by Al Lacy
Jerrod Harper removed his wide-brimmed hat, sleeved tears from his face, and ran his fingers through his thick dark-red hair. He drew a shuddering breath, looked at the frightened boy in Dottie’s arms, and said, “James. Oh, James … Daddy’s so sorry! I’m so awful sorry! Will you forgive me? Please, son … forgive me.”
James looked into his mother’s eyes, then back at his father and said, “Yes, Daddy. I forgive you.”
Jerrod wept harder, but this time with relief. He held out his arms to James. “Son, would you let me hold you for a minute? I need to hug you.”
James looked to his mother for advice and saw approval in her eyes. When she released James into his father’s hands, she leaned over and gathered Molly Kate into her arms. The child embraced her mother’s neck and held tight.
People on the boardwalk and in passing vehicles gawked at the touching scene.
Jerrod wept bitterly, repeating again and again how sorry he was for what he had done. James touched his father’s tear-stained cheek and said, “It’s all right, Daddy. I know you didn’t mean to do it.”
“James, Daddy will never beat you like that again. I promise. It’ll never happen again, son!”
James wrapped his arms around his father’s muscular neck and held him tight. Jerrod looked down at his wife and daughter, and said, “Dottie … Molly Kate. Please forgive me for bein’ so awful. I promise—solemnly promise—I’ll never be like that again. May God strike me dead if I ever do!”
Dottie held her little girl tight and said, “I forgive you, Jerrod. And Molly Kate does, too, don’t you honey?” Molly Kate nodded, still showing some fear of her father.
Jerrod’s tears and sorrow touched Dottie to the quick. Then and there, she brushed aside the idea of reporting him to the sheriff or of trying to get him under psychiatric care. She took hold of his hand and brought it to her mouth and kissed it. “Let’s go home, Jerrod,” she said.
Jerrod placed James on the wagon seat, then took Molly Kate from Dottie and set her there, too. He helped Dottie climb up to the seat, then mounted his horse. Together, the Harper family headed south out of San Francisco into farm country and toward home.
Jerrod was overwhelmed with the joy of being forgiven by his family. He prayed silently, asking the Lord to forgive him also. Scriptures came to mind, assuring him that when sins were confessed, God forgave and cleansed them in the blood of His Son. Jerrod fought tears again, knowing that the Lord kept His Word. From his lofty place in the saddle, he set his eyes on Dottie and thanked the Lord for giving him such a precious wife.
And then there was Molly Kate. It hurt him that those big blue eyes showed fear when she looked at him. But what else could he expect? Molly Kate had seen him beat James. He remembered hearing her scream of terror this morning while he was pounding on her brother.
Jerrod Harper, he told himself, you’re the lowest of the low. If anybody deserves the wrath of God, its you. He remembered what Job had said when he got a good glimpse of the Lord. Like Job, Jerrod Harper abhorred himself.
James said something to Dottie and suddenly sat up. She pulled rein and quickly stopped the wagon. Molly Kate looked the other way while her brother retched with the dry heaves. The boy’s face was flour-white when his mother returned his head to her lap and snapped the reins.
Only minutes ago Jerrod had been basking in the forgiveness he had found from his family and from his God. Now he struggled to control the contempt he felt toward himself. He couldn’t forgive Jerrod Harper. He more than abhorred himself. His body tensed, and a twitch pulsed at the corner of his mouth like an irregular heartbeat.
Dottie saw him stiffen in the saddle and looked with alarm at his face. The twitch, which she had seen so many times in the past five months, always appeared just before he went into one of his fits.
“Jerrod, get a grip on yourself.” Dottie’s voice quivered as she said it.
He looked down at her, his face glistening with sweat. The twitch was becoming more pronounced and he was breathing heavily.
“Jerrod!” Dottie cried. “Don’t let the other Jerrod take control. Fight him, darling! Fight him!”
Jerrod pulled rein and Dottie halted the horses. His hands shook as he clutched the saddlehorn and groaned. His cheeks were glazed, his breath quick and shallow, his eyes wild in mounting panic. The wagon had eased a few feet ahead of him. Dottie looked back and cried again, “Jerrod!”
