Still House Pond

by Jan Watson

  “I won’t need it. I’ll be going to church with Aunt Alice and cousin Dodie next Sunday.”

  “Why does that exclude your memory verse?”

  Lilly slapped her brush down on the step beside her. “Because I won’t have to recite the verse in Sunday school. Nobody will know the difference.”

  Copper was glad John was out in the yard chasing lightning bugs with the little kids. He wouldn’t like Lilly’s disrespectful tone, and the last thing Copper wanted was discord with her eldest tonight. “You don’t learn your verses for your teacher. You learn them for your own instruction.”

  “I know that.”

  “Lilly . . .”

  Lilly jumped off the step and put her vanity set on the rustic grapevine table beside Copper’s chair. “I’ll brush your hair while you read it to me. How’s that?”

  “I believe I left the Bible on my bedside table.”

  Back with the Bible, Lilly stood behind the rocker, removing pins and combs from Copper’s hair. She lined them up beside the hand mirror set on the table.

  “What book does Peter follow?” Copper asked.

  “Peter follows James. James follows Hebrews. Hebrews follows Philemon.”

  “Lilly Gray Corbett, there’s no getting the better of you.”

  Lilly pulled the brush through Copper’s hair. “I like to know things. Read the verse, Mama.”

  “I’m going to read verses 7 and 8 first. They set the stage, so to speak. ‘Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.’”

  “This is your verse. Verse 9. ‘Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.’”

  “What’s staid fast supposed to mean?” Lilly worked a tangle with the comb. “Those two words don’t go together. Sounds like Peter is saying slow down and hurry up.”

  “Stedfast, not staid fast. It means to be firmly fixed in place. I believe this Scripture admonishes us as Christians to remember that we will be visited by the same afflictions that befall others.”

  “Like the verse that says it rains on the just and the unjust alike.”

  “Exactly. Here’s what verse 10 says, ‘But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.’”

  “Maybe my teacher picked 1 Peter 5:9 for Kate. So she’d be steadfast with her toothache.”

  “Oh, dear. I thought she was better. Mrs. Jasper didn’t mention it when we talked again this morning about your going to the depot on the coach with them.”

  “She’s better. It doesn’t hurt all the time. Hand me the rattail comb.”

  Copper handed the long, thin-handled comb over her head.

  “Mrs. Jasper is going to take her to the dentist when they’re in Cincinnati. Kate’s scared. She’s never been to the dentist.”

  “I wonder if Mrs. Jasper knows there’s a dentist coming to town. He bought the old law office.”

  “Do they really knock your tooth out with a hammer and a cut nail? That’s what Kate told me.”

  “Barbers used to do that. They were sort of like dentists, and they called it tooth-jumping. I’m sure the new dentist is much more humane.”

  “Good thing it’s not a front tooth,” Lilly said. “That’d be awful. I’m sure glad I’m going to Aunt Alice’s and not to the tooth-jumper.”

  Copper winced. “Ouch. Be more gentle.”

  “Your hair is so twirly, it’s like trying to unknot a clematis vine. Hold up the mirror.”

  Copper peered in the mirror at the long strand of hair Lilly held up. “I’ve never been described as ‘twirly’ before.”

  “I meant it as a compliment. Why didn’t I get your beautiful hair instead of Jack? Boys don’t need to be pretty.”

  Copper laid the Bible on a bench, then patted her lap. “Come here.”

  “I’m too big.”

  Copper patted her lap again. “You’re never too big to be my baby.”

  When Lilly snuggled down, Copper held the mirror in front of Lilly’s face. “Do you like the girl you see there?”

  Lilly pulled the mirror closer. “She’s kinda pretty. But I wish I looked like you.”

  Copper rocked slowly, savoring the moment. “Who do you see besides yourself when you look in the mirror?”

  “I never thought about it. I guess, maybe Aunt Alice?”

  “Open your locket.”

  Lilly released the tiny latch and tucked her chin to see the pictures, one of John and one of Simon.

  Copper’s heart squeezed painfully. It seemed impossible she and Lilly had never really talked about her father. “Do you want me to unfasten the chain so you can see better?”

