The Wolf Tree Read Online Free PDF Page A

something Ray couldn’t understand.
    Nel laughed from the end of the table and replied back in the man’s language.
    “I didn’t know Nel spoke Cherokee,” Sally whispered to Ray.
    “I’ve learned all kinds of things about him over the past two days,” Ray said. “Did you know Nel once fell over a waterfall?”
    The Cherokee man laughed. “On a horse! Did you hear that part?”
    “No!” Si said, leaning over the table to hear better.
    “Nel came up at the bottom, but the horse never did. Horse belonged to his friend Chestoa. Doubt he ever forgave him for that. That was back in the old days, before …” The Cherokee looked embarrassed and called to Ox to pass him the roasted groundnuts.
    “Before what?” Sally asked.
    The man glanced at Nel and, seeing him engaged in conversation with the Ohio couple, whispered, “Before he lost his leg in all that John Henry business.” Looking warily again at Nel, he added, “Ain’t been the same since then. Lost his Rambler powers, you know.”
    Ray wanted to ask more but sensed the man’s reticence to continue. “Who was Chestoa? A Cherokee?”
    “No, a white man. My uncle helped him uncover the Elemental Rose. Chestoa was a Cherokee nickname my uncle gave him. Means ‘rabbit.’ What was his real name? I’ll think of it.”
    Sally, her eyes bright with curiosity, asked, “Was it Bill Cobb?”
    “Oh, yeah,” the man said, turning to Sally. “Li’l Bill. You heard of him?”
    Ray answered, “He’s our father.”
    The Cherokee paused, giving Ray and then Sally a deep look and rubbing his jaw. “He was a good man. Powerful Rambler.” Then he called down the table, “Nel, whatever happened to that little sorrel horse you used to own?” And the conversations turned from one story to another and then another.
    After dinner was finished, the dishes were cleared and the tables moved to the porch. The oil lamps hanging from the rafters were lit. Gourd banjos, fiddles, and all manner of instruments were brought out of cases and sacks, and the players formed a half circle against the wall, talking to one another about which tunes to play. In the end, they deferred to Nel, since it was his birthday. Nel took his harmonica from his pocket and tapped it to his knee before saying, “How about
Ruckus Juice Stomp
!” As he began the melody, the hodge-podge band struck up behind him.
    Ma Everett grabbed people’s hands and pulled them to the dance floor. As the dancers squared off, she shouted out steps for them to follow. Ray tried to get Si to partner with him, but she said she was still feeling weak from her injury and settled next to Buck on a bench.
    Ray danced with each of the younger girls: Naomi, Carolyn, Rosemary. He and Marisol passed several times on the dance floor, occasionally getting a few moments to dancetogether before partners were switched again. While wide, laughing mouths shone from the faces around the room, Ray noticed Marisol forcing a smile each time he looked at her.
    When he discovered she was no longer on the dance floor, Ray thanked Sally for the dance with a silly dramatic bow and went to look for Marisol. He found her in the next room, moving plates into a tub of soapy water.
    “Hey, there’ll be time for cleaning up in the morning. Don’t you want to dance?”
    She dropped a handful of knives with a splash. “Somebody has to start on this cleaning.”
    “You can do it tomorrow,” Ray said.
    Marisol frowned. “And the day after that and the day after that …”
    “What’s the matter?” Ray asked.
    Marisol tossed more silverware into the tub. “Nothing.”
    “Is it Ma Everett? I know she’s been a little hard, but there’s been a lot to do to get ready for the party.”
    Her cheeks grew red. “It’s not Ma Everett. You … you wouldn’t understand, Ray.” She pushed past Ray as she strode out the door.
    He followed her, passing from the thick warmth of the lodge into the drifting snowflakes on the porch. Marisol was in