Wish You Well Page #2

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to lose the farm.

It'll be okay, Oz.

I got this for my last birthday.

I want you to have it.

Birthday presents are special, Lou.

But I want to help.

This land has provided

for me all my life.

I think it'll provide for us now.

I know it's a lot with three

more mouths to feed, but...

I wouldn't trade it for all the money

in the world, honey.

Hi, Cotton.

Hey, Cotton.

What are you doing here?

Well, I'm gonna read one

of your father's books to your mother.

Our dad already read

all his books to her.

Besides, she can't hear you anyway.

Lou, go change your clothes

and help Eugene with the chores.

Go on.

Reading to Mom is a good idea.

Thank you Oz. I will do my best.

Good afternoon, Ms. Amanda.

My name is Cotton Longfellow.

And it will be my pleasure

to read to you.

What you working on there, Ms. Lou?

A story.

What it be about?

I don't know, Eugene.

Anything else we can do, Eugene?

- Firewood's got to go inside.

- I'll do it.

What are you going to do now?

- More chores.

- Can I help?

Come on.

"The dirt lane nudged over to the north,

"as it cleared a rise.

"Here the land splayed out

into a broad valley of simple beauty,

"green meadows were bracketed by vast

forests of every wood the state boasted.

"Next to the meadow were cleared

patchwork fields that yielded to...

"weathered gray,

and wrapped with naked

rambling rose vines..."

Cotton was reading my father's words.

Words about this place.

The fields he used to play in.

My only memories of my dad

had been in New York.

But now,

now I was starting to feel him

all around me here,

in this place, too.

- All right. Good boy.

- Good boy, Jeb.

Hell No, come here. Throw it.

Give it a whirl.

Diamond told me about Eugene's

daddy leaving him.

That is a darn lie.

Eugene's daddy did not leave him,

he was killed in a logging accident.

And then after his Auntie passed on,

I took him in.

So why do people call him

that awful name?

Because they're ignorant, that's why.

Memories are a funny thing.

People like to change the past

so they can remember what it is

they want to remember.

- All right, good boy.

- Good boy, Jeb.

How'd you learn how to toss like that?

Your brother's got a really good arm.

Yeah.

What'd you do for fun in the city?

Ever go skinny dippin' in a gravel pit?

There aren't gravel pits in Brooklyn.

I haven't met a boy like Diamond before.

He lived all by himself on the mountain.

His mom had died when he was born

and his dad died

during a mining accident.

The whole mountain had fallen on him.

Louisa said that Diamond and I

were like family.

We're distant cousins.

I never knew I had so much family here.

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