Measure of Grace

by Al Lacy

  Stu raised a hand to strike her. Martha leaped between them to shield Diana from the blow. Stu swore, and swung his fist at Martha.

  At police headquarters, Chief Constable Bob Perry was sitting at his desk, about to write a letter. He looked up at the calendar on the wall, noting that the date was Wednesday, October 16. He penned the date on the paper, then started writing the letter.

  There was a knock at the door. He paused in his writing and called, “Yes?”

  Officer Duane Cranford entered. “I need to talk to you, Chief,” he said, pausing at the door.

  “Certainly,” said Perry, laying the pen down. “I was just writing a letter. Come in.”

  Moving in and closing the door behind him, Cranford said, “We had an incident down in front of the general store a little while ago.”

  Perry’s brow furrowed. “Incident? What?”

  “Stu Morrow beat up on young Tom Wymore.”

  “From the look on your face, I’d say it was bad.”

  “Yes, sir. I was on the corner of Main and Oak when I saw a man running toward me, waving his hands. It was Charles Malcolm. He was on his way here to headquarters to alert us about the beating Stu was giving Tom. I ran up there with Charles, and when we arrived at the scene, Stu had left with his family, and Tom was lying in the street unconscious. A couple of men picked him up, put him in a wagon, and headed for Richmond Hospital. I talked to people in the crowd that had seen it all, and they told me—every one—that Tom was calmly trying to reason with Stu about dating his daughter, Diana. They said Tom gave Stu absolutely no reason to hit him. It was just Stu’s usual problem with his temper. I thought I’d better come on back here and let you know about it.”

  There was a knock at the door, followed by the officer on the desk sticking his head in. “Chief, I have Zack Wymore out here. He wants to see you.”

  “Certainly,” said Perry, rising from his desk chair. “Send him in.”

  Wymore, who was in his late forties, stepped into the chief’s office, his features drawn. “Chief Perry,” he said, moving toward the desk, and nodding at Cranford, “have you heard about what happened between my son, Tom, and Stu Morrow?”

  “Yes,” said Perry. “Officer Duane Cranford was just telling me about it. He told me Tom was taken to Richmond Hospital. How is he?”

  “He has two broken ribs and a fractured jaw,” Zack said in a strained voice. “I want Morrow arrested on assault and battery charges. Witnesses will testify that Tom did nothing to anger Morrow. He was simply asking for permission to date Diana, and Morrow went berserk like a madman and assaulted him.”

  “This was the same thing people in the crowd told me,” said Cranford. “They assured me that Tom did nothing to provoke Stu to attack him. When Stu punched him and he went down, Stu kept kicking him in the ribs. Tom grabbed his foot, twisted it, and caused Stu to fall. Even as Tom gained his feet, he tried to get Stu to listen to reason, but Stu went after him again. Tom tried to dodge his fists in an effort not to fight him back, but finally, Stu pummeled him into unconsciousness.”

  Perry shook his head, sighed, and said, “Mr. Wymore, I’ll take Duane and another officer with me right now. We’ll go out to the Morrow farm and arrest Stu for assault and battery on Tom. We’ll jail him, and I guarantee you, the judge will not only give orders to keep him locked up for a while, but he’ll also make Stu pay Tom’s medical bills.”

  At the Morrow farm, Diana and Deborah bent over their mother as she lay on her bed where Derick had carried her after their father had beat her up. Their brothers stood motionless on the other side of the bed.

  Martha’s mouth and nose were bleeding profusely, and the girls were using wet cloths, trying to get the bleeding stopped. Her right eye was swelling, and it was obvious that it would soon be swollen shut.

  Her right arm was dangling at an awkward angle, and Diana had told her siblings that she feared the shoulder had been dislocated. Martha was conscious but dazed.

  Derick’s mind went back to the moment when his father raised his hand to strike Diana and his mother leaped between them, trying to protect Diana, and his father hit her with his fist, knocking her to the floor. He then turned on Diana again, and his mother managed to get up and throw herself at him in an attempt to stop him. It was then that he grabbed her by the arm, wrenched it savagely, and hit her again. This time, when she went down, she was out cold …

  As Martha lay limp on the floor, Stu ignored the weeping Diana and the other children, stood over his unconscious wife and bellowed, “That’s what you get for standing in the way of my disciplining one of my children, Martha! Don’t you ever do it again!”

