River Deep, Mountain High
Standard disclaimers apply to this piece of Christy fan fiction.
This story continues where the TV series left off.
Any similarities to other works of Christy fan fiction are purely coincidental and unintentional.
Chapter 37
It was a balmy Sunday afternoon, and it finally felt as if winter was giving up its hold in the mountains and leading the way to the warmer days of spring. Because of the milder weather, it was decided that the singing would be held outdoors where everyone would have more room to picnic and dance. Church services having just concluded, the women were busy laying out a grand assortment of fresh baked pies, bread, and fried chicken while the men moved many of the benches to the grounds just outside the church-schoolhouse.
Christy helped Fairlight spread out one of her beautiful hand-sewn quilts over the soft grass so they could sit for lunch. There was a flurry of activity all around, people rushing in and out of the church with handfuls of food and children running around playing games among the patchwork of blankets covering the ground. Many of the women had gathered and began to sing hymns, and Christy could hear Aunt Hattie's distinct voice ringing clearly from the throng. It was truly a gift from God, she thought.
As the singing continued, Christy sat with a plate of food on her lap, barely touching it while she searched the horizon for any sign of an approaching horse and rider. She heard Jeb and the rest of the musicians begin to tune up their instruments, and she felt her heart sink that Neil had not yet arrived.
"Miz Christy, ye best eat yer lunch an' stop frettin'," Fairlight said, noticing her obvious distraction. "He'll be here soon enough."
Turning to her friend sitting next to her on the quilt, Christy sighed audibly. "Oh, Fairlight, what if he can't make it? Or what if he forgot?"
"I know Neil MacNeill 'bout as good as anyone," Fairlight began. "And I know nothin' would keep him away from a singin', not to mention my blueberry pie. He'll be here. You mark my words." she said reassuringly.
As if on cue, Christy looked up when she heard the sound of hoof beats growing louder and heading in the direction of the Mission property. It was Doctor MacNeill. Christy breathed a sigh of relief even as her pulse began to race with anticipation.
Seeing the change in Christy's expression from anxiety to joy, Fairlight remarked, "See, there he is." She leaned in closer to her friend and spoke softly, as if sharing a secret. "I'll go signal to Jeb to start the music."
Fairlight rose from her spot on the blanket and ran over to where her husband was sitting with the other musicians. The music then started, and Jeb called out to everyone to get up and join in for a reel. Folks rose from their spots and gathered in closer to the musicians. They formed a pair of parallel lines, ladies on one side and men on the other, facing each other. Christy's eyes were fixed on Neil dismounting Charlie when Fairlight pulled her over to the ladies' side.
The sight of Neil nearly took her breath away and made her mouth go dry. His hair was neatly combed, and beneath his coat, he wore a colorful and familiar plaid vest over a clean off-white shirt. Christy suddenly remembered where she had seen that vest before. It was the one he wore that day when she served him burnt chicken and blackberry cobbler, and they shared a dance by the river. Only the dance had not ended the way she would have liked. Her plan to seduce the doctor into accepting Dan Scott as a student and partner in his medical practice had initially backfired. She only hoped this little scheme would work out better than the previous one had.
Neil had just tied Charlie to a post when he too was grabbed by Jeb to join the dancers so there would be an even number of men and women. Haphazardly tossing his coat over the saddle, he was hurried over to the formation and positioned at one end opposite Christy. The music having already started, Jeb began to sing to initiate the dancing before Neil and Christy even had a chance to greet each other. The pair began to circle around each other in figure eights to the lively tune.
Neil moved deftly and gracefully across the ground, his feet accustomed to the traditional Scottish country dance. He, too, was impressed with how well Christy was dancing. Skirts swirling around her ankles and hair bun bouncing on top of her head, she looked positively radiant, Neil thought. He smiled happily, thoroughly enjoying the exertion of the vigorous movements. The music and Christy's joyous expression swept away any trace of Neil's fears and doubts, even the memories of that night he had hurt Christy so badly.
Christy found that she could not take her eyes off of Neil. His curls, once painstakingly combed back, quickly sprung loose and bounced in front of his face in long coppery spirals. He looked boyishly handsome, Christy thought, and the gleam on his smiling face indicated that he was truly enjoying himself.
The music seemed to end much too soon, and the line of men and women separated into their final bows and curtsies. Neil and Christy were breathless, applauding heartily at the musicians, but they scarcely had time to rest as Jeb immediately called out another dance. This time, however, it was a slower couples' dance.
Bessie Coburn crossed the dance area in front of Christy and scooped up John Spencer to be her partner. His daughter having recently turned eighteen and John now a full partner in the honey business with Jeb and Tom MacHone, Kyle Coburn finally gave his permission for the two to be married. The wedding was supposed to take place the first Saturday in May.
