South of Main Street

by Robert Gately

  * * *

  The Judge continue banging the gavel and a piece of wood went flying into the air.

  Sharon continued yelling above the gavel noise and Robin’s objections. “My dad passed out on the bed and rolled over and smothered Johnny to death.” With that statement, Robin sat down and was quiet. “That’s our secret, Judge. That’s our dirty, little, family secret!” Sharon sat.

  There was a momentary silence, then Robin yelled obscenities and Sharon stood up and yelled back over the Judge’s gavel … BANG! BANG! BANG!

  Finally, Henry rose to his feet and yelled, “STOP IT! STOP!”

  Within a second, the last ‘BANG’ was heard and then the courtroom turned quiet and all eyes were on Henry. The Judge scoured the room with a single glance.

  Dixie sat in the back and appeared to be in shock. Robin held her heart, as if it were beating abnormally fast. Sharon slumped as if she were exhausted. And Henry? He sat down and appeared to be the calmest of all.

  In the midst of the quiet, the Judge weighed what Sharon had just said. He sat back in his chair reviewing his life as it pertained to the Wolff family, rewinding the mental tapes and going over the many instances of Henry’s weird behavior and applied new meaning to it.

  An inordinate amount of time went by in silence. “Do you have anything to present, Robin?” the Judge finally asked.

  Robin jumped to her feet and immediately responded. “Under the circumstances, Judge, I want Asa Adler in here. I also want Danny and Mr. Petzinger in.”

  “Okay. Go get them. You have one hour. I’m recessing until then.”

  “Judge,” Robin added, “If it’s possible, I want Tommy Maltin’s view on things.”

  “Yes, so do I, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible today. Go get Mr. Adler and the Petzingers. Now.”

  The Judge retreated into his chambers, exasperated and flustered, but absolutely determined to flush out the remaining details, no matter what kind of story they might tell.

  Chapter 16

  Robin called Asa and told him what happened in court. In all the years since their childhood, Robin hadn’t talked to him in private conversations except for the recent luncheon. It was always ‘Hi, how ya doing’ kind of greetings where neither would progress beyond the social niceties given by two busy people who needed to attend to business. But this phone call was different. She gave the court details of that morning and explained she needed him right away. She told him this request was a personal one and her family unity depended on his friendly testimony. “If there was ever a time I needed you in my life, Asa, it is now.” Even as she spoke those words, she recognized the part she played in the past decade of friendship-neglect. If she had the luxury of time, she would spill her heart out to him and give an appropriate apology for not keeping in touch. But she didn’t have the time at the moment, and she needed his friendship right now.

  After Robin explained the crisis, he said yes, he most certainly would come to her aid, and yes, he would gladly pick up Mr. Petzinger and his son, and yes, yes, yes, he would be there for her within the hour.

  * * *

  Dixie watched Henry from the back of the court while he sat by himself at the table staring at the cracks in the wall. She felt extremely sad for him and felt responsible for what happened. She got up and approached him. He looked at her, smiled, and patted the chair next to him. She took a seat next to him, and held his arm.

  “You haven’t opened the present I gave you,” Dixie said.

  Henry looked at the gift, which he held in his hand. “It’s not Christmas yet.”

  “Oh, yeah, right.” Dixie said. She didn’t know what else to say to him. She felt dirty carrying the two hundred dollars in her book. So, she sat there wondering what to say. There were a hundred things she wanted to say but she didn’t know where to begin. She remembered Henry’s lectures about saying what was in your heart and using the right words. So, she searched her heart.

  “Merry Christmas,” she murmured.

  “You too, Dixie.” He smiled at her. “Well. What do you think of me now?”

  “I didn’t know what love meant. Until now.” There was a long pause, then, “I’m so sorry for being a real bitch.”

  “Tish. Tish,” he said while pointing to his mouth.

