MUTUAL MISERY

 

 

            Buck had no trouble finding the snake-bitten Penny. He was lying helplessly in the middle of the main road between the islands. Buck bent down to him. Penny was alive but delirious, his thoughts chaotic and delusional. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he responded to events that only he could see. Buck took Penny's shoulders and lifted him, sliding a powerful arm under his back.

            Penny's eyes tried to focus on his rescuer. "Buck," he murmured thickly. "Don't hit me no more, please! It hurts so awful! Where's Mill-wheel? Where'd Lem go? Don't leave 'em hit me agin! You-all hit too hard!"

            Buck got his other arm beneath Penny's knees. "Penny, this ain't Volusia. The fight was a month ago. And Mill-wheel goed to fetch the doc."

            "Doc? Are we that bad hurted? Where's Jody?"

            Buck lifted him and stood. "Jody's on his way home."

            Penny was baffled. "He cain't be. He was knocked out. Long time. Lem hit him so hard!" Then, his eyes wandered erratically. "Where's Oliver?"

            "Jest relax, Penny. It'll be all right." He slung the older man over his saddle as carefully as he could, and then mounted.

            Penny mumbled dazedly, "I'm so afraid of 'em, Oliver! You, too, huh? Should we tell 'em we fear 'em, and we made a turrible mistake, and we want out?? Will they spare us??? Jody's terrified, Oliver! He has screamin' nightmares a'most every night!! You do, too?? We're in a heap o' trouble! How kin we git outta this???"

            Buck muttered to himself, "I ain't s'posed to be hearin' this." But he was fascinated in spite of himself.

 

            Sitting together in front of the Baxters' hearth that evening, Buck quietly shared what he'd heard with Mill-wheel. His brother was at least as intrigued as Buck.

            "I ain't gonna be able to resist tellin' this to Lem!" Mill-wheel exclaimed.

            Buck shifted uneasily. "Me, neither, I reckon. But I feel bad I come by all this a mite dishonest."

            A soaking-wet Jody came in just then. They greeted him briefly, and waited until he'd gone in to his father's bedside, before they recommenced their quiet sharing.

 

            The following afternoon, after it became clear that Penny was going to recover, after Mill-wheel and Jody had gone to find the fawn, after the doc had left, and while Ory was fussing about in the kitchen, Buck went in and sat by the now-lucid Penny's bedside.

            "I'm so grateful," Penny said softly.

            "That's all right." He looked the weaker man in the eye. "Penny, I gotta ask: them things you mumbled whilst you was outta your head...."

            "Oh lord. Did I really do that? I was hopin' I jest dreamed all that." Penny's eyes lowered in shame.

            "Uh, no, hit was real. Mebbe I shouldn't ask, but...."

            "You got a right to. You saved my life. You kin ask anythin' you want."

            "So, do you really fear us that much now?"

            "Yes," he confessed, embarrassed, his gaze in his lap.

            "And Jody? Nightmares 'bout us most nights?"

            "True." Penny nodded, without making eye contact.

            "And Oliver? He's frightened of us, too?"

            Another slow reluctant nod. "He admitted it to me, private, after the fight, whilst Jody was still knocked out. Didn't even tell his ma. Jest me. None of us wanta go up agin you-all, never agin."

            Buck watched him for a moment, and then said hesitantly, "I admit I told Mill-wheel. I reckon it'd not be too kind of us to tell our brothers when we git back."

            "You got a right," Penny said simply. "I ain't gonna ask you not to. Leastways, I'll not hafta be there to hear 'em laugh. 'Sides, as humiliatin' as 'tis, it might he'p you-all take a mite o' pity on us, in the future."

            Buck nodded slowly. "You right. Hit might. All right, Penny. We'll tell 'em." He patted Penny's hand and rose.

            The older man forced a smile and tried to pretend that he was happy about that.