Her chest heaving, Christy looked around a little awkwardly and shyly at first, but then approached Neil, her back ramrod straight as she built up her courage. "Hello, Neil. May I have the pleasure of this dance?" she asked with a broad smile.
Neil flashed an easy grin in return. "Good afternoon, Miss Huddleston. I always thought it was up to the man to ask a woman for a dance," he teased.
"Since when have you known me to be conventional, Doctor?" Christy responded, her eyes sparkling. "Besides, you once told me you admired my independent spirit."
"Very true indeed," he agreed and then bent to bow with flair. "I would be honored to dance with you, Miss Huddleston."
Giggling softly, Christy curtsied with mock propriety. They moved in closer together, Neil taking Christy's right hand in his while the other circled her tiny waist. The two moved and glided together in a slow waltz as if they were one. Neil led expertly, and Christy easily and willingly followed. She thought for sure that he could hear or even feel her heart pounding in her chest at the closeness. She began to hold her breath unconsciously. Neil never took his gaze from her, and the world fell away as he lost himself in the deep blue pools of her eyes.
The music slowed, and the musicians held the final note suspended for several long seconds. Neil's hand fell away from Christy's waist as he whirled her around three times and then brought her back to him, catching her with both hands and dipping her back unexpectedly with a dramatic finish. Breathless, Christy lost her footing and nearly stumbled as Neil brought her upright again. His hands lingered for a moment around her waist, causing the blush to rise in her cheeks. She smiled at him and pulled away slightly to regain control over her balance as well as her emotions. Christy's head was spinning. Her thoughts were swimming, and her heart beat rapidly
Looking concerned, Neil examined her with his doctor's eye. "Are you alright, Christy? You look a little flushed."
"Perhaps we should sit the next one out," Christy suggested. "I'm feeling a bit dizzy."
She pulled away from him a bit more to steady herself. She smiled weakly and tried to reassure him. "I'll be fine. That last turn just caught me off guard."
"Let's go sit down for a bit on the schoolhouse steps," Neil recommended.
Christy nodded, and Neil led her towards the steps, one hand lightly gripping her arm in support. They sat in a companionable silence for a few minutes and listened to Jeb sing a an old folk ballad while Christy stabilized her breathing and attempted to still her mind.
"Feeling better now?" Neil asked.
Christy looked at him and smiled. "Yes. Thank you, Neil. I guess I got a bit carried away by the music."
"Music certainly has a tremendous power over the human spirit," he remarked. "The notes and melodies can evoke so many different emotions. They can transport your mind to faraway worlds."
She observed Neil carefully for a moment. He seemed to be off in another world himself, she thought. "Is that why you like to listen to the Victrola while you fish?" Christy wondered.
"I suppose," he answered. "I find it relaxes me, puts me in a different frame of mind that makes anything that was bothering me or causing me unrest to temporarily disappear." Neil shifted his gaze to look at her. "I can concentrate on the music instead of focusing on my problems."
Christy nodded in understanding. "I feel that way when I draw. I usually start out sketching an image or memory that I can't get out of my mind, sometimes even troubling ones. But I soon get lost in the motion of my hand and the strokes of the charcoal across the paper. I always end up feeling better in the end."
"You'll have to show me some of these masterpieces, Christy," Neil said with sincerity. "I don't know that I have ever seen them."
Christy suddenly felt a little embarrassed and felt her eyes drifting away. "Oh, I don't usually show them to anyone. They're a little personal. Almost like a diary."
"That's alright. I understand," he said.
Another minute of silence passed between them as they were each occupied by their own thoughts.
"Are you ready to go back and join the festivities?" Neil asked.
Nodding affirmatively, Christy rose from the steps, and the two of them joined the others to continue a pleasant afternoon of singing, dancing, and conversing.
Later that night in her room, Christy undressed, washed her face, and put on her nightgown in preparation for bed. The music from earlier that day was whirling around in her brain, and she began to sway and shuffler her feet slightly in time to the music in her head. She felt wonderful…and so very alive.
She closed her eyes and tried to recreate the feeling of being in Neil's arms when they danced but was unable to. Sighing loudly, she decided to get some sleep since she had school the next day and needed to get an early start. She nestled into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin to ward off the night chill. Eyes fluttering shut again, Christy thought about the magnificent day she'd had and hoped that the memories of dancing with Neil MacNeill would fill her night with sweet dreams.
***
Chapter 38
The classroom buzzed with anticipation as Doctor MacNeill strode through the center aisle and stood at the front podium with Christy. It was the first time in months that he had come to school to give a special science presentation. The students chattered amongst themselves for a few minutes while Neil set out his things for the demonstration. Christy tried to keep the children's voices from growing too loud with excitement, but she had to admit that she was just as excited as they were. She did not know what Neil had in store for them that day.
