Free Big Cherry Holler by Adriana Trigiani Page B

good.”
    Naomi chuckles. “He never did want me to put that window in. He said we got enough light with the front windows. But I wanted me some big windows, so that I could put me some purty curtains up, like I saw in the movies. I always wanted me some big windows where the breeze comes through and moves them curtains around like fancy skirts.”
    “Honey, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong with you. Your heart is beating normal, your blood pressure is good …”
    “I wasn’t skeered of that old buck.”
    “I know. But the excitement might’ve caused you some trouble.”
    “Aww, I feel fine,” Naomi tells me, and gets up.
    Spec has cleaned up the glass in the living room. Two of the men are taping cardboard along the frame where the glass had been.
    “I’m gonna put on some coffee, boys. Any takers?” Naomi offers.
    The men grumble appreciatively. Spec leaves his number with Naomi.
    “Now you call me, youngun, if you need me.”
    “I will.”
    The ride down through the veiny roads of East Stone Gap is dark except for our high beams and the occasional jack-o’-lantern on aporch. As we speed through the black night, I have a sense that time has stopped. I am somewhere in the past, when I was younger and wore the same orange vest and sat beside Spec in this very wagon that forever smells of tobacco and spearmint.
    “Ave?”
    “Yeah, Spec?”
    “That there was a good run.”
    “For everybody but the deer.”
    “Yup.” He smiles.
    “It was a mystical experience.”
    “Don’t start that stuff, Ave.”
    “Spec, that was a visit from the beyond.”
    “It was a visit from the woods. That deer saw a light through an open door and went in Naomi’s house uninvited. And that there is the end of it.”
    “Nope. Naomi thinks it was a visit from her husband on the other side.”
    “You’re givin’ me the creeps.”
    “I thought you were a believer.”
    “I am. If it’s Bible-approved, or if it makes any goddamn sense. People don’t come back as animals. That’s nuts.”
    “I wish I knew where we go when we die.”
    “What good would that do?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe I’d live differently. Maybe I wouldn’t be so afraid to lose people. I get scared that I’ll never see my mother again. My son.”
    “I shore would like to see my mama agin. And my pap, too. ’Cause if I could see ’em agin, I would ask ’em a lot of things. Things that weigh on my mind.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like why both of ’em died on me before I could git to ’em. Both of ’em. Ma went in her sleep, and Pap died at the hospital. But I never did say good-bye to neither of ’em. I wish that were different.”
    “I wish I would have made my mama go to Italy. She never went home, you know. That bothers me.”
    “I knew your mama. You couldn’t make her do nothin’ that she didn’t want to do. So you got to let go of that one.”
    “I guess so.”
    As Spec drives us up the holler road, I wish for a minute that the run weren’t over. There are things I’d like to talk about.
    “Thank ye, Ave. You done good.”
    “Don’t flatter me, Spec. It ain’t your style.”
    Spec smiles. I grab my gear and go into our old stone house.
    Etta must be asleep, I can see the glimmer of her nightlight from the bottom of the stairs. I place my gear on the bench and head back to our bedroom. Jack is propped up in bed, reading.
    “How’s Naomi?”
    “How’d you know?”
    “They made an announcement at the carnival. A guy from the Norton fire department called down the mountain with details.”
    “It was something to see.”
    “I’ll bet.” Jack goes back to his reading. When I see my husband, so comfortable in our house, in our bed, I feel as though we could last forever. I want to tell him about Naomi’s dream, and I wonder if he believes in that sort of thing. We never talk about things like that, so I don’t know.
    “Do you ever dream about Joe?” I ask him.
    Jack puts down his newspaper and looks at me,