Free Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth by Sandra Dutton Page A

trilobite," I say.
    "Looks like a crab," says Mama.
    "Yep, they's related." I don't say nothing about how old it is. Lucinda already done that. "And here's a crinoid." I point out the tassel. "And over here's sponges, and look at this, it's a pipe organ coral." I never seen that except in the book Miss Sizemore give me. Wish I could tell her.
    Mama's taken with this place. It's all here, millions of fossils, like the Lord's science lesson.
    "This all used to be ocean," says Lucinda, standing up.
    Mama don't argue. She's just running her fingers over them fossils.
    I'm picturing how it was, millions of years ago, with the warm salt water, and palm fronds and jellyfish and trilobites and squids.
    But it's beginning to rain.
    We pick our way across the rocks to the steps where Granny sets.
    "River ain't usually this low," says Lucinda. "We need this."
    We all pile into the car and drop Lucinda off on Whippet Street. Her daddy's setting on the porch waiting for her.
    ***
    Granny dozes off on the way home, and Mama don't say a word. I'm thinking I better say something now before Mama forgets what she seen. "Them fossils was really interesting, wasn't they?" I say.
    But Mama don't answer.
    "It was like a science lesson, wasn't it, Mama?"
    She still don't answer.
    "Be nice if we could go there again, wouldn't it? And take our time and look at everything."
    Mama's still quiet. Then she says, "Mary Mae, it's something we shouldn't be looking at."
    "The riverbed?"
    "Them fossils," she says. "They's not meant for us to see, Mary Mae."
    "But they's out there," I say.
    ***
    We get lunch at the Dog-Gone-It Café in Sparta. Old people dressed in church clothes is a-coming in.
    "I missed going to church this morning," says Mama.
    "Me, too," says Granny.
    "I missed singing," I say. "But I liked seeing that riverbed."
    "Mary Mae, I don't want to hear nothing more about that riverbed."
    "It's God's creation, Mama. No sense in not talking about it."
    "I told you I've heard enough."
    ***
    Mama orders us all the Sunday special—fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy—but I'm back to not eating again.
    ***
    We get home at three, and Mama opens up her Bible and starts working on her curriculum. I go upstairs and dig my cigar box out of my dressing table. I pull all them fossils out and line them up. Then I wait for them to talk to me.
    "Wish you could put us out on a shelf, Mary Mae," they say. "Sure would be nice."
    "I'll do my best," I say. I pack them all up again, hide them away, and go downstairs.
    ***
    Ain't allowed to go out in the neighborhood, but I can still go out in my own backyard. It's quit raining, and I'm a-walking around in the wet. Sneakers getting all shushy. I go climb on the fishpond. Daddy keeps saying he's going to tear it down, but he don't. When we moved in, I was never allowed to climb on it or nothing because a kid could get hurt there, Daddy said. But I'm ten years old now. It's a whole lot of rocks all piled up, and there's a cement basin for water, only we ain't never filled it. Anyways, I climb up on it. I squat down and I'm a-looking around, and then I just about slide off into the basin. Can't believe what I'm seeing. Every slab of rock is teeming with fossils. Just like them slabs down at school.
    Must have been dug up from the ground here.
    Slabs so thick with fossils it looks like crab gumbo. Fossils even thicker than they was at Falls of the Ohio. Or at school. I'm climbing all over them rocks like a chipmunk. In one slab there's six little trilobites enrolled together.
    I go into the garage and get three lawn chairs. Line them up in front of the fishpond.
    When Daddy comes home, I invite everyone out to see.
    "I'm busy," says Mama.
    "I'm tired," says Daddy.
    "No, you got to see this."
    "I'll go," says Granny. So Mama and Daddy follow her out.
    "Take your seats," I say. "I got something to talk about."
    Mama says, "Do this fast. It's cold out here."
    "Now you see this here fishpond," I say. "Daddy,