Someplace to Call Home

by Sandra Dallas

  “Save it for something special,” Mrs. Carlson had said. What was more special than Benny coming home safe?

  Benny didn’t come home safe, however. He didn’t come home at all. Tom searched through the night, coming back to the cabin from time to time to see if Benny had returned. Hallie tried to sleep, but she was jerked awake every time she heard a noise. She finally gave up napping and sat in the doorway, staring out at the stars until the sky lightened in the east. When Tom returned, she looked at him hopefully. He shook his head.

  “Maybe he went to the Carlsons’,” Tom said as the sun came up. He sat in the doorway drinking a cup of coffee. Hallie had ground the coffee beans, and the coffee was fresh. Tom deserved it after his long night of looking for their brother.

  “You worked at the Carlsons’ yesterday. He wasn’t there then. You know he won’t go out on the road alone. That’s the only way to get there. Besides, if he had gone to their place, the Carlsons would have brought him home, even in the middle of the night. They’d know how worried we’d be.”

  Tom nodded. “I don’t know where else to look,” he said. He squeezed Hallie’s hand. She knew he was as frightened as she was.

  “I’ll go see the Carlsons,” she said. “You’ve been up all night. You lie down. I’ll wake you as soon as I get back.”

  Tom protested, but Hallie insisted. She jumped up and ran as fast as she could down the road to the Carlson farm.

  Mrs. Carlson was taking down sheets from the clothesline. She removed two clothespins from her mouth and said, “I was too tired to bring in the washing last night. I didn’t think I had to worry it would rain.” She smiled as she folded a sheet and dropped it into a basket. Then she looked at Hallie sharply. “Why are you here so early? Is something wrong?”

  “Is Benny here?” Hallie asked, gasping for breath because she had been running so hard.

  Mrs. Carlson dropped the clothespins into a bag hanging on the line. “What, Benny? No, he’s not here.” She frowned. “Is he missing?”

  “He disappeared yesterday. Tom looked for him all night. We thought maybe he came here.”

  “Swede!” Mrs. Carlson called. Her husband came out of the house, letting the screen door bang. “Benny’s missing. See if he’s in the barn. Hallie, you look in the chicken coop.”

  Hallie started off, clutching her side because it hurt from running.

  “Wait,” Mrs. Carlson called. “Maybe Tessie will have some idea.” She called into the house for Tessie. The little girl came outside, and Mrs. Carlson asked, “Have you seen Benny?”

  Tessie shook her head.

  “What about yesterday.”

  Tessie shook her head again.

  Like Benny, Tessie sometimes mixed up days, so Hallie wasn’t sure Tessie would have remembered. Still, if he had been at the Carlson farm, Mrs. Carlson would have seen him.

  Mr. Carlson came back from the barn, shaking his head. “I checked the chicken coop, too. There’s no sign of him.”

  Hallie thanked them, then said, “I better get back. Tom and I will start looking again.”

  “Well, you’re not going to do it alone. We’ll get up a search party,” Mr. Carlson said.

  “A search party?” Hallie asked.

  “You bet. There’s a little boy missing. Folks will want to help.”

  “Help us?”

  “You’re the ones whose kid is missing.”

  “Swede, you go on over to the cabin and get started. Hallie, come inside with me, and we’ll call the sheriff,” Mrs. Carlson said. She turned away but not before Hallie saw her put the corner of her apron to her eye, wiping away a tear. “That dear little boy. We’ll find him.”

  Hallie followed the woman into the house. Mrs. Carlson went to the telephone, which was mounted on the wall. It was a big brown wooden box with a speaking tube and a receiver that Mrs. Carlson held to her ear. She turned the crank to call the operator. There was a harsh grinding sound, then someone came on the line. “Gladys? That you?” Mrs. Carlson asked. “Get me the sheriff.” She waited a minute, then said, “Sheriff Eagles? The Turner boy’s missing. The younger one, Benny. Hallie and Tom looked all night for him. Swede’s going over there now, but you better get up a search party.” She paused for a moment, then said, “That’ll be fine. I’ll have Gladys alert everybody. Gladys, you still on the line? Tell folks to get over to our hired man’s place to look for the boy.”

