Saving Sam

by Lynnette Beers

  “That man knows not to step foot anywhere near me ever again. I done make that clear years ago. He knows what I’m capable of doing. That man is nothing but evil.” Ginnie closed her eyes, her breath labored and her brow furrowed.

  “Ginnie, we’ll leave you be for now,” Annie said and glanced at Sam. “How about I come back tomorrow to talk with you some more? Is that okay?”

  Sam went to the doorway and peered down the stark hallway. She should have gone straight to the hospital with her mother, should have been by Robert’s side and been there to monitor his care. It didn’t make sense for her to be at the nursing home right now, didn’t help that she was here questioning this old woman.

  “Where’s that girl?” Ginnie asked. “Whatever happened to her?”

  “What girl?” Annie asked.

  “That girl my nephews almost got their hands on.” Ginnie rolled her head from side to side, staring at the ceiling. Her body went rigid and her face contorted. “Nothing but evil in those three men, nothing but the devil in their blood!” The same angry tone Old Miss Patterson used years ago now tinged her words as her lips pursed and a frown formed.

  Sam stepped closer to the bed and studied Ginnie’s face, the skin lined with wrinkles. In all the years she’d lived just yards across the creek from her, she’d never actually seen her close enough to notice her oval face or the deep brown eyes. So close to her now, Sam noticed how frail Miss Patterson looked—nothing like the mean woman across the creek that she feared for so many years.

  “Do you mean Sam, the girl who lived across the creek?” Annie asked. “She’s right here. She’s a beautiful grown woman now. She came with me to see you today.”

  Ginnie squinted at Annie then studied her uniform. “You’re a police officer? Why you in my room?”

  “Yes, ma’am, I’m Lieutenant Wright. I came to ask you a few questions about your nephew, Jonathan Patterson. How about I come back another day? We’ll let you get some rest.”

  “I can come back, too,” Sam said loudly.

  “Come closer,” Ginnie said and turned her face upward. “My eyesight’s not so good. Come closer so I can see your face.”

  Sam scooted nearer to Ginnie and moved her face close to Ginnie’s. She stood there while Ginnie studied her for a moment. So near to her, Sam grew uncomfortable when she smelled the sour breath coming from her.

  Ginnie set a palm on Sam’s cheek as tears filled her eyes. “Child, I tried to prevent that evil from ever getting to you. Afraid it was too late. Always made sure you never came near my house since my nephews always stopped by unannounced to ransack my house and drink my beer, but they done got ahold of you anyway. They shoulda never set a hand on you.”

  “Ginnie, did you see what happened that day?” Annie asked.

  “Annie, Miss Patterson isn’t in any condition to—”

  “No man has a right to set a hand on a small child like that.” Ginnie struggled to sit up but slumped back into the pillow and stared at Sam. “I shoulda called the police and not done what I done, but I knew it’d be too late if I waited for the police to get there.” When Ginnie’s eyes closed, she again started to snore lightly. Her body relaxed, her breaths leveling out as her snoring became steady.

  “Ginnie,” Annie said and pressed her hand on her shoulder. “Tell us...what you did.”

  Ginnie’s eyes flashed open, and she stared at Annie then said, “I did what I had to do. I never hesitated to pull the trigger and put a stop to what he was about to do to her. A woman has a gun in the house for a reason.”

  “A hunting rifle,” Sam said under her breath.

  Annie huffed out a loud sigh as she moved to the foot of the bed and then stared at Ginnie for a moment. She glanced at Sam who sat there stunned and without words.

  Annie said, “Ginnie, we’ll leave you alone soon, but how about you tell us more about Jonathan. Anything else you want to tell us? Any idea where he is?”

  Ginnie stared at Sam and struggled to grab her hand. “I don’t regret what I done, but...I wish I’d killed all three of them that day...but that boy seemed to do just fine with that shovel.”

  “That boy? You mean Robert?” Annie asked quietly. “What are you trying to tell us? What do you mean by a shovel?”

