Red Clover

by Florence Osmund

  Lee put his hand on Bennett’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, man. That really stinks.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I didn’t know you two were, well, having trouble.”

  “I didn’t realize myself our marriage was in such trouble until I came home from work one day, and she and the kids were gone.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding. No warning? No note?”

  “Oh, there was a note all right. From her attorney.”

  “Jesus. So she’s divorcing you?”

  “Well, the letter was cleverly written. They’re suggesting no action will be taken for at least six months while we make an effort to work things out, but I think that’s just for show because when someone files under irreconcilable differences, the courts ask you what you’ve done to try to resolve the differences. They want to be able to say she spent six months trying to save the marriage.”

  “Seems like such a ruse.”

  “It is. Look, I’m going to leave now. You’ve got other guests. I just had to clear the air with you before any more time passed.”

  “Why don’t you stay? We can talk more after everyone leaves.”

  “No, I’ll get going. I’ll call you later this week.” He turned and headed for the door. After opening it, he turned back around. “Lee?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thanks for the wake-up call.” He left without waiting for a response.

  Lee went back out to the yard where the limbo contest was in full swing. CJ’s boys, who had an unfair advantage being much closer to the ground than the men, were clearly going to be the winners.

  Lee finished watching the game and then chatted with the men while the women had their nails painted with fanciful Jamaican designs. When that had been completed, he gathered everyone around him while he opened the presents.

  He grabbed CJ’s gift first. It was a teenage mutant ninja turtle cookie jar that her boys had picked out.

  From Francine, a cookbook, The Joy of Cooking. “I figured you didn’t know how to do much in the kitchen.”

  From Earl Lundberg, his builder, a home fire extinguisher. “Looks like this goes right along with The Joy of Cooking, he said and then laughed loudly at his own joke.

  From architect Dennis Freborg, a brass horseshoe, which Lee learned signified good luck in a new home.

  From hardware store owner, Lenny Vinik, a starter toolbox. “I’ll explain what each one does later.”

  From Dr. Rad and Adishree, three welcome mats—one for each door. “Thank you for making me feel so welcome, my friend.”

  From Shaneta: A “Kiss the Cook” apron. “I may want to borrow this from time to time,” she teased.

  As Lee was about to lift his glass of Jamaican punch to toast everyone, he heard the bark of a vaguely familiar voice.

  “Lee Oliver Winekoop...you’re under arrest.”

  When Lee looked up, he saw Bernard DeRam in his sheriff’s uniform accompanied by another officer.

  “What?”

  “You heard me.” DeRam walked over to Lee, holding up a pair of handcuffs.

  “What for?”

  “Illegal harvesting and possession of marijuana. Turn around.”

  22 | A Brother’s Faith

  Arrested for growing marijuana in front of all of his friends. It made no sense.

  Lee struggled in the back seat of DeRam’s patrol car to find a position in which the handcuffs didn’t cut into his wrists. Convinced it was one of the sheriff’s sick scare tactics, Lee felt confident the ordeal would soon be over. But what if DeRam was capable of fabricating enough evidence to convince a judge or jury he was guilty? Then what? He’d be a convicted felon? He’d go to jail! And then what? He’d have a criminal record? The whole thing was overwhelming.

  “You’re not going to get away with this, DeRam.”

  DeRam and his partner kept silent on the ride to their office. Once inside, they escorted Lee to a separate room in the back where there were three holding cells. DeRam removed the cuffs and gave Lee a gentle shove into one of the cells.

  “You don’t have any weapons on you, do you?”

  “No.”

  DeRam closed the cell door.

  “I get to make one phone call, right?”

  “In due time,” DeRam said and left the room.

  Lee could hear the two men talking but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Ten minutes passed. He was eager to call Bennett, who was a lawyer and was likely to be home by now. He would have to use his one phone call to call home and ask Shaneta to find Bennett’s home phone number in his address book and tell him what happened.

  Thirty more minutes passed. The longer Lee sat on the hard surface of the metal cot, the more outraged he became. Even when he was able to straighten everything out and have the charges dropped, he feared there would always be doubt in his friends’ minds as to whether he was guilty on some level.

  Ninety minutes after he entered the cell, the hallway door opened. DeRam entered the room followed by Bennett.

  “You can have twenty minutes. Then I’ll be back,” DeRam said before he let Bennett into Lee’s cell.

  The two brothers shook hands and sat down on the narrow cot. “How did you know I was here?” Lee asked.

  “I’ll fill you in later. I’ve just spent fifteen minutes with the sheriff, and I’m not getting any straight answers. Have you been officially arrested?”

  “He said I was under arrest.”

  “I know. Shaneta told me that part. But did anyone read you your rights?”

  “No.”

  “Take your fingerprints?”

  “No.”

  “Mug shot?”

  “No.”

  Bennett lowered his voice to a whisper. “I asked him for a copy of the arrest warrant, and he stalled. Something is fishy.”

  “Bennett, what they’re charging me with is—”

  “Stop. I don’t want to talk about it in here. Let’s wait it out. You okay?”

