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Chapter Two
1937
I once saw Natalie Jarvis strike out 16 high school baseball players in
a row. She was 13 years old. Natalie could make a ball dip, dive, float, and
dance. She could throw so hard that the ball actually whistled. She had
names for her pitches. Her favorite was called the Virnett sod buster, a
deceptively slow pitch that left the mound shoulder high, rising slowly like
an overweight Zeppelin to heights of seven feet or more before dropping like
a lead snowball inches from the plate, as the frustrated batter swung at
nothing but air. The pitch was named after Virnett Jackie Mitchell, a
nineteen year old woman, who had struck out the Babe and Lou Gehrig back
in 1931 during an exhibition game in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
We were in the midst of the Great Depression in 1933. Franklin
Roosevelt would reassure us with his fireside chats, and radio was our chief
source of entertainment. Our town was luckier than most. William Preston, a
wealthy entrepreneur, had opened a factory that manufactured electrical
cable. Many homes were still without electricity in the 30’s, but America
was modernizing and quickly; even as the bread lines increased. Preston was
one of the few men who had enough foresight to develop a product that
actually sold well during these troubling times. He had also built a movie
theatre, a rarity for such a small town in northeast Ohio. He kept admission
prices low and the people were grateful since the country was starved for
entertainment to escape the realities of a dismal economy and lack of work.
My father worked for Mr. Preston, as I would some day. Little did I
know that I would work for him so soon enough.
I was 10 years old in 1933. It was summer, and the woes of the nation
seemed far away to most of us whose father’s still had jobs. My best friend
was Harvey Wallace, a chubby, clumsy, good-natured boy who I had known
as far back as I could remember. We were like brothers, inseparable, and I
tolerated no nonsense about him being teased. I wasn’t really a fighter, and I
certainly was no huge physical specimen, but I was very loyal, and I would
have fought like a trapped badger to protect Harvey from mean spiritedness.
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I too, had noticed that along with a book, Natalie was carrying a
brown paper bag.
“I don’t know, but keep quiet,” I hissed, as she disappeared around a
bend in the trail. We hurried to catch up, and as we rounded the bend were
shocked to see Natalie waiting for us in the middle of the trail. She had an
angry look on her face and looked completely unafraid of us. I noticed that
she had dropped her book and the paper sack and that she held a couple of
good-sized rocks in each hand.
“Why are you following me?” she demanded.
I felt Harvey’s eyes staring at me and I realized he expected me to answer.
“W…what are you doing back here?” I stammered. “Girl’s don’t play back
here. It’s for boys only.”
Natalie rolled her eyes and smirked. “Do you own these woods?” she
asked.
I shrugged.
“That’s what I thought. You’re lucky you didn’t get hurt following
somebody around like a criminal,” she added, tossing one of the rocks up
and down in her hand, almost like a warning.
I looked at her incredulously; then glanced over at Harvey, who
looked so nervous, I snorted, despite myself.
“Sure laugh now. But you’re lucky I knew who you were or I might of
hurt you.”
Now I was beginning to think that maybe this girl was as crazy as her
mother was rumored to be. Heck, maybe the whole family was off their
rocker. Although she looked to be as tall as both of us, maybe even taller, she
probably weighed half of what we weighed, and here she was acting like she
was some kind of Amazon warrior. Everyone knew girls couldn’t throw, so
the rock she kept tossing up and down in her hand in what she seemed to
perceive as a open threat only made me want to burst into laughter, and I
grinned, trying to stifle my mirth since the girl seemed very serious. Harvey,
finally getting over the shock of this preposterous damsel with an attitude,
began to snicker while trying to cover his mouth.
I saw a quick flash of anger cross Natalie’s face and she glanced
around spying an old tree fort about 100 feet away. There was a piece of
corrugated tin roofing nailed to the side of the abandoned fort.
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With a speed that shocked me, I watched Natalie hurl the first rock at
the fort where it hit with a loud bang. Before we could even turn to look at
her in amazement the second rock followed, striking the old tin roofing in
almost the exact same spot. Both stones had left visible dents showing that
not only was this skinny girl deadly accurate, but also powerful.
