Measure of Grace

by Al Lacy

  Martha closed her eyes, opened them again. “A month.”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “And Judge Weathers says he has to pay all of Tom’s medical bills,” added Derick.

  “Chief Perry told us that the law says he has to present you with the opportunity to press charges against Papa,” said Diana. “He’s coming to see you tomorrow.”

  Martha’s already pallid face went sheet white. “Oh no! I can’t. You know what he would do when he got out.”

  “We told him you wouldn’t press charges, Mama,” said Derick. “And we told him it was because of what Papa would do to you. But he still has to come in his official capacity as chief constable and give you the opportunity to press charges. He said if you did, Judge Weathers would sentence him to a year in jail.”

  “A year?” Martha said, her voice quivering. “It would only make things worse.”

  The trepidation that was in Martha’s eyes touched Laura’s heart. She wanted to say something encouraging, but she couldn’t find what she felt were the proper words.

  Diana said, “Mama, the nurse told us not to stay but ten minutes or so. We need to go so you can get some rest.”

  “Right,” said Derick. “We’re going to Tom’s room and see him before we head for home.”

  “I hope he gets well soon,” said Martha.

  Diana bent down and kissed Martha’s cheek. “I love you, Mama. You rest, now.”

  Derick kissed her cheek also. “We’ll see you tomorrow, Mama. I love you.”

  Martha said, “I love both of you so much. Tell Deborah, Daniel, and Dennis I love them, too. I wish the hospital didn’t have the rule that a child has to be at least sixteen to visit someone here. I’d love to see them.”

  “You’ll be coming home soon,” said Diana in a soothing tone. “It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Thomas.”

  “Yes,” said Derick. “It sure was.”

  Laura smiled warmly. “Since your mother is in that cast, I’ll ring the bell for her anytime she needs a nurse.”

  Both of them thanked her, then started toward the door, heartsick over their mother’s condition. They paused at the door and looked back at her tired, bruised, and battered face. She looked so pathetic in the cast and with the black-and-purple eye that was swollen shut. Their faces showed the anguish they were feeling.

  “Please go on home and take care of the younger children for me. Like you said, Diana, I’ll be home soon.”

  Derick and Diana, still reluctant to leave her, held onto each other, looking at her with sad eyes.

  Summoning up all her strength, and making an effort to smile again in spite of her battered mouth, Martha said, “You will do me more good by taking care of them than by staying here—as much as I love having you. I’ll be fine, and when you come back tomorrow, I’ll look much better. I promise.”

  “All right, Mama,” said Diana. “We’ll do as you say.”

  Both took a lingering look at their mother, then left.

  Laura’s gaze was fixed on Martha as she released a pent-up sigh, and a pained look etched itself on her features. “Martha, you’re hurting. Would you like for me to call a nurse? I’m sure they can give you something to relieve the pain.”

  Martha swallowed hard and turned her face toward Laura. “Yes, please,” she said in a strained whisper. “Even the light makes my head and eyes hurt.”

  When Derick and Diana entered Tom Wymore’s room, they found his parents there, standing beside the bed. Zack and Ruth Wymore gave them a cold look.

  “Hello, Diana, Derick,” said Tom through the slit in the bandage on his face and jaw. “Nice of you to come by.”

  “Tom is supposed to rest,” Zack said curtly.

  “That’s right,” came Ruth’s frigid agreement.

  Diana stepped ahead of her brother, drew up close to the bed, and said, “We’ll only stay a moment. Tom, I just want you to know how sorry I am for what my father did to you.”

  Ruth’s face flushed red. The veins stood out prominently on her neck as she said bluntly, “It would be best, Diana, if you and Tom don’t see each other anymore. If the two of you hadn’t been talking there on the street, this wouldn’t have happened.”

  Tom reached out and touched his mother’s hand. “Mom, I told you it wasn’t Diana’s fault. It was I who approached her.”

  Zack said grimly, “Tom, since Stu Morrow feels toward you as he does, it really is best that you stay away from Diana.”

  Diana said, “Mr. Wymore, it isn’t Tom in particular that my father dislikes. He doesn’t want me in contact with any young man.”

