Maple Jane: Part 2(arlene hartzell) Right then, Daddy said it was time for me to go to the car. He carried me out, put me in the back seat, covered me up with a heavy woolen Pendleton blanket, and then locked the car. As soon as Daddy was back inside the grange, I got up and started looking outside. I was a curious child who didn’t want to miss anything. I saw the figure of a girl standing on a box looking though the grange window. It looked like Glenda or Elinor. I frowned thinking they were still inside. The grange window was slightly ajar, she must have heard the ‘to do’ between her Mama and Mr. Chestnut. I was watching her, when suddenly she ducked down, just as Mr. Chestnut walked out of the grange and staggered towards his car. Glenda or Elinor came up to him. My windows were rolled up so I couldn’t hear what was being said, but the next thing I saw was Mr. Chestnut kissing Glenda or was it Elinor, then she got into the car with him. I watched the car pull out onto the main road and head towards Ada. I wondered why she went with Mr. Chestnut; maybe he needed a babysitter since they had a lot of kids. Most of all, I wondered why she kissed Mr. Chestnut.

After awhile when no one else came out, I got tired of looking out the car windows, and lay down covering up with the blanket. The next thing I remember was Daddy laying me on my bed, and Mother tucking me in, black face, costume and all. As for Mr. Chestnut that was the last time I ever saw him alive.

Chapter 3

The next morning when Aunt Daisy pulled open her bedroom curtains to look out on the lake, she saw something large floating outside. Ed was drinking his morning coffee.

“Ed, you better go see what’s floating by the walkway. It sure looks like a body.”

It was Ed Chestnut. His crutches lay neatly on one side on the dock, as if he had laid them there, before jumping in the lake.

The county coroner ruled it a suicide. Ed had lost an arm and badly broken his leg in a logging accident about a month ago. The once t-totaler soon became an all day drunk. He only went home when he’d spent all his money. He left a wife and five children, the youngest just a toddler.

I tried to tell Daddy and Mama that I had seen Glenda or Elinor get into the car with Mr. Chestnut at the Halloween party, but they said I must have been dreaming. Mama said that Glenda and Elinor had sat right beside them and the girls didn’t leave until they did, long after Daddy put me in the car.

I knew that wasn’t true, I knew it wasn’t a dream.

Glenda and Elinor would tease Maple Jane mercilessly when their parents weren’t around. It was the age old mystery of two attacking the third person, only this person was their identical sister. Or should I say sisters, as they were cruelest to the one in back, the one the parents never named. Pearl and Harvey referred to it as ‘baby’, but Glenda and Elinor called their sister ‘freaky mutant,’ or ‘ogress,’ or ‘monster face.’ Like vinegar turns milk sour, Glenda and Elinor soured their sisters’ minds. Maple Jane and Baby were fed cruelty and hated, and as they aged, they wanted to destroy as they’d been destroyed. Taking Mr. Chesnut’s life, whet their appetite for more acts of revenge.

Mama tacked her list of Thanksgiving dishes on the cupboard door.

“Aunt Tess is coming tomorrow,” Mama told Grandma. Grandma said, “Tess has a big appetite for life and that includes men for dessert; you better not cook Thanksgiving dinner Maggie, let Tess cook.” They both laughed. I didn’t understand the joke, but I laughed too. I couldn’t wait to see Aunt Tessie...

The first night Aunt Tess was here, I overheard Mama talking to her about Beau Shaw.

“You broke that poor guy’s heart Tess. I bet he’s asked me a hundred times when you were coming to visit.” Aunt Tess laughed, her laugh was infectious...

“Well, he’s handsome, that’s for sure, but I can’t see myself married to any logger. Now don’t get your nose out of joint, cause Dan’s a logger, but living like you do, here in Hicksville, I’d go crazy from boredom alone. I wouldn’t mind though, running into Beau while I’m here, he makes life a bit more interesting.”

“Tess, you’re hopeless. No wonder you and Ken split.”

I fell asleep listening to their laughter.

Beau heard that ‘L.A. Tess’ was back. He’d been soaking in the bathtub a long time, now he slipped down under the steaming water, to rinse the Lifebouy soap out of his hair. Tess was a hard woman to forget. She had a pretty heart shaped face, framed with long dark brown hair, but it was her eyes that grabbed you, they were an unusual shade of gray. A big city girl, she’d been walking on the wild side of life, ever since she ran off with her first husband at age 16. Tess was divorced now. “I’m free, white, and twenty one,” was one of the first things she’d told him.