Our jaws dropped as we stared at this strange girl who met our eyes
proudly, almost defiantly. I had played baseball many times and I knew for a
fact that from that distance I would be lucky to hit the target 5 out of 10
times, and only if I didn’t try to throw it as hard as I could, which always
messed up my accuracy.
“Where’d you learn to throw like that?” I asked, amazed at what I had
just witnessed. Harvey just kept staring in silence, his eyes going from the
dented tin back to Natalie, his mouth still wide open.
Natalie suddenly seemed shy. It was as if a roaring fire had been
doused with a pail of water. She shrugged her shoulders. “I could always
throw good,” she said softly. “I like baseball.”
I didn’t know what to make of this girl. We all stood there in awkward
silence for what seemed like an eternity.
“What are you reading?” I asked, just to break the silence, pointing
towards the book on the ground.
Natalie hurriedly picked up the book and the paper sack.
“It’s called Les Miserables.”
“It’s called what?” I asked.
“It means the miserable ones or something like that. It’s French, but
it’s in English, kind of like the Count Of Monte Cristo we had to read in
class last year. It’s about a man and he’s been in prison and he’s trying to be
good after he gets out and he has a daughter only she’s not really his because
he saved her from bad people and there’s a policeman who’s really mean and
he wants to catch him only he didn’t’ really do anything bad and…”
Natalie stops to take a breath, clearly a little embarrassed almost as if
she isn’t used to talking that much. The defiant warrior of 10 minutes ago
seems shy and tentative now and I don’t know what to make of her, but I’m
completely fascinated. Harvey still hasn’t said a word. He just stands there
staring like a deaf mute.
Natalie looks around, almost nervously, as if she doesn’t know what to
do next. She finally holds up the paper sack.
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These were plants I was unfamiliar with and although I could not
follow what this strange woman was saying due to her thick accent and
broken English, it appeared that she was trying to either sell or trade these
mysterious plants. Mr. Thompson, normally a pretty amiable sort, had
repeatedly pushed the small bundles back towards the woman, shaking his
head and saying, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t use these. Try Doc Renfro. He
may have some use for them.”
Apparently this must have been going on for several minutes before I
arrived because the woman gave an exasperated sigh, said something loudly
in a foreign tongue and began gathering her roots and leaves, thrusting into a
battered leather bag. Small clumps of dirt and pieces of plant remained on
the counter and I watched Mr. Thompson reach for a brush and rag to wipe
the counter clean as the woman closed her bag and turned to look at me,
possibly thinking I might be interested in her wares. I nearly fell down as I
stepped back quickly in shock. A deep ragged scar snaked from above her
left eye down to the middle of her cheek. The eye itself was milky white, the
sagging eyelid, which nearly covered it, devoid of eyelashes. But more
frightening to me than this terrible scar and the eye it failed to conceal was
the one eye the woman had left that still appeared to work. An eye so black
that one could not tell where the pupil ended and the iris began and staring at
me with an intensity that made me want to run right out of the store and go
hide in my bed until my father came home. I could not tell how old she was.
She might have been 40…she might have been 60…it was difficult to tell.
Her eyes were like a magnet and when I later tried to recall her features to
my friends, it was only the eyes I could honestly describe.
The rest of my description changed with every telling depending on
how rapt or scared my audience appeared to be at that time. I do remember
her turning back to Mr. Thompson that day; who had finished cleaning the
mess she had left on his counter. She had raised her left hand almost in a
dismissive gesture as if she had been the one to turn him away and not vice
versa. As if she were summoning demons from hell, she shouted in a
melodramatic voice, “Tank you for nuting.”
She quickly stormed out. I craned my neck to see where she was
going as I set the coffee on the counter and Mr. Thomson, who could see I
was still a bit shaken by the sight of her ruined face explained, “That’s Alma,
no need to be scared of her. She’s an odd bird but she won’t hurt you.”
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“Is it true that she keeps her deformed husband locked in a cage and
that he has fangs and that he escaped once and tried to kill her?”
