Bodark Creek - 8. Chapter 8

The pond almost killed Walter, but he didn’t get sucked into the pipes. Though he did lose his clothes.

It was after the Fourth of July, because we’d all seen the fireworks. And it was hot, because Rosalind and I were sleeping on the back porch. Charley had stayed in our room, but only because he got to sleep in the big bed.

Mama and Daddy were sleeping, too. Walter had gone out, then came home very late. Rosalind and I were telling stories when we heard a noise and snuck around to the front porch to check.

Walter was coming out of the forest, but he wasn’t wearing anything. We’d never seen him like that before. We’d seen him without a shirt, when he was swimming. But the only boy we’d ever seen without his clothes was Charley.

It was dark, and Walter was holding his hands in front of him. He might not have seen us at all, but Rosalind started to giggle.

“Who’s there?” Walter asked.

I giggled, too.

“Shush,” Walter said when he saw us. “And go back to bed.” Then he ran into the house.

Rosalind and I followed. When we got to the front room, Walter was already in his pants. “Now don’t you go saying anything,” he whispered. “If you don’t, I’ll give you anything you want.”

“Ice cream?” Rosalind asked.

“All you can eat. Just go to bed.”

There was no way we’d do that. This was too much fun. After he put on his shirt, Walter started going through his bureau.

“Are you leaving?” Rosalind went on.

“No.”

“Then why are you taking your clothes?”

Walter had gotten out another shirt and a pair of pants. He didn’t have a lot clothes and only owned two pair of shoes. And he’d already put on his Sunday ones.

“What are you doing?” Rosalind asked.

“Go to sleep,” Walter said. He quickly bundled the shirt and pants, then left. By the time Rosalind and I got to the street, he’d disappeared.

“We should follow him,” Rosalind said.

“Into the forest? We’d get lost. Besides, if Mama and Daddy wake up, we’d get in trouble.”

Rosalind thought about that. So instead of going after Walter, we waited on the porch. I don’t know how long it took him to come back, because I fell asleep a little. But I saw him before Rosalind did, and he still had the extra clothes.

“No ice cream,” he whispered. “I told you to go to bed.”

“We wanted to make sure you were all right,” I said, kind of stretching the truth.

“Of course, I’m all right. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you don’t look very happy.”

Walter fake smiled for us. But it only lasted a second.

“Where did you go?” Rosalind pushed on.

“Go to sleep,” Walter repeated. Then he went to bed.

Maybe because we were up so late, Rosalind and I slept till after Walter went to the mill. But it didn’t matter because we soon found out what had happened.

The first thing was that someone found Walter’s clothes. They were nailed to the front of the church. And there was a girl’s dress nailed with them.

“What the hell is that all about?” I heard Daddy yell at Walter that evening. I’d never heard Daddy say “hell,” and I’d never heard that word outside of church.

“I’m really sorry,” Walter told Daddy.

“I ought to whip you.”

Walter said nothing.

“I’ve never been so embarrassed,” Daddy went on. “You’ve hurt our whole family.”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

I’d never heard Walter call Daddy “sir.”

“I ought to whip your friends, too.”

“They’re not my friends. Not anymore.”

“I should hope not.”

“What happened?” I asked Rosalind.

“Something bad,” she said.

“Is Daddy going to spank Walter?”

That made Rosalind giggle. “No, but he might kill him.”

Daddy didn’t, of course, but he might as well have. Walter had to get up and apologize to everyone in church. His face was all red, and his hair was combed back, and he didn’t look handsome at all. And all that week, when he wasn’t at the mill, he stayed by himself in the front room. Not that it kept anyone from talking.

Everyone had a different story. And everyone thought they knew who the girl was. The only good thing was that it wasn’t Stefanie, or Margaret, or Sally. They were all home that night.

“What really happened?” I asked Mama. Then I was surprised when she told me.

“I’m only telling you this because I don’t want you and Rosalind repeating what everyone else is. What they’re saying is far worse than what happened.”

“What happened?” I asked again, and Mama waited a little before explaining.

“Walter went swimming,” she said. “He went swimming because it was hot. And as a little joke, some of his friends took his clothes.”

“We know that,” Rosalind told her. “Everyone knows that. We even know who took his clothes. But who was the girl? And why is everyone so angry?”

“They’re angry because the church was involved,” Mama said. “And because Walter and the girl were swimming with nothing on. You know what I’ve always said about that.”

She’d told us any number of times that girls never let boys see them undressed.

“But who was the girl?” Rosalind asked again.

“It doesn’t matter,” Mama said. “I really don’t want to know.”

She was probably the only one in town. Everyone else had been asking all week.

Walter wouldn’t say. He wouldn’t tell anyone. He apologized in church then just stopped explaining. Even the friends who took his clothes didn’t see the girl.

“I’m glad he won’t tell,” I heard Daddy tell Mama. “It means I’ve taught him something.”

“You’ve taught him lots of things, and you know it. And this will end, soon enough.”

“ I suppose. And I suppose it’s one of those girls from town. Or from a farm.”

“What would it matter if we knew?”

“It wouldn’t,” Daddy said. “Unless there’s more trouble.”

“There won’t be. He promised they were only swimming.”

Daddy said nothing to that.

Walter also asked Daddy if he should go back to Hattiesburg, and Daddy spent a night thinking about that. Then he said, “No, you stay right here.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t thank me. It’s gonna be harder for you to stay. People will always be telling this story. They tell stories about things that happened forty years ago, and we all laugh.”

“I don’t think it’s funny,” Walter said.

“I never said it was. It might’ve been. But the church got involved.”

We never did find out who the girl was. When Walter got his clothes back, Daddy took the girl’s dress and burned it, so no one could see it up close. A lot of our dresses looked alike anyway.

Not more than a month after that, Walter surprised everyone by saying he was marrying Stefanie Mueller. Before that, Daddy might have said she was still too young. But afterwards, almost no girl in town would even be seen with Walter.

“You don’t have to do this,” Daddy told him. “You can still wait.”

“I don’t want to,” Walter said. “I’m happy she’ll have me.”

Rosalind didn’t feel that way. “If nothing had happened,” she said, “Walter never would’ve picked Stefanie.” She was still holding out for Sally.

But Walter told Daddy, “I’ve got to have Stefanie. I was always afraid that if I waited too long someone else would ask her.”

Daddy tried talking Walter out of it, right up to the last night. But at the end of the summer, Walter and Stefanie got married.

The one good thing was it made everyone forgive Walter. “He’s a good boy,” people said. “He’ll be a good husband. And you know she wasn’t in that pond.”

By that time, Walter was also being trained to be a weaver. So he had a little money. And since he was married, the mill gave him a tiny house, on the next street from us.

“It only has two rooms,” Walter said. “But it’s all we need.”

Rosalind and I had been to weddings before. At church, people were always getting married. But this was more exciting. We got to put on our best clothes and go to the parties. Stefanie’s family had the first one, then everyone came to our house.

Our party filled up the whole end of our street and lasted until after Rosalind and I fell asleep. The next morning, Walter and Stefanie went to Dallas, but only for a few days. Walter had to be back at the mill.

“It’s not going to last,” Daddy said, once they were gone. “He’ll be sleeping on the daybed again before winter.”

Stefanie may have been too young, and Walter may have hurried into things. But this time, Daddy was wrong.