Shiloh Season Read Free

little sliver of ham still stuck to it.
    After he gets it, though, Dara Lynn has to go through her hugging business, and Shiloh puts up with that, too.
    12
    "How's my wittle Shiloh-biloh-wiloh?" she sings, picking him up in her arms like a baby. He washes her face clean with his tongue, 'specially the corners of her mouth where there's still the flavor of lunch.
    Too disgusting to watch, you want the truth, so I go on up to the house and Dara Lynn comes after.
    On this day Becky's on the porch swing playing airplane or boat, either one. Looks maybe like she's playing boat, 'cause she's got a string hanging down over the side, like she's fishing.
    When I get in the house, Ma's on the phone with Dad's sister over in Clarksburg. First time we've had a telephone in three years. Ever since Grandma Preston's mind started to go, Aunt Hettie had to have a nurse come in while she was at work to watch Grandma all the time. It was Dad who paid for that nurse, every spare cent we had.
    Last month, though, Grandma Preston had a stroke, and what little sense she had left all but went. Not only that, but her kidneys failed. Got a bad hip so she can't get in and out of bed no more by herself, and Aunt Hettie was up half the night with her, still trying to work days.
    "Your mother needs more care than you can give her," the doctor says finally to Aunt Hettie, so Dad drove down, and he and Aunt Hettie put Grandma in a nursing home.
    Weird thing is, though, long as we were all trying to care for Grandma Preston ourselves-Aunt Hettie doing the work and Dad sending the money-we didn't get any help. Now that Grandma Preston's in a nursing home, not one penny -to her name, the government pays for the nursing home and Dad says we can afford a telephone again and a few other things we've had to do without.
    Dara Lynn and I sit down at the table, taking turns
    13
    easing our hands into a box of graham crackers and listening to Ma.
    "She did, Hettie? Oh, land, what next?" Ma's saying. Becky comes in and we give her a cracker. But soon as Ma's off the phone, I say, "What happened?"
    Ma shakes her head. "I want the three of you to promise that I ever get to acting crazy, you'll remember me the way I am now."
    Dara Lynn gets this gleam in her eye. "I'U remember you acting crazy!" she says.
    "What'd Grandma do?" I ask. "How much trouble can she get into when she's in a wheelchair?"
    Ma sighs. "She's been wheeling herself into other people's rooms uninvited. Men's rooms. She's got it in her head that Grandpa Preston's still alive and they're hiding him somewhere."
    Becky stares, but Dara Lynn laughs out loud, and it's all I can do not to grin.
    "Aunt Hettie's afraid if Grandma don't behave herself, they'll put her out, but those nurses know what to do. They understand."
    Nice thing about a telephone is it helps you make plans. Before, when I wanted to say something to David Howard, I'd have to give the message to Dad, and Dad would tell it to David when he put the mail in their box. Then I'd have to wait all day for Dad to get home to find out what David said.
    Now when the phone rings, everybody wants to answer. Becky, when she gets there first, puts her mouth right up to the phone and says in this tiny little voice, "Hi, I'm Becky and I'm three years old and ... and I have a dog." Somethin'
    14
    like that. You almost have to sit on her to wrestle that telephone out of her hand.
    The phone rings again and I answer. It's David.
    "Why don't you stay at my house Friday night and I'll stay at yours on Saturday?" he says.
    I ask Ma. She says yes, if I be sure my socks and underwear are clean.
    So Friday of that week, I put my toothbrush in my pencil case before I leave for school, and when Shiloh follows Dara Lynn and me down to the end of the driveway, I'm thinking how when the bus gets back that afternoon, I'm not going to be on it.
    I kneel down in the grass beside my dog.
    "Listen, Shiloh," I say. "I'm not comin' back tonight. I'm staying over with David