by Ward, Vivian
“I know, babe, but if we don’t fill these orders for the town, the locals might go out to find another source of firewood from someone else. Fort Scott is only a 30-minute drive. Don’t you think the locals would make a short drive like that to get firewood? You said yourself that this is probably our last winter here. I think we should try to make it count.”
“Judy, you know I love you, but I can’t jeopardize you and my only daughter. I plan on working longer days to keep up, and maybe even work through some of the weekends until I can finally breathe again. Let’s face it. It’s only going to get colder out there with each passing day. The faster I get the wood cut, the quicker I can stay in a warm house and enjoy the winter with my family.”
“We love you, too. I hate seeing you suffer out there like that. Let me come help you for a few hours after lunch tomorrow.” He opened his mouth to say something, but I held up my finger, “Ah-ah! Hear me out before you say anything. We can keep Nat inside the truck with the engine running so she stays warm, and if I get too cold, I can join her.”
He thought about it for a moment, “Only for a few hours and I don’t want you two getting sick. The last thing we can afford is a doctor bill. You have to promise me that as soon as you start getting too cold, you’ll get back in the heat with Nat.”
“Good, I’ll make sure we’re both ready as soon as we finish up lunch.”
He really does need my help. With the temperatures as low as they have been, we can actually make some bank this winter. Hopefully, it’ll be enough to carry us over until spring and let us stash a little extra.
“Judy, I wanted to tell you something.”
“What’s that?” I asked as I washed dishes.
“Reverend Piccard stopped by today while I was loading up the timber in the back of the truck before I came home. He told me something that I need to share with you,” his voice trailed off.
“What, Thomas?” Now he’s got me worried.
“He said that he heard the eminent domain bill will pass next year. Pincetti Properties has the investments necessary and all of the city council is on board with it. It would take a miracle to stop it.”
It felt like a sharp knife went through my heart as my mouth hung open. Judging by the look on his face, he felt it, too.
“Is this really happening? We’re really going to lose everything, aren’t we?”
“I’m afraid so, darling. That’s probably the only reason I agreed to let you help me tomorrow. We’ve gotta step it up this season, or we’re done. I won’t have enough to pay for the bills in the spring and we won’t have the money to move.”
Lying in bed that night, the only thing I could think about was losing our home. I stared at the ceiling as I listened to my tired husband snore. I wonder how many more nights I’ll get to look at this ceiling, these walls, and our home. Poor Natalie. She’ll be lost in a world she doesn’t know. I willed myself not to cry, but I couldn’t help it. Oh, God. What are we going to do for a house and a newer car? There’s no way our old Buick can handle driving back and forth to a big city. It’s on its last leg as it is. How in the world are we going to look at places to live? Will it even last long enough for Thomas to put in job applications once we get there?
My head was swimming with doubt and worry. At some point, I fell asleep. I couldn’t tell you exactly when, but the rooster crowing woke me up long before I was ready to get up. Restless from the night before, I crawled out of bed and started making breakfast. If we were going to go out with him today, I needed to make sure I had everything ready. While the freezing temps didn’t help, it also didn’t make it any better that the days were getting shorter. With limited daylight, Thomas could only cut so much timber before calling it a day. The coffee was percolating and the eggs were sizzling in the pan as Thomas made his way into the kitchen.
“Morning beautiful,” he wrapped his arms around me as he kissed my neck. “Where’s Nat?”
“She’s still in bed. I’ll go wake her in a minute. Did you sleep all right?”
“No. You?”
“Huh-uh. I tossed and turned all night.”
“I know. I felt you,” he hugged me before he poured himself a cup of coffee. “Do you want me to go wake her up?”
“Oh, no! I almost forgot. Happy birthday, babe! I’ll go get her so you don’t ruin her surprise.”
“Thank you.”
Opening Natalie’s door, I could see that she was still fast asleep. I don’t know how that child sleeps like that. One leg was draped across the bed while the other was hanging completely off the other side. Her arms were in a knot wrapped around her pillow and her face was turned sideways as she slept on her stomach. It looked like she could fall out of the bed any minute, but that’s how she sleeps. I walked over to the edge of her bed and rubbed her back until her little hazel eyes popped open.
“Good morning,” I signed. “Today is your daddy’s birthday! Do you want to give him his present that you’ve been working on?”
She jumped out of bed, smiling as wide as the horizon and ripped the painting off her easel as she nodded. Dancing down the hall, she made her way to the kitchen where she promptly stashed the painting behind her back.
“Natalie has something she wants to give you, dad,” I signed for her as I spoke the words to my husband.
“She does?” he signed back. “What does my special girl have for me?”
Natalie proudly presented the painting. Thomas smiled as he examined it.
“Wow! You have some incredible talent! Is that you playing while I cut down timber?”
