One She Saw a Blind Man

by Betty Johnson

  “Oh, Ellen, lovey!” Bill called out, sounding stronger than he had since Araminta had known him. “They told me you came to Nashville looking for me and that you were running from somebody.”

  “Oh, my God!” The intruders heard something clang into an old-fashioned metal porch chair, and now someone was running through the long grass and weeds, apparently heedless of where she was going.

  “Liam!” Ellen Gleaves ran toward him, still wearing the mended blue dress and her fancy shoes. She stopped where she could look at him. “Mercy on us, it really is you, and somebody’s gotten you a nice seeing-eye dog.”

  Ellen ran straight into her former husband’s arms and held on like she would never let go, spilling out a plethora of words. “Oh, Liam, it’s so good to see you. I don’t care if you ARE blind – and neither does Emily. I understand why you rejected me at the hospital. It was so horrible to see you with your eyes all bandaged! Mr. Prosser kept me updated as long as the court case was going on, then he broke it to me gently that you were just going to walk off, and there was nothing I could do about it.” She buried her head in Liam’s shoulder. When she wasn’t frightened to death, Miss Araminta noticed Ellen Gleaves was still remarkably good looking.

  A teenaged voice interrupted the touching reunion. “Mom, this guy’s brought the old snoop with him. I don’t think you should trust him.”

  “Calm down, girl!” called Liam – and it was indeed Liam speaking, the factory foreman chiding a careless employee. “Put that gun back down. Miss Araminta’s my friend who brought me out here, and I won’t have you calling her names.”

  “Father?” Emily said questioningly. “Mom, is this guy really my father?”

  “Yes, he is.” Ellen turned her head back over her shoulder to look at her daughter. “Now come out here and meet him properly.”

  Emily came down the rickety steps carefully; Araminta realized that the girl’s legs were causing her pain. Hopefully, there would still be some bruises visible by the time they got her to a camera.

  Now Emily walked slowly through the long grass, her eyes fixed on the strange man in front of her. She stopped beside the still entwined couple. Liam put out his left hand and touched the girl’s cheek. Slowly, his hand moved around the lower part of the girl’s face.

  “They tell me you’ve got a black eye,” Liam explained carefully. “I’m trying not to hurt you. It’s hard to believe my little girl’s grown so big.”

  Emily stared into her father’s face, her eyes tearing when she saw his closed eyes.

  Meanwhile, Fido came up and nuzzled Araminta’s leg, signaling that he approved of her. Then he barked sharply at Ellen and her daughter. Liam laughed. “Fido’s telling you the lady’s alright,” he assured them. “Miss Araminta gave us a bed last night, and a couple of wonderful meals. She even persuaded her neighbor to clean Fido and me up so we’d be presentable to tell our story to the police.”

  “The police!” Ellen leaned back and stared at Liam, her pupils dilated in horror. “What have you told them, Liam?”

  “Let’s all go inside and sit down,” Liam commanded. “As I remember, the chairs are right nice, and Miss Araminta isn’t as young as she used to be. She’s real smart, though.”

  The whole party walked into the house, and Fido immediately led Liam to his favorite chair. Liam laughed as he sat down. “Nothing beats a dog’s nose,” he admitted, “though my own sense of smell has gotten pretty good. That was Ellen’s perfume I smelled this morning, Miss Araminta. That’s why I didn’t want you pursuing her; she’d brought me a good memory.”

  Ellen was staring at Liam as though she had never seen him before. “It was you I robbed?” she asked incredulously. “That neighbor of yours must have done a mighty good job; I didn’t even recognize you sitting there on the sidewalk.”

  “You saw what you expected to see,” Miss Araminta told her. “Nobody thinks blind beggars are really people; that’s what I’ve learned doing my volunteer work. You told me you were looking for Liam; how did you expect to find him?”

  “Through the Union Rescue Mission,” Ellen replied. “We’d heard about that, even at Rutherford County Legal Aid. I knew if they couldn’t identify Liam immediately, at least they could provide a little something to eat for Emily and me while they made some inquiries. I figured Liam had gone to Nashville because that’s the closest place a homeless person can go and be accepted.”

