Knock on Wood
Jody Newell stood atop a steep hill in the southeastern corner of his parents' North Hermitage farm, watching Billie Jean Albright walk hand in hand with the ruggedly handsome, strapping youth who was apprenticed to the town blacksmith. Unaware that he was being observed from above, the muscular apprentice suddenly leaned forward and boldly kissed the pretty redheaded girl standing beside him. Jody became furious and pounded his fist on the trunk of a nearby oak tree.
That big oaf, he thought in a jealous rage. How dare he take such liberties? And why doesn't Billy Jean slap his face? Why is she standing there, smiling? Don't tell me she actually enjoyed that kiss! What could she possibly see in him? I should be the one kissing her, not that mindless brute.
As he stood agonizing over the scene below, Jody heard a rustling in the leaves of the tree above him. He briefly looked up at the massive oak, one that had stood on that site long before the Wampanoag Indians roamed the land. The branches swayed, and the leaves quivered, but no wind blew. The angry young man was not in the least bit curious about what caused the odd disturbance, however. He was far too engrossed in the scene being played out below him.
The next day, Jody encountered Billie Jean again; only this time she was alone.
"Hello there," she called as she passed him outside the dry goods store.
"Hello," he replied, his eyes shyly cast down.
"Are you going home now?" she asked.
He nodded his head.
"Would you mind if I walked with you part of the way? I don't like going near those woods by myself."
He nodded again and reached over to take her packages.
"Thank you," she said sweetly. "You're quite the gentleman."
Jody felt his face redden at the compliment.
As she walked along Main Street with Jody, Billie Jean talked about her friends at school and her lifelong dream of becoming a nurse.
"I would've thought you'd want to get married once you got out of school."
"Someday I will, but first I want to be a nurse. Besides, I don't even have a boyfriend yet."
"What about the blacksmith's apprentice?" Jody blurted out.
Billie Jean laughed.
"Huck Farmer? He's not really my type. He's got more brawn than brains."
"So you're not interested in him then?" he asked, finally finding the courage to look her in the face.
"Not romantically. We're just friends."
Soon the two parted company. Billie Jean headed west on Apple Orchard Road while Jody continued uphill toward his parents' farm. When he reached the high point near the massive oak tree, he stopped to watch the girl complete her journey home. After Billie Jean's front door closed behind her, he leaned back on the tree and smiled. The girl he adored from afar was not currently seeing anyone. Maybe there was hope for him after all.
Humming a merry tune, he took his whittling knife out of his pants pocket and began to clean the dirt from beneath his fingernails. Above him, the leaves of the mighty oak rustled again. He looked up and was inspired by the magnificence of the ancient tree to carve a heart enclosing the initials B.J.A. + J.N. in the trunk.
"I wish this were true," he said, his fingers lovingly tracing Billie Jean's initials. "I wish you were my girlfriend."
The oak's branches shook as though a storm was brewing, yet the air was calm, the day clear and sunny. Not one to dwell on the strange phenomenon, Jody put his whittling knife back in his pocket and walked toward the welcoming farmhouse.
* * *
The following day, as he set off from his parents' orchard, heading toward town with a wagon of freshly picked apples, Jody was surprised to find Billie Jean standing on the hill in front of the oak tree.
"W-what are you d-doing here?" he stammered nervously. "Shouldn't you b-be in school?"
"I didn't go today," she admitted. "And even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to concentrate on my studies."
"Why not?" he inquired, hoping she wasn't ill.
Billie Jean turned and pointed toward the initials carved in the trunk of the tree. Jody blushed and looked away.
"Did you know that in some old pagan religions, people worshipped trees?" she asked.
Of course, he did not know that. He was the son of a simple farmer, a young man who knew how to pick apples, plant corn, milk cows and raise chickens but was practically illiterate. Billie Jean's question, however, was a rhetorical one. She did not wait for an answer before continuing.
