December 1, 1965
Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. Thanksgiving was last Thursday. We had turkey and thank goodness, Aunt Love hasn't forgotten how to make dressing. Leigh made some kind of cranberry salad. I pretended to like it, but I would have rather just had the jelly roll of cranberry sauce from the can. Don't tell Leigh that!
Then Aunt Love said we had to have pumpkin pie. Don't ask me why. Maybe because everybody at church has a bumper crop of pumpkins and they are all giving them to Dad. I told Aunt Love that nobody expected us to actually EAT them. Just set them on the porch for decoration, but Aunt Love says she lived through the Depression years and believes in "waste not, want not." Sigh.
I guess I just should be glad the folks out at church have apples too. Aunt Love made an extra pie crust and let Tabitha and me peel apples to make a deep dish apple pie. Now that's a pie I can be thankful for.
Dad preached on being thankful again on Sunday. He says a person should be thankful every day for his or her blessings and not just think he can throw up a thank you one day a year. He says a person should have a thankful heart all the time. He stopped preaching right in the middle of the sermon time and asked people out in the pews to say why they were thankful. Out loud. In church. Sort of surprised everybody, but Miss Sally stood up and said she was thankful for her church family and after that other people got over being shy and spoke up too. I even stood up and said I was thankful that my dog prayer and my sister prayer were answered. I figured everybody would laugh at that. Some of them did, but if you've read my story in Scent of Lilacs, you know what I mean.
Even after we came home, I thought about reasons I should be thankful. Most of all, of course, is Dad. I don't know what I'd do without Dad. Then there's Wes and Tabitha and Stephen and Aunt Love, even if she is cross with me most of the time, and Leigh and Miss Sally and all the people at church. Well, most of them anyway. And my friends at school. Plus there's Zeb, my dog, and Cat at the office. Okay, maybe even Zella. Gee, I don't know about that. I'm pretty sure Zella isn't saying she's thankful for me!
What are your reasons for being thankful?
I guess I should say I'm thankful for my story about Bailey. It's fun to figure out a story and write it down.
BAILEY'S BUG by Jocie Brooke
(Continued from last week. The whole story so far is under the Bailey's Bug tab up top.)
[Last week, Bailey just asked Lucinda if she wanted to go home without finding their boy.]
Lucinda opened her left eye. "I said I'd go with you to find Reid. But I'm not joining up with any circus where I have to ride on your back and act like an idiot."
"Skelley and I were just talking about the circus. I wasn't going to join one." Bailey tilted his head a little and added. "Unless Reid did. Do you think he might have joined a circus?"
"Dogs." Lucinda groaned and turned her back to Bailey. "I don't know why I put up with them."
"She'll feel better after she's rested a wee bit," Skelley whispered. "As will we all."
Bailey settled down and tried to sleep, but either the bulldozer monster was rumbling toward him or he was tumbling through hoops with cheers echoing in his ears. Finally he put his paw over his head and blocked out everything but the hum. The hum and Reid. At last he dozed off.
When Skelley nudged him awake, it was near dark. They nosed around the park and found a sack with some crusts of bread and a hot dog.
By the time they got to the big road, it was very late. Cars zoomed first one direction, then the other. Their lights made flashing trails in the dark.
Bailey felt a little shaky inside. "There's still a lot of them."
"Aye, that there is." Skelley's head turned back and forth watching the cars. "For a truth, we'll have to pick our times and be mighty careful, but if we want to get to another state we have to go across this road."
"What's over there on the other side?" Bailey peered across the road. He couldn't see any lights past the cars.
"Can't say for sure. Never actually been across this road before, but looks to be country, pure and simple. Nothing that looks like a town," Skelley said. "What about you, Miss Lucinda? You know about the far lands?"
Lucinda stepped up beside them. "I like towns with nice houses and windows full of sunshine. Not country."
"Country," Bailey said. "I met a dog once who was from the country. He was forever talking about how great it was to run in the fields chasing rabbits. He wasn't happy his people moved to the city."
