These Healing Hills

by Ann H. Gabhart

  “You have no way to know you’re carrying a boy,” Betty warned. “It’s best to be open to having a boy or a girl.”

  “I’d welcome either one, but I just know this first one is a boy. The way he kicks around in there.”

  “Could be a girl just like her mama.” Fran laid the stethoscope on Becca’s belly. “Now be still a minute so I can hear the baby’s heartbeat.” After she listened, she pulled the earpieces free and held them out to Becca. “Nice and strong. You want to hear?”

  Becca shook her head. “Ain’t no need. I hear his heart beating right along with mine. That’s a mama thing. Guess the two of you wouldn’t know about that, not having had no babies of your own.”

  Becca hadn’t meant the remark to be hurtful and there was no reason it should have been. But it stabbed Fran then and lingered even now. No babies of your own.

  Seth’s image flickered through her thoughts before she pulled in a long breath and leaned down to pick more beans. Jeralene, the girl who helped them now and again with their chores, was coming later to help them string up the beans for shucky beans. Not that it sounded hard. Just break off the ends and thread them on a cotton string to hang to dry. That had to be less work than canning them by boiling the jars of beans for hours. Of course, Betty warned her it took some taste adjustment to actually like shucky beans. But then Betty warned her about everything. And picked the easier chores. She was inside counting pills or who knew what. Maybe taking a nap.

  Fran yawned. She could use a nap after being called out at midnight for Mrs. Tipton to have her baby. Then the woman hadn’t had a minute’s trouble. When Fran told her that, Mrs. Tipton pointed to the next room where the other children waited to welcome their new sister. “I’ve done had a mite of practice.”

  Now Fran needed some practice sleeping before the morning. She hoped no emergencies popped up to take them out this evening. She planned to ride back up to the Nolans’ in the morning to check on Lurene. She’d already been to see her once since the doctor declared her well enough to go home from the hospital. She had a ways to go to build up her strength, but Ira had been right there with Lurene, doing whatever necessary for the girl and his baby.

  Fran’s bucket was almost full of beans when a truck roared up the creek toward the center. She still hadn’t quite gotten used to the mountain people using creeks for roads, but often as not that was the smoothest places for a vehicle to run. She didn’t look up even when the truck stopped in front of the house, but kept picking to finish out the row. Betty was inside. She could take care of whatever the people needed.

  She was yanking off the last bean pods when somebody spoke up behind her. “Nurse Howard, I thought I saw you out here.”

  She knew his voice at once. She straightened up and turned toward where he waited at the end of the garden. A fine-looking yellow-and-white collie sat on the ground beside him, its tail swiping back and forth across the grass. She wiped her hands on her pants and brushed the hair back off her forehead. Not the best time to meet up with Ben Locke again. But then, what difference did it make how she looked? She didn’t need to impress him. She was his family’s nurse. That was all.

  She picked up her bucket and walked toward him. “Hello, Mr. Locke. Is something wrong with Sadie?”

  “She’s fine. Becca keeps her busy with something all the time so Sadie can’t mope.” He made a little face. “As far as that goes, Becca keeps us all busy with something. She wears me out sometimes.”

  Ben Locke smiled then, and in spite of herself, Fran’s heart did a little stutter step. The man had the most remarkable eyes, and when he smiled, it was like the sun coming out in that dark blue. She set her bucket down and pretended the bean picking was the reason she needed to catch her breath.

  “Did you get Sadie a dog?” She held out her hand toward the dog. It was better to look at the dog instead of Ben Locke’s eyes. The dog gingerly sniffed her hand and then gave her fingers a lick. That made Fran smile. “He must like the smell of beans.”

  “Or the one picking the beans.” When Fran looked back at him, he rushed on as if he’d said something he shouldn’t have. “Why don’t you get somebody to pick the beans for you?”

  Fran shrugged. “Jeralene Robinson does help us some. And Woody comes by now and again to help with this or that chore.”

  “I’m betting especially when Jeralene is here.” Ben smiled a little. “Ma says he’s sweet on the girl.”

