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Few here remember the massacre at Matewan in 1920, when miners defended their family and homes Few remember the Battle of Blair Mountain, a year and a half later, when thirteen thousand hts
Bitsy decides to stay overnight with Thoets ready to leave, Becky shows up in an ambulance that’s covered in e all this ti her what happened, and I can see that she’s glad she missed the whole catastrophe
As I turn to leave, Mrs Potts stopsover us today It could have beenchickens
20
Pay Back
I run cold water into the sink and fill the teakettle, still shaking frohts of chaos and death at the ain, not sticking yet but filling the air The kitchen door bangs as Hester rattles in with two allon jars He sees
"Want sos and fills a quart jar forof the vet’s phone startles us both "Hester here," he answers "What’s the trouble? How long? Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can It may take an hour" He looks at me sideways "Want to pay back some more of what you owe the practice?" I like the way he says "the practice"not hiuess"
I’d accepted a ride back fro while he milked his cow, but now, exhausted and filthy, I just want to get hoated; he’s done us so e first What’s up?"
"Mr Dresher, a German farmer on the other side of Clover Botto all day, fooling around with the bedding in her basket, licking herself The oas going to leave her tillhard He’s e like it’s one of the fa farmer with a lot of stock and is one of my best clients Duty calls"
The drive around Salt Lick and then up Wild Rose is uneventful It’s still et to my house, I jump out of the Model T "It will take a few minutes Are you sure you need ive Moonlight fresh water and hay It’s nice that she’s pregnant; we don’t have to milk her" The vet hops out too and sla is in trouble and that I’ll be useful somehowor maybe he just wants company Either way, I’m in no position to quibble
In less than ten reen jersey, washeddown Salt Lick, this tih the empty streets of Liberty, I notice that the city lawuninia plates
On the other side of Delmont we pick up 92, a dirt road but less rutted A mile past the little B&O train stop at Clover Bottoe, and pull up in a spacious farht comes on, and a man with an expansive belly and black suspenders steps out of the two-story white house If he’s surprised to see a wo
"Hey, you old son of a gun," he greets the vet warh a front hall into a well-appointed living rooh wooden console radio do "Carolina Moon" out of the speakers It’s the largest radio I’ve ever seen, bigger than the one at the MacIntosh home, with a built-in sound chas By this luxury alone, I understand that Mr Dresher, even in these difficult ti quite well
"Oh, honey!" His tiny wife, wearing a pink-checked housedress, greets me and takes lad you could come" Maybe she thinks I’m Daniel Hester’s sister Or e Gerolden retriever, or a valuable black-and-white sheepdog, but instead I see a cutetoward us Her sides heave at the rate of about 120 heartbeats a s, but this doesn’t look right The pitiful little aniives the vet’s hand a lick Hester sits on a footstool and palpates her abdomen, then nods for me to come over I sit down on the carpet next to hi with pups, as round as a basketball And look, see the fluid trickling out?" I runher sides Her tail droops sadly between her little legs, and her big brown eyes stare at me hopefully Sorry, pup, I’m a midwife for women and have no idea how to help you
"What do you think?" the far his pooch on the head
Hester grunts "So the way I’ll exaet me some hot water, soap, and a stack of towels? I want to put her up on so into the kitchen I layer tels onto the oilcloth-covered table, then, hoping to look useful, open the vet’s bag, dig around in it, and pour some of the antiseptic soap I find inside into the washbowl Hester carefully cleanses his hands, takes the dog’s teer for more soap and reaches inside her Hilda doesn’t even look back; she’s thatone," he says as he pulls out "And it’s still aliveYou feel" He pours the antiseptic soap ona vaginal exaina is extre is all bu and wonder how he can be sure that the pup is alive when I feel its ue sweep by