After the Parade

by Dorothy Garlock

  “Why? Because he’s an Indian?”

  “Not that. He feels that he was just a seed sown in the wind, so to speak.”

  “That’s nothing new. My pa had kids scattered all up and down Mud Creek as his pa had done before him.”

  “Did that make you think less of him?”

  “I didn’t think of it at the time. It seemed normal for Mud Creek.”

  “But did you—like him?”

  “I respected his fists until I got to be as big as he was and learned to fight back. He treated me all right after that.” He pinched her chin with his thumb and forefinger. “I’d better go help big, bad John with the mattress.”

  “He isn’t bad,” Kathleen protested, and got a grin from Pete. After the bed was set up, Johnny went to take a look at the water heater.

  “I’ll come by with some tools and fix the pilot,” he said when he returned.

  “How about the Western magazines you were going to lend me?” Pete asked. He had noticed that Johnny and Kathleen avoided looking directly at each other. Something had changed since last night.

  “I keep three copies of each,” Kathleen said, as she placed a stack of magazines on the kitchen table. ’Take what you want, but I would like them back.”

  “K.K. Doyle,” Pete said admiringly and smiled his charming smile. “Did you really write these stories? If the boys had known that K.K. Doyle was a beautiful redhead, they would’ve been writin’ for your picture.”

  “Not true, but it’s nice of you to say so.” Kathleen’s face reddened. She glanced at Johnny.

  “I’ve not read this one.” He was gazing intently at the cover of Western Story Magazine that displayed her nom de plume in large print.

  “That one takes place in the Texas panhandle and is one of the longest stories I’ve written. I just couldn’t seem to end it. I try to move my stories around to different locations. The one I’m working on now is set in Montana.”

  Kathleen stood beside the table, terribly conscious that Johnny was standing beside her. She could feel the warmth from his body and smell the lotion he had put on his face after shaving.

  He’s sorry that we made love. He must feel that it was my fault for clinging to him like a cheap floozy. And, I guess it was. I wanted him to love me.

  Suddenly she was aware that she was terribly afraid and didn’t know why. It was something to do with Johnny. Everything was something to do with Johnny nowadays. When her eyes flicked to him, he was thumbing through the magazine, apparently oblivious to everything except what he was reading. Look at him read! How did he learn to do that?

  “Get your bonnet and come have supper with us. I’m cookin’ tonight.” Pete’s cheery voice sliced into her thoughts.

  “You’re cooking? Where?”

  “At Jude’s. I’ll make you the best corn bread you’ve ever eaten to go along with the navy beans I cooked last night.”

  “Thank you, but I don’t think so.”

  “Don’t think, sugar. Just come. You’ll not be sorry.”

  “I don’t know your brother that well.”

  “You know me, and you sure as hell know Johnny. Come now, grab a coat.”

  “I can’t go anywhere looking like this.”

  “You look damn good to me.”

  Kathleen glanced at Johnny and found him looking at her with indescribable sadness in his dark eyes. She took a hesitant step toward him before she could stop herself.

  “Johnny?”

  “You’ll like Jude when you get to know him.”

  “I’m—sure I will.”

  “We’d better get going. We’ll need to stop at the clinic and see about Isabel.” Pete picked up several magazines. “I’ll take good care of these.”

  “If someone is needed to sit with her at night, I’ll take a turn.”

  “No,” Johnny said quickly and emphatically. “I don’t want you anywhere near Isabel.”

  “He’s right,” Pete said quickly when he saw the hurt look on Kathleen’s face. If you were my girl, I’d not want you near her either. I doubt that you’ve met anyone like Isabel.”

  “That’s silly! I’ve heard bad language—”

  “Are you coming to Jude’s for supper?” Johnny asked, cutting off the argument.

  “Will I be intruding on your time with your friends?” she asked boldly, looking directly at him.

  “What gave you that idea?”

  “Why do you always answer my questions with a question. It’s terribly irritating.”

  Johnny shrugged, apparently unconcerned that he had angered her.

  Kathleen ignored him. She headed for the bedroom, then turned, “I’d love to have dinner with you, Pete. Be back in a minute.”