"I suppose country suits some well enough," Skelley said. "But there be no trashcans and but few houses. I've even heard tell of strange animals that don't take kindly to them who cross their paths."
"I can't believe our people would live in that kind of place." Lucinda looked at Bailey. "Are you sure your bug is pointing you in the right direction?"
All of the sudden, Bailey wavered. The land on the other side of the road was dark. He'd never seen dark like that. It was easy to imagine those strange animals lurking behind trees waiting to jump out at them with gnashing teeth. Something maybe worse than the lions and tigers Skelley knew in the circus.
Bailey's feet were sore and his neck hurt. He wanted a full bowl of crunchy dog food instead of bits of bread and nearly empty cans to lick. Over there in the dark country, there might not even be that to eat. His stomach growled and he sat down to think things through.
Skelley sat down beside him. "Never a mistake to mull things over a bit. Me master used to say it wasn't any good rushing into things. That has to be especially true with that thing is crossing a river of cars."
Lucinda made a noise of agreement as her tail twitched back and forth like the pendulum of a clock. Bailey figured she was thinking about the sun in the windows back at their old house.
He sort of wished he was curled up on his bed there too as the cars swooshed past, their wind ruffling his ears. A great huge truck, bigger even than the bulldozer monster, lumbered over the hill. The ground shook under Bailey as it barreled past. He could never stop one of those.
But even worse than the cars and trucks was the dark in the far country. Just thinking about what might be in that dark sent a shiver through Bailey.
He stood up and gave a shake like he'd just had a bath. All of the sudden, the hum that he hadn't been able to hear while he thought about the dark began sounding in his ears louder than ever. His feet tingled and his heart bounced around inside his chest the way it did when Reid called him. He couldn't stop now. Even if he had to go into the dark far lands by himself.
(To be continued.)
November 24, 1965
Jocie
Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky where as usual NOTHING
is happening. Well, the sun comes up in the morning and goes down at night if that counts. Plus there's school, but that's the same old same old every day. Get up. Catch the bus. Ride forever. Have homeroom. Go to
classes and try to stay awake to listen to the teachers. Ignore boys doing silly stuff.
Sneak time to talk to friends. Ride the bus home. Do homework that steals any time to read or write. Go to bed and get up the
next morning when the sun comes up to do it all again. Sigh.
Dad says I should be thankful. That the same old same old is good. He says I should be counting my blessings instead of complaining and wishing for something that I might be sorry happened. He said he remembers wishing for something to happen and then something did. The war. The next thing he knew he was far from Hollyhill and wishing, even dreaming that he could be home with the same old same old happening to him each day.
I guess he's right. I mean Dad's always right. He's a preacher. He has to think about what's right and what's not all the time. And then figure out a way to tell the people at church. I guess I sometimes give him inspiration on those sermons because last Sunday he preached about Adam and Eve and how Eve was bored with her same old same old in the Garden of Eden. She shut her eyes to all the blessings around her and just wanted something different. Then along came the serpent with his temptation basket of apples to upend her world.
That's not exactly the way Dad told it. His version sounded more Biblical and sermony. But I heard the lesson he was preaching right at me. When I told him that, he laughed and said he wasn't preaching at me directly. He was simply delivering the sermon the Lord laid on his heart and that if I felt like the words were for me, then that was the Lord's doing too. That's how sermons are supposed to work. How the Lord intends things.
It did work. I'm thinking about my blessings this week. Guess that's a good thing since Thanksgiving is this week. Wes will come to dinner and Miss Sally and Leigh. Leigh will come early to help us cook and Miss Sally is bringing pies. Pecan and pumpkin. I can't wait. So maybe this week won't be the same old same old. All week I'll keep count of things to be thankful for and maybe write about that next week.
Wonder if Bailey is wishing for some of his same old same old instead of having to face off bulldozer monsters. But then he has to find his boy. Here's what happened next.
Bailey's Bug by Jocie Brooke
(Continued from last week. The full story up to now can be found under the Bailey Bug link in the menu up top.)
