A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House Read Free Book Online

of cloth. “It’s left from breakfast.”
    I eat the biscuit and tenderloin and drunk a glass of milk straight down. When I was done, I found that I had nothing else to say to Mama, and I could not get my mind around this unhappy revelation. The place was strangely silent. Life in Redbud had gone on just fine without me. My aunts were all gone into town, since it was Saturday. The men were all working or hunting. The children were gone to the swimming hole down the river, getting the most out of the last warm days. Before Saul, on days such as this, it had always been just me and Mama, working around the house, speaking in that quiet way we used to share with each other. I realized how lonesome it must be for Mama now. Instead of saying anything, I figured I ought to just leave. The trip back would be sad enough as it was.
    â€œI better go on, Mama,” I said, and stood. “Me and Saul’ll try to come over next Sunday.”
    â€œYou said that last time I seen you, a month ago.” Mama did not get up.
    â€œWell, building the house takes up all our time. He works all day at the mill and all weekend on the house.” I leaned down to kiss her and found her cheek very cold, like the rocks I had pulled up out of the rushing creek. “I miss you bad, Mama. I love you.”
    I was about to get on my mule when something made me look back. I had a sudden thought, so I dropped the reins and run back to the house. I got down on my knees and looked under the porch until I seen a rock that had fell out of one of the columns holding up the porch floor. It was wide and flat, so that I had trouble picking it up,but once I got hold of it, I carried it easily to the sled. I loaded it, got on my mule, and waved until we had traipsed across the bridge, up the hill, and out of Mama’s sight. Another blast from the shotgun rang out over the valley, as if Daddy and Jubal was saying good-bye. The shot tore through the silence that seemed to seep down out of the mountains and press at me from all sides.

Four
    M e and Esme and all the other women on the creek helped build that house, though the men would soon forget that. We’d be right there waiting when they come from the sawmill. We’d pull the planks off the truck and pack them up the path, stand for long whiles to hold them up while the men nailed. We climbed right up there and laid the tin.
    It took two months to build our house, and everybody we knowed helped us. One Saturday, when Saul had all his buddies over there helping him to fashion up the inside walls, I heard a horse stomping up the creek and looked around to see Daddy and Mama. I could never remember seeing them on a horse together before—usually when they went somewhere, it was always by wagon—and they looked so young to me like that. Mama’s hands were looped around his waist, her thumbs hooked in the front loops of his britches. She laughed when she saw that I had caught sight of them. There was no road up into God’s Creek, so people either parked their wagons or gigs at the mouth of the holler and walked up the little dusty footpath,or rode their horses right through the creek. Daddy cooed to the horse as it climbed up the steep bank out of the creek and into our yard. Behind them came more horses, most with couples astraddle them—my uncles and aunts, my cousins who were old enough to take part in a house-raising. There were so many people there that Saul told me later they got done in one evening what would have taken three or four days otherwise. Everybody I loved or would come to love had a hand in building our little house, which made it that much more special to me.
    God’s Creek was a pretty place that held noise within its closeness like a voice in a cupped hand. Two mountains rose up on either side, and between them was a patch of flat land beside the creek and the little white footpath that led out to the road. Across the creek was God’s