  “That’s not surprising. She’s pretty as a spring flower.”

  “But very young. Both of them.”

  “I’ve seen some very young mothers here in the hills.”

  “Exactly,” Ben said.

  “Oh.” Her cheeks warmed to embarrass her even more. She was a nurse. Talking about such things as the consequences of young love was part of her job and no reason for blushing. “I’ll talk to Jeralene when she comes by later. She’s supposed to show me how to string up shucky beans.” Fran pointed at the bucket.

  Some high-pitched yaps came from the truck in front of the center. Fran peered around Ben toward it. “Is that your truck?”

  He looked over his shoulder at the truck too. “Yep. Just bought it today.”

  “It’s making some unusual noises.”

  Ben laughed. “Come on and I’ll show you what’s yipping.”

  He started toward the truck. The collie dog reached a paw out to touch her hand before he followed Ben. With that kind of invitation, how could she refuse? She picked up the bucket of beans.

  “Let me carry those for you.” Ben reached for the bucket, his hand brushing hers. The dog wagged his tail and bared his teeth in a funny dog grin.

  “Is he smiling?” It was easier thinking about a smiling dog than how the mere touch of Ben’s hand had her feeling breathless again. What in the world was wrong with her? She barely knew the man.

  “This one is an interesting dog. I think he does smile and I wouldn’t be all that surprised to hear him talking.”

  “A talking dog? I’ve seen a lot up here in the mountains, but not that.” Fran laughed.

  “You’re right. That is a little far-fetched. Could be Sarge only reads minds then.”

  “Sarge?” Fran gave Ben a look.

  “That doesn’t have to be his name. Just one I thought might fit.” He stopped beside the house. “You want me to put these beans on the porch?”

  Fran looked toward the house, hoping Betty wasn’t peering out the window at Fran and Ben, side by side. She must be asleep or she’d be right there in the door, sending Ben on his way if he didn’t need nursing care.

  “Just leave them there in the shade.” Fran nodded toward a tree. “From the sounds coming from your truck, you’d better go check that out.” The yipping was getting more frantic. “You must have a puppy in there.”

  He set the bucket down. “Puppies. As in two. Ma is gonna shoot me, but I had in mind to get one for Woody. Then the guy talked me into two.”

  “Or three.” Fran looked at the dog walking beside them.

  “We need to talk about that.”

  “Are you saying you have more than three?” She didn’t wait for him to answer but stepped up on the running board to peer in the truck window. A fluffy pup jumped up on the door and yapped even louder. Another pup was on the floorboard, its tail between its trembling legs.

  Fran wanted to pick up the timid puppy, but she didn’t feel she should open the truck door. So instead she lifted the yapping puppy out through the window. “They are the cutest things. Sadie is going to be one happy little girl when you get home with these.”

  23

  The pup wiggled all over and tried to lick her face. That made Francine laugh. The dog beside Ben surprised him by easing closer to the woman to lean against her leg. The other pup, left alone in the truck, began whining. Ben could sympathize. He was feeling a little left out too.

  He wanted to be like the collie and step closer. Brush shoulders with Francine. Her laughter lit up her face and made her
eyes sparkle like creek water chasing through the sunshine. He kept smiling too like some kind of idiot, but he didn’t try to wipe the smile off his face. It felt too good.

  She must have heard the other pup whine, because she pushed the pup she was holding into Ben’s hands and opened the truck door to scoop up the other puppy.

  “Aww, poor little thing is scared to death.” She rubbed the puppy’s ears. “I bet he’s never been away from his mother.”

  The pup in his hands was going crazy trying to get back to Francine, so he put him back in the truck. “You’ve had your turn,” he told him. He ignored the pup’s wails as he looked back at Francine stroking the runt pup and wished for a turn of his own.

  It could be he’d made a mistake bringing her the dog. He wanted her to have the dog, but he should have let Woody bring it. This woman was messing with his heart’s equilibrium like no female he’d ever met. Some things were best avoided. Like poison sumac.

