by Wilson Harp
I didn’t like it when my mind turned to these dark thoughts. I had not believed myself capable of seriously considering raiding for things we needed.
“What’s got you frowning and picking beans like they are fingers of people you hate?” asked Kenny.
“Someone broke into our house today.”
Kenny looked up from where he was kneeling. “Broke in? Did they take anything?”
“Yeah. Dad’s heart pills, what was left of them anyway, and Mom’s pills for her condition.”
“That’s horrible. Anything else?”
“Some aspirin.”
“Did anyone see them?”
“Mom did. She was in bed when he broke in and ended up in her bedroom.”
“Oh my God. Is she alright?”
“Yeah. She pulled the gun from the night stand and chased him out of the house.”
Kenny twisted his lips. “She should have shot him then and there.”
“I don’t know if my Mom could have done that.”
“She better be glad he didn’t know that, then. If he suspected she didn’t have it in her to shoot, he may have tried to take the gun from her. Better to kill a thief in the act then to let him go on stealing. What most people don’t get about stealing is it is killing. I didn’t understand that when I was a young buck. Heck, I wasn’t even young when I turned from my old life. I was 38 before I realized what I was doing. By stealing, I was taking someone’s life.”
“Because they might have needed what you stole? Like my folks’ medicine?”
“Nah, not even that straight forward. If I boosted a ring, let’s say, I would justify it by saying their insurance would pay for it. But they paid the insurance company for their policy, so I was stealing from all the folks paying for insurance.”
“But that’s just money,” I said. I was a little confused at what he was trying to explain.
“No, it’s not just money, David. It’s what they did to earn that money. They spent time doing whatever they did to earn that money. It’s not even how hard they worked, I realized. It was the time. If I stole something they spent five hours earning, I stole five hours of their life. I stole their life, man. Time is the only thing we can’t replace, and a thief takes that from you.”
“I never thought about it that way.”
“Most people don’t. But more need to, now. We aren’t living in a world where insurance or police or courts can give you back even your money. But time is even more precious now. Time is all we have to give or to lose. And someone who steals your time steals a double portion of your life. He takes the time you have already spent, and takes some time you will spend just getting back to where you were. Thieves and murderers are one and the same in this new world.”
A cold shiver ran down my back as Kenny’s words sank in. We were no longer in a place where an outside force could protect us. It was every man for himself in a very real sense. Kenton had held together, but it was more out of instinct than thought. Although most people in town were the type to look out for their neighbors, there were always some that sought to take advantage when they could.
A few men had been roused from their afternoon naps over the last few weeks and given jobs to do. But, as the frantic pace had slowed down, more and more were finding less and less motivation to work.
Buck and his hunters would always be out in the woods hunting, but they would be even if the event hadn’t happened. That’s just who they were. Others would be tending their gardens and eating out of their back yards, true, but how many people would be hauling water for laundry or picking beans if they didn’t have to?
I looked down at the bucket at my feet. It was filled halfway with long green beans. Enough to feed me and my folks for a few days at least. But I didn’t gather these just for my family, I gathered them for the women who cooked and washed clothes. I gathered them for the men who stood guard over our roads. I gathered them for the men and women who dug graves. But I also gathered them for the men who slept late and found excuses not to work. It wasn’t right, but as long as I did what I felt was right, they would eat. What would happen if I stopped picking for them? I feared they would seek to take what they weren’t given. And in that aspect, Kenny was right. We lived in a town with murderers all around us.
Chapter 15
The next morning I left the house and headed into town on foot. Ted had asked Anne and me to go out to his house and help him with a special project. I had arranged for Sarah to take my place in the bean field the evening before, so I had been able to sleep in a little before I left home to meet up with Anne at the library.
I was interested in seeing where Ted and Kenny lived. I knew Kenny’s sister and her kids were up there, but Ted indicated there were a few other people that had been gathered in as well. Dad had promised he would let Luke do any strenuous work if he needed it, but I still felt uncomfortable leaving the house for an entire day.
I closed my eyes as I walked and breathed deep. I soaked in the late morning air. It was that time of late-June when the mornings were cool but the afternoons became hot and humid. The edge of coolness was gone and I enjoyed the comfortable warmth. In my high school days, this would have been a day to go to the pool or to the pond at Anne’s house. You could tell the late afternoon would be a scorcher, but most of the day would be lazy and relaxing.
I waved at the people in the field. Some smiled and waved back, but others scowled and went back to their work. Those were the ones who always complained when someone arranged for a day of other work. They also tended to be those whose buckets were never quite full.
I looked at the patchwork of crops and sighed. Full, bountiful rows of carefully tended crops were producing more food each day. The right amounts of rain and sunshine combined with the hard work put forth by the people of the south section of Kenton were producing more food than we needed to survive at the moment. The canning of beets and beans would start in a few days and that would be the first steps we needed to take to survive the winter.