Once the doctor had everything laid out on the table, ready to go, he called the room to attention so he could begin.
"Good afternoon, class," he said. "Miss Huddleston asked me to give another lesson on science since it has been quite some time since my last visit. Today we are going to learn about the properties of magnets and magnetism."
Neil began to explain to the class about how things all around them are made up of tiny particles invisible to the naked eye called atoms, each of which are composed of protons and electrons. "Protons have a positive charge, and electrons have a negative charge," he told them. "When there are more protons than electrons, the atom takes on a positive charge, and vice versa. If you put two things with negative charges near each other, they push apart from each other, and so do two things with positive charges. But when an object that has a positive charge comes close to an object that has a negative charge, they will pull toward each other. In other words, things with opposite charges are attracted to each other because they are both seeking balance. This pushing and pulling is called magnetism."
Neil drew diagrams on the chalkboard to demonstrate this principle. Then he turned back around to face the children and held out two bar magnets in his hand.
"These pieces of iron are magnets, and each magnet has two poles. A North Pole and a South Pole," Neil explained, pointing to the labeled ends. "The North Pole is positively charged, and the South Pole is negatively charged. Magnets produce an invisible force created by electricity that pulls charged things toward them. Because the magnets themselves are changed, if I bring them close together, you can see that they begin to want to be closer to each other, and they eventually will stick." He held out the two magnets which were now stuck together. "They were attracted to each other because they were different. I brought a North Pole and a South Pole together."
"Ye mean opposites attract?" Creed Allen asked.
Neil smiled at the boy's keen perception. "Yes, that is exactly right. It is what's called magnetic attraction. And conversely, if I turn one magnet around so that now two similar poles are facing each other, they begin to push away from, or repel, each other."
The doctor passed around the pair of bar magnets so that each of the children could feel the attraction and repulsion of the magnetic force. They were amazed at power of this invisible force.
"Hit's like magic!" Lulu Spencer squealed with delight as the magnets jumped together in her hand.
Creed's eyes went wide when he had his turn. Then his head tilted to one side and his face scrunched up contemplatively for a moment. "Doc MacNeill, is this magnetic attraction why some folks like each other an' others don't?"
"I'm not sure I know what you mean, Creed," he replied.
"Waal, I recall my pa sayin' how Ruby Mae used ta run after my brother Rob seein' as how she wuz 'tracted to 'im an' all. An' at first, Rob seemed mighty re-pelled by her. Least 'til she started bathin' regular-like."
The class immediately erupted in raucous laughter.
"Creed Allen!" Christy interjected, moving closer to the mischievous boy, her hands on her hips in a no-nonsense stance. "You know better than to make rude remarks like that."
Ruby Mae was no longer a student at the school since she had officially graduated at the end of the previous summer. However, she worked and boarded at the Mission, waiting patiently for Rob to establish himself as a writer so they could become engaged. Christy was especially fond of the red-headed chatterbox, and she took any negative comments about the girl quite personally.
The toe-headed boy looked at Christy questioningly, not understanding what he had said wrong. He seemed troubled that the teacher would even think he meant to insult anyone. "I ain't makin' fun o' Ruby Mae, Miz Christy. I wuz jes talkin' 'bout attraction, like the Doc."
Neil grinned sheepishly and fought hard against the laughter that was bubbling inside him. Reining in his amusement and putting on a serious facade, he decided to explain. "Creed, that is a different kind of attraction altogether. The kind of attraction between two humans, especially a male and a female, is much more complex and difficult to define." Neil sent a sidelong glance at Christy, winking playfully. She caught his glimpse and looked away shyly, feeling the blood flow to the surface of her cheeks. "You will learn when you are older that the simple principles of magnetism, and in fact, most scientific explanations, do not necessarily apply when it comes to understanding people and human relationships."
Making his way to the front of the classroom, Neil continued further, steering away from the tangent on human nature back to the original topic. "Even the Earth has a big magnet running through the middle of it. Liquid iron at the core creates the Earth's magnetism." He held up a small round device in his hand. "I am sure many of you have seen a compass before. It consists of a magnetized pointer and works by using the Earth's own magnetism to point in the direction of north."
Neil extended the demonstration on magnetic attraction. He held a magnet close to each of the various objects he had laid out when he first arrived: a pencil, eraser, small pile of straight pins, knife, coins, piece of cloth, paper, nail, tin jar lid, marble. Neil had the children guess which objects would be attracted to the magnet and which would not, and then he provided the appropriate explanation in terms that even the youngest children could understand. The interactive lesson was very well received, and the children were happily diverted for another hour until Christy signaled that it was time to break for the dinner spell.