"They believed that spirits lived in the trees and that these spirits could punish or reward humans. That's how the old superstition of knocking on wood originated. One knocked on wood, or touched it, to ward off evil."
"That's fairy tale stuff," Jody scoffed. "Whoever heard of trees doing good or evil?"
He had grown up on a farm with an orchard and had been around trees all his life. All he had ever gotten from them was apples.
"Just suppose it was true," Billie Jean pressed. "What wish would you ask the spirit of this old oak tree to grant you?"
Jody was in no mood for games. He knew exactly what he would wish for, but he couldn't tell her, of all people.
"This is silly," he contended.
"I know what I'd want," Billie Jean giggled, concentrating on the pair of initials carved in the tree trunk. "I would want us to fall in love."
Then she quite unexpectedly took a step toward the farmer's son and kissed him on the lips.
* * *
Jody Newell did not believe for one moment that the ancient oak was responsible for the romance that developed between Billie Jean and him. It had been a simple case of friendship and mutual attraction developing into a more substantial, longer-lasting feeling.
After that first kiss beneath the oak tree, Billie Jean stopped seeing Huck Farmer, the blacksmith's apprentice, altogether. She even had second thoughts about becoming a nurse. Apparently, all she wanted was to be Mrs. Jody Newell.
"Why don't I quit school so we can get married?" she asked.
Much as he wanted to make her his wife, Jody saw no future for them if he continued working on his parents' farm.
"I think we ought to wait," he said. "You can study nursing as you planned, and once the harvest is in, I'll go to New York and try to make some money in a factory there."
"Who cares about money?" Billie Jean asked petulantly.
"We need money to live on. Don't you want us to have a house of our own?"
"I don't care where we live as long as we're together."
"We have the rest of our lives to be together. There's no need for us to jump into this marriage. It will be better in the long run if we wait until we have some money in the bank."
Billie Jean did not belabor the point but neither did she intend to wait too long to become Jody's wife. Patience was not one of her virtues.
Throughout the autumn the bond between the two young lovers grew stronger. Periodically, Billie Jean tried to convince Jody to forget about New York, but he remained adamant. In late November, after the last of the apples had been harvested, Jody headed south. Billie Jean was heartbroken. She had cried and begged him to stay or at least to take her with him, but he refused.
"I won't be gone long," he promised. "And when I return we can get married."
* * *
Unfortunately, opportunities in New York City were not as plentiful as Jody had supposed. He pounded the pavement for nearly three months before he found a job at a shirt factory where the hours were long and the pay was low. Once hired, he soon learned that hard work was not always fairly rewarded and that in the factories men, women and children were paid pitifully for their labor.
"At this rate, I'll never be able to afford to get married," he complained. "There must be a better way to make money."
Whether or not Jody's choice of employment was a wise one is debatable. There was no question, however, that it was a much quicker means to his desired end. The old adage "crime does not pay" was all too often proven wrong by enterprising young men eager to make a fast buck and not too scrupulous about their methods.
Under the tutelage of a veteran swindler, young Jody became a consummate con man, bilking gullible New Yorkers as well as naive tourists out of thousands of dollars.
"You stick with me, young man," his mentor claimed, "and you'll be a millionaire by the time you're thirty."
"That's not likely. Once I make enough money, I'm going back to Massachusetts, marry my girl and settle down."
Despite his good intentions, it would be more than five years before Jody finally left New York, and that was only because his partner was found brutally beaten to death in an alley off Broadway. The police suspected a former "mark" learned he had been the victim of a confidence game and decided to exact a little prairie justice.
Jody had no wish to come to such an ignominious end himself, so the day after his partner's body was discovered, he emptied his bank account, packed his belongings in an old trunk and headed home to New England.
* * *
Meanwhile, during the time Jody Newell was in New York City, swindling unsuspecting, hardworking people out of their savings, Billie Jean Albright had remained in North Hermitage, alone and increasingly bitter. The more time that passed, the lonelier and more resentful she became. Finally, she decided to accept invitations to dinner from other men. One of these suitors was Huck Farmer, the same handsome, well-built young man who had courted her before she fell in love with Jody.
