by Ken Busato
Chapter 15
“Molly, listen carefully,” whispered mother. “The men are going wild in the head. The alcohol is making them angry. That Governor Cook and his gift of liquor! Some gift indeed. I want you to take your brother and Angus and sit quietly in the corner away from the door. Take Calum too, and try to keep him quiet. Arwen and I will make sure it’s only the men of this cabin who come in here.”
It was my job to take care of the little ones while the adults celebrated the coming of the New Year with a gift of alcohol from Governor Cook. Celebrations during the night of the New Year started out well enough. Everyone was happy the sickness had left the camp, even though many people still complained about the taste of the native medicine. Governor MacDonell, Doctor Edwards, and Father Burke had left the encampment to spend some time at the Fort. Mama said they had to leave to start planning for our departure, but I believe they simply needed a break from the encampment.
People were toasting each other’s health, which is typical when men start drinking, but it doesn’t take too long for these same polite men to turn violent. If you are men of the same clan, even the same area of Scotland, you can sometimes settle your differences with a few fists and a song. But here, with Scottish and Irish drinking together, with no threat other than the cold and loneliness, arguments can turn nasty.
A knock came suddenly. It was Papa. He was in terrible shape. He had a limp, and his face was swollen. His fingers were pinching his nose, where it looked like a steady stream of blood was flowing. Liam and Angus couldn’t help but stare at him, and I told them to look away.
“Are you alright John?” asked Mama whose voice was louder than I have heard in a long time. She went to find an old cloth, sat Papa down, and was wiping the blood away from his face. “John, can you talk? I asked if you were alright?”
“Bloody Irish,” Papa started to mutter. “Damn fools wreck a good party with their nonsense about Scottish clans. Never before have I heard such cock and bull being said about Frasers. No doubt some of them wanted to pick a fight with Willie. Before I knew it, I had a chair to the head and I was lying dazed on the ground.”
“Where are Willie and my husband?” Mrs. Docherty asked.
“As far as I knew, they were right behind me. Before I had my balance, I took a punch to the face that put me down to the ground again.”
“God have mercy,” cried Mama. “What devilry is this alcohol? A gift? I spit on this gift when it makes sane and reasonable men lose their senses.”
“It’s one thing to have a couple of glasses of whisky,” Papa said, “But Governor Cook sent a couple of cases, more than enough for a month, let alone for a single night to celebrate the New Year.”
Mrs. Docherty looked hysterical. With so many drunken men in the encampment, the last place you would want to be is outside. She was very concerned about her husband. But with the wild state of many of the men, she could not take the chance of leaving the little safety we had here.
I had to come to her assistance. I knew it was my job to stay inside the cabin to watch over the boys, but I had to go out to see if I could help my uncle and Mr. Docherty. With as much courage as I could muster, I quickly passed little Calum to Liam, and before I could even stop to think about how foolish I was, I made a dash for the door.
“Molly,” cried Mama, “What on earth are you doing? Come back here.”
I knew Mama was right, but I had to help Willie if I could. I know how angry he can get, and I can calm him down. As drunk as he might be, surely he would listen to me?
Although night, the moon was full, and with the snow on the ground, it was easy to see. Off in the distance there were two men, one of them on the snow. As I got closer, I could see Willie was kneeling over top Mr. Docherty. He was slapping him in the face, trying to wake him up.
“Molly,” Willie started, obviously very drunk, “What are you doin’ out here girl in the cold? Ya just got over bein’ sick, worried me half ta death it did. Now why would ya be out here now? Ya should be asleep is what I think ya should be doin!”
“Uncle, what’s happened to Mr. Docherty?”
“He’s had a few too many. But worse by God, he got into a fight with some of them Irish in that far off cabin. You got to hand it to him. Those bloody bastard Irish were having some fun at the expense of your dad and me, and good old Robert here came to our defence. It was the start of quite a scuffle, Highlander against Irish. I know he’s a wee bit older, almost the same age as your dad, but he can sure throw a punch.”
“Is he alright?”
“I can’t say for sure. We was just behind your dad, when he just right up fell down into the snow. I was just trying to wake the poor wanker up when you walked by. I think he needs to get back to the cabin, and I need to get back to the fight and the drink.”
“Uncle, don’t you think you can come back and stay with us for the night? It looks like you got hit too.” Suddenly, a piece of ice, no bigger than my fist, landed right beside my uncle. I looked up, and in the distance five men were approaching.
“Fraser,” the tallest one exploded. “Why did ya leave so soon? Just when we wanted ta talk a little more about yer family history.”
Soon, they were right beside us, almost surrounding us. Mr. Docherty had started to come around. I bent down beside him and gently tried to raise his head. My hand was freezing, yet I could feel the warmth of the blood from his head spreading across my fingertips. My uncle simply gave me a smile, winked, and stood up to face the crowd.
“Finnegan, you young Irish bastard. Why could you not let me take Robert home here? You know, now that I look at ya, I’ve got a joke. What is the difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish wake?”
“What?” the Irishman asked violently.
“One less drunk.” As quickly as he could, my uncle made a lunge toward Finnegan. Catching him off guard, the two of them fell to the ground and started rolling in the snow, arms and legs moving around wildly. My uncle, although smaller, knows how to fight. Before Finnegan knew what hit him, Willie put a knee to his groin, got on top of him, and started to hit him violently. Finnegan’s friends got a hold of my uncle and threw him off. Two of them held my uncle’s arms tightly while the other two start to hit him without mercy. I had seen my uncle get beaten once before, when we were kicked out of our croft by the English, and I couldn’t bear to see it happen again.
“Stop it,” I screamed wildly. Everyone stopped and looked at me in amazement. I was so cold, but burning inside. “What the hell are you doing to my uncle? He’s only one man against five of you.”
“There was many more Scottish not ten minutes ago back at the cabin,” muttered one of them.
“What does that matter?” I exclaimed. “Even if it were five Scottish against one Irish, I would do what I could to stop it. You’re all drunk, and you’re all behaving like farm animals fighting over scraps. We have to live together. Are you all too stupid to see what you are doing? Has the drink really brought us to this? Bloody idiots all of you! Uncle, take Mr. Docherty and get back to our cabin now!”
I don’t think anyone really believed what I just said. I couldn’t really believe it either. More surprising, all the men stopped what they were doing. My uncle, on my orders, staggered over to Mr. Docherty and pulled him up from the snow. The Irishmen did the same with their man who was feeling the ill effects of my uncle’s beating. We slowly made our way back to the cabin, and turning back, I could see the five Irish thugs doing the same.
We were met on the outside by Mama and Mrs. Docherty. Once Mama knew Papa was not going to run back out to fetch me, she grabbed Arwen and the two of them made straight to where we were struggling back. Mrs. Docherty, seeing her husband, started to mutter curse words. Mama grabbed me in her arms and started to pray, thanking God nothing bad had happened. There we were, five of us now shivering to death in the cold night, and I thought to myself the first d
ay of the New Year is supposed to be a happy time. If this was the first day of the year, then what are all the others going to be like?