Beau first met Tess in the Blue Moon. He recalled drinking and dancing with her until the place closed. Then, since her boat ride had left earlier, he offered to walk her back over across the trestle, the way he’d come. His new black Chevy waited on the Ada side. The Chevy was his first car, he’d put fake leopard skin seat covers in it, and he’d painted the inside dome light with red finger nail polish. When Tess, climbed in, she said, “hey Beau, this looks like a bordello, you sure I’m not climbing into your bed?” Then she started laughing, when Beau said that was a good idea. Later, when he stopped in front of her sister’s place, he tried to put his arm around her, but she stepped out of the car, and then slowly walked around to his side.

“Thanks a lot for taking me home, maybe I’ll see you the next time I’m up.” Then she winked at him and walked away. Later that week, he broke his engagement to Laura.

His body still ached, but the hot water in the tub teased away the scrapes, bruises, and tiny cuts. Logging was his life, and this life knocked him ‘ass over tea-kettle’ many times a week.

Suddenly the thought of seeing Tess again, made him hurry, he climbed out of the old claw footed tub. He should have scrubbed it out for his brothers, but hell, he didn’t have time. He threw on a clean white shirt with a pair of good Levi’s and he combed his thick black hair straight up. A crew cut was all he ever wore, and it seemed to work, as he’d never been without a girlfriend for long.

Music and laughter drifted down onto the trestle. He tried to think up an opening sentence for Tess. Tired of the big city? No. Out lookin for a logger? No. Wanna dance? No, she’d know right away, that he just wanted to get his big paws on her. No, he’d better say something honest. She had that way of looking into your eyes that let you know she’d heard every line. No, he’d just say he was glad to see her. He smiled, and hurried on across the trestle.

Three hours later, he could barely stand up. He didn’t want those two assholes at the bar to know he was ‘all jacked up,’ he put a dime down on the counter and asked for a cup of coffee.

He couldn’t finish the second cup, but at least his head was a little clearer. He knew if he took his time he could walk back across the trestle, get his car and drive home. It was only a little past nine, but he’d been drinking steadily, and he knew he was half crocked.

He drove slowly past Tess’s sister’s house. He heard there was a third sister, she was married and lived in L.A. too. Beau wondered if she was as good looking as these two. Probably. City women always looked better to Beau. He saw the lights were off in the neat little white house that faced the lake. Tomorrow he’d buy some flowers in town and come calling. The thought of courting Tess gave him hope for the future. He’d felt old for a long time; logging ages ya pretty fast, just look at his old man, only 51, but his body had a hundred years on it, and his eyes, they didn’t see anything at all any more, nothin but the next tree to cut. He turned the radio up, Patsy was singing, “I go out walking, after midnight...” Her voice was soft as velvet, a man could warm his hands on her voice... He wished Tess was out walking...

When he came to his place, he saw a couple of lights were still on... If Billy and Al were up they’d raise hell with him, he drove right on by.

I’ll drive up Maple Creek, that’ll kill some time.

The Le Fleur home had been dark and quiet for about a half hour. Maple Jane and Baby climbed out of the crib. They grabbed a jacket as they crept out of the house. The two didn’t talk until they were out of sight. “I live for these walks,” said Baby.

“Do your teeth still hurt?” asked Maple Jane.

“Real bad, they hurt so bad, my whole head hurts...”

“Tell Mama. She’ll give you something to make you feel better. Mama said, your teeth are bad, maybe you should let her pull them out.”

“No,” said Baby.

“Just the black ones Baby, they must be rotten, cause I can smell them sometimes.”

“Shssssh, said Elinor, don’t make so much noise, they’ll hear us!” Glenda and Elinor were following their sisters.

Beau was west of the Le Fleur’s place when he saw a woman walking on the edge of the road, he rubbed his eyes... was it Tess? What the hell, was she doing out here? As he drove past her, the woman turned her face away from the car. Beau turned around and came back along side of her.

It wasn’t Tess, no it was one of the Le Fleur triplets.

