I didn’t know why they didn’t attack us. Maybe they felt sorry for us. Maybe they liked listening to our stories. Or maybe they just weren’t hungry enough to take the chance. Either way, I was pretty happy to be out.
Feenie went to Bingo soon after The Old Man got home. Eddie and I snuck out of the bedroom. We wound up playing outside in the mud for an hour or so in the dark, catching worms. We snuck back inside, took a bath, and were in bed, faking sleep, when Feenie got home. I figured she must have had a good night at Bingo. She didn’t even come up to yell at us.
After two short months, we moved out of that house and into the one at Highland Park. I don’t know why we left, but the house was demolished shortly after we left. The Old Man helped to tear it down.
Chapter 12: Cat Fight
From the outside, the Highland Park house seemed nice enough. Covered in green shingles on the outside, it certainly was the nicest looking house of the three I lived in. An enormous one hundred and twenty year old oak tree dominated the small front yard. A big garden lay directly behind the back yard, which ran thirty feet deep.
Although still too small for such a large family, the inside was nice. A nice, modern bathroom had a shower, a first in any home I lived in. It had two bedrooms, just like the old shack, but they were much nicer. The living room and kitchen were both larger than the shack. Carpeted throughout, I imagined a winter free of persistently numb feet.
I remembered Eddie talking about the carpet in people’s houses when he collected for his paper route, but I never imagined it so easy on the feet. I also didn’t imagine it would require so much work to keep clean.
While it looked pretty, some bizarre stuff happened in that house. I think it was haunted. For such a short time spent there, I sure have a lot of memories.
One night, James, Eddie, Lee and I were sleeping in the bedroom. We had only been in the house for three weeks or so. Donnie and Timmy were still pretty little. They slept on top of a blanket on the floor of The Old Man and Feenie’s room. Jeff slept on the couch in the front room.
Earlier that night, Eddie and I caught some fireflies. The Old Man watched some Westerns, took a bath, and went to bed so he could get up early for work. Feenie came home from Bingo at about ten thirty. She wasn’t in a bad mood. We all went to sleep shortly after she got home.
No air conditioning, combined with body heat generated from so many children closely packed together, made sleeping uncomfortable. After the sun went down, we opened many of the windows, placing blocks of wood under them to keep them propped up. When we got up in the morning, we simply removed the blocks and let the windows down. That approach allowed us to keep bees from overrunning the house. For some reason, we hardly ever saw bees in the house at night. We saw and killed many in the day, but very few at night. I figured they went to sleep a little earlier than kids did.
Sometime during the night, I woke up to pee. We didn’t have to worry about drinking a lot of water in that house. If we needed to pee in the middle of the night, we just walked the twenty feet to the toilet.
As I made my way back into the room, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It scampered under the bunk bed. James and Lee were sleeping on the floor. I figured whatever it was must have been getting ready to eat them and, not wanting to get caught in the act, ran under the bed when I came walking back to the room. It was fairly dark, but light from the moon allowed me to see well enough to get back and forth.
I whispered to James. “James… James….James!” I didn’t want to go into the room to wake him up, believing whatever went under the bed would jump out and get me. I didn’t know what to do.
Glancing around, I saw a bucket of toy soldiers just inside the door. I cautiously picked up the three or four of the soldiers and threw them at James, one at a time. The third one hit him in the face.
He woke up angry. “What the hell are you doing? Can’t you see it’s the middle of the night?”
I whispered to him “there’s something under the bed.”
James jumped to his feet. If there existed a list of things James fears, it wouldn’t have much on it. But at the top of that list would be the unknown.
His voice changed from anger to concern. “What is it?”
“I don’t know. I was coming back from the bathroom and I saw something run under the bed.”
James remained inside the room. Eddie and Lee were still sleeping. Eddie was on the top bunk, so he wasn’t in any immediate danger. Lee was on the floor.
“Lee, wake up!” James said, reaching down to shake him, keeping his eyes on the area under the bed.