  Dixie smiled and watched him fidget with the gift. She thought for a moment about the price he had paid in life for his drinking. Now that she knew how his son had died, it was apparent to her that Henry had a special knowledge about addiction and the expense people pay for their excesses. The emotional and spiritual bottom he eventually hit must’ve been dark and lonely. She may not have fully understood what he was going through, but she surmised that the edge of his reality was filled with escape routes and exit doors whenever life got to be too much for him. Drugs were her escape route. Booze was his, way back then. And la-la land now.

  She sat there with him feeling sorry for herself and angry at the same time for not suspecting the magnitude of Sharon’s deceit and the lengths she would go to get her own way. Dixie didn’t see the total picture when she spoke to Sharon. The individual stories seemed harmless. But she saw that her own testimony was crucial to Sharon’s plot of betrayal.

  Dixie saw a vulnerable soul through Henry’s eyes, and a sadness she had never seen before.

  He looked at the gift in her hand and whispered, “You haven’t opened your present either.”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s not Christmas yet. Because I don’t want to cry. Because I don’t feel … like I deserve a present from you. You forgive too easily, Henry.”

  He took a long, deep breath, held it briefly and blew everything out quickly. Then stared off into space.

  Dixie sensed it was time to leave because he wanted to be alone. She got up and moved to the back of the room.

  * * *

  Sharon looked at Henry and he casually returned the gaze, smiled with his eyes. The look on his face stung Sharon like a dagger. He loved her. He truly loved her unconditionally.

  Today was just too emotional, Sharon thought. She had lived her entire adult life hiding the secret that Henry killed her brother because he was a drunkard. Mom told lies, conspired and the doctors easily came to the conclusion it was crib death. But Robin heard Mom and Dad fighting that night. Words were flung carelessly around in a household where Robin was hiding by her parents’ bedroom door, listening to the secret that was being concocted. Robin heard all and knew all, and eventually told Sharon when she got older. Mom found out her girls knew the truth soon enough. That’s when it became more important than ever to hide the secret and let everyone think that Dad’s weird behavior was due to a few reasons not the least of which was the sudden, blameless death of his only son. Mom was the conniver, Sharon thought.

  But for the first time she saw her father as a victim. He went through the horrors of war and drank heavily to cope when he came home. He didn’t cope very well. Still, Sharon surmised it could be argued that he drank because of the posttraumatic stress and Johnny died because Dad drank, thus linking her brother’s death to the war. A casualty of war. But no such argument would be presented. The world would be given a much more socially acceptable reason. That was fine for Mom, Sharon thought. But keeping the secret was awfully hard to do for two adolescents reaching puberty. But they did it. They kept the secret until now.

  * * *

  Henry felt like a new person. The secret had paralyzed him and the family for all these years. Now, he felt a great relief in his heart. He felt like he had been paroled from jail – a monkey off his back. He looked at Sharon and saw a pain in her face. “Thank you,” he yelled over to her.

  “For what?” Sharon asked.

  “For freeing me. For freeing us.”

  And with that, Sharon broke down and cried. Robin walked into the courtroom and Sharon quickly recovered and wiped the tears.

  Asa Adler, Danny and Mr. Petzinger followed behind Robin and she p
ointed to the front row where they could sit.

  * * *

  Danny stood by Dixie. She had her head bent down staring at a present she had just opened.

  “Wasuuuuuup,” Danny whispered trying to get her attention.

  When she looked up he saw tears streaming down her face and was startled. Danny then looked around the room and became aware that something momentous was going on. He saw everyone frozen in somber dispositions, like a painting on a wall that depicted a mysterious and fateful historical moment, like The Last Supper. There was much more going on here than met the eye. He queried Dixie with a highbrow, but she wouldn’t look at him. He noticed the paperback next to her and saw money sticking out of it.

  “What’s going on,” he whispered. But she didn’t answer. She took the book and ran out of the court.

  “Sit here, Danny,” Robin pointed to the seat next to his father.

  Danny quickly did what he was told just as the chamber door bolted open. Judge Brady went straight to the bench and sat. “Okay, Robin,” he said. “Let’s be quick and to the point. Who do we talk to first?”