“Hey, whacha doing out here this time of night?”

Maple Jane walked over to the car window. Beau leaned over and rolled the window down.

“Couldn’t sleep, too pretty of a night to stay inside.” Maple Jane looked up then, and for the first time Beau noticed there was a full moon, with a sky full of stars.

“Why dontcha get in the car, and ride a little ways with me?”

Maple Jane stood outside the car door, staring at him, then started turning away. She’s gonna say no, hell that was ok with him, he’d never robbed the cradle before, but then she grabbed the door handle and climbed in.

“What’s your name, beautiful?”

“Maple Jane, but you can call me Baby.”

“O.K. Maple Jane... Baby.”

Beau turned the car around and headed east towards Ada. Beau slowed down, in order to look at her without appearing to, and also because he knew his reflexes were slowed from the booze. He flirted openly. Baby, or Maple Jane, seemed happy to be with him.

Who woulda thought old Harvey and Pearl had such a beautiful daughter.

Beau drove slowly by the Ada Store. The ‘Lucky Lager’ neon-sign was missing the first L, he laughed at this, but the girl beside him didn’t get the joke. Maple Jane was leaning on the dashboard, looking at everything, as if for the first time. The light from the headlights and sky softly etched her face. Beau felt a sudden tenderness towards the girl. “Hey, I better be getting you back home, before your folks miss you, and 4:30 comes early, if I’m not in the crummy my old man will leave without me. And if I don’t go, I don’t get paid.” Still, the Le Fleur girl stared out the window.

She turned her face toward him, “Have you been to the Blue Moon?”

Sure he said, omitting the fact he’d just spent a couple of hours there.

“Would you take me?”

“How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“Seventeen, huh, well, Maple Jane, Baby, I’m almost 28. You have to be 21 to get in the Blue Moon.”

He lied, knowing that anyone who got there got in, hell Billy even went with him once.

“I don’t want to go inside, I just want to look inside. You know, stand outside in the dark, and look in the windows. Everything looks so pretty from outside.”

Beau leaned back, and pulled out a cigarette. “You smoke?”

“No, but I’d like to try.”

He lit his, and then lit one for Baby. Maple Jane, put the cigarette to her lips, and puffed now and then. He smiled at her, and she smiled back.

“You really want to see the Blue Moon?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, it ain’t that much, it’s just a couple of rooms, with a wood stove, a bar, and a few lanterns, no electricity. Some of the liquor is bootleg, and there’s no music tonight.”

“I don’t care, I want to see it.”

“I don’t have a boat, I walk the trestle. You afraid of high places?”

“No, but I’ve never walked on a trestle.”

“Maple Jane, excuse me, Baby, I’ve never known anyone who’s done so little as you. They been keeping you locked up?” He gave a little laugh. Maple Jane turned away, looking out the rolled down car window.

Beau moved his car as far off the road as he could, parking near the trestle.

The walk over wasn’t without danger, even with the moon and stars, you’d better be damn careful. He got his flashlight out, and then grabbed her hand. They walked single file. Beau would take a step forward, and then he’d shine the light down on the ties for Maple Jane. The railroad ties were far apart, and there wasn’t a railing. The spaces weren’t broad enough for an adult to fall through, but big enough to break a leg. The railroad had made safety ‘step out’s, for anyone caught on the trestle when the train came, but there were only two of those, spaced far apart. He shuddered at the thought of getting caught on the trestle, with a Southern Pacific train racing towards him.

It usually took about 15 minutes to cross the trestle, but now, holding her hand and all, it was going to take twice as long. He silently cussed himself, how the hell did he get talked into this, but he knew the answer. You’re still drunk, he said to himself, and Maple Jane-Baby’s pretty, now if she’d looked like her Mama, he wouldn’t have even slowed down. Poor kid, he was thinking about telling her he’d show her the Blue Moon during the day, and head back to the car.

When she said, “Kiss me,” in this teeny tiny voice.

“Whacha just say?”

He turned around, and put the flashlight on her face.

“I didn’t say anything.”

He turned back and resumed his careful steps across the trestle.

“I want you to kiss me,” this time the voice was louder, but it still sounded weird.

But then, another voice said, “No! Stop it! Stop this right now!!!”

He laughed and said, “Baby you don’t know what you want...”