  “The Union Rescue people are a good group,” Liam told her, “but I sincerely hope you and Emily never get desperate enough to look for help from them. It was alright for me, you see. I had no hope of living normally ever again, and I was still young and strong. Nashville is no place for a homeless family.”

  “Did you forget about us, Father?” Emily asked. She was having a much harder time coming to terms with the truth than her mother was.

  “Never.” Liam shook his head, making his barbered hair bounce. “I just knew I couldn’t keep you. There was no way I could support a family, and your mother would have come to hate a useless man. I learned that early on, watching my crippled older brother and his wife. That damned asbestos insulation Ron used to install ruined his health, and he was never anything but a burden to Lula after that.” Liam looked back toward the daughter whose life he had missed. “I always prayed for you and your mother, though. Every time I walked into a church, I spent a few minutes on my knees. When I had money, I even bought some of those candles you light to pray.”

  Miss Araminta had sat down in a comfortable, old-fashioned chair. “Ellen, now that we’ve chased you all over the country, tell us why you married Mike Jaimeson and what sent you and Emily tearing off like scared rabbits.”

  Ellen sank down into a chair beside her husband and reached out to take his hand. “Miss Araminta, I’m almost ashamed to tell you. When Liam left just after Emily was born, I still had me a decent salary with the legal aid people and was putting most of the disability money into a savings account for when I needed it. Then, when Mike and Irene Jaimeson had that big blow-up, I just ignored the whole thing. They were rich folks, and nothing to do with me. Probably you know more about that kind of thing than I do, Miss Araminta, since Carl at the garage told me you’re a social worker. All I know is that after the divorce from Irene was all finished, Mike Jaimeson came into Toowy’s on the Square looking all hang-dog and bought me some lunch.”

  Liam growled an objection, and Ellen squeezed his hand. “I’d been going on with my life, one day at a time, trying to raise Emily and forget that at one time I had been a happy woman. I sort of blamed Mike for the whole disaster – Mr. Prosser told me that if Mike had been a responsible mill owner, that accident never would have happened. But the whole thing had happened five years before, and I was tired of holding on by myself. Mike was looking all hang-dog and had just lost his wife, so I listened to him.”

  Liam growled again in his throat and spoke. “I tried to keep all my work troubles to myself, lovey, because you heard such misery working with those lawyers. I should have told you that Irene was the brains of the pair; Mike made all kinds of stupid decisions when she wasn’t around. Didn’t Mr. Prosser try to warn you?”

  “Oh, he wasn’t happy when Mike offered to marry me,” Ellen assured Liam quickly. “He warned me that it would mean the end of the disability pay I was getting. But then he told me how I could put the money in a trust in Emily’s name and keep on getting it, since Emily is Liam’s heir.”

  Miss Araminta stared accusingly over the tops of her glasses at Ellen. “I bet your lawyer friend didn’t tell you not to let Mike Jaimeson become trustee of the trust fund, though.”

  Ellen began to cry, and Araminta got up to give her another handkerchief from her quick mart packet. “I feel so stupid,” Ellen muttered. “Mike hadn’t mentioned a thing about the trusteeship until after he’d given me a big wedding and put me into his father’s house.” She looked over at Araminta. “You’ve got to understand; I’m just a country girl. I’d never even seen anything l
ike the house Mike inherited from his parents. It’s right next door to a twelve-year public school, too, so Emily could just walk over there and go to school in the same place until she graduated from high school. I was even thinking I could send her to college.”

  “And then Mike started carrying on about how broke he was,” Liam broke in nastily. Apparently he’d heard the same thing from his former employer many times.

  “It wasn’t until I started doing the books at the saw mill that I realized how razor-thin Mike’s profit margins were,” Ellen responded. “He sat me down when I mentioned the matter and told me such a sob story that we went to his bank half an hour later and made all the arrangements to make him Emily’s trustee.”

  “Okay, so what did he tell you?” Liam’s anger was now so palpable that Fido sat up straight and stared at Ellen.

