Wish You Well

On the drive back home that evening, Amanda and Jack begin to argue about their move. Jack has been offered a large sum of money to write screenplays for Hollywood. Amanda insists he won’t be happy and suggests they all move to his grandmother’s home in the mountains of Virginia. As the argument escalates, Jack swerves to avoid hitting a stranded motorist standing by the side of the road. The family’s car skids and rolls down a hill, killing Jack and leaving Amanda catatonic. 

At Jack’s funeral in New York, Lou overhears the estate executors speculating about what to do with the children. Amanda is completely incapacitated, so they must find a guardian. Lou suggests that they should go to live with their great-grandmother in Virginia. The executors grow hopeful at the prospect, but Oz remains skeptical that their great-grandmother will take all of them, including Amanda: “Lou knew her little brother was thinking of their wheelchair-bound mother. She said in a very firm voice to the two men, ‘All of us’” (22).

The children stare out a train window on their way to Virginia and speculate what their new life will be like. A nurse has been hired to accompany them and care for Amanda until they get settled with their great-grandmother. Oz is afraid the old woman will be like a storybook witch. Lou reassures him that she won’t. Lou also says their father is happy in heaven. Oz takes a quartz necklace and swings it over his mother’s head, hoping it will revive her: “He figured some small thing must be out of sorts, like a pebble in a shoe, a clog in a pipe. All he had to do was clear this simple obstruction and his mother would join them again” (27). The nurse takes the necklace away from him, and Lou tells him not to be fanciful.

Lou and Oz continue their train journey through the Appalachian Mountains. Lou recalls how much her father loved this part of the country: “He had often told her that there was something magical about this stretch of lofty earth, because he believed it held powers that could not be logically explained” (34-35). Much to Lou’s surprise, Oz announces that he’s going to like living here. When he asserts that everything is going to be alright; Lou warily agrees.

When the children get off the train at a small station in the mountains, they meet a lame black man in overalls. Without a word, he takes their baggage and leads them to a Hudson sedan. The nurse and Amanda ride ahead in an old ambulance. The caravan passes through towns and villages until the driver stops to pick up a teenage fisherman and his dog.

The young man introduces himself as Jimmy Skinner, but everyone calls him Diamond. Lou isn’t impressed by his folksy charm and mocks him. He rightly infers that she’s a big city girl. Diamond says that the black man’s name is Hell No, and he got that name when his father dropped him off in town as a baby: “Plunked him right on the dirt. Well, a body say to him, ‘You gonna come back, take that child?’ And he say, ‘Hell no’” (49-50). Hell No works for the children’s grandmother, whom they are about to meet.

Hell No continues to drive the Hudson higher into the mountains. The road is so narrow that the vehicle nearly collides with a tractor and several occupants coming at them from the opposite direction. After a near-miss, Hell No casually announces that his real name is Eugene. He apologizes for being uncommunicative, but he isn’t around people very much. He says that the children’s grandmother is a good woman and a healer.

The vehicle finally comes to a halt in a high valley occupied by a large farmstead. Lou is apprehensive: “Lou […] drew in several quick breaths, and sat very erect as they drove on to the house, where Louisa Mae Cardinal, the woman who had helped to raise their father, awaited them” (55).

In a few short moments, Louisa Mae Cardinal sends the officious nurse back to the train station. She insists that she doesn’t require the nurse’s help for Amanda. The children climb the stairs to introduce themselves to this intimidating woman. Lou notices the similarities between herself and her grandmother: “Their profiles were almost identical. They seemed twins separated by a mere three generations” (60). Louisa reassures the children that she will take good care of Amanda. 

Great-grandmother Louisa arranges the children’s sleeping accommodations. Lou is given an upstairs room that once belonged to her father when he was a boy where she finds his initials carved into a writing desk.

Louisa explains that the household routine begins with breakfast at five in the morning and supper at sundown. The children will either ride a horse or walk to school, which is a mile away. It’s the same school their father attended. When Louisa takes them to their mother’s room, Oz waves his quartz necklace over Amanda, even though Lou mocks his efforts. Louisa reassures him that belief has great power to cure. She advises, “You keep right on believing, Oz. Don’t you never stop believing” (68).