That Maddening Man. Debrah Morris

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      Chapter Three

      While Jack steered the truck in and out of winding hairpin curves with practiced ease, Ellin fielded Lizzie’s questions and faked intense interest in the country landscape. Having spent her entire life within city limits, she was not accustomed to seeing nature as it was in northwestern Arkansas. Trees and gnarled underbrush flourished with in-your-face abandon just beyond the reach of highway brush-cutting crews.

      Brown and russet leaves carpeted the ground beneath winter-bare trees. Oaks, hickories and bois d’arcs stretched gray limbs toward the pale, cloudless sky. Tall pines and squat cedars splashed the drab hillsides with waves of green.

      Across the valley, the land rolled to the horizon in a crazy quilt of muted colors. Here and there, wispy columns of smoke spiraled from chimneys and flues and drifted lazily above the treetops.

      “How much longer?” Lizzie bounced on the seat, unable to contain her excitement.

      “Nearly there.” Jack flipped on the turn signal and angled off the highway onto a rocky track that wound through the trees. When they came to a heavy gate secured with a looped chain, he stopped, set the brake, and jumped out to release the padlock. The gate swung wide.

      “Holy-moley! Is this a road?” Ellin asked skeptically as the truck began its bone-jarring climb up the hill.

      “Actually it’s an old dry stream bed.” He explained the property belonged to his sister and brother-in-law who’d given him permission to cut a tree from an upland meadow. “They had the bed leveled to make it easier to get in and out.”

      “You call this level?” Ellin braced her hand against the dash. “And easier?”

      “For these parts, it is.” Jack drove carefully. He didn’t want to blow a tire or knock the front wheels out of alignment. “Jana and Ted drive SUVs,” he said. “They don’t have any trouble getting up to Crazy Bear Holler.”

      “Crazy Bear Holler?” Lizzie giggled. “That’s a silly name.”

      “It is, isn’t it?” Jack grinned down at the little girl. “But back in the 1800s a mean old bear terrorized the homesteads around here. The men tried tracking it down with dogs, but they couldn’t find his trail.”

      “’Cause it was a crazy bear,” Lizzie put in.

      “That’s right.” Jack went on in his storyteller voice. “That bear caused a lot of trouble. Then one morning, a settler’s wife caught him raiding her chicken coop.”

      “What did she do?” Lizzie’s eyes widened.

      “Well, she didn’t like it one bit that he was stealing her chickens. So she grabbed up the shotgun and filled his ornery old hide full of buckshot. He ran off and no one ever saw him again.”

      “Good for her.” Ellin smiled at him over Lizzie’s head. “Never underestimate the wrath of a ticked-off pioneer woman.”

      Jack laughed. “Or any woman, for that matter. That’s always been my policy.”

      “Oh, I get it,” Lizzie said. “It’s called Crazy Bear Holler ’cause the lady made the crazy bear holler.”

      Careful not to discount the little girl’s conclusion, he explained that in Arkansas, the valleys between hills were known as hollows, but most people called them hollers.

      “Does your sister’s family live out here?” Ellin’s tone clearly expressed her opinion of extreme living.

      “No. They have a place in town. They plan to build a house here later, when the kids are older. Laurel’s just a year old and they have a boy almost five.”

      “What’s his name?” Lizzie asked.

      “Colton. Maybe you’d like to play with him sometime.”

      “I might,” she allowed. “Does he like princesses?”

      “I’m sure he does.”

      “Does your sister work?” asked Ellin.

      Jack nodded. “According to Jana, all mothers work. Besides taking care of the kids and the house, she has a bookkeeping and accounting business.”

      “Are her children in day care?”

      “She leaves them with a lady in town. Mrs. Kendall.”

      “I’ll need a sitter for Lizzie,” Ellin said. “Ida Faye was planning to watch her, but that’s out of the question for the time being. Do you think your sister would recommend someone?”

      “I’ll СКАЧАТЬ