  With that, he stomped out of the house and headed for the barn.

  For a timeless moment, the siblings stood frozen in terror, then finally gaining control of her senses, Diana bent over her mother and said. “Derick, will you carry her to her bed? She’s bleeding badly.”

  Derick shook his head to clear away the stupor that had seized his brain, bent down, and picked up his mother. “I think we need to take her to the hospital, Diana.”

  “Papa wouldn’t let us take her there,” said Diana. “He wouldn’t want people knowing he had done this to Mama. We’ll have to take care of her.”

  As they followed Derick down the hall to the bedroom, Daniel sobbed. “Someday I’m gonna get big, and I’m gonna beat Papa good for this! I am! I’m gonna make him pay for what he did to Mama!”

  As they neared the bedroom, Diana put an arm around her distraught brother and said, “Daniel, right now we have to do all we can for Mama.”

  “I know,” said Daniel, “but I promise you, when I get big, Papa’s gonna pay for this!”

  Derick passed through the bedroom door and carried his mother toward her bed with his siblings on his heels.

  Suddenly there was a knock at the front door of the house.

  “I’ll see who it is,” said Derick, and hurried from the room.

  Derick opened the door to find Chief Constable Bob Perry with two officers. “Hello, Chief Perry.”

  “Hello, Derick,” said the chief. “These two men are Officers Duane Cranford and Lyle Hickman. We want to see your father. We are here in regard to his assault on Tom Wymore.”

  “Oh. Yes, sir.”

  “Did you see it?” asked Perry.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Did Tom do anything in your opinion to cause your father to assault him?”

  “No, sir. Tom tried to talk to Papa in a nice way. He didn’t want trouble. He just likes Diana, and asked Papa if he could date her.”

  The officers exchanged glances, nodding.

  “Is your father in the house?” asked Perry.

  “No, sir. He’s out in the barn. He beat Mama up real bad and went out there.”

  Perry’s eyebrows arched. “He beat your mother up?”

  “Yes, sir. My sisters are trying to get her bleeding stopped. Diana thinks her shoulder is dislocated, too.”

  “May I see her, Derick?”

  “Yes, sir. Come in.”

  “We’ll wait in the parlor, Chief,” said Officer Hickman. “You go ahead and take a look at her.”

  Derick led Chief Perry down the hall to the bedroom, where his mother lay on the bed with her other children around her. Diana and Deborah were working at getting the bleeding of her nose and mouth stopped.

  Martha was still in a dazed state. She seemed aware that the chief was there, but made no attempt to talk to him. As Perry bent down and looked at her, he said, “Derick, you need to take your mother to the hospital so they can care for her properly. She doesn’t look good at all.”

  “Papa will never let us take her to the hospital, Chief Perry,” said Diana. “He wouldn’t want people to know he had done this.”

  “Well, he’s not going to be in a position to stop you,” said Perry. “I have two officers with me. We’re here to arrest him for what he did to Tom Wymore. He’s going to jail.”

  “Good!” said D
aniel.

  “Then we’ll take Mama to the hospital as soon as Papa’s gone, Chief,” said Derick.

  “Yes, we will,” said Diana. “I want her to have the best care possible.”

  “All right,” said the chief. “I’ll get my men. We’re going to the barn right now and arrest him. You get your mother to the hospital right away.”

  When the chief had left the room, Diana said, “Papa’s not going to go without a fight. He’ll resist arrest, for sure.”

  “Well, I hope they clonk him good,” said Daniel.

  “Me too,” put in Dennis.

  As they heard the law officers go out the front door of the house, Diana dabbed at her mother’s nose and said, “I think I have the bleeding in check now.”

  “Her mouth has almost stopped bleeding, too,” said Deborah.

  “I don’t want her to go to the hospital,” said Dennis. “Can’t we keep her here?”

  “No, honey,” said Deborah. “She needs care that only the hospital can give her. You want her to get all well, don’t you?”

