by Leisha Kelly
“That don’t seem to be somethin’ that’s my business.”
“Maybe not. But I just wanted to ask you, Frank. Do you think it might be because of your pa? Or all of you not having enough? Do you think maybe she’s worried that I won’t be fair?”
I was close to chokin’ again, just tryin’ to figure why he’d be asking me somethin’ like that. “Maybe she’s tired. Maybe she don’t wanna have to deal with so much as Mama had or go through the pain a’ birthin’. She was with Mama for the younger ones, even though they always shooed the rest of us outside. Most girls maybe don’t know so much about it as Lizbeth knows.”
“You’re probably right. Thanks.”
“I didn’t do nothin’ solvin’ the problem. You’s still of one mind and her the other.”
“Maybe. But just understanding a little better helps me.”
We went walkin’ on without talkin’. I wasn’t really sure why he stayed with me. But it felt good, and he felt like family. Like we had a good understandin’. I’d felt that way with Mr. Wortham plenty of times, and with Sam or Joe once or twice. But I didn’t ever remember it with my other brothers. Nor Pa. Not even once.
23
Julia
Finally we heard the truck in the driveway. Samuel was trying to sit up, but I told him to stay put right where he was. I’d make every one of those boys come and answer for where they’d been.
Robert was the first to come in. Maybe they’d talked it over and decided he ought to, because by far he looked the best.
“I found them,” he told me. “They’re all right.”
Then Harry came in with his shirt all ripped in the front and Kirk with what was going to be a black eye to rival Franky’s. Willy was the worst. He was messed up all over. My heart was pounding, and I was upset for them and angry at them all at the same time.
“You went and fought. All of you. You went and fought at Lester Turrey. When you know that won’t solve anything! And they’re not even churchgoers! What are they going to think of Christians acting that way?”
“It was just gonna be me,” Willy said. “But you sent Harry along.”
“To stop you!”
“Well, he didn’t figure it was right what Lester done.”
“An’ I was gonna go get Pa, on account of Rorey,” Kirk explained. “But I met up with ’em in the timber an’ I remembered Lester’s brothers. I didn’t figure they could handle it just the two of ’em.”
“What about you?” I turned to Robert. “Did you get yourself involved too?”
“I just went to bring ’em home,” he said. “But there was five of ’em. Didn’t look like they’d get away without help.”
“Oh, Robby.”
“Well, Mom, don’t you think Willy’s right? Don’t you think Lester’s got it coming after what he did? And he’s the one who’s too much the coward to own up, and blaming it on Franky. That’s the stinkin’est thing I ever heard!”
“Even if there was five of ’em, we done all right,” Willy added. “You oughta see ’em. They look worse than us.”
“That is not the point! Didn’t you hear what I said?”
Exasperated almost beyond words, I ushered them all in so Samuel could take a good look. He didn’t seem as upset as I was.
“Well, I can’t say that I’m surprised,” he told them. “I suppose I might’ve had some hotheaded days when I was younger when I’d have done the same thing. But that doesn’t make it right. You all understand that, don’t you?”
Robert and Kirk nodded. I couldn’t see a sign of regret from the other two.
“Sometime, hopefully soon, you’ll think about this a little more and realize that fighting’s usually not the best way, even if it feels right at the time. I’m not sure yet what to do about this. I guess it’ll wait till morning when we’ve all had some rest. Was Lester’s father home? What did he say about it?”
“Nothin’ at first,” Kirk told us. “I guess he figures a fight’ll happen now and then. But he got tired of it toward the end and come out with his shotgun.”
“That’s when we left,” Robert added. “I was glad I could pull the one kid off of Harry so we could go.”
I had a hard time restraining myself from saying more. But Samuel just told them to go and wash the best they could in the bathwater that was left in the kitchen and get themselves to bed.
“The world’s gone crazy around us,” I said as the boys were leaving the room. “Every last one of them, even Robert.”
“Well, there was a sister involved for three of them, not to mention the barn. And for Robert, you told me about that already.”
