Wish You Well

by David Baldacci

  him, its lumpy pink tongue hanging out. The boy put his pole and box through the Hudson's open rear window and climbed in the front seat like he owned it, his dog following his relaxed lead.

  "Howdy-howdy, Hell No," the stranger boy said amiably to the driver, who acknowledged this newcomer with an ever-so-slight nod of the head.

  Lou and Oz looked at each other in puzzlement over this very odd greeting.

  Like a pop-up toy, the visitor poked his head over the seat and stared at them. He had more than an adequate crop of freckles on his flat cheeks, a small mound of nose that carried still more freckles, and out of the sun his hair seemed even redder. His eyes were the color of raw peas, and together with the hair they made Lou think of Christmas wrapping paper.

  "I bet I knowed me what, y'all Miss Louisa's people, ain'tcha?" he said in a pleasant drawl, his smile endearingly impish.

  Lou nodded slowly. "I'm Lou. This is my brother, Oz," she said, with an easy courtesy, if only to show she wasn't nervous.

  Swift as a salesman's grin, the boy shook hands with them. His fingers were strong, with many fine examples of the countryside imbedded in each of them. Indeed, if he'd ever had fingernails, it was difficult to tell under this remarkable collection of dirt. Lou and Oz both couldn't help but stare at those fingers.

  He must have noted their looks, because he said, "Been to digging worms since afore light. Candle in one hand, tin can in the other. Dirty work, y'all know." He said this matter-of-factly, as though for years they all had knelt side by side under a hot sun hunting skinny bait.

  Oz looked at his own hand and saw there the transfers of rich soil from the handshake. He smiled because it was as though the two had just undertaken the blood brother ritual. A brother! Now that was something Oz could get excited about.

  The red-haired young man grinned good-naturedly, showing that most of his teeth were where they were supposed to be, though not many of them were what one could call either straight or white.

  "Name's Jimmy Skinner," he said by way of modest introduction, "but folk call me Diamond, 'cause my daddy say that how hard my head be. This here hound's Jeb."

  At the sound of his name Jeb poked his fluffy head over the seat and Diamond gave each of the dog's ears a playful tug. Then he looked at Oz.

  "That a right funny name fer a body. Oz."

  Now Oz looked worried under the scrutiny of his blood brother. Was their partnership not to be?

  Lou answered for him. "His real name is Oscar. As in Oscar Wilde. Oz is a nickname, like in the Wizard of."

  His gaze on the ceiling of the Hudson, Diamond considered these facts, obviously searching his memory.

  "Never tell of no Wildes up here." He paused, thinking hard again, the wrinkles on his brow crazy-lined. "And wizard'a what 'xactly?"

  Lou could not hide her astonishment. "The book? The movie? Judy Garland?"

  "The Munchkins? And the Cowardly Lion?" added Oz.

  "Ain't never been to no pitcher show." Diamond glanced at Oz's bear and a disapproving look simmered on his face. "You right big fer that, now ain'tcha, son?"

  This sealed it for Oz. He sadly wiped his hand clean on the seat, annulling his and Diamond's solemn covenant.

  Lou leaned forward so close she could smell Diamond's breath. "That's none of your business, is it?"

  A chastened Diamond slumped in the front seat and let Jeb idly lick dirt and worm juice from his fingers. It was as though Lou had spit at the boy using words.

  The ambulance was far ahead of them, driving slowly.

  "I sorry your ma hurt," said Diamond, in the manner of passing the peace pipe.

  "She's going to get better," said Oz, always nimbler on the draw than was Lou with matters concerning their mother.

  Lou stared out the window, arms across her chest.

  "Hell No," said Diamond, "just plop me off over to the bridge. Catch me anythin' good, I bring it fer supper. Tell Miss Louisa?"

  Lou watched as Hell No edged his blunt chin forward, apparently signaling a big, happy "Okay, Diamond!"

  The boy popped up over the seat again. "Hey, y'all fancy good lard-fried fish fer supper?" His expression was hopeful, his intentions no doubt honorable; however, Lou was unwilling just now to make friends.

  "We all shore would, Diamond. Then maybe we can find us a pitcher show in this one-horse town."

  As soon as Lou said this, she regretted it. It wasn't just the disappointed look on Diamond's face; it was also the fact that she had just blasphemed the place where her father had grown up. She caught herself looking to heaven, watching for grim lightning bolts, or maybe sudden rains, like tears falling.

  "From some big city, ain'tcha?" Diamond said.

  Lou drew her gaze from the sky. "The biggest. New York," she said.

  "Huh, well, y'all don't be telling folks round here that."

  Oz gaped at his ex-blood brother. "Why not?"

  "Right chere's good, Hell No. Come on now, Jeb."

  Hell No stopped the car. Directly in front of them was the bridge, although it was the puniest such one Lou had ever seen. It was a mere twenty feet of warped wooden planks laid over six-by-six tarred railroad ties, with an arch of rusted metal on either side to prevent one from plummeting all of five feet into what looked to be a creek full of more flat rock than water. Suicide by bridge jumping did not appear to be a realistic option here. And, judging from the shallow water, Lou did not hold out much hope for a lard-fried fish dinner, not that such a meal sounded particularly appealing to her anyway.