  “Asa Adler, Judge.”

  * * *

  Henry looked in the back of the room and saw Dixie gone. He also noticed the gift he gave her was opened and left on the seat with the Christmas wrapping crumpled next to it. He rose from his seat and started to leave.

  “Where are you going, Dad?” Robin blurted out.

  Henry didn’t respond. He just tapped Robin on the arm and kissed her on the head. Then he walked over to Sharon, knelt next to her and kissed her on the head as well. “Go find that car-guy, Sweetie,” he said.

  Sharon didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Tears welled-up in her eyes. She tried to talk but nothing came out of her mouth. Henry surmised the lump in her throat had been there a long time. Her affections for the car-guy had always been her secret anguish.

  “Go find him, sweetheart,” Henry said. “I gotta go,” Henry got up and headed for the exit.

  “No, Dad. You can’t go,” Robin yelled.

  “Henry!” the Judge yelled. “Where are you going?”

  “I have to find Dixie,” he yelled back, already halfway down the aisle.

  “Why?”

  Henry turned and looked squarely at the judge. “Because she’s losing hope, Judge Brady.” And he stood there waiting for the Judge’s verdict.

  The Judge nodded and smiled. “Go, Henry. What needs to be done this hour can be accomplished without you.”

  Henry turned to leave, but before exiting, he bent down and picked up Dixie’s gift she had left behind, a new CD - her favorite CD in the whole world – the one Jason had broken.

  Henry bolted out of the courthouse building in a hurry. The journalists were gone and it was just him, alone. He looked up and down Main Street, and there was no sign of Dixie. He sat down on the steps and consumed a large gulp of air. He looked at the CD for a moment, reached into his pocket for Dixie’s unopened gift to him, looked at it and then put it back into his pocket.

  * * *

  The Judge turned to Robin. “It’s all right. We can get what we need without him.” Judge Brady turned to Asa, then tapped on the chair. “Step right up, Asa.” The Judge waited for Asa to take a seat. “You have no problem if I ask a few questions, do you?”

  “That’s why I’m here, Judge Brady.”

  “Good. Now, Asa, I need you to tell me why you hired Henry. Then, tell me why you fired him. In that order.”

  Asa was quick to tell the Judge why he hired Henry; because of family ties. But he talked slowly while explaining why he fired Henry. “You see, Henry was giving away things, Judge, but I didn’t realize what was really going on. I just saw the dollars in the register were not going to balance when the receipts were tallied. I could offer no defense for Henry’s behavior to my partner. So, I fired Henry and told him the reason I was doing it was because he was giving away items for free.”

  “Okay, Asa,” the Judge said. “I got that part of the story fine. But I need to know something, and you may not be able to tell me this, and that’s fine if you can’t, but I need to know why Henry was giving things away. I need to get a better understanding of his motivations. Can you help me with that?”

  “I’ll try, Judge. Henry was keeping a tab of what he was giving away and he said he was going to pay for it out of his salary. Like I said before, that was unacceptable to me and I fired him. But then I asked him why he gave things away, and what he said to me is probably the best way I can answer your question, Judge.”

  “What did he say, Asa?”

  “He said, ‘Because it was the right thing to do’.”

  Asa paused for a second, then repeated, “… because it was the right thing to do! Well, Judge, that made me think. What IS the right thing to do? I was more intimidated about what my partner would think than doing the right thing. I couldn’t stop thinking about Henry’s words. Finally, I started to think about this town and how it is divided into the haves and have-nots. The people on the south side, Your Honor, give me the most business to be honest with you. I make a lot of money off of them, and it finally occurred to me what’s the harm in giving a little back to the community, especially if they need critical items, like formula for an infant. How important is that? Very important, wouldn’t you say?”