She nodded her head.
“And what’s this? A dog?”
“Yes,” she signed.
“Natalie, you know how I feel about animals. We can’t have a dog.”
“I know, but I can hope,” she signed.
“All right, I guess I better get a move on. I’ll come home for lunch around 10:30 or so.”
“See you then,” I kissed him goodbye.
With him gone for the day, I started my regular morning chores of cleaning the house and preparing lunch. I hated to think of our lives any differently, but according to the talk of the town, it was happening whether I liked it or not. Lunch time came too fast. I’d barely pulled the food from the stove as Thomas kicked his boots off at the front door.
“Honey! Your face looks like it’s frozen!” I said as I helped him get out of his cold clothes. “Here, let me set these by the fire for you.”
I returned with a warm sweatshirt and a blanket. “Have a seat while I make your plate and get warmed up. Nat’s super excited to go out today.”
“Did you explain to her that she has to sit in the truck since it’s so cold out?”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t care. She just wants to get out of the house. She’s been working on puppets for this Sunday’s puppet show for her youth group and she’s going to bring them with her.”
“Oh, she’s got another project, huh?”
“I’m going to go get her for lunch so we can get a move on,” I sat his plate in front of him as I dashed down the hall.
After lunch, Natalie cleared her dishes from the table and ran out to the truck. I fetched Thomas’s work clothes from the fireplace before I bundled up to go out with him. As he drove through the acreage, the three of us bounced along inside the cab of the Mack truck. We drove to the far edge of the property to clear some of those trees since they were the biggest. With having me there to help, Thomas wanted to get the most out of this haul as he possibly could. Before we got out of the truck, I instructed Natalie to stay inside and work on her puppets.
“And don’t touch anything,” I warned her before getting out of the cab.
“I won’t momma,” she signed. “I’ll work on these.”
For eight years old, she was so mature. “Okay, baby. If you need anything, honk the horn.”
Thomas and I climbed out of the cab. He handed me the rope as he got out his chainsaw and put on his gloves. I was already
bundled; there’s no way I could ever handle the cold as he does. Once he had the ropes placed on the tree, he let me take them before he fired up the chainsaw and started cutting. I glanced over at the truck to make sure Natalie was still content in the truck. The rope began slipping through my gloves as I lost my grip.
“Thomas!” I called out to him. “Thomas, I can’t…the rope is slipping!”
He’d already cut through the thickest part of the tree; unable to hear me over the chainsaw, he continued cutting.
“Thomas!” I shouted.
I watched in slow, horrifying motion as the tree started to fall in the wrong direction. It was going straight towards him. My mouth opened, but the words wouldn’t come out. I looked on in terror as he noticed the rope was out of my hands and the tree was coming straight at him.
“Thomas!” I managed to shout.
He looked up in shock as the tree came at him. Too late to move out of the way, he was struck to the ground with the thick, oversized tree landing right on top of him.
“Thomas! Oh God, help him!” I screamed.
There was nothing I could do for him. The tree must’ve weighed a few hundred pounds at least and was wider than both of us combined. I ran to the truck as fast as I could, tripping over tree branches as I went. When the door popped open and Natalie saw it was me, she looked around for her dad. Her eyes instantly darted to the area where we were working, where her dad was now laying there motionless. I covered her eyes as I put the truck in gear and began driving back to the house. It took an eternity to get there as Natalie and I rigorously bounced around in the cab as I hurried to get home. Once we were at the house, I lurched out of the truck and ran inside to call for help. My frozen fingers frantically dialed 911 as I cried.
“9-1-1, what is your emergency?” the operator asked.
“It’s my husband! A tree fell on him and I think he’s…Oh god! Please send help!”
“What is the address, ma’am?”
“It’s 34 County Road 1185!” I cried hysterically into the phone. “But he’s…he’s in the back,” sobbing so hard I could barely get the words out.
“He’s in the back?”
“He’s a lumberjack and we were cutting down timber for firewood. He’s out in the woods.”
“What is your name, ma’am?”
“Judy Clay. My husband is Thomas Clay. Oh, please, send help!”
“I’ve already dispatched EMS Mrs. Clay. I need you to stay on the line with me,” she insisted.
“I can’t! My daughter’s out in the truck. She’s only eight-years-old, and she’s deaf! I have to go get her!”
“Mrs. Clay, go get your daughter but do not hang up the phone. I’ll wait on the line for you.”
I threw the phone down on the table and made my way out to the truck. The harsh, frigid winds took my breath away when it hit my lungs.
“Natalie, get out of the truck and come inside,” I signed as fast as I could.
“Why?” she asked.
“There was an accident and I’m on the phone getting help. Come inside!”
Natalie climbed out of the cab and we ran inside. I picked up the phone.