  Mrs. Carlson hung up the receiver, then she turned to Hallie. “The sheriff said he’ll be right out. Other folks will be coming, too. You run on to the cabin. Tessie and I will come over later.” She bit her lip. “That is, if Benny hasn’t come home by then.” Mrs. Carlson put her hand to her forehead and looked away. Then she said, “We’ll find him, honey. Don’t you worry. We’ll find him.”

  chapter fifteen

  Home

  Hallie ran back down the road to the cabin. Just as she got there, a car pulled off at the cabin. “You find Mr. Benny yet, did you?” Sheriff Eagles asked.

  “No, sir.” Suddenly Hallie began to cry. She put her hands over her face, but the tears spilled out. She thought of the foxes and coyotes and snakes out there, the rocks Benny could fall over, and the streams. She should have done a better job of watching him. She wiped the tears from her face, embarrassed.

  “Now, sis, don’t you worry none. We’ll find Mr. Benny.”

  “How? There are so many places he could be.”

  “And so many folks will be out looking.” The sheriff opened the car door and swung around, holding on to the door frame to push himself out.

  The passenger door opened, and Jimmy Watson from school jumped out. He grinned at Hallie. “The sheriff saw me by the filling station and told me to come along. We aren’t the only ones searching for your brother.” He pointed at two cars, then stepped out into the road and waved them to a stop.

  A man Hallie didn’t know got out of one car, while another boy from school and his father opened the doors of the second one. Before long, more than a dozen men and boys had gathered beside the cabin, listening to the sheriff’s instructions about where to search. “We’ll set up things here. Maybe the boy will come back on his own,” the sheriff said. “Now we got to decide who’s to search where.”

  I ought to fix them coffee, Hallie thought. She didn’t have much. She’d have to stretch it, but it was the least she could do. “I’ll make coffee,” she whispered to the sheriff.

  “Don’t you worry about that, sis. Coffee’s coming. You tell these men about Benny.”

  Hallie told them her brother was friendly, but he would be scared if he heard someone strange calling him. “He might not answer. If you think you see him, yell that you’ve found Bob. Bob was our rabbit,” she said.

  The men were assigned areas to search—the woods, the meadow, the fields, the roadside. Then the sheriff gave each man a whistle. “That’s our way,” he explained to Hallie. “Somebody blows a whistle, it means the boy’s found.”

  The men were about to leave when another car stopped, and a man got out, followed by Dan and Harold. The man must be Dan’s father, Hallie thought. What were they doing there? Surely they weren’t going to search for Benny. But why else would they have come?

  Tom saw the two boys, too, and stared. Then he went over and held out his hand. “We sure do appreciate you helping,” he said.

  “Tom,” Harold said.

  “Tom,” Dan repeated.

  Another car drove up and parked by the cabin, and Mrs. Powell got out with a big coffee boiler. Hallie helped her carry it inside, where they added wood to the coals in the cook stove and then set the boiler on top. “I brought cups, too,” Mrs. Powell told Hallie, setting a dozen tin cups on the table.

  A few minutes later a woman arrived with a plate of fried doughnuts. “I made them for breakfast, but when the call come, my husband got right up from the table and started over here to help look for the boy. So I brung the doughnuts, too.” Then she said, “There’s others coming. We’ll have di
nner ready when the men get back.”

  Hallie sat down on the bed. She had been up all night and had never been so tired. “You rest,” Mrs. Carlson said. She had arrived with Tessie. “Tessie knows Benny is missing, and she wants to help find him, too.”

  “I brought Ragman,” Tessie said, holding up her Raggedy Ann doll. “She’ll find Benny.” Then she called, “Benny, you come here right now.”

  Hallie didn’t want to sleep. It wouldn’t be right. So many others were looking for her brother. Still, when Mrs. Carlson insisted, Hallie lay down on the bed. She closed her eyes for just a moment. When she awoke, the sun was high in the sky. “Benny?” she asked, sitting up. “Did they find Benny?”

  “I’m sorry. Not yet,” a woman told her. “They’re still looking. They won’t give up till they find him.”

