Mercy Read Free

you?”
    “I don’t know what you mean, Daddy.”
    “Is the work too hard for you to do?”
    She giggled as though he’d just made a joke. “Oh, no. It’s awful easy, and sometimes I get bored because I get it all done too soon, and I have to sit there and wait until Miss Perine can find something else for me to do. Some of the kids are just now learning how to read, but I’ve been reading since I was little. Remember?”
    He smiled. “I remember when you started in reading the paper to me while I shaved. You pretty much taught yourself.”
    “No, I didn’t. You taught me the letters.”
    “But you put them together pretty much on your own. All I did was read to you. You picked it up quick. Took to it like a duck . . .”
    “To water,” she ended.
    “That’s right, sugar. Tell me why you don’t like Miss Perine. Is it because you have to wait on her?”
    “No.”
    “Well, then?”
    “She wants to send me away,” she blurted. Tears flooded her eyes, and her voice trembled. “Doesn’t she, Daddy? She told me she wants to make you send me away to a different school where I won’t know anybody.”
    “Now, you ought to know nobody’s gonna make your daddy do anything he doesn’t want to do, but this Miss Perine . . . well, now, she got me started in thinking.”
    “She’s a busybody. Don’t you pay her any mind.”
    Jake shook his head. His little girl had just turned one of his favorite sayings back on him. When her brothers teased her, he always told her not to pay them any mind.
    “Your teacher says you’ve got a real high IQ.”
    “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
    “There isn’t anything wrong with being smart, but Miss Perine thinks we ought to figure a way to get you the best education we can. She thinks you can make something of yourself. I never considered it before, but I guess it isn’t written in stone that you’ve got to get married and have babies lickety-split. Maybe this family has been setting our sights too low.”
    “Maybe so, Daddy.”
    He knew from her tone of voice that she was attempting to placate him.
    “But I don’t want anything to change,” she added then.
    “I know you don’t,” he said. “You know your mama would want us to do the right thing.”
    “Is Mama smart?”
    “Oh, my, yes. She sure is.”
    “She got married and had babies lickety-split.”
    Lord, his girl was bright, all right. And how come it took a brand-new teacher to make him realize it?
    “That’s because I came along and swept her off her feet.”
    “’Cause you were irresistible. Right?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Maybe you ought to have a talk with Mama before you make up your mind about sending me away. She might know what you’re supposed to do.”
    He was so shocked by what she’d just said, he jerked. “You know I like to talk things over with your mama?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “How could you know?”
    She smiled up at him, her eyes shining. “’Cause sometimes you talk out loud. It’s okay, Daddy. I like to talk things over with Mama too.”
    “All right, then. Tomorrow, when we go visit your mama, we’ll both talk this over with her.”
    She started splashing her feet in the water. “I think she’s gonna tell me I should stay home with you and Remy and John Paul.”
    “Now, listen here —”
    “Daddy, tell me how you and Mama met. I know you’ve told me the story hundreds of times, but I never get tired of hearing it.”
    They had veered off the subject, and he knew his daughter had done it on purpose. “We aren’t talking about your mama and me now. We’re talking about you. I want to ask you an important question. Put your fishing pole down and pay attention.”
    She did as he said and waited with her hands folded in her lap. She was such a little lady, he thought to himself, and how in thunder had that happened living with three lumbering mules?
    “If you could be anything in the world, anything at all, what do you suppose you’d be?” She was making a