  “I told both of you,” said Tom, “that Diana warned me about her father when I approached her. But I thought I could reason with him, so I went against Diana’s warning and tried to talk to him. Please don’t blame her. It’s my fault.”

  “Well, trying to reason with him didn’t work, Tom,” said Ruth, “so you should avoid any contact with Diana from now on.”

  Feeling quite uncomfortable, Diana turned to her brother and said, “We need to be going, Derick. Tom needs to rest.”

  Derick nodded. “All right.”

  Looking back at Tom, Diana said, “Again, I’m so sorry.”

  Tom closed his eyes and nodded. “Like I said, Diana, it was my fault.”

  Diana walked ahead of her brother, and as both of them stepped out of the room and started down the hall, they heard footsteps and looked over their shoulders.

  Ruth’s face was flushed again as she rushed up and said tartly, “Diana, I want you to stay completely away from my son. I mean it. Do you understand?”

  Tears welled up in Diana’s eyes. “Mrs. Wymore, it was Tom who approached me. Didn’t you hear him?”

  “Tom wouldn’t have approached you if you hadn’t led him on, and you know it!”

  Derick’s eyes flashed fire. “This is not true, ma’am! My sister did not lead him on.”

  Ignoring him, Ruth pointed a stiff forefinger at Diana, shook it threateningly, and hissed, “You stay away from my son, or you’re going to be one sorry girl! Do you hear me?”

  With that, she wheeled and went back into the room.

  Derick put an arm around his weeping sister. “Come on, Diana. Let’s go home.”

  Stuart Morrow was lying on his bunk when he heard the door that led to the office come open and heard a prisoner two cells down the row say, “Are you here to let me out, Chief?”

  “No, Harold,” said Perry. “I don’t think you’re going to get out till tomorrow.”

  “How come?” said Harold. “I thought—”

  “Judge Weathers had some other things to tend to today. I think he’ll get to your case tomorrow.”

  Stu turned his big head so he could see the chief, and realized he was coming toward his cell. He gave Perry a sour look as he drew up to the bars, but stayed on the bunk and waited for the chief to speak.

  Peering through the bars, Perry fixed Morrow with stern eyes and said, “I just came from the hospital.”

  Stu sat up, rolled his wide shoulders, then rose to his feet and stepped to the bars. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Your wife’s in pretty bad shape. If you don’t get that temper of yours under control, mister, you’ll probably kill her next time.”

  Stu frowned and jutted his jaw. “Whattaya mean?”

  “You practically crippled her this time. You dislocated her right shoulder and broke the bone in her upper right arm. Who knows how long it will be till she can use her shoulder normally again. She lost a lot of blood because you bloodied her nose. I saw her at the house just before we had to coldcock you. Both her nose and mouth were bleeding profusely. They finally got the bleeding stopped at the hospital, but it took a while. I talked to Diana and Derick, and to Dr. Walter Bates in the waiting room. They said her right eye is swollen shut and her face is badly bruised.”

  Stu drew a sleeve across his mouth. “So what did the judge say about me?”

  “That’s the main reason I came to see you.
He’s giving you a month in this cell, and you are to pay all of Tom’s medical bills.”

  Stu’s mouth fell open. “Yeah? Well, just how am I supposed to pay those bills? I can’t earn any money sitting in here.”

  “That’s your problem, mister,” Perry said tightly. “But it could get worse.”

  “Whattaya mean?”

  “It’s my duty as chief constable to talk to Martha and tell her if she wants, she can press assault and battery charges against you. Judge Weathers says if she does, he will sentence you to a year behind bars, in addition to the month that you are already going to serve.”

  Stu gripped the bars till his knuckles turned white. “She wouldn’t dare,” he growled.

  Perry shrugged. “It’s up to her. I’ll be talking to her tomorrow and offer her the opportunity.”

  Stu’s features turned a deep crimson. He opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it, and moved back to the bunk. He looked back at Perry, shook his head, and sat down without another word.

  When Diana and Derick reached the hospital’s parking lot, Derick helped her climb onto the wagon seat, then climbed up and sat down beside her. Diana took a hankie from her dress pocket and dabbed at the fresh tears that were spilling down her cheeks.

