by F. M. Parker
Alice glanced around at the room. She felt she had to say something. “It’s very nice.”
“There’s plenty of things your can do here to earn your keep,” Cole said. He led the way back into the living room.
Alice quickly retook her seat by the heating stove. Then to her dismay, Cole drew a rocking chair up in front of the stove and seated himself. He took a plug of tobacco from a shirt pocket and bit off a piece. He opened the door of the stove, and staring at the flames, began to chew the tobacco.
Alice made no sound, no movement, her eyes focused on the stove. She was a penniless stranger in the house and had earned no right to be here, and such outsiders kept quiet for they knew they should by instinct.
Cole often looked at the silent Alice as his jaws worked methodically chewing the cud of tobacco. After a time, he leaned forward and spit a squirt of tobacco juice at the fire, where it hissed into steam and was sucked up the chimney. He began to grind the cud again.
Alice was revolted by Cole’s chewing and spitting and the sound of it hissing in the fire. She was glad when Matty called softly from the kitchen, “Supper’s ready.”
“The only thing she’s good at is cooking,” Cole said. He tongued his cud of tobacco into his hand and tossed it into the flames. “Let’s go and eat.”
Alice was angry at the man for his criticism of Matty. She followed him into the kitchen for she was starving, having had nothing to eat since a small breakfast on the train. .
*
The three ate in silence, and that was just fine by Alice. She concentrated on the food on her plate, the boiled potatoes and beef that was cooked and seasoned to perfection, the hot cornbread spread lavishly with butter that melted upon it, the fresh milk was the sweetest Alice had ever drunk. A bowl of chocolate pudding waited beside her plate. Food was often on Alice’s mind since she had arrived in America.
Cole’s eyes were often upon Alice as she ate, examining her openly. At other times he watched her through slitted lids.
Cole spoke abruptly “How did you come to be on the Orphan Train?”
“Using as few words as possible, Alice described her home in Terryville, the voyage across the sea and the events in America leading up to her arrival in Bemiji. Cole asked questions about the coal mine, how many men worked in it, how deep underground it was and where the coal was sold? Alice relayed the facts she knew from what her father had said.
Matty asked a few questions in her soft, hesitant voice. She would wait until Cole fell quiet as he considered Alice’s last words and then ask hers. Sometimes Cole overrode Matty before she could get the full question spoken. His disregard for Matty caused Alice to feel sorrow for the woman.
It was obvious Cole owned Matty. Alice recalled Cole’s touch of her leg. Was he planning to own her also?
Matty rose from the table and started to clear away the dishes. Alice hurriedly joined her in the chore. There would be safety in the kitchen with Matty. Alice wanted to get through the remainder of the day without talking to Cole and then rest alone in her room.
Without a word passing between them, Alice and Matty worked slowly and thus prolonging the task of washing the dishes. Matty washed and Alice dried and put them away in the cabinet. *
“You two going to be in there all night?” Cole shouted from the living room.
“We’d better go in,” Matty said hastily.
She led into the front room where Cole sat chewing a cud of tobacco in front of the open door of the stove. Alice found a seat by the stove. Matty went to the Victrola that sat by the wall and wound the spring of the instrument by turning the projecting handle. With the turntable spinning, she placed a record upon it and then gently set the needle. The music of a waltz filled the room.
With a broad smile, Matty held out her hand to Cole, inviting him to dance. He shook his head and spit into the flames of the stove.
Matty’s smile vanished and her shoulders sagged. Then she straightened and held out a hand to Alice, who hesitated but a second before moving to her. They joined hands and danced to the music, swinging and turning and promenading to the rhythm. Alice enjoyed dancing with the homely woman, who had a fine ear for the rhythm of the music
Cole tossed his cud of tobacco into the stove, shut its door, and climbed to his feet. “Time for bed,” he called out above the music.
Alice and Matty ceased dancing. After a moment of hesitation, Matty turned off the Victrola.
“We go to bed early around here,” Cole said to Alice as he rubbed the front of his britches in the heat of the stove.