“That doesn’t excuse them.”
“No. But I doubt there’s a man in the country who wouldn’t understand it.”
“Samuel . . .”
“I know. I’m not endorsing fighting to solve your problems. I’m just saying the way things were sprung on them, we can’t be surprised. And we’ll have to take that into consideration. I’m sure George will.”
“Oh, George picks and chooses what to take into consideration! He wouldn’t give Franky half a chance to explain himself, and Franky was innocent all along! And I suppose with this he’ll say his boys were just being boys and look the other way.”
“I don’t know. But I sure will talk to him. He owes Frank an apology, but so do those young men in there, and I think they know it.”
“Well, I hope they’re gracious about it! I get sick and tired of them tearing him down.”
Samuel nodded. “You better get some sleep, Mrs. Wortham.”
“Not till the boys are settled. Hard telling what they might come up with if we leave them on their own.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that. They’re too tired for anything else tonight.”
Samuel seemed to be right. All four of those big boys could barely drag themselves through washing and getting up the stairway. Harry didn’t even try. He just plopped himself down on a blanket on the sitting room floor. The other three were about to head up to Robert’s room when we heard someone else on the porch.
We weren’t expecting anybody, and at first I jumped, thinking it might be some of the Turreys wanting to finish what got started. But it was Franky who came in. With Ben, which surprised everybody.
Franky didn’t talk to us. He just went in and lay down on the floor beside Harry. He’d worked so hard all day and all last night. I knew he was exhausted. But before the other boys went upstairs I heard Robert tell him he was sorry.
“I shouldn’t have blamed you,” Robert said. “Should’ve known you wouldn’t lie.”
“What happened to you?” Franky asked them.
Kirk laughed. “Guess we decided that if you can get yourself busted up by Turreys, so can we. It’s the least we can do.”
Pretty soon they’d gone upstairs, and I didn’t hear another peep out of them. I made Ben a cup of coffee, and he sat and told Samuel and me all about how things had gone at the other house.
“Do you need to go back?” I asked him.
“Yeah. Probably. Lizbeth’ll be needing a hug or two, I expect. But she didn’t want Franky alone tonight. She’ll be glad he’s over here.”
“Thank you, Ben,” Samuel said.
Later, after Ben had gone and the house was quiet, I lay beside Samuel again, both of us very still.
“Not long ago I asked Franky how things were with him and his pa,” Samuel said softly. “He just said about the same.”
I laid my hand across his arm. “I have a feeling it’s been worse than they’ve said. For one thing, they all talk about how clumsy Franky is. But he’s not that way over here.”
“You think George makes him anxious?”
“He would me, if I had to listen to that kind of talk.”
Samuel sighed, and his breath sounded so heavy. “When Franky had the broken leg, we almost kept him. Even after he was up on it again. Maybe we should have. Maybe we should have insisted that he stay with us. George didn’t seem to c
are.”
“But Franky did. Franky wanted to go home.”
“I’m going to ask them again. I’m going to talk to both of them.”
That thought and those words just floated on the air around us, and we both drifted into dreams. I saw Samuel’s mother again, pouring her box of letters all over the kitchen floor. That was all I remembered when the cuckoo clock woke me at about 3:00 a.m. Samuel was shivering a little in his sleep. I pulled the blanket up over him, and he shuddered and pulled away from me. I wondered if he might be dreaming about his father again. Those dreams were never good.
I got up slow and careful to check on all the children. It was chilly tonight, and I wanted to be sure they were all covered. When I got to Franky, I found him all curled up in a ball. He was crying. At first I thought he was awake, but he wasn’t. I just kissed his bruised-up cheek, pulled a blanket up to his chin, and left him alone.
Sarah was crying too. Or at least she had been. At least one cheek was damp. I prayed that none of us would have any cause for crying after this. I prayed that Rorey and her father would have a change of heart, whether it was Lizbeth or the Spirit of God who prompted it. And I prayed that the morning would find us all doing better, rested and ready to go on from here with good judgment and forgiving hearts.
