis! You have to stop this!”

          “Louis? Louis!” Apparently, my name was a word he recognized, so he hugged me tight. “You have to get him away from me! You have to!”

          “Okay he’s gone now. He never was here.”

          “Noo! No! Take me! Take me! Don’t touch him!”

          “Okay, it’s all right now.” He began to wail. “Tell me what’s going on, Jessie, okay? Tell me what happened.” He just gave me another hug. Then I smelled it. I knew what was going on. I knew why he was acting like this.

 “Jessie Jacobs are you drunk?” I asked, jumping up. No response. “Jessie, you have to tell me this. Did you go to any bars last night?” He moaned, but did not answer.

“Jessie Jacob Whitman!” I shouted. This got his attention and he began to whimper. “Did you go to a bar last night?” He nodded. “What did you drink?”

He gulped. “Marty gave it to me.” He wailed again and tried to get up.  I pushed him back down.

“How many did you drink?”

He held up two fingers and then five. Then he smiled stupidly and held up all ten fingers.

“How dare you! Do you know what could of happened?”

He nodded and then wailed again. “Master Biff! I’m so sorry! Sorry! Please don’t hurt me! Please don’t!” He’d lost it again. There was no hope of getting him back right now.

I threw my hands up in the air. “I can’t take this anymore! I’m sure you can’t! There is no reason why you should have to be out here in the woods! He should be the one stuck living in a hole, not you! I’m going to go tell him all of this, whether you like it or not!” and with that I was off. Going back to the house where Mr. Biff was, not once thinking of what could happen to Jessie out there sitting on the edge of the cliff, drunk like that.

“Mr. Biff I have to tell you this right now!” I yelled as I burst into the house.

“What is it?” Mama asked coming into the room with Papa and Mr. Biff.

“Well, for one thing, Jessie’s drunk, and for another he’s not your slave Mr. Biff!”

“He is too, boy, and you don’t have a right to oppose that,” Mr. Biff answered.

“He is a free man! His father set him free the year before you ever came into the picture so you have no right to even say that you own him!”

“Is that right?” Mr. Biff asked suspiciously.

“It’s absolutely right! He has papers to prove it!”

“And how do you know he didn’t make up the papers himself?”

“Because he can’t read! He can barely scribble his initials, let alone write his own freedom papers!”

“Ah, I see. But does he have any friends that could have written them for him?”

“He does, but it wouldn’t be possible! You could see it in his eyes. He wasn’t lying!”

“Can I see these papers then?”

“Um, yeah, but Jessie’s got ‘em.”

“I would like to see him, too.”

“Alright, I’ll go get him.”

          I started out the door, but Mama stopped me as soon as we were out of Mr. Biff’s earshot. “Are you sure this is what we should be doing?”

          “Yeah, I’m sure.”

          “What about Jessie? Does he know what you’re doing?”

          “Mom, he’s drunk, he didn’t know the difference between me and that man.” I tipped my head toward the house.

          “Well, then, are you absolutely certain that we should be doing this now?”

          “No not absolutely, but I can’t stand to see Jessie out there in those woods and not be able to bring him home with me.”

          “I see, well then, hurry back, okay?”

          “Okay,” I called and ran off to get Jessie. He was exactly where I had left him and he was asleep.

          “Wake up, you drunkard! Mr. Biff wants to see you.” I said to him as I shook him awake.

          “I don’t want to go,” he grumbled.

          “I don’t care if you want to go or not you have to if you ever want this thing to end!”

          “Hiccup,” was his only answer as he stood up. I took him by the arm and led him back to the house. He hiccuped all the way there.

          “Okay he’s here! Can we please get this over with now?” I asked when we came in the house. I dragged Jessie into the den and to the couch where he sat and continued hiccuping.

          “Your papers, Jessie,” Papa said to him when they walked into the room. Jessie just stared at him and kept hiccuping.

          “You! Jessie! We need to see your papers,” I said. He smiled crazily at me. “Okay fine, be that way. I’ll get them myself.” I reached down and rolled up his right pant leg. Nothing there. I went to the other. The picture was there. I looked at him and he laughed an idiotic laugh.

          “Come on this isn’t funny!” I complained. I checked his pockets. Nothing in the right one. I stuck my hand in the left one and felt Jessie’s hand come down over mine. I looked up at him. He had begun to scowl. He looked down at Tide who had come into the room. Tide was growling at me. I got his point. I drew my hand out slowly. Then I checked his shirtsleeves. Nothing in the left one, nor in the right one.

          “Okay, I give up,” I sighed and leaned back on the couch.

          “I’ll try,” Mr. Biff said gruffly. He walked over to Jessie’s side of the couch. Jessie tried to scoot away but Mr. Biff held his shoulders so that he couldn’t move. First, he tried the collar of his shirt. Then he tried each of the cuffs on his sleeves. He still didn’t find anything. He gave him a hard smack on the back of the head. Jessie hiccuped and whimpered.

          “Were you wearing a jacket?” Mr. Biff growled.

          “Ah-hic-you got-hic-me,” Jessie said. ”It’s in-hic-the cave.”

          “I’ll go get it,” I replied.

          “Don’t-hic-leave me!” Jessie cried franticly and seized my arm.

          “Alright then, you can come with me,” I said.

          “No, the boy stays,” Mr. Biff commanded.

          “I’ll go get it, then,” Mama volunteered and left the room. While she was gone, Jessie scooted over to sit right next to me with Tide in his lap. He was trembling like he was that night in the cave.

          “It’ll be all right,” I whispered in his ear. He nodded slightly. Mr. Biff came up to him and took Jessie’s chin in his hand. Jessie froze.

          “I knew you were smart, boy, but not this smart,” Mr. Biff laughed. He pulled down Jessie’s lip as to get a good look at his teeth. Jessie reached up a hand and tried to get Mr. Biff to let go of his chin. Mr. Biff laughed and then let his hand drop.

          Just then, Mama returned with Jessie’s grubby old coat. He jumped up, grabbed his coat, put it on, and sat back down again. He shot me a small content grin before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a piece of paper. Mr. Biff took it from him and looked at it.

          “Hmm,” Mr. Biff said, ”Very nice, very nice.” He dropped it to the floor and crumpled it with the heel of his shoe. Jessie’s mouth fell open. I think mine did too but I couldn’t tell at that moment, I was too shocked.

          “You’re coming with me, boy,” Mr. Biff came over to Jessie and grabbed his ear. He started pulling him out of the house and to the barn where his horse was. Jessie began howling and kicking as Tide pulled savagely on the man’s pant leg.

          “Put him down! Let him go!” Mama and I were shouting. Papa had stayed behind. Why, I had no clue. Mr. Biff was struggling to saddle his horse and hold on to Jessie at the same time. Somehow, he managed to succeed and climbed up on his horse, yanking Jessie up with him. Jessie shrieked.

          “Put me down! Please! You have to! You have no right to do this!” Jessie started shouting.

          Suddenly Papa burst into the barn. “Put the boy down,” Papa’s voice echoed in the large space. All fell silent except Jessie’s whimpering hiccups.

          But Mr. Biff didn’t move.

          “I thought I told you to put the boy down, Biff!” Papa ordered.

          “Right, right, I was just doing that,” Mr. Biff said and pushed Jessie down off the horse.

          “Thank you. Now I believe your boy is in a cave with a bear. Jessie will you show him to the cave?” Papa said, squeezing Jessie’s shoulders.

          “I can do better than that -hic-, sir. Would you like me to bring him here?” Jessie said. Then with out waiting for a response went to the door of the barn and whistled three times. He motioned for us to follow him out to the yard.

          “Put me down, you monster! I said put me down!” a shout came from the woods. Then we saw what was going on. The black bear that lived in the cave where we had left Nick was running toward us dragging Nick behind him by the rope on his feet.

          “That’s good enough, Mr. Black, thank you,” Jessie said to the bear when he came and dropped Nick at his feet. The bear grunted and ran back into the woods.

          “Master Gilliton! I’m so glad you’re here! You see that boy over there? Well he and his friend tied me up and put me in a cave with that bear! It almost ate me!” Nick cried as he jumped up and went to his master.

          “It wouldn’t of ate you, I wouldn’t have let it,” Jessie said.

          Mr. Biff scowled and said, “Come on, Nick, we’re going home.” They walked back into the barn again and then they came back out riding on Mr. Biff’s horse.

          “I’m so glad that’s over!” Jessie cried when they had gone. He ran over to Papa and gave him a big hug. “I don’t know how I am ever going to thank you, sir!”

          “Well for starters you can go inside and get that nasty coat off,” Papa said. Jessie laughed and ran up toward the house.

          “But I love this coat!”

          “Go on!”

          “This is my favorite coat!”

          “It’s your only coat!”

          Jessie smiled and went on into the house. I followed Mama and Papa in.

          As soon as I got inside Jessie pulled me over and said,  “I owe my life to you, buddy.”

          “Oh it was nothing.”

          “If it wasn’t for you I would of jumped off that cliff this morning.”

          “So what did you drink?”

          “It was some mixture of whiskey that Marty made up for me,” he laughed, “and if you don’t mind, I wouldn’t really like to have my drunkenness known.”

          “No problem, Jessie, no problem at all.”

 

  OVER the next few weeks, Jessie spent his days at the Major’s farm and his nights were spent with us. He would eat dinner quietly. Then he would sit on the couch and tell the girls a story. After we got the disgusting tobacco smell out of the guest room Jessie took his residence there again. He would get up before anyone else, milk the cow, and fix breakfast for all of us. He would eat his and then go on to the Majors’.

          “This is really nice of Jessie to do this for us you know,” Emily would say.

          “Yeah and he fixes the best oatmeal in the world,” Kate would reply.

          “Besides Mama’s,” Kyle would laugh.

One day Jessie came home from the Major’s and said he wanted to ask me something.

          “Louis, could I talk to you upstairs in my room?” he asked.

          “Okay,” I answered as we walked up the stairs. When we got to his room, he closed the door behind him. Then he told me to hold out my hands. I obeyed and he laid a knife in my hands. It looked brand new.

          “What’s this for?” I asked.

          “Louis I want you to have that. Keep it clean, and it’s worth about five dollars,” he smiled and picked up a bundle off the bed. “Oh, and take good care of Tide. Don’t let him run off or anything. And could you do me a favor?”

          “Yeah I guess so.”

          “Keep an eye on Marie for me, will you? Make sure Doug doesn’t hurt her or anything.”

          “Sure, but why?”

          He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me. He smiled and then looked sober again. “I’m going away, Louis.”

          “But why?”

          “I can’t tell you.”

          “Please?”

          “No.”

          “Why not?”

          “Because I kissed her, Louis, that’s why, I kissed her.”

          “Kissed who? What are you talking about?”

          He sat on down on the bed and looked at me. Then he looked down at his hands. “Today I was working at the Major’s while Marie came with her cat. I was fixing a side of an old shack when she came up. I had my shirt off, cause it was so hot, and I was sweating like crazy.”-I laughed here-“It’s hard work fixin’ a shed, So don’t laugh! Anyway, she came over, took out her kerchief, and then she wiped my forehead off. Her touch was cool against my hot face. Then told me that I looked handsome when I worked. I ‘bout dropped the wood I was carrying, but she took it from me and put it on the ground. Then I looked into her bright blue eyes and they looked back into mine. Then I, then, get this Louis! Then I kissed her!”

          “Well that’s great!”

          “No, it’s the worst thing that ever happened to me.”

          “Why? If I kissed Marie that would be the best thing in the world!”

          He let out a small giggle before getting serious again. He handed me his paw and then I saw something I’d never dreamed I’d see. He was wearing a small gold ring on his finger.

          “But, I mean, what, this-“

          He smiled. “Good-bye, Louis. I hope to see you again someday.” Then with that he was climbing out the window. “Say good-bye to the rest of ‘em for me will you?”

          “Sure,” I said and watched him climb down the drainpipe. When he got to the bottom he turned around and waved before running into the woods.

          I sat down on the bed and watched the trees outside wave in the wind. Then I suddenly threw the knife against the wall. It stuck. I went over and tried to pull it out of the wall. I pulled and pulled but I wouldn’t give out. I fell down a couple of times until Kyle came in wanting to know what was going on.

          “He’s gone, Kyle. You know, he’s gone now and he’s not ever coming back.” I finally got the knife off the wall.

          “Who’s gone?”

          “Jessie.”

          “Where’d he go?”

          “Away.”

          “Oh, I’ll go tell Mama and Papa, okay?”

          I nodded and he left the room. I held the knife in my hands again.

          “I’ll be back,” a voice whispered. It sounded like Jessie’s voice but it was coming from the knife. I looked down at it. It began to glow. Suddenly it felt hot in my hands. I dropped as it began to burn.

          “I’ll be back.”

          The voice again, this time, louder. I stared at the knife. It began to shake.

          “I’ll be back!”

          Louder still.

          “I’ll. Be. Back.”

          Louder and slower. The knife began to jump across the floor.

          “What is going on?” I asked the knife while hiding my eyes. Its light was now bright enough that I couldn’t look at it any more. “Stop that!”

          I heard screaming coming from it now.

          Suddenly everything stopped. All the noise, all the light, it all stopped.

          “Ahh! Ahh! Get it off! Get it off! It’s burning!” the voice shouted. Except this time, it wasn’t just a voice. Jessie was sitting on the floor next to the knife, trying to pry his ring off his finger.

          “It’s burning!” he shouted again. “Help me! Help me!” I ran over to him and helped him pull the ring off. As soon as he pulled it off he threw it on the floor and pushed himself back up against the wall. He was breathing hard and staring at the ring.

“What was that?” I asked. His panting was his only response. I asked again, “What happened?”

“I am I really here?” he asked as he felt along his arms.

“I guess so,” I replied. “But I don’t understand how.”

“I don’t either. I was running along in the woods when I turned around to look at the house. I whispered that I would be back and my ring started to glow.”

“The knife did the same thing! How many times did you say that you’d be back?”

“Just once, why?”

“Cause the knife was shouting it over and over!”

“Really?”

“Yeah!”

“This is too weird!”

“You can say that again.”

“I still don’t understand it. How could my knife do something like that?”

“I don’t know.”

He went and picked up the knife and his ring. He was looking them over carefully. “Ouch!” he suddenly shouted and dropped both items. 

“What is it?”

“They burnt me when I touched a little symbol on them.”

“Where? Lemme see!”

          He picked them both back up and showed me a small crown on the side of the knife’s handle and an identical one on the ring.

          “I don’t understand how these got here. I made both of them and I didn’t put a crown on either.”

          “You made these?” I was amazed that anyone could make such a beautiful knife.

          “All by myself.”

          “Wow.” 

          “Yup. I’m a pretty good blacksmith, huh?”

          Before I could respond, Kyle came back into the room. “How’d you get here? Louis said you left!” Kyle said.

          “I did leave, but now I’m back,” Jessie replied, slipping the knife and ring into his pocket. “I don’t know how, but I’m back.”

          “Okay,” Kyle said, hesitantly. “I’ll be right back.” He turned around and ran down the stairs.

          “What was his problem?” Jessie laughed.

          “I don’t know.”

          “I think it would be best if we didn’t mention this to anybody right now.”

          “Okay.” We ran down the stairs to catch up with Kyle.

 

  THE next day Jessie came home early and wanted me to come see something. I consented even though I had no clue what he’d want to show me. It could be something wild and insane, or it could be something nice and calming. You never knew with Jessie.

          As we went down the road, we met up with Doug. He began to throw insults at us but Jessie seemed not to hear until Doug shouted into his face, “So I hear you’ve been drinking. How’s it feel to be the youngest drunk in all of hick-town?”

Doug always called Arkansas, ‘hick-town’. He was born up in Vermont and had a northern accent like his mother. As rumor has it, his father was born here, and so, when Doug was born, they moved back just to torture him.

          “What are you talking about?” Jessie hissed.

          “Oh, come on! Everyone in town knows that you were drunk last Friday.”

          Jessie gulped and gave me a sidelong glance that said, ‘how dare you!’ I threw my hands up to say that it wasn’t me.

          Doug must have seen this because he said, “My pop was at the bar that night and he when he came home he started to tell another lame story about some kid he called ‘Big Man’. He said the guy was rattling on about some man named ‘Master Biff’. I had my pop describe the boozer to me and I knew right off that it was you.”

          “But I knew every one of those men there. They’d never-Wait, who’s your dad?” Jessie asked, startled by Doug’s statement.

          “Jake Major, yep, that’s my pops for ya,” Doug said.

          Jessie gasped. “Jake is your father?”

          “Yeah, why?”

          Jessie was suddenly off and running down the road toward the bar. We started after him. He did a back flip into the building. I started to follow him when I noticed Doug had stopped walking.

          “Aren’t you coming?” I asked him.

          He shook his head.

          “Why not?” I questioned.

          “I’m not allowed to even be here.”

          “How come?”

          “My pap said.”

          “Why?”

          “He doesn’t want me drinking, I guess.”

          “We won’t drink, come on.”

          “No, I’ll just wait out here.”

          “Why? Are you chicken?”

          “No.”

          “Well then come on! Unless you’re chicken! Buck-buck-ba-buck!”

          “I ain’t no chicken so you just better shut your trap there Magregor or I’ll pound you!”

          I smirked at him, “After you.”

          “Oh, no, after you!”

          “No, I insist.”

          “What are you chicken?”

          “No, sir!”

          “Well then, after you.”

          “Fine,” I said and walked on in. Doug followed silently.

          “Yes,” the man called Jake was saying, “I am.”

          “How come you didn’t let on every time I came in here and complained about Doug bugging me?” Jessie was a little upset.

          “I didn’t figure it would make any difference.”

          “Make any difference, man!” he paused, “It just comes as a surprise, that’s all.”

“It would have made a difference in the way you’d treated me,” Jake answered. He was acting as if he were talking to someone bigger than him. Jessie certainly wasn’t bigger than this man was. Jessie was barely as tall as I was, definitely lighter, and this man was huge. Yet, I knew Jessie was stronger than he looked, I’d found that out the first day I met him.

          “I guess you’re right, I would have. I’m sorry.”

          “That’s okay. You aren’t going to ditch me now are you?”

          “No, buddy, I’ll try not to.”

          Then their conversation was over, Jake looked around at everyone, a bit embarrassed, I bet. His eyes went around the room until they rested on Doug.        

          “What are you doing here, boy?” Jake outburst.

          “Pops, I’m well, um, uh,” Doug faltered, “I’m real sorry, Pop.”

          “Real sorry? You knew my orders. Come on, I’m taking you home,” and with that Jake stood up and dragged Doug out the door with a tight grip on the back his neck.

           After they had gone, Jessie tiredly walked up to the counter. I followed him. He sat down and laid his head on the rough wood.

          A man walked up to us on the other side of the counter and Jessie said to him, “I need a cold one, Marty. And if you could, make it light, I got stuff to do.”

          The man nodded and went to fix Jessie’s drink. So this was the almighty Marty that Jessie raved about, he didn’t look that great to me. In fact, he looked quite weak to me.

          “Here go, Jay,” the man said as he passed Jessie his drink, “got any news for me today?”

           “Nope, not any exciting stuff, anyway,” Jessie answered.

          Marty grinned and turned to me, “You gonna order anything?”

          I shook my head. His grin scared me. It looked almost identical to Jessie’s. “Well if you aren’t gonna order than I’m gonna have to ask you to move away from the counter,” I heard the man say.

          “Get him some ‘a that great cocoa you gave me that other day, buddy,” Jessie said,  “and put it on me.”

          Marty walked off to go get my cocoa and when he returned Jessie asked him, “You got my tickets?”

         

  That night Jessie came and told us to come into the den. None of us had a clue why, but we all obeyed. He told us to sit around in a circle. Jessie stood by the window, while we pulled chairs up.

When we were all settled Jessie went began to talk. ”My life is a huge mess. I can’t tell where it went wrong, but it did. I-I-I don’t know how to tell you this, but—“ He stopped and reached into his pocket. He walked over to Papa and handed him eight tickets.

Jessie smiled and said, “How would you like to take your family to see California?” His mood had totally changed.

“Sure, but how are we going to pay for these?” Papa asked.

“You don’t have to pay a cent, I got it all covered.” Jessie continued to grin.

“What are the tickets for?” Emily asked standing up and coming over to Papa.

“They’re your train tickets,” Jessie answered. “Round trip to Cali. and back.”

“But there are eight tickets. Who are the other two for?” I asked, taking the tickets from Papa.

“One is for me and, well, I was hoping, the last one could be for Marie,” he answered.

“It would be okay with us,” Mama told him, “but we’ll have to check with her parents first.”

“Alright,” he grinned. “The train leaves from Fort Smith at eleven, Monday. First stop’s in New Mexico Territory, we’ll stay there for the night. Then on to Cali!”

 

  “WAKE up, Louis!” Jessie said as he shook me awake. “Come on, get up! We’ve gotta go!”

          I yawned, rolled over, and opened my eyes to see the dim morning light coming in the window.  “The sun hasn’t come up yet,” I protested.

          “Please,” he replied, “I want you to come with me. I already fixed us breakfast.”

          I rolled over onto my stomach and put the pillow over my head. “Go away,” I groaned.

          “Come on! It’s kinda fun getting up this early,” he said.

          “No, I don’t wake up ‘till the sun does.”

          “It woke up about an hour ago. You should see the sky now, it’s really pretty.”

          “That’s great. I’m going back to sleep.” I buried my head under the pillow again.

          “What are you doing?” I exclaimed when Jessie pulled the bedcovers off me.

          “If you won’t get up yourself, I’ll just have to do it for you.” He laughed and I climbed out of bed.

          “Wear that blue shirt.”

          “What?”

          “I said wear the blue one.”

          “But why?”

          “Because it looks better than the other one you picked out.”

          I thought this was the stupidest reason on earth, but I still obeyed. After I had dressed we crept downstairs and ate breakfast. By the time we were finished eating the sun had finally come completely over the hill.

           I left Mama and Papa a note so they wouldn’t worry and then we set off.

          “Where are we going?” I asked Jessie since we weren’t using the road.

          “First I figured I’d go to the Major’s and tell them why I won’t be there next week. Then I was going to go to see Marie’s parents.”

          “Okay, but why did you bring me along?”

          “I dunno, but I didn’t really want to go alone.”

          Suddenly a small owl flew down and onto Jessie’s hat. “What is it, Peppy?” Jessie asked the owl.

It let out a small hoot and hovered in front of Jessie’s face. “What do you have there, Peppy?” Jessie extended a hand and took a small piece of paper off the owl’s leg.

“I don’t have anything for you right now, Peppy. You’ll have to come back later,” Jessie said when the owl tried to get into his pocket. The owl hooted again and flew off.

          “What is it?” I asked as Jessie unrolled the paper that had been wrapped on the owl’s leg.

          “I don’ know, read it to me,” he replied and handed it to me.

          “’Dear JW,’” the letter read, “I shall be waiting for you at the station Thursday morning. Can’t wait, SW’”

          “So she trusts me on this one,” Jessie mumbled, apparently thinking aloud. “She’s in for one big surprise when I show up with all these people.” He laughed, took the letter from me, and shoved it into his pocket.

          “What was that all about?” I asked.

          “My friend’s gonna meet us when we get there,” was his answer.

          “Yeah I already know that, but who is this friend?”

          “My soul mate, Sammy.”

          “Your soul mate?”

          “Yup. Lil’ Jimmy’s turnin’ three on Friday and I thought it would be nice for me to be there.”

          “Wait, wait, wait. Who’s Jimmy?”

          “I’ll tell you later,” he whispered, for now we were at the Major’s front door. He knocked on the door.

          “I’m coming! Be right there!” came a voice from inside the house. ”Well, hello Jessie. Is there some problem with the wood we got for the fence?” It was Mrs. Major.

          “Oh no, Frau, nothing’s wrong with the wood. I wouldn’t of bothered you so early, but I need to take the morning off.”

          “Alright, when will you be back?”

          “I’ll come after lunch, if that’s okay.”

          “Sure.”

          “And if you don’t mind, I’d also like to have next week off, starting Monday.”

          “Why?”

          “I have to go on a trip. I will still keep contract.”

          “I guess so, as long as you finish that fence before you go.”

          “Don’t worry. I will.” He jumped down the steps. “C’mon Louis. And thanks again, Frau.”

          I followed him into the woods again. He was whistling a lively tune I had never heard before when I asked, “Why do you call Mrs. Major that name?”

          “What? You mean Frau?”

          “Yeah. ‘Frau.’”

          “Well, first, it’s German for Mrs. Second, she reminds me of a German lady I once knew that always insisted that I call her that. I guess I just do it out of old habit.”

          Then we walked along with out saying anything, Jessie was still whistling, when he suddenly pulled me up into a tree.

          “What is going on?” I asked.

          “Shhh! Quiet,” he replied and pointed to something coming toward us at a run.

          It was Marie. She was skipping through the woods with her cat. Then for no good reason at all, the cat just started running toward the tree that we were in. Jessie held stark still while the cat came running up the tree. When it got to the branch where we were hiding it climbed into Jessie’s lap and started purring.

          “Cory! Cory! Where did you go, you little rascal?” Marie called into the tree. She couldn’t see us from where she was standing, but if she moved a little bit to the left, we would be in plain sight.

          Jessie tried to push the cat off him, but the cat didn’t want to move.

          “Cory! You come down here this minute!” Marie called again.

The cat climbed up to Jessie’s head and peered around the side of the tree.

          “Cory, if you don’t come down here right now then I’m coming up to get you!” Marie again.

          “Oh, flapjacks,” Jessie muttered and took the cat in his arms. Then he started to climb down the tree. When he got to the bottom, he hung by his feet from the last branch. Marie was desperately trying to pull her shoe off and didn’t see him.

          “Will you please get this wild cat off of me?” he said.

          She looked up, startled, and said, “Oh, it’s just you, Jessie. I thought Cory had gone after a bird like he did last time he ran away.”

          “Nope, just me, no birds up there in that tree any more,” he laughed.

          “No I guess not,” she said, paused, and then went on, “What are you doing here anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be at the Major’s?”

          “Yeah, I’m taking the morning off.”

          “Meow!” came from the cat as Jessie flopped down to the ground.

“C’mere, Cory. Why’re you taking today off?”

“I got some business of my own to do today.”

“Like what?”

          “Don’t be so nosy!” He jumped up. “Are you coming, Louis, or are you just going to sit up there all day?”

          “I’m coming, just hold on!” I called. “Good morning, Marie,” I said to her when I got to the ground.

          “Good morning to you too, Louis,” she replied. “Hey Jessie, where are you going?”

          “For a walk,” he lied.

          “Where?”

          “Off this way.”

          “Well can I come with you?”

          “No.”

          “Why not?”

          “Cause we’re doin’ guy stuff. Right Louis?”

          “Yeah,” I replied.

          “Well, then see you later, Marie, okay?” Jessie said.

          “Okay,” she answered.

          Then Jessie and I ran off away from her. “Dumb cat,” Jessie muttered when we were far enough away.

          “It would’ve been all right if she had come with us,” I said.

          “No, I wouldn’t of. I want this to be a surprise for her.”

          “Okay, what ever you say.”

          We walked up to Marie’s house and Jessie knocked on the door.               

          “Hello, I’m Jessie. I’m a friend of Marie’s. I would like to have a word with her parents, if they are in,” Jessie said to the maid who came to the door.

          “Ah, yes, come in, come in,” the maid replied, ”I am sure that the missus will pleased to finally meet you Mr. Jessie, sir. We have heard a lot about you this past week.”        We followed her to a room where a lady was sitting. “Excuse me, Missus, we have visitors that would like to see you.”

          “What kind of visitors?” the woman asked.

          “Two boys, one said his name was Jessie,” the maid answered.

          “Yes, Yes, bring them here,” the lady said. So then we walked into the room.

          “Hi,” Jessie said sheepishly, suddenly forgetting what he had come for.

“Hello, and who might you be?” she asked, the maid had left.

          “I’m Jessie,” he answered, coming back to his senses, “and this is my friend, Louis.”

          “Ah, so you’re the famous Jessie we’ve been hearing so much about.”

          “Yes ma’am, I believe so.”

          “Well I am Marie’s mother, Mrs. Daniels.”

          For some reason, after she said this Jessie snatched off his hat.

          “I’m Louis Magregor, ma’am,” I said and as I did, took off my hat also. 

She smiled nodded and said. “How has your mother been? I haven’t talked to her since, well, since Marie was born.”

“She’s getting along fine, ma’am, thanks for asking.”

          “Yes, well, now that we are all acquainted, tell me what you lads have come for.”

          “I am taking the Magregors to California next week,” Jessie said, “and I bought an extra ticket. I was hoping if Marie could come.”

          “Oh, how wonderful! I know she would love to go, but we will have to check with Mr. Daniels first.”

          “Alright, shall I come back later to receive your answer?”

          “Could you come by later this evening?” she said as he nodded and turned to go. “But before you go tell me, how will you be getting to California?”

          “We’ll be going by train, it stops for a night in the New Mexico Territory and then we have to get on a new train. After that, we ride that one on to Cali. I have a friend that lives there, we’ll be staying with her.”

          “Okay, that’s good. Thank you for coming, boys. I’ll see if we can spare Marie next week.” Then she got up and escorted us to the door.

          When we got back into the woods Jessie said, “Okay now that’s over, I’ll show you what I wanted to show you all along.”

          “Okay,” I said and followed him as well as I could. He was beating me because he was running around all the trees and knew where he was going. I could beat him if we were running on a road or through an open space. Finally I caught up with him. He had stopped at the edge of a clearing.

          “What are you doing?” I panted.

          “Look,” he said and pointed out to the clearing.

          “Whoa,” I mumbled. There, running around in the field was a group of wild horses. A brown and white one came up to Jessie and pushed on his hair.

          “This is April. She favors me more than the others do,” Jessie informed me. “Which one do you want to ride?”

          “Ride?” I fumbled. “You tell me we’re going to ride these things?”

          “Yep, which one do you want?”

          “Which one’s the tamest?”

          “Chip‘s a pretty easy rider and Clara’ll hold still while you climb up, but then she’s off like a rocket.”

          “I guess I’ll take Chip, then. But where’s the saddles?”

          “Saddles? Man, these are wild horses! You think they’d really let us put saddles on them?”

          “Um, yeah,” I muttered before saying, “Then how do we stay on?”

          “Hold with your knees and if all else fails throw your arms around its neck.”

          “Okay,” I said a bit nervously while Jessie led me over to a big white horse.

          “Hey, Chip. This is Louis, he’s gonna ride you if you don’t mind.” The horse whinnied. “So climb on up, Louis, if you’re ready.”

          I tried to pull myself up, but failed, until Jessie gave me a leg up.  “Whoa, boy, hold still,” Jessie told the horse when it pranced forward after I climbed up.

          Then he went over and jumped up onto his horse with one bounding leap. I felt like such a baby for not being able to get up myself. Jessie made clicking noises to his horse and led on into the woods.

          “I figured we could go down and show off a bit at town, if you wanted to. These are some ‘a the best horses around here.”

          “That’d be great! Can we go down by the Major’s place first?”

          “Sure,” he called back and steered his horse a little to the left.

When we got to the hill that overlooks the Majors’ farm, he said, “These are some great chargers. Wanna race?”

“You’re on!” He let out a war-whoop and started April down the hill. I followed by shoving Chip hard in the ribs. Then Jessie whistled twice and soon his wolves were there to join the attack.

As we raced by Doug’s fort, he came out to see what all the commotion was about.

   Jessie turned his horse around, and, laughing madly, ran straight toward Doug. Doug just stood there until Jessie was right in front of him, then he jumped out of the way.

“Why I ought-a!” came from Doug as Jessie turned back toward me.

We came toward the fence and I was about to stop my horse when Jessie called, “Hold on tight!” I barely had time to respond when Chip leaped over the fence.

          We rode along the road stopping once by Jessie’s bar before heading home to show Mama and Papa.

 

          Later that night Jessie came in singing, “She’s coming! She’s coming!”

          “Who’s coming?” Kyle questioned.

          “Marie’s coming with us to Cali!” he sang out again.

          “Great!” Kyle laughed.

          “Yeah! I told her I’d pick her up on Monday morning,” he called climbing the stairs.

          On Monday, he’d said, but today was only Friday.

 

  SATURDAY morning Jessie woke me up and told me he needed my help. So I went to the Majors’ place with him. He wanted me to help him fix a fence. I actually think he wanted to talk to me more then anything.

          “Could you hand me some ‘a that wood?” he asked. I did and I held it in place while he hammered it to the posts he had already set up.

          “So what did you want to talk to me about?” I asked him as he went to the other side of the board and nailed it there.

          “What makes you so sure I wanted to talk to you anyway?” he replied cheerfully.

          “Well, I mean why else would you tell me to come down here with you?”

          “Maybe it’s because I needed some help with this fence.” He grinned foolishly at me.

          “Oh,” I said and picked up the next board.

We worked for a bit in silence and then Jessie said, “You’re my friend, Louis.”

“I am,” I say.

“Kyle’s my friend too.”

“Yeah.”

“Doug’s sort of my friend.”

“Yes.” What was he getting at here?

“Marie’s my friend.”

“Yep.”

“My animals are my friends.”

“Yes.”

“Well I have another friend, two actually, and I need some advice.”

“Okay, try me.”

“How do you let a girl off easy?”

“You mean like break up with her?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“I dunno really, I guess just tell her why you don’t want to see her anymore and that’s about all I can tell you.”

“Really?”

“I think so.”

“How do you think- I mean, well, how would, um, well, never mind.”

“Come on, tell me.”

“No.”

“Please.”

“No.”

“I won’t tell a soul.”

“There’s eyes and ears everywhere, dummy.”

I couldn’t argue with that and we set back to work. After a while I saw him lagging behind a bit.

“Come on,” I said, “hurry, I’d like to get outta here before lunch.”

“Can’t be done,” was all he muttered and quickened his step a small bit, but before I knew it, he was slowing down again.

“What is wrong with you?” I asked for he had just hit me on the hand with the hammer.

“Just thinking,” he mumbled.

“Well quit thinking and start working, ya dumb nigger.” I don’t know what came over me. I was mad ‘cause my finger was throbbing and it was just the first insult that came to mind. I never meant to hurt him by it.

“I am not a nigger! Nobody calls me a nigger!” He gave me a shove.

I backed off and we went back to work. He scowled at me for a while and then he started dragging again.

“Why don’t you just set your mind on this fence right now, instead of whatever it’s on? You’re the one supposed to be doing the work not me.”

He just nodded.

“Come on!”

He nodded again.

“Now I know why they made blacks like you into slaves,” I muttered. “Ya dumb nigger!”

He glared at me.

“Yeah that’s it! You scare me soo much. I’m afraid,” I pretended to shake. “You stupid, ignorant, nigger boy!”

He gave me a shove that sent me down to the ground. As I was climbing up, he bent down to pick up another piece of wood. I gave him a shove that sent him sprawling on his stomach.

He stood up and threw a punch at me. I heard him shout, “Nobody, and I mean nobody, calls me a nigger!” and then-and then…

When I woke up, I was laying on a cot at home. Jessie was sitting in a chair facing the corner. He was petting a gray tabby cat.

“Louis, I’m real sorry,” he said without turning around. “Sometimes it just, I mean, well, sometimes everything…” he sighed. “I’m just sorry I knocked you out. Sometimes I don’t know my own strength. Sometimes it just gets away from me, you know. Especially when some one calls me a nigger, insults my mother, or says something about me being a half-breed. It gets to me. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me, I didn’t mean to hurt you either,” he looked down at his hands with a grin. Then he got up and came over to me, and the brief grin was gone, “So, how’re you feeling?”

I tried to sit up. There was a huge throbbing pain in my head. “What happened to my head?” I asked.

“I hit you, and you went out. I’m real sorry.”

I lay down again. “But how did I get home?”

“I brought ya, no need to ask how, there's lots ‘a ways.”

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” a third voice, Mama’s. She came and put a cold cloth on my forehead and Jessie went back to his corner to sulk again.

 

 AFTER that, Jessie didn’t talk to me all the rest of Saturday nor on Sunday. I wondered why. He probably had a lot on his mind, just like when he was working on the fence. I didn’t ask him about it, although I was curious. My head got better, so did my fingers, but they still hurt a bit, especially when Jessie glares at me. You can learn a lot by looking at Jessie’s eyes. I mean you just can’t look, you have to really look. They can tell you what kind of a person he is. It’s pretty neat actually.

Well today is Monday and I lie in bed waiting for someone to come get me up. I saw Jessie go out early, he didn’t ask me to come with him this time. I’m glad. My suitcase is all packed and ready to go to California. I’ve been thinking about what it will be like riding a train across the Territories. I’ve never even been out of Arkansas before, let alone all the way to California. I hope Jessie’s going to tell us about his friend. Sammy, he’d said her name was. What kind of girl has a name like that?

A knock from the door jerked me out of all thoughts.

“Louis?” it was Katie, “Are you going to come down to breakfast or are you just gonna stay in bed all day?”

“I’m coming,” I replied climbing out of bed, “save me some food.”

She smiled, “Okay, I will.”

I got dressed and climbed down the stairs. Everyone was there waiting for me. Even Marie was sitting in a chair next to Jessie. I was surprised, but took a seat and began to eat.

Everyone was chatting and laughing because they were excited about the trip, only Jessie and I were silent. I wasn’t talking because I was trying to scarf down my food. I didn’t know why Jessie wasn’t talking, but he didn’t look too excited to me.

“So,” I said to Jessie, “is this the first trip you’ve taken to see your friend?”

He looked over at me with unusually hollowed out eyes. They showed looks of horror and weariness. He was troubled about something, I could tell. He quickly looked away and gave a slight nod.

“You okay, buddy?” I asked him.

He nodded again without looking up. I suddenly remembered something; Jessie wasn’t talking to me. He was still mad about me calling him a nigger. It was a pretty mean thing to say, I have to admit, but still, he couldn’t stay mad at me forever, could he?

“Jessie,” I heard myself say, interrupting my thoughts, “can I talk to you upstairs?”

I saw him nod and we stood up and climbed the stairs together, unnoticed by the others. I led him into my room and he flopped down in a corner with his back against the wall.

“I didn’t tell you that I was sorry about calling you a nigger,” I began and stopped when he flinched at the word nigger.

“Don’t insult my mother,” he muttered when I sat down by him.

“I’m not,” I said back, “I was mad cause you hit me with that hammer. Come on, you know I wouldn’t call you anything bad like that for no reason. You said so yourself, I’m your buddy.”

“I know,” he answered, “it just gets to me.”

“You told me that, remember?” He nodded and I continued, “It was the first insult that came to mind. I had to use it, otherwise I wouldn’t have a hand left, it’d all be smashed.”

He gave me a small grin. “I’m sorry,” I said, a pause and then, “now that I think about it, I don’t know you. You’re like a stranger to me.”

“I’m not a stranger.”

“Yes you are.”

“You know more about me than my brother does, and that sure is a lot more.”

“Then why won’t you tell me about this Sammy and this Jimmy you keep talking about?”

He touched my arm and said, “It hurts here,” he put a hand to his heart, “it hurts.”

“Why?”

“I am torn.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I am torn,” he repeated and gave a small sigh before continuing, “between the life I left and the life I have now. Too far apart to be brought together. Too dangerous. It scares me, Louis, the way this world works. Why must Samantha and Jimmy be so far away?”

“Who are Samantha and Jimmy, first?”

“Sammy, my love.” He suddenly let out a cry so horrible I had to cover my ears. He shot up with his head facing the wall.

“What’s wrong with that, Jessie?“ I asked him and stood up myself.

“And Jimmy, my son. Oh, Jimmy!” He let out another cry.

“What are you talking about?”

“Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy,” he managed to say before sinking to the floor and hiding his face in his knees. 

“Come on, it can’t be all that bad,” I say giving his back a pat.

“Please, please,” he mumbles.

“Cheer up,” I say, “we’re going to California today, remember?”

After a moment he looks up at me, and with a swipe of his sleeve across his nose he says, “I’m sorry, Louis, was I mourning over my past again?”

“Yeah, you were.” I handed him a handkerchief. 

 “If there’s anything I can’t stand, insults toward my upbringing and thoughts of my horrible past. I just can’t control what happens then. I just can’t. My heart takes over, and it hurts.”

I know how you feel, I wanted to say, but I wouldn’t have been true so I settled for, “Want to talk about it?”

“Sure.”

“Where do you want to start?”

“At home.”

“What do you mean?”

“Back when everything was almost perfect.”

“Okay, go on.”

“My life was well,” he began, “I had my love there with me. By that time we had our lives planed, or so we thought. We’d hang around home a while longer, say our good-bye’s and all, then we figured we’d run up north someplace. I’d heard it was real nice up there.”

He sighed, clenched, and unclenched his fists. “Then what happened?” I prodded.

“Then one day she came, like always, to see me. Except this time she had a small baby with her. ‘Jacob, he needs a name,’ I remember her saying. I didn’t know where she’d gotten the baby so I asked, ‘where’d you get the thing?’ But she just smiled and said again, ‘He needs a name, Jacob.”

He’d said she had called him Jacob. Then a question came to mind. “Jessie, why’d you change your name?” I heard myself ask.

“What?”

“Why did you change your name?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your name used to be Jacob, am I right?”

He nodded, “It still is.”

“Then why did you tell us your name was Jessie?”

“’Cause it is.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sheesh Louis, what does it matter?”

“I dunno, I was just wondering. But considering the fact that you’re as free as me it makes no sense whatsoever to change your name.”

“You saw what happened, Louis. You were there. You know how Master-er-Mister Biff acted. I wanted to stay safe. Safe and alone.”

“But why?”

“I was just tellin’ you, Louis!”

“Oh, sorry. Go on then.”

“Anyway, she came to me with that baby and said, ‘He needs a name, Jacob.’ So I ask why. She says, ‘cause he don’t have one yet.’ Then I say, ‘but why me?’ She just smiles and says, ‘he’s yours, Jacob.’ I look at her and then down at the baby. He was a bit helpless looking sitting there in her arms, asleep. So then I say to her, ‘How ‘bout Jimmy?’ She rocked the baby when he stirred and leaned over on me. ‘It’s beautiful,’ she said. I just thought it was insane.”

“What happened to them?”

“I’m not sure. They ran off and went out west. Somehow they ended up in California and that’s why we’re goin’ there.”

“It ought to be fun.”

He sat there and thought for a while before saying, “I can’t go down there again, Louis. I just can’t. I made a promise to myself that I was going to tell them about this all before we left. But now, I just can’t do it, Louis!”

Something in the way his voice shook. Something in the way he’d said my name. I don’t know what in the world it was but I had to do it for him. I just had to. “I’ll tell them for you, if you want,” I said.

“W-w-would you, Louis? W-w-would you r-really d-do that f-for me now?” he asked, his voice quivering uncontrollably.

“Yeah, I’ll tell ‘em. You just wait here,” and with that, I clambered out of the room and down the stairs to where the others were.

A thought crossed my mind then. What will they think of me for doing this for him? I shouldn’t be the one down here telling them this. They’ll probably think him a coward. But if anyone’s a coward it’s definitely not him. And anyway, I couldn’t stand to see him cry again. It’s just too awful.

“Listen,” I said and they all turned to face me, “Jessie just told me that we’re going to California to see his friend.”

“Yes, we knew that, dear,” Mama said.

“Yeah, we’ll get there on his son’s fourth birthday,” I told them.

“Did you just say son?” Marie gasped. I nodded slowly. “Does that mean-? It does mean, what he said was true!” She hid her face in her hands.

“Oh, Marie!” came an exasperated voice from the foot of the stairs. Then Jessie ran up to her and, although his own face was tear-streaked, took her in his arms.

“Please, Marie, I’m sorry,” he whispered, but she pushed him away and began beating on his chest with her fists.

“You monster! Why didn’t you tell me this before? You’re horrible! I hate you!” she was shouting.  Mama and Papa led my brother and sisters out of the room. I should follow, I thought, but didn’t move. Jessie needs me, another voice in my head said.

“Please, Marie, please,” Jessie whispered again and reached out his arms.

Marie began to cry and he took her in tight. Then he gave me a look that said, get out of here! So I did. The others were loading their stuff into the wagon outside. I did the same and soon Jessie came out carrying Marie in his arms. It looked like she was trying to cry and laugh at the same time. I climbed up onto the wagon and Jessie threw Marie up next to me. Then Jessie climbed up next to Papa and we started off.

 

When we got to the train station I was surprised to find that Jessie’s friend, Marty, was waiting there for us. He took the horses home. But what else were we going to do with them, sell them? I figured that Jessie had it all worked out with Papa that Marty was going to keep an eye on our house while we were gone. I hadn’t thought about that.

After Marty drove away, Jessie led us onto the train. We followed him down a small hallway and into a private compartment with a row of benches on either side. He told us that there was a pullout bed under one of the benches. After we had thrown our baggage into an overhead bin, a whistle blew and we sat down to enjoy the ride.

“Ooh! Look how fast we’re going,” Kate cried, she was sitting across from me by the window.

“Wow,” Emily muttered, “this is amazing.” After that no one talked aloud, and so I looked around at our company. My sisters were whispering to each other and giggling. Papa and Kyle were inspecting a map. Jessie was siting next to the door and beside him sat Mama who was reading a book. Jessie leaned over and pointed to something on the page. He grinned at her as she answered him. Marie was sitting right next to me with her hand wrapped around my arm. She was still upset, I thought.

“You alright, Marie?” I asked.

“Why, am I bothering you?” she replied.

“No, I was just wondering.”

She was silent for a moment and then she said, “Louis, would you like to go for a walk with me?”

“Sure.” So we got up and headed toward the door of the compartment.

“And where do you think you two are going?” Mama asked us.

“We’re just going to explore the train, Mrs. Magregor,” Marie answered.

“Alright, don’t be gone long.” Then we walked out into the dimly lit hallway and started to the left. As soon as we were past the next compartment, we heard a door open and turned around to see Jessie coming out.

“Excuse me, but I don’t believe anyone invited you to join us,” Marie said.

Jessie looked at the ground and put his hands in his pockets, “Look Marie, I’m sorry. I just, well, um… please, Marie.” He put his hands out in shame.

“Come on, Louis,” Marie said and pulled me down the hall by the front of my jacket. Jessie followed slowly and silently.

We went along past thousands of doors, all holding rooms like ours inside them. The doors were all the same, an ugly green color with a brass handle in them. Suddenly we heard crying coming from up ahead of us. I looked to see a small little boy curled up beside a door. As we approached, he stopped crying and looked up at us.

“Who’re you?” he asked.

“We could ask the same of you,” Marie replied.

“I’m Toby, miss,” the boy informed her.

“What are you doing out here, Toby?” inquired Marie.

“My Pappy kicked me out.”

“Did he?”

“Yes, just ‘cause my bubba hit me.”

“He must have had a very good reason to hit you.”

“No, he just did it to get me kicked out!”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes, ‘course I’m sure!”

“Well then we’ll be on our way, since you obviously have no reason to be sitting out here, blubbering like that.”

We turned around to go and Toby jumped up, “Wait, miss, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Marie,” she said, “Marie Daniels.”

“And you, sir?” he inquired of me.

“Louis Magregor, and you needn’t call me sir.”

“Okay, Louis. You riding all the way to New Mexico Territory?”

“Yes.”

“Me too.”

“Where’s your room?”

“Last one down there on the end.”

“You traveling with your families?”

“I am, Marie’s just coming with us for the ride.”

“Toby,” a fourth voice said as a tall man appeared in the doorway, “who are you talking to?”

“Pappy, this is Louis Magregor and Marie Daniels, they’re ridin’ the train too!”

“Well good to see my boy has made some friends, since he never made any back home,” the man said to us. “You ready to come back in, Toby?” The boy nodded and they went inside.

We looked at each other and laughed. “You ready to go back now, Marie?” I asked.

“Yes, let’s go;” and with that we headed back to the room. We didn’t see Jessie on the way back and he wasn’t in the compartment either.

“Wasn’t Jessie with you?” Mama asked us.

“Yes, but then he left,” Marie explained.

“You didn’t see where he went?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Oh well, he should be back soon, he is so unpredictable.” So then we all sat down again to wait for him to return.

I shut my eyes and listened to the clackety-clack of the train.

“Louis,” I heard Marie’s voice whisper in my ear, “you don’t think he ran off because of me, do you?”

I opened my eyes and looked at her, she was serious. “No, he probably saw somebody, just like we did. It’ll be okay,” I reassured her. She just nodded. I don’t think I helped any.

“Hey, if you want to go look for him I’ll come with you,” I offered.

“Sure,” she managed and took my hand as we headed out of the room. We looked right, no Jessie. We looked left, no Jessie. Then we turned to the right and continued walking, for we knew he had not passed us.

We did not see nor hear any sign of him all the way through the train’s four cars. Finally, we got to the end. Marie opened the last door to see Jessie hanging over the edge with his shirt flapping open in the wind.

“Oh, Jessie!” Marie cried and ran to him, pulling him back onto the platform, “You scared me so much.” He pushed her away and backed up against the railing, not saying a word.

“Jessie, please, was it something I said?”

He wordlessly turned his back to us and set his elbows down on the railing.

“I’m sorry, will you forgive me?”

“You first,” he said without turning around.

“Why me?”

“Come on, Marie!”

I felt I should leave, but my feet wouldn’t move.

“Jessie,” Marie whispered and with an awkward glance at me went up to him and put her hand on his back. He flinched and she quickly pulled away her hand. Then as he relaxed she put it back. This time he didn’t move. “Jessie I’ll forgive you once I understand. Will you tell me about it? I don’t why I got so upset. I just overreacted. Maybe it’s not as bad as I think it is.”

“Aw, Marie.”

“Please?”

“Do you really wanna know?”

“Yes.”

“Then come and sit wit’ me,” Jessie said and they sat down together.

“You want me to leave?” I asked.

“Nah, that’s okay, Louis you can stay if ya want to.”

But I didn’t want to stay, I wanted to go away, far, far, away. “If it’s all right I’ll just step inside for a moment, I’m getting a bit winded out here,” I told them. They nodded and I went inside to wait.

It was quiet in the long green hallway of the train. I sat down next to a door. I was tempted to go on to find the compartment where the rest of my family was. I didn’t though; I had to wait for Jessie and Marie. Soon they came.

A grinning Jessie had his arm draped over a silent Marie. Jessie was telling a joke and using his free hand to animate it. When they walked by me, he tossed his other arm over me and continued to talk.

 

Later, back in our compartment, a woman came by with a food cart and we bought some dinner. It was pretty good, for train food, that is.

After we had all finished eating we rolled out the mattress and laid it across the floor. My brother and sisters were asleep on it. Marie was lying on a corner near my feet, I couldn’t tell if she was asleep or not. My father was sitting across the aisle working on his maps. My mother was still sitting down by the door. Jessie was asleep at her feet with his head on her knee. He had gone back over there to see Mama’s book after Marie said she needed a rest. She silently brushed his hair away from his face. It was quiet except for the noise of the train. I tried to sleep.

It was impossible, so I sat there for a while in the noise of the train, until I heard a groan and something that sounded a bit like crying. I opened my eyes and looked around. Jessie was the one doing the moaning, although he was still asleep, or so it looked.

“Help me, Louis! Help me!” he yelled. I looked at him. He hadn’t moved, nor did it look like he was awake.

“Hey, did you hear that?” I asked.

“Hear what, dear?” Mama asked.

“You mean you didn’t hear that?”

“No, Louis.”

“Oh, well, then, never mind.”

“Okay, honey.”

“Please, get it off me!” I heard his voice again. I was watching him and he hadn’t stirred.  “Louis! Help me!” he shouted again. Except he wasn’t shouting, I was hearing his voice in my head! What was going on?

Suddenly he jolted awake. “Louis!” I heard him gasp. I stared at him. Still sobbing, he began to pull on Mama’s skirts.

“What are you doing? Come here. Stop that,” I heard Mama whisper and Jessie crawled up into her arms. She took his head and put it up against her chest. He sighed and closed his eyes again.

I suddenly felt a wave of tiredness. I remember this! He’d done this to me before! That first day I saw him, he’d replied to my thoughts. Then I’d felt sleepy! Strange, I feel that way now. Yawn; see you in the morning.

 

  I woke up and stretched out my legs. Today we would be arriving in California. Finally, no more train rides for a whole entire week! We had gone on for another day on the first train, before we got out in New Mexico Territory to spend the night.

It was a fast night. We barely had time to sleep before we had to get onto the next train. We slept in a big room at a motel adjoining the train station. Trains were roaring by all night long! Big, loud, noisy, trains, with their huge whistles! I never thought I’d get enough sleep! But enough about that, the train is coming to a stop at the station in California!

“Hooray!” Kyle called as we gathered up our belongings and headed toward the door.

Everyone was rushing around except Jessie. Again? I thought. What is his problem? I knew what is problem was, though. He didn’t want us to meet his friends. Too bad, I thought again. We spent five long days on that dumb train to get here so he better do what he came here for! 

So then, almost as if in response to my thoughts, he grabbed up his jacket and stuffed it in his bag. I just had to snicker as I watched him place his shoes down under the seat, hoping that Mama wouldn’t notice. Then he pushed out past me and into the hallway, his bare shoulder brushing my bags. He was clad in a red vest and a pair of dirty khaki trousers.

“Jessie Jacob Whitman!” I heard Mama call and he flinched, knowing what was coming. Mama had been trying to keep those shoes on him forever, and still he attempted to get off without them. “Come in here and get these shoes on!” He walked back into the room. “And it would be the least you could do to put on some clean pants and a decent shirt.”

I heard him groan and Mama began to gripe at him.  She looked like she felt like giving him a good whack on the back of the head until he pulled on a pair of army green pants and slipped on the shoes. He still didn’t touch his vest. Then, taking a good look at himself he reached into his bag and topped it all off with a goofy looking black hat that fell down over his eyes. Mama just sighed and pushed the hat back out of his eyes. He grinned as it flopped back down.

“Not funny,” she said, “but it is better than before.” He nodded, and pushed his bag up on his shoulder.

“Are we ready for California?” asked Papa.

“Yes!” we all shouted at once.

“Well then let’s go!” Papa replied and led us off the train.

We went over to a bench and set our things down. Then we looked to Jessie who was searching the crowd for his friend. “Wait here,” he said and walked up to a dark-skinned girl. Tapping lightly on her shoulder, his hat in hand, I heard him say, “Excuse me, ma’am but could you tell me where I could find a place where me and my buddies could stay a night?”

Turning around slowly she said, “Yes, sir, I just happen-“ She stopped short and gasped, “Jacob!”

He grinned at her and she gave him a big hug. “I can’t believe it’s you!” she said.

“I can’t believe it’s you either!” he said and laughed.

A little black boy ran up to the girl and pulled on her skirts, “Mommy, look what I found!”

However, ‘Mommy’ didn’t have time to answer before Jessie had the boy up in his arms, “What do you have there, little buddy?”

“See,” the boy replied, sticking a turtle in his face.

“Oh, that’s a good one,” Jessie grinned. “Are you going to keep him?”

The boy nodded, “I’m gonna name him Baxter.”

 “That’s a nice name for him,” Jessie told him and set him down. Then, turning to the girl he said, “Come, I want you to meet some friends of mine.

And with a wave of his hand he introduced us, “Samantha, meet the Magregors, and Miss Daniels.”

          She just stared at us all until finally she stuttered, “You mean all these people are with you?”

          “That’s right Ms. Sammy, the whole lot of ‘em,” Jessie replied.

          She looked at us and then looked back at Jessie. Then us again, and Jessie. She sighed and said, “Well I guess you might as well come with me, the Brooks certainly have enough room, though they will be more surprised than I.”

          She led us away from the station and up to where a young man was standing with a wagon and a team of horses.

          “Gee, Samantha,” he said, “I didn’t know we where here to pick up the entire state of Arkansas!”

          “I didn’t either, Skate,” she mumbled; and with that, we climbed into the wagon.

          I watched Jessie toss his bag up and then go to stand by the front horse.

“Aren’t you going to ride, Jessie?” Mama asked. 

          “Naw, I’ll walk,” he replied as the girl went up and handed the little boy to him.

          He took her hand and the horses started up, going at a slow pace. It was strange, being here, seeing this. This wasn’t where I was supposed to be! I wasn’t supposed to know that Jessie was a run-away, that he was this kid’s father! I bet I wasn’t even supposed to know Jessie!  Boy, at that moment I really wanted to be home!

          The horses jerked to a halt and I about jumped out of my britches, for a wild dog ran up to the girl, barking like crazy.

          “Doggie,” the boy mumbled and giggled. He began reaching down to pet the dog until it snarled at him. 

          “Tyler!” the girl shouted at the dog, “What are you doing to my boy? Get out of here!”  At her command, the dog ran off toward the barn with its tail between its legs.

          Jessie looked at her and they both laughed.

          “Oh Samantha, is this your young husband?” a woman with an Irish accent said, as she walked up to them.

          “Well, I wouldn’t say that,” Jessie said looking at his feet.

          “Yes, Mrs. Brooks, this is the boy I was telling you about. Jessie, this is Mr. and Mrs. Brooks,” she said as an old man clambered up.

          “Sir,” he replied, offering his hand to Mr. Brooks. “Madam,” he clumsily tipped his silly hat with a nod of his head.

          “And who are all these people?” Mrs. Brooks asked leaning around the edge of the wagon to peer at us all.

          Boy howdy, I wonder how we looked to this old lady, with us suddenly showing up here, the whole big lot of us. We were a big family.

          “These are my friends, ma’am, I was hoping they could stay with you too,” Jessie told her.

          “Hmm,” she paused and counted us, “yes, I believe we have room for your friends, sir.”

          “Thank you, so much, ma’am, I couldn’t begin to tell you how thankful I am,” Jessie replied.

          “Well don’t just stand there,” she said, “Please, do come in.”

          So we all climbed out of the wagon and followed the woman into the house.

          “Here, let me help you with that,” I heard Jessie say to Marie.

          “Thank you,” she replied, and let him take her bag.

          Mrs. Brooks led us into her nice home and gave us a tour. There were two stories in the house, and on the way in I noticed a sign that said ‘Bed & Breakfast’. Would they let us stay for free?

 Afterward, we all chose where we could sleep. Mama and Papa in a big study room, my sisters in a pretty sunroom, and Kyle and I in another nearby. Jessie threw his stuff in a smaller room near the stairs.

Mama helped Mrs. Brooks in the kitchen while the rest of us, including Mr. Brooks, sat in the cozy meeting room.

Kyle became absorbed in a book that was sitting on the table and Papa struck up a conversation with Mr. Brooks.

Jessie sat in an oversized easy chair, inspecting his scarred hands and muttering to himself. Samantha was watching Kate and Emily play with Jimmy.

Marie was sitting on the sofa combing her hair, and I sat in the corner on the floor watching it all.

Sam stood up and went over to Jessie. Brushing his hands, she mumbled something to him and he nodded. Together they walked over to Marie, and then they came to me.

“Hey Louis, ya wanna come upstairs to Sammy’s room and play dominoes with us?” Jessie asked.

“Sure,” I said, and followed them up to the second floor.

          We walked into her cluttered room and she pulled out a small cardboard box. Jessie flopped down onto the floor and spread the wooden blocks out in front of him.

          The rest of us sat down beside him as the boy who had drove us approached the room and stood in the doorway.

          “What do you want, Skate?” Sam asked him.

          “I was just passing by on the way to my room and I couldn’t help but notice the merry festivities going on in this usually empty room,” he replied a bit sarcastically.

          “So you wanna play?” Jessie asked.

          “Yeah, my point exactly,” he said and sat down as we made room for him.

          We drew our dominoes and began the game.

          “The name’s Skate Jordans, stable man and boarder here at here at the Brooks. Y’all friends of Sam’s?”

          “I’m Jessie Whitman and Sam here’s been my buddy since way back,” Jessie said. “And these here are my friends, Louis Magregor and Marie Daniels.”

          I couldn’t resist asking, so I said, “Where’d you get such a name as Skate?”

          “What? You got a problem wit’ it?” he threw at me.

          I was much taken aback by this remark and I muttered back, “I was just asking.”

          Sam swatted Skate on the arm and said, “Come on, you don’t have to scare them, just your looks is enough.”

          Skate laughed and replied, “Thank you for the wonderful compliment, Samantha. The name was my father’s last wish before he died. He was dazed by high fever, but that’s what he wanted, so here I am with the name Skate, like it or not.”

          After our introductions we continued the game, us talking about Arkansas, and them talking about things we should do while we’re here, and just casual things like that. I did notice that Samantha and Jessie still held hands through the whole game.

          “Hey look at this!” Skate said, “I’ve only got one left!”

          “Hey look at this, I’ve only got one left!” I mocked, holding up mine. Jessie had about four while Marie and Sam both had two.

          Skate’s turn came around and there was no place for him to play, so it was Marie’s turn. She put her double four down and that was perfect for me because I had one with a four also.

           Neither Sam nor Jessie had any with fours so I almost laughed aloud as I placed mine down.

          “Congratulations, you’ve won,” Skate groaned.

          Just then Kyle clattered into the room and told us to come down for supper. We all jumped up and made tracks down the stairs after him, except for Jessie and Sam. They stayed behind to pick up the dominoes, but followed shortly after.

 

  We were sitting eating supper, and Mrs. Brooks was saying, “Yes, Skate used to ride in rodeos like a ruffian before we hired him.”

          “You any good?” Jessie asked.

          “Course I’m good. I’ll prove it too!” Skate answered. Mrs. Brooks gave Skate a warning look, as if she did not approve, but he ignored her.

          After supper, Skate slipped outside. Jessie and I followed him. He led us to a pen behind the barn where a wild colt was running. Skate climbed over the fence and jumped on the colt’s back. It thrashed and bucked, but he didn’t fall off. He pulled a few daring stunts before jumping away from the horse and scrambling back to the fence.

          “You ready, kid?” he shouted to Jessie.

          “You bet I am!” Jessie hollered back and launched himself off the fence toward the horse. He stayed on pretty well for a while, but the colt was angry now. “This ain’t too hard!” he cried and let go with his hand. He tried his own daring tricks successfully.

          Then, just as he was going to jump off, the colt bucked forward and Jessie flew off, scrambling for the fence even before he hit the ground. I ran over to him. He groaned and leaned against the fence, holding his side.

Skate laughed and said, “That was the greatest trick I ever saw! Where’d you learn it, your father?”

          Jessie went rigid and I could tell he wanted to lunge straight for Skate’s throat. I touched his elbow and hissed, “Jessie, it isn’t worth it!”

He glared at me, eyes blazing, and stormed away.

 

  “Louis?” a shadow whispered from the doorway, “You asleep?”

          “No,” I replied drowsily. It was the pitch black of night, Kyle was sound asleep in the bed next to me, and I hadn’t gotten one drop of shut-eye since I’d climbed into bed. I was tired!

          The figure padded into the room and plopped down on the end of the bed. I sat up.

          “You couldn’t sleep either?” I asked Jessie.

          “Nope, but boy am I bushed!” he replied, trailing a shaky hand through his hair.

          We were silent for a while and I lied back down. I took note that his breathing was a bit hoarse. 

“I don’t feel well, Louis,” he finally said.

          “What?”

          “My head has started pounding, my bones ache, my stomach feels queasy, it has for days! I can’t eat anything! I can’t sleep, I can’t move, somebody’s gotta help me! I can’t take anymore!”

          I was surprised by this crazy outburst and had no idea of what to do. I sat up slowly and asked, “When did this happen?”

          “Back on the train.”

          “You told anybody else?”

          “Didn’t think it mattered.”

          “Course it matters? You want us to find you dead in bed someday?”

          “No, but-“ He hung his head.

          “Sorry, Jessie,” I said after a minute.

          He groaned, a hand to his stomach. “I think I’m gonna be sick!”

          He lurched out of the room with me following.

          I opened the door to the fancy indoor toilet, and covered my eyes as he was sick.

          He moved over to lean against the wall, breathing hard.

          “You been doing that for a while?” I asked.

          He sunk to the floor, resting his chin on his knees. “I don’t know what it is, that’s caused this. I want to sleep but the pain in my bones is too harsh.”

He groaned again suddenly, doubling over.

“Jessie, you gonna be sick again?”

“No, no, I think I’m alright for now.” He straightened, tiredly, and stood, saying, “C’mon, Louis, let’s go to my room.”

He clasped my wrist in his hand and dragged me down the hall. We entered the room he had chosen as his own and he curled up in a chair that had been shoved into a corner.

As I lied down on the bed, I could tell why Jessie had chosen this room over the others. It contained a bed too large for the room, a comfortable looking chair, that he was suddenly asleep in, and a bookshelf. It was a perfect room for a person like Jessie.

I smiled, gave the pillow a fluff, and went to sleep myself.

 

  I was running, running from something I couldn’t see. All I knew was that I had to get away from it before it got me. I screamed as tingling pains shot up my legs. I looked down to see huge vines wrapping around my bare feet. I reached down and tried to pull them away. Instead of going away, they climbed up my arms. I fell and they wrapped around my entire body. I could feel the thing’s footsteps ringing through the ground like a bell. Total darkness engulfed me as the monster grabbed me and tore me to shreds.

          I woke with a jolt and fell to the floor.

“Ow!” I groaned pushing the heavy blanket off my head and rubbing my aching legs vigorously. I looked around, wondering what had caused my nightmare.

Jessie was sprawled out on the end of the bed. He must have been lying on my feet, I thought, that would have explained the vines, and he could have kicked the blanket on my head, causing the darkness. But what of the monster, and its noisy footsteps?

A bell began ringing and someone shouted, “Breakfast! Last call!”

          That would explain the footsteps, I thought, rising and pulling on a clean shirt and my boots.

I dashed out of the room with a final glance at Jessie. He hadn’t stirred since I awoke, so I left him alone.

I entered the dinning room and took a seat next to Mama and Kyle.

“Good Morning, Louis,” she said, combing my hair with her fingers.

I ducked my head and reached for a biscuit.

“Is Jessie coming down?” Mama asked.

“He was still asleep when I woke up, and I didn’t feel like wakin’ him up,” I replied.

I hesitated before whispering in her ear, “Mama, he came to me last night, neither of us could sleep, and he told me he hadn’t been feeling well for a while. I think he might-a been sick bad.”

 “You want me to look him over after we eat?” she whispered back and I nodded.

However, we did not have to wait until after we ate, because the man of the hour himself came waltzing into the room at that exact moment to take a seat across the table from me, between Samantha and Marie.

 “And how are my two lovely ladies this morning?” Jessie said, giving them each a peck on the cheek. Both of them grinned, and Marie’s ears grew red.

“Jessie,” Mama asked, “are you feeling okay today?”

“Just fine, ma’am, why do you ask?” he replied, shooting me a look as I passed him the biscuits. 

“Oh, I was just wondering, dear.” she answered.

“What are we going to do today?” Emily asked.

“I thought we could go and see things around town, if Samantha would take us,” said Momma.

“I could take you by city hall, to see the statue, if you’d like,” Samantha replied.

“And to see the ocean!” cried Kate.

“I want to see the ocean, too,” said Kyle. “I want to see a sand crab.”

“Okay, shall I meet you outside after we eat, then?” said Sam.

“Alright,”

 

  So there I stood, watching Jessie and Mama argue over his shoes.

“Do I have ta?”  Jessie groaned.

“Yes, now either you go back in there and get them or I’m not going to let you go on this walk with us!”

“But…” Jessie grumbled and looked down at his feet.  “My feet are fine without those silly old things!”

“You look like a some kid fresh out of the woods, and you aren’t, are you Jessie?”

“No, ma’am, not anymore, I guess.”  Then Jessie dashed into the house to grab his shoes.