His breathing grew deeper, and the twitch began to subside. Suddenly he expelled a long breath and with it went the wire-tightness of his nerves. He let go of the saddlehorn and wiped his hands over his bearded face, taking several deep breaths.
Dottie slid from the wagon and hurried to him. “You did it!” she said, weeping for joy. “You drove the other Jerrod back! I love you, darling! I love you!”
Jerrod blinked against the sweat that stung his eyes and smiled down at his wife. He slid to the ground and took Dottie in his arms. They stood in a tight embrace, holding each other as if they had been apart for years.
Dottie thanked the Lord for the victory she had just seen. Was it the words of love she had called out to her husband that pulled him through? She thought so. Yes! Jerrod wouldn’t need Dr. Matthew Carroll. Dottie would love him back to the man he used to be!
That night after the children were in bed asleep, Jerrod and Dottie sat down at the kitchen table for an extra cup of coffee. They were side by side, holding hands.
Jerrod lifted the hand he held, kissed it, and spoke slowly with feeling. “Dottie, I’m so sorry for what I did to James … and to you. Those marks on your face should be mine. I wouldn’t blame you if you left me and got a divorce. I don’t know how you’ve stood it. Any other woman would have packed up the children and been gone long ago.”
Dottie rose to her feet and wrapped her arms around her husband’s neck, pulling him close to her heart. She toyed with his thick locks as she said, “Do you remember the day you met me at the stagecoach station when I came to be your mail-order bride?”
“How could I ever forget?”
“When I first laid eyes on you, I fell in love. It was the Lord’s hand on us, and I knew it.”
“I loved you before I first saw you,” he said. “When your letter came with your picture and I saw that beautiful girl lookin’ at me, I fell head-over-heels.”
Dottie kissed his forehead. “You say you wouldn’t blame me if I divorced you.”
“Nobody could blame you.”
“But, darling, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t leave you. That day we stood before God and Pastor Yates, I vowed to love you and stay by your side in sickness and in health till death parted us. My vows are sacred to me. I will stay by them. Besides, you’re going to get better. I’m going to pour out so much love on the good Jerrod and make him so strong that the bad Jerrod won’t come back ever again.”
“Thank you,” he said, planting a kiss on her chin. “How can I not get better with you taking such good care of me?”
Dottie knew it would take time and that Jerrod would need all the support he could get. She wanted to propose that they go to their pastor for help, but she had suggested it a few weeks earlier and Jerrod had bristled. He didn’t want the preacher or anyone at the church to know. Dottie knew to bring it up now could set him off again.
But he did need to face the fact that it would take time. She cautiously explained this to him, trying to make him realize that the potential for hurting her and the children was still there. At first he insisted that he would never hurt them again, but when Dottie reminded him of all the previous promises he had made and broken, he reluctantly agreed she was right.
It bothered Dottie that Jerrod had always refused to let her pray with him about the problem. He wanted to avoid the subject completely, as if not talking about it would make it go away. Now she was pleasantly surprised when he looked into her eyes and said, “I want the Lord to help me. Could we read the Bible and pray together?”
“Yes, let’s do,”
she exclaimed, and went to get the Bible she kept on the kitchen cupboard.
Jerrod and Dottie read several passages of Scripture together, then with hands clasped on top of the table, they prayed. Jerrod poured his heart out, pleading with God to help him overcome the evil forces within him. He told the Lord he never wanted to hurt his family again, but he must have His help.
Dottie was much encouraged to hear her husband pray so earnestly. She told herself that though it would take time, with God’s help and a lot of love from her, the bad Jerrod could be conquered. While Jerrod continued to pour his heart out, she asked the Lord to help her love him more.
Jerrod did well through the night. There were no nightmares, and both of them slept until dawn without waking. After breakfast, Jerrod read the Bible to his family and led them in prayer. He kissed all three, then went to the barn to begin his day’s work.
For Dottie it was a day of housecleaning. The Harpers lived in a three-story house that was forty years old. The top floor had two bedrooms, an attic, and a small turret room with a cone-shaped roof on a front corner. On the second floor were four bedrooms, each having its own walk-in closet, dressing and bathing room, and fireplace. Jerrod and Dottie occupied the largest bedroom, and James and Molly Kate each had their own bedroom, leaving the spare as a guest room.