  Lee nodded. “Thanks for coming.”

  DeRam returned and said, “Your arraignment has been set for nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”

  “I’ll put up the bail money,” Bennett told DeRam.

  “Won’t know that amount until we see the judge tomorrow.”

  “I want a copy of the arrest warrant.”

  “You’ll have it before you leave. Do you need more time with my prisoner?”

  Lee wanted to punch him.

  “Yes.”

  DeRam left.

  “What does this mean?” Lee asked his brother.

  “I’m afraid it means a night in jail.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know how things work in this jurisdiction, but it looks like bail has to be set by a judge, and today is a holiday. No judges.”

  “He can’t get away with this,” Lee whispered. “This is all—”

  “It’s not going to do any good getting all riled up about it now. My advice to you is to play it cool. I’ll meet you in court in the morning with someone from my firm who has criminal defense experience, which I don’t, and we’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise.”

  “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  “Can I bring you anything?”

  “No.” He looked around the cell. “What am I supposed to do in here in the meantime?”

  “Think about what you’ve done wrong and repent?”

  “Was that supposed to be funny?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, it wasn’t.”

  Bennett clapped his hand over Lee’s, bringing a stop to Lee’s absentminded finger tapping. “I’m going to get you through this, Lee.”

  “I know.”

  * * *

  Lee looked at his watch for about the tenth time since he’d been escorted to the courtroom—8:55 A.M. The hearing was to begin in five minutes, and Bennett had not yet arrived. Lee had no experience with judges, courtrooms, lawyers, or legal proceedings of any kind. The knot in his sto
mach tightened. Was this Bennett’s idea of a cruel joke?

  At twenty-five past nine, the judge entered the courtroom.

  “Everyone please rise.”

  Lee was afraid his knees weren’t going to support him. While he was still standing, Bennett slipped in beside him and cupped his elbow, providing some comfort.

  You okay?” Bennett asked.

  The judge asked them to be seated.

  “Where were you?” Lee whispered.

  “Getting you off.”

  “Case number 478-A has been dismissed. Mr. Winekoop, you are free to go.”

  Lee looked at Bennett. “We can go?”

  Bennett stood up. “Thank you, your honor.”

  “Court dismissed.”

  Bennett bent down and whispered to Lee, “Don’t say anything until we’re in my car. C’mon. Let’s go.”

  They exited the courtroom and entered the foyer.

  The voice that called out to them from behind was unmistakably DeRam’s. “You won’t be so lucky next time, karate boy.”

  Lee turned around to face him, but all he saw was his back walking toward the side door. For a fleeting moment, he wanted to sneak up behind him and give him a few well-deserved kicks. But Bennett grabbed his arm and led him out the front door.

  Once in Bennett’s car, they sat in silence for several seconds.

  “What just happened in there?” Lee asked.

  Bennett turned toward him. “Bernard DeRam is an asshole.”

  “You’ll get no argument from me on that.”

  “Let’s go. I’ll explain what happened on the way.”

  “You had me scared shitless when you didn’t show up by nine o’clock.”

  “Sorry about that, but my partner and I were in the judge’s chambers by eight-thirty. It took longer than we expected.”

  “You were?”

  “Jerry, my partner, called the clerk’s office yesterday and asked her enough questions to raise suspicion that the charges may have been fabricated.”

  Lee studied his brother’s profile. “But you never asked me if I did anything wrong?”

  Bennett took his eyes off the road for a brief moment to look at Lee. “Please.”

  That touched him.

  “Anyway, his questions prompted the clerk to schedule a pre-hearing meeting in the judge’s chambers. This is where it gets good. DeRam’s paperwork was full of holes. The arrest warrant didn’t even have a judge’s signature on it. Even I caught that one. By the time the judge was finished with him for conducting such shoddy police work, DeRam was stumbling over his words like a babbling fool. I almost felt sorry for him.”

  “So what happens now?”

  “Nothing. The charges were never officially filed, so it won’t be recorded as an arrest. I have a copy of the release, and it states you were brought in for questioning. That’s all. It will have no effect on your record.”

  “Thank goodness.”

  “By the way...”

  “What?”

  “DeRam brought up a previous arrest on your record. Now, I’m sure he must have made it up, but—”

  “He didn’t make it up.”

  “Public lewdness?”

  “The short version of that story is that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And no, I wasn’t guilty of any lewd behavior, believe me. The charges were dropped.”

  “After you were arrested, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So now you have an arrest record.”

  “Yes.”

  “When this is all over, I’ll help you get that expunged.”

  “I can never repay you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. How was jail?”

  “Which time?”

  Bennett chuckled. “My brother, the jailbird. This time.”

  “I don’t think they could have found a thinner pad for the cot if they’d tried. Hey, you didn’t tell me how you got to the jail so quickly.”

  “After I left your place, I got about halfway home and pictured the empty house I would be setting foot in. So I turned around, hoping by the time I got back to your house, your guests would have gone and we could pick up our conversation where we left off. When I got there, I was greeted by a rather hysterical Shaneta. Now I have a hard time understanding that woman when she’s calm, so I had no idea what she was saying to me in her excited state. Luckily, CJ and Francine were still there. They told me what happened, and I immediately drove to the sheriff’s office.”