Although Billie Jean never encouraged him, the blacksmith's apprentice continued his pursuit of her. He did not feel any guilt over his attempts to woo another man's woman, especially since he believed Jody had stolen the young lady in question from him in the first place.
Just about the time Jody concluded his fourth year in New York, Huck's dogged persistence finally paid off. He and Billie Jean, who had given up on her erstwhile boyfriend, were married.
* * *
When Jody got off the train at the North Hermitage station, there was no one there to welcome him home. His departure from New York had been so hasty that he had no time to send word to either his family or his girlfriend. After making arrangements to have his luggage sent to his parents' farm, he hired a carriage to take him to Billie Jean's house. When no one answered the door, Jody did not suspect anything untoward. Mr. Albright was the town doctor, and he, his wife and even his daughter were often called away to attend the sick.
"If you're looking for the doc," the carriage driver informed him, "you can ask Mrs. Farmer. She might know where he is."
"Actually, it's not the doctor I wanted to see," Jody explained. "I want to speak to his daughter."
"That would be Mrs. Farmer."
"No, I want to see Billie Jean Albright."
"Ayah. That's the doctor's daughter. Only she's Billie Jean Farmer now."
Jody then recognized the name. Huck Farmer was the blacksmith's apprentice, the oaf who had taken Billie Jean out before he began dating her.
"When did she get married?" Jody asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
"A year ago this October. I remember that well because her father had to leave the wedding feast early to deliver my sister's baby."
As the driver approached the intersection with Maple Road, Jody instructed him to stop.
"You can let me out here. I want to walk awhile."
Jody paid the man and began to climb up the hill toward the farm. As he neared the edge of his family's property, he passed by the giant oak tree. The sight of the pair of initials carved in its trunk moved him to tears. The woman he loved had married another man and had not even bothered to tell him she had done so. Instead, he had to learn the painful news from a stranger.
As he had years earlier, Jody reached out his shaking hand and lovingly caressed Billie Jean's initials with his fingertips.
"I wish you were mine again," he cried.
Not wanting to see his parents until he had regained his composure, he sat on the ground at the base of the oak, laid his head back on the trunk and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he saw Billie Jean standing above him, looking down.
"You came back!" she said, her voice quivering with emotion.
"You got married."
The words were more of an accusation than a statement.
Billie Jean fell to her knees on the ground beside him.
"I was so lonely without you."
"Do you love him?"
"I love you."
Huck Farmer was promptly forgotten as Jody and Billie Jean renewed their vows of love beneath the trembling oak tree.
* * *
Not long after Jody Newell returned to North Hermitage, Billie Jean left her husband. His wife gone, Huck Farmer moved back to his room behind the blacksmith's shop. Soon thereafter, an ugly word spread through the village: divorce. While the courts would allow the legal dissolution of a marriage under certain circumstances, both the church and prevailing society condemned the practice.
Dr. Albright cautioned his daughter against such rash action.
"Go back to Huck. He's your husband by law and in the eyes of man and God."
"But I don't love him. I love Jody and want to spend my life with him."
"Why do you speak of love like a foolish schoolgirl? Love has little to do with marriage. It's a legal and moral contract. You made a solemn vow, and you cannot break it. To do so may endanger your immortal soul."
"I don't care. I love Jody, and I intend to marry him."
Although Billie Jean was not concerned with her soul, Huck Farmer was mindful of his. Because he feared a divorce might keep him from going to heaven, he refused to agree to one.
"It doesn't matter," Jody insisted. "I have enough money to hire a good lawyer."
In this instance, money did little good. Huck was a hardworking, God-fearing man and a faithful husband. The lawyer could find no grounds for divorce.