  Hallie glanced out the open door. The sheriff was still there along with several men. “I shouldn’t have slept,” she said.

  “Best thing for you. Besides, there’s plenty of us here.” The woman pointed to the foot of the bed. “I brung in the quilts you left drying in the bushes. Men don’t think of such things.” Hallie had forgotten all about the quilts that she had washed the day before. Was it only yesterday? she wondered.

  The cabin was full of women. Several were gathered around the table, which was crowded with pies and cookies and cakes. Three girls were making sandwiches. One of them was Wilma! Hallie stared at her. She was spreading butter on a slice of bread as she chatted with Cathy. She turned and grinned at Hallie.

  “Wilma?” Hallie said, standing up. She didn’t understand. Why would Wilma have come to help?

  “Hi.” Wilma set down the bread and went over to Hallie. “I know you don’t like me much, but I wanted to do what I could. I think your little brother’s dear. He made me smile when he wanted to sing ‘Happy Days’ at Christmas.”

  “I thought you didn’t like me,” Hallie said.

  Wilma frowned. “What gave you that idea? I thought it was swell you and your brothers could live together like you do.” She glanced around until she spotted a woman Hallie assumed was her mother. She lowered her voice. “I would give anything to do that, but I don’t think I’d have the nerve. I mean, it’s really something that you can get along without adults. You always seem so sure of yourself.” She glanced away. “I was a little afraid of you.”

  “But you called us squatters.”

  “I guess that’s because I was jealous of you. I wanted to hurt you. I really didn’t mean it, and I’m sorry I said it. Heck, my grandfather squatted here fifty years ago. Right now, we’re just all neighbors.” She pointed outside.

  Hallie went to the door and saw several boys from her class sitting among the men who were eating the sandwiches the girls had made. They smiled at Hallie. “We’ll find him,” one said. He gave her a thumbs-up.

  “I know,” Hallie replied. She went outside and sat down on a log and put her head into her hands. Surely with all these people looking, someone would find Benny. She sniffed back tears. She didn’t want people to see her cry. She had to be brave, like Tom. He had come in with the men but was getting ready to go out again.

  “I’m sorry you’re sad.” Wilma had come out of the cabin and sat down next to Hallie. “I just know they’ll find your brother.”

  Hallie was glad Wilma hadn’t asked her where Benny might be. People had been asking her that since they arrived. How would she know? If she did, she would have searched there for Benny herself. “My sister ran off once,” Wilma continued. “Dad found her in the chicken coop. She was sitting on an egg. She was trying to hatch it.”

  Despite herself, Hallie smiled.

  The men finished eating. Hallie thought they would go home then. After all, they had planting and milking and other chores to do. Instead of getting into their cars, however, the men readied themselves to go back out to search for Benny.

  Nobody paid any attention to a truck going fast down the road toward town until the driver honked. Hallie recognized the truck. It delivered baked goods to the store in town every other day. The bread truck came to a stop, and a man got out. “Anybody here lose a little boy?” he called.

  Hallie jumped up. “Did you find Benny? He’s my brother. Where is he?”

  Women came out of the house, and men stopped what they were doing to stare. The bread man hurried to the other side of the truck and opened the door. Benny leaped out. “Hi, Hallie. I have bread.” He held a half-eaten piece of bread in his hand.

  Hallie rushed to her brother, tears streaming down her face. “I’m so glad you’re safe!” she said.

  Tom ran up behind Hallie and lifted Benny in his arms. “We missed you, Ben!” Then the three of them hugged each other.

  “Hi, Benny,” Tessie said, hurrying toward her friend. “I brought Ragman.”

  Benny squirmed to get down.

  “Where you been, son?” the sheriff asked. He smiled at Benny. Behind him, the others clapped. Someone blew a whistle several times, the signal to the men still searching that Benny had been found.

  “I went to sleep,” Benny said.

  “Where’d you find him?” the sheriff asked the bread man.

  “Funniest thing. He was sitting in the middle of the road talking to a rabbit. Rabbit just stayed there when I stopped, didn’t even hop off.”

  “Where was that?”

  “Must have been three, four miles up the road.”

