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When the river come up
high as the front door of Elrod's
old rust-bucket '56 Chevy,
Uncle Joe and Aunt Vittie reckoned
they'd hightail it for town
while they's still a chance to pack off.
But Memaw Slone swore
a blue million times she ain't a'leavin
and for them to go on,
that she'd be right comftable where she set
in her old mahogany rockin chair,
that the river'd come up a right smart lick
in her day and she never run,
not once.
So bein's as they was just visiting
they packed off for town
figgering her boy Elrod would be
back to the house directly, but
knowing he'd have to get a jug
down his fool neck first,
and only then he'd come, tho
he'd been gone a spell and Memaw
was just fixin to wait on him.
The river was spittin up old tars,
baby carriages, barrels that'd been used
for targets with shotgun holes clean thru,
big logs with rottin limbs stickin up,
treetops that looked green,
all from upriver.
Memaw seen all of it in the rain,
seen it swelling up to her back porch,
seen it gettin dark from the hills throwin shada's
but she wasn't about to take and leave.
Time Uncle Joe and Aunt Vittie got to town
it was just a'rainin to beat the band
and they got to thinking bout Memaw
down to the river, cuz
they seen Elrod laid out at
Jesse's pool hall on a table
at the winda when they drove by.
Uncle Joe knowed Memaw wouldnt've left
for nothin. He knew cuz when Papaw died
she swore she'd never leave the hill,
or Papaw's marker.
And now he was thinkin it wasn't a
good thang a'happenin, what with all the rain
a beatin down and all,
that the river must've been higher'n
a cat's back by then.
So Uncle Joe, he dropped Aunt Vittie
off at her cousin Effie's house
instead of going all the way out to the farm,
and picked up Sheriff Farley
to go and fetch Memaw.
In the meantime they was river water
flowin onto Memaw's back porch and she was
settin in her rocker in front of the pot belly,
smokin her pipe and watching out the winda,
and she seen all of it in the rain.
Uncle Joe and Sheriff Farley was talkin
about how the re-ports was gettin worse
upstream to Salt Lick and
the wether-man a sayin more rain likely a comin.
They was gettin worried cuz
it was still a half hour drive to
the old clapboard house that Papaw had
bilt hisself, even before Uncle Joe was born.
And the road got worse and slick
and Pine poles fell over and Uncle Joe
had to put his Ford in 4-wheel mud drive
and only then clumb over them.
Uncle Joe got real scared when they
crossed Muddobber crick and the
bridge was washed out, and when
they reached to the top of the hill
they could see Memaw's house a foot
into riverwater.
But Memaw wasn't scared.
She set in her rocker and smoked her pipe
like nobody's bizness, and
the rain a poundin all around,
and the river seepin in on all her house plunder,
but she wasn't scared atal.
Uncle Joe and Sheriff Farley were
slippin down the hill almost to the house
when danged if the old shack didn't
make the loudest POP sound and
started to by God float.
Uncle Joe got scared and hit a tree head on,
then he got out and watched Memaw
and the house slip between the Pines
and Sycamores heading downriver.
Sheriff Farley stood in the rain thinkin
she's gone now, and Uncle Joe figgered the same
and reckoned he mit just start to cry.
But Memaw set in her rocker,
and smoked her pipe and
looked out the winda and
saw Papaw's marker on the hillside
and shoot me if I'm lyin but
that house swung around and caught end up
dead on Papaw's marker and was
saved from breakin up downriver.
And there that house floated.
And Uncle Joe and Sheriff Farley stood
a lookin and a lookin and
not believin their eyes.
And Memaw set in her rocker,
that Papaw had bilt,
and smoked her pipe,
that Papaw had carved,
and thunk to herself
what a hellofa carpenter her
man had been.
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