The children bounded down the stairs and out of the schoolhouse to play and eat lunch. Christy stayed inside with Neil while he put away all the items he had brought with him for the presentation. Once again, she was thoroughly impressed by Doctor MacNeill's ability to take a complicated subject like magnetism and make it accessible and understandable to her younger students and still fascinating enough to keep the attention of the older ones. He was a much better teacher than he gave himself credit for, she thought.
"As always, Doctor, you have enthralled and educated both the students and their teacher," Christy praised him, beaming outwardly.
"It was my pleasure, Miss Huddleston," he replied. "I was afraid we were going to get sidetracked into a lesson about the birds and the bees." Looking up from his task of clearing off her desk, he flashed Christy a boyish grin, his eyes sparkling from behind ruddy curls.
"I don't know what I am going to do about Creed Allen," Christy shook her head and sighed. "The things that come out of that boy's mouth sometimes…" Her admonishing words drifted away, and she soon found herself chuckling in spite of herself. If nothing else, he was smart as a whip. If only she could harness that intelligence in the right direction, she mused.
"I'm sure he'll grow out of it soon enough," Neil said. "It is that kind of curiosity that shows real promise, Christy. After all, I was once an inquisitive boy like Creed Allen, and I turned out fine."
Christy raised one brow and shot him a quizzical look. Soon they were laughing together and smiling, the air between them easy and comfortable.
Once packed up, Neil slung his saddle bag across his shoulder and walked with Christy toward the front door. They descended the stairs together and stopped next to Neil's horse Charlie. He secured the bag over the saddle horn and then turned back around to face Christy.
"Thank you again, Neil. It was a wonderful presentation. I know you have a busy schedule, and I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time out to come to school today," Christy said gratefully.
"You're very welcome, Christy. Any time."
Neil paused and searched her eyes for a moment. He had not forgotten how terribly he treated Christy that night, despite the fact that she had not mentioned it even once. He was about to broach the subject and offer her a complete apology, but then Christy, sensing the change in his manner and expression, stopped him before he uttered even a single word of apology or explanation.
"No, wait there, Neil. I'll be right back." She whipped around, grabbed her skirts in her hand, and ran up the stairs into the schoolhouse, leaving Neil dumbfounded.
Seconds later, she emerged from the building and sprinted back to his side holding a book in her hand. "I nearly forgot. My father sent a book of English and Scottish poetry. He wanted you to have it as a token of his continued appreciation for helping him recover from his stroke." Christy held out the small leather bound book with gold embossing on the cover to him. "I marked a special poem in it for you that I thought you might enjoy."
Again, he tried to begin his apology and was cut short a second time. She put her free hand on his with a gentle urging. "Please, Neil. Don't. Just read the poem."
He lifted his eyes to gaze at hers, skeptically, but Christy simply smiled at him brightly. No sooner than he accepted the book, she turned around and sprung back up the steps, disappearing into the schoolhouse. Neil stood there baffled for several long moments. He put the book in his saddlebag, mounted Charlie, and rode in the direction of his cabin.
Later that night when the sun was sinking low behind the mountains, Neil pulled out the book of poetry that Christy had given him. He opened it to the marked page and read the poem.
Forgiveness
By John Greenleaf Whittier
My heart was heavy, for its trust had been
Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men,
One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
The green mounds of the village burial-place;
Where, pondering how all human love and hate
Find one sad level; and how, soon or late,
Wronged and wrongdoer, each with meekened face,
And cold hands folded over a still heart,
Pass the green threshold of our common grave,
Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave,
Swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave!
Neil read and re-read the poem in the dim orange-yellow glow of lamplight. My heart was heavy, for its trust had been abused…Like a mighty wave, swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave. He traced the words on the page with his fingers unconsciously, realizing that through the poem, Christy was essentially telling him that she had forgiven him for that night and the awful things he had said to her. The gift from her father – this book of poetry – was actually a gift from Christy. It was the gift of her forgiveness.
Neil smiled and marveled to himself at the wonder that was Christy Huddleston. She managed to completely erase the last trace of guilt he harbored after his hateful outburst many weeks ago. With her simple, honest actions, she eased his troubled spirit and soothed his pride when it should have been the other way around. He was the one who should have been making amends and consoling her hurt feeling, Neil admitted.
But none of that seemed to matter now. Christy had forgiven him, and the method she chose to tell him indicated that he never needed to bring up what happened that night again. It was as good as forgotten, and Neil believed that things were only going to improve between them. Like the old adage went: Once broken, twice as strong for the mending. Neil knew that his relationship with Christy would truly be stronger in the end.
***
TO BE CONTINUED