**Disclaimer: It's too short to sue me over it. **


Tittle: A Christy Interlude
Author: Traci








“Whoa, there, Miss Huddleston! Where’s the fire?”

Christy glanced over her shoulder briefly before continuing up the steep 
hillside.  She’d know that thick brogue anywhere. “No fire, Doctor. I’m just 
in a hurry.”

“You’re not headed up to God’s Fist this late n’ the day, are you? And on 
foot?”

Christy sighed, turning around to stop. Neil wasn’t going to give up until 
he knew everything. Mounted on Charlie, he was riding to catch up with her.

“Doctor, when I left Asheville for Cutter Gap, I don’t recall my father 
giving you permission to act on his behalf.”

Neil threw back his head and laughed as he drew up beside her. “No, I don’t 
suppose he did. “But he’d not want me t’sit idly by while his only daughter 
got lost in the dark. Let me ride you part of th’ way.”

Christy knew she had to do as he said or he’d ride behind her until she did. 
  Neil held out his gloved hand and she accepted it, stepping up on his boot 
toe to land behind him on the saddle blanket.

While they rode, she explained how Bob Allen had come by the mission after 
school. Apparently Little Burl had borrowed Bob’s comb to brush his new 
hunting dog, Beatrice. Bob had raised the roof when he’d found out and Burl 
had run off until things cooled down. It would be dark soon and Bob was 
regretting his anger. She’d offered to go to God’s Fist while he and Rob 
searched elsewhere.

“I don’t understand,” Neil remarked. “Why’s Bob so angry at Burl over a 
comb?”

Christy held onto Neil’s waist as they went up a steep incline. His strong 
back supported her easily. “From what Bob said, he’d won the comb years ago 
in a contest of some kind so it has some special meaning to him. So when 
Burl used it on a dog, of all things, Bob saw red.”

“It’s not as if Bob’s got that much hair to comb,” Neil said, chuckling 
before he glanced back at her. “Are you alright? Just hold on t’ me and 
we’ll be at the top soon.”

Charlie capably took the rise and Christy ducked to avoid getting hit by a 
tree branch. Autumn permeated everything, from the sound of the crunching 
leaves under Charlie’s hooves to the crisp bite in the breeze.

“What makes you think Burl’s at God’s Fist?” Neil asked, adjusting his hat.

Christy said. “He told me once the easiest way to talk to God was to get as 
close as he could. I figured God’s Fist was where he might go.”

“I suppose th’ place is aptly named,” he said, his words coming slowly, 
thoughtfully. “Is that why you go up there? To talk to God?”

“That’s one reason,” she said, her fingers lightly brushing the threadbare 
fabric of his coat. “I can block out all the distractions there and 
just…talk to Him.”

“But does He ever answer, Christy?”

His question hung in the air, hovering over them almost like a third 
presence.

“Miz Christy! Miz Christy! Doc!”

The silence broken, Christy’s eyes darted around furtively. “Burl! Burl, is 
that you?”

Neil reined in Charlie and wheeled him around. “Where are you, lad?”

“I’m stuck above ye in this tree, Doc!”

Christy and Neil looked up to find Burl staring down at them. His overall 
straps had gotten tangled in the branches somehow. Christy didn’t even want 
to know how they’d gotten that way.

“Just sit still, Burl. I’ll get you down!” she called to him.

Neil gave Christy a hard look. “And how do you propose t’do that, Miss 
Huddleston?”

“Doctor, I didn’t pass through childhood without learning something about 
climbing trees. Take Charlie closer to the tree.”

Neil obeyed but the reluctance was obvious in his glance. “I don’t like 
this. You could both fall.”

“Just trust me.”

Before Neil could stop her, Christy had climbed into the tree and began to 
make her way up. Fortunately, Burl wasn’t too far up. He’d merely gotten 
caught and was scared.

“Teacher, you climb bettern’ them monkeys we done saw in that animal book!”

Christy could hear Neil laughing down below and held her tongue. She would 
never hear the end of it now.

She reached Burl and soon had him untangled. His plump, dusty face beamed 
his thanks. “Reckon I thought I’d be up here all night ifn’ it weren’t fer 
you, Miz Christy.”

“Burl, why did you climb the tree?”

The boy grinned despite his fear. “I got tuckered out walkin’ to God’s Fist. 
Preacher told us about Zaccheus, the little man who climbed up in th’ tree 
to see Jesus. I reckoned God might tell me what t’ do to make Paw not s’ mad 
at me.”

“But he’s not mad anymore. Your father and Rob are looking everywhere for 
you.”

“I’m scared, Miz Christy. What if I fall goin’ back down?”

She grasped his hand tightly in hers and winked at him. “I won’t let you. 
We’ll take it one branch at a time.”

Christy carefully led Burl down the tree, encouraging him every step. Once 
the boy reached the last branch, Neil lifted him down. But when Christy 
arrived in the center of the branches, Neil quirked a grin. “Since you’re 
bent on doing everything yourself, I ought to let you swing down on a vine 
by yourself.”

Blushing furiously, Christy replied, “I’m quite capable…”

But Neil’s gentle hands were on her waist and he lifted her down easily as 
if she were a child like Burl.

“Little Burl! Little Burl!”

Bob and Rob Allen’s voices came up to them from down the incline. Little 
Burl turned to the physician and the teacher. “I’m mighty grateful, Miz 
Christy. Doc.”

Christy knelt down and hugged him. “That’s all right, Burl. Just remember to 
stay out of trees. And that God can hear you no matter where you are.”

He wriggled out of her grasp then and ran down the hill to meet his father 
and brother.

“That was quite an adventure, Miss Huddleston. I’m not sorry we didn’t make 
it to God’s fist.”

Christy looked up to find Neil staring at her. For once, he didn’t have that 
teasing look in his eye.

“Why?” she asked.

He stared at the ground for a moment, as if searching for words. Christy 
moved toward him and placed her hand on his coat sleeve. Looking up, his 
eyes were warm and admiring.

“I s’pose if I did believe in God—let’s say I just got a good glimpse of Him 
right here.”

The End