  Lilly swept her hand under her fall of hair and lifted it so Copper could reach the clasp securing the thin gold chain. Lilly flipped the picture frame open and removed the tiny circular picture of Simon. She held it out as far as her arm would allow, then slowly brought it closer. “Was Daddy Simon’s hair black like it looks in the picture?”

  “Yes, it was.”

  “Did it have a silver streak like mine?”

  “No, you take after Alice in that. Remember she was your daddy’s sister. There was a strong family likeness between them. See? You all have the same nose and the same mouth.”

  “Was she his little sister?”

  “Alice was ten years older than Simon. In many ways she was like his mother.”

  “My daddy was a doctor, right?”

  Copper cleared her throat. She was very close to tears. “Your daddy was a doctor, a very good one.”

  Lilly drew her legs up under her nightdress. Copper put an arm around them.

  “Tell me about my daddy,” Lilly said.

  Where to start? Copper wondered. “What would you like to know?”

  “Where did you meet him? I know he came to the mountains and found you all poor and uneducated, and then he rescued you and took you to Lexington, where Aunt Alice taught you everything you know.”

  “Hardly everything I know. If you remember, your grandmam is a teacher. She taught me and my brothers. I had a diploma for all twelve grades before I ever met Alice.”

  “But you were poor, right? Aunt Alice said you didn’t even have shoes.”

  This conversation was not going as Copper intended. Alice Upchurch was getting under her skin, and she wasn’t even present. “Having shoes and liking to wear them are two different things. I’d still go barefoot if I weren’t a grown-up lady.”

  Lilly played with Copper’s fingernails. She liked to snap them with her thumb. “Mama, you’re a sight.”

  “It was a night much like this one when I met Simon Corbett. Your uncle Daniel was just a boy then, and he got bitten by a copperhead. It scared us all silly. We thought he would surely die. But someone remembered hearing of a doctor visiting relatives in the vicinity. Your daddy rode up on a horse to save Daniel, but the horse wasn’t white.

  “We courted long-distance—your father wrote the most beautiful letters—for nearly a year before we married. I was seventeen when I left these mountains to live with my husband in the big city. Oh, I was green as grass. I didn’t even know what a water closet was. The first time I pulled the chain, I thought the water would ruin the ceiling of the room below.”

  Lilly laughed. “Poor little Mama. What else didn’t you know?”

  “It wasn’t so much what I didn’t know but what I did that got me through those first rough weeks. I knew my faith would sustain me, and I was confident of your father’s love.”

  Lilly twisted around so she could look Copper in the eye. “Do I remind you of him?”

  Copper closed her eyes and let her first young love wash through her mind. Early on, after his passing, every memory had had a painful aura—like dazzling shards of glass strewn in her path
. But now the remembrance was softly blurred like an out-of-focus picture, sepia-toned and bearable. In her mind’s eye she saw Simon in his study surrounded by bookcases full of leather-bound tomes.

  “He was so smart and so curious. He had a very tidy way about himself—always organized. He was calm but not without a certain temper if he thought things were unfair. Does that remind you of anyone you know?”

  Lilly pressed a crinkled ribbon on the bodice of her nightgown between her fingers. “All except the temper part,” she said, then giggled. “Am I more like my father or Aunt Alice?”

  “Definitely your father for his mind and charm and Alice for your feminine ways and beauty. Let’s just say you got Alice’s good parts.”

  “Don’t you like Aunt Alice?”

  Copper took a moment. She wanted to answer her daughter without deception or manipulation. “Things have not always gone smoothly between your aunt and me. We’re both stubborn women. I would say I have affection and respect for Alice.” She breathed in the scent of Lilly’s hair, a mingling of chamomile and mint. “Sometimes I’m afraid she’s going to steal you away from me.” She tried to say this lightly and with humor, but her voice broke on the hidden truth.

  Years rolled away when Lilly turned to catch Copper’s face between her hands and squeezed until Copper’s lips pouted like a fish. “I love you more than birthday cake. More than apple butter,” she said, reminding Copper of the game they used to play. “How much do you love me?”

