Now she’d have to sneak into the house before her father could see her and charge her with “rolling around in the hay,” his favorite accusation anytime Agnes looked disheveled. Agnes had never rolled around in anything with anyone, ever, but her father was sure that it was only a matter of time. Based on the behavior of her schoolmates, Bobby among them, she couldn’t really blame him.
“Merciful Lord, girl! What happened to you?!” Thankfully, it was Gran’s voice that greeted her in a holler as she tried to sneak through the back door. Gran was sitting in her usual chair shucking corn.“Bobby Beechum almost ran me over with his car. I had to jump off the road into the ditch.”
“Lord, that boy is gonna die young and go straight to hell.”
“I know, Gran.” Agnes walked through the kitchen sweet with baking smells. “I’m gonna go change before Daddy sees me.”
“Good girl. Come down after you’re done. I just pulled a pound cake out the oven.”
Agnes opened her bedroom door and found her best friend sitting on her yellow comforter, arms folded and eyes watery. The window she’d climbed through since they became blood sisters at six years old was wide open letting in the Appalachian breeze.
“Sal! What’s wrong?” Agnes knew Sally Hicky well enough to know that watery eyes meant something was terribly wrong. Sally was one of the toughest girls Agnes had ever known and if they hadn’t been best friends, she would have been terrified of her. Sally had three older brothers and no time for cry-babys. She was always telling Agnes to, “Buck Up, Buttercup!”
“We’re moving.” Sally’s voice was unusually high-pitched and wavering.
“What? NO!”
“Yes. It’s true. Mr. Beechum fired my dad today for being against mountain top removal and trying to stand up for other ways to get the coal. Mom is screaming that she told him to keep his big mouth shut. Now we’ve got to move to another mine, if they’ll take him.”
Agnes’s eyes were wide with panic. “No, that’s not possible! I can’t survive here without you. We’ve got to do something.”
“What can we do? If we stay we’ll starve, you know there are no other jobs for dad in Johnsonville.”
Agnes had never heard such defeat in her best friend’s voice. “Mr. Beechum’s a bully, just like his son." Agnes was trying to be calm but her voice was coming out in a squeal. "He’s just afraid your dad will pass him up at the mine. He had to fire him before he got promoted above him. Surely the big bosses won’t let him do it.”
“It’s done. Dad’s already packing, if that’s what you call slamming things into boxes so hard that they bounce out again.”
Agnes walked to the window and closed it. “I should have let Bobby hit me. Then his father would have had to give your dad his job back or get sued to kingdom come…”
“Hit you? He hits us all the time, what difference would that make?”
“No, hit me with his car. He tried to run me over when I was walking home just now.”
“Great idea, Aggie. Get yourself killed. That would help a lot.”
“Not killed, Sal, just injured…”
“AGNES!” Gran’s voice sounded up the stairs. “Is Sally here? Her brother’s at the door.”
“Shoot,” Sally’s face went white. “I gotta go, Ags.”
Tears started to stream in earnest down Agnes’s face and her lips were pulled into a tightly quivering line. “Don’t you leave me without telling me where you’re going. Sally-wog, what will I do without you?!”
Sally pulled her friend into a hug as her own tears began to fall. “I don’t know what I’ll do either. I promise not to disappear. I promise!” Sally turned quickly and ran out of her bedroom and down the stairs.
___________________________________________________________________________
The next day, Agnes’s heart constricted to see her friend’s empty desk. Bobby was in rare form, happily telling all who would listen about how his father had caught Mr. Hicky spreading lies about the mining company, knocked his hard hat right off his head and fired him on the spot. When his schoolyard fame began to die down, Bobby invented stories of Mr. Hicky throwing dogs down mining shafts and putting toxic chemicals in his workmates chicken salad sandwiches, but everyone knew better than to believe him. By the end of the day, Bobby was back to beating up the lower schoolers.