  As Derick took the reins in hand, he looked at her with pity in his eyes and said, “Sis, are you all right?”

  Diana sniffed and blinked against a fresh supply of tears. “I’ll be okay in a minute.” She sniffed again. “Derick …”

  “Uh-huh?”

  “Maybe we should go to the jail and see Papa.”

  His eyes widened. “What for? He’ll probably just cuss you out for talking to Tom.”

  “Maybe so, but he is our father. We should go visit him.”

  Derick sighed, put the horses into motion, and said, “If you insist.”

  When brother and sister walked into the police station, they approached the sergeant on the desk. He gave them a weak smile and said, “What can I do for you young people?”

  “Sergeant,” said Derick, “our father, Stuart Morrow, is one of your prisoners.”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m Derick Morrow, and this is my sister, Diana. We would like to see our father.”

  Sergeant Ben Chasen slowly shook his head. “We have a rule, here. No one your age can visit a prisoner unless they are accompanied by someone twenty-one or over.”

  “Our mother is in the hospital, sir,” said Diana. “We have no one to accompany us.”

  Chasen scratched at an ear. “I… I’m acquainted with your situation. Tell you what. I’ll take you to Chief Perry’s office. He is the only one who has the authority to bypass the rule.”

  When Bob Perry looked up from his desk and saw Chasen leading Diana and Derick into his office, he rose to his feet and smiled. “Hello Diana, Derick.”

  “They want to visit their father, sir,” said Chasen. “Since they are both obviously under twenty-one, I explained the rule to them. I … thought maybe you’d bypass the rule because of the circumstances.”

  Running his gaze between brother and sister, Perry said, “I’m a bit surprised that you would even want to see him after what he did to your mother.”

  “Well, sir,” said Diana, “we felt we should come and visit him in spite of what he did, since he is our father.”

  Perry sighed and said, “I hope someday Stuart Morrow realizes just what a special son and daughter he has. All right. I’ll take you to him.”

  As they followed the chief down the narrow hall that led to the cell block, Derick took hold of Diana’s hand, gripping it firmly. She smiled at him, and her eyes told him how very much she appreciated him.

  Perry led them into the cell block, and while the other prisoners looked on, he ushered them up to their father’s cell.

  The big man was lying on his bunk once again, his eyes closed.

  “Morrow,” said Perry, “there’s someone here to see you.”

  Stu opened his eyes, glanced through the bars, and when he saw his oldest two children, he got up from the bunk.

  Looking at the young pair, Perry said, “You can stay fifteen minutes, maximum. I’ll be back to get you.”

  As the chief constable walked away and passed through the hall door, Stuart Morrow set fiery eyes on Derick and Diana and stepped up to the bars. The anger in those eyes put chills down both their spines.

  WHEN RUTH WYMORE RETURNED to her son’s hospital room, she heard Tom say to his father, “But how will he ever be able to do that?”

  Drawing up, Ruth ran her questioning gaze between both men and asked, “How can who do what?”

  Zack said, “Since we were interrupted by Diana and her brother before we could tell Tom about our visit at home from Chief Bob Perry just before we came to the hospital, I was telling him that Perry told us Judge Weathers was going to make Stuart Morrow pay all of his medical bills.”

  “I was asking Dad how Mr. Morrow could pay my bills,” said Tom. “For one thing, he is a farmer who doesn’t even own the farm he lives on. He rents it. I know the Morrows don’t have much money. And for another, if he’s in jail for a month, things will get tighter for him.”

  “I don’t know what he will do,” said Zack, “but according to Chief Perry, Judge Weathers is going to make him pay.”

  “That’s Morrow’s worry,” Ruth said. “If he hadn’t beat you up, he wouldn’t be facing this problem.”

  Tom sighed and used a hand to adjust the bandage on his jaw. “Diana warned me not to try talking to her father. If I’d listened, I wouldn’t be in this condition, and there wouldn’t have been any trouble for her. I just felt sure I could reason with him. I really do like her. She’s a sweet girl, and until this trouble started with her father, she’s always shown a keen sense of humor. The fear of what he might do if she breaks his unfair rules has clouded that sense of humor. I hope he will start treating her right so she can be her old self again. She’s always been very pleasant to be around.”