“That’s how she got the scar!” I piped in, tracing the location of
Alma’s terrible scar on my own face with my finger.
Natalie stared incredulously at us both before bursting into laughter.
“Alma’s not that kind of witch!” she crowed. “I don’t even think witches like
that exist anymore if they ever did at all.”
Sensing our uncertainty, Natalie had once again reverted to the brave
invincible girl of the forest and by now she had us both in the palm of her
hand. She lowered her voice mysteriously.
“Alma can make birds land in her hand to eat, and she can make
powders and salves that cure warts and all kinds of stuff. Look at this.”
Natalie hiked up her pants revealing a bony knee. We both drew closer to
examine her.
“I don’t see anything,” I declared, staring at her leg which even
though it was skinny showed lean stringy muscle.
“I admired her calf, and wondered why my own calves didn’t have
better definition. After all I was one of the fastest runners in the 5th grade.
“I don’t see anything,” declared Harvey.
“Exactly!” replied Natalie, her dark eyes shining, as she smiled at us.
“I had the worst case of poison oak you ever saw 3 days ago and Alma gave
me some salve she made out of plants to rub on it and it’s all gone…just like
magic. Way better than that stuff they sell for a quarter at Thompson’s that
dries out your skin and makes it itch worst.
“Ain’t you scared going there alone?” asked Harvey. What if she’s
trying to trick you or something?”
“Did she teach you to throw like that?” I added, still a little miffed at
knowing a girl my age could throw better than me.
“No and No,” said Natalie. “Alma’s nice. All those stories you heard
are just stupid. People in this town talk too much sometimes and they talk
about things that aren’t any of their business.”
I could see that Natalie was getting angry again and I wondered if this
had something to do with her father, when suddenly just as if someone had
thrown a light switch, she smiled. I don’t know what it was, but something
about the way she smiled at that second made me really like her, made me
even trust her.
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I was completely captivated by this skinny wisp of a girl who seemed
so confident, yet vulnerable at the same time, and who would certainly be a
source of adventure in our humdrum town.
“Wanna come with me to meet Alma?” she grinned.
I looked at Harvey, who seemed a little worried.
“Don’t tell me you’re still scared?” teased Natalie.
I have to admit that I was a little frightened at the time, but there was
no way I was going to admit it, and besides I was beginning to sense that
Natalie knew what she was talking about, that we could trust her. Minutes
before I was ready to call her a liar. One poison sumac story and a smile later
and I was ready to follow her anywhere. Such is the inconstancy of boys. It
was as if she were no longer a stranger, and even though we knew very little
about her, we couldn’t help but to agree to accompany her. We were boys
and boys are curious even when it’s dangerous. Boredom was an everyday
part of our life and Natalie was offering us excitement.
“Can I see the cat, Natalie”? I asked, fascinated, as most boys are to
all things dead.
Natalie’s face clouded over. “Call me Nat. Nobody calls me Natalie.”
Harvey grinned. “Show us the cat, Nat!” he declared, and we all
laughed. I looked with excitement into the sack, half expecting to see a evil
looking monstrosity, with it’s eyes bugging out, and maybe froth and blood
around it’s mouth. But it was just an old Tabby with its eyes closed and the
tip of it’s tongue protruding from the side of its mouth, and except for
looking a little stiff and scrunched up from being in the sack, it might have
been sleeping. It wasn’t even black.
We set off through the woods with Nat in the lead and it made me
think of a story I had read in history class about some French girl who had
led armies to battle. Nat stopped us after a time. She pointed up to a nest in
the treetops ahead.
“There’s an old crow that lives in that nest and I think it’s crazy or
something because it tries to swoop down on your head if you hang around
too long, so I usually just run past it as quick as I can so I don’t get pecked,
okay?”
“Can’t you just kill it with a rock?” I asked, secretly wanting to see
her perform again, only this time against a live moving target.
Natalie pursed her lips. “I tried once and almost got pecked by him.
And those birds got beaks that can tear an animal apart so I’m not really
partial to trying again.”
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