Lee finally woke up and asked what was going on. James told him “Mike says there’s something under the bed.” Lee asked what it was and we told him we didn’t know.
Never taking his eyes off of the bed, James whispered “Mike, go and get The Old Man. Lee and I will stay here and make sure it doesn’t get Eddie.”
I ran down to The Old Man’s room and burst inside. As soon as the door opened, The Old Man shouted “godammit, this had better be important. I got to go to work in three fuckin’ hours and I’m still tired. Why do you little bas…”
“Dad! Dad! Dad!” I interrupted. “There’s somethin’ under the bed. It’s real big!”
I think he knew from the tone of my voice something out of the ordinary had happened. Believe me, we had learned over time if we were going to wake him, it had better be for a very good reason.
The Old Man sprang up out of bed and ran down to the room, stubbing one of his toes on a toy fire truck Donnie forgot to put away after playing with it earlier. James and Lee were still in the room, making sure whatever was under the bed didn’t get Eddie.
The Old Man flipped on the light, asking “where is it?”
“Mike said it went under the bed,” James told him.
The Old Man dropped to the floor and stared intently under the bed. After jumping back to his feet, he proclaimed “it’s a damned bobcat.” He then walked away, down the hall toward his bedroom.
I thought he was going back to bed. I wondered how we were going to get it out of the room. I never had to fight with a bobcat, but judging from what people said about them, I figured it probably was not smart to fight with it, if we could avoid it.
I was relieved to see The Old Man coming back down the hallway. He had put on pants and a shirt. I guess he had heard the same things about bobcats I had. His right hand held his thick leather work belt.
In all the commotion, Eddie woke up. He started to jump off of the top bunk. James screamed “stay there, Eddie!”
Eddie stopped in his tracks. Lee must have been looking under the bed, because Eddie was studying Lee’s face. “What is it, Lee?” Eddie asked.
Lee told him “Dad says it’s a bobcat.”
Eddie quickly wrapped himself in the wool blanket he was previously sleeping on top of. He scooted himself away from the edge of the bed. He turned to James and asked “James, does he look like he’s mad?”
James responded “yep, and he’ll rake your damned face off, if you piss him off enough.”
Eddie covered his face with the blanket, then curled up, his face firmly planted in the mattress.
The Old Man entered the room. “How the hell did it get in here?” he asked us.
“I don’t know,” I said. “He must have come through the window.”
The Old Man pondered for few moments. He shouted to Jeff in the front room. “Jeff, get your ass up, now!”
Jeff muttered something from the front room. The Old Man shouted at him “check the back door. If it’s shut, open it. And open the front door, too.”
After Jeff opened the front door, The Old Man went toward the bed. James and Lee backed out of the room, toward the hallway. We crowded the doorway so we could see the action that was about to take place.
The Old Man reached over and ripped the mattress from the bottom bunk. The large brown and gray cat bore its teeth as he stared back up at The Old Man through the
springs of the bottom bunk. Its evil hiss gave me goose bumps. “KWWOOOOOWWWLLLL!!!!!” Though not as loud as a lion, it was still louder and deeper than I expected.
The hiss only seemed to make The Old Man more determined. After all, it was The Old Man’s house and nobody, man or animal, was to challenge him.
He grabbed the whole bunk bed with his left hand and pulled it from the wall. He swung the belt buckle at the cat. I think the cat must have been surprised his hissing and growling didn’t scare The Old Man off. Every time he hissed, he got hit with the buckle.
Eddie was still on the top bunk. Every once in a while, he peeked his head out, but when he heard a hiss, he immediately covered himself back up. He later told me he was torn, wanting to see the action, but not wanting to be part of it.
The cat began looking for a way out. It tried to get out through the window. But sometime during the furor, the wood block that held the window up must have got knocked free, because the window was down. For all I know, the cat could have bumped it when he came in.
