The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington [179]
This factionalism continued strong until the War Department sent news that Pfc. William Robert Ingledew had been killed in combat in the siege of Berlin.
The Jelenists and the Dorisites united for a memorial service in Billy Bob’s honor, and all together sang:
Farther along we’ll know all about it,
Farther along we’ll understand why;
Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine,
We’ll understand it, all by and by.
The Dorisites praised the Jelenists, and the latter grudgingly admitted that while they couldn’t understand why anybody would want to be a Dorisite it was pretty obvious that Dorisites weren’t all bad, in fact Dorisites had a lot to recommend them, and they suggested that the Jelenists and Dorisites bury the hatchet and become united. The Dorisites squealed their approval of this suggestion, and everyone embraced.
Toward the end of the service, all were surprised by the appearance of Jelena and Doris themselves, carrying between them, or taking turns carrying, the infant Jelena. There was absolute silence as they came down the aisle and took seats, Jelena sitting on the Dorisite side, Doris sitting on the Jelenist side, with the baby being permitted to crawl around in the aisle between them. It was the first time that Doris and Jelena had been separated, in a sense, but no one thought of them as being separated. Spontaneously the girls began singing “Farther Along,” and the rest of the congregation quickly picked it up, and were alert enough to notice and follow the slight alteration that the girls made in the line, “Cheer up, my sister, live in the sunshine…”
Then it was time for the eulogy, but nobody could think of anything to say about Billy Bob. Oren Duckworth remarked that he had died in the service of his country, but that was about all. Doc Swain, who was acting as master of ceremonies even though he was a Jelenist, invited Jelena and Doris to make concluding remarks if they wished to do so. They rose together, faced the gathering, and, as one, declared: “He was both of ours.”
Doc Swain adjourned the meeting. He would have one more duty to perform, sadly, a few days later, standing with his pen in one hand and the certificates in the other, looking down upon the reddened earth where the sisters lay, hundreds of feet beneath Leapin Rock, tightly holding hands though lifeless. On each certificate, where the blank said “Cause of death,” Doc Swain wrote: “Broken heart.”
And at the funeral, when they tried to sing “Farther Along,” Doc Swain interrupted them, saying, “Farther along, hell! We done already understood it.”
Even afterward there were people who still thought of themselves as being Jelenists or Dorisites, or who at least remembered that they once were. But the factions never met as separate groups again.
The baby Jelena was taken to live with Sonora Ingledew and her four daughters, but when Hank came home from the war, and decided to go to California, he and Sonora discussed it and agreed that they had too many girls already, so they asked Hank’s brother Jackson, who was a bachelor, if he wouldn’t mind rearing the child, and Jackson said it was the least he could do. When the little girl was old enough to go to kindergarten, Jackson moved with her to Harrison, where she grew up, and became a beautiful woman, and is going to reappear significantly in the end of this saga. Like so many of the Ingledews, Jackson didn’t talk much, and unless he ever told it to her, which I doubt, she’s never heard this story.
Chapter seventeen
Southeast of Los Angeles, in neighboring Orange County, California, is the city of Anaheim; founded by Germans in the middle of the last Century, it was discovered early in this Century by a wandering Stay Moron, who was struck by the novelty of having an orange tree in