"Fallon Burchfield!" called old Nurse Hessie from the doorway to the two small exam cubicles. Her wrinkled face with red rouge cheeks and her blue tinted hair blended in with the faded wallpaper of Dr. Knowling's office. She was as stale and dry as the flower arrangements in the waiting room where Fallon sat.
Fallon rose from her rickety chair, an ancient National Geographic sliding carelessly from her hand. Golden waves of hair draped her shoulders; her best pink dress fell past her knees. Swollen feet gushed into her soft leather shoes, bearing little of the weight of her heavy heart.
"How are you feeling today, honey?" asked Nurse Hessie in her ancient arid voice, as she led Fallon to Exam Room "B".
"Fine. Just fine today." Fallon lied. "I have my good days and my bad days." One good day and two bad days had passed since the blood was drawn. Now the test results had come back from Metropolitan Hospital. She dreaded the sure-fire gossip that would eat up St. Friar as much as she dreaded the test results.
The tiny exam room smelled of ethanol and iodine. Fallon spun around on the little metal stool, toying with cotton balls as she waited. She had seen Dr. Knowling twice for the flu, and once for an infected toenail since he brought her into the world eighteen years ago. But today she was here for something much, much more troubling.
"Howdy, Fallon!" said the doctor in a slightly singsong Southern drawl. He had kept her waiting only twenty minutes. Dr. J. D. Knowling, M.D., G.P. was a kind and gentle old coot. The whole town of St. Friar, farmers and fishermen alike, came from the woods and river bends to seek his respected medical advice. "Miss Ellis didn't have as much arthritis to complain about today."
Miss Ellis, the bread and butter of Dr. Knowling's medical practice, sat across the hallway in Exam Room "A" chatting with Nurse Hessie. "The" Miss Ellis: Hypochondriac and Town Gossip Extraordinaire, not to mention Secretary of the Ladies Federation of St. Friar. Miss Ellis poked her nose toward Fallon and the doctor as Nurse Hessie ushered the little old lady out of Exam Room "A".
"Good day to you, Miss Fallon. How are you, dear?" queried Miss Ellis ever so politely, struggling to peek at Fallon over the doctor's shoulder.
"Fine. Just fine today, Miss Ellis. Nice to see you again." Fallon lied again.
"Good bye, Miss Ellis. I'll see you next week. You take care, now," said the doctor, patting her stooped shoulders as she shuffled toward the waiting room.
Turning again to Fallon, Dr. Knowling took off his bifocal glasses and wiped them with his red necktie. He leaned against the doorway, nervously picking at his bushy white-haired eyebrows. "Fallon, the test results are conclusive. No doubt about it."
Fallon Burchfield stopped spinning on the stool and steadied herself against the exam table. Heaving a huge breath, she gasped "Well? It's positive, ain't it doc?"
"Yes, the test came back positive. Less than six months, too, Fallon. I'll do all I can."
Fallon stared blankly at the doctor. Her peachy complexion whitened and her dark brown eyes welled with giant tears. Uncontrollable silent sobs shook her petite frame as she buried her teary face in the doctor's soft shoulder. Abruptly throwing the cotton balls on floor, she dashed past the rotund little doctor and out of the exam room. Nurse Hessie tottered after Fallon.
"Oh, dear me!" said Nurse Hessie, clasping a hand over her mouth in pity and sorrow. "In all my years...and such a young girl, too."
Miss Ellis stared inquiringly at Nurse Hessie as they watched Fallon round the corner by the post office in the next block.
The June sun was hot on Miss Ellis' stiff white hair. The old gossip walked down the narrow Main Street sidewalk to the post office to collect her daily mail. She pondered what could have happened to Fallon. It could only be one thing, she concluded.
Postmaster Spider Wilky was mopping the tiny post office floor. "Was that Miss Fallon I saw fly by here just now, Miss Ellis?" The skinny old black man knew everybody in town by name as well as he knew where they lived, but he relied on Miss Ellis to keep track of what they were doing.