  “Uh-huh. But she’s not bleeding bad, now.”

  “But she could start bleeding again,” said Diana. “And she needs that swollen eye taken care of, and her arm.”

  Daniel pointed out the window as the officers passed by, hurrying toward the barn. “There they go.”

  Dennis began sniffling. “But Diana, if you take Mama to the hospital, maybe she’ll never come home.”

  “Yes, she will,” said Derick. “But she will be feeling good when she does.”

  Even as Derick was speaking, they heard their father’s loud voice coming from the barn. They could not make out what he was saying.

  Martha stirred slightly and opened her good eye. “He’s going to fight them.”

  Suddenly there were loud clattering and banging sounds. It lasted only a brief moment, then all went quiet.

  “He must have given up,” said Deborah.

  “Or they clonked him,” said Daniel.

  “I hope they didn’t have to hurt him,” Martha said with thick tongue.

  “Look!” said Derick.

  His siblings all peered through the window to see the law officers carrying their unconscious father with his hands cuffed behind his back.

  Cranford and Hickman draped his heavy frame over the back of an extra horse they had brought along, while Chief Perry headed for the front of the house.

  Derick ran down the hall and opened the door just as the chief was mounting the porch steps.

  “We had to knock him out to subdue him, Derick,” said Perry. “He isn’t seriously hurt. It will be up to the judge how long he will be in jail for what he did to Tom Wymore. Someone will let you know. Now you get your mother to the hospital.”

  “I will, sir,” said Derick. “I’ll go out to the barn and hitch up the wagon right away. I’ll take Diana along to take care of Mama in the back of the wagon, and I’ll leave Deborah here to watch over Daniel and Dennis.”

  The other two boys came and stood beside Derick and watched as the officers put the horses in motion. Their father was starting to regain consciousness as they pulled away.

  Martha’s mind was clearing as Derick carried her outside with the other children following. Her right eye was a mere slit, but with effort, she focused on Derick’s face with her good eye as he concentrated on trying to be as gentle as possible while he carried her to the wagon.

  She tried to stifle a moan as her son’s strong arms placed her in the back of the wagon, where Diana and Deborah had made a soft pallet of fresh straw covered with quilts. Diana climbed into the wagon bed, put a pillow under her mother’s head, and covered her with a shawl, all the while speaking soothing words to her.

  While Deborah, Daniel, and Dennis looked on, Derick closed the tailgate, hopped up to the wagon seat, and started the team toward the road.

  When the wheels began to roll, Martha whimpered in pain. Diana braced herself against her mother’s battered body, hoping to absorb as much movement as possible from the rocking wagon.

  The three who were staying home moved to the rickety porch to watch until the wagon would pass from sight. Trying to see through the tears blurring her own vision, Deborah heard a loud sniff, and looked down at her youngest brother. Dennis was losing his valiant battle to stem the flow of tears, and rubbed his shirtsleeve over his runny nose.

  Deborah bent down to his eye level, and blinking back her own tears, took his thin little body in her arms. This was all it took. Dennis forgot all about trying to be brave, and sobbed like any five-year-old would do under the same circumstances.

  “Mama’s going to be fine,” Deborah assured him, squeezing him close.

  “I just want her home!” came the shaky, young voice. “I’m afraid she’ll never come back!”

  Daniel looked on as Deborah guided their little brother to the porch swing, sat down, and lifted him onto her lap. “Hush, now, Dennis,” she said, putting the swing in motion, running her hand over his blond locks and pulling his head tightly against her chest. “Mama will be back very soon. The doctors will make her all better.”

  Daniel moved off the porch silently, unnoticed.

  Dennis sniffed. “Promise?”

  “Yes, honey. I promise. And you know what?”

  He sniffed again. “What?”

  “If you’ll be a big, brave boy, I’ll make a mock angel cake to welcome Mama home.”

  Still sniffling, but his mind now on his favorite kind of cake, Dennis let his head rest on his sister’s chest. Soon, the swaying of the swing lulled him to sleep.

