Nobody Can Say It's You

64

"Dougal Orner!" Estill had said angrily. "I know you took it. Don't deny it. Do not lie to me. I mean it, Dougal, just give it back. I want you to put it back where I had it this instant."

Dougal stared at his mother like she had three heads. He had no idea what had put her on the warpath this time. There was absolutely no telling. The old hag was crazy. Stark-raving, bug-eyed, off her rocker. And what was she accusing him of stealing this time? If it she wasn't so paranoid, she'd enjoy life a lot more.

"What are you talkin' about, Mama?"

It wasn't like this was the first time her stuff had gone missing.

Dougal was always "borrowing" things from her shed. He'd done it since he was little. Estill's stocked shelves were a boy's dream shop. He'd eaten stuff that had sent him to the moon. He'd sniffed or smoked or rubbed his skin with everything on those shelves.

And his mother never seemed to mind. Even if she did, she never did anything about it. She was too busy in her own little world of spells and brews.

Who cared?

Dougal sure as heck didn't. She had probably misplaced whatever it was she was grouching about anyway. He didn't have time for this. He had not had time for Estill for a long time now.

Once Dougal met Chandra, he'd lain off his experimentation with the herbs, seeds, lotions, and gooey salves that were his mother's creations. Chandra could send him over the mountain faster than anything else ever could. But, lately, Chandra was becoming a pain in the butt. Was he tiring of her? He didn't know. She was like all females, Dougal decided.

A lot of trouble.

She was on the rag a lot. Dougal was beginning to wonder if he wouldn't be better served by having a stable of girlfriends instead of just one steady beau.

But it was hard to catch the other girls' eyes. So many of the town boys their age had their own cars or access, at least, to their parents' automobiles. Life was as hard as a rock if you lived way back like he and Estill did. Maybe he should quit school and see if he couldn't find a job somewhere.

Off the mountain.

It would have to be away from here. Jobs were scarcer than hen's teeth for rough mountain boys like him.

And what about his mother? What would she do without him? He hunted and helped her in the garden when he felt like it. 

But Dougal knew that when push came to shove, he'd leave Estill stranded and starving in split second. All he needed was somebody to come along and offer him a good job.

But that was about as likely to happen as pigs sprouting wings and taking off for a South Seas vacation. So, here he was. Stuck on a mountain with a crazy mama and a bleak future. It was depressing.

 Dougal ignored his mother's accusations. He wandered off into the woods. He still had a pocketful of seeds and herbs. Maybe he'd down a few and smoke some of the leaves later.

***

Estill would calm down. No matter what. She always did. Her anger was like a fast-moving storm. Here and gone and spent. She'd given lip service to all the things she was going to do to straighten him out since he could remember.

And that's all her ranting had amounted to.

Lip service.

A hot-air wind storm that just blew up a lot of dust. A lot of ear-splitting noise that never amounted to anything.

No good, really, except for grating and rubbing your last nerve plum raw.

Dougal wasn't afraid of her. He never had been. Instinctively, he had always known he held the upper hand with his mother. She was clay in his hands. He wandered off for some solitude and blessed silence.

There was something that was sawing at his nerves lately. He could feel it in the tight muscle in his temple. His mother's voice, especially when she was angry, was like a hot brand on his skin.

Would he snap one day?

Lose his head?

Walk out on Estill and leave the mountain?

Do something worse?

He just didn't know.

Dougal popped a few more seeds. Their effects were starting to take hold. His head began to swim and the flashing lights began to twinkle before his eyes.

"The Book," Estill said. "I want it back, Dougal."

"I don't have it. Have you asked Chandra?" Dougal asked. "Maybe she swiped it. I haven't touched it."

Let his mother fuss until the cows came home, Dougal decided, staggering off deep into the woods.