  “Annie, that’s enough. Ginnie’s had enough of your questioning.” Sam’s words sputtered out of her mouth; she averted her eyes from Annie and rocked forward. She clenched her hand over Old Miss Patterson’s who in turn squeezed hers tighter than she thought an old, frail woman like her could do.

  “Robert done got him good,” Ginnie said and shifted her head on the pillow. “Didn’t think a boy his age had the sort of strength to beat a man to death. I read about it in the paper a few weeks later that Chuck had been bludgeoned to death. Seems a fitting way for him to die. I tell ya, Chuck had it coming. I seen what he was capable of. He had his way with me a few times.”

  “Oh, my God,” Sam said and cupped both hands around Ginnie’s.

  “No way I could fight him off. A man with that sort of strength can do just about anything he wants with a woman. Or a small girl like you. All three of those men are evil. All of them done took after the oldest one, Chuck.”

  “Those fucking monsters,” Annie said quietly through gritted teeth.

  “Nothing I could do but just stay quiet,” Ginnie said quietly. “A man sometimes has a way of making a woman afraid to speak up. Chuck threatened me on more than one occasion, said he’d kill me if I ever told anyone. Sometimes you have to take the law into your own hands, is what I always say. I knew Fred would’ve had his way with you if I hadn’t stopped him. Well, and Johnny, too.”

  A chill went through Sam’s body. Annie embraced Sam from behind, wrapping her arms securely around her. Sam gasped for air. The day she tried hard to erase from her memory came back to her with full force. She vividly recalled the piercing sound of rounds being fired from across the Okatoma—the gunshots that saved her life.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Mississippi: Winter 1990

  SAM SAT CROSS-LEGGED on the plush carpet in Robert’s room and played with his new Lego set. He’d only gotten so far as to take the pieces out of the box but never actually built anything yet. Stanley paced back and forth in the bedroom. He’d grown tall in the past three months since they got him. Oafish for a chocolate lab, Stanley sniffed around Robert’s closet, his long tail bopping Sam’s arm and causing the Lego piece in her hand to fall inside the castle she was building. Sam had already taught Stanley to fetch and to sit, but he didn’t know how to control his tail.

  The Cleveland kids still had one more week of winter break before they had to go back to school. Sam and Robert got new bikes for Christmas this year, but they both opted to remain inside on most days. Even though Harold told the kids a few weeks ago that the police had deemed the area along the creek safe, Sam preferred to stay near the house.

  After Sam reached inside the castle to retrieve the Lego piece, she snapped it onto the top of the tower. She used up all her own Lego pieces to construct the castle, but the extra pieces that Robert got in his new set for Christmas could be used to build a wall around the tall fortress. Stanley nuzzled his head on Sam’s arm as she fit two more pieces together until the castle was tall and sturdy. Next, she lined a few blue pieces all around the perimeter. She continued to do this until a huge circle was formed around the fortress. She snapped a couple more Legos together until she had a low interlocking wall around the entire premises. Later this afternoon she’d find some foliage from the yard to create a forest where she imagined knights in shining armor protecting the castle. She’d make sure Robert came with her so he could help her get the best and most lush branches. She wouldn’t have to go far—definitely staying close to the house and not having to go anywhere near the creek.

  Nearby, Robert flipped through photos of reptiles he’d taken in Mr. Rizzo’s shop. He set the pictures on the floor and created three separate piles. Robert retrieved a big photo
album from the shelf behind him and flipped to the back where he slipped the photos under the clear plastic sheet. He swiped his hand over the page and then admired each photo one more time before setting the album back on the shelf. For the holidays, Rizzo’s Reptiles had stocked up on iguanas and chameleons. Robert was constantly studying the varying scale patterns on all of the reptiles. Mama and Daddy had finally agreed that Robert could have an iguana as a pet and arranged to have Mr. Rizzo pick out one he saw most fitting for Robert to have. Because Sam was too creeped out to touch Houdini’s crusty skin, Robert always kept a makeshift shelter in his bedroom for the lizard. At night, he kept Houdini locked and secured in a cage, but on days like this he let the creature roam about in his room. However, whenever Sam was in the room, Robert always erected a cardboard barrier between her and Houdini.