  “I love you more than rain on a hot day. I love you more than long sweetening.”

  Lilly flung her arms around Copper. “I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.”

  “You are my sweet, silly girl. I think I will rock you to sleep.”

  “You used to rock me every night, right?”

  “Every single one. It was the highlight of my day. Goodness, where did John and the kids get to?”

  “It’s pitch-dark. Daddy took them in while we were talking. Didn’t you notice?” Lilly slid off her lap and stuck out her hand. “Here, I’ll pull you up. Let’s go looking.”

  Barefoot, Copper and Lilly walked around the house in a summer night ritual. They stopped outside Lilly’s room. In the window a jar of lightning bugs twinkled with a luminous glow. All around the house they went before coming to Jack’s room on the other side.

  “Jack’s jar is so full, it looks like he took a bite out of the moon,” Lilly said.

  “We’d better get to bed ourselves. This is going to be a busy week getting you ready for your trip.”

  Lilly did a happy dance. “I know. I’m sooo excited. I can’t wait for Wednesday.”

  “I could,” Copper said. “I could wait a month of Sundays.”

  “Now,” Lilly said, kissing Copper’s cheek, “just you remember I’ll always come back.”

  She didn’t even have to tiptoe to kiss me, Copper thought as they walked across the porch. When did that happen? “Good night. Sleep tight.”

  “I have to let the lightning bugs out of the jars before I go to bed, else they’ll be dead by morning,” Lilly said.

  Copper held the screen door open. “Don’t forget to include Kate in your prayers.”

  “I won’t. And I’ll memorize my Scripture in the morning. You never know when you’ll need a good verse to keep you company.”

  17

  Copper stood at the cookstove, flipping corn cakes in a cast-iron skillet, while Lilly hopped around the kitchen on one foot, obviously too excited to sit at the breakfast table.

  “I can’t believe this day is finally here,” Lilly said. “What time do we meet the coach?”

  “Just as I said before, we’ll leave here at eleven forty-five. It’s no more than a ten-minute walk to the crossroads. The driver will wait if he’s early but not if we’re late. Now sit and eat.”

  Molasses mixed with melting butter as Lilly tipped the pitcher and poured the long sweetening over her cakes. She sliced a bite with her fork, then jumped up before tasting it. Going to the pegs behind the door, she took down an apron and tied it around her neck like a bib. “I don’t want to get anything on my new corset.”

  Alice had sent Lilly’s traveling frock along with the button-front, lightly boned girl’s corset. Underneath the corset she wore a cotton chemise with puffed sleeves and a drawstring neckline threaded with pink ribbon. Her new petticoat had a flounced eyelet hemline also threaded with pink ribbon.

  Manda was pressing the outing suit Lilly would wear on the train.

  “Do you want some more corn cakes, Manda?” Copper asked.

  “No, ma’am. I’m full up.” She held out the cocoa-colored, cape-collared suit jacket for all to admire. “I love the plaid trim on this, Lilly. You’re going to be the best-dressed lady on the train.”

  “I know.” Lilly pushed back her chair. “Let me get my hat.”

  “I’ll take more,” Jack said, licking molasses from his plate. “I’ve still got room.”

  “Jack, don’t lick.”

  Jack made one more pass with his tongue, then put the plate down.

  Copper slid two more cakes off the spatula and poured thick syrup for him. “More milk?”

  Jack nodded. His mouth was already too full to speak.

  Manda hung the jacket with the already-pressed skirt before spreading a yellow handkerchief-linen vest over the board. The vest would go under the short, buttonless jacket and over the white pleated shirtwaist blouse so just a bit of yellow would show.

  Lilly flounced into the room like a fashion model. Her straw skimmer perched on the back of her head like a precarious bird’s nest. The hat band exactly matched the blue and brown plaid bias embellishment on the jacket.

  “I think you want to wear that more centered,” Manda said. “I’ll fix it for you after you get dressed. We’ll need a hatpin.”

  “May I get one from your dresser, Mama?”

  “After you eat,” Copper said. “You can’t start out on a long journey with no food in your stomach. You’ll get sick.”