Alice looked at Matty. The woman’s face was strained with anger.
“Alice, let’s get your bed ready,” Matty said.
“All right,” Alice said, much saddened by Cole’s treatment of Matty,
Matty led into Alice’s bedroom and there struck a match and lit the lamp. “Cole will keep the fire burning all night for its cold outside. If you leave your door open some of the heat will come in here.”
“I’d rather have my door closed,” Alice said.
“I understand,” Matty said. “But there’s no key for it. It’s been lost for years. You can prop the chair under the door knob though.”
Alice didn’t like that information about the key. She would use the chair as Maddy suggested. “I need to go outside,” she said.
Alice went quietly through the house and out the door into the yard. She wanted to run and run and put distance between Cole and herself. But that could not be for where would she run to half naked and the night black and frigid.
She squatted in the cold darkness and peed on the snow while looking up at the far away stars. The twinkling stars seemed to whisper that the universe was an empty place. To that, Alice silently added, and a heartless place for one such as she. A heavy loneliness draped itself over her. Unless she made a family of her own there was no one to mourn her when she died. Did she possess the bravery and the strength to live long enough to become a woman and find a gentle man like her father for a husband and a protector?
“Yes,” she answered herself out loud. And with that pronouncement, she stood up and wiped her youthful sex hair dry with the tail of her dress, for the lack of anything more proper. She reentered the house.
*
Alice closed the door to her bedroom and wished the key had been present to lock it. She leaned the chair against the door with its back beneath the door knob. With all her strength, she wedged the chair’s rear legs tightly against the wooden floor and in this manner jamming the back of the chair firmly up beneath the door knob. She pulled on the doorknob and could not make the door move.
Alice wound her watch and laid it on the nightstand beside the knife. She pulled her dress up over her head and hung it in the wardrobe. Wearing her petticoat, she blew down the globe of the oil lamp and snuffed the yellow flame. In the darkness, she climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin.
Alice was weary to the core for the day had been long and cold and filled with a flood of emotions. Alice hated Cole’s treatment of Matty. She hated his hand upon her leg. Would he try to come into her bedroom? The chair must hold the door closed and protect her through the night.
Alice lay quietly and unmoving as she listened for a sound to come from the door should Cole try to enter. The minutes passed and she heard nothing except the now and again muted groaning of the walls of the old house as the temperature fell ever lower and fought to come inside. Finally sleep overwhelmed Alice and she drifted off with her last thought that of Opal standing so awfully forlornly in the school gymnasium and waving goodbye.
Later, a length of time that Alice couldn’t judge, she came awake to the rattle of the door knob being turned back and forth. Her heart began to thunder in her bosom for she knew it was Cole trying to get into her bedroom. The rattling stopped and silence held for a moment. Then the door creaked as heavy pressure was put upon it. The door held. Alice could imagine Cole standing on the other side of the door and wondering why it
wouldn’t open. Please, please, let the door keep him out of her bedroom.
Something heavy struck the door with great force, as if Cole had thrown his entire weight against it, and immediately came the sharp crack of wooden panels breaking. The scrape of the legs of the chair against the floor sounded and then a clatter as the chair fell to the floor. The door opened and Cole stood framed in the doorway, his broad body dimly silhouetted by the faint glow coming from the flames in the heating stove. He laughed low and guttural.
Alice, her senses sharpened by her great fight, could smell the man, smell the danger he brought. She feared what he was going to demand she surrender to him, and if she didn’t give willingly, then take from her by force.
Unless she fought him and won. She flung off the quilts and scrambled from bed. Snatching up her knife from the night stand, she sprang into the closest corner. She crouched there with her back against the wall, and held the knife in a fierce grip and ready to thrust at Cole’s stomach when he came within striking distance.
Cole crossed the room with four long strides and fell upon the bed. His hands searched for Alice, tossing aside the covers, knocking the pillow to the floor, sweeping the length and width of the bed with hooked fingers.