  “Good timing.”

  “Why does DeRam have it in for you?”

  Lee explained everything to him.

  “He may not be so stupid the next time. You sure you want stay here?”

  “Stay where?”

  “In Harvard. I know you just built a house and all, but why not consider moving back to Evanston, away from this guy.”

  “No way.” He thought about the magnitude of Bennett’s suggestion. “Look, I’ve allowed others to control what I do my whole life. I’m done with that.”

  “And I admire you for that, but I still worry about you out here, no neighbors within shouting distance, and that gun-toting jerk on the loose. Who knows what he’s capable of doing?”

  “I appreciate your concern, but if I start running from things, it will be like taking a giant step backward, and that’s not the direction I’m headed.”

  Once at home, Lee and Bennett sat in Lee’s living room while Shaneta busied herself in the kitchen making them breakfast.

  “It’s gotta be rough having your family ripped out from under you like that,” Lee said.

  “Those kids mean everything to me. And you know what the sad thing is? I didn’t realize just how much they meant to me until they were gone.”

  “One of my many therapists had a sign hanging in her office that said, ‘Appreciate what you have before it becomes what you had.' Whenever I looked at it, I thought what a strange saying to have in a psychologist’s office. After all, most people are there because they need to change something they have.”

  “Maybe it should read, ‘Appreciate what you love’ instead of ‘what you have.’” He stared past Lee for a few seconds. “My priorities have been so screwed up. A typical day for me meant leaving for work before the kids got up and getting home after they’d gone to bed. I’ve missed a big chunk of their growing up. Instead of being so immersed in motions, briefs, and judgments, I should have been helping my children with their homework, doing fun things with them, and...helping Daphne set boundaries. Do you know, I couldn’t even tell you who their best friends are, or their favorite food, or what they watch on television. It’s downright shameful.”

  “You’re pretty good at beating yourself up.”

  “Someone has to do it.” He smiled. “Besides you.”

  “Something tells me you’re never going to let me forget that.”

  “You got that right, little brother.”

  Little brother? So does he not know?

  “So what about Daphne?”

  “What about her?”

  “Do you miss her?”

  Bennett didn’t answer for a long moment. “No, I don’t. I realize now we’re too very different people. Up until recently, I would have said we had the same interests, the same values and goals. But not now. No, I don’t miss her, but I do miss being with someone, and I miss those kids. And just when...” His voice trailed off.

  “When what?”

  “Your barbecue...” His voice cracked. “I can’t tell you, man, how much fun we had in that stupid balloon-toss game. We’d never done anything like that before. It was just plain fun.”

  “What did Daphne think of it?”

  “Oh, my God. She threw a fit after we got home. Called me a ‘barbarian.’ Said I embarrassed her. Said the children would need therapy to get over the spectacle we made of ourselves. And then every day after that, she withdrew further and further away from me, until it was just plain uncomfortable being around her.”

  “And t
hen she left.”

  “And then she left. With the kids. That’s another thing she yelled at me about. Calling them kids. ‘They’re our children, Bennett. Not some disgusting barnyard animal.' And then you gave me the ‘You’re such a phony’ lecture, and I started to really think about how my life has been molded by Mother and Father, and that very little of me has had the chance to surface.”

  “I know.”

  “Yes, I know you know. You had it harder than any of—”

  “No, Bennett. I know.”

  Bennett stared at him for several seconds. “You know what?”

  “I know who I am.”

  “Yes, and I’m very happy for you man, you’ve been able to—”

  “Listen to me. I know who I really am. I know who my real father and mother are...well, at least my father.”

  “No shit!”

  23 | Linked by Blood

  “Look, man,” Bennett said after nearly an hour of discussion about their complicated family dynamics, “I never liked the idea of keeping you in the dark, but you know how it is with Mother and Father.”

  “Of course, I do. And I don’t blame you for going along with it, believe me.”

  “So you’re okay with it?”

  “With what?”

  “Uncle Nelson being your father and well, your real mother, uh...”

  “What exactly do you know about her?”

  “Not much. One time, Father referred to her as his whore—Uncle Nelson’s, that is—but I don’t know the whole story. I was only eight or nine at the time, but I do remember it happening. Mother had just returned from spending the summer in New York. It wasn’t long after that that you were brought into the house. We were told we had a new little brother, and we knew not to ask questions.”

  “So for a time you thought I was your full-blooded brother. At what point did you realize I wasn’t?”

  “We overheard Father one day. Let’s say everyone in the household overheard him. And then Mother told us we could never talk about it.”

  “Do you know if Uncle Nelson had a family, a wife, any other children?”

  “I’m pretty sure he was married, but if he had other children, no one ever talked about them.”

  “I could have half-brothers and -sisters out there. What did he do for a living anyway? All I ever heard was he owned a printing company, he was involved in some of the same charities as Mother, and he traveled a lot. By any chance, do you know the name of the printing company?”