TURNABOUT

 

 

            Buck, Mill-wheel, and Gabby were in the Forrester cabin's main room with their parents, when they heard a clamor just out front. The three men rose, but before they could make it to the door, Arch entered, carrying an injured, unconscious man in his arms. The man's entire chest and abdomen were covered in copious amounts of blood. Buck caught sight of the man's face.

            "Oliver!" he said in astonishment.

            "What happened to him?" Mill-wheel demanded.

            "Bear attacked him. Me and Pack come up on the ruckus. I shot the bear. Pack goed for the doc. Look, I don't know how you two feel 'bout this here, seein' as 'twas you two and Lem, had that fight with him last May. But we ain't seed how we could jest leave him there...."

            "S'all right." Buck waved it away immediately. "Like I told Jody when Penny was snakebit: we don't hold nothin' agin folks in trouble. Reckon that applies even to this here feller."

            "I agree," said Mill-wheel. "But likely Lem won't. Good thing he's goed off for awhiles. We'll have to be right watchful when he gits back."

            Mrs. Forrester instructed, "Put him in Fodder-wing's room."

 

            Things were touch-and-go for a while. Doc Wilson had come and gone before Oliver regained consciousness. The doctor had mended and bandaged the blond as best he could, and told the men that the patient would either regain consciousness and likely live, or never awaken and certainly die.

            When Oliver did awaken, he was naturally alarmed to find himself surrounded by five Forresters. He was not reassured to discover that he was actually at their place. He had no idea how he'd gotten there, and no memory of the bear attack. But the bearded men were kind to him, and patient in their explanations. When they got to the point of asking him what he'd been doing out in the scrub, and fairly close to Forresters' Island besides, he admitted sheepishly that he'd been trying to visit the Baxters, but had gotten lost. He had avoided using the main road, for fear of encountering the Forresters, a plan that now seemed ironic in the extreme. Instead, he had cut through the dense scrub, and lost his bearings, missing Baxters' Island completely. The men laughed, but not unkindly, and with Mrs. Forrester there, changing a wet compress on his forehead and smoothing his damp hair aside, he was gradually reassured.

            But then his gaze darted about, taking quick silent inventory. "Where's Lem??" he asked anxiously.

            Mill-wheel grinned sardonically. "Well, Oliver, now that's right interestin', too. He set out a few days ago, goin' up the river, frettin' 'bout harm maybe comin' to that tormented gal Twink, and layin' for you."

            "Oh my god." Oliver closed his eyes in exhaustion and fright.

            Buck was quick to add, "But the good part o' that, is he was away when Arch carried you in."

            Oliver asked guardedly, "When you 'spect him back?"

            Buck grinned. "Whenever he gits tired o' not findin' you."

            Mill-wheel grinned broader. "And then he'll come home and find you where he least 'spects." His eyes twinkled in ironic amusement.

            "Oh lord," the sailor groaned. "I gotta git outta here!"

            "No," said Mrs. Forrester firmly. "Doc says you cain't be moved for quite awhiles. You'd git the bleedin' started up agin. He says you a'ready lost too much blood."

            "Don't fret," Buck said gently, "we'll protect you."

            As Oliver looked desperately hopeful, Mill-wheel added, "We'll not let him beat on you whilst you're ailin'."

            Oliver's expression of immense relief was quickly replaced by a new look of fear. "But after I'm healed??" he inquired timidly.

            "We'll leave you go. Unharmed," Arch assured him.

            Pack agreed, "We'd sure not make you go through all the mendin', only to mess you up agin right off."

            Oliver's relief was palpable. "Thank you!" was his heartfelt sigh.

            The men chuckled good-naturedly, and then left him alone to rest.

 

            The very next day, Lem returned, aggravated, frustrated, and in bad humor. As it happened, Buck, Mill-wheel, and Mrs. Forrester were in the bedroom with Oliver when Lem entered the cabin. Oliver instantly recognized the ominous sound of Lem's harsh voice. His body tensed dramatically, and his emotions seized up in fright, his hands clenching each other in anxiety across his bandaged chest.

            Buck patted those hands, and whispered, "You're safe here."