  As Diamond pulled his gear from the back of the Hudson, Lou, who was a little sorry for what she had said, but more curious than sorry, leaned over the seat and whispered to him through the open rear window.

  "Why do you call him Hell No?"

  Her unexpected attention brought Diamond back to good spirits and he smiled at her. " 'Cause that be his name," he said in an inoffensive manner. "He live with Miss Louisa."

  "Where did he get that kind of a name?"

  Diamond glanced toward the front seat and pretended to fiddle with something in his tackle box. In a low voice he said, "His daddy pass through these parts when Hell No ain't no more'n a baby. Plunked him right on the dirt. Well, a body say to him, 'You gonna come back, take that child?' And he say, 'Hell no.' Now, Hell No, he never done nobody wrong his whole life. Ain't many folk say that. And no rich ones."

  Diamond grabbed his tackle box and swung the pole to his shoulder. He walked to the bridge, whistling a tune, and Hell No drove the Hudson across, the structure groaning and complaining with each turn of the car wheels. Diamond waved and Oz returned it with his stained hand, hope welling back for maybe a friendship of enduring degree with Jimmy "Diamond" Skinner, crimson-crowned fisherboy of the mountain.

  Lou simply stared at the front seat. At a man named Hell No.

  * * *

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE DROP WAS A GOOD THREE THOUSAND FEET IF it was an inch. The Appalachians might pale in size if leveled against the upstart Rockies, but to the Cardinal children they seemed abundantly tall enough.

  After leaving the small bridge and Diamond behind, the ninety-six horses of the Hudson's engine had started to whine, and Hell No had dropped to a lower gear. The car's protest was understandable, for now the uneven dirt road headed up at almost a forty-five-degree angle and wound around the mountain like a rattler's coils. The road's supposed twin lanes, by any reasonable measurement, were really only a single pregnant one. Fallen rock lay along the roadside, like solid tears from the mountain's face.

  Oz looked out only once at this potential drop to heaven, and then he chose to look no more. Lou stared off, their rise to the sky not really bothering her any.

  Then, suddenly flying around a curve at them was a farm tractor, mostly rust and missing pieces and held together with coils of rusty wire and other assorted trash.

  It was almost too big for the narrow road all by itself, much less with a lumbering Hudson coming at it. Children were hang
ing and dangling every which way on the bulky equipment, as if it were a mobile jungle gym. One young boy about Lou's age was actually suspended over nothing but air, hanging on only by his own ten fingers and God's will, and he was laughing! The other children, a girl of about ten and a boy about Oz's age, were clamped tight around whatever they could find to hold, their expressions seized with terror.

  The man piloting this contraption was far more frightening even than the vision of out-of-control machinery holding flailing children hostage. A felt hat covered his head, years of sweat having leached to all points of the material. His beard was bristly rough, and his face was burnt dark and heavily wrinkled by the unforgiving sun. He seemed to be short, but his body was thick and muscular. His clothes, and those of the children, were almost rags.

  The tractor was almost on top of the Hudson. Oz covered his eyes, too afraid even to attempt a scream. But Lou cried out as the tractor bore down on them.

  Hell No, with an air of practiced calm, somehow drove the car out of the tractor's path and stopped to let the other vehicle safely pass. So close were they to the edge that a full third of the Hudson's tires were gripping nothing but the chilly brace of mountain air. Displaced rock and dirt dribbled over the side and were instantly scattered in the swirl of wind. For a moment Lou was certain they were going over, and she gripped Oz with all her strength, as though that would make a difference.

  As the tractor roared by, the man glared at them all before settling on Hell No and shouting, "Stupid nig—"

  The rest, thankfully, was covered by the whine of the tractor and the laughter and whoops of the suspended-in-air boy. Lou looked at Hell No, who didn't flinch at any of this. Not the first time, she imagined—the near fatal collision and the awful name calling.

  And then like a strike of hail in July, this rolling circus was gone. Hell No drove on.

  As she got her nerves settled down, Lou could see loaded coal trucks far below them inching down one side of a road, while on the other side empty trucks flew hellbent back up, like honeybees, to gorge some more. All around here the face of the mountains had been gashed open in places, exposing rock underneath, the topsoil and trees all gone. Lou watched as coal trolleys emerged from these wounds in the mountains, like drips of blackened blood, and the coal was tippled into the truck beds.

  "Name's Eugene."

  Lou and Oz both stared toward the front seat. The young man was looking at them in the mirror.

  "Name's Eugene," he said again. "Diamond, he fergit sometime. But he a good boy. My Men'."

  "Hi, Eugene," said Oz. And then Lou said hello too.

  "Ain't see folks much. Words ain't come easy for me. I sorry for that."

  "That's okay, Eugene," said Lou. "Meeting strangers is hard."

  "Miss Louisa and me, we real glad you come. She a good woman. Take me in when I ain't got no home. You lucky she your kin."

  "Well, that's good because we haven't been very lucky lately," said Lou.