“Kiss me Beau, kiss me quick,” and then laughter.

Beau was laughing now, “What are you, a ventriloquist?” Maple Jane jerked her hand away, so hard he lost his balance for a moment. “Hey, that wasn’t funny, I could have fallen, or you could have, he put the flashlights beam right on her face again. She was grimacing, and holding the back of her head.

There was a muffled voice coming from there.

She started crying, soon it turned into great sobs. Beau said, “Hey, it’s alright, nothing to cry about.”

He reached out for her hand again, worried that she would fall.

She held on to his hand with a strong grip.

He gave her a hug, and the next thing he knew he was kissing her.

He smelled something bad, really rotten. He let go of her and stood back a ways.

“What’s wrong?”

“Lots of things Maple Jane, ah Baby.”

“I’m too old for you, it’s late, I gotta work, so we’re going back to the car.”

Maple Jane started back towards the car, and then again he heard the funny little voice speak,
‘Kiss me, it’s my turn. Maple Jane, lift the hair up, so as Beau can kiss me!”

Maple Jane lifted her hair.

Beau flashed the light at the back of her head. He dropped the flashlight, and screamed, all at the same time! Beau turned and ran in the opposite direction, away from Maple Jane-Baby and the thing that was on the back of her head!

It took Maple Jane and Baby over an hour to walk back home. Off and on, Maple Jane would cry. Baby was silent. They only had one more corner to go, when Glenda and Elinor stepped out from the shadows. It so startled Maple Jane, she stopped crying.

“What are you guys doing out here?”

“We followed you, and we saw you get in that man’s car! Wait till we tell Mama!!! They’ll chain you to the crib! You’re whores,” they started yelling in unison. “Whores, Whores, Whores!!!” Maple Jane and Baby were crying and running with Glenda and Elinor chasing them in the opposite direction of home! After awhile Glenda and Elinor stopped, and turned back towards home. Maple Jane and Baby climbed down by the creek, to hide from them in case they came back.

The next morning, Beau’s dad yelled up from the bottom of the stairs, “Beau, get your sorry ass down here, I don’t keep banker’s hours and the crew is waiting!”

There was no answer.

Billy said, “His car’s gone, he must have really ‘tied one on’ at the Blue Moon.”

They piled into the crummy and left.


That night when Gordie walked in, so dirty the whites of his eyes seemed whiter, Mrs. Shaw was wringing her hands.

“Something’s wrong Gordie, Beau’s never been gone this long.”

“Calm down, Addie, Beau’s a man who can take care of his self. Did you call the store, and see if anyone’s seen him?”

“No.”

Gordie gave Addie a wink, and said, “Didja know that gal Tess is back, the boys tell me Beau’s got a bad case on her.”

Gordie picked up the phone and rang the Ada Store.

Ed answered, “No we haven’t seen Beau all day. Daisy said she saw his car parked by the trestle. He’s probably over at the Blue Moon.”

Gordie, Al, and Billy climbed in the crummy, and headed for Ada. They looked inside the black Chevy, Beau’s ‘pride and joy,’ to see if he was in the back seat passed out. But Beau wasn’t in the back seat. The front windows were rolled down.

Without a word, the three started walking across the trestle.

Zeke was tending bar, and Sadie was making a pot of soup for tonight’s customers.

“You boys working close by?” asked Zeke. Zeke saw they were still in their calk boots.

“No, we’re looking for Beau. You seen him lately?”

“Yeah, he was here last night.”

“Do you remember what time he left?”

“Must have been after nine, it was after nine, wasn’t it hon?”

Sadie looked up and said, “Yeah, I think so.”

“What kind of shape was he in?”

Sadie put her painted face down close to the bar, like she wanted to check out her makeup in a mirror or something.

“He was in bad shape Gordie. He’d been keeping company with Jack Daniels, for a couple of hours. You know, usually he just drinks beer. He kept watching the door, like he was expecting someone. Finally he asked Sadie for some coffee. He seemed a little better when he left, but he was staggering some.”

Two weeks later, one of the families staying at Waterlily cabins, went cat-fishing. They took one of Marie’s boats out to the trestle, tied it up, and then lit their kerosene lantern. They were drinking coffee, eating sandwiches, and joking about somebody singing to the fish, because they hadn’t had a single bite.

