Buddies Read online

  “Don’t you worry, I’ll still be in the notion. I wudn’t back outta that for a pocket full of buckeyes. I’ll be at yore house come sunup Saturday mornin’.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Saturday wasn’t going to be an unusual day for Mama and Gloria. Gloria would stay inside from the cold, and Mama would stay in with her and do the house chores. For Joey Frank, Saturday was always the special day that he and Ernie would spend together. Since their first day in school they became the best of buddies. They would spend the day fishing at the river or roaming the hills and hollows in search of buckeyes to bring them good luck.

  Before Joey Frank had finished his breakfast, Ernie was at the front door. He came in with his cheeks all glowing pink from the cold, carrying his lunch pail. He went over to warm himself by the cook-stove while Joey Frank finished eating.

  When the boys were ready to leave, Mama cautioned, “Be careful and be home before sundown.” They gave their word that they would and left the house happy to be together once again.

  The cold air smelled of winter sweetness. The chirping birds made fluttering sounds when they flew away from their roost as the boys made their presence down the road to Ruby Creek. Ernie asked, “I guess yore gittin’ the jitters about astin’ Banker Tolbert about that baby ain’t you, Joey Frank?”

  “Yeah, I am a little bit, but I’m gonna try not to thank about it ‘til I see’m.”

  “Then I don’t reckin yore gonna go by what the ole folks say to do?”

  “What do the ole folks say to do?”

  “They say to thank about what’cha gonna say before you commence to say it.”

  “Well, I ain’t gonna do like ole folks say to do. I ain’t gonna thank about it before I say it; I’m just gonna say it.”

  Ernie could tell that Joey Frank was a little nervous about asking Banker Tolbert about the baby. He surely didn’t want him to back-out so he changed the subject, saying “What’cha reckin that sweet little Johnny McGraw’s a-doin’ this mornin’, Joey Frank?”

  “Well, I’d say that the sweet thang’s still in bed under a heap of quilts, keepin’ all warm an’ dreamin’ about a summer day when he can go outside an’ priss around without gittin’ his backside cold. Danged if that boy ain’t just like a sissy ole gal except for them breeches he wears. I bet’cha he ain’t never done a day’s work in his whole life.”

  “I wonder what it’d be like to never hafta work, Joey Frank?”

  “I wudn’t know, and I don’t guess I’ll never know what it’d be like.”

  When the boys reached the outskirts of Ruby Creek, they decided to take a break from the long walk. They sat down by the roadside and looked down Main Street toward the little town. The smoke boiling from chimneys had merged together because of a light breeze blowing. A big red shaggy dog lay in the street, not bothering to move from his comfortable location as the wagons and buggies veered away from him. Ernie said, “Well, Joey Frank, out yonder’s that big bank. I thank you oughta git what’cha gonna say fixed in that brain of yores so you can say it quick an’ git it over with.”

  “I shore do wisht I had a dipper of water before I go in there. I’m thirsty as a workhorse.”

  Ernie reached in his coat pocket and got out a piece of chewing tobacco. He said, “Here, Joey Frank, bite you off a piece of this an’ work it around in yore mouth for a spell. It’ll stop you from cravin’ water ‘til we can git some.”

  “I ain’t gonna put that dang stuff in my mouth, Ernie Brown. I’d git sick an’ puke for shore.”

  “Well, their’s a horse trough over yonder under that big tree if you don’t mind drankin’ after a horse. Shucks, I’ve done it many a-times.”

  “Yeah, an’ I bet’cha you went an’ got them tapeworms that makes their home in folks’ bellies from a-doin’ sech too, didn’t you?”

  “Heck no! I didn’t git them thangs, I’ve heard tell of folks a-gittin’m but I never did. Did you?”

  “Yeah, I’ve had’m lots a times.”

  “Did you git’m from drankin’ after a horse?”

  “No, I didn’t git’m from drankin’ after a horse ‘cause I ain’t never drunk after one before.”

  “Well, where’d you git’m?”

  “I don’t know where I got’m; I cain’t remember, but I didn’t git’m from drankin’ after a dang slobberin’ ole horse for shore.”

  Joey Frank stood up and straightened the hat on his head, saying “I can wait about the water. I want to go on to the bank an’ git what I want to say over with so we can do somethin’ else. Wud you take that wad of chaw out of yore mouth, you know it ain’t proper to go to the bank with your jaw all stickin’ out an’ wipin’ tobacker juice on yore sleeves.”

