"Angel's outhouse," he said and that made Ma and Pa Casteel laugh.
"Go ahead, have a good one on me," Luke said, "but when you see it, you'll stop."
Luke did put all his love for me in his work and he built as pretty an outhouse as could be. Afterward, he painted it white and insisted that we call it a bathroom instead of an outhouse. Ma teased him whenever she could.
"I'll be pin' ta ma outhouse. I mean, bathroom," she would say and Luke would swing his eyes away and shake his head.
Summer passed into fall. Luke made other improvements on the cabin, trying out some of the carpentry skills he was learning. He built Ma some cabinets and shelves and reinforced the porch and the porch steps. He closed up some of the leaks in the walls and floor, but his job in town began to take up more and more of his time. Pretty soon, he was coming home after dark and he was dead tired, almost too tired to eat dinner. Sometimes he would have whiskey on his breath. Whenever I mentioned it, he claimed he had to have a snort or two in order to get through the day.
"He's trying to get the work of two men out of me, angel," he told me one night after dinner. We would take a walk down a path through the woods that led to a clearing on a ridge overlooking the valley. It gave us a breathtaking view. We could see the lights of houses for miles and miles. "All the Winnerrow businessmen eventually take advantage of the Willies people," Luke explained. "I'm holding down my temper because I want to get started on our own home as soon as I can, but it's gettin' harder and harder."
"I don't like you drinking up your troubles and frustrations, Luke. Can't you find a different job?"
"There ain't that many jobs for us mountain folk. That's why I left the Willies so many times."
"I've been thinking, Luke. Maybe I should try to get in touch with my daddy. He owns a steamship company and I'm sure he would have a good job for you."
"What kind of a job? Working in the engine room of an ocean liner and bein' away from you most of the time?"
"I'm sure he could give you an office job, Luke."
"Me? An office job? I'd feel like a wild squirrel put in a cage. No sir, not me. I need the outdoors or the excitement of the circus, which is even a freer life."
"Do you want to go back to the circus after the baby is born, Luke?" I asked. "I'll go with you, if you want."
"Naw. Circus life is hard and you're travelin' all the time. I'll stick this out until we have our stake," he said.
"I could write my daddy and ask him to send him some of my money. There's money in a trust fund for me back at Farthy, too."
"We don't want any of that money," Luke snapped. It was the first time he ever got angry at me. Even in the dark with only the starlight, I saw how his eyes blazed with vexation. "I can take care of my own."
"I didn't mean to say you couldn
't, Luke,"
He nodded and immediately felt bad about raising his voice to me.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you, Angel. I'm just tired."
"Ma's right, Luke. You should take a day off. You work around here even when you get time off from your job. Let this be the Sunday we all get dressed up and go to church. Please, Luke."
"Well, okay," he said relenting.
Ma was happy about us going to church, but when we arrived there the following Sunday, I saw what Luke had meant about the townspeople looking down on the Willies people. As soon as we entered the church, you could cut the air with a knife. The fancy townspeople all turned and glared at us, their glares meant to keep us back in our place. Ma and Pa Casteel moved quickly to seats beside other Willies people I recognized, but I didn't budge.
Luke looked at me curiously. He was so handsome in his suit and tie with his hair slicked back, and even in my sixth month of pregnancy, I thought I looked just as pretty as these women and girls from Winnerrow. My dress was as expensive as, if not more expensive than, most of theirs, and no one had hair as soft. The rainwater shampoos had made mine even richer than it had been when I first arrived in the Willies.
I saw two empty places down front and tugged Luke toward them. He held back a moment and then looked at my face.
"I thought you wanted me to tell of the mayor of Winnerrow, first chance I got," I said. He smiled widely.
"Darn if I didn't," he said and followed me to the seats. The people in the pew sat back as if a wind had come gushing in and over them. They were all wide-eyed, curiosity mixing with outrage, but I stared them down until their eyes lowered and they relaxed. The minister took his place at the pulpit and preached a fine sermon about brotherly love, which I thought fit the day.
Afterward Ma came up to me and said, "I was right when I first laid eyes on ya, Angel Ya got the grit of a Casteel woman. I'm proud a ya."
"Thanks, Ma," I said.
After church on Sunday, the Willies people would gather for a hoedown. They would fiddle and dance and eat the food each family contributed. I helped serve and then sat back and watched as Luke and Pa sang and played the banjo. The men danced and the women clapped.