Bubbles started coming up near the boat, the lantern was held up, and in the light, a hand floated upward! The wife stood up screaming, almost tipping the boat over!

It was Beau Shaw.

The Shaw family held their grief tight.
As for the Shaw boys, they were never seen in the Blue Moon again.

Before Beau was found, there was gossip going around about the Le Fleur girls. The Merz’s hired hand swore he saw one of them walking on the road around midnight. The reason no one believed Davis Landry, was that he was also drunk that night, after coming home late from tying one on at the Rainbow tavern in Reedsport. Landry worked hard, but drank harder. The gossips, and everyone was a gossip, speculated on who the Le Fleur girls were sneaking around with.

Benny heard about Beau being found, when she was supposed to be asleep. Aunt Tess was quiet the next day, and her eyes were red and swollen. Daddy and Mama said the funeral would be at the grange hall next Saturday, without mentioning Beau’s name. The Shaw’s, didn’t belong to any church, but Mrs. Shaw wanted a preacher to talk.

It was the first funeral Benny was allowed to go to, when Billy Shaw walked by, Benny said she was sorry about Beau. Billy stopped walking, looked at Benny for a long time, then said thanks and walked away.

After the funeral folks lingered around their cars for awhile.

Emily Jones asked the Le Fleur girls to come over next Friday and help make popcorn balls for the square dance next weekend. Then Penny, Emily’s little sister, asked if Benny could come too. Mrs. Jones seemed preoccupied, and absentmindedly said yes.

Benny thought Saturday morning would never arrive, this would be the first time she’d stayed overnight with a friend. She and Penny Delight Jones were best friends.

At the Le Fleur house, Maple Jane and Baby were screaming, “Mama make them stop,” all morning. Glenda and Elinor had been whispering in Maple Jane’s ears, and writing something on her hand.

Pearl was trying to hang laundry on wires that stretched across the ceiling like giant spider webs, rusty wire legs clinging to bent nails on the walls. She’d started boiling water at 4:30, to fill the big galvanized tub on the back porch. Now, the sweat was running into her eyes, and her hands were as red as Harvey’s long johns.

She said, “Stop it!” to Elinor and Glenda, but they knew their Mama had too much work to make them stop, they didn’t even slow down their tormenting.

When Harvey came in with the last load of firewood, he went over to Maple Jane’s crib, and said, “what are those two hellions doing to you now?”

Maple Jane said that Elinor and Glenda were calling her a whore, and they’d written the word on her arm.

Harvey asked Maple Jane if she knew what the word meant. Maple Jane said no, but she knew it had to be real bad.

Harvey gave Maple Jane the definition, in as decent a way as he could. He said he would punish Glenda and Elinor for calling their sisters such a wicked name.

“Glenda and Elinor, get down here!”

Pearl said, they’d just left for the Jones.

Baby whispered to Maple Jane, they’re going to tell on us. “We can’t let them do that!”

Benny had never been to the Jones. Penny’s family was big. Six kids big. Their home was an old two story farm house. The faded brown couch in the front room was covered with fresh clothing. Rose Jones rarely had time to fold the clothes, just getting the laundry off the clothes line was about as far as she ever got. Rose was a small, bird-like woman, and like a bird she fussed over her children, and her husband.

Soon the popcorn was popped, and with the bossiness of a Marine Sgt. Mrs. Jones organized a ball forming line. The popcorn was wrapped up in individual round balls, and stored in the pantry off the kitchen.

Mrs. Jones, then started moving everyone towards the door, “Time for some fresh air,” she announced, and even the two kids younger than Benny were shoved outside. The littlest ones stayed inside the yard.
All the older kids ran for the barn. Penny and Benny followed.

That night after dinner, the kids went out to the barn to watch Mr. Jones squirt milk directly in the barn cat’s mouths.

Much later, Emily, Glenda, and Elinor sat at the edge of the opening above the family’s prize bull. Emily, suggested they drop pieces of hay, down on ‘Mad Max’, and watch him go crazy. Soon the bull was snorting and pawing the floor. Penny and Benny were hiding in between two bales of hay, watching and listening to the bigger girls.

The three girls, laughed and laughed as Max, began to ram the wall of the barn with his big horned head, looking up at his tormentors on the walls edge, with reddened eyes.

