One pleasant afternoon, while the others were busy introducing the new hens and the rooster to the freshly built chicken coop, I was able to take a walk with Cal, across the fields near her and Maggie’s place.’Twas nigh August, and the days were shortening.The grass had grown real long, and it waved in the breeze.The mountains all around the small valley loomed green and lush.In another month, the leaves would burst out orange and red and yellow as the dark days of winter approached.I only hoped that Cal and Maggie—and their little family—would be warm and cozy within the repaired and shored up walls of their small home.
Cal had on a pretty blue bonnet that Miss June had insisted on getting her, and truly, she looked beautiful.The color in her cheeks from the makeup Maggie had provided only emphasized the natural tint there.Gus had gifted her a new razor and soap brush, so ’twouldn’t take much effort to keep her looking girlish and feminine.To be honest, she looked fetching in the new things Miss June and Maggie had provided her.’Twas plenty obvious that she felt good in her own skin these days, and I delighted in it.
Her eyes flashed toward me from under the bonnet’s raffia-trimmed rim.
“Jimmy, I already spoke to Oscar, but I wanted to thank you for coming all that long way to help Miss June find me.I’m so sorry to cause all that trouble, and I feel awful that you had to leave your new home and all your new friends—”
I clicked my tongue.“Now, stop it.’Twas worth the trip, and our new home and our new friends are waiting for us.Never you mind.”
We walked on, Cal lifting her skirts so she could make her way unhindered o’er the rough, uneven ground.She was wearing new brown leather boots, too, and I reckoned they’d last her a long while.
’Twas real good to see her thriving, now that she had enough food on the regular and wasn’t so worried about how to manage.I’d seen the same change in Oscar after I’d brought him with me on my journey, when I’d made sure he got three meals a day and felt secure and cared for.Having someone looking out for you made a world of difference.It pleased me to know that I’d had a hand in it, and I felt some of the darkness of my past lift a bit.’Twas my duty to try to put good things into the world, after all that foulness, and I planned to keep doing it.It healed me as much as it healed Cal.And I reckoned it healed Oscar as well, to see a soul in such dire straits get the help they needed.
“Miss Caliope, you look awful nice in them new clothes, if you don’t mind my sayin’.”
Cal giggled and flashed me a look I remembered from almost a year ago—a look of mischief and flirtation that I’d sorely missed.
“Jimmy Downing, you got a silver tongue, and you know it.Thank you.”She stopped walking and raised her face to the sky.“I’m feelin’ more and more myself these days.”
“You’re lookin’ so much better, Cal.I’m so sorry you had to go through all that.But now you’re on the other side of it, and I can’t help but feel grateful that those children have you as their momma—and grateful that you got them.”
Cal turned to me with a sober intensity.“I know what you mean.They mayn’t have been mine to begin with, but theyaremine now, and I mean to do right by them.You know, I”—her voice hitched and she put a hand to her forehead—“I love ’em like they were my own, like I birthed them.”
“That’s plain to see.And they love you the same.”
She nodded but stayed silent.I could see the emotion swelling in her eyes as the muscles in her throat tensed.Since she didn’t trust herself to speak, I carried on.
“You’re gonna be all right, Cal.And those children are gonna grow up and do incredible things, I know it.With you and Trick as their mommas?I mean,Maggie.”I laughed.“Hard to think of her as anyone but Trick, but I’m tryin’ to use the right name.All I’m sayin’ is that you and Maggie are the best thing that’s ever happened to those wee ones, and they are gonna grow up feeling loved and secure and cared for.I know that for a fact.”
“Thank you, Jimmy,” Cal said, her voice soft and her eyebrows knit together.“We’ll surely do our best.”
“Now I’m hopin’ that in a couple of years, Oscar and I can see our way to come back and check up on you all.What do you think about that?”
Cal nodded, blinking quick and reaching for my hand, which I gave her.She didn’t look at me.
“Oh, yes.Those children will be furious if you don’t.And Miss June and Maggie, too.And I’d be heartbroken.”
“You’d be all right.You’re a strong, capable, resilient woman, and I’m proud to know you.And God willin’, wewillbe back, and we can all go on another fine picnic again.”
She laughed, and untied the strings of her bonnet, slipping it off and swinging it from her fingers.Caliope’s chestnut hair, which Miss June had trimmed and shaped, fell to her shoulders in soft, natural waves in such a charming way that a good many others would be envious.’Twas nice to see her with it down, for normally she put it into braids to keep it out of the way.
We kept walking as the sun lowered in the sky and the birds changed their songs to reflect the lengthening day.
* * * *
“Come here.You gotta see this!”Oscar said as we got back to Cal’s house.“Come on.Come on!”
Part of the reason I’d taken Cal on a walk was to get her out of the house for an hour, so the others could work their magic while we were gone.We’d been secretly installing a pump from the existing well to the sink in the house.We’d passed off the digging it had entailed as foundation work, and Cal had been so busy looking after Samuel that she hadn’t been able to keep track of exactly what was being done.They’d delivered the new stove that morning, and we’d had them put it behind the house, while Miss June had distracted Cal.I hoped they’d been able to install the stove and attach the pump by the kitchen sink while we were gone.
“What on earth?”Cal said, as we strode inside.
Sure enough, the brand-new, shiny black iron stove was sitting where the old one had been, and I reckoned Cal was so entranced by that that she hadn’t e’en noticed the pump yet.
“What on earth?”she repeated, staring at the much bigger and fancier piece of cookware that would keep their little house heated much more efficiently in the cold of the winter and had four burners and a sizable oven.“How?”Cal gazed at us, completely flummoxed and surprised, in the best of ways.
Miss June, who was holding little Teddy, the sheepdog pup, laughed.“We got the stove for you, Cal, to make yours and Maggie’s and the children’s lives easier.”
“Oh my goodness,” Cal said, her hand o’er her mouth.She gave a little laugh.“I ain’t really much of a cook.”Her expression darkened.“Albert used to complain,” she said, her gaze flitting around the room, as if Albert’s ghost might appear.But then Cal looked at the new stove and smiled.“But I reckon I’ll learn a lot better on this one.”