  Ellen seemed to wither under her former husband’s scorn. “The whole problem, according to him, started with your accident,” she began. “Mike had never considered that he’d have a workers’ compensation claim, especially like the catastrophic one you had. According to him, things really got bad when I took your case to my legal aid friends. After the award we got, Mike found himself with a 275 percent loss ratio on his workers’ compensation insurance. If he didn’t renew at a higher rate with that particular company, they’d throw him into the assigned risk pool, and he could never afford that kind of coverage. And the law was watching him, so he had to keep coverage.”

  “What’s the assigned risk pool?” Liam looked over at Miss Araminta for an explanation.

  “By law,” Araminta began, “all companies who have ten employees or more have to have workers’ compensation insurance. There are also some companies that nobody in his right mind would willingly insure. These are usually people who manufacture things like dynamite or people who won’t enforce safety practices. Such companies go into an assigned risk pool, and every insurance company who writes workers’ compensation in a particular state has to take a certain percentage of its pool clients. Assigned risk business always involves at least 175 percent of the normal premium, and the companies watch their new clients closely for signs of improvement.”

  Liam’s lips twitched. “So old Mike told you he was in a bit of a mess, and it was your duty to help him out.”

  “Yes,” Ellen admitted limply. “He also carried on about how Irene had stripped him bare in the divorce settlement and how the law wouldn’t let him do what he wanted to with his own property. I admit, I didn’t understand it all. In fact, I agreed to his proposal just to shut him up. It would be ages before Emily was old enough to go to college. I figured I’d have time to put things right if I’d made a mistake.”

  “And then, just recently,” Miss Araminta said evenly, “he left some incriminating papers where you could find them.”

  “Yes,” Ellen sobbed, burying her face in the handkerchief again. “I thought trustees were always held accountable for their expenditures.”

  “Maybe in a perfect world,” Liam told her, “but a businessman in a little county where he’s got the most prosperous business in the area can pretty well do what he pleases. As I remember, Mike always favored that ritzy branch bank that set up here just after he inherited the saw mill, not that little savings and loan you used.”

  “That’s right,” Ellen replied into her handkerchief. “The branch is part of a national chain, so I thought it was reputable. I went and got a money order for most of the balance in my own savings and loan account, and we settled the trusteeship the next day.”

  “Mom!” Emily ran over and knelt by her mother’s chair. “You haven’t done anything wrong. Nobody could have known any better. Don’t go feeling guilty.”

  “I found out the truth about the ‘good old boys’ the hard way myself,” Liam admitted angrily, “when that bastard of a trustee got away with my brother’s mesothelioma settlement.”

  “Ellen, tell us what happened to make you run and when it happened,” Araminta commanded. “Then we’ll all know what needs doing.”

  Ellen looked up, squeezing the handkerchief in her fingers. “It was just yesterday – oh, God, I can’t believe it was just yesterday! I had dressed up special because the insurance inspectors were coming in the morning. That’s why I wore my best outfit. Anyway, Mike was out of his office, playing host to the inspectors, and I went in there to find a pencil. There was a piece of crumpled up paper on his desk. I uncrumpled the thing so I could file it properly.” Ellen choked, applying the handkerchief to her eyes again. “It was a bank transfer slip, showing where Mike had taken a lot of Emily’s money and put it into his own account. I just stood there, not knowing what to think, and the next thing I knew, Mike was standing right in the door staring at me. The insurance people must have gone to lunch, because he was just standing there looking at me, and there was no sanity in his eyes. Then he pounced on me, called me the most horrible names he could think of, and virtually ripped this dress right off of me. When he had finished with that, he just threw me down on the floor, and rushed out to his car.”

  Now Ellen was blushing a fiery red. “The saw mill foreman rushed into Mike’s office to see what all the noise was. He sort of looked away when he saw me and suggested I run into my own office and use my sewing kit. He promised to head Mike off on some pretext if he came back before closing time. Anyway, I limped as fast as I could back to my own office and repaired the dress.” She gave Araminta a watery smile. “I took sewing in high school and I make all of mine and Emily’s clothes. I am good for something.”