From out of nowhere came Maple Jane, she was talking in two voices, screaming, “You’re the whores, you’re the whores!” The three girls only had time to turn their heads, before Maple Jane pushed them off!

They fell into Max’s pen below. Benny was frozen with fear and disbelief. Penny ran to the ladder, hollering for Benny to come, and grab a pitch fork, or a shovel, or anything, as the crazed bull attacked the fallen girls!

Mr. Shaw came running, and took the pitchfork away from Penny, he rushed the bull with sharp pokes, pushing him into another pen. Glenda, Emily and Elinor, were scattered about as if a giant hand had thown them up in the air, letting them fall in impossibly twisted positions. Their screams and cries had stopped. Benny ran for the house.


Everything seemed foreign now, as if watched through another’s eyes. Benny remembered Mr. Jones making makeshift stretchers, and cars lining up to take the girls into town. Dr. Dunn had been called, and he was waiting in his office in Florence.

Even now, with all the years passed and gone, remembering the scene in the bull pen made Bryony’s heart beat faster; she would say a silent prayer and then bless herself.

Elinor, never regained consciousness. Glenda was able to go back home that same night, she’d suffered a dislocated shoulder and a broken wrist, but her face took the worst of it. She’d lost several front teeth. Emily had a mild concussion, plus the bull had stomped her in the chest, bruising her heart. They took Emily by ambulance to the hospital in Eugene, where she stayed for over two months.

When asked what happened, both Penny and Benny said, Maple Jane pushed the girls off, but everyone knew Maple Jane couldn’t walk. Since the Le Fleurs had just lost their Elinor, no one wanted to bother them with accusations about Maple Jane. After all, Penny and Benny were both little girls, no one believed them for a minute.

Doctor Dunn, said the two little girls were suffering from hysteria, and that the best anyone could do for them, was to keep them quiet, and not ask them to relive the awful accident.

Mama and Daddy asked me what had happened, and I told them what I saw, that Maple Jane pushed the three of them off. Then they gave each other that special look, that look that never included me. Mama got a cold washrag and laid it on my forehead. Daddy said, I should try and think of good things, only good things.

After the grange funeral, the Le Fleurs announced they were moving. They’d lived in the valley since the late 1800's, but the memories were too much for them, so they were moving back to where the family originated. Back to Loggerville, North Carolina.

Nothing stays the same, and yet nothing really changes. Ada’s still there. The Blue Moon and the float-houses are gone, but not really gone, as long as someone reads this story, it will exist again, like Brigadoon exists, if only once, every hundred years.

Some of my loved ones, lived many more years, some died before their time. They all live on in my heart.

Penny Delight was killed in a car accident at the age of 21.

Penny knew the truth of what happened that night in the barn, and we later guessed at what happened to Mr. Chestnut, and Beau Shaw.


I wed young, and luckily it’s been a good marriage. Our children are happy, and knowing what can happen, well need I say more, that’s my eternity.

I visit the old cemetery by five mile road from time to time. It's always shady on the hilltop. Sometimes, Dan goes with me. We wander through the graves, careful not to step on any. We stop at Beau’s, and I tell him how Tess married several more times, and whenever she was in town, she’d always come out and smoke a cigarette by his grave. If I had extra flowers, I’d put some on the other graves. Elinor’s and Mr. Chestnut’s. I always end up talking to Penny the longest. Today I said, “I saw Maple Jane on the beach today. She hasn’t changed at all, in fact she’s as beautiful as ever. I’m afraid of her Penny. Yes, I know it happened a long time ago... but she might have seen us in the barn that night.” Only the alders answered, with the gentle sad swishing of their leaves. I looked down at my watch, it was later than I thought... I put the small mixed bouquet of Rhododendron and Azaleas down at the base of Penny’s stone. It was when I started back to the car, that I saw the grass had been walked on earlier... I stopped ... there on Elinor’s grave were several skunk cabbage leaves, they looked like they’d been pulled out by their roots, and the same plants were on Mr. Chestnuts grave. Heart pounding, I ran back to the car. Maple Jane’s been here, maybe she’s still here!!!

Dan and I got the guns out the next day. Who would have thought Maple Jane would come back to town... Why? Why did Maple Jane come back?

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