  “I’m not goin’ to do no sech a-thang, I can fix it in my mouth an’ nobody will ever know it’s here. I can look just as proper as anybody in that bank.” Ernie replied.

  As the boys started down Main Street, Ernie strutted a little with a bounce in each step. The closer they got to the bank, the drier Joey Frank’s mouth became. At one point he almost turned around to back out, but he knew that if he did, then he would never hear the last of it. Ernie’s footsteps seemed to be shuffling in rhythm over and over those dreadful words, “chicken blood.”

  Banker Tolbert’s horse and surrey were in front of the bank. The horse had a feedbag fastened to her muzzle so she would have food all during the day while Banker Tolbert was busy operating his bank.

  The boys paused for a moment, looking at the brick structure with its false front towering above. Ernie said, “Well, here we are, Joe Frank. Are you ready to go inside?”

  Joey Frank swollowed hard, then said, “Yeah, I reckin Iam.”

  Ernie spit, and Joey Frank watched the large knot in his jaw disappear. Where he had hid the wad of tobacco in his mouth, Joey Frank couldn’t imagine, and he didn’t ask.

  The boys stepped up on the boarded sidewalk and went over to the door. Joey Frank took a moment to brush his dark bangs under his hat; then Ernie opened the door and they went inside. They hesitated for a moment and looked around the spacious room where two men tellers were standing behind their stations. The tellers were smiling through the glass as they serviced the customers. Joey Frank nervously whispered, “Ernie, I don’t see Banker Tolbert nowhere, do you?”

  “No, I don’t, but maybe one of them men folks over yonder that’s a-workin’ here knows where he is. You wait here, an’ I’ll go ast’m.”

  Joey Frank watched as Ernie went over to one of the tellers. The man said something to him and pointed to a door. Ernie came back and said to Joey Frank “That man said Banker Tolbert wuz in his office over yonder. He said to knock on the door an’ go on in.”

  The boys walked over to the office. Ernie knocked on the door and slowly opened it so both could see inside. There sat Banker Tolbert, a thin balding man with large eyes. He looked up from the work at his desk, put his pen down and smiled, saying, “Good morning, please come in young men.”

  Joey Frank and Ernie slowly walked over to the desk. Banker Tolbert politely got up from his highbacked chair and shook their hands. “Please have a seat,” he said with a motion of the hand at the chairs in front of his desk. “Tell me what I can do for you this morning.”

  They took a chair side by side and rested their hands on the lunch pails in their laps. Joe Frank cleared his throat and said, “Banker Tolbert, my name’s Joey Frank Cooper, an’ this fella here is my buddy Ernie Brown.”

  Banker Tolbert nodded his head and smiled at the boys. Joey Frank thought the banker was about the nicest person he had ever met, and when he spoke to him, he wasn’t the least bit nervous. “Banker Tolbert, this shore is a fine bank you got yoreself here. A fella must be mighty happy to have one of these. I shore would be if I had sech, then I could buy my sickly sister all them special foods that she needs
to git well agin.”

  “Can’t your parents buy the foods that your sick sister needs?” Banker Tolbert asked.

  “Ain’t got no Pa, just my Mama, an’ she ain’t got anuff money to buy them foods ‘cause she had to spend it all to bury my Pa.”

  “I’m so sorry, young man,” Banker Tolbert said, thinking that Joey Frank was there to borrow money. “I do wish there was something I could do to help, but my hands are tied. You’re much too young for me to give you a loan, and the bank can’t lend money on a person’s word that they’ll pay it back. There must be some sort of collateral such as land or machinery that would stand good for the debt if for some reason you couldn’t pay it. I hope I have made myself clear so you can understand our policy and you won’t be offended by us.”

  “Well, if I don’t understand you, Banker Tolbert, then I don’t reckin it matters no how ‘cause I didn’t come here to borrie money. I just come here to ast you about somethin’ that me an’ Ernie here has been wonderin’ about an’ couldn’t figger out, that’s all.”

  “I’m sorry that I misunderstood you,” Banker Tolbert apologized, “but please go ahead and ask your question, and I’ll be glad to answer it if I can.”

