PROLOGUE

 

It's such a pretty world today

Look at the sunshine, look at the sunshine

 

These words were running through Henry's mind as he boarded the bus in Boston. The lines were from a song by Henry's favorite singer, Wynn Stewart, and they fit his mood perfectly. He was leaving the Navy for good. An invading army would have to be crossing the Red River before Henry would ever volunteer for the military again.

Henry wore his blue, bell-bottomed, thirteen-button, gabardine dress uniform. His small, white, cotton hat was tilted back on his head, a violation of the Navy's Uniform Dress Code. The cuffs on his jumper were turned up revealing colorful, embroidered, screaming eagles, another violation of the Uniform Dress Code. He wore black, highly-polished, round-toed Wellington boots, another violation of the Uniform Dress Code.

Smoking was allowed in the back of the bus and Henry took a seat in the last row across from the restroom. He stared at the changing countryside until he grew bored and fell asleep. When he woke the bus was dark and after a few minutes he drifted back to sleep.

The bus stopped the next morning in Baltimore and the passengers were allowed thirty minutes to eat and stretch their legs. An hour after sunset the bus pulled into Memphis where Henry had a two hour layover to change buses. He walked to a liquor store near the bus terminal and purchased a bottle of Jim Beam whiskey. By the time the bus arrived in Oklahoma City, where Henry had to change again, the bottle was empty. An hour later, Henry boarded the bus for Grainsley, Texas. Another two hours and he'd be home.

Near Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, just before entering the Arbuckle Mountains, Henry felt the urge for a bowel movement. He entered the small restroom and unbuttoned the thirteen buttons and dropped his pants. At that moment the bus took a sharp right curve throwing Henry against the door, his pants still around his ankles. Henry steadied himself and reached down again. The bus took a sharp left curve throwing him against the door again and the door flew open. Another curve threw Henry out into the aisle. He looked up at an elderly couple and rolled over trying to crawl back into the restroom. The bus started down a long grade and Henry felt himself sliding toward the front, his pants still below his knees. After what seemed an eternity he managed to reach the restroom and crawl back inside. When he checked his left boot the Camel package was gone.

Henry didn't come out of the restroom until the bus reached Grainsley.

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

 

Henry Lee McCarthy Ridge entered the world, kicking and screaming, August 30, 1946, at four a.m. in his grandmother's house in Joneston, Oklahoma, population less than three hundred. His mother was a local Cherokee whore named Erica Ridge and his daddy was listed as unknown, although most believed him to be Charlie McCarthy, a character doing time in a Texas prison for writing a bad check. With her long, black hair and delicate facial features, Erica Ridge was considered one of the prettiest women in the county. She was also considered one of the easiest.

Henry weighed slightly over six pounds and, since no doctor had been present to assist with the birthing, was left uncircumcised. The only other peculiarity was the congenital lip deformity associated with the cleft palate where Henry's upper lip failed to form completely, leaving a vertical indentation above the mouth that split the lip perfectly and gave him enough of a Leporidae look for his Great Aunt Patricia to ask, "What the heck did you do Erica, sleep with Bugs Bunny?" In other words, Henry Lee McCarthy Ridge had a hare-lip.

 

Erica Madeline Ridge could trace her family back to the seventeenth century. Her grandmother, eight times removed, was Sehoya, also called Susanna Ridge, wife of the great Cherokee warrior, Ridge. Her ancestors made the Long Walk, on the Trail of Tears, from Tennessee and settled in the eastern part of Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, near Honey Creek, a tributary of the Neosho River. Her grandparents, Otis and Rowena Ridge, moved farther south in 1887, two years before the government opened up most of the territory to homesteaders. They settled on land that was mostly swamp and planted cotton and corn, gradually draining the land. Fiercely independent, they refused any assistance from the government and raised two sons, Thomas and Benjamin, and a daughter named Leta.

In 1908, fourteen year old Thomas was sent to the Chilocco Indian Seminary to learn a trade. Here he met a pretty Cherokee girl, four years his junior, Lahoma Watie. Lahoma and her younger brother, Levi, and her sister, Patricia, were sent to the Seminary after the deaths of their parents from influenza. In 1912 Thomas left the Seminary to take a job as a carpenter. He returned a year later in a rented buggy and talked Lahoma into eloping with him. They moved to Joneston and a few months later Levi and Patricia joined them. Thomas helped Levi obtain a job working with a construction crew and Levi soon moved into his own home. Patricia stayed for several months, until marrying Bryon Friedman, a local mechanic.

 

October 13, 1914, Lahoma Ridge gave birth to a son, Robert Thomas Ridge.