  Soon Deborah caught sight of Daniel walking past the house toward the barn, shuffling his feet and making dust clouds rise, his head bent low. She opened her mouth to call out to him, but closed it again. She knew the sound of her voice would awaken Dennis, and she didn’t feel like dealing with him again so soon. She would let him sleep where he was for a while. Maybe Daniel could work out some of his own frustrations.

  I guess I can’t solve everyone’s problems, she thought, her mind returning to the small, pitiful sight her mother had made, riding in the back of the wagon.

  IN ELKTON, IDAHO—six days prior to the beatings Stu Morrow gave his wife and Tom Wymore in Richmond, Virginia—attorney Gage Pearsall left his office under a flawlessly blue sky and headed down the wide, dusty street. He happily swung the leather briefcase that he carried.

  There was a touch of fall in the air as morning swelled across the land in waves of sunlight, and the soft breeze off the Sawtooth Mountains brought the scent of pine, thick and pleasant, upon the town.

  Pearsall tipped his hat to the ladies in his usual friendly manner and greeted the men in the same way.

  Soon he drew up to the front door of the Elkton Sentinel building and moved inside. He found the young couple, Dan and Erline Tyler, seated at their desks in the outer office, smiling at him.

  “Good morning, Mr. Pearsall,” Erline said. “We’ve been expecting you.”

  “And good morning to you, Erline,” responded the attorney. “It’s nice to see you.”

  “Good morning, Mr. Pearsall,” said Dan, rising from his desk. “Knight is in Mr. Hayward’s office at the moment. They are going over some important matters in connection with the sale. Mr. Hayward said if you arrived before they were through, to seat you and give you a cup of coffee.”

  Pearsall grinned. “Sounds good to me.”

  Erline went to the small potbellied stove where the coffeepot was giving off gurgling sounds and poured a cupful of the steaming liquid.

  Dan sat the attorney down in the chair in front of his desk. Erline placed the cup before him, and sat down in the twin chair beside him. Dan eased back onto his desk chair.

  “Well!” said Pearsall. “You two have been in Elkton about a month, haven’t you?”

  “A month and a week, sir,” said Dan. “And we love it here.”

  “I’m glad,” said Pearsall. “And let me tell you, Pastor Steele is plenty glad yo
u came. He was really needing someone to take those two Sunday school classes since the Berrys left. He has commented to me on two or three occasions about what a wonderful job you are doing.”

  “We’re delighted to each have a class,” said Erline. “We both had classes at the church in Boise, but we never dreamed it would work out so well here. Dan loves his boys, and I love my girls.”

  “The Lord always has things well-planned in our lives,” said Dan. “Better than we could ever plan them ourselves.”

  Gage Pearsall swallowed a mouthful of coffee. “For sure. Since He is already in our tomorrows, He can work things out perfectly for us if we will just follow Him as He says, rather than running ahead of Him.”

  “Right,” said Dan. “Like when Erline and I were feeling that we were supposed to leave the newspaper in Boise. We almost got ahead of the Lord and took a job at the Pocatello Free Press. I’m sure glad we didn’t. As you probably know, the paper went out of business just last week.”

  “Yes,” said Pearsall.

  “We would have been without jobs, and no place to go,” said Erline.

  “I’m sure glad we let the Lord lead us here.”

  “So your being hired by Claude Hayward five weeks ago was all because of the big transaction that’s taking place today.”

  “Right,” said Dan. “My becoming Knight’s assistant as he becomes owner of the Sentinel is really a step up from what I had in Boise.”

  “And my being made secretary and bookkeeper is a step up for me, too, Mr. Pearsall,” said Erline. “We’re very happy to be a part of it. There is no doubt in our minds that Knight is going to make an even greater success of the paper as time goes on. And it’s wonderful to know we’ll have a born-again boss.”

  At that moment, the door to Claude Hayward’s office came open, and both men came out.

  “Ah, Gage!” said Hayward. “I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”

  Pearsall chuckled. “Only about three hours.”

  Hayward laughed. “Oh, well, that’s the way it is, sometimes.”

  Twenty-four-year-old Knight Colburn grinned and said, “More like fifteen minutes, Mr. Lawyer. I heard you come in.”