On the window sill and realizing it couldn’t make it out, it jumped onto the top bunk. Eddie knew the cat was right next to him, so he curled up even tighter. The Old Man didn’t want the cat up there so close to Eddie, so he swung the belt at him. The cat rose up on its hind legs and hissed again at The Old Man, seemingly waiting for the right opportunity to jump on The Old Man, so it could rake his face off.
Eddie couldn’t take it any longer. He sprang from under the blanket, jumped off the bed, and ran right past us, not looking back to see if the cat was following him. He later said he figured that if he could make it to his brothers, we could all fight the cat together. He said he knew he alone couldn’t beat the cat, nor did he want to try.
After Eddie made it through the door, he joined us at the doorway to watch the ongoing battle. Neither The Old Man nor the bobcat gave any ground. A classic “good versus evil” match, I was waiting for The Old Man to deal the blow that would finally send the cat on his way. The thought crossed my mind that maybe the cat didn’t want to leave. “Perhaps it just decided to move in, and was challenging The Old Man for control of the house.”
The Old Man whacked the cat hard on its side. The cat sat on its hind legs, hissed and, for the first time in the fight, swung back at The Old Man face. I think it missed its mark by less than inch.
I then witnessed something I never in my life thought I would see: The Old Man began to slowly back out of the room!
His eyes remained focused on the cat as he backed his way towards the door. Eddie, James, Lee, Jeff and I backed out into the hallway as he approached. Once at the door, he reached slowly to the knob and put his hand around it. As soon as he got a firm grip on the handle, he shut the door as fast as he could.
James looked up at The Old Man and said “little tougher than you thought, ain’t he?”
The Old Man seemed agitated. He also seemed relieved to be out of the room. “I ain’t finished yet. I’ll give him a little while to calm down, then I’ll get his ass out of there.”
An idea struck him. “Lee and James, You two run around the back and open the window from the outside.”
But James would have none of it, proclaiming “I ain’t havin’ no pissed off bobcat jumpin’ out the window and killin’ my ass before I can make it back inside.”
The Old Man stared at James, ready to say something, but didn’t. He took Jeff outside with him. They ran around the house and opened the bedroom window. After about fifteen seconds, they came running back into the house. The Old Man told Jeff to go shut the back door, while The Old Man shut the front door. He turned to the group of us still standing in the hallway, saying “it should go out on his own. We’ll wait about five minutes. It’ll be long gone by then, and you kids can get your asses back to sleep.”
A few minutes went by. He told Jeff to open the bedroom door. Nervously, Jeff grabbed the knob and slowly turned it. He inched the door open, looking down at where a bobcat might be if it was ready to spring an attack. Nothing was there. He opened it about two more inches. Still nothing. He slowly pushed it open just a little more. He caught a glimpse of the cat, resting on the top bunk. He quickly shut the door, saying it looked like the cat had never moved.
The Old Man knew he had to draw up a plan. To that point in my life, I don’t ever remember having to make up a plan B. The Old Man had always executed plan A, and there was never a need for a different plan.
I imagined he’d just get a gun and shoot it. He could have chosen any of his thirty-five gun collection to kill it. I figured the only reason he hadn’t shot it earlier was because he didn’t like the taste of bobcat. If it was a deer, it likely would have already been hanging upside down, getting skinned.
He made certain everyone completely understood the plan. He, Jeff, James, and Lee were to go into the room, each armed with a big wool blanket. If the cat jumped at one of them, that person was to throw the blanket over himself. The others would then throw blankets on the bobcat, tie him up and get him out of the house. Eddie and I were supposed to go to Feenie’s room, where Donnie and Timmy were still sleeping.
They all four went into the room. Eddie and I stayed outside the door, listening for clues as to what was happening. They came out in just a few seconds. I asked James what happened. He said “The Old Man threw his blanket on top of it and it got out from underneath it and jumped out of the window.”