  “I have all that food in my hamper,” Lilly said.

  “We talked about this. The basket is for your supper. Don’t eat it ahead of time. Now sit!”

  Lilly laid her hat on the table and took her seat.

  Copper scraped her cold cakes into the slop bucket. Lilly had cut them up into small pieces, so they wouldn’t do to save. She gave Lilly a hot cake. “Please eat.”

  Jack reached for the hat.

  “Jack!” Copper, Lilly, and Manda yelled in chorus.

  “Why am I always the one in trouble?” Jack asked.

  “I can’t imagine, Son,” Copper said, wiping his hands and face with a wet rag.

  “Can I go slop the pig?” he asked.

  “You know better than to ask to do that. Go wait on the porch for Aunt Remy. She’ll be here directly.”

  Copper poured a mug of tea and sat across the table from Lilly. She had planned the morning so she would have some quiet time with her daughter before taking her to the coach. But even with John leaving before dawn to haul logs for pay and Molly and Mazy spending the night with Merky at Cara’s, the morning was still busy as a beehive. At least Lilly was eating now and she had drunk half her milk.

  “Mama! Mama!” Jack yelled through the screen as if Copper weren’t sitting six feet away. “Aunt Remy’s coming around the corner. Can I go get my fishing pole?”

  “Ye won’t need no pole, boy,” Remy said from the yard. “We’re going dry fishing. All we have need of is a knife and a poke.” She opened the door and stepped inside. “Come hug my neck afore I leave, Lilly.”

  Lilly put her arms around Remy. “I love you,” she said.

  Remy patted Lilly’s back. “You be careful on that there iron horse. Don’t be leaning out the winders.”

  “I won’t.” Lilly wiped a tear. “I’ll sure miss you, Aunt Remy.”

  “Can we go now?” Jack said, his nose pressed against the screen.

  “Did you tell your
sister good-bye?” Copper asked.

  Jack tore in. The door bounced behind him. He caught Lilly around the legs. “Good-bye. Bring me a present. A big one.”

  Lilly unlatched his arms and swung him around. “Be good while I’m gone, Jack-Pot. Take care of the mama cat and the kittens. Don’t let Mazy and Molly wool them to death.”

  Jack ran back out the door ahead of Remy. Copper needed to talk to him about that.

  “So,” she heard him say as he waited for Remy to descend the steps, “what kind of fish don’t need water?”

  Copper watched Remy rest a hand on top of Jack’s head, using his sturdy body like a cane. Jack matched his steps to hers. Maybe he didn’t need a lesson in manners after all.

  “They’s a kind of mushroom that puts you in mind of a closed pinecone. Dredged in cornmeal and fried in bacon grease, morel’s as good as any fish you ever ate.”

  Jack dragged Remy’s crutch behind him. It made little ruts in the yard. “Where will we find them?”

  Remy pointed. “We’ll climb yon hill and go around to the north side. They’s several stands of poplar trees way up there. Land fish thrive under poplar trees.”

  “Do they bite? Do they have whiskers like catfish?”

  “You’ll see, boy. You’ll understand soon enough.”

  Lilly came up beside Copper at the screen door and slipped her arm around her waist. “I’ll miss you all. I’m starting to feel a little homesick already.”

  Manda folded the ironing board and put it in the pantry. “Your outfit is ready.”

  “Oh, thank you,” Lilly said. The mantel clock chimed the hour. “It’s nine already. Come help me get dressed, Manda. I can’t wait any longer.”

  By nine thirty Lilly was all ready to go. Her valise was packed, and her hat was expertly pinned to the crown of her head. “How much longer?” she asked.

  Copper set the wicker hamper on the table and flipped open the hinged lid. “Let me check this one more time.” She pulled back the linen towel Lilly could use for a napkin or a bib. There was enough food in there to feed a grown man for two days. She had packed chicken drumsticks, boiled eggs, buttered biscuits, tomatoes and a cucumber picked just this morning, salt and pepper in twists of waxed paper, two fried apple pies, and two slices of chocolate cake. Lilly wouldn’t starve for sure.