  “And Mike went home to wait for Emily and beat her up.” Liam’s face was set like stone, and it occurred to Miss Araminta that, sighted or not, this man would be a fierce opponent.

  Ellen looked up at him piteously. “Liam, I went home as soon as I was decent again, taking that transfer slip with me. School had gotten out by the time I left the saw mill, and I was afraid for Emily. I pulled our old car into the garage and ran to unlock the kitchen door.” Ellen burst into freshets of tears again. “Liam, Emily was crawling through the kitchen toward me. Mike had beaten the backs of both her legs bloody with his belt.”

  “And then he put the bloody belt back on and drove off,” Emily completed in disgust. “Mom came in and washed all the blood off me, and then we worked on first aid. I made Mom put on an old rain poncho first,” the girl added helpfully, “so she wouldn’t get her nice dress all bloody. Then she gathered up the few things we needed and helped me out to the car.”

  Ellen took a deep, cleansing breath and continued. “All I could think of, Liam, was getting into Nashville and finding you. I didn’t even consider how much money I had until we stopped in that little suburb to ask for directions, and the car wouldn’t start again. Luckily, I was able to flag down a wrecker to take me just a couple of blocks.”

  “You fell into good hands, lovey,” Liam assured her. “Carl’s a friend to anybody who’s down and out. I’ve lived in the Melrose area for the last twelve years, and he’s always been nice to me. So has everybody else.” He grinned. “Sergeant Pierce even stopped Miss Araminta from preaching to me about the desirability of registering with a social work agency and getting some real help with my needs.”

  Araminta grinned over at young Emily. “You see,” she admitted cheerfully, “I am sometimes an old snoop. It’s something to do with my time now I’m retired, and occasionally I can even help somebody.”

  “I do appreciate it,” Ellen told her, “and I fired up the kitchen stove here and used your groceries to feed my hungry daughter right away.” She turned to Liam. “I even managed to get a little oil and some wick for the oil lamps on the way over here. Once we hit Murfreesboro, I realized how low on money I really was.” Now she smiled devilishly and pointed to her left ring finger. “Mike bought me a honking great diamond when he wanted me to marry him. I pawned the thing in Murfreesboro to get us some ready cash. I’d just love to see his face when my lawyer gives him the pawn ticket!”

  “Wait a
minute!” Araminta held up a hand. “That car you drove here, Ellen, is that in Mike Jaimeson’s name?”

  “No, it’s in Liam’s,” Ellen replied instantly. “I was giving thanks for that all the way to Nashville. I managed to keep the Dodge, and paid the license renewal out of my own salary and that secret savings account I have.” She smiled over at her blind husband, who must have understood her by telepathy.

  “Ellen had started a savings account over at the savings and loan next door to her work before I got the sense to realize I wanted to marry her,” he explained. “Once we got married, we had a little talk with the bank manager, and he agreed that she could keep the savings account under her maiden name. He told us it isn’t against the law to keep an account under absolutely any kind of name, as long as there’s no intent to defraud. It sounded good to me; I knew how comparatively little I was making at the saw mill. I’ve blessed that man ever since, because he was looking out for my Ellen.”

  “I even kept my parents’ old post office box,” Ellen continued. “We had always lived out in the sticks where there was no mail service.” She smiled like a naughty little girl. “I got all my statements at the P.O. Box and sent in my taxes with the same return address. See, Liam had told me a few home truths about Mike Jaimeson, and I knew I’d better keep me a bolt hole.” Then Ellen sobered. “I should never have let him be Emily’s trustee, though; I just wasn’t thinking.”

  “He laid a guilt trip on you,” Emily insisted. “And you were still depressed and missing Father.”

  “Yes, I’ve always missed Liam.” Ellen looked around her. “Gracious, how the time’s gone by! I’d better get out one of those lamps and fire it up. I can see well enough to do that by the light of the kitchen stove.”

  “Wait a minute,” Liam commanded. “I heard some cars in the distance, and old Fido here is as tense as a drum. We may have some visitors.”