A Tale from the Hills Read online

  Tom mixed a grain mixture and a powered milk product with creek water to feed the babies. He and the older children ate a baked bread from the same recipe. Occasionally he would snare a rabbit or opossum in his homemade trap. The family ate as well as, or even better than, most of the residents of Jewel Ridge Mountain.

  *********

  Strangers came to the Hill’s home when William was about five years old. Officials were conducting a census for tax and school purposes. A tiny puff of smoke was curling its way out of the Hill’s chimney and into the clear mountain sky. Otherwise the strangers would have never suspected that anyone could be living in such adverse conditions. One of the officials carefully made his way up the rickety makeshift steps to the front door. The official knocked briskly at the door but there was no response. He suspected that whoever was inside had chosen not to answer the door for one reason or another. The officials left the shack without incident. The Hill children could hear whispering outside but they dared not peep through the window for fear of being seen.

  Exactly one week later the strangers returned. The county sheriff was with them this time. There was no response when the sheriff knocked at the weather beaten door. After his third try to stir the inhabitants of the tinyshack, the sheriff unlatched the door and proceeded inside.

  Conditions inside the shack were even more deplorable than on the outside. Old newspapers with tiny holes torn in them covered the windows. The only piece of furniture in the front room was an ancient iron bed. Straw was spread over the rusty springs and an old patchwork quilt covered the straw. The stains on the quilt made it impossible to determine its original colors.

  The three older boys were cowering in the corner near the backroom. The two younger children were sitting on the bed. There were no adults in the tiny room.

  “Who are you kids?” queried the sheriff.

  “We be Hills.” one of the older boys said.

  “Where are your parents?” the sheriff asked.

  The other officials were still waiting outside. They had learned from experience that too many strangers can often spook mountain folk. It would be better to let the sheriff handle the situation.

  “We got a pa… that’s all.” another of the boysreplied.

  “Ma’s dead.” said the oldest child.

  “Where’s your pa?” asked the sheriff. “I need to seehim.”

  Moving slowly and suspiciously, Tom Hill walked out of the backroom. Even though he had been extremely careful going to and returning from the supply house, he figured that someone must have seen him, or tracked him back to the shack.

  “We have come to take the census.” stated thesheriff.

  In a whispering voice Tom replied, “I don’t think we got one, but you can take whatever you want. “

  Tom breathed a low sigh of relief.

  Upon hearing the ignorant man’s reply, another county official climbed the rickety steps into the shack.

  “It isn’t a thing sir, its a count for the government.” the official said.

  The other officials then proceed to enter the tiny house. One of them said later that she had never seen such a deplorable house.

  Another of the officials was the county nurse. After examining each of the Hill children and determining that they were healthy, she made it perfectly clear to Tom Hill that his children would have to go to school. The school was located about two miles up the creek from their house. The children could follow the railroad tracks most of the way, however, at the long trestle they must leave the tracks. They could cross the creek at the footbridge, and proceed to the school along a pathway. The officials stressed over and over to the children that the trestle was very dangerous. If a train were to approach, anyone caught on the trestle would have to jump or risk being run over by the train. Either action would mean certain death. The trestle crossed a deep ravine with jagged rocks and a shallow creek at the bottom.

  The Hill children were about to leave the only world that they had ever known. Sometimes the older boys followed their daddy at night, but never as far as the railroad supply house. Their own home was barely out of sight and the adventure took only a few minutes, but their little hearts would pound with excitement. The children pretended to be asleep upon his return with the supplies in his sack. They never realized until they were much older that their daddy was stealing the supplies for their survival.

  The Hill children maintained a degree of innocence and naivete far longer than most children. The ten year old scampered around the house as freely as little William, who was only five. They were happy. They never realized that they were dirt poor, or deprived, or in need of an education. Their lives would change as they entered the world outside the tiny house on Jewel Ridge Mountain.

  Chapter Two

  The school term was well underway when the Hill children were finally inducted. The family took a giant step on Sunday before they were to start school on Monday morning. Tom and all of the children walked the entire route to the school. The children were full of anticipation at what lay around each turn of the railroad track. Tom taught them how to put an ear on the track to feel for the vibration of an approaching train. Since they were raised practically on top of the track, they were well aware of the dangers. The children had see the remains of deer and raccoons that were struck by trains. They ate well for a week one Autumn when a deer was killed in front of their modest home.

  The trip on Sunday to the school took them about two hours. They walked slowly and talked along the way. The children thought that their daddy was the smartest man alive. His third grade education was more than enough for them. In fact, they marveled at his knowledge. By the time that they arrived back home, they were so hungry that the baked bread tasted almost like manna from heaven. The kids remembered that word ‘manna’, because Tom read the Bible to them each year on the anniversary of their mother’s death. He read to them about Jesus, and Moses, and the beautiful angels. He told the kids that their mother was a beautiful angel now, living in the warm glow of God’s heavenly light. The old family Bible was the most precious possession of the Hills. It was kept in a shiny silver colored box under the bed.

