Another story in the
Johnny Potter series.
By Bettyann Moore
Let me tell you how I
come just a whisker short of bein’ christened Eustace Pitts. Now,
can you imagine what goin’ through this life bein’ called Eustace
Pitts coulda done to a body? Ever’ time I think on it, the hairs in
my ears stand straight out.
Now, I knows that these
parts is known for what I heard called “colorful” names. An’
when you knows what folks was up to when they give their children
them names, it kinda makes sense in a way. Some cotton to the notion
that if you calls a body somethin’ pretty they’s gonna be pretty.
And it ain’t too hard to figger out what one preacher had in mind
when he called his kids DoGood, Sabbath and Salvation. And it ain’t
real hard to figger out what that same preacher’s wife were up to
when they done had their fourth young’un and named him Judas. But I
done heard of growed folks walkin’ round with names like Fanny Teat
(folks just calls her Mama Teat), Crawdad Fisher and Lazy Crisp. And
to a person, they were an ornery lot. I woulda gone through this life
as Eustace Pitts if Ma Ma had gone and married Grady Pitts like her
pa wanted her to.
I be borned in
nineteen-aught-four, but back in nineteen-aught-two my Ma Ma, Rebecca
Jean Simpson, were gettin’ courted right hard by the onliest smithy
in this neck o’ the woods, Grady Pitts. Grady’s biggest dream was
to sire a son to carry on his trade, a son he’d name Eustace Pitts,
after his grandaddy.
My grandpa, Grover
Simpson, were right pleased ‘bout these goin’s on. Besides bein’
the only smithy, Grady were a dang good one, too, and Grandpa were
all the time needin’ yokes and wagons and shoes for his mules and
horses. He figgered to save a heap o’ cash with a smithy as kin.
Ma Ma used to tell me
how when Grady come a-callin’, her pa would set out somethin’ to
be mended. If Grady took it and had it back good as new when he come
callin’ again, Grandpa’d let Ma and Grady set out on the porch
all alone. The bigger the job, the longer the spoonin’. Ma Ma said
the night Grady come to find Grandpa’s whole team of mules and a
plow horse to be shoed, she feared for her virtue. When she seen the
gleam in Grady’s eyes, she were right thankful it’d take a heap
of time to finish the job – the shoein’ I mean.
Poor Grady must have
been chompin’ at the bit ‘cause he done what he swore he’d
never do – take on a ‘prentice to see to the other jobs that
needed doin’ while Grady put his whole soul into gettin’ them
animals shoed for my grandaddy. Now, the reason why Grady were so
good were ‘cause he done everything his ownself – from ridin’
into Hendersonville for the iron he’d be needin’, right down to
makin’ his own shoe nails. Givin’ a job to Grady meant you’d be
gettin’ mighty fine work, but it meant you’d have to wait for it.
Grady were makin’ dang sure this’d be the best he ever done. He
didn’t want no mess-ups.
His first mistake were
takin’ on a ‘prentice. His second were takin’ on Cotton
Cooper’s ol’ man, Stu Cooper, to be that ‘prentice. Stu were
just a young’un then, maybe 15 or thereabouts, but he were already
stuck fast to the jug. His ma used to say he went right from the teat
to the bottle and never let up. Oh, there were some skill hidin’
behind them bloodshot eyes and shaky hands. On a sober day – and
they was few – ol’ Stu could swing a sledge with the best of ‘em.
Grady were pretty hard up, though, and took who he could get and set
Stu into makin’ wagon wheels for a farmer outta Caldoon County
whilst he worked on gettin’ into Ma Ma’s petticoats.
Round about this time,
a young fella named Seth Potter come back home to the mountain. He
been livin’ with some old aunties in Tennessee since he were eight
or so and come back to live on his daddy’s farm after the old man
passed on. Alvin Potter didn’t like young’uns too much and when
his wife Lizzie died of the influenza, he sent Seth off to live with
his wife’s sisters. Alvin weren’t a bad sort; he done left the
farm to Seth and Seth come back a big, strappin’ man of 19 to work
that land and cut hisself a notch on this earth.
‘Fore he could do his
own work, though, Seth needed some money, or at least some credit to
pay for a team and some seed. He set off walkin’ down the road and
stopped at the first place he come to, my Ma Ma’s daddy’s house.
Grandaddy liked the
looks of Seth standin’ there in the yard. He looked ever’ bit
strong as a horse – and as you may recollect, his own horses was
off bein’ shoed.
Ma Ma were a shy sort
and hid behind her daddy’s back and peeked out at Seth and couldn’t
take her eyes off his hands – they was so big and powerful.
Grandaddy put Seth to work right off, pullin’ his plow. Seth were
right happy for the work. He seen Ma Ma peekin’ out behind her
daddy and gettin’ to see her durin’ the day made the work all the
sweeter.
Lordy, how that man
musta worked! He done had three acres plowed by sundown. Ever so
often Ma Ma brung him some sweetwater from the well and Seth always
liked sayin’ he wasn’t sure what kept him goin’ – that cool
water, or them cool, soft hands carryin’ that water out to him.