"Yes sir, Spider, and the news isn't good, I fear." Miss Ellis opened her post office box, dropping her key. Spider picked up the key from the damp floor and handed it respectfully to her. Miss Ellis stabbed the key in the direction Fallon had run, and patted her paunchy old stomach at the same time.
"Oh! Please Lord, no. Not again". Spider was the Deacon at the First Church of St. Friar. "I had better go tell Pastor Jennings right away. You know what happened last time. He was the last to know and the Good Lord, too."
"I'll go tell the ladies at the Beauty Parlor, Spider. Maybe they can go out to see poor Mrs. Burchfield. She's such a nice lady, but to have a daughter like that! I know this thing with Fallon will tear her up again. Such a pity." Miss Ellis wagged her head in dismay and disgust. St. Friar was a nice town because of folks like Miss Ellis and Spider.
*****
Justin Pope wiped his greasy hands on a dirty red oil rag and threw down the spark plug wrench just as Boss Henry stormed into the tidy little bay of the ramshackle garage. Justin's expert mechanic work kept Boss in business, but Boss Henry was afraid of the hydraulic lift, so he stayed out front selling gas and soda pop to the customers.
"Spider Wilky just came by. He was goin' on about you and that Burchfield girl. You had better get outta here, boy, before the Burchfields show up. They liked to have tore down the place last summer when they come looking for you." Boss Henry had a bullfrog voice that boomed when he was mad. "Idjit! Ain't you never gonna learn nuthin'? Get yourself up to town and join the Army. Go make somethin' good of yourself instead of worryin' me and the whole town with your gallivantin' around with that Burchfield girl. Now git!"
"Huh? I ain't done nuthin', Boss." Justin was mystified by Boss Henry's yelling, but just by the blustery tone, Justin knew that he was in trouble again. "Sure, Boss. I'll get on out. It's too darn hot to work today anyway. You can call Mr. Henly at the funeral parlor and tell him the hearse is ready. Just a set of plugs and an oil change." Justin loped out of the garage, tucking the oily red rag in his denim coverall. He headed to the drug store on Main Street where the old druggist Mr. Peabody sold the cold soda in town.
Miss Ellis stood in front of the Beauty Shop with the other old biddies, Pauline, Hazel, and Millie. They talked excitedly together until they spied Justin across the street buying an orange soda at the drug store. They glowered self-righteously at Justin until he turned down Third Street where the Burchfields lived.
Justin was puzzled by Boss Henry's ranting and by the visual dressing down Miss Ellis and her snooty socialite caste had just given him. He swigged his cold orange soda, then pressed the chilly bottle to his cheek, trying to think. He was always trying to think. Justin wiped his sweaty face with the oily rag, leaving a smear of black grease on his chin. Most of the town folk were tolerably nice, but not today. He figured he better go see Fallon right away to find out what was wrong.
Justin waved to Pastor Jennings as he flew by in his big black Cadillac. The fat preacher failed to notice Justin on the sidewalk. Spider and two of his daughters rattled by in their old pick up truck, their tan colored mutt in the back. A minute later, Miss Ellis and the three ladies drove by slowly in her fancy new Ford. All three cars stopped in front of the Burchfield house on Third Street. The town folk piled out of their cars in a dither and ran up onto the porch. Mr. and Mrs. Burchfield came out of the big white house and began hugging each of the righteously concerned citizens.
Justin walked slowly, trying to decipher the confusion at Fallon's shady front porch four blocks ahead. The group on the Burchfield porch pointed and waved at him. He heard sobbing and crying. Justin immediately ran the other way.
Justin ran full speed down to the river a mile away from Third and Main. Gasping and out of breath, he slid down the mossy bark of a big oak tree by the riverbank. Mopping his sweaty face again with the oily rag, Justin sat staring at the dark river water. The last time the town folks acted like this toward him was just before Fallon's accident last summer. Miss Ellis practically tarred and feathered him. Pastor Jennings wanted to crucify him. Justin had told them all that he would have married Fallon, but after the accident, well, it just wasn't necessary any more. Didn't they understand that? Fallon had understood. Small town folks are so unforgiving.
""Humph! 'Idjit' they call me," Justin chided himself. "We was extra careful this time. No accidents."