Meanwhile, the reunited lovers tried to be discreet, meeting clandestinely to avoid any further scandal. Their secret trysts often took place near the old oak tree that still bore the scars of Jody's whittling knife.
One summer evening, Jody stood beside the tree waiting for Billie Jean to arrive. When the agreed-upon time passed, he began to worry. The sun was setting, and it would soon be dark. He did not like her walking through the woods alone at night. But before the sun's rays finally disappeared beneath the western horizon, Jody saw her running up the hill toward him.
"What's wrong?" he asked the breathless young woman.
"It's done," she cried in triumph.
"You've convinced Huck to agree to the divorce?"
"No, but I don't need a divorce anymore."
Jody felt his legs go weak with dread. What had she done?
"I went to the shop to try to reason with him again," she explained, "but it did no good. I cried, threatened and begged. Nothing I said moved him, so I left. A few minutes later I returned. I was going to tell him to forget about the divorce, that I would simply run away with you. When I stood in the doorway of the shop, I saw him on his knees with his head in his hands, crying. That was my chance. I picked up one of his hammers and hit him."
Jody closed his eyes and turned away. Billie Jean had cold-bloodedly murdered an innocent man whose only faults were loving the wrong woman and obeying the teachings of his religion.
"Did anyone see you?"
"No. After I killed him, I hurried home, washed away the blood and changed my dress."
Jody wanted to take Billie Jean in his arms and comfort her, to tell her he loved her and to assure her that everything would be all right. But he couldn't. She was a murderer. Still, in his heart, he knew Huck's death was as much his own fault as Billie Jean's. By going to New York and staying away for so long, he had left her vulnerable to Huck's advances; and by returning and rekindling their relationship, he had driven her to murder.
"Now we can be married," Billie Jean cried with joy, unaware of the turmoil that raged within Jody's soul.
"Why look so sad?" she asked. "This is what we've been waiting for. I'm free. Now all our dreams can come true."
Jody turned away from her.
"I wish you wouldn't worry so," Billie Jean said. "I wish you'd just be happy, like me. Now that Huck is dead, we can be together."
"Enough!" Jody cried, leaning back and letting the trunk of the oak support his weight. "Do you know what I wish? I wish I were out of this whole mess. I wish you had gone ahead with your plans to become a nurse. I wish your husband were alive and you were still legally bound to him."
A bolt of lightning suddenly rent the night sky, illuminating the two quarreling figures in the darkness.
"There they are!" someone's voice cried out.
Four men, led by the town's blacksmith, stormed up the hill toward the two lovers.
"You devil!" the smith shouted at Jody, falsely assuming he was the killer. "You murdered an innocent man, a good man. Now you must pay for your evil deed."
A stern-looking fellow standing behind the blacksmith, one of North Hermitage's most respected citizens, produced a rope.
"This is crazy! You can't take the law into your own hands," Billie Jean shrieked, fiercely protesting the lawlessness of the men's actions but not admitting her own guilt.
Ignoring the hysterical woman, the burly blacksmith took the rope from his accomplice, flung one end over a sturdy branch of the oak and formed a crude noose at the other. Jody remained surprisingly silent, not uttering a single word in his own defense, not even when the blacksmith slipped the noose around his neck.
Billie Jean screamed in horror as the four vigilantes pulled on the rope and hanged the man she loved. Jody's body twitched for several minutes and then became still. All was eerily silent except for the rustling of leaves in the calm night.
Meanwhile, in the blacksmith's shop in the village below, Huck Farmer's lungs filled with air, and he began to breathe again. Although his brain had been severely damaged by the blow from the hammer, his body was young and strong. If given proper care, he would live for many more years, perhaps as much as half a century. And with the man she loved dead, a wretched Billie Jean Farmer was free to devote her life to nursing her husband, thus in a bizarre way fulfilling Jody Newell's final wishes.
I wonder how many times Salem had to knock on the wood of that tree to get all that Godiva chocolate!