  "She talk 'bout y'all much. And your daddy and momma. She care for your momma. Miss Louisa, she heal the sick."

  Oz looked at Lou with renewed hope, but she shook her head.

  More miles went by, and then Eugene turned the car down a lane that wasn't much more than twin ruts in the dirt spread over with still dormant grass and bracketed by thick wild brush. As they were obviously drawing near to their destination, Oz and Lou exchanged a glance. Excitement, nervousness, panic, and hope competed for space on the small landscapes of their faces.

  The dirt lane nudged over to the north as it cleared a rise. Here the land splayed out into a broad valley of simple beauty. Green meadows were bracketed by vast forests of every wood the state boasted. Next to the meadows were cleared patchwork fields that yielded to split-rail corrals, weathered gray and wrapped with naked rambler rose vines. Anchoring the corrals was a large two-story plank barn, topped by a gambrel roof with rain hood, all covered by cedar shingles fashioned with froe and maul. It had large double doors at each end, with a set of hay doors above. A projecting timber was immediately above this portal and used to support the hay fork dangling from it. Three cows lay in the grass in one protected space, while a roan horse grazed alone in a small snake-rail corral. Lou counted a half dozen sheared sheep in another pen. And behind that was another fenced space where enormous hogs rolled in a wallow of mud, like giant babies at play. A pair of mules were doubletreed to a large wagon that sat by the barn, the sun reflecting off its tin-wrapped wooden wheels. Near the barn was a farmhouse of modest proportion.

  There were other buildings and lean-tos, large and small, scattered here and there, most of plank. One structure situated in an overhang of maple trees looked to be formed from logs chinked with mud and seemed half-buried in the earth. The cleared fields, which sloped at their ends like the curl of hair, sprang outward from the central farm buildings like spokes on a wheel. And rising high behind all of this were the Appalachians, making this good-sized farm property seem but a child's model by comparison.

  Lou was finally here, the place her father had spent much of his life writing about yet had never returned to. She drew in several quick breaths, and sat very erect as they drove on to the house, where Louisa Mae Cardinal, the woman who had helped to raise their father, awaited them.

  * * *

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  INSIDE THE FARMHOUSE THE NURSE WAS ADVISING THE woman as to Amanda's condition and other essentials, while the woman listened intently and asked pointed questions.

  "And we might as well get my requirements out of the way," said the nurse finally. "I suffer from animal and pollen allergies, and you need to make sure that their presence here is kept to a minimum. Under no circumstances should animals be allowed in the house. I have certain specific dietary needs. I will provide you with a list. I will also require a free reign in overseeing the children. I know that falls outside my formal duties, but those two obviously need discipline, and I intend to so provide it. That girl, in particular, is a real piece of work. I'm sure you can appreciate my frankness. Now you can show me to my room."

  Louisa Mae Cardinal said to the nurse, "I appreciate you coming out. Fact is, we ain't got room for you."

  The tall nurse stood as erect as she could, but she was still shorter than Louisa Mae Cardinal. "Excuse me?" she said with indignation.

  'Tell Sam out there to take you on back to the train station. Another train north be coming through. Rare place for a walk while you wait."

  "I was retained to come here and look after my patient."

  "I look after Amanda just fine."

  "You are not qualified to do so."

  "Sam and Hank, they need get on back, honey."

  "I need to call somebody about this." The nurse was so red-faced that she looked as though she might become a patient.

  "Nearest phone on down the mountain in Tremont. But you can call the president of these United States, still my home." Louisa Mae gripped the woman's elbow with a strength that made the nurse's eyes flutter. "And we ain't got to bother Amanda with this." She guided the woman from the room, closing the door behind them.

  "Do you seriously expect me to believe that you don't have a telephone?" the nurse said.

  "Don't have that electricity thing neither, but I hear they right fine. Thank you agin, and you have a good trip back." She placed three worn dollar bills in the nurse's hand. "I wish it was more, honey, but it all the egg money I got."

  The nurse stared down at the cash for a moment and said, "I'm staying until I'm satisfied that my patient—"

  Louisa Mae once more gripped her elbow and led her to the front door. "Most folk here got rules 'bout trespassing. Warning shot's fired right close to the head. Get they's attention. Next shot gets a lot more personal. Now, I'm too old to waste time firing a warning shot, and I ain't never once used salt in my gun. And now I can't give it no straighter'n that."

  When the Hudson pulled up, the ambulance was still parked in front of the farmhouse, which had a deep, co
ol porch and shadows elongating across it as the sun rose higher. Lou and Oz got out of the car and confronted their new home. It was smaller than it had appeared from a distance. And Lou noted several sets of uneven addons to the sides and back, all of which were set on a crumbling fieldstone base with stepstone rock leading from ground to porch. The unshingled roof had what looked to be black tar paper across it. A picket-fence railing ran along the porch, which also sagged in places. The chimney was made of hand-formed brick, and the mortar had leached over parts of it. The clapboard was in need of painting, heat pops were fairly numerous, and wood had buckled and warped in places where moisture had crawled inside.