Wish You Well(71)

"Like what? Wishing wells?" she said with scorn.

"No, they believed in each other. And created something of a miracle. Some say truth is

stranger than fiction. I think that means that whatever a person can imagine really does

exist, somewhere. Isn't that a wonderful possibility?"

"I don't know if my imagination is that good, Cotton. In fact, I don't even know if I'm

much of a writer. The things I put down on paper don't seem to have much life to them."

"Keep at it, you might surprise yourself. And rest assured, Lou, miracles do happen. You

and Oz coming here and getting to know Louisa being one of them."

Lou sat on her bed later that night, looking at her mother's letters. When Oz came in, Lou

hurriedly stuffed them under her pillow.

"Can I sleep with you?" asked Oz. "Kind'a scary in my room. Pretty sure I saw a troll in

the corner."

Lou said, "Get up here." Oz climbed next to her.

Oz suddenly looked troubled. "When you get married, who am I going to come get in bed

with when I'm scared, Lou?"

"One day you're gonna get bigger than me, then I'm going to be running to you when / get

scared."

"How do you know that?"

"Because that's the deal God makes between big sisters and their little brothers."

"Me bigger than you? Really?"

"Look at those clodhoppers of yours. You grow into those feet all the way, you'll be

bigger than Eugene."

Oz snuggled in, happy now. Then he saw the letters under the pillow.

"What are those?"

"Just some old letters Mom wrote," Lou said quickly.

"What did she say?"

"I don't know, I haven't read them."

"Will you read them to me?"

"Oz, it's late and I'm tired."

"Please, Lou. Please."

He looked so pitiful Lou took out a single letter and turned up the wick on the kerosene

lamp that sat on the table next to her bed.

"All right, but just one."

Oz settled down as Lou began to read.

"Dear Louisa, I hope you are doing well. We all are. Oz is over the croup and is sleeping

through the night."

Oz jumped up. "That's me! Mom wrote about me!" He paused and looked confused.

"What's croup?"

"You don't want to know. Now, do you want me to read it or not?" Oz lay back down

while his sister commenced reading again. "Lou won first place in both the spelling bee

and the fifty-yard dash at May Day. The latter included the boys! She's something,

Louisa. I've seen a picture of you that Jack had, and the resemblance is remarkable.

They're both growing up so fast. So very fast it scares me. Lou is so much like her father.

Her mind is so quick, I'm afraid she finds me a little boring. That thought keeps me up

nights. I love her so much. I try to do so much with her. And yet, well, you know, a father

and his daughter.... More next time. And pictures too. Love to you. Amanda. P.S. My

dream is to bring the children to the mountain, so that we can finally meet you. I hope

that dream comes true one day."

Oz said, "That was a good letter. Night, Lou."

As Oz drifted off to sleep, Lou slowly reached for another letter.



CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

LOU AND OZ WERE FOLLOWING DIAMOND AND JEB through the woods on a glorious day

in early fall, the dappled sunlight in their faces, a cool breeze tracking them along with

the fading scents of summer's honeysuckle and wild rose.

"Where are we going?" asked Lou.

Diamond would only say mysteriously, "You see."

They went up a little incline and stopped. Fifty feet away and on the path was Eugene,

carrying an empty coal bucket and a lantern. In his pocket was a stick of dynamite.

Diamond said, "Eugene headed to the coal mine. Gonna fill up that bucket. Afore winter

come, he'll take a drag down there with the mules and get out a big load'a coal."

"Gee, that's about as exciting as watching somebody sleep," was Lou's considered

opinion.

"Huh! Wait till that dynamite blows," countered Diamond.

"Dynamite!" Oz said.

Diamond nodded. "Coal deep in that rock. Pick can't git to it. Gotta blast it out."

"Is it dangerous?" asked Lou.

"Naw. He knowed what he doing. Done it myself."

As they watched from a distance, Eugene pulled the dynamite out of his pocket and

attached a long fuse to it. Then he lit his lantern and went inside the mine. Diamond sat

back against a redbud, took out an apple, and cut it up. He flicked a piece to Jeb, who was

messing around some underbrush. Diamond noted the worried looks on me faces of Lou

and Oz.

"That fuse slow-burning. Walk to the moon and back afore it go off."

A while later Eugene came out of the mine and sat down on a rock near the entrance.