  But he was here now and nothing for it but to clamp down on his feelings and play out the scene. “That was the runt of the litter, but I’m thinking that’s the one Sadie will want. She has a soft place for little things.”

  Francine held the pup up to her face and the pup licked her nose. “Goodness, I’ve never had such a face washing.”

  The dog at her feet lifted a paw to touch her leg as if to keep her from forgetting about him. Ben restrained the impulse to reach across and do the same by touching her arm. He’d come to give her a dog. Nothing else. Especially not his heart. He needed to stop thinking of her as Francine with the eyes that made his knees weak. She was Nurse Howard and that was all.

  She leaned down to pat the collie’s head.

  “Be careful. He might snap at the pup,” Ben warned.

  But the dog just nosed the pup and then pushed past it to nuzzle Francine’s arm.

  “Oh, he’s too good a dog for that.” She straightened up after ruffling the collie’s ears and handed the pup back to Ben. “Thank you for bringing them by for me to see, but did you need anything else? Is your arm bothering you?”

  “I’m not in need of your nursing services.” At least that much was true. “It’s this dog.” He nodded toward the collie. “He needs a home. His owner was threatening to get rid of him once and for all.”

  “You mean shoot him?” She looked horrified.

  “That’s one way to get rid of a dog.”

  “A sweet dog like this?” She laid her hand on the collie’s head as if to protect him.

  “Dogs are almost as plentiful as rocks up here in the hills. And this one can’t even earn his rations by claiming to be a hunting dog.”

  “Collies are herders, aren’t they?”

  “Some are. Don’t know if this one is. The man I got him from said about all he could say for him was that he was a snake dog.”

  “He kills snakes?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in action. He could just bark at them.”

  “As long as he kept them out of the paths, I’d be happy. Good dog.” She stroked the dog’s head. “When Jeralene gets here, I’ll ask if she knows anybody who wants a dog.”

  When she straightened up, the dog put his paw on her leg again.

  “I think he likes you.” The dog wasn’t the only one. Ben hesitated, feeling like a schoolboy afraid to ask a girl to the church picnic. “The fact is, I told him on the way over here that you’d be the perfect person for him.”

  “Me?” Her eyes flew open wider as she looked from the dog to Ben. She shook her head. “Oh, no. As nice as he is, I can’t have a dog.”

  “Why not?” He fastened his gaze on her and she didn’t look away. “I know Mrs. Breckinridge is fond of animals and that some nurses have dogs like Sarge here.”

  “Did you name him Sarge?” She looked down at the dog, but not before he saw the smile sneaking out on her lips.

  “Seemed a good name.”

  “He doesn’t look much like a Sarge to me.”

  “No?” He watched her stroking the dog and smiled. “The thing is, he made me think of this nurse I know. A person wouldn’t be thinking she looked much like a Sarge either.”

  “You have to stop calling me that.” She looked up at him. “Please.”

  “Fair enough. I slipped the name right off you onto the dog. I’m thinking he’ll like the name and being your dog.”

  “I told you I can’t have a dog.”

  “But I didn’t believe you and neither did Sarge. Just look how he’s watching you. He thinks he’s yours already.”

  She looked sorry as she shook her head. “Nurse Dawson doesn’t like dogs. She would veto the idea hands down.”

  “Who gave her veto power?”

  “She’s my supervisor while I’m training.”

  “Supervising your nursing, but not your life. You can make some choices on your own, can’t you? Like what you eat for breakfast or how to keep snakes out of the yard.”

  She smiled then and he was pretty sure he had her convinced, even as she shook her head again. “But I’ve got to go to Lexington next month to take my midwifery exam. I couldn’t ask Nurse Dawson to take care of a dog while I was gone.”

  “We’d be glad to keep Sarge for a spell in that event. But the dog’s yours. He hasn’t taken his eyes off you since we got here, and he really doesn’t want to go home with these noisy pups.” Ben nodded toward the truck where the pups were making a racket again.

  “You’re very convincing, Mr. Locke.” She laughed. “All right. But if Nurse Dawson makes me sleep on the porch, I’m going to blame you.”

