Blossom Promise by Betsy Byars

Author:Betsy Byars [Byars, Betsy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-0270-6
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2013-01-02T20:35:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

Mad Mary and Junior

“You have got to let go of me, Junior,” Mad Mary said.

“I can’t!” Junior sobbed into her ragged clothes.

“Junior!”

“I can’t, I just can’t!”

She pushed him back so he had to look at her. He closed his eyes and shook his head blindly back and forth. He held her clothes so tightly that the old cloth ripped in his hands as he swayed.

“Junior, I have got to see to your grandfather. Now, you can either come with me or go up to the house. But let go!”

Junior did not answer so she said, “I mean it, Junior! We’re wasting time.”

Junior thought about it. “I’ll go with you.” His voice wavered. “But I can’t look.”

“That’s better. Junior, I got to make sure whether he’s dead or passed out.”

“I think he’s dead.”

“Well, don’t be too sure. I found a possum one time, took him home, got ready to skin him, and he blinked. I said, ‘Well, that blink just saved your life.’”

Junior stumbled down the hill, his face buried again in her clothes. He heard her say, “Shoo!” then, “Git!” and he knew they were passing Mud. Then they stopped, and Junior knew they were beside his grandfather.

Mad Mary knelt. Junior pulled her skirt tighter across his eyes.

“He’s not dead,” she said.

“What? What? How do you know?”

“His heart’s beating. You could have found that out, Junior, if you’d bothered to put your hand down his shirt instead of running off.”

“I couldn’t.”

“Now, listen to me real carefully, Junior. Are you listening?”

He nodded.

“Get your face out of my skirt.” She pulled the cloth away. “Junior, open your eyes.”

Junior squinted.

“You have a telephone, don’t you?”

He nodded.

“Go up to the house. Dial the operator. Tell the operator that you need the ambulance.”

Junior nodded.

“Tell her what your name is and where you live. Can you do that, Junior? This is real important.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to see if I can help your grandfather. Now go on. Hurry.”

Junior took a few backward steps, and then he turned and, once again, ran up the hill to the house.

Michael and Vern came around the bend. They were at the very spot where Pap had thrown them the rope.

“He’s still there,” Michael said, “I see his feet.”

Vern did not answer. “But there’s somebody with him,” Michael went on. “It’s that old lady.”

Michael stopped pulling at his clothes. He had been trying to prepare himself for that awful moment when his mother laid eyes on him. Now he stood still too.

“I wonder where Junior is,” he said.

Vern shook his head.

“Maybe he went for help.”

Vern lifted his shivering shoulders and let them fall.

“Anyway, I don’t think he’s dead, because she wouldn’t be working on him, would she?”

Vern didn’t answer.

“Why don’t you yell and ask if he’s all right?”

Vern shook his head.

“Want me to?”

Vern said, “No.”

All the way up the creek, Michael had been talking about how various members of his family had fainted exactly the way Pap had fainted, then they had come to and been fine. Finally Vern had allowed himself to believe that was the way it would be with Pap.

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