I love the way she talks. And I think I understood what she said.
So she went on, “Now, Carl Ray has told me about gettin’ this money and a education from some stranger, like I said, and I know you know about that already.”
I was nodding.
“So what I want to ask you is this: I want to ask you not to tell Uncle Carl Joe or any of the kids about Carl Ray gettin’ this money and all. Would you do that for me?”
I said, “Sure, Aunt Radene. I won’t tell if you don’t want me to.”
She patted my hand.
“But,” I said, “could you tell me why you don’t want me to tell?”
She chewed on her lip awhile and then said, “Well, now, that’s a fair question. It sure is.” She chewed on her lip some more. I have a feeling she didn’t want to tell me.
Finally, she said, “There’s just some things that ain’t nobody’s business, at least not yet, and the way I figure it is this: Carl Ray’s been lucky and he’s had some good fortune, but if the rest of ’em hear about some stranger givin’ him money and all, then they’re gonna want to troop on up to The City too. And Mary Lou, I don’t want ’em to go. Not yet. I don’t want ’em to go, ’cause I might not get ’em back.”
Well, it sounded reasonable to me, so I agreed.
But I do wonder why she doesn’t even want to tell Uncle Carl Joe. You’d think that Carl Ray’s own father ought to at least know about it. Maybe he would have an idea who gave Carl Ray the money. Maybe it’s some old army buddy of his or something. Maybe it’s some long-lost maiden aunt of Uncle Carl Joe’s who is about a hundred years old.
So I’m going to keep the secret, but there’s something funny about all this, don’t you think?
Boy, am I homesick!! I sure wish I could call home.
Arghhh. Arvie Joe has been telling ghost stories out on the porch. He claims that every single one of them is true, and all the ghosts come from the graveyard in the front yard.
The worst one was about this young boy who got his head chopped off in some freak accident at a meat factory and how his body is always roaming around the yard looking for his head, and how his head is always somewhere around moaning and calling for his body. Oh, the noises Arvie Joe can make! He imitates the head calling for the body: “Ohhhhhh, bod-eeeee, where are youuuu?” He makes the head sound real sorrowful and gruesome, just the way a head might sound, I guess, if it was looking for its body. Anyway, right near the end of this story, Arvie Joe jumps up all of a sudden and gets this god-awful look on his face, and his mouth hangs open and he starts backing away from us and pointing out into the yard, and we all look out there and Arvie Joe says, “There it is. The head! There it is!” And we all look, but we can’t see anything, it’s so pitch black out there, and then Arvie Joe starts screaming and saying, “It’s coming, watch out, it’s coming!” and we all run into the house, screaming and shaking.
Uncle Carl Joe was sitting there in his chair, chewing his tobacco, when we all came running in. “Arvie Joe!” he said. “Quit scarin’ ’em, or I’ll tan you one.” But everybody was peering out the window and telling Uncle Carl Joe that the head was coming, and all of a sudden Uncle Carl Joe made these awful noises, just like Carl Ray did that day he chased me and Dennis and Dougie and Tommy at Windy Rock, and then he started chasing us around, and then Arvie Joe and Carl Ray joined in.
Boy, I mean to tell you I was scared about to death, with these three guys growling and chasing us, and the whole time I kept looking around for the head of that boy because I thought it might be chasing us too.
Boy, this is one strange family.
But you know what? It was the first time I’ve seen Uncle Carl Joe and Carl Ray doing something together and having fun. Afterward I saw the two of them walk down toward the graveyard together. I think they were actually talking.
And I’ll tell you one thing: I am not going to the outhouse at night anymore, flashlight or no flashlight. I’ll just have to wait until everyone’s asleep and use the pot that’s under the bed. Oh, Alpha and Omega, when will I be able to go home???
Oh yawn, yawn, yawn. I am so tired I could sleep standing up. I didn’t get any sleep last night.
First I had to wait until Sue Ann, Sally Lynn, and Brenda Mae were asleep (we’re all in the same room) so I could use the pot under the bed. Then I had one heck of a time trying to use that dumb thing, and just when I finished and I stood up, I tripped and knocked it over, and what a mess. So I had to sneak downstairs to find some rags to mop it up with.
And when I got downstairs, I heard Aunt Radene and Uncle Carl Joe arguing in their bedroom. Actually, I could only hear Uncle Carl Joe. He was saying something about “my blasted son.” I hope he didn’t mean Carl Ray, and I hope they’re not mad at each other again. I was afraid they’d hear me and think I was snooping, so I went back upstairs, and the only thing I could think of to mop up the pee with was my socks, so I blotted it all up and stuck the socks in the pot and pushed it back under the bed.
Then I couldn’t go to sleep because I kept thinking that the boy’s head was going to come in the open window (I sleep right next to the window), so I shut the window, but then I kept thinking that the head could still look in the window, and if it was a ghost-head maybe it could come through the window. So I put my head under the sheets.
Then I was pretty sure I could hear the head out there moaning. I thought I heard it say, “Oh, bod-eee, where are youuuu?”
I must have dozed off finally, because I had this awful nightmare. In it Mr. Furtz’s dead body was running all around the yard looking for his head, or at least that’s what I thought it was looking for, because it didn’t have a head on it. I was sitting in a tree (why was I sitting in a tree?) and then I happened to look next to me, and there, on the branch, was a head. The head fell out of the tree and landed on the body with a sickening glump, and I woke up. Thank the Deity!!! I was shaking to death. And then I noticed that the window was open.
I really want to go home.
Oh, and at breakfast this morning, cabbageheaded ole Sue Ann says, “Oh, Mary Lou, are you missing a pair of socks?”
“No.”
“Well, I found a pair of yours…”
“I’m not missing any socks.”
“…in the pee pot.”
Everybody started snorting in their oatmeal.
“After I peed in it,” she said.
Everybody was rolling off their chairs.
Arvie Joe said, “Normally, we don’t put our socks in the pee pot….”
And everybody’s gagging and snorting and rolling around.
Aunt Radene finally made them all shut up.
Boy, I can’t wait to go home.
Lordie. The last day of July. Summer’s almost over.
About the most exciting thing that has happened so far today is that Arvie Joe took me along on his paper route this morning.
First, we got in this old truck that looks as if it was the first truck ever made, and we drove down to the general store to pick up the papers. Arvie Joe isn’t really old enough to drive, but he does anyway. He’s pretty good at it, too. Then we sat outside the general store folding the papers. You have to fold them in thirds and tuck one end inside the other so that when you throw them they don’t go flying all over the place.