  Sam scooted back to get a better view of the castle. Stanley sniffed around the perimeter of the cardboard wall, but the closer he got to where Houdini lay under the heat lamp, the more he whined and pawed at the makeshift barrier.

  “No-no, Stanley,” Sam said and crawled back farther to admire her Lego structure. She scooted back so far that she bumped into Robert’s old guitar propped against the wall. A thick coat of dust covered the guitar, which Robert hadn’t played in months. The strings were rusted, the instrument having been out of tune for a long time now. Sam hadn’t heard Robert’s deep baritone voice or the lull of his guitar since right before school started this year.

  She sat on her knees and plucked one of the strings, the blip of music sounding hollow in the quiet room. Stanley sat next to her and cocked his head then slopped his wet tongue on Sam’s face. She shoved him away then tugged on another string, the sound of the note echoing in the bedroom. With the tips of her fingers, she strummed all of the strings in one quick thrum. Then she brushed her thumb over each string, plucking out six melodic notes as she tried to remember the words to that one song Robert had rewritten for church, something about the seasons turning or changing. He’d sung it over and over so many times at home and then performed it in front of the whole congregation that one time. Pastor Dan praised him for his clever revisions of Ecclesiastes.

  Sam again thrummed the strings and tried as best she could to match the chord she’d created. She sang in her timid voice, the words so faint only she could hear them. “To every—”

  “Sam, leave that alone. Don’t go touching things that aren’t yours.”

  “You let me play with your Legos.” Sam set the guitar against the wall then crouched down next to the castle and snapped another piece onto the wall. She reached into the box to retrieve more Legos then fit each piece atop one another until the wall had become a few inches tall.

  “That’s because I pretty much gave you the Lego set. Grandma and Grandpa should’ve known I don’t play with stupid toys like that anymore. Jeez, they treat me like a kid.”

  “But you still play with Transformers. Well, if you don’t want your Legos, then does that mean I can have all the things you no longer play with? You never play your guitar anymore, so why can’t I—”

  “That’s different. You’re likely to go and scratch it or something. Besides, it was Dad’s before he gave it to me.” Robert opened the closet and pulled out the guitar case and then gently set the guitar inside the velvet-lined compartment. He snapped it shut and set the guitar way in the back corner of the closet.

  Sam jiggled the box of extra Lego pieces to try and find more red ones for the top rim of the wall. A solid blue wall would be too ordinary and unimpressive. Maybe Robert would let her use his Transformers as guards to protect the fortress. The circumference of the wall surrounding the castle was huge—at least as far as how big a monument like this could be built using a couple giant sets of Legos.

  Robert stood up, towering over Sam and her creation, then shook his head. “That castle is taking up too much room.” Robert stepped to the cardboard partition and reached in to retrieve Houdini. With the iguana cradled in his arms, Robert paced back to the castle. “Houdini won’t be able to roam around my room if that huge thing is in here. How’re you gonna move that castle to your room?”

  “Why can’t I keep it here?” Sam slumped on the floor next to the castle and continued to add more Lego pieces to the tall tower.

  Several weeks ago, Sam had started to sleep in Robert’s bed—so long as Houdini was safely secured in his cage. Frequent nightmares caused her to trot from her bed and down the hall to Robert’s room where he’d scoot over to let her crawl in bed with him and then cover her with an extra afghan Mama always kept at the foot of the bed. Early in the morning Sam would sneak back to her bed before her parents were awake. On mornings when Daddy worked early, Sam would be careful to rise before the sun came up and go back to her room.

  Sam didn’t see a need to move the castle and its surrounding wall to her room if she’d end up sneaking into Robert’s bed again tonight. She stared at the fortress, which indeed had taken up a large portion of Robert’s bedroom. Stanley stood next to her and panted, his warm breath blowing right onto Sam’s face. She attempted to nudge him away from the castle, but he instead pounced on the blue Lego wall, knocking off a couple pieces from the top rim of the fortress. In addition to not being able to control his tail, Stanley also couldn’t control his big, clumsy feet. Sam gripped her fingers around his collar and tugged until he stood still, but his tail swayed back and forth while he whined. Too strong for Sam to control, Stanley broke free from her grip and pranced over to Robert who lifted a knee to prevent him from jumping up and scratching Houdini.