  She sat between the two men in the front seat of the car. This time Pete was driving and it was Johnny’s arm that was flung along the top of the seat behind her. His hand had rested on her shoulder briefly, then was quickly removed.

  Down the street from Kathleen’s a porch light was on and a small boy sat on the steps. Pete slowed the car.

  “Is that where Mrs. Cole lives?”

  “I think so.”

  “Do you know her?” Pete asked.

  “I’ve met her a couple of times. She seems to be very nice.”

  “She’s one of the nurses who takes care of Isabel.”

  Nothing more was said until Pete stopped the car behind Barker’s truck parked at the clinic.

  “Goin’ in, sugar?” Pete asked Kathleen because Johnny had already opened the door.

  “Might as well. I’ll wait in the reception room.”

  Johnny waited on the sidewalk and, to Kathleen’s surprise, took her elbow. She thought she heard him mumble something that could have been ‘sugar’?

  My gosh! Is he jealous of Pete? Oh, Lord. I hope so. That would prove that he still loves me!

  Marie was the only person in the room when they opened the door. She jumped to her feet, went straight to Johnny, and wrapped her arms around his waist before he could even get his hat off. Her face was streaked with tears.

  “Oh, Johnny. It’s all my fault.”

  “What’s your fault?” he asked gently and, with his hands on her shoulders, held her away from him.

  Of all the Flemings, this little half sister had been the one who crept past his resistance and wiggled her way into his heart. She had written to him faithfully all the time he was overseas, sent him cartoons, newspaper clippings, and funny stories.

  “He was on that darned old stallion Daddy bought the other day and…and I went out as he was getting him into the pen, the wind blew my skirt, and …the horse went wild. He threw Bobby against the fence—”

  “—Who?”

  “Bobby Harper. His leg is broken, and his face—it’s all cut up. He’s not been home very long. Daddy gave him a job—”

  “A broken leg is something that can be fixed. Dry up, now. Who’s back there with him?”

  “Daddy and Mr. Boone.”

  “The foreman?”

  “No, his son. Mr. Boone isn’t well, and Mack has been doing most of the work. Kathleen, I didn’t even speak to you—”

  Kathleen was pleased and surprised at how concerned and gentle Johnny was with Marie.

  “Don’t worry about that. Marie, this is Dr. Perry’s brother, Pete. Marie is Johnny’s sister,” she explained to Pete, without looking at Johnny.

  “Hello, I’m sorry for being such a crybaby. Johnny“— Marie was still holding on to him—”go back and see if he’s all right. They told me to stay here.”

  “Stay with Kathleen. I’ll see what I can find out.” Johnny gently pushed Marie down into a chair and placed his hat on the seat beside her.

  Pete followed Johnny down the hall. “Guess I didn’t think of you having sisters on your daddy’s side. That one is pretty as a picture.”

  “And way too young for you.”

  Pete took Johnny’s arm and stopped him. “Let’s get one thing straight, Bud. I can think a woman is prett
y without wanting to hop in bed with her.”

  “I remember when she didn’t even have to be pretty.”

  “You’re not going to let go of that, are you? I admit that I was plenty mouthy when I was going over fool’s hill, but I didn’t do all that I bragged about doing. If I’d had a little sister like Marie, I’d have knocked every man on his ear that looked at her cross-eyed.”

  “I didn’t notice you looking at her cross-eyed or I would’ve.” Johnny grinned and hit Pete on the shoulder. “Let’s see what we can find out for her.”

  Sitting on a couple of chairs at the end of the hall were Barker and Mack Boone. Johnny had never liked Mack. Before the war he had been a hard-drinking, reckless cowboy who had wanted to make it big in the rodeo circuit but had fallen short. Johnny had made it a habit to steer clear of him.

  Barker got to his feet as they approached. Mack slouched in the chair, stretched out his legs, and crossed his booted feet.

  “How’s Harper? Marie’s worried about him.”

  “We don’t know yet. The doctor and nurse are with him.”

  Mack got to his feet. “I’ll go stay with Marie.”

  Johnny moved slightly and stood in front of him. “No need. Kathleen is with her.”