Agnes headed home at 3:00 walking her usual well-trodden path down the red dirt road to her house. Her stomach grumbled loudly because she had not yet been able to eat. Her initial sense of horrified disbelief had turned to hopeless sickening loss accompanied by blinding anger toward the horrid Beechum’s. Sally had been her dearest and best companion, aside from Gran, for 10 years. Without her, Agnes was sure, she would wilt and blow away.
Agnes heard a vehicle approaching behind her and knew all too well who it was. She looked over her shoulder at familiar white car lifting a cloud of red dust in its wake. She stepped off the road and waited. This time, however, instead of barreling by, the car slowed and stopped. Agnes felt a wave of fear bleed up to her head from her stomach as Bobby got out of the drivers seat and approached her.
“Hey Ag-nasty, what are you gonna do now that your watch dog is gone?” His fist, though not unexpected, landed hard in her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her and pushing her back into the brush along the side of the road.
Agnes knew that he was riled up and wasn’t likely to quit beating her until he had tired himself out. When they were young that was after about 3 blows but now that he was 16, he could swing for quite a while.
The second blow knocked Agnes to the ground. Bobby smiled and bent to strike again. Agnes grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it in his eyes. He screamed and groped at his face as she slipped out from under him and start running. She was only a few yards down the road, though, before she heard the Chevy engine turn over and the tires grind the red dirt road in quick acceleration.
Terror sped her fleeing legs, but it wasn’t enough. The white beast hit her from behind and sent her flying through the air. The sensation of pulsing pain and weightlessness was the last thing Agnes remembered before the ground rose up to meet her and her mind went blank.
___________________________________________________________________________
“Agg-ies...Agg-ies….Wake Up, Buttercup!” Sally’s voice broke through the ice. “Gran! I think she’s waking up!”
“Oh, praise, Jesus! That boy is going straight to hell, I tell you!”
Agnes struggled to lift her eyelids and find her voice. “Where am I?” She managed hoarsely.
Gran’s familiar rough hand cupped her cheek and chin. “Baby girl, you were hit by a car. You almost died, but Jesus gave you back to us. You’re gonna be just fine. Good as new if I have anything to do with it.” She looked intently into Agnes’s blurry eyes. “Sally and I are here and your momma and daddy are just down the hall talking to the doctors.”
Sally’s voice cut in, “Do you remember anything Ags?”
Agnes tried to think, “I remember Bobby was punching me, I threw dirt in his eyes and ran…” Before she could go on, Sally cut in again.
“Well, he drove up behind you and hit you so hard you were thrown a full 20 feet! Then he turned around and left you for dead. For dead, like roadkill! Your Gran started walking up the road when you didn’t come home and found you. The police easily tracked Bobby and his truck. The tire tracks showed that he’d swerved to hit you on purpose and there were fibers from your coat on his grill. He’s being held at the prison in Birmingham. They were only waiting to see if you’d die so they’d know whether to charge him with attempted murder or capital murder.” Sally’s voice was increasing in volume and speed as the story unfolded from her lips. “Ags! The whole town is up in arms about it. People are coming out of the woodwork to tell the police and the mayor and the mine operators about every horrible thing the Beechum’s have ever done. And you won’t believe it! They fired Mr. Beechum! All this talk led to an investigation. Turns out he’s been accepting cash from mountain top removal contractors for years to keep it going in places where it’s illegal. And guess what! They gave my dad Beechum’s job! We’re back, Aggie, we moved right back into our old house! You are a hero!!”
Agnes’s wide disbelieving eyes looked back and forth from Sally’s face to Gran’s but she saw only blissful and relieved truth there. She tired to reach up to gather them into a hug but though her muscles seemed to be firing, her limbs made no movement at all. Joy switched to pained confusion as she looked down at her body and saw only plaster.
“Oh, sorry baby girl,” Gran imperceptibly patted her white plaster knee, “you’re in a body cast because you had so many broken bones. But nevermind, darlin’ angel, I brought pound cake!”
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