            To Buck's surprise, Oliver spasmodically grabbed Buck's comforting hand in one of his own, pleading, "Don't leave me!"

            "He cain't git past us. But you want I should stay here, 'stead o' goin' out with th'others to he'p dress Lem down?"

            Oliver nodded frantically.

            Mrs. Forrester elected to remain with the blond as well.

            Mill-wheel said, "Reckon I'll go out and join the fracas." He winked reassuringly at the injured sailor.

            He was not exaggerating. The quarrel in the main room was already getting loud. Arch, Pack, and Gabby had informed Lem of the presence, condition, and status of their "guest," and Lem was expressing his outrage in no uncertain terms.

            As Mill-wheel appeared from within Fodder-wing's former room, Lem's sharp eyes stabbed him, and the clean-shaven Forrester demanded, "He in there?!" At Mill-wheel's nod, Lem advanced toward the room.

            Mill-wheel caught Lem by the arms and restrained him. "You ain't goin' in there like this. You're gonna simmer down first."

            Lem cursed vividly.

            Arch demanded, "Now jest tell me, Lem, what you woulda done, did you come upon Oliver bein' tore apart by a bear, as Pack and me done?"

            Pack specified, "Would you've shot the bear?"

            Lem hesitated, and then reluctantly admitted, "Well, yeah, prob'ly. Cain't leave a bear git away with killin' a human. Even that un. But I'd not've toted Oliver here!"

            "You'd've left him there to die," Mill-wheel accused.

            "Yeah! Saved me the trouble o' killin' him! Or, iffen I'd had any doubt 'bout him dyin', likely I'd've finished him off myself!"

            "And you don't see nothin' unfair, inhuman even, in that??"

            "Don't keer. He'd be outta my way, permanent. 'Sides, even iffen you had to tote him some'eres, why the devil'd you tote him here, 'stead o' Baxters' Island? Leave them take keer of him; they think so much of him!"

            "'Cause our place was much closer! Doc said he barely survived the blood loss as 'twas."

            Lem harrumphed, clearly uncaring regarding Oliver's survival.

            In the bedroom, hearing all of this clearly, Oliver whimpered and clutched Buck's hand, as Mrs. Forrester gently stroked the soft blond hair and tsked at the words of her cruelest son.

            The quarrel raged back and forth for some time, but never quite degenerated into a fist fight.

            At last, Lem's roaring quieted down into a growling, and Mill-wheel and the others led Lem into the room. There was no chance of Lem getting at Oliver. Buck sat on the bed on the side nearer to the door, while Mrs. Forrester sat on the other side, closer to the window. Mill-wheel and the rest entered in a mob, with Lem in the center, surrounded by the group of them. Lem glared hatefully at Oliver, but he could do no more than frighten him.

            Oliver shied from the sight of the venom in Lem's eyes, but he managed to timidly implore, "Lem, please! I'm helpless here!"

            After a moment, Lem managed to grudgingly admit, "You are right tore up."

            Oliver fought back tears. "Please don't be riled they saved me. I don't never wanta fight you no more!" Unshed tears glistened on his eyelashes.

            Lem grunted at him, shook his head, and left the room.

            Oliver shivered, and said, "He's gonna come after me whilst you-all're sleepin'."

            Mrs. Forrester acknowledged to her sons, "That's a real danger."

            Mill-wheel nodded. "Buck and me'll fetch pallets, and sleep in here on either side of him.

            Oliver nodded desperately. "He might try to come in at me through the window!"

            Mill-wheel grinned grimly. "He tries that, he'll step on me, and then he will be in for it."

            Despite concerns, the night passed peacefully.

 

            The next morning, Mrs. Forrester told her sons, "His ma's gonna be gittin' right smart fretted by now."

            Oliver agreed, "She's likely tellin' herself I spent the night at the Baxters', but she'd sure 'spect me back home sometime today. She'd not guess 'bout the bear, but she might fear you-all done caught me somehow."

            "Reckon I best go fetch her here to you," concluded Buck.

            "And I'll fetch the Baxters for a visit," offered Mill-wheel.

            "Wait? What??" worried Oliver. "You're both leavin' me 'toncet???"