  “Porches make a fine sleeping place this time of the year. You can hear the frogs in the creek and the owls on the hunt.”

  “Are you sure you’re not a salesman?” But she was still smiling.

  So was he. Inside and out. He knelt down in front of the dog. “She’s the one I told you about, Sarge. You take good care of her, hear?”

  The dog barked twice, almost like he was saying “yes sir,” and licked his hand. Guess that made Ben the general. Then the dog moved closer to Francine. It was useless, Ben trying to keep her given name out of his thoughts. As long as he could keep from saying it out loud.

  Ben stood up and opened the truck door. He pushed the pups back and climbed in. He felt a wet spot under him where one of the pups had obviously needed to be out on the ground instead of in the truck, but even that didn’t wipe the smile off his face.

  Before he could think better of it, he leaned out the window. “The Hoskins over in the next holler are having a sorghum stir-off next week. If nobody’s having a baby, you and Sarge ought to come.”

  “I don’t know that family. They must not live in our district.”

  “Probably more over toward Possum Bend, but it’s not all that far.”

  “I’d get lost for sure trying to get there.” She shrugged with a smile.

  “We could swing by and get you.” He couldn’t believe he was saying that, but he wasn’t sorry. Not a bit. But at the same time he figured he’d better add on some words to keep her from thinking he was asking her for a date. She’d never say yes to a date. “Becca and Woody want to go. Not sure about Ma and Sadie, but we can always make room for one more.” He patted the ledge of the open window. “I got a truck.”

  Color bloomed in her cheeks. “I would like to see how they make sorghum. If we don’t have a laying in then.”

  His own cheeks felt a little warm too. Maybe three years toting a gun across Europe had made him forget how to talk to a woman. He slid the pups back over on the passenger side and pushed in the clutch. He’d said enough. Maybe too much. He shifted the truck into gear and with a wave let the truck roll away from her. He looked in the rearview mirror before he got out of sight. She was still standing there, her hand on the dog’s head.

  “Take care of her, Sarge.” He felt silly saying the words out loud, but nobody was around to hear him except the pups and the Lord. And the good Lord heard everything, whether you said it
out loud or just let it sneak through your head.

  He hadn’t gone far when he spotted Granny Em walking up the creek with her gathering basket on her arm. She was moving slow, like each step cost her more effort than she had to give.

  He tapped the brakes and rolled to a stop beside her. “Want a ride up the hill, Granny?”

  She stepped over to the truck. “Benjamin Locke. What you doin’ with this contraption?”

  She sounded surprised, and as best Ben could remember, surprise wasn’t something Granny Em often showed. She was like an ancient pine tree that just stood still in its place and took in everything that went on around it. Not that Granny Em stayed in one place. She might be on any hill on any day. The years piling up on her hadn’t stopped that.

  His mother said the old woman might have been married once upon a time, but it was so long ago, nobody was sure. And Granny Em never admitted to it. Some even claimed she’d had a baby once that hadn’t survived. Others weren’t sure she hadn’t just crawled out of a cave up here on this mountain already old.

  But she had aged while Ben was gone. Wrinkles lined every inch of her leathery face now. Her shoulders were stooped and she favored one of her legs with a limp. Her hair was a bush of gray tucked into a bun at the back of her neck with plenty of unruly strands springing free of her hairpins.

  In spite of her unkempt appearance, she had an air about her. Mountain pride, Ben’s mother called it. As necessary as food and water if a woman was going to survive in these hills.

  “I bought me a truck,” he told her now. “Get on in and you can be the first person I give a ride. Just watch out for the pups.”

  “Pups.” She tiptoed up on the running board to peer inside. Her wrinkles crinkled up in a smile. “Well, if you ain’t about to set Ruthena on her ear with them critters.”

  “But Sadie will be happy.”

  “That child’ll be in hog heaven for sure. What with two of ’em.”

  She stepped down off the running board to open the door. Ben held the pups back while the old woman set her basket in the seat and clambered in beside it. She moved spryer than he thought she could. But then she was so thin, she didn’t have much to lift up into the truck. He had to wonder if she’d been eating anything.