  Asa looked at Robin and smiled. Then he looked at the Judge and smiled at him too. “I don’t know what’s going on with this Tommy Maltin thing, Judge. I mean, I read the papers and it doesn’t look good for Henry. All I know is that Henry has opened my eyes. He helped me realize what the right thing to do is. But, unfortunately, I didn’t get it until after I fired him.”

  * * *

  Henry saw Wheezy wheeling a cart. She stopped and rummaged through a sidewalk garbage can. She picked out two aluminum cans and tossed them into the cart.

  “Wheezy,” Henry yelled to her. “Have you seen Dixie?”

  Wheezy took a quick, deep breath and held it for a second. She waved two one hundred-dollar bills and said, “Look what Dixie gave me.”

  “Where did she get … never mind. Do you know where she went?”

  Wheezy’s breathing became more asthmatic, raspy sounding. All she could do was point down Main Street to the east as if she were throwing darts. “Down there somewhere,” she managed to spit out. “In one of those … alleyways … I think.”

  Henry started to head east, but turned and said, “I’m sorry to hear about Joe.”

  Wheezy continued to push the cart. “He’s better off where he is,” she said with her back to Henry. “And Mr. Wolff, sir?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thank you … for the money … you have been giving … me.”

  Henry nodded, wishing he had more time to spend with Wheezy, but he couldn’t. Right now he had to find Dixie. He eyeballed Wheezy from head to toe and then smiled at her. “How would you like to spend Christmas with my daughter and me?” he asked.

  Wheezy looked down at her shoes and clothing, then reached into her pocket and took out the two hundred dollars. “Will you help me pick out some new clothes?”

  “You stay there, Wheezy. You let me find Dixie and we’ll all go shopping for some clothes for you. I’m real good at doing that.” Then he turned and bolted down the street to continue to look for Dixie.

  * * *

  Danny had watched the proceedings with Asa very carefully. As Asa step down from the chair and return to his seat, he wondered what the Judge was going to ask him. “What am I going to tell the Judge?” he whispered to his father.

  “The truth,” Charles Petzinger said.

  Danny thought for a second. “The truth about what?”

  “Okay, Danny,” the Judge said. “Your turn.”

  “Don’t worry,” Charles said. “Just answer his questions. And whatever you say … I won’t be angry.”

  There was a strange comfort in his father’s words. He felt close to him for the first time in a long time. But the Judge scared him a
bit and this was Danny’s first time in a courtroom and he felt somewhat threatened. Everything seemed so official and sterile. He hesitated, unsure of himself, but his father tapped him on his shoulders and said, “It’s okay, son. Just tell the truth.”

  Danny felt calmness with that touch, and those words. For the past few days, he had been building a feeling of trust with his father. His dad had stopped drinking and, although it wasn’t perfect in his household, things were starting to get better. Danny proceeded with caution and sat next to the big man with the black robe.

  “Now, Danny,” the Judge said softly. “I would like to know a couple of things. Let’s start with Dixie. Do you know Dixie?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, she says that few days ago she saw you and Mr. Wolff, Henry, your neighbor, picking up rocks in his backyard. Can you tell me about that day?”

  “Are you going to do anything bad to him?” Danny asked.

  “No, Danny. We’re not going to do anything bad to Mr. Wolff. We want to do what’s right.”

  Danny hung on the Judge’s words and wondered if doing right meant Judge Brady would do harm to Henry. He also suspected the Judge might ask him something private, a question about his father’s behavior, maybe, or about his mother whom he didn’t want to talk about.

  “Danny. I’m just curious. It was mentioned that you and Henry were picking up rocks in Henry’s backyard. Do you remember that day?”

  “Yes.”

  “You and Henry had backpacks on and you were putting the rocks into the backpacks, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell us about that.”

  Danny looked out to his father and Mr. Petzinger nodded to suggest that Danny hold nothing back from the Judge.

  “Well, Henry had a lot of rocks in his yard and he asked me to help him pick them up. So, I helped him. It wasn’t any big deal.”

  “Did you go out there specifically to help him?”

  “No,” Danny said.

  “Why were you out there in the first place, then?”