Free Arly by Robert Newton Peck Page A

smiled.
    â€œI never sit a fancy chair like this before.”
    â€œThen,” she said, “it’s about time.”
    â€œBoy, I sure would like to buy Papa a chair like this, to rest on.”
    I had stuff to tell her, yet I just sat there, real cautious, so the rocker wouldn’t buck me off, and couldn’t come out with even my starting word. So I just watched the moth bugs flitter around the porch lamp.
    â€œGoodness,” she said, “it certain is welcome to have a nice young man pay a call on his teacher.”
    â€œYes’m.”
    â€œDo you live nearby?”
    â€œPretty close. Over to Shack Row. Me and my daddy, Dan Poole, live lonesome on account Mama died after I got born, years back.”
    â€œI’m sorry, Arly.”
    â€œYes’m. I am too. Papa misses her a lot.”
    â€œDoes your father work in the cane mill?”
    I shook my head. “No, he’s a picker. Only us pickers live in Shack Row because that’s where Captain and Mr. Broda says we do.”
    â€œI see. Have you had your supper?”
    â€œOh yes’m, I sure have,” I lied. “Mr. Witt… he’s a picker too … kilt an otter, so he give us some scrappy meat for the beans.” I looked at Miss Hoe and smiled. “I ate me some ice cream once.”
    â€œI bet you liked it.”
    â€œSure did. It was all pinky and they said it was the strawberry kind. I ate it righteous slow so’s it would last. And good? It was like eating flowers.”
    Miss Hoe looked at me. “You’re a bright boy, Arly.”
    â€œMe?”
    â€œIndeed you are. I have logged plenty of time, my dear, as a teacher. Years and years. And I can read intelligence.”
    â€œI’m just a picker’s kid.”
    â€œFor now, perhaps. But recently I realized that you truly are one of God’s ideas.”
    â€œBrother Smith said that about me an’ Huff.”
    Miss Hoe nodded. “I have a feeling that you believe the things that Brother Smith tells you. And I bet they’re good things to hear.”
    â€œYes’m, they usual are. But I saw trouble today,” I burped out, sort of glad I’d got up the gumption to speak mind, and tell Miss Hoe why I had to talk to her, in private.
    â€œTrouble?”
    â€œIt’s about Essie May Cooter.”
    Miss Hoe quit her smile. “She’s a sweet child, Arly, but I guess you already are aware of that.”
    â€œThat’s why I come to see you.”
    â€œTell me all about it, please.”
    â€œEssie ain’t a child no longer, Miss Hoe. She’s a woman now. And knows so. Some of the menfolk in Jailtown see it too.”
    I saw my teacher lock her fingers together.
    â€œEssie got a problem, Miss Hoe. Ya see, there’s six Cooters to one shack and Essie May can’t breathe. My daddy can’t breathe good neither, but with Papa it’s his lungs, from cropdust. It’s different with Essie. Ain’t her lungs. The woman inside her is screaming.”
    Everything I was saying sounded so dumb. I understood it. Yet I didn’t guess I’d ever git my teacher to learn it all. Well, I decided, best I just plain open up and spew it all out.
    â€œIt ain’t polite,” I said, “to talk about Miss Angel Free to a lady like you. Even if’n it be poorly to do, I got to git it spoke, straight out.”
    â€œWho is Miss Angel Free?”
    â€œOh, she’s the lady who’s the boss at the Lucky Leg.”
    Miss Hoe nodded. “I’ve noticed the leg. One could hardly miss seeing
that
. Now let me help you out, if I can. Miss Free is interested in Essie May Cooter and perhaps has promised her that she can leave Shack Row and take residence in the Lucky Leg. Is that what worries you?”
    â€œWow, you sure are smart.”
    â€œThank you, Arly. It’s always rewarding when a pupil admits that his teacher is worldly.”
    â€œGolly, I