Wish You Well(59)

anger that Oz, the Cowardly Lion, asked Eugene, the Mighty Wizard, if he could please

tone it down a bit. They fought many pitched battles against flying monkeys and melting

witches, and with a little ingenuity and some luck at just the right moments, good always

triumphed over evil on the glorious Virginia mountain.

Diamond told them of how in the winter he would skate on the top of Scott's Hole. And

how using a short-handled ax he would cleave off a strip of bark from an oak and use that

as his sled to go sailing down the iced slopes of the mountains at speeds never before

achieved by a human being. He said he would be glad to show them how he did it, but

would have to swear them to secrecy, lest the wrong sort of folks found out and maybe

took over the world with such valuable knowledge.

Lou did not once let on that she knew about Diamond's parents. After hours of fun, they

would say their goodbyes and Lou and Oz would ride home on Sue or take turns with

Eugene when he came with them. Diamond would stay behind and swim some more or

hit the ball, doing, as he often said, just as he pleased.

On the ride back home after one of these outings, Lou decided to take a different way. A

fine mist hung over the mountains as she and Oz approached the farmhouse from the rear.

They cleared a rise, and on top of a little knoll about a half-mile from the house, Lou

reined Sue to a halt. Oz squirmed behind her.

"Come on, Lou, we need to get back. We've got chores."

Instead, the girl clambered off Sue, leaving Oz to grab at the reins, which almost made

him fall off the animal. He called crossly after her, but she seemed not to hear.

Lou went over to the little cleared space under the dense shade of an evergreen and knelt

down. The grave markers were simple pieces of wood grayed by the weather. And clearly

much time had passed. Lou read the names of the dead and the bracket dates of their

existence, which were carved deeply into the wood and were probably about as distinct as

the day they were chiseled.

The first name was Joshua Cardinal. The date of his birth and death made Lou believe

that he must have been Louisa's husband, Lou and Oz's great-grandfather. He had passed

in his fifty-second year—not that long of a life, Lou thought. The second grave marker

was a name that Lou knew from her father. Jacob Cardinal was her father's father, her and

Oz's grandfather. As she recited the name, Oz joined her and knelt down in the grass. He

pulled off his straw hat and said nothing. Their grandfather had died far younger than

even his father. Was there something about this place? Lou wondered. But then she

thought of how old Louisa was, and the wondering stopped there.

The third grave marker looked to be the oldest. It only had a name on it, no dates of birth

or death.

"Annie Cardinal," Lou said out loud. For a time the two just knelt there and stared at the

pieces of board marking the remains of family they had never known. Then Lou rose,

went over to Sue, gripped the horse's bushy mane, climbed up, and then helped Oz on

board. Neither spoke all the way back.

At supper that night, more than once Lou was about to venture a question to Louisa about

what they had seen, but then something made her not. Oz was obviously just as curious,

yet, like always, he was inclined to follow his sister's lead. They had time, Lou figured,

for all of their questions to be answered. Before she went to sleep that night, Lou went

out on the back porch and looked up to that knoll. Even with a nice slice of moon she

could not see the graveyard from here, yet now she knew where it was. She had never

much been interested in the dead, particularly since losing her father. Now she knew that

she would go back soon to that burying ground and look once more at those bits of plain

board set in dirt and engraved with the names of her flesh and blood.



CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

COTTON SHOWED UP WTTH DIAMOND A WEEK LATER and handed out small American

flags to Lou, Oz, and Eugene. He had also brought a five-gallon can of gas, which he put

in the Hudson's fuel tank. "We all can't fit in the Olds," he explained. "And I handled an

estate problem for Leroy Meekins who runs the Esso station. Leroy doesn't like to pay in

cash, though, so one could say I'm flush with oil products right now."

With Eugene driving, the five went down to Dickens to watch the parade. Louisa stayed

behind to keep watch over Amanda, but they promised to bring her back something.

They ate hot dogs with great splotches of mustard and ketchup, swirls of cotton candy,

and enough soda pop to make the children run to the public toilet with great frequency.

There were contests of skill at booths set up wherever space was available, and Oz

cleaned up on all those that involved throwing something in order to knock something