 

 Infants and toddlers were a familiar sight in the cotton fields and Robert was no exception. Infants rode their mother's twelve-foot sacks as the women pulled cotton, two rows at a time. The toddlers played in the shade around the wagon where the cotton was carried to be weighed and emptied as the field boss, usually the owner of the field or his son, wrote the weight down in a spiral notebook. Parents, watching their own toddlers, kept an eye on all toddlers. At five years of age, Robert, like all farm children, was given his first sack, a burlap feed bag with a strap sewn across the top to hook around the neck and under the armpit. He was expected to earn his keep, pulling cotton paid two cents a pound, and he was given the grand sum of a quarter a week to spend anyway he wanted. By the end of summer he was averaging a hundred pounds of cotton a day.

 

The holidays were special. The families would gather at Thomas' parents, Otis and Rowena. In addition to Thomas, Lahoma and Robert, there would be Benjamin and his wife, Marge and their son, Michael; Leta and her husband, David Cole and Lahoma's siblings; Levi and his wife, Mahoya and Patricia and her husband, Bryon.

The twelve-foot dining table would be covered with food. Ham, turkey, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, corn, beans, deviled eggs, cornbread and dinner rolls. A smaller table held pumpkin and pecan pies, homemade brownies and cakes. The kids ate on the porch or, if the weather was nice, in the backyard. The adults ate at the large dining table. Just before dusk everyone would start hugging and saying their goodbyes.

 

 

Erica Madeline Ridge was born May 5, 1928, and, like Robert, was introduced to the fields as an infant. At the age of five she was given her own sack. The cotton field hadn't seemed all that bad when she was playing in the shade of the wagon and watching others work but she hated the work immediately. On her second day of pulling cotton she drank too much water and got sick to her stomach. Her father told her to lay in the shade until she felt better. She stayed the rest of the day. The next day she threw up again. Then the next day and the next. Erica learned to throw up at will, knowing her parents wouldn't force her to work if she was sick. After a week they began leaving her in the care of Lucy Grayson, a seventy year old widow that lived near the fields. Lucy babysat for several other parents and usually had between four and twelve children in her care, ranging in age from a few months to a few years. She sat in her rocking chair the first part of the morning and read scriptures from her Bible. At noon she fixed sandwiches for the older children and bottles for the infants. After lunch, blankets were spread on the floor and everyone was expected to lie down and take a nap. The afternoon was spent with more Bible reading. A dried 'bull nettle' was used to maintain discipline. Late afternoon, parents would start arriving to collect their children. Erica hated Lucy's almost as much as she hated the fields.

 

April 1, 1941, Otis Ridge dropped dead from a heart attack. Rowena Ridge died a week later.

 

Robert hated the fields and he hated school. He ran away from home when he was eight years old and his father whipped him with a belt. He ran away again a few days later and his father whipped him harder. He tried again at age twelve and again at fourteen. The last time he ran away, at sixteen, Thomas Ridge decided to let him stay gone. Erica was a toddler when he left and she remembered him from his occasional visits as a goodlooking man that always wore a gray fedora and a smile and smoked cigars. A drifter, who preferred freight trains, he tried to return home at least once a year, usually with gifts and a pocket full of money. He'd stay a few days until he grew bored and restless.

 

In the spring of 1942, a few weeks before Erica's fourteenth birthday, Robert and a companion robbed the First National Bank of Mayetta, Oklahoma. The sheriff and two deputies were waiting when they came out and the two robbers split up trying to escape. Robert's companion got away but Robert was trapped in a cellar, his eyes shot out by a scattergun. He died a few hours later refusing to name his accomplice. The money was never recovered.

 

 The first week of November, Thomas Ridge kept an appointment with a doctor in Grainsley, Texas. He'd been feeling fatigued and, thinking he might be anemic, had gone in for tests a few days earlier. He was told he had cancer. He drove home, went into his bedroom and came out a few minutes later and walked into the kitchen where Lahoma was making lunch and told her how much he loved her. When she asked what the occasion was he told her he just wanted her to know how much she meant to him. He walked out to the back porch and wrote a note. He folded the note, placed it in his pocket, pulled a thirty-eight revolver from inside his shirt, placed the barrel under his chin and pulled the trigger. Erica cried for days. Lahoma sold the house and they moved to a smaller one close to Joneston. 

 

 Joneston, Oklahoma, located on State Highway 44, was four miles north of the Red River. The town consisted of fifty or so houses, a red-brick, two-story school, Luther Carlson's General Store, the Highway Diner, a combination Post Office, barber shop and Justice of the Peace and three church's: Methodist, Baptist and Church of Christ. A dirt road ran south from the highway in front of the Post Office for a half mile. 