CHAPTER 8
Bailey pointed the direction with his nose and Skelley let them through alleys and twisting short cuts that kept them away from the streets choked with roaring and honking cars.
Even with their roar, the cars weren't so scary to Bailey now. After all, he'd faced down with a bulldozer monster. When one zoomed up close to them, he stood his ground and barked to warn it away.
"They aren't so big." Bailey looked around at Lucinda and Skelley when it honked and then went on past. "Not like that bulldozer."
"True enough,lad." Skelley bumped Bailey's side with his head to push him back from the road. "That bulldozer was a mighty masher, but these others have plenty of mashing power of their own. Besides, they're speedier than the bulldozer. It's best we don't tangle with either one."
Lucinda growled and swiped her paw at Bailey's nose. "Dogs! Stop one bulldozer and you think you're invincible."
She walked away, her tail high in the air. Bailey and Skelley followed her. They walked and walked until their feet were sore. Here and there they knocked over a trashcan to find a bite or two of food.
At last they came to a park with a big pond of water and nice big boulders around it. Lucinda stretched out on top of the rocks in the sun and went right to sleep while Bailey and Skelley settled down in the shade below her.
Skelley said if they kept going the way Bailey pointed, they would run into some big highways with rivers of cars.
"Best to wait for the dark of night to try crossing them. While they never really stop, the car rivers slow some at night. Makes crossing a bit safer."
"Are we safe here?" The high pitched scream of one of those cars with flashing lights sounded nearby.
Skelley looked around. "A dog on his own is never entirely safe, but it appears nobody much is around to take notice of us. So we should be fine for a spell."
Bailey rested his head on his paw. His neck still hurt, but he guessed it was good he had a neck to hurt after the tussle with the bulldozer.
To keep from thinking about his neck or how far they still needed to go, Bailey looked at the old dog and asked, "Have you been on your own a long time, Skelley?"
"It seems so. Not sure how long. Lost count of the months some time back."
"I'm sorry." Bailey thought about Reid and how good it would be to see him again.
"For a truth, I miss me master." Skelley sighed. "But I have me memories of him and I've made my way." The old dog laid his paw gently on the painted stick.
"Did that belong to him?" Bailey sniffed the end of the stick. "Is it a circus stick?"
"Ye could call it that, I suppose. Me master used it when we were out in the ring doing our tricks. He'd tap it on the hoops I was to jump through or point it toward me when I'd done a trick so the folks would clap."
"Did they clap a lot?"
The old dog's eyes got a dreamy, faraway look. "That they did, Bailey lad. That they did. Folks are different when they come to the circus. Ready to laugh and have fun. For a truth the circus is a fine place when the show is going on."
"Were there clowns and lions?" Bailey tried to remember the things Reid had talked about when he came home from the circus.
"That and more. Clowns that made the little tykes laugh and lions that made them gasp. The Martino family flew through the air on trapezes and leaped from one to another. Our elephant, Anne Marie was her name. She could balance on one foot and stand on her head. Aye, it was grand, it was."
"I'd like that. To be in a circus."
Lucinda raised her head up to look down at him. "What trick would you do? You remember when Reid tried to get us to do that awful trick after he'd been to the circus." Lucinda shuddered. "You couldn't even make two circles with me on your back without falling on your face."
"Miss Lucinda has a point. A dog has to know some tricks to be in a circus. All the animals do. Even the lions and tigers jumped through hoops and sat on stools. Snarling to be sure, but they did it. Very exciting it was too."
"I'm not too good at tricks." Bailey thought about the plastic toy that he could fetch and brightened. "But I can make people laugh. I could be a clown dog."
"That I can believe." Lucinda snorted and lay her head back down on the rock. "But if you're going to join a circus, tell me now so I can head back to the Robinsons' house."
"Do you want to go back, Lucinda?" Bailey sat up and waited for her to open her eyes. "If you do, maybe you should go now. Because we're not going to get there before night again. I think it's still a long way to wherever Reid is."
(To be continued.
