The Truest Pleasure by Robert Morgan Read Free Book Online

County,” Pa said.
    â€œWord is they was the first on Green River,” Locke said.
    â€œExcept for th-th-th-the Indians,” Joe said.
    â€œOur great-great-great grandma was named Petal Jarvis,” Locke said. “She thought her husband Realus was bringing her to Tennessee. But he wound her around through the mountains till she was lost and then told her it was the Holston when they settled down near Saluda.”
    â€œJust like a man,” Lily said, and punched Joe on the shoulder.
    â€œShe had to stay up all night once to keep a panther from coming down the chimney,” Locke said. “Her husband had gone off and left her by herself. She burned up all the furniture.”
    â€œAnd she give birth to her first child that night,” I said.
    â€œBy herself?” Tom said.
    â€œHe left her all by herself,” Locke said.
    â€œTom’s Pa died in the war,” I said. I didn’t want it to sound like we was bragging on our family too much.
    â€œWhat battle did he die in?” Locke said.
    â€œHe died in prison camp, in Illinois,” Tom said.
    â€œThat camp was as bad as Elmira,” Pa said. “A third of the boys at Elmira died in eight months.”
    â€œWhere was the doctors?” Locke said.
    â€œThey didn’t have any doctors,” Pa said. “All the doctors was on the battlefield. And the doctor assigned to us sold the medicine and supplies instead of giving them to the prisoners.”
    I poured popcorn in the pan on the stove and put the lid over it. The first pop was like the report of a little gun, and then there was a second bang. The room was silent for a moment, and there was another thump in the pan, and then two at once.
    â€œPopcorn w-w-waits for the Spirit to move it,” Joe said.
    â€œHow did you become a nurse?” Tom said to Locke.
    â€œIt was the only thing he could do,” Florrie said.
    â€œThat’s right,” Locke said. “I was too lazy to stay on the place and help Pa and Joe. And I was too poor to go to college, and too dumb to be a politician or a lawyer. So when recruits were give bonuses to go to Cuba I signed on.”
    â€œLocke helped nurse Mama when she was dying, even though he was only eight or nine,” I said.
    â€œI found my talent was for emptying bedpans,” Locke said.
    â€œI don’t see how you can stand it,” Lily said, “being around sick people and filth all the time.”
    â€œI guess you have to be a caring person,” Florrie said.
    â€œOr get so hard nothing bothers you,” Locke said. “How can you help people if you’re always wrought-up because they are sick? You’ve got to keep your head even when they are out oftheirs and suffering and dying. I found that when I enlisted and was sent to the hospital ship at Havana. I was nineteen and I didn’t know anything but a little folk medicine. They put me on a ship that was nothing but a death ward. It was so hot and muggy the harbor stunk. That ship was full of hundreds of dying men.”
    â€œAll those was wounded at San Juan Hill?” I said.
    â€œThere was almost no wounded. Most of the boys had yellow fever and malaria, with a few other tropical diseases thrown in, and cholera and dysentery. I said, Locke, you’re not going to be able to get through this.”
    â€œYou got through it,” Florrie said. “You even got a medal.”
    â€œThat all came later,” Locke said. He set back in his chair and chewed popcorn. The whippoorwill had moved to the arborvitae by the front porch and was louder than ever.
    â€œThat thing gives me the chills,” Lily said.
    Tom looked at his strong hands and clasped them and unclasped them. “What did you do?” he said to Locke.
    â€œI looked at those dark wards on the ship, and I wished I was back here on the river. And all those sick boys out of their heads and dying made me feel hopeless and useless.