Before I lay down again, I picked up Franky’s borrowed book, Silas Marner, and turned to the back page. It was with some surprise that I found the line at the top stating that Silas had brought a blessing upon himself by acting as a father to a motherless child. I was glad to find a happy ending, since the book had started out so dark. But I couldn’t help thinking that Samuel and I had done that, for Katie, and in a sense for all the Hammonds, even though they still had George. And Samuel was wanting to do more for Franky, if he needed it. If he’d let us.
I set the book on the shelf and tiptoed past sleeping children and back to bed. Samuel was asleep. But he had the barest hint of a smile on his face, and when I lay beside him he put his arm around me without even waking up.
24
Sarah
Sunday morning was busy. And I could hardly believe I’d slept through my brother and three of the Hammonds taking off last night and coming back all beat up. They looked awful, but Mom insisted that at least some of the boys were going to church. And me too, she said. Because I should.
I kind of wished Mom and Dad were going, but I was also glad they weren’t when I saw how tired Dad still looked. I don’t guess he’d slept as long as I did.
Katie was trying to feed people, and Mom was trying to get everybody fixed up. Fresh bandages on Franky, even though he didn’t want them. And Bert’s foot soaking again, even though it was feeling so much better today. Harry needed his hair washed and stuck down because it only wanted to stick straight up. Willy and Kirk kept putting cold cloths on their faces where the bruises were the worst.
I got to thinking that if Charlie Hunter still came out to pick us up like he used to before Dad swapped work for Barrett Post’s old truck, whoever was going to church would surely end up making him wait. It seemed to take longer than usual just getting chores done and everybody dressed. But then, to look at us you could hardly wonder why. Only Mom and us girls didn’t look banged up some way. Every single one of the boys had managed to get himself looking terrible. Even Robert, who didn’t look so bad as the rest, had a bruise and a cut on his chin that came from Lester Turrey’s older brother swinging at him hard. I figured if the doctor showed up now, he’d shake his head at us for sure.
Mom told me what Dad wanted us to say to the folks at church. Robert and me and Franky were almost ready to go when Willy said he didn’t want to go. Kirk didn’t either, but then a car came pulling in our drive that made them both change their minds. It was Orville Mueller telling us that Mr. Turrey had gone to town early to find Ben Law, the sheriff, and tell him about Hammond and Wortham boys attacking them last night. I guess they didn’t want to be home if Ben Law came out. Or I guess they thought it’d serve them well to be found in church.
Katie and Emmie came along too, and that left only Bert home with Mom and Dad. It seemed strange driving to church without them. I kept having to tie and retie Emmie’s scarf all the way there because of the blowing wind and because she wouldn’t leave the tie ends alone. She must have asked us six or seven times if Rorey would be there.
“I don’t know,” I told her. “She’ll be there if your pa comes. Or Lizbeth.”
I guess nobody expected to see us. As soon as we pulled up, there came a big crowd hugging at us and asking all kinds of questions, especially about Daddy. I think most of them thought that the boys’ bruises came from fighting the fire somehow, so the boys were all kind of like heroes until Benjamin Gray started telling people otherwise after talking to Harry.
Sunday school was strange without Mom, because usually she taught one class. But today all of us in Mom’s group were put in with Bonnie Gray’s class. That was Benjamin Gray’s mother, and also Rachel’s. She was just a little older than me and she liked my brother, I could tell. She sat beside me and asked me maybe a dozen questions that she didn’t have the nerve to ask Robert directly.
Choir was strange without Mom too, since she sometimes helped Mrs. Pastor with it and sometimes sang standing right next to Katie and me. Emmie sat with Rachel Gray while we were up singing. I didn’t know why Emmie didn’t want to sit with her brothers.
Robert and Franky had talked to the pastor before church ever started, and he called them up to tell everybody what Dad wanted to ask. And the men of the church had a vote right then and decided to come and help the Hammonds raise their barn the very next Saturday. Some of the men even said they’d help getting the lumber.