  “Maybe your castle needs a dragon, something to guard it from intruders.” Robert stepped so close to the castle that he practically knocked it over with his big feet. He bent down and placed Houdini right inside the wall then snorted out a loud laugh.

  “Robby, knock it off!” Sam squealed then started to cry. “He’ll ruin it. His big stupid tail will knock down the whole wall. Get him out of there. Put him in his cage and then come help me find some branches that I can make into trees for outside the castle.”

  Robert snickered again then reached in to remove Houdini from the castle. “Sam, he’s not gonna bite you. Just touch the soft spot on the side of his neck. It’s not as rough as you think. If you touch his skin, I’ll go help you trim some branches for your forest.”

  Sam shook her head and folded her arms. “Looks rough to me. The scales on top of his head are all pokey.”

  “If you touch Houdini, I’ll let you keep your dumb castle in my room.”

  “It’s not a dumb castle. Houdini’s green, scaly skin is gross. Nothing soft about it at all from what I can see.”

  “Well, then take this apart and rebuild it in your room. Houdini needs to wander around in here. You know how he likes to explore and then find a new hiding place.”

  “I’m not taking it apart. I still need to make a forest. Please, just until Christmas break is over?” She crouched down closer to the iguana and tapped a timid finger on his hind leg. She retreated her hand the minute she felt the scaly skin, but she didn’t fess up to Robert that the skin wasn’t as rough as she’d imagined. It was cool to the touch and kind of soft, sort of like touching Grandpa Cleveland’s sun-damaged hand. Then she tapped her finger on Houdini’s head, quickly pulling back the minute she felt the sharp protruding horns.

  “See? Not bad, huh?” Robert shook his head and stared down at her creation. “Why you gotta be making a forest? Looks to be plenty finished with this here wall around the castle.”

  “No, I want a real forest all around the castle walls. With branches and leaves and everything. Can you help me cut down some branches from the trees in the yard?”

  “If you’re actually going to go outside, then we might as well take our bikes out for an hour or so. We won’t go far, maybe just up the dirt road a ways.”

  Sam slumped on the bed and didn’t respond. She still felt scared to wander far from the house, worried that man could be hiding in the wood
s nearby. Content to stay right here in Robert’s room, Sam admired the Lego fortress she built. Stanley jumped on the bed next to her and stretched his paws out on her lap. She draped her arms around his neck and then set her cheek on his smooth brown head. “Stanley’s too tired. He wants to stay inside.”

  “Mama and Dad got you a nice bike for Christmas. You should try it out again, go farther than the driveway this time. I’ll stay right by your side. I won’t even race you this time. We’ll bring Stanley. He’s gotta get out to run for a bit. Besides, you know how good he is at letting us know if someone’s nearby. We’ll be back before sunset.”

  With this last bit of convincing, Sam slid off the bed and took a huge step over the castle to get to the hallway. Before she left the room, she glanced out the window. With plenty of light still left in the sky, they could ride down the dirt road and back again—with enough time to get some foliage for the forest she’d create around the castle. Robert set a hand on her shoulder as the two of them left his room and grabbed their jackets from the entryway.

  Robert pulled the zipper all the way up to Sam’s neck and bunched the coat close to her chin just like Mama would do. “You ready? Just down the dirt road and back.”

  Sam pulled a knit cap over her head, tucking the long strands of hair under the hat. Sufficiently bundled up, she stepped onto the porch and scanned the yard one more time; then she walked behind Robert while he carried her bike down the steps. Robert placed a navy blue baseball cap on his head—the one Mr. Rizzo made him wear for one of the store’s promotions. With the words Rizzo’s Reptiles and a bright green snake emblem emblazoned just above the cap, the store’s name and insignia glowed in neon green—the snake’s body looping in and out of the letters. Sam glimpsed at the row of thick shrubbery blocking the view of the creek then hurried to catch up to Robert who balanced the bike for her while she mounted it and hoisted her leg over the frame.