“I’m back! Are they almost here yet?”
“It’ll be a few moments ma’am. Let me know when you can hear the sirens. Once you can hear them, we’ll hang up and you can take them to your husband.”
A few moments later, I could hear the faint sounds of sirens. “I think I hear them!”
“They just radioed in and said they’re about a mile from your house, Mrs. Clay. We can hang up now.”
I dropped the phone, signaled to Natalie to stay inside and ran out in the yard. I could hear them, but I couldn’t see them yet. Walking to the edge of our driveway, I looked down the road. A small white vehicle with flashing lights began to emerge. My heart was racing a mile a minute. Thrashing my arms about, I signaled them to our house. When they pulled in, one of the men got out of the truck and asked me where Thomas was.
“He’s at the far west corner of the property. I’ll take you there!”
The man helped me inside the ambulance as I pointed in the direction we needed to go. Riding in the ambulance wasn’t any smoother than in the Mack truck. Our bodies bounced and jiggled around as we drove through the thick, wooded timber.
“He’s back there! Over that way!”
The driver turned the wheel and slowed as he pulled up to the scene of the accident. He immediately got on the radio and asked for assistance from the fire department.
“What’s going on? Can’t you help him?” I demanded.
“Ma’am, there’s a tree on top of him. We don’t have the tools to remove it.”
“You can’t just leave him!” I was growing more hysterical by the moment.
“Calm down, ma’am. We’ll go assess his vitals right now,” he grabbed his bag as he and his partner exited the ambulance.
They walked up to him and began calling his name, but I couldn’t tell if he was responsive. The engine was too loud and the cold air made the windows frost over. Both men knelt beside my husband; one of them began CPR while the other assisted him. For twenty long minutes, they continued to work on him. The fire department arrived with equipment to remove the tree. Please, please let him be all right. Please, Dear God, watch over him and keep him safe.
The firemen grabbed the chainsaw that Thomas had dropped to cut it into smaller pieces before removing the tree as the men continued to work on my husband. After several minutes, they quit performing CPR on Thomas and one of the EMS drivers came to the ambulance to retrieve a stretcher.
“Is he okay? Is he going to make it?”
“I’m sorry ma’am,” he grimly replied.
“Sorry? For what?”
He looked on as he carried the stretcher over to Thomas and the men lifted him onto it. Before they brought him back to the ambulance, the ambulance driver asked me to ride back to the house with the firemen.
“No! No! I want to be with my husband. I want to be next to his side,” I pleaded with him. There was no way I was leaving him.
His co-driver nodded, granting me permission to ride in the back of the truck. Hysteria sat in as they loaded his body into the ambulance. I glimpsed down at him and lost it when the realization had set in that my Thomas was gone.
Chapter 3
The families from our church heard of Thomas’s death and began showing up at the house one by one, offering their condolences and warm foods for Natalie and me to dine on. Word spreads faster than wildfire through a town this size. Natalie was so devastated that she refused to come out of her room; she hadn’t eaten in days. Every time I went to her room to offer her food or comfort, she shied away from me and continued sobbing into her pillow. The night of the accident, she took the picture she’d painted for him and kept it by her bed. It was the only thing she’d look at. I think she found comfort in knowing she’d given it to him on his birthday—and the day he died. He loved it so much and was so proud of her when he saw how hard she’d worked on it.
Reverend Piccard was well aware of our bleak financial situation and offered to hold the funeral at the chapel. I graciously accepted since the local funeral home, Merritt’s, was asking an arm and a leg to rent their chapel. In efforts to help pay for his final expenses, the church sent out a bulletin to take up collections for our family in our time of need. Much to my surprise, many of the white families in the community also donated to the cause. Word definitely gets around quickly when you live in such a small town.
Jeffrey Pincetti, the mastermind behind the eminent domain wasted no time stopping by either. I was sitting in the kitchen on a Saturday afternoon, about a week after we buried Thomas when I heard a knock at the door. When I opened it, I wasn’t sure who he was since I’d never seen the man before.
“Mrs. Clay?”
“Yes? Can I help you?” I looked out into the driveway and noticed an expensive Corvette parked behind my Buick.
“My name’s Jeffrey Pi
ncetti—Pincetti Properties,” he extended his hand. “I’m sorry to hear about your husband, Thomas. I’m sure it was a tragedy to lose him.”
The bitterly cold wind threatened to frost over the entire inside of the house. “Yes, it was. Thank you. Would you like to come in out of the cold?”
“I’d appreciate it,” he said as he stepped into the house and released his grip on his coat that he’d been holding shut.
“Please, have a seat. Would you like some coffee?”
“That would be great. Cream and sugar, please.”
I had poured his coffee before I joined him at the table.