Lahoma and Erica moved into a small, brown, two-bedroom house at the end of the dirt road. The house came with five acres of land that included a dozen peach trees and a small pond at the south end of the property. The house had a large front porch covered on the east side with honeysuckle vines. In addition to the two bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and living room, the house had a large storage room. Lahoma converted this area into a work room and put her Singer sewing machine in a corner near the window that looked over the backyard. She moved her RCA phonograph and her set of 78 rpm records to the right of her Singer and set up her ironing board in a far corner. Soon she was taking in sewing and ironing. She began work immediately after washing the breakfast dishes and often worked until midnight, listening to her records as she made alterations or ironed. She enjoyed a diverse range of music from Hank Williams and Jimmy Dickens and the stars of the Grand Ole Opry to Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday.

 

Erica loved the change. Anytime her mother needed anything, she was all too happy to make the short walk into town. At first she'd complete the errand fairly quick but soon began taking more and more time but Lahoma wasn't particularly worried. She remembered how it felt to be young and to her knowledge no child had ever been harmed in Joneston.

A few months after moving, a local man, twice Erica's age, persuaded her to join him and a bottle of wine in a deserted barn near the edge of town. She discovered two things that day; she liked wine and she liked sex. Erica spent the next two years skipping school and having sex with any man who got her high. At fifteen she met Charlie McCarthy and at sixteen she was pregnant. Her mother, who once held Erica on her lap and told her how, a hundred years earlier, she'd have been a princess in the Cherokee tribe, now started scolding her and telling her how, a hundred years earlier, the tribe would have cut off her nose.

 

 

 Charlie Samuel McCarthy was born April 2, 1920, to Layton and Mary McCarthy, sharecroppers living on the southern end of the Dust Bowl. Another son, born the previous year, had died after less than four months. The family lived in a three-room, tar-paper shack, heated by a wood burning, pot-bellied stove. Wood was as scarce as money and the stove was used sparingly for cooking or extreme cold. A one-hole outhouse sat fifty yards from the back door.

 

Mary McCarthy was a devout Catholic and totally submissive to her husband. She never talked back or argued, did as she was told and when she wasn't cleaning, cooking or serving, sat in her rocking chair reading her Bible. Layton McCarthy believed in discipline and often used a razor strop he kept hanging on a nail near the bedroom door. When Charlie upset him, he'd make the boy bring him the strop and then make him hang it back on the nail after the beating. He was a large man with large appetites at both the dinner table and the bedroom. Countless times Charlie lay awake on his pallet and listened to the sound of bedsprings and his mother's grunting coming from the bedroom. Everyone rose before daylight and the elder McCarthy would leave for the fields before the sun was up and not return home until dusk. After supper he'd sit in his rocking chair, remove his boots and prop his feet on the wood box. A few minutes later he'd be asleep. Mary McCarthy would sit in her rocker on the other side of the stove and read scriptures until nine o'clock. Then she'd tell Charlie it was time for bed, lay her Bible down, blow out the kerosene lamp and lead her husband to the bedroom. Charlie would lay down on his pallet and soon the creaking and grunting would start.

 

When Charlie was four, a log exploded while his mother stoked the fire to prepare breakfast. The explosion burned her eyes and the doctor told her to leave the bandages on for at least a week. Layton McCarthy couldn't afford to stay home and tend his wife while her eyes healed and he had no one to look after Charlie. He ran a line of baling wire from the back porch rafter to the top of the outhouse. He tied a twenty-foot rope around Charlie's waist and the other end to the wire line. The 'dog run' assured the boy wouldn't wander off but still allowed him freedom to come inside. Every morning for a week, Layton hooked Charlie up to the wire at daylight, releasing him when he returned home at dusk.

 

Charlie hated the hard life. The older he became the more he was expected to do. He joined his daddy in the fields a year before he started school. After school he drew water and chopped wood. During summer he worked with his father in the fields. Layton was as strict in the fields as he was at home, often beating the boy with a cotton stalk when he made too many trips to the water can or took too long returning to his row.

Charlie ran away when he was fourteen and got as far as Durant, Texas before the police picked him up and threw him in jail. Charlie's parents didn't have a telephone and it took Layton two days to find his son. On the trip home, Layton stopped his pickup on a dirt road and beat Charlie with his fists. A few weeks later Charlie ran away again. This time the police caught him burglarizing a home and he was sent to the Boy's Reformatory, in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, until his eighteenth birthday. After his release he found work at a Texaco station in Grainsley. He soon quit and took an easier job as a night watchman at a factory that made airplane parts. He was laid off a few weeks after the end of World War Two and went to work as a janitor at a shoe factory. After work, he frequented the bars along Red River. One night he met a pretty, fifteen year old Cherokee girl and after a few drinks she left with him. A few weeks later she was pregnant.