Franky cried. I never did see him cry in church before, even though I knew he took it more serious than most people his age. Everybody thought it was because he was so happy that the church was willing to help. And I’m sure that was part of it, but I had a feeling that wasn’t all. Rorey wasn’t there. Neither was her father or Lizbeth. And I knew Lizbeth would be, if she figured their father was in a fit enough frame of mind to leave. So I guessed he wasn’t, and I raised my hand and asked for prayer for him and Rorey both. Katie and Franky both smiled at me for that. So did the pastor.
When we got home, we found out that Ben Law really had been sent out, but when he heard the whole story, he didn’t think Hammonds and Worthams were any more to blame than the Turrey boys were. So he just left a warning for everybody about fighting, and he even said he was going to talk to Lester special about how an accident so serious as that fire needed to be reported honest, even if he didn’t mean any harm.
Franky curled up and slept on the davenport before we even got any dinner, and Mom made everybody be quiet and let him sleep. Katie said he was long-suffering, whatever that meant. Robert said he’d been the one to tell the preacher what Dad wanted, on account of Robert almost always getting tongue-tied around Pastor Jones.
I prayed for Rorey again, but we didn’t see her all day. Dad stayed in bed like he was supposed to, and Dr. Hall came that afternoon and said he’d be okay if he just let himself take it easy and not do too much until he was healed.
Mom went to see Mrs. Howell. Robert drove her, and they took the cake, even though it wasn’t warm and Harry’d took a corner off before he knew who it was for. The funeral was going to be Monday while we were at school. I was a little bit glad of that, because I didn’t really want to go.
School was strange on Monday, mostly because it seemed like everybody already knew as much as we did about what had happened over the weekend. Two of Lester Turrey’s little brothers and two sisters were there, but they stayed away from all of us. They wouldn’t have had to, especially the girls. Because none of it was their fault. I gave Rose Turrey an apple at lunch because she looked so sad and she was sitting all alone.
But the strangest thing about school was that Rorey didn’t come. Willy and the rest did, all but Kirk, who was working field again, and Frank
y, who schooled with Mom at home. Even Berty came, because Dad let Robert bring us in the truck. He sat there with the old cane between his legs and even gave a safety lesson to the class, that nobody ought ever run in a burning building.
But Rorey wasn’t there. Katie said she was probably ashamed. Millie Mueller said Rorey’s pa had probably grounded her so she couldn’t even leave the house. I didn’t know which it was or how I felt about it. I missed her and was glad she wasn’t there, all at the same time.
That whole week was the same—Rorey didn’t come to school one day. Lester showed up on Wednesday when we were heading home, wanting to get hold of Willy or somebody alone. But we were all together, so he just left.
The older Hammond boys went home some, but Emmie and Bert stayed with us. Franky too, because Daddy told him to until he had a chance to talk to his pa. But Mr. Hammond didn’t come over, and Kirk said he was acting sour most of the time and that Rorey sure enough was grounded, though Mr. Hammond would let her go to school if she wanted to.
Sam Hammond went over there a lot, and they cleaned up all the rubble and got the roof of the house fixed. One night Willy came bringing some of the tools they found. They were all black and charred with the handles burned off. Willy said their pa was asking if Franky could make some handles. I think Franky started that night, since Mrs. Calloway and Mr. Porter had already come to get their cedar chest and chair.
You should’ve seen all the people on Saturday. Almost the whole church, and even some people who didn’t go to our church. Some folks had brought lumber, and that was a big help, but Daddy’d asked Robert to get the lumberman to bring the rest on credit. I think Mr. Hammond was bothered by that, but he was happy to have all the help just the same. Even the pastor came, though he spent part of the time sitting down with Rorey and her pa.
It was the first I’d seen Rorey all week. She strolled around the yard with Emmie for a while and then helped Mrs. Miller cut up some apples for the biggest apple salad I ever saw. But she didn’t want to talk to me.
