Ozark Trilogy 3: And Then There'll Be Fireworks by Suzette Haden Elgin

Author:Suzette Haden Elgin [Elgin, Suzette Haden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781557285928
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Published: 2010-01-22T07:45:27+00:00

Troublesome went back down into the Castle, her breath making little white puffs in the air, and she found Grannys Hazelbide and Gableframe, and told them.

“It seems,” she wound it up, “that you went through all of this and gave up the last of your treasure things—not to mention a certain amount of discommodance on my part—all for nothing. It’s a shame.”

“No,” said Granny Gableframe firmly. “It wasn’t for nothing, young woman. In no sense of the word. We traded an ignorance big as this Castle for a whole pot of knowledge, bubbling and simmering this minute. I’d say as it was a fair trade. We’re not out of it, mind you, not by many a mile, but we at least know how we came to be where we are.”

“Knowledge,” said Granny Hazelbide, “is for using. Now we have some, the problem is how we put it to use. And for that. Troublesome, we don’t need you. No call whatsoever to keep you from your homeplace any longer, and we’re grateful to you for what you’ve done, however much it sticks in my craw to say it. We’re beholden to you.”

“Hazelbide, you exaggerate,” said Granny Gableframe.

“You know any other living soul on this earth as would of done what Troublesome did?” demanded Granny Hazelbide. “Gone off in the cold and damp in a leaky boat with a bribed crew, on what was ninety-nine-to-one a wild goose chase? Gone off and chanced being stranded forever in a wilderness, dying all alone in some Kintucky briartangle? Just because we asked her to, and no other compensation offered?”

“Flumdiddle!” said Gableframe. “The fact you raised Troublesome’s addled your brain—which it can’t tolerate much of, I might add. That’s her own sister as lies in there, and it’s her own people as are suffering. She had as much to gain from this as any of us, and more than some, and I’ll be benastied before I’ll say we’re beholden to Troublesome of Brightwater! The idea!”

“One more time, Gableframe,” said Granny Hazelbide, tight-lipped. “Just one more time, I’ll tell you ... Troublesome has no natural feelings. Responsible could die this minute, putrify right there on her bed, and her sister’s only complaint’d be the smell. And that goes for every sick baby and hungry tadling and suffering human on the face of this world, you have my word on it. If she helped us, we’re beholden. You care to be benastied as well, that’s your choice.”

Troublesome chuckled, and Granny Hazelbide said: “See there?”

They were sitting there together, the two old women rocking quick and hard to show their irritation, and Troublesome still grinning, when the Mules began to bray in the stables, and Granny Gableframe said, “There’s somebody coming—listen to that racket!”

“Probably Lewis Motley Wommack the 33rd,” observed Granny Hazelbide. “Swam all the way here for penance, and crawled the rest of the way when he ran out of water,”

“For sure it’s a strange Mule to bring all that on,” said Granny Hazelbide. “That’s all we need now, when we should be setting our minds to how to use what we’ve learned—company.

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