“Where are you, you little bitch,” he said in a hoarse voice. He swept his eyes over the room. They found Alice crouched in her white petticoat in the corner.
“So there you are. Come and be nice to me and nobody will get hurt.”
Alice remained silent with her knife ready. Her thundering heart was ready to explode from her chest. She had known fear before, but her fear of Cole touched a deep primitive level where nothing had ever touched her before. Father, my big, strong father, why aren’t you here to protect me?
“Come here, girl. You and me’ll have a little fun on the bed. Then everybody’ll be happy. Especially me.”
Alice doubted her ability to cut Cole badly enough to stop him from what he planned. Where was Matty? She had to have heard the sound of the door breaking and the chair falling.
“Matty!” Alice screamed at the top of her voice. “Matty! Matty! Help me! Come help me!”
“Shut up, you little bitch,” Cole snarled. He lunged at Alice.
Alice dodged below Cole’s outstretched arm. As she passed by Cole, she struck at him with the knife. Her reach was short and the knife missed.
Cole spun and rushed at Alice. She leapt up on the bed, almost falling as the springs sank under her weight, but caught her balance and jumped down on the far side. She must get out of the confining walls of the bedroom. She pivoted toward the doorway. As she prepared to make a dash for the opening, it filled with light and Matty came into the room carrying a lamp.
Cole whirled toward Matty. “Get the hell out of here,” he roared.
Matty flinched at Cole’s shout, but stood her ground. She held the lamp high and looked at the bed stripped of its quilts and at Alice on the far side, her face strained with fear and her hand holding a knife.
A wave of thankfulness swept over Alice at Matty’s appearance. She would protect Alice from her husband. Even as the thought came to Alice, she noted Matty’s expression was changing from one of alarm at the loud noise to something else. What was the woman thinking? Surely she wasn’t going to leave Alice in Cole’s hands.
“This doesn’t concern you, Matty, so get the hell out of here.” Cole said in a savage, commanding voice.
“Everything that happens in this house is my business,” Matty said and stepped through the doorway and into the room.
Alice was intently watching Matty’s face and knew the woman had come to some silent conclusion about something more than Cole coming into her bedroom. Matty’s eyes had widened as if coming more awake.
Matty spoke in a calm voice to Cole. “Oscar won’t like this. You’d better leave her alone.”
“I don’t give a damn what Oscar likes,” Cole shot back.
“Yes you do,” Matty said in a firm and knowing voice. “You’ve seen how mean he can get when somebody does something he doesn’t like. So you’d better wait for him.”
Cole’s eyes swung from Matty to Alice and back to Matty. “To hell with Oscar, I can’t wait,” He took a step toward Alice, then halted and turned back to Matty and they stared at each other for what to Alice seemed a very long time.
Make him leave, Matty, Alice pleaded silently. Make him leave.
“Goddamn you, woman,” Cole snarled and came close to Matty. He lashed out and slapped her a stinging blow across the face.
Matty staggered back and collided with the wall and leaned there half stunned. The hand holding the lamp sagged so as to almost topple the globe. She shoved away from the wall and stood upright. Blood oozed from her split lip. She wiped at the blood with the sleeve of her nightgown.
Matty spoke, her voice holding that same calm tone. “I’ll going to kill you the next time you hit me.”
“You’ve sad that before,” Cole said and gave her a smile that said she didn’t worry him. He stomped out of the bedroom.
“I mean it this time.” Matty said to the empty doorway.
Alice hurried to Matty. “Here let me have that,” she said and took the lamp from the woman’s unsteady hand.
She owed the woman a great debt. “Thank you, Matty. Thank you very, very much?”
“I couldn’t let him hurt you.”
“I’m sorry that I caused you to get hit.”
“That wasn’t the first time. But it’s the last time.” In the lamplight, Matty’s eyes glittered like frozen spheres. After a brief pause she spoke again. “We’ve got to be very careful until we figure a way to deal with Cole.”
