Be careful what you shoot at...
kinda hopin' ta find m'grave." Haint had told me that he didn't know where they'd buried him. He'd been killed when he fell of a wagon while he was asleep. Said he'd watched the people he'd been with pick his body up and he'd followed them for a while, but had decided he didn't see the point. Now he regretted it...
"Any luck?" I asked.
"I wish I knew at least what county they buried me in," he said. "I grew up near Marion, in Smyth County. And Papaw's family was from Grayson County originally..."
I listened.
"It took me 4 days on foot," Haint said, "but I walked across to Marion last month. Wish I'd had a horse..."
"Ya use to ride alot?" I asked. Haint looked at me like I was dense or something.
"What else was there?" he asked. Then he went back to looking kind of wistful. "I used ta take a short cut cross the mountains. But it was hard on the horses. I remember once my mare caught her hind hoof in some roots along the path. Threw me over her head when she fell. Asbury's was always the problem spot. If it'd been rainin', gittin' 'cross Laurel Fork over in Poor Valley was dang near impossible. But ya never knew what it was like 'til ya got there."
He paused.
"Perty country, though," he said. "Still is..."
"But ya don't rekon yer buried out there..." I tried to bring the conversation back around.
"Naw," he dropped his head a little. "I felt further away from myself, not closer."
I pondered what relationship might exist between a ghost and its decomposed body.
"Why are ya lookin' for yer grave?" I asked him.
"Well, it kinda makes a body feel better to know where he is," Haint looked a little self-conscious, uncomfortable.
"Ya mean, yer body still feels somthin'," I asked.
"Naw," he said, "Ya got it wrong. I mean me," he said. "I'd feel better if I knew where I wuz - if I knew where th' rest a me wuz."
A ghost, I thought, out trying to get in touch with himself. New meaning for the phase find yourself...
| Nancy Catherine Brown Cruey 1887-1954 |
Again I changed the subject.
"Did you know my grandmaw?" I asked.
"Nancy Catherine?" Haint looked surprised.
"Um hum," I said. "My Great Grandmaw Brown..."
"Well Yeah," Haint said, "I
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