  Joey Frank looked over at Ernie sitting quietly beside him, thinking that he must need to spit since he hadn’t said anything. Joey Frank then looked back at the banker and said, “Banker Tolbert, the other day me an’ Ernie here took a notion that we’d leave school at recess ‘cause Ernie wuz tired a-studyin’ about the war. Me an’ him went a-walkin’ down in the woods behind the schoolhouse. When we come out at this here road, we seen somebody a-comin’. Ernie said that we’d better git back into the woods ‘cause it could be somebody the schoolteacher sent out to look for us. Well, we took off, went back to the woods, hid behind some bushes an’ watched this here fancy surrey pulled by this fine horse come to a stop.”

  At that moment Banker Tolbert’s expression changed, his mouth dropped and his eyes didn’t look the same. Joey Frank was so busy telling all the details that he didn’t notice the look on the bankers face. If Ernie noticed any change, he didn’t show it as he continued to sit quietly listening. Joey Frank continued, “We watched you an’ Miss Rene git down out of that surrey, come into the woods an’ bury a box. You bein’ a banker an’ all,

  Ernie figgered that it’d be full of money. When y’all left, we went an’ dug it up an’ found out it wudn’t money but it was a baby. We ain’t never heard tell of sech before, an’ we wanted to know why y’all done it?”

  Banker Tolbert began to twist and squeeze his fingers until his knuckles cracked and his voice trembled when he asked, “Boys, what did you do with the baby after you dug it up?”

  “We put it back in the hole an’ covered it up.” Joey Franksaid.

  “Have you boys spoken to anyone about the baby?” the banker wanted to know.

  “Oh, no, sir,” Ernie finally spoke. “Me an’ Joey Frank promised that we wudn’t tell nobody, an’ we ain’t. Have we, Joey Frank?”

  “We shore ain’t, Banker Tolbert, Nobody except you.”

  “That’s good, boys, very good.” The banker spoke with a sigh of relief. “I want the baby to remain our secret. It’s very important to me that it does. Someday I’ll tell you why I buried it there, but today I would prefer not to talk about it.”

  Banker Tolbert leaned forward in the high-backed chair and rested his arms on the desk. He lowered his voice, nodded toward the door and said, “I wouldn’t want anyone to come in and overhear us, because then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore; would it?”

  The boys quietly agreed by shaking their heads. Banker Tolbert continued to speak in a low voice. “Boys, I want to do something nice for you, but first I want you to promise me that you will never, never tell anyone about the baby.”

  “We won’t tell nobody; will we Ernie?” Joey Frank said as he looked at his buddy.

  “No!” Ernie said, shaking his head. Banker Tolbert pulled out the desk drawer in front of him and retrieved a stack of money. He flipped through it, taking some out of the bundle. The banker proceeded then to put the remaining money back into its place in the drawer. He counted out fifty dollars and handed it to Joey Frank, and he handed Ernie fifty more. He smiled at the boys who were shocked but extremely delighted and said, “How does it feel to have all of that money, which you’ll never have to pay back as long as you keep the baby a secret?”

  Ernie spoke first, “It feels mighty good to me, Banker Tolbert. I ain’t never had fifty dollers in my whole life. I won’t never breathe a word about that baby to a livin’ soul.”

  “I’m with Ernie, Banker Tolbert. I won’t never tell nobody neither, an’ I thank you for doin’ sech. With all this money my Mama won’t hafta take a job now, an’ she can buy them foods that my sickly sister needs to git well agin.”

  Joey Frank looked at the money that he was holding and said, “My Mama’s gonna be real happy about all this money, an’ I’m a-wonderin’ what I’m gonna tell her when she ast me where I got it.”

  “Tell her you found it, dumbbell.” Ernie quickly spoke up, forgetting his manners and letting the wad of tobacco slip to his jaw. “That’s what I’m gonna tell my folks.”

  “Yes, tell your parents that you found the money. Tell them that you found it in a box by a roadside, they’ll believe you” the banker said, knowing full well the poverty-stricken parents would be so overjoyed about the money that they wouldn’t question the boys to a great extent. He knew they would want to believe that the boys really did find the money.

  Before Joey Frank and Ernie left Banker Tolbert’s office, he cautioned them once more not to tell anyone about the baby. “If you ever tell anyone about the baby, then I expect you to pay all the money back.” Once more they gave their solemn promise to the banker that they would not tell the secret and no one would ever hear about the baby from them.

