Just Over The Mountain by Robyn Carr Read Free Book Online

time the idea had popped into Tom’s head. She couldn’t herself go after him; she was postsurgical. Plus, she didn’t drive. And she didn’t want the kids to go fetch him. She wanted him back, that was all.
    “You gonna let me come in?” Tom wanted to know.
    “What for?”
    “Come on, Clarence! You know what for! We have to at least talk! ”
    There was no sound or movement for a long moment, then the door slowly creaked open. Tom took a deep breath as he walked toward the porch. He had his rifle, but it wasn’t at the ready. He was clearly at a disadvantage. If he shoots me, Tom thought, I’m going to be so pissed.
    When he got inside the shanty, he found it unchanged from the last time he’d seen it. The lantern on the table was turned up to light the place, there were a couple of small, uncomfortable-looking cots, a table and two chairs, stacks and piles of books, newspapers, magazines and supplies. There was a crude stove with a corroded pipe that stretched through the roof, and a hanging blanket that served as a back door for the jenny to come in and out. The place had a faint smell of dung and wood smoke.
    Clarence sat at the table, looking down.
    “Lucky some squatter didn’t come in here and take over your place, Clarence. I didn’t realize you left it like it was.”
    “Make your point and leave,” he said.
    “Jesus, Clarence, when did you get so unfriendly? Last time we talked, we were like old friends. You upset about something?”
    “That your point? That was hardly worth the drive, now, was it?”
    Clarence still hadn’t raised his eyes and Tom really wanted a look at his pupils. Tom pulled out the other chair and took a seat opposite.
    “Here’s my point, Clarence. Your wife just had a meaningful operation. She’s still a little under theweather, though she’s healthy enough. But weak as a kitten. The kids are looking after her, but everyone is put out that you took off like you did. They’d be grateful to know why, at least.”
    Clarence didn’t take any time at all to answer. “It was a little too much for me.”
    “What? The operation?”
    “That, and everything else.”
    “Being?”
    “You know.”
    “If I knew, I wouldn’t have troubled myself to drive up here.”
    “Why did you then?”
    “I thought I explained that! Jurea and the kids are upset that you ran off.”
    “I just need some time to get used to the idea!”
    “What idea?”
    Clarence hit the table, causing the lantern to rock. “The idea that her face is gonna be all right!”
    “Well, for God’s sake, Clarence…”
    “What they gonna need me for? Jurea and the kids, they got everything they need now. They don’t need me.”
    “Now, Clarence, that’s just plain ridiculous.”
    Clarence looked into Tom’s eyes. “Is it?”
    He was serious. It was ridiculous, but Clarence obviously felt this deeply. Tom tried to think of it from Clarence’s perspective. He’d been an isolated, dropout vet when he stumbled upon Jurea’s family. There she was, a fragile young woman whose parentsand brothers had kept hidden because they found her hideous. Clarence took her, married her, built an insubstantial little place in the woods. He fed her from the woods, taught her to read, even delivered his own two babies, who he also schooled and fed and sheltered.
    All the while, Clarence treated his own mental illness by staying hidden, isolated, paranoid and falsely safe in the dark and quiet of the forest. Medication had changed his life completely, changed the family’s existence totally. They came out of the woods into the town where they’d taken up residence in a small, rundown house that was like a palace to them. The kids proved well educated enough to go to public school and Clarence took up some janitorial jobs around town for rent and grocery money. Charlie MacNeil at the VA office had gotten Clarence involved in a group of vets suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
    “Are you taking your medicine,