  “How do you suppose he got so far?” the sheriff asked. “We never thought to look way up there.”

  “He must have been chasing Bob,” Hallie said.

  “Bob. Oh yeah. I guess that’s what he was calling the rabbit,” the bread man told her. “I thought he was saying ‘job,’ but it must have been ‘Bob,’ with a ‘B.’”

  Benny thought that over for a minute. “‘B’ for ‘Bob,’” he said. “Hey, Tessie, ‘B’ for ‘Bob.’”

  “‘B’ for ‘Benny.’ We have cake,” Tessie replied.

  “Oh boy!” Benny took off for the cabin.

  “Well, sis, you got your boy back,” the sheriff said. “I expect all you needed was a bread man.”

  “Maybe we needed everybody,” Hallie said softly. Tom nodded in agreement.

  Hallie looked at the people who had come to search. They had gathered around Benny when he got out of the truck, but now they were packing up. Those who had heard the whistle were coming in from the woods and the fields, asking if Benny was all right.

  Several men slapped the bread man on the back. He was embarrassed and said he had to get back to his deliveries. “All’s I did was stop for a kid.”

  “You come by the office and pick up the reward,” the sheriff told him.

  “The what?” the man asked.

  Hallie heard the words and frowned. No one had mentioned a reward. She and Tom hadn’t even thought about one.

  “It’s twenty-five dollars. Old Man Morton put it up. Dangdest thing. I thought he was the cheapest man in the county. Harold said it was his dad’s idea, too.” The sheriff shook his head.

  Tom began moving through the crowd and thanking people. So did Hallie.

  “Ain’t nothing to thank us for. You’d have done the same for us,” one man said.

  Another man shrugged and told Tom, “Glad the boy’s safe.”

  Wilma had started for a car with her mother. Now she stopped beside Hallie.

  “Thank you,” Hallie said. “I’m glad we talked.”

  “Me too. Do you think sometime I could come over and maybe you could help me with my arithmetic? You’re the smartest one in the class.”

  “Sure,” Hallie said and smiled at the girl. “Maybe you’d help me with grammar.”

  “See you at school,” Wilma said as she closed the car door.

  The sheriff, too, got into his car and drove off. Before long, only the Carlsons remained. Mrs. Carlson hugged Hallie. She’d never done that before. Hallie hugged her back. “I’m so glad . . . ,” Mrs. Carlson said and stopped to wipe the tears
from her cheeks.

  “I can’t believe all these people just showed up. We don’t even know half of them,” Hallie said.

  “You’re their neighbors. That’s what neighbors do.”

  Mr. Carlson slapped Tom on the back. “I was thinking it’s about time we done some work on that old cabin of yours, maybe add a room. I think we got an extra bed up to the house, too. No need for anybody to sleep on the floor.”

  Hallie stared at Mr. Carlson when he called the place their cabin. “I thought you were going to tear it down one day,” she said.

  “I thought I was, too, but now that we’ve got good folks living in it, it’d be a shame to put them out. You folks are family. The place is yours as long as you want it. We expect you’ll be here for a long time. Other people around here, they think smartly of you. I hope after today, you know that.”

  Tom and Hallie exchanged a long look. “Thanks, Mr. Carlson,” Tom said.

  “’Bout time you started calling me Swede.”

  Tessie skipped along beside her mother on the way to the Carlsons’ car. “See you tomorrow,” Tessie called. She waved Raggedy Ann’s hand.

  “Okay,” Benny said. He turned to Hallie. “I had cake, but I’m still hungry.”

  “People left enough food for a week,” Hallie told Tom.

  The three of them watched the Carlsons’ car go down the road, sending up a spray of dirt. Dust devils danced in the road. Birds sang, and wildflowers waved in the breeze. Benny began to sing “Happy Days.”

  “You still think we ought to go on to California?” Hallie asked.

  Tom shook his head. “How about you?”

  Hallie smiled at him as she took Benny’s hand. “We don’t have to. We’re home.”

  Glossary

  Bread lines: During the Great Depression, government and charity workers handed out free food to poor people, who waited in long lines to receive it.