  Tom set the rarely if ever used wind up clock to make sure that the children were up and ready for school on Monday morning. He set the clock by the midday sun on Sunday. The morning ritual was not complicated. The children wet their hair and splashed very little water on their dingy faces, before eating a piece of bread that was baked the night before. Each of them would have another chunk of the bread wrapped in a piece of torn paper bag, and an apple for lunch.

  When the room got suddenly quiet, the tick tock sound of the old clock reminded the family that it was 7:30 am., and time to leave for school. Each child hugged and kissed their daddy goodbye. As the children were walking up the track toward the school, their daddy thought that they looked like tiny stair steps all in a row. He waved at them but they dared not look back to avoid tears. They had hardly gotten out of his sight when two of them had to stop and pee, one on the track and another in the bushes.

  The Hill children arrived at the school about thirty minutes later. When they crossed the footbridge at the railroad trestle, a train was crossing above their heads. They stopped to watch the train and listen to the popping and cracking of the old wooden trestle. The rest of the way to school they walked a little faster to make up for time lost at the trestle. At the school children were milling about because studies did not officially start until 8:15. The principal of the three room school knew all of the students at least by their faces, so she recognized the five new students immediately. The school board had already informed her that five members of the same family would be coming in on Monday morning. She greeted the new students at the door.

  “You must be the Hill family that I have heard so much about.” she declared. “My name is Mrs. Boatwright, and I am the Principal here
at Mountain School.”

  The oldest child introduced himself and then each of the other kids.

  “I am Joseph Hill.” he stated confidently. His daddy taught him to say “I am”. Ordinarily he probably would have said, “I be”.

  “And this is Josh, and Alan, and Alice, and William.”

  “Its very nice to meet each of you.” stated Mrs. Boatwright.

  All four kids replied at once, “Thank you ma’am.”

  They had practiced that line all the way to school.

  The Principal took all of the children into her office.

  She would try to determine each of their reading, writing, and other classroom skills. The three older boys knew the basics of reading and writing, because their father had taught them using the old Bible. Their daddy was poor in arithmetic skills, so the boys were also. Mrs. Boatwright decided that the second grade level would suit their needs for the time being.

  Alice and William had no basic skills. They could spell and barely print their names and count to ten, and say most of their a,b,c’s, but that was about the extent of their early learning. They would be placed in the first grade level. Now for the first time in their young lives, the five siblings would be separated.

  Mrs. Boatwright gave the new students a tour of the school building. Although the building was relatively small, to the children who had only known a tiny two room house, the school was huge. Included in the tour was a trip to the outdoor toilets. The privy on the left behind the school building was for the boys. Likewise, the one on the right was for the girls. Since all of the teachers were female, they used the same toilet as the girls. Long ago a gifted pupil had carved the likenesses of a boy and a girl for the toilet’s doors, and the carvings served as signs for anyone who might forget his or her left from right.

  At Mrs. Boatwright’s request, each of the new students attended to his or her business before they were taken to the classrooms. The Hill children were used to an outdoor toilet, but the toilets here were elegant compared to their own. And the smell was not nearly as bad either. Sometimes when their daddy came out of the one at home, the kids dared not go in for as long a time as possible. It was a kind of family tradition at the Hill house. The kids did not know that Mrs. Boatwright poured lime into the school toilets every month or so. The Principal was responsible for maintenance, as well as administrative duty in the small school in a poor county. She could assign some jobs to the teachers and students, but toilet duty was hers alone.

  Although all of the details had not been worked outyet, the older Hill students would be helping around the school to pay tuition for all five. Almost all of the student body at Mountain School had a similar arrangement. If a family’s wealth was measured by monetary means, the entire county could have easily declared poverty. Therefore, students could pay their tuition by chopping wood, or carrying water, or sweeping and mopping, or dusting, or clearing pathways and roadways, or cutting brush around the school. The Principle and the teachers were not well of by any means either. They taught not to make money, but to serve the community and to fill a void in many people’s lives.

  Mrs. Boatwright escorted Joseph, Josh, and Alan to their common classroom; Alice and William waited in the hallway. William was apprehensive and melancholy. The anticipation of things to come and seeing his brothers walk away, was more than his little heart could take. As hard as he tried to hold them back, tears were forming in the corners of his eyes, and his dingy little chin was starting to quiver. Without even realizing it, he was squeezing his sister’s hand so hard that she cried out in pain.

  “Sorry sis.” he whimpered.