The Old Man seemed pretty proud of himself, smiling as he proclaimed “no damned cat is going to take over this house. I’m the man of the house! If that damned cat wants to stay here, he’d better ask my permission next time. Plus, if he wants to stay here, he’s gonna have to pay rent”
Never one to let an opportunity to needle The Old Man slip by, James looked at him and said what I was thinking. “That cat was man of the house while he was here. You’re lucky he decided to leave.”
“I’d have kicked his ass all over that room,” said The Old Man. “I was just trying to get you boys out safely, which I did.”
James had to agree with that, but told The Old Man he sure looked scared when the cat decided to take a swing.
The Old Man responded “look, I could’ve gone in with a baseball bat. By now you’d be cleaning up cat guts. Next time, I’ll just mash its damned head and you can clean up the mess. Now I’m goin’ back to bed. Keep that window closed for the rest of the night, unless you want him to come back. If he does, then you’ll be the ones getting rid of him. I ain’t got time to fight no damned bobcat.”
We went back into the bedroom, reliving every second of the encounter. Jeff went back to the front room. He didn’t let on like it was as big a deal as it was. Eddie, James, Lee, and I stayed up till daylight talking about the encounter. It ended up being one on the best nights ever.
Chapter 13: Horns and a Pitchfork
Nothing out of the ordinary happened in the eight days that passed since the bobcat got into the house. Things had begun to settle back to normal. Eddie was working at the greenhouse with Grandpa Joe and Granny. Lee was cleaning the house. It was Monday, the second of the two straight days during the week in which James didn’t work at the bakery.
Earlier, James and Lee got into a fight, right in the middle of the kitchen. Lee resented that James didn’t work around the house. James reasoned that since Feenie took all of his money he made from the bakery, he didn’t have to work around the house. For her part, Feenie didn’t ask him to also work at the house. While I’m certain that she would have liked to have him do chores, I think she felt that was likely to start a fight she knew she couldn’t win.
I’ll give Lee this much: no matter how badly James beat him, he was always ready for another go. I asked him once why he always fought with James, knowing the likely outcome. He said “one of these days, he’ll screw up and walk into one, and it’s gonna hurt,” explaining that eventually one of his flailing, windmill overhand rights would find its mark. “He’ll probably still kick my ass, but I’m gonna enjoy w
atching him bleed.”
Feenie sent James to the bedroom. He presented a difficult challenge for her. Since their big fight, she had given up on trying to discipline him by force or threat of force. If he got on her nerves, rather than yelling or screaming or doing anything that might provoke a fight, she sent him to the bedroom, leaving him for The Old Man to deal with. The Old Man beat James to try and get him to mind his mother, but it didn’t work. I don’t think any amount of beatings could make that a reality. Eventually, even The Old Man gave up on beating him.
Feenie took Jeff and the baby with to town, barking orders on her way out the front door. She shouted to Lee “those damned dishes had better be done, and the house had better be clean by the time I get back!” I was sitting on the top step, tying my hand-me-down generic work boots, when she loudly asked “why in the hell are you still here, when weeds are out there trying to take over the garden?” I immediately sprinted to the garden, hoe in hand.
I had been hoeing and weeding for thirty minutes or so before I went into the house to get some water. A half put together jigsaw puzzle sat on the coffee table. Unlike many of Feenie’s puzzles, the pieces weren’t too small. On top of that, I was drawn to the picture on the box of what the completed puzzle looked like, a red lighthouse overlooking a rugged beach and a calm, light blue ocean. I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to try and put some of it together.
I guess I had been working on the puzzle for about twenty minutes when, suddenly, a loud noise – much like a big gun going off – resonated throughout the house. I jumped to my feet, thinking that maybe Lee had finally had enough, and shot James. I quickly determined that not to be the case when Lee ran to doorway of the kitchen, asking “what the heck was that?”
In less than the time I could respond with an “I don’t know,” James had sprinted down the hallway and was already headed for the door. “RUN!” he screamed as he sprinted past me. The speed of his movement and the tone of his voice let me know without doubt that something very frightening had just taken place.
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