Read Online Halley by Faye Gibbons - Free Book Online Page A

“We’ll never pay enough to satisfy him. Clarice says mill work made her mother’s cousin sick—coughing up blood and such as that. And no matter what Pa Franklin says, I’ll bet Bernice Mitman’s ailments were caused by working at the mill.”
    “It’s a chance I have to take.”
    Halley tried again. “What about that long walk to work and back every day? At least three miles each way. You’ll have to walk in weather like this and on days when the ground is iced over.”
    “I’ll manage,” Kate said. “I have to.”
    Jut short of the Mitman cutoff, the steady drizzle became a downpour once more. “The church!” said Kate, breaking into a run. “We’ll stop here and wait for the rain to slack.”
    Then they were inside the dimness of Hopewell Church, dripping puddles of water onto the rough floors. The building was damp and musty. The songbooks were stacked on a table near the door, and the smell of them was heavy in the air.
    Halley drew her mother to a window. “See that grave right over there? The one next to the cedar tree? A marker like that is what I mean to get for Daddy.”
    Kate shook her head. “Don’t count on it. I mentioned to Pa that you want to get up money to put a marker on Jim’s grave. He thinks it’s foolish.”
    “He put markers on his babies’ graves.”
    “Before the Depression. Times are harder now.”
    “You wanted to get a marker right after Daddy died. And even a few days ago, you didn’t act like it would be a bad thing to do.”
    Kate shrugged. “’Honor thy father and Mother.’ That’s what the Bible says. I have to mind Pa.”
    “Well, he’s not my father, and I think I need to honor my father with a marker on his grave.”
    Kate frowned. “You’re going to have to come down a few notches, young lady.” She spoke in her father’s tone of voice. “These are hard times, and they’re likely to get harder. Even in good times a woman can’t have everything she wants. She’s lucky if she gets anything she wants. Getting big ideas just makes things worse.”
    “But Daddy always said . . .”
    “Oh, Jim said plenty.” Kate’s voice was mocking. “‘Take care of your neighbors, and they’ll take care of you, get learning, and the world can be yours.’ Well, he had twice as much education as me, and little good it did him. As for neighbors, I didn’t see none coming to our rescue when he died.”
    “Don’t run Daddy down,” Halley cried. “Daddy was good. He was good to us.”
    “But like Pa says, if he’d made people pay in cash for work, if he hadn’t always been handing money out to people . . .”
    “That’s not fair,” said Halley. “ You handed out as much as Daddy, only you gave it to preachers. And you’re not fair to me and Robbie either. You don’t give any notice to us. All you study is obeying Pa Franklin. If there is a God, he would want you to take care of your young’uns.”
    Kate drew back her hand and struck Halley’s face with a resounding slap.
    Halley staggered back, gasping. Her mother had never hit her before. Dodging around Kate, Halley ran to the door and out into the rain. She heard her mother call after her, but she did not reply, nor did she stop. She had left her rain bonnet, but she wasn’t about to go back after it. Soon, Kate’s voice faded into nothing.
    A car was parked in front of the Calvin house. It was so loaded with sheets of unbleached muslin, yarn and other goods that there was no doubt whose it was. The Calvin dogs came around the house, and the puppies soon had Halley surrounded. Halley grabbed up a stick to use as a mud scraper, and she tried to clean her shoes, but it was hopeless. Finally, she pulled them off and was looking for a place high enough to safeguard them from the dogs when Mrs. Calvin appeared at the door.
    “Scrape them on the edge of the porch and hang them on the nails next to the porch swing.” she said, “Your raincoat, too.”
    Halley slicked the water out of her hair