  Outside the bank, Ernie spit out a mouthful of tobacco juice that was a long time overdue. He felt rich and as tall as a giant as he threw his shoulders back while he stood looking up and down Main Street. He said, “Joey Frank, which one of them stores do you wanna to go in first?”

  “It don’t matter with me, Ernie, ‘cause I ain’t gonna buy nothin’ no-how; I’m gonna give all my money to Mama for Gloria’s foods.”

  “You gonna give ever’ bit of it to yore Mama?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, dang if I’m gonna give all my money to my folks’. I’m gonna go right over yonder an’ buy me some stuff. Now come on.”

  Ernie chose to go into McGraw’s General Store, the largest store in Ruby Creek. This store had about anything a person should want or need. The money he would spend, from his fifty dollars, he thought necessary. He bought enough chewing tobacco to last him for a while and a pair of brogans. He also bought a pair of suspenders, saying “I’m tired of my ole ones that’re always a-comin’ loose an’ poppin’ me in the back of the head or in the mouth, dependin’ on which side wants to give ‘way first.”

  Joey Frank admired many things in the store, and one time he almost reached in his pocket for the money to pay for a bone-handled knife that he thought was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen. He quickly dismissed that notion when the needs of Mama and Gloria crept back into his mind. He rubbed the knife’s smooth handle with the tips of his fingers and left it lying in its place.

  The temperature outside had risen rapidly. The sun beaming down on the ice in the street had changed into slush outside the General Store. The boys decided to take a seat on a loiterers’ bench. Ernie took his new brogans from the box and admired them. He said that they would last him through two winters without having to be resoled. He looked down at the old pair he was wearing, that were dirty and worn down on the heels. He said, “I’d like to throw these old thangs away, but shucks, I hate to do sech. I’ve had’m so long,
an’ they still wear good. What’cha thank, Joey Frank?”

  “If I wuz you, I’d keep’m, Ernie, ‘cause they look like they still got a-bit more wearin’ left in’m yit.”

  “Yeah, I guess yore right Joey Frank, an’ then I’ll have’m to wear when these here new ones has went an’ rubbed them burnin’ blisters on my heels. Dang, them thangs hurt, ‘specially when you git sand in’m.”

  “My Pa used to give my new shoes a good stretchin’ before I wore’m, Ernie, an’ I quit gittin’ blisters.”

  “How did he do sech?”

  “He’d take horseshoes an’ wedge’m down inside an’ let’m stay there for a few days. When he took’m out, they wore as good as my ole pair.”

  “Joey Frank I’m hungry, ain’t you?”

  “Yeah, lets eat some grub.”

  The buddies ate some of the food from their lunch pails as they watched the wagons and buggies coming in and going out of town. Joey Frank said, “Ernie, do you reckin that Banker Tolbert will ever tell us why him an’ Miss Rene went an’ buried that baby in them woods?”

  “Heck, no, he ain’t never gonna tell us nothin’. If he’d wanted us to know sech, then he’d a-told us back yonder at the bank. The best thang for us to do is forgit about that baby ‘cause that’s what we got the money for, ain’t it?”

  “Yeah, I reckin so.”

  “Well, hush up about it then. Let’s git up from here, an’ go down yonder to the blacksmith shop an’ watch Mr. Pearson shoe some horses.”

  “I reckin you still got that head of yores set on bein’ a blacksmith someday, ain’t you?” replied Joey Frank.

  “I shore have, Joey Frank Cooper.” Ernie said, getting up from the loiterers’ bench. “I ain’t gonna spend the rest of my life in them fields behind a danged ole plow lookin’ at a mule’s tail flopppin’ at horseflies, ever’day from sunup ‘til sundown. Heck, I’m tired of sech already.”

  Ernie thoroughly enjoyed watching Mr. Pearson pick up the horses’ long legs and nail shoes on their hoofs. Joey Frank didn’t see a thing that interested him about a blacksmith’s job. He thought the work to be dangerous and wondered why Mr. Pearson would take the risk of getting his brains kicked out by a young horse that wasn’t fully broken. He was bored and wanted to leave, but Ernie blatted at him saying, “Heck no an’ hush up, I’m gonna stay here an’ watch Mr. Pearson ‘til time to start home.” Ernie had visited the blacksmith shop on many occasions, and he had learned a great deal by watching Mr. Pearson. He wanted to try his luck at shoeing a horse, but Mr. Pearson thought he should have a little more experience before he undertook that tedious job.