            Arch grinned at him, and indicated Pack and Gabby. "You figger we three ain't 'nough to guard you from Lem?"

            Sheepishly, Oliver murmured, "Course. Sorry. I've jest got so used to...."

            "Dependin' on us two," Buck finished for him, with a wide grin of his own. "We come a long way in a short time, ain't we, Oliver?"

            Oliver nodded, by now, his face beet-red with embarrassment. But the Forresters good-naturedly laughed it off, and two of them set out for their destinations.

 

            "Penny? Ory? Jody? You-all in there?" called Mill-wheel from astride his horse.

            They came out to greet him, but were astounded when they learned of his mission. They quickly hitched old Caesar to their wagon, and followed Mill-wheel to Forresters' Island, to console the injured Oliver in literally the last place they'd ever expected to find him.

 

            "Oliver?" wondered Ory, upon their arrival, "How come you to be lost deep in the scrub? You been to our place dozens o' times."

            "I was...avoidin' the main road," answered the invalid softly, averting his eyes.

            "Why??" Then the obvious answer hit her. "Oh!!" Discomfited by the awkward issue that she'd stumbled into, she blushed as she regarded the crooked smiles of the bearded Forrester men. All three Baxters had self-consciously nearly tiptoed past Lem, sitting alone and brooding, in the main room, and now Ory had inadvertently brought the awkwardness in here with them.

 

            "Mis' Hutto? You there? I come peaceable."

            She opened the door, but looked deeply suspicious. "What you want here?"

            "I come to fetch you to Oliver."

            Now, worry overcame her expression. "What happened? What you-all done??"

            "Saved him from a bear," Buck told her succinctly.

            That response was entirely unexpected. She blinked, and said, "What?"

            "Arch and Pack come up on Oliver bein' attacked by a bear. They shot him...." When she abruptly gasped, Buck hastily clarified, "The bear! They shot the bear."

            She sagged against the doorframe, clearly vacillating between being relieved at his clarification and irked at his previous unclear use of the word "him."

            Buck went on, "They toted him to our place...Oliver, not the bear...'cause it was closer'n Baxters'. We fetched the doc to him. He'll be awhiles healin'. We'll leave him go, peaceable, once he's mended. But we figgered you'd be bad fretted 'bout him by now."

            "I have been," she acknowledged.

            "Will you go with me? Kin you climb up behind me on the horse, iffen I free-up the stirrup? Now, you'll hafta hold onto me, so's not to fall off." He evidently realized that she would consider hanging onto a Forrester to be distasteful, and also likely wondered if she was still spry enough to clamber up onto his horse.

            Mrs. Hutto primly nodded a "yes" to both questions. They mounted up and rode away toward the scrub.

 

            Upon arrival at the Forresters', Mrs. Hutto hurried after Buck into the room where her son was convalescing. Ever-so-carefully, she bent and "gentle-hugged" Oliver, kissing his cheek, and exclaiming at how much of his midsection was bandaged. Only after she'd done all of that, and after Oliver had reassured her that he was not in excessive pain, did she turn and embrace the Baxters, one by one. Meanwhile, the big Forrester brothers, excepting Lem, had clustered into, or just outside of, the room to observe the reunion. Mrs. Hutto eyed them warily, and then made brief, awkward eye contact with Mrs. Forrester. The two old women nodded to each other stiffly.

            "Thank you for...keerin' for him," she said to the rough matriarch of the burly clan, "and for...fetchin' me to him," she added primly to Buck, who nodded back to her with a crooked smile, trying to suppress ironic amusement.

            Not thinking before he spoke, but trying to cover the quiet awkwardness, Jody remarked, "Gee, Oliver, you sure are havin' a rough year."

            Mildly irked at the careless reference to the fight, and now this injury, and right in front of the Forresters yet, Penny mildly cuffed his son, while Oliver groaned, "Jody!" and closed his eyes in discomfort and embarrassment.

            "Oops, sorry," Jody said contritely, with an uncomfortable glance at the Forrester men standing behind him.

            Several of the bearded men struggled mightily against the urge to guffaw.