A car door slammed at the johnny boat landing a quarter mile up stream. Justin hunkered down in the bushes by the oak tree. Three men and a lady started down the riverbank straight for Justin. "Justin Pope! Justin! We know you're down here! We saw you hightail it this way. Come on up, boy. There's no place to hide!"
Justin's knees were shaking. "Another whuppin' for sure," he moaned. "I wonder if Army sergeants are this mean?" Justin felt like drowning himself in the murky river water. He looked out over the riverbank, and thought how pretty it all looked today, just like Fallon always looked to him. No matter what the town folks think, she's still a good girl, and he loved her. Shoot, they might as well go ahead and get married this time, barring another accident. If Fallon hadn't fallen off the porch, maybe he'd be a Daddy by now. Fallon never told him how she fell. Mr. Burchfield always got real mad about it, and he never let Fallon talk about the accident.
Maybe Boss Henry would let him go back to work. Maybe Miss Ellis and all the ladies would throw a nice party for Fallon. Maybe old Spider might even speak to him again. Justin was trying to think again.
"All right! I'm here! Over here!" shouted Justin. He crawled out from the brush and stood by the river. Mr. Burchfield, Pastor Jennings and Spider Wilky walked in a single file along the bank. Who was that behind them? Fallon?
"Boy, don't never run like that again. We all was worried about you. You come with us now. I mean it. Come on, boy." Mr. Burchfield had been crying. His puffy face was even more puffed and red now. Pastor Jennings wiped his round sweaty face with a white handkerchief. Behind Spider stood Fallon.
"Justin, you come on, now," said Fallon sorrowfully. Her eyes were red from crying, but her face was calm. We gotta go back up to my house now. Miss Ellis and all the ladies, plus my momma are waitin'."
"I thought…" started Justin, but Fallon put her hand softly over his mouth.
"Just shut up and come on, you idjit." said Fallon, her voice soft and strange in Justin's ear. She patted the grease off Justin's chin with a small laced hanky. Brushing his straight brown hair off his forehead, Fallon kissed the tall young man on the cheek.
Miss Ellis, and the three ladies were standing on the shady Burchfiled porch when the car pulled up. Justin thought they all looked like mourners from the Henly Funeral Parlors. Miss Ellis had never been what Justin could call 'nice' to him, and now she hugged him with her scrawny arms and pecked his cheek with her old wrinkled lips. He could smell her lilac perfume, and he felt the stiffness of her lace collar against his cheek.
"If it's still all right, Mr. and Mrs. Burchfield, I'll just go ahead and start now," said Pastor Jennings, flipping open his thick dog-eared Bible. " Spider and Miss Ellis can be the God witness to it."
"What the San Juan Hill is goin' on here?" Justin protested as he was jostled up beside Fallon by the strong hand of Mr. Burchfield. The ladies gathered behind Miss Ellis, and Spider's daughters stood by the porch steps holding their old dog by a short leather strap.
"I owe this to you, boy," croaked Mr. Burchfield to Justin. "Should have let happen last summer. I should have….", he trailed off in tears of anguish. Mrs. Burchfiled stood silently by, holding her husband's arm.
" Justin, join hands with Fallon," said the Pastor. "I'm fixin' to marry you both."
"Married! I didn't do nuthin', I swear! I was, we was, careful!" Justin piped frantically. "Fallon, tell them you ain't expectin' again! We was careful! I love you, but…"
"Shut up," said Fallon, tears rolling down her flushed cheeks. "I love you!"
"Then why are we havin' a shotgun 
ing without the shotgun? Why can't I get my Daddy to come? What's goin' on here?" Justin cried in a panic. He gripped Fallon's hand until she winced with pain.
" You idjit, I ain't pregnant again," Fallon whispered into Justin's ear. "This is my dyin' wish. Doc Knowling says I got cancer of the blood."
The End
PS: This story is written by my friend Bobby Keyes
So, I liked it very much and I asked him for his permission! to post the topic in this LOVELY forum!
Hope you enjoyed the story, And all it's needs just some replys from you guys!
Adios!!
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