I noticed there was a steady stream of people moving toward the town center. As I got closer, I saw there was a knot of people in front of Sorenson’s Auto Body Shop. At the center was Kenny. Deputy McDaniels was behind him and pointed to several places while he yelled.
“What’s going on?” I asked a woman as she walked passed me. She was visibly upset as she walked away from the group.
“They are going to hang him unless the council gets here soon,” she said. “I’m surprised McDaniels hasn’t just shot him yet.”
“Who?” I asked. I looked back at Kenny who was in the middle of the crowd.
“That black guy. The one Riggins is friends with. He killed someone they say.”
I ran toward the crowd. I didn’t know what I could do when I got there, but I was not going to waste time walking.
As I closed in on the group, I could see a blanket laying over something in the street. I knew immediately it was a body and felt my chest constrict in panic and rage.
“David!” Kenny called as I came close.
“What’s going on here?” I asked.
“Your friend murdered Talley,” McDaniels said. “We don’t have a jail, and we can’t have a killer running free, so I’m thinking we just hang him from the same lamppost he hanged Brent on.”
“Kenny, you didn’t hang him, did you?”
“Sure did. Hanged him, put the sign around his neck, and sat here for people to see.”
I was stunned. It felt like the world spun as I tried to keep my feet.
“Why?”
“He was a thief. I caught him breaking into the Foster’s house. I chased him back to this here auto body shop and beat him unconscious. Then I searched his locker in the back and found all sorts of stuff that weren’t his. Like your folk’s medicine.”
“Is that true?” someone in the crowd asked.
“Was Brent Talley a thief?” another voice called out.
“If he hanged a thief, then good!” a woman
yelled.
McDaniels waved the crowd quiet. “I told ya’ll what I would do if it were my choice, but our good mayor has decided the council that his friend has set up will decide. Does that seem like justice to you?”
Some of the crowd yelled in support of killing Kenny right then, while others shouted the council should decide.
A crack in the air like thunder had me drop to one knee by instinct. Others had fallen prone and several in the crowd were crouched. Most, however, stood where they were and looked around. Ted stepped through the crowd with his rifle held high in the air. I hoped he wasn’t foolish enough to have fired his gun into the air as that bullet had to come down somewhere.
“Thank you Deputy McDaniels. I understand you have taken the statement and have examined some evidence,” Ted said as he walked toward Kenny and the law man.
Anne was part of the group that followed in Ted’s wake through the crowd. The council stood in a rough semi-circle around Ted, Kenny and the deputy. Anne came and stood by me.
“Is it true?” she asked quietly.
I nodded. “I think so.”
“Alright, let’s take the prisoner over to the mayor’s office,” Ted said. “I think we will need a trial to decide what should happen.”
Ted saw me as he turned to leave.
“David, you and Anne need to go up to my place. Tell Tom you are the ones that are going to help us.”
“Okay, Ted,” I said. “Is this going to change anything?”
“This changes everything,” Ted said. He sighed and for the first time he looked tired and weary to me. “I wish he had come to us with his suspicions or evidence. I knew he was going to go looking for the thief, but I had no idea what his plans were if he caught him.”
“What will happen?” asked Anne.
“I guess we’ll find out,” said Ted.
I felt empty as I watched the crowd melt away as Kenny, Ted, and the others headed across the square to the city offices. My eyes were drawn to the body under the sheet laying in the street. I had seen too many dead bodies in the last few months. Before the event, I had only seen a dead body in a coffin at a funeral. The queasy and uncomfortable feelings I had experienced even in those circumstances were a distant memory. And yet looking at the lumpy outline of Talley’s body, I felt sick and my heart ached. Not for the thief who threatened my parents life. Not for the thief that callously put himself before all others. But for Kenny who did what he thought was right and now must see if others agreed with his decision.
“Come on, David,” said Anne. She put a hand on my shoulder and turned me to her. “We need to go. We can’t do anything here.”
Anne was always pragmatic. While I often slipped into the miasma of ‘what if’, Anne had always looked at the choices before her without sentimentality. It was a life I couldn’t imagine, and to this point was one I didn’t think was better. Right now, it was better.
I turned and followed her as she led the way toward the library where Bonnie stood saddled and ready.
“They are still using Clyde to help augment the tractors,” she said. “Honestly, I think he loves it. I think he likes working hard alongside so many people.”
“It’s strange, isn’t it? Who would have thought an animal would find work like that enjoyable?” I asked as I walked with her. My eyes drifted to the small building that housed the city offices.
“David, stop looking,” Anne chided me. “You will just get worked up. Ted asked us to go to their house and help Sophia with something. I don’t think we need to mention what happened here today, and if you sink into melancholy, they will ask you what’s wrong. So slap on a smile and let’s get this done.”
She mounted Bonnie in a single motion. I was surprised when she offered her hand to me.
“I’ll just walk along side,” I said.
