The Environment and Environmental Activism in Appalachia
The prince told her she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, and then he asked if she would marry him. And they all lived happily ever after.” Mae Horner brought the two sides of the book briskly together with a satisfying slap.
“That was really very good, Mae.”
“I read it through four times yesterday after I collected the wood.”
“Well, it shows. I do believe your reading is as good as any girl’s in this county.”
“She’s smart all right.”
Alice looked up to where Jim Horner stood in the doorway. “Like her mama. Her mama could read since she was three years old. Grew up in a houseful of books over near Paintsville.”
“I can read too,” said Millie, who had been sitting by Alice’s feet.
“I know you can, Millie,” said Alice. “And your reading is very good too. Honestly, Mr. Horner, I don’t think I’ve ever met two children take to it like yours have.”
He suppressed a smile. “Tell her what you did, Mae,” he said.
The girl looked at him, just to check for her father’s approval.
“Go on.”
“I made a pie.”
“You made a pie? By yourself?”
“From a recipe. In that Country Home magazine you left us. A peach pie. I would offer you a slice but we ate it all.”
Millie giggled. “Daddy ate three pieces.”
“I was hunting up in North Ridge and she got the old range going and everything. And I walked in the door and there was a smell like . . .” He lifted his nose and closed his eyes, recalling the scent. His face briefly lost its habitual hardness. “I walked in and there she was, with it all laid out on the table. She had followed every one of those instructions to a T.”
“I did burn the edges a little.”
“Well, your mama always did the same.”
The three of them sat in silence for a moment.
“A peach pie,” said Alice. “I’m not sure we can keep up with you, young Mae. What can I leave you girls this week?”
“Did Black Beauty come in yet?”
“It did! And I remembered what you said about wanting it so I brought it with me. How about that? Now, the words in this one are a little longer, so you may find it a little harder. And it’s sad in places.”
Jim Horner’s expression changed.
“I mean for the horses. There are some sad bits for the horses. The horses talk. It’s not easy to explain.”
“Maybe I can read to you, Daddy.”
“My eyes ain’t too good,” he explained. “Can’t seem to aim the way I used to. But we get by.”
“I can see that.” Alice sat in the center of the little cabin that had once spooked her so much. Mae, although only eleven, appeared to have taken charge of it, sweeping and organizing so that where it had once seemed bleak and dark, there was now a distinct homeliness, with a bowl of apples in the center of the table and a quilt across the chair. She packed up her books and confirmed that everyone was happy with what she had brought. Millie hugged her around her neck and she held her fiercely. It was some time since anybody had pulled her close and it provoked strange, conflicting feelings.
“It’s a whole seven days till we see you again,” the girl announced solemnly. Her hair smelled of woodsmoke and something sweet that existed only in the forest. Alice breathed it in.
“It certainly is. And I can’t wait to see how much you’ve read in the meantime.”
“Millie! This one’s got drawings in it too!” Mae called, from the floor. Millie released Alice and hunkered down by her sister. Alice watched them for a moment, then made her way to the door, shrugging on her coat, a once fashionable tweed blazer that was now scuffed with moss and mud and sprouted messy threads where it had caught on bushes and branches. The mountain had grown distinctly colder these last days, as if winter were settling into its foundations.
“Miss Alice?”
“Yes?”
The girls were bent over Black Beauty, Millie’s finger tracing the words as her sister read aloud.
Jim looked behind him, as if making sure their focus was elsewhere. “I wanted to apologize.”
Alice, who had been tying her scarf, stopped.
“After my wife passed I was not myself for a while. Felt like the sky was falling in, you know? And I was not . . . hospitable when you first came by. But these last couple of months, seeing the girls stop