  Ruth pulled her lips into a thin line. “Tom, when I went out there in the hall, I told Diana to stay away from you. I don’t want you to have anything to do with her anymore.”

  “Mom, I’m not a child. If I want to see her some more, I—”

  “You what?” Ruth said crisply. “You want to end up in the hospital again? You like to be beat up, do you?”

  “Well, no, but—”

  “How may times do you have to be pounded to a pulp before you realize that Diana is poison? Hmm?”

  “Mom, it’s not Diana’s fault. I told you … it was my fault. She tried to get me to walk away when her father saw us together. Like I said, I thought I could reason with him. I got pounded because I wouldn’t listen.”

  “Come on, son. She led you on. That’s why you’re lying here in this bed.”

  “She did not lead me on!” Tom said quickly. “This was my doing. Why won’t you listen to me?”

  “Tom,” said Zack, “that’s enough. Let’s drop it. Diana is not for you. If you’ll stay away from her and find yourself another girl, everything will turn out all right. Now, let’s talk about when you get out of here.”

  At the Richmond jail, the blaze of anger in Stuart Morrow’s eyes against the crimson flush of his skin was a wicked thing as he stared through the bars at Diana and lashed out at her. “I’m surprised at your gall, girl! What are you doing here?”

  Diana’s features lost color. Her lips trembled as she tried to form her words.

  “She wanted to come and see you,” spoke up Derick, his own eyes showing the ire that he felt. “Why can’t you be civil to her?”

  Stu’s face flushed a deeper crimson. “You stay out of it, boy! I wasn’t talking to you!” Then to Diana he said, “This whole thing is your fault! If you hadn’t disobeyed me and talked to Tom Wymore, none of this would have happened! I wouldn’t be in jail, and your mother wouldn’t be in the hospital.”

  Tears filmed Diana’s eyes. With face white and strained, she said, “Papa
, I didn’t approach Tom. He approached me.”

  “Oh? Then why didn’t you send him on his way? Tell me that, girl!”

  “I tried, Papa, but—”

  “Don’t lie to me!” boomed Stu.

  The men in the other cells were looking on in muted awe.

  Diana’s blood heated up, sending courage through her. “I’m not lying!” she retorted. “When you sent me after Dennis’s cough syrup, I told Tom you wouldn’t let me date him. And when I saw you coming, I told him to take his cousin and go. But he wouldn’t listen. He insisted on asking you if he could date me.”

  “Bah!” said Stu. “Says you!”

  “It’s the truth, Papa. You just won’t believe anything I say.”

  “She’s telling the truth, Papa,” said Derick in her defense. “Diana wouldn’t lie to you.”

  “Oh no?”

  “No. This morning when you were drinking at the Golden Lantern and we were going to meet Mama and the girls at the general store, Diana told Tom to leave. Deborah told me so.”

  “Oh, sure,” Stu said in a tone of disgust. “Deborah would lie to cover for her sister.”

  Diana’s anger at her father’s derogatory words about Deborah filled her with more courage. Her eyes flashed as she took a step closer to the cell door and said, “What is it, Papa? Why can’t you take any of us at our word?”

  “Don’t you speak to me like that,” said Stu. “I’m your father. When I get outta here, you’re gonna get it! This whole mess is your fault! Me in jail, and your mother in the hospital!”

  “What are you talking about?” Diana said tartly. “It’s your fault! I didn’t beat up on Tom. You did. And I didn’t beat up on Mama. I didn’t dislocate her shoulder, break her arm, and bruise her face. You did.”

  Swearing at Diana, Stu thrust an arm through the bars to grab her. But she stepped out of reach.

  Derick’s own anger flared. “Papa, what you did was dead wrong! Diana is right. This whole thing is your fault. You need to face it and admit it.”

  Stu’s upper lip pulled back over his teeth in a feral gesture, and he swore vehemently as he attempted to grasp Derick through the bars, but the youth was just out of reach and knew it. “How dare you talk like that to me, boy! I’m your father.”