The Turning of the Year: (Part IV of a Novella)

Abstract

FICTION The Turning of the Year (Part IV of a Novella) Gurney Norman 22. Through her kitchen window Aunt Mag sees Wade walking across the yard to greet Howard and Betsy. Behind them she sees Wade playing in that same yard when he was a boy. And herself, when she was a child, playing in that same yard. She sees her mother hanging clothes on the line next to the washhouse. She sees her father coming out of the barn carrying a zinc bucket half-filled with milk he has just taken from the cow. When the cats meet him at the corner of the washhouse, her father pours them a dash of milk in the wooden bowl in the grass at the base of the pawpaw tree. She sees her husband and some of the neighbor men pitching horseshoes by the chopping block. Nearby is the coal pile, where Mag herself at the age of seven is filling a bucket with small lumps for the morning fire in the cookstove in the kitchen. Mag sees her grandparents, her mother's people, old Frank and Juliette, walking up the lane in their Sunday clothes. She sees her brother Bob pulling an engine out of his Ford car with a block and tackle mounted on a tripod made of logs. She sees her mother and father sitting under the silver maple in the yard, stringing beans and talking quietly. Then she sees a large group ofwell-dressed people, solemnly walking across the yard toward her house. They enter her house and gather around the bed where Mag lies silent and still. Mag's eyes are closed but she sees them looking down at her form. Their separate stories converge in Mag's thinking as she says you are your own descendants, and so am I, swimming in water, falling through air. As Wade shakes hands with Betsy, Mag feels the spark between them. "We've come to get our Christmas trees, Wade," Howard says heartily . "Have you got any left?" Gurney Norman is a writerfrom Hazard, Kentucky. This is thefinal installment of his novella. "Aw, there might be a thousand or two out yonder in the grove," Wade answers. Mag watches Wade lead the visitors through the woods to the pine grove where he has marked two trees about seven feet tall. Howard and Wade slide the crosscut saw back and forth until the first tree falls. Betsy takes Howard's place with the saw and helps Wade move it back and forth through the soft pine wood until the second tree is cut. Howard carries his tree on his shoulder. Betsy and Wade carry hers together through the woods back to their station wagon at the edge of the yard. "Did you get you some trees?" Mag asks as she shakes hands first with Betsy and then with Howard. "Oh yes," says Howard. "Wade picked us two real pretty ones." "Mom and Dad planted them trees while I was off in the army," says Wade. "Mom used to sell 'em, back when she was young." "I did a lot when I was young," Mag laughs. "Can't do much anymore ." "Sure you can," says Wade. "Come on outside, breathe this good air. It's real pretty today." Mag pretends to resist but actually she is glad ofthe invitation. Wade drapes his heavy coat around his mother's shoulders and helps her out the door and down the cold stone steps. "Whoop!" says Mag with a big grin on her ancient face. "It's sweet, all right!" Her expression is so alive with delight in being outside in the weather, Howard and Betsy and Wade all notice it and trade grins and glances in appreciation. "You show Betsy around, Wade," Mag says as she starts back up the steps. Howard helps her inside as Wade and Betsy walk out across the yard toward the fence and the field beyond. "So how's your woman, Howard?" Aunt Mag asks when they have seated themselves in the living room before the fire. "What's her name?" "Judy. She's fine. She works, you know. She's pretty busy these days." "Well, I hope...