Page 20 of Return to Telegraph Creek

Oscar came back with a cup of the willow bark tea, cooled a bit so I could drink it down quickly, which I did.Then Miss June set up and got to stitching.

Oscar looked a tad queasy as he sat on the bed holding my hand like a good husband.But when I glanced at him, he’d gone a mite pale and his gaze was fixed on Miss June’s delicate and skilled hands.

“You okay?”I asked him.

He scowled.“I’m fine.”

“You don’t have to look.”

“I ain’t lookin’,” he said, averting his eyes.“Don’t it hurt?”he whispered in a quiet voice full of suffering.

I gasped every time Miss June poked the needle in, but I squeezed Oscar’s hand.

“Sure, but I’ve suffered worse.This ain’t nothin’ compared to the pain I felt when you got taken on our journey—or when you were lost in the storm and Clarence brought you back.”I squeezed his hand.“I can handle this kind of pain better than that kind.”

I could see he was torn between watching that Miss June was careful with the needle and avoiding the sight of my skin getting punctured so matter-of-factly.Miss June seemed to notice that, too.

“Oscar,” she said, not looking up from her careful work.

“Yes, Ma’am?”

“Could you please ask Trick to come up here?I need to speak to both of you.”

Oscar’s hold loosened on my hand.

“Sure.You gonna be all right?”he asked me.

“I’m fine.Go on.”

I relaxed my fingers so’s he could slip his hand from mine.He walked to the door, glancing back to check on me.I gave him a smile, which he returned before walking out and closing the door quietly behind him.

Miss June met my gaze and smiled.“That boy is so in love with you.”

“I know it.”I hesitated, but I wanted to talk about something with the only person who might understand.“Speaking of which… I found out he don’t…he don’t really know when his birthday is.And he can’t be sure of the age he told me when we met.”

I felt some shame curl up inside my chest.My old friend had come back.Though compared to the sorts of things I’d been involved with in the outlaw gang, this was maybe not as brutal or careless, but the thought of it made me uneasy.

Miss June nodded.“You think he might not be twenty-one, you mean.Or even twenty,” she said wryly.

“That’s the crux of it.”

Miss June continued her work and thought about what I’d said.

“Well, Jimmy, I don’t know.I had my doubts when you said Oscar was twenty-one, but you seemed so certain he wasn’t lying, so I didn’t want to say anything more.”

“He wasn’tlyin’.I know he wasn’t.It’s only that…there ain’t no way for him to be certain.And I…I would never have preyed upon a child.”

Miss June paused her stitching and stared at me with curiosity.“You think that’s what you were doing?”

I shook my head.“No, I-I don’t feel ’twas.In fact, Oscar was the one who—the one who…started everything,” I said weakly.

Miss June’s smile widened.

“That doesn’t surprise me one bit.That young man is fearless.”

I rolled my eyes.“Don’t I fuckin’ know it.”

She laughed.“He’s old enough to know what he wants and how to go about getting it.”