Whilst Seth and Rebecca
were workin’ on fallin’ for each other, Grady were workin’ like
a mad man on them shoes. Stu Cooper stayed pretty much sober while
workin on them wheels ‘cept at the very start – it were his
birthday and he celebrated for three days. So, when he’s chiseling
the mortises for the hub of them wheels, he done forgot to slant ‘em.
By the time he sobered up and seen what he done, he didn’t dare
tell Grady and he stuck them spokes in anyhow, hopin’ no one’d
get wise to it.
Grady’s third mistake
were trustin’ Stu to do the job right.
By and by them horses
and mules was shod and the wagon wheels done – in their fashion.
Grady were so all-fired anxious ‘bout gettin’ them critters to
Grandaddy Grover, he didn’t see no problem with them wheels. Him
bein’ a fussy type, that’s right surprisin’, but dang lucky for
me.
By the time Grady come
to see Ma Ma to get his due, she had done forgot ‘bout him, she
were so smitten with Seth Potter. Grandaddy seen it comin’, but
didn’t do nothin’ to stop it. He liked Seth an’ didn’t see no
harm in havin’ two suitors for his Rebecca – ‘long as he got
the best farmhand on the mountain and his critters shod to boot.
‘Course I weren’t
there, but I reckon when ol’ Grady showed up with them animals and
finds some stranger courtin’ his gal on the porch swing, there
musta been some sparks a-flyin’. Grandaddy Grover feared both
fellas would walk off and leave Rebecca and him high and dry. He
figgered the onliest way to work things out was to have some sorta
contest ‘twixt the two – a wagon race, he decides – from his
place to Hendersonville, the hilliest, rockiest patch of country you
ever run across.
“Full wagons,” he
says, ‘cause it just so happens he’s got to get a load of hay and
corn likker to Hendersonville, “and the first one that gets their
wagon over the town line gets the right to ask for my Rebecca’s
hand in marriage.”
Ma Ma told me that if
it were up to her, she knowed who she’d run off with right then and
there. Seth were a righteous man, though, and figgered to have her
hand fair and square. Grady didn’t care how he done it, he were
feelin’ mighty deflated after shoeing all them critters and comin’
out empty-handed – he didn’t care how he won.
Poor Seth didn’t have
no team to pull no wagon and no wagon neither, so Grandaddy Grover
loaned him the lot. Everbody thought it right white of Grady to take
a look at the team’s shoes aforehand “to make sure they’s up to
snuff,” he said.
The race were set for
the next day at sun up. Grady had a fine team of horses, of course,
but he were hard-pressed to come up with a good wagon. He did have
some good wheels, he thought – the very wheels Stu Cooper made –
so he worked through the night fixin’ them to an old hay wagon.
That was his fourth
mistake.
Grandaddy Grover called
the mark and Seth and Grady were off. When they’s finally out of
sight, Ma Ma says she were cryin’ buckets ‘cause Grady were out
in front.
It were hard goin’.
There be only a handful of spots where it were wide enough for one
wagon to pass the other. Steep mountain passes made the wagons tilt
so far to one side or t’other, they be apt to tip over. Granddaddy
Grover had nestled his ‘shine down into the hay to save breakin’,
but by the time they was through, there’d be more’n one cow drunk
on likkered up hay.
They was runnin’
pretty much neck and tail when they come to the top of the last hill,
with Hendersonville spread out below. It’s then that Seth’s
horses start to buckin’ and neighin’ like they’s in powerful
pain. Seth pulls off and checks their shoes and, sure enough, they
ain’t but one nail holdin’ them on – and some come off
altogether. Grady done checked them all right.
That devil snickered
and slapped his knees as he drove past poor Seth, leavin’ him
chokin’ in his dust.
Well, now, this here
part be a might hard for a body to swallow, but I tells it like I
heard it and my Ma Ma ain’t never lied.
Seth were so crazy with
love, he done strapped hisself to that wagon and set off down that
hill, fixin’ to win hisself a bride. Grady looked back and cackled
mightily to see such a sight and whipped his horses all the more. He
weren’t laughin’ for long.
See, if the mortises of
a wheel ain’t slanted, the wheels ain’t dished. And if the wheels
ain’t dished and the load shifts to the downhill side of the wagon,
it are certain them wheels are gonna bow out and split apart – it
just be a matter of time. And about a hunnert yards out of
Hendersonville, Grady Pitts’ time were up. Them ol’ wheels
started to bowing and Grady hears a sickenin’ crack and there she
goes, in a dozen pieces.
While Grady’s
scratchin’ his head at the side of the road, here come Seth round
the corner, sweatin’ and puffin’, and passes him, crossin’ that
town line first. He were right grateful Grandaddy Grover never said
nothin’ ‘bout gettin’ them horses there, too.
Grady didn’t have no
cause to raise a fuss, given what he done to them horses. Seth sure
coulda raised a stink, but he were just happy to have his Rebecca.
Truth be told, Ma Ma
woulda never married ol’ Grady anyhow. She said she woulda talked
Seth into runnin’ off sooner or later. She said she couldn’t wrap
her head around the notion of one day havin’ a son named Eustace
Pitts.