  “Its ok Will,” she said. “Everything will be all right, I promise. Ok?”

  For some unexplained reason, the sound of his sister’s voice calmed him.

  At long last Mrs. Boatwright came for the two younger Hills. William had stopped crying, but both of the children were a little scared. Everything changed as soon as they entered the classroom.

  Standing with her back to the blackboard, the sunlight beaming through the window and shining on her golden hair, the teacher looked like an angel from one of their daddy’s Bible stories. William imagined that his mother must have been as beautiful as this lady. He would look back on this day when he was older, and he would think that this was one of the brightest in his life.

  Interrupting the class that started two hours earlier,

  Mrs. Boatwright called the teacher to the door.

  “Miss Coalson, this is Alice and William Hill. They will be starting school today for the first time.”

  The angel spoke, “It is very nice to meet you Alice and William. I think that you will get along fine in my class. I look forward to being your teacher.”

  “Thank you ma’am.” Again they spoke in unison.

  Mrs. Boatwright said goodbye to the children and Miss Coalson and proceeded to her office. She was behind with the monthly reports because of the new students, but she enjoyed being with students much more than paperwork anyway. As she sat at her desk, her mind drifted back to the days when she taught. She thought that nothing was more rewarding than seeing a child’s eyes open wide to the learning experience. That sense of excitement and wonder was something that few adults outside of the teaching profession would ever see.

  Reminiscing was something that she often did at school, getting ready for school, and driving to and from the school each day. She would think about her life before Mountain School. She would think about her husband and how much she missed him since his death. She would think about the tragedy that ended his life and turned hers completely upside down. After his death she left the city where they lived and moved as far away as possible to start over. She loved this place where she had settled, but memories lingered and would always be just one thought away. She finally willed herself to get back to the monthly reports.

  Meanwhile, Miss Coalson assigned Alice and William to seats that were side by side, because she could tell that both of the children were insecure in their new surroundings. She gave each of them paper and pencils in a small pouch, so that they would feel more at ease with the other students. These things instantly became precious commodities to the new students. But before the two of them sat down in their desks, she introduced them to the rest of the class.

  William looked all around the room. He did not knowany of the other kids. He looked and felt so small in comparison to some of his classmates. After he finally sat down, he felt more relaxed, especially since his sister was close by. Another reason that he felt much better was Miss Coalson. The first time that he saw her it was true love. It was the kind of love that little boys have for first grade teachers. And he knew in his heart that she would love him too. He just wanted to sit in her lap and peacefully fall asleep while she read to him a story.

  There had never been a teacher at Mountain School who was more compassionate and caring than April Coalson. She had moved to the area from Charlottesville three years before the Hill children started to school. Like Mrs. Boatwright she was there to escape the past, and like Mrs. Boatwright, she was glad to be at Mountain School. She felt needed there.

  At first the impoverished students broke her heart. Coming from an upper middle class background, she had never seen people living under such harsh circumstances before. It was not very long before she realized that underneath the ragged clothes and dingy faces, the kids were just like kids everywhere. There would be students who wanted to learn, and students who were lazy, and students who would get into trouble, and students who would become ministers and teachers, and everything else in between.

  In Charlottesville, April’s father was a banker. Her mother had once been a teacher, before April was born, but after April’s birth she became a banker’s wife and mother. April grew up with the best of everything.

  April’s only boyfriend during adolescence was Tom Lewis. Eve
ryone, especially April, thought that they were the perfect couple. She was sure that one day in the future they would be married.

  Tom wanted to think that they were the perfect couple too. All of the plans that he and his parents talked about included April. He was going to be the next Frank LLoyd Wright and April would be his beautiful wife. Tom and

  April attended all of the parties and dances, and social events, in and out of school. An invitation to either of them always included the other.

  It was in high school that Tom started questioning things about his life. After a strenuous game of touch football during physical education class, several of the boys were showering together. Tom had always suffered mixed emotions about seeing other boys naked, but on this particular occasion something happened. The glistening water on his teammate’s bodies caused him to attain an erection. He was so embarrassed that he ran from the shower room before he even rinsed the soap from his hair and body. He did not dare let any of the other boys see him sexually excited. He quickly dried himself and put on his clothes. Although all boys get excited with or without external stimuli, he was sure that something was wrong with him. There was no way that he could talk to anyone about his situation, but he vowed to never let it happen again. He used any kind of excuse to avoid being naked around his classmates.

  At the same time he caught himself gazing at the other boys, even fantasizing about them, and every time he got an erection. The physical education teacher noticed a marked change in Tom’s behavior, and even went so far as to ask him if anything was bothering him. Tom emphatically stated “No”, so the teacher did not pursue the matter any further. Tom was afraid that the teacher would say something to his father, who was an Army Coronal, of course he said nothing.