  Mack’s expression hardened into anger. It irked him that Johnny Henry stood so close he had to look up at him. He lifted his shoulders, stared at Johnny for a few seconds, and sat down. He was smart enough not to make a fuss in front of the boss.

  Everyone in town knew that Johnny was Barker’s bastard. The mystery was why Johnny didn’t move into the big house and live high on the hog. That was what Mack was going to do as soon as he married Marie. It was too damn bad Bob Harper hadn’t broken hi6 neck instead of a leg. It was what Mack had wished for when he hit that stallion in the rear with his slingshot. It served Bob right for getting cozy with Marie.

  Mack was not an ugly man, nor was he handsome. His eyes were too small and deep-set, his brows too heavy. He wore his hair long and combed back in a ducktail, a style he copied from the zoot-suiters he saw while he was stationed in California. He considered himself to be quite attractive to the ladies.

  Miss Pauley, the night nurse, came out of Isabel’s room. Pete and Johnny went to intercept her.

  “How is Miss Henry?” Johnny asked.

  “How do you think she is?” Miss Pauley said bluntly.

  “With all that’s wrong with her, I’m surprised that she’s still alive.”

  “Is she going to die tonight?” Johnny asked irritably.

  “How do I know? Talk to Dr. Perry.”

  “Thank you,” Johnny said with exaggerated patience and, to her back as she hurried down the hall, “You’re a big help.”

  “She’s a sour mouth, but Jude said she’s a crackerjack nurse. I bet you a dollar to a doughnut that Isabel has been giving her a bad time.” Pete went to the door of Isabel’s room and listened, then came back to Johnny. “She’s not yelling, so she must be sleeping.”

  Nurse Frank came out of the surgery and propped open the door.

  “The leg has been set, but we’ll need help getting him off the table and onto a gurney so we can move him to a room. The doctor wants to keep him overnight.”

  Mack got to his feet, but Pete moved smoothly ahead of him and into the room.

  “I’ll give you a hand. I’ve done this many times on board ship.”

  Nurse Frank motioned to Johnny. “It’s hard for the doctor to lift because of his leg,” she whispered when he came near to her. He followed Pete into the room.

  In spite of the cuts on his face and a bandage on his forehead Johnny recognized the man on the table. He had been just a kid from a neighboring ranch when Johnny went to war.

  “Hi, Bob.”

  “Johnny. Haven’t seen ya since ya come back.” He spoke out of the side of his mouth because of the stitches on his cheek.

  “See you had a bout with a barbed-wire fence.”

  “He’s lucky he didn’t lose an eye,” Jude said, washing his hands at a sink.

  The nurse had pulled the gurney up alongside the bed. “If you two will get on the other side of the bed, slip both arms beneath and lift him while I pull on the sheet, we can slide him onto the gurney.”

  “The plaster isn’t dry, so we’ll have to be careful.” Jude went to the end of the table to lift the foot of the plaster-encased leg. “After we get you into the room, we’ll give you something so you can sleep.”

  “Before you do that would it be all right if Marie come in to see him?” Johnny asked. “She feels bad because she spooked the horse.”

  “It wasn’t her fault,” Bobby protested quickly. “I just wasn’t anchored in the saddle. And—it’s what I get for showin’ off.”

  His face paled, but he didn’t let out a sound as he was shifted from the table to the gurney and then to a bed. He lay in a white undershirt stamped US AIR FORCE. A sheet covered all but his broken leg which Jude had placed in a trough like contraption so that he couldn’t move it. The nurse returned with a hypodermic syringe and needle.

  “It takes about fifteen minutes for this to take effect,” she explained.

  “I’ll get Marie,” Johnny said.

  As he went out the door, he passed a scowling Mack Boone, who had stayed in the hall when Barker went into the room.

  Marie had calmed when Johnny reached the reception room. Both she and Kathleen got to their feet when he entered.

  “He’s all right. He’ll stay overnight so the plaster on the cast can harden. You can go see him.”

  “Oh, Johnny, thank you.” Impulsively she hugged him, the top of her head a couple of inches beneath his chin. “Where do I go?”

