Summary: young Professor Blair Sandburg comes to a backwoods mountain to comfirm the existence of a sentinel--all from the yellowed newspaper clipping of a boy lost for many days from his family, who reportedly claimed his sight and hearing strangely skewed, who spoke of a ghost boy who held his hand until he was rescued into the safety of his mother's arms. Blair has fallen into the path of Cassie, his sentinel's younger sister, who tells of a harrowing experience she, her brother and mother endured many years ago.
She continued, "I knee-lid down and shook him to a fare-yee-well, to brang him ter hiz senses. He woke up, saw me a-bawlin. Well, I mannijed to choke out whuz ole Kinkade wuz ur doin' to Mamma. He took off on a hard run, me berhind him."
"I grabbed a-holt of his suspenders and kep' up wif him. JimmyJoe were a powful runner--he wuz rat fast."
Cassie paused and trembled. Blair rubbed her elbow. "It isn't necessary to continue..."
"Naw, iz awright ter tell yer, Blair. I nose somepin' 'bowt yer that I jus' cain't 'member yit..."
Blair was stunned, "Cassie, we've never met. Why would you think you know 'something about me'...that you don't remember?"
She shooks her curls, "Ize doan no. Yit. But it needs a-tellin' if'n yew happen-lak to meet devil Kin...Kinkade agin'".
She continued. "Wellze, I wuz ah follerin' 'long 'hind JimmyJoe...he wuddunt makin' no soun's neither, he wuz lak Mamma, but I wuz a snufflin', an' I cries out, "JimmyJoe, you gifts me yore Arkansas toothpick. I aims ter kill me a varmint man."
"Hush," he said, real sof' lak. "Did Daddy taken hiz gun wif him?"
JimmyJoe haddunt been to home whin Daddy and Stevie Ray lef', why I nodded my uns haid.
We gots ter the door whut was hangin' on its hinjin...JimmyJoe eazes his knife outten hits scabbard. He pushen me berhind him when's we cum in.."
Cassie Dayzella began to cry. Blair braced his hands upon her shoulders, gently kneading the taut muscles. Her head fell upon his neck, trying to draw comfort as the terrible memories played in her mind.
"Mamma was plum near nekkid all over and she wuz az sullent as thur tomb, a-layin' there's on the flow-er, a holtin her arms 'roun her belly. Ole devil Kinkade was a standin' over her, and I...I was skeered...and shame't ter see his man root...un it was all swole up purple ish raid as a pickled beet a stickin' out fum him...I haddunt nevair seed nuthin' as ugly.
JimmyJoe, he uns rushed over an' razes his knife and starts ez ter plunjit inner Kinkade when Kinkade he turns 'roun and lays JimmyJoe on the flow-er wif his ham han'. JimmyJoe wuz stun-ded. It look'd lak he wuz seein' somepin' strange, coz hiz eyes sorter roll-ded back fer a minit...
Kinkade he laffed ter beat the band. And I...I saw blood all over Mamma's laigs and it wuz a-gushin' from her woman's privitated place. Mamma sorter made a funny racket-soun' thin whin she saw hit, and than she screamed ter high hevvin', and I....I...I ain't never heard none of my woman-kin holler lak that...chiller bumps cum over my hole-it body and I squawled out, 'Jimmy Joe! Mamma!'...I cain't rightly reccerlect all ah sed..."
Blair caressed her hair, ruffling it, trying to soothe poor Cassie Dayzella.
"What happened, Cassie? Did JimmyJoe wake up out of his zone when he heard you scream his name?"
"Doan node Zoe. He wuz cummin' to, tho', and then...Mamma all'ays tole me all 'long, don't nevair be a fraidy cat...an' she wuz so pale an' still a-layin' thar, and Kinkade was a-hunkerin' down wif his man thang pointed down toward her, and, I...
"I runned over ter the wood cookstove, and's I picked up mah skillit whut haddunt no grace in in yit tah cook my conebred, and I'ze burned mah handez some'p'uh fairce, but's I knowed I cud held Mamma.
"Mamma! Wake up! Wake up, Mamma! Git up!" I hollered and whopped that hot as tar casten arn fry pan on his goober. He gif a chokin' skreem, jus' lak a painter cat what squawls at nitetime in the woods and he...he falls ontop of JimmyJoe whut's stirrin'.
Kinkade beguns ter twitch and shake like a dawg shittin' a peach seed, and plum neer't foamin' at his mouf, and JimmyJoe wakes him, and thoes him uns off.
Jimmy Joe, he cries out lak he's bin pierce-sed ter his heart, 'Mother! Oh, Mother!' Und Blair, he-uns haddunt nebber culled her that since he wuz a leetle feller, a-growin' tall, and he crawled on his han's und knees tay her, a bawlin' lak a gal-woman, 'Mother, Mother, Mother, Mother,' onliest he wuz whisperrin' not tawkin' loud az he kep a callin' hern name.
Mamma wuz plum nekkid. And the Bible says it's er shame fer a son er look 'pon hiz unclosed mother, but he jast gaythered hurrin up in hiz arms and kayreed her to hern and Daddy's bed off in the koaner.
"Turn down theze un kivvers," he sez inner low voice. "Go git yore Mamma's night rail and a towel-cloth, some water an' a wash rag. Hurr' it up, Cass..."
And I did all that, and bawled my haid off all thuh whiles, watchin' him clain blood runnin' off'n Mamma's laigs onter her what what sheets, a stainin' thum red, he wuz a tawkin' to her and so sof'-lak I cuddunt unnerstain a worrud.
"Cass," he sez, "You go on ter the barn an' hitch up ole Muley Haid, and git on down ter Doc Susan's place, and hev her an' Abbie cum' up he-arr..." And Blair, JimmyJoe he rubbed his wristed sleeves all over his eyez, ter dry his tears, and he taks a long look at Kinkade whut's still makin' nerses and a-rollin' on the flow-er whilst we uns wuz takin' keer of Mamma."
"Kin ah kill him, Jimmy...."
"NO!" he hollered, wakin' Mamma up. She started to sairch outten thuh room...JimmyJoe he took hern han' and kissed it...lak Daddy summuns did when he wuz a sportin' wif her, and said, 'Mother, I uns sware by Ellison's blood which runs thew my veins thut yo'uns wail hev yore rayvinge. I sware it...yore firs' born swares an oath ter yer..."
"Git outten here Cassie Dayzeller, and do lak I sed to yew...NOW!"
And, Blair, I tuk off and whupped ole Muley Haid down ter the crossroads and foun' Doc Susan in hern garden, scrabblin' 'roun wif her flow'r balbs, and whun I hollered for hep, she runnded inter her howse, a-cullin' fer ole Abbie somepin wild.
Abbie, she rund out wif a bundle...an' I wuz skeered Mamma mought die 'fore we gotted home, so I begged them ole wimmen-persons to hawl ass...
When's we gotted home...and rushed in, JimmyJoe wuddunt wif Mamma, he were gone sommers, but Mamma was a layin' in bed an' she were a sangin' so...so..."
And Cassie quavered out a haunting tune. The one Grace Ellison had sung in delirium.
O fare ye well, I mus' be gone
An' leaf yew fer awhile
But where'er I go, I wail return
If I go, ten thousand mile, mah dear
If I go, ten thousand mile, Willie dear
Part 5 must come to an end.