“No you won’t. I want to get there within the hour, and it will take twice as long if you walk.”
I took her hand and pulled myself up behind her.
“There, now just don’t grope me and you won’t have any reason to feel guilty.”
I stammered as I tried to defend myself. “I don’t feel guilty. I mean, there is nothing for me to feel guilty about.”
Anne shook her head and sighed. Then with a click of her tongue and a touch of her feet to Bonnie’s flanks, we were trotting down the road out of town.
“David, I wish I could convince you it’s alright if we’re friends,” she said as we made the turn onto the highway.
“I know that.”
“Do you? Because for the last twenty-two years you have pretended I wasn’t part of your life.”
“I’m not the one who said I didn’t want to speak with you again.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I was an angry seventeen year old girl and you were the boy who wouldn’t fight for me.”
I didn’t know what to say. Those days were behind me, buried beneath years of life. I didn’t want to dig them up again and fight with ghosts from my past.
“I just don’t want to deal with it, Anne.”
“I bet,” she said.
I could hear the venom in her voice. She was upset and it was going to be a long ride out to Ted’s place.
“Is this why you and Lexi are on the outs? You just don’t want to deal with it?”
I jerked back as if she had burned me. Bonnie felt my shift and slowed her gait.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“Your dad told me you were going through a rough time with her. Let me guess, she is all mad at you and you just ignore her to stop from fighting.”
“Dad told you? I didn’t tell him.”
“People can see, David. They have eyes and they know you. They know when you are hurting and they can figure out what the issue is by the way you don’t talk about it.” She yelled the last five words from over her shoulder at me.
“What am I supposed to do? Have fight after fight with her? I don’t even know what she wants.”
“Yes, fight with her. Have her express what she is unhappy about. Express to her what you are unhappy about.”
“I don’t want to yell at her, I love her.”
“Then be strong enough to let her yell at you. She doesn’t want to be quiet, does she?”
I realized I had started to sulk. I didn’t like when I did this, but I never knew what else to do.
“No, she is quite verbal with her displeasure,” I said finally.
“And when she is displeased, do you let her just be displeased or do you try to fix it?”
“I try to fix it.”
“She wants you to tell her she is just going to be displeased, David. She knows you can’t fix everything and it frustrates her when you try. Just tell her it isn’t anything you can fix but you will get through it together.”
That didn’t make any sense to me. And how did Anne know what Lexi wanted anyway? They never met each other. Well, maybe once or twice just after we were married.
“Have you talked to Lexi?” I asked.
“Don’t be stupid, David. I’ve never spoken to Lexi except once many years ago.”
“Then how do you know what she wants?”
“It’s what I wanted, David. I know how you deal with conflict. And it isn’t the way I want you to. I assume you picked a girl somewhat like me, at least that’s what your dad says. And if that is true, then I understand what drives her crazy about you.”
“Is that why you got mad at me? Because I wouldn’t yell at you?”
She was quiet for a few minutes.
“Yes. That was part of it. My father had no right to threaten you. You weren’t bad for me and he knew that. He just didn’t want to think of his little girl growing up.”
“I realize now it was just a threat, although at the time I was convinced he would kill me. But since I was heading off to college, don’t you think you would have lost interest in me anyway?”
“I don’t think so. I never did lose interest. I wai
ted for you to call me every day. For years.”
“You could have called me, you know?” This was not a conversation I wanted to have, but I knew she wouldn’t let it drop.
“I couldn’t call you, you would have thought I was interested.”
“You were interested.”
“True, but it was your job as the man to call.”
“Sounds a bit sexist.”
“I’m old fashioned.”
“And alone.”
She tensed up and I knew I had scored a hit. I wasn’t proud of it, but I wanted to end this conversation and I thought if I made it unpleasant for her, she would drop it.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m alone. And that’s because I didn’t fight for what I wanted.”
Anne turned Bonnie onto a small blacktop road from the main highway.
“How far are we from the place?” I asked.
Anne was seething with a barely contained fury.
“About two miles,” she said. Her voice was strained and I thought I may have gone a bit too far.
The shaded black road led deeper into the old forest. The cool, moist trail up the hill was the perfect place to spend a sweltering summer day, but it was warm and cozy compared to the frigid aura that seemed to radiate from Anne. If the chill was anymore real, I would have had frostbite on my hands.
The blacktop ended and a gravel road led us the rest of the way to Ted’s compound. Several children ran out to see us. I assumed they were Sophia’s because they were black and I didn’t think there was another black family living out in the wilderness north of Kenton.
“Get down,” Anne said as she pulled Bonnie to a stop. “You can walk back.”
“Anne, I’m sorry.”
I slid off the saddle and reached up to help Anne down.
I didn’t see her foot as she swung off the saddle and it caught me square on the side of the head.
I tumbled to the ground. Her heavy boots were right in front of me when I opened my eyes.