            "My poor sweet boy!" Mrs. Hutto seated herself on the bed, to Oliver's left side; Mrs. Forrester was already seated to his right. Then, Mrs. Hutto, uncharacteristically meekly, asked Mrs. Forrester, "Kin I stay right here with him? Long's he's ailin'?"

            No one even bothered to state the obvious implied thought: ...and stand in the way of anyone who might wish to beat him; but everyone there knew that that was what she was thinking.

            Tolerantly, Mrs. Forrester simply answered, "Course." Then she waved a dismissive hand at her sons, and said, "You fellers git outen here. You're crowdin' us too much."

            The bearded men withdrew with a mild collective chuckle, and returned to the main room, to observe an especially sullen Lem.

            Buck spoke a low suggestion to Mill-wheel, who nodded approval. The two went and gathered the Forrester men's various musical instruments. An enthused Arch, Pack, and Gabby immediately joined in, and set upon an impromptu concert. Buck's idea had been aimed at cheering up Lem, and very gradually, it began to work. Ultimately, the clean-shaven Forrester took up his fiddle and joined in with them. But the performance was appreciated as well by Oliver and by those gathered around him in the bedroom. The Huttos, Penny, and Ory were positively stunned. But Jody was simply thrilled, having heard the men play once before, when he had stayed overnight with Fodder-wing, a full month even before the fight in Volusia.

            "I jest love it when they play!" Jody's eyes shone. At his parents' questioning looks, he explained when he'd been privileged to hear them previously.

            Oliver glanced in surprise at Mrs. Forrester, and said, "I sure didn't know you-all had your own band!"

            Even Mrs. Hutto found it to be toe-tappingly delightful, though she wasn't certain that she wanted to admit it.

            Jody grinned eagerly, and asked, "Pa, leave me go out there with 'em, and listen close up!"

            Penny didn't see any reason to deny Jody the request, and chose to ignore the doubt-filled, concerned expressions of Ory, Olivia, and Oliver.

 

            Presently, Buck entered, wearing a broad grin, and carrying a jug to pass around the group. To Ory's and Olivia's horror, Penny accepted a drink with gusto. He shrugged at his wife, but didn't let her disgust bother him. Buck tilted his head, looking a question at Oliver, and saying, "It might he'p ease your pain a mite." Oliver accepted, and Penny hastened to help prop up the tall blond long enough to help him drink, while Buck held the jug for him. Then, Buck handed a mug to his own mother, who accepted it gladly. Ory and Olivia tried to keep their mutual eye-rolling just to themselves. Then, Buck returned to the main room, and to his instrument.

 

            Suddenly, there was a piercing scream from the big room.

            "Jody!" Oliver cried in alarm.

            Ory and Olivia both gasped, "Ezra! Do somethin'!"

            Penny made a placating gesture, saying, "I'm sure it's nothin'! I'll find out." He rushed out to see.

             "Ain't what you're thinkin'," Mrs. Forrester assured the other two women and the patient. "Likely somethin' jest startled the young un."

            But then Penny cried from the main room, "Buck! What the hell?!"

            Ory and Olivia embraced each other in alarm, and Olivia cried, "Jody!!"

            "Oh lord," muttered Mrs. Forrester in annoyance, shaking her head at the mystery, and at the misery and fright on the faces of the other three people with her in the room. She rose from her perch on the side of the bed. "I'll go see."

            But before she could round the bottom corner of the bed, Penny returned, one hand held to his chest in clear relief, and the other hand gesturing to his wife and the two Huttos to simmer down and stop panicking. He explained, "Jody had plopped down on the floor to listen betwixt Buck and Mill-wheel. At some point, he shifted a mite, and sat right down on a splinter. A big un. It goed into his bottom. That's why the young un screamed."

            "Then why'd you yell, 'What the hell' at Buck?" wondered Mrs. Forrester.

            Penny looked apologetic. "Well, you kin imagine my shock, when I run in, to see that Jody was turned over Buck's knee, with his drawers off. Seems Buck was jest pullin' out the splinter."

            A rather smug Mrs. Forrester surveyed her visitors. It was hard to guess who appeared more sheepish and embarrassed amongst them.