“What’re we going to do?” Alice asked, and wondering what the woman meant by dealing with Cole. When she had threatened Cole she had said the next time he hit her. Now she had said this blow was the last one. Did she intend to kill him soon as she found a way?
“Wait here,” Matty said. “I’m going to wash the blood off and get something.”
Matty hastened from the room. A minute later she returned with a long bladed carving knife.
“We’ll sleep together tonight,” Matty said. “Then tomorrow we’ll figure out what to do.”
“Who is this Oscar that you mentioned to Cole?”
“He’s Cole’s brother and the county sheriff.”
“Cole is afraid of him?”
“He surely is. You saw how he acted when I mentioned Oscar. And there are many others who’re afraid of Oscar. Now help me move the wardrobe to block the door so that it’ll make a noise if Cole tries to move it to come in here. Then we’ll make up the bed and try to get some sleep.”
“I don’t think I’ll sleep very much.”
“I don’t think I will either.” Matty said, gripping the long knife.
*
“Wake up,” Matty said and shook Alice by the shoulder.
Alice sat up quickly. “What? What?” she said, startled by the abrupt wakening. She flung a hurried look around the bedroom for Cole.
“He’s left and we’ve got things to plan. I’m fixing us a quick breakfast. Hurry up and dress. Put all your clothes on, coat, everything.” Matty hastily left the bedroom.
Alice was surprised that she had slept. That could have been dangerous. She sprang from bed and hurriedly drew on her clothes. She pocketed her knife and her treasured picture, poem book and watch. She would leave the farm soon as possible.
Alice came up beside Matty frying bacon at the stove. The smell of the sizzling bacon made her realize that she was ravenously hungry. Her body wanted to be fed regardless of the danger she was in.
“Where did Cole go?
“He took the truck and went to buy some grain for the livestock. We had a short hay crop this past summer.”
“How long will he be gone?”
“He said a couple of hours.”
“Then I have time to leave before he gets back,” Alice said, much relieved. “Why don’t you come with me?”
“I’m never going to leave for this is my home. It’s been in my family for three generations, counting me. I worked the farm by myself for three years after mom died, dad had died a couple of years before, and no man ever came to visit me. Then Cole came calling and after a few weeks asked me to marry him. I knew he was marrying me because I have a good farm. I didn’t care for I thought the marriage would work out. I’m an ugly woman and I know it. But like any woman, I wanted a husband and kids. And he was so very nice to me before we married. Afterwards he changed to his real self, the cruel bastard he really is. So I got a bad husband and no kids. But I’ll not be driven from this house, not off my land,” Matty ended angrily.
Alice put her arms around Matty to comfort her.
“You’re the one in most danger,” Matty said and pulled free of Alice’s arms. “You’ve got to get away from here this very morning. Soon as you get some food in you.”
“How far away is the nearest neighbor?” Alice asked.
“That’d be the Tillson’s. They have a farm about two miles off in that direction,” Matty said and gestured with the fork she held. “Soon as you get something to eat, I’ll take you there and ask them to drive you to Bimiji.”
“I saw your face last night and heard what you said to Cole. You know something about him and Oscar. What is it?”
“I’m not going to say any more except that you’ve got to leave right now and get to Father Brannan. I’ll give you a note explaining things to the Father. He’ll keep you safe until he can find a proper home for you.”
“How can I do that? I don’t have warm clothes and I’d freeze if I tried to walk.”
“I’m sure that I can fit you out with a warm outfit. My mother wasn’t much bigger than you are and I kept some of her clothes. You tend the bacon while I go find you something warm.”
Alice felt the weight of the danger like a shroud over her. Matty was correct, Alice had to get far away from Cole. From what Matty had said, she must also stay clear of Cole’s brother Oscar Taggert the sheriff.
Matty returned with an armload of clothes. “These are all heavy winter clothes for mom worked outside a lot with dad, and then with me after he died. Here, try on this outfit and see how it fits. Just put it on right over your other clothing for you can’t get too warmly dressed on a day as cold as this one.”