  “Go on down the hall. The door is open, and they know that you’re coming.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Kathleen thought that Johnny would go with Marie, but he lingered and finally sat down.

  “Did you find out anything about Isabel?”

  “Couldn’t get anything out of the nurse. I’ll have to ask Jude.”

  Silence settled down in the reception room so that the closing of a door in the back of the clinic sounded aggressively loud in the stillness.

  “Marie was telling me about Bobby Harper,” Kathleen said when she could stand the silence no longer. “She said that he was a gunner in the air force. He came home about the same time you did.”

  “He was just a kid when I left.”

  “Evidently he was old enough for the service. Marie said he enlisted when he got out of high school.”

  “Are they keeping company?”

  “She didn’t say. Why? Don’t you approve of him?”

  “I don’t know him and, besides, it isn’t any of my business who she keeps company with.”

  “Oh, Johnny,” Kathleen said wearily. “You try so hard to distance yourself from anyone who cares about you.”

  Before he could reply, Barker and Mack Boone came in, followed by Pete and Marie.

  “Daddy, I told Bobby we’d come back for him tomorrow, but I don’t know how he can ride in a car with that leg in a cast.”

  “We’ll think of something. Right now I’ve got to go tell his folks what happened.”

  “I completely forgot about that. Mrs. Harper should have been told right away.”

  ’Take the truck back, Mack.”

  “I can take Marie with me, Mr. Fleming.”

  “Marie will go with me,” Barker said, dismissing him. “And thanks for your help.”

  Mack left. Johnny knew that he was seething. His face was as easy to read as a road map.

  “I’ve talked Theresa into coming and having supper with us,” Pete announced. “How about it, Marie? Come have supper with us. We’re all going over to Jude’s. Johnny and I will take you home before we go back to the ranch.”

  Johnny looked at Pete and, for once, surprise showed in his expression. No one seemed to notice but Kathleen. Her heart beat high in her throat as she waited for Johnny’s reaction.
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  “Oh, I don’t know—” Marie fumbled for words, her dark expressive eyes traveling between her father and Johnny.

  “You’ll be well chaperoned by big brother here,” Pete urged. “What’a ya say?”

  Barker waited for his daughter’s decision.

  “All right. I’d like to go, if it’s all right with you, Daddy.”

  “Johnny?” Barker looked at his tall son.

  “I’ll see her home,” Johnny said, his mouth very grimly set. Again, none of the others seemed to notice.

  Dr. Jude Perry’s house was one of the finest houses in town. Built back in the prosperous 1920s, its rooms were large, its woodwork gleaming oak. Although the furnishings were the original and some of them needed to be replaced, the gas stove and refrigerator were new. Swinging doors, propped back, separated the kitchen from a formal dining room that would seat twelve.

  The house, lacking personal possessions such as pictures, books, or other mementos, seemed cold to Kathleen. She wondered if the doctor noticed. Perhaps this was just a place to eat and sleep after he left the clinic.

  Pete took over the cooking chore and made two large pans of corn bread. Kathleen found a head of cabbage in the refrigerator and chopped it with carrots and onions to make coleslaw. Theresa and Marie set the table.

  Jude was tired, and his leg ached. That was evident in the lines in his face and in the way he absently rubbed his thigh. Theresa insisted that he sit and visit with Johnny. She had been disappointed to learn that Marie Fleming had been invited. Theresa felt heavy and awkward beside her. But to her surprise, the small dark-haired girl was not just a beauty; she was also nice.

  As the evening progressed, Johnny loosened up a bit. He had asked Jude about Isabel and was told that her condition continually worsened and that the only thing they could do for her was to keep her as comfortable as possible.

  “The Nuremberg military trials start tomorrow,” Jude said after a moment of silence. “We’ll probably hear only the verdicts.”

  “Paul, down at the Gazette, was telling me that before long transoceanic radios will be as common as a regular radio, and we’ll hear everything that goes on all over the world.”

  “I’m probably like the ostrich with its head in the sand, but I don’t want to hear the gory details of the trial. I’ve seen what the Nazis were capable of doing.”