 

Erica moved into the small, one bedroom house Charlie was renting in Grainsley. She didn't let the pregnancy interfere with her drinking and she and Charlie drove to the river every night. In her seventh month of pregnancy, Charlie hatched a scheme he was sure would bring them some easy money. A farmer Charlie had met was willing to sell a few head of cattle below market price to avoid going to the trouble of hauling them to the auction barn. Charlie's plan was to borrow a livestock trailer and drive to the man's farm on Wednesday morning, pick up half a dozen or so steers, drive across the river and sell the animals at the weekly cattle auction in Mayetta, Oklahoma. Not having any money, he figured to write a bad check, sell the steers, then deposit the money before the check reached the bank. But Charlie had misjudged the farmer. The man had a bad feeling about Charlie and drove straight to the bank with the check. After being told the check was no good the farmer drove to the sheriff's office. The farmer, the Texas sheriff and the local sheriff showed up at the Mayetta auction barn and Charlie was arrested. He was tried and sentenced to five years in the Texas State Prison at Huntsville, Texas.

 

 Lahoma Ridge was forty-eight when her grandson, Henry, was born. She was still a pretty woman, slightly plump with waist length salt and pepper hair she kept tied in a bun at the base of her neck. In the three years since her husband's suicide she'd cultivated a small clientele that depended on her for their sewing and ironing. She was friendly, dependable and considerably cheaper than the dry cleaners in Grainsley. If a senior high boy needed a suit or a girl needed a gown for the prom they came to Lahoma. If she  said she'd have it ready at a certain time on a certain date she would have it ready, even if she had to work all night. Still she found time for Henry.

 

Erica stayed home for a week after Henry's birth, then returned to the bars. A few days later she took Henry and moved in with a man from White Rose, Oklahoma. Two weeks later she moved back in with her mother. Less than a month later she moved in with another man. A few weeks later she returned to Lahoma's. The third time Erica wanted to move in with a man, Lahoma begged her to leave Henry with her. Erica refused. A few weeks later they were back. Once, Lahoma refused to babysit while Erica went to the bars. She thought this might force her daughter to stay home with Henry but Erica grabbed him and stormed out. Two days later a friend called Lahoma and told her Henry had been sleeping in the back of a car parked at a river bar. After Erica returned, several days later, Lahoma never again refused to look after Henry. Erica had learned she could use her son to get anything she wanted from his grandmother. If she wanted money and Lahoma refused, Erica would grab the boy and storm out of the house, screaming, "You'll never see me or Henry again!" Lahoma would run after her begging her to bring the boy back. Then she would give Erica the money she wanted.

Henry loved his grandmother. At night he would watch her untie her bun and comb her hair until it shone. Then she'd sit Henry on her lap and tell him stories from the Bible about Samson, David, Moses and Solomon. She read scriptures to him about the pure at heart and the evils of the flesh. Some nights she'd tell him stories of his ancestors, the warrior, Ridge and the great Cherokee, General Stand Watie, the last Confederate officer to surrender. She tried to teach him self-respect and respect for others, believing the two went hand-in-hand.

 

The first Monday in March, 1951, Charlie walked out of prison and boarded a Greyhound bus for Grainsley. The next day he showed up at Lahoma's driving a ten year old Ford pickup. That evening Erica told her mother she needed a hundred dollars to rent a house for Charlie, Henry and herself. When Lahoma told her she didn't have a hundred dollars, Erica threatened to take Henry away forever and Lahoma believed her daughter was selfish enough to do it. She borrowed the money from her brother, Levi, and gave it to Erica. Erica rented a house a couple miles south of Joneston.

 

The house was a wooden, run-down, bug and mice infested home with a large front porch, living room, kitchen and two bedrooms. An old 'smokehouse', originally built for curing meat and now used for storage, sat thirty feet to the right of the house and a 'two-holer' outhouse sat thirty feet from the back door. A hundred foot well was located in the center of the front yard about forty feet from the front porch. A mailbox stood near the road and a propane tank sat in the backyard and to the left of the house. On the front porch was an old sofa, a wringer style washing machine and a pair of wooden kitchen chairs, all left behind by the previous tenants.

The house came with two acres of land and sat two hundred yards off a dirt road. A large, sprawling oak tree, growing in the front yard, shaded most of the front porch. Two scