One summer afternoon Georgia and Wanda were chatting in Aunt Wilma's kitchen. I was there as well, because Georgia was babysitting me. I tried to stay pretty close to Georgia during those times. You see Georgia was old enough to take care of me like I was a little kid, but Helen, being younger, saw me as a small playmate, and she was a little rough to play with. She was about twice my size then, as I remember. I have a memory of Georgia and Wanda talking about Joe there in the kitchen, but I think that must have been a later time. I don't think Georgia and Joe were dating at this time. At any rate, I was sticking close to Georgia in the kitchen. We could see Helen out the kitchen door in the weeping willow tree.
Wanda gave Helen three warnings that afternoon. In the first warning she reminded Helen that she shouldn't break any branches because Chick loved the weeping willow tree and it was looking so very good that summer with its weeping branches hanging nearly all the way down to the sidewalk. She asked Helen to not climb any higher and repeated her concern about broken branches.
Helen said, "Ok, Ok."
Georgia and Wanda fell back into their conversation for some time, and I lost track of what Helen was doing out there in the tree. About five minutes later Wanda interrupted her conversation with Georgia to give Helen a slightly stronger warning. While this warning was being given, I noticed that Helen had climbed from the lower part of the tree up to the middle part or slightly above the middle part. The branches were not as stout up there. Helen had one leg over a branch and was hanging below it, trying to figure out how to pull herself up so she could get on top of that branch. Wanda ordered Helen to go no higher, and repeated the warning about breaking branches, noting the branches were smaller and the willow branches were not strong and may not be able to hold Helen's weight.
Helen said, "Ok, Ok."
Georgia and Wanda fell back into their conversation and I lost track of Helen once again. But in a few minutes Helen had made it very high in the tree and Wanda ordered her to come down before she fell. She was to begin her descent to a safer height immediately, Wanda said.
Helen said, "Ok, Ok."
Once again Wanda and Georgia fell back into their conversation. In a minute I heard a loud sound, CRACK!
The branch Helen was on broke and Helen fell a few feet and landed on a lower branch. She hung there for a brief second and then there was another CRACK!
Helen fell another three or four feet and her fall was once again arrested, but CRACK and she fell backwards to the ground where she hit on her back with an impressive THUD!
Wanda shrieked and ran to Helen, Georgia followed closely. I followed after Georgia.
I remember thinking, "Boy, there's going to be some serious butt kicking now." and prepared myself to see Helen get her due.
But Helen had the wind knocked out of her in the fall, and while we were waiting for her to resume breathing, Wanda began to cry. This was very confusing to me. I had thought Wanda should be angry, but she was weeping openly. Helen got her breath back and while Wanda checked her for broken bones she continued to weep. Wanda was not at all upset about the pile of broken branches on the ground like I expected. It was very confusing to me.
Why was Wanda weeping when I had expected her to do some serious butt kicking? It was some years later before I understood this.