Molly Kate’s room and the guest room were at the front of the house, facing the double-rutted lane that led to the road. Molly liked her room especially because it was near the corner next to the turret room with the cone-shaped roof. She often pretended she was a princess and the turret was the tower of her castle.
Dottie spent most of the day sweeping and dusting every room on the first and second floors. Later in the afternoon she climbed the steep staircase to the third floor and began her work up there. Molly Kate was in her room playing with her dolls, and James, who was still not feeling well, was lying on his bed.
Dottie was almost finished in the turret when she heard Molly Kate call to her from the floor below, “Mommy!”
“Yes, honey?” Dottie called back.
“There’s somebody coming up the lane!”
Dottie went to the latticed windows that faced the front of the house and saw two riders trotting up the lane.
Some five hundred yards to the east of the house, beyond a grove of eucalyptus trees, Jerrod Harper was cultivating a section of his strawberry field, using one draft horse to pull the cultivator. Suddenly his attention was drawn to a silver-haired woman running across the field from the south, waving her arms and shouting his name. It was Maudie Reeves. In their late sixties, Will and Maudie Reeves were his closest neighbors. Their farm bordered the Harper place on its southern side. The Harpers were close friends with the Reeveses, who belonged to the same church in San Bruno.
Jerrod halted the horse and began running toward Maudie. He could see that she was frightened or upset.
“It’s Will!” Maudie shouted as they drew close. “He had the wagon up on blocks, putting on a new axle, and it somehow came off. He’s pinned underneath. I can’t get it off him!”
“Where is he?” asked Jerrod, starting toward the Reeves place.
“On the back side of the barn. In the corral.”
Jerrod took off running. It took him less than four minutes to reach the split-rail fence that separated the two farms. He hurdled the fence and headed toward the barn. He ran into the barn and out the rear door into the corral, and found Will Reeves pinned to the ground.
The wagon was larger than most and quite heavy. Will had been replacing the rear axle, and the back end of the wagon was on his chest. His face was beet-red as he struggled to lift the dead weight off him.
“Oh, thank God!” he grunted when he saw Jerrod. “Help me, Jerrod! It’s squeezin’ the life outta me!”
“Just hold on, my friend. I’ll have you out of there in a jiffy.”
Jerrod backed up to the end of the wagon, got a good grip underneath the bed, and hoisted it upward. When he saw that Will had rolled free of the wagon, he eased it down, then let it fall the last six inches. It hit the ground with a heavy thud. Will sat down on the edge of the nearby water trough as his cows and horses looked on inquisitively.
“Are you all right?” Jerrod asked. “You shouldn’t be tryin’ to put that axle on by yourself, Will.”
“I’ve always done it before.”
“Yeah, but you were younger then. You know I would’ve come and helped if I’d known you needed me. I asked if you’re all right.”
Reeves looked up at him, rubbing his chest. “Yes, I’m fine. No bones broken, though I’m sure I’ll be sore for a few days. Glad Maudie found you home. If you hadn’t come when you did, I’d have died.”
“Tell you what, Will,” Jerrod said. “Tomorrow I’ll come over here and put that axle on for you. Okay?”
“You sure you’ve got time?”
“I’ll make time. What are friends for, anyhow?”
Will grinned, shaking his head. “You’re a real friend, Jerrod. Okay, I’ll give you a hand, and we’ll have it done in no time.”
Maudie appeared at the barn door and breathed a prayer of thanks when she saw her husband sitting on the edge of the water trough.
Dottie stepped out on the front porch with Molly Kate beside her. When she saw the sun flash off the riders’ badges, she knew it was the sheriff and his deputy.
“Are they coming to arrest Daddy?” Molly Kate asked.
“I don’t know, honey,” Dottie said. “They might be if somebody told them what Daddy did to James yesterday.”
The lawmen drew up, and the older man touched his hat brim and said, “Afternoon, ma’am. I assume you’re Mrs. Harper.”
“Yes, I’m Dottie Harper.”
“I’m Max Donner, San Mateo County sheriff, ma’am. This is my deputy, Myron Hall.”
Hall touched his hat brim, nodded, and smiled tightly. “My pleasure, Mrs. Harper,” he said.
Donner looked down at Molly Kate and said, “And what’s your name, honey?”
“Molly Kate,” came the timid reply.
“Molly Kate, huh? My, that’s a pretty name. Of course it’d have to be, wouldn’t it? For such a pretty girl, I mean.”
Molly Kate leaned against her mother and did not answer.
“Dr. Glenn Olson contacted me by wire, ma’am,” Donner said, looking back at Dottie. “Told me about you bein’ there at the hospital yesterday with your son.”
“I see,” Dottie said.
“From what the doc said, ma’am, your boy was beaten quite severely by your husband.”
Dottie pulled her mouth tight and gave a short nod.
“Dr. Olson’s wire said he strongly advised you to contact me about the beating … but he had a feeling you weren’t going to.”
Dottie said nothing.
“Dr. Olson feels somethin’ should be done so’s Mr. Harper doesn’t hurt the boy anymore.”
“Jerrod and I had a long talk last night, Sheriff,” Dottie said. “We’re working together on it. Things will be different now.”
“Where is Mr. Harper, ma’am?” Hall asked, adjusting his position in the saddle and making the leather squeak.
“He’s working in the fields He’ll … be out there till milking time.”
“You can direct us to where he’s working, can’t you, ma’am?” Donner asked.
“Yes. Of course. But really, Sheriff, everything’s fine. Believe me, it won’t happen again.”
“I intend to make dead sure it doesn’t, ma’am,” Donner said as he swung from his saddle. “We’d like to see the boy, then you can direct us to where Mr. Harper’s workin’.”
“All right,” Dottie said, casting a furtive glance toward the strawberry field. “I’ll take you to my son.”
Molly Kate ran ahead, and Dottie led the lawmen through the parlor and up the stairs to the second floor. The sight of the boy appalled both men.
Sheriff Donner set steady eyes on Dottie and said, “Mrs. Harper, this
kind of thing has to stop. Dr. Olson said your husband had beat you, too, and I can see the evidence on your face.”
Dottie touched the purple mark on her temple, but said nothing.
“We’ve seen all we need to, ma’am,” the sheriff said. “Now, you can tell us how to find your husband.”
“Are you going to arrest him?”
“Right now, I just want to talk to him.”
“Come outside. I’ll show you how to find him,” she said reluctantly.
Molly Kate preceded her mother down the stairs. Donner and Hall were behind Dottie. When the little girl moved out onto the front porch, she hollered, “Look, Mommy—Daddy’s here!”
Dottie and the lawmen saw Jerrod coming from the barn toward the house. He looked grim as he set his eyes on Donner and Hall.
O, dear Lord, please don’t let the bad Jerrod surface now! Dottie prayed.
6
SHERIFF MAX DONNER stepped off the porch with Deputy Myron Hall on his heels and fixed Jerrod Harper with a level stare as he drew up. “Mr. Harper, I’m San Mateo County sheriff Max Donner, and this is my deputy, Myron Hall. We’d like to talk to you.”
Jerrod looked questioningly at Dottie.
“Sheriff Donner received a wire from Dr. Glenn Olson, Jerrod—the doctor who took care of James yesterday,” Dottie said. “Dr. Olson felt the sheriff should investigate what happened.”
Jerrod nodded, then looked Donner in the eye and said, “Sheriff, it was an unfortunate incident. I … lost my temper and—”
“You must have done more than lose your temper, Mr. Harper,” Donner said. “We were just up in James’s room. Little fella took a real battering.”
“Yes, Sheriff, I realize that, but—”
“As sheriff of this county, sir, I cannot and I will not allow that kind of thing to go on if it’s in my power to stop it.”
Jerrod felt his other self trying to surface. He struggled against it, and suddenly the overpowering force was gone.
He pressed a slight smile on his lips and said, “Sheriff, I’ve had some problems because of combat fatigue I suffered in the Civil War. Dottie and I had a long talk after what happened yesterday. Things are gonna be better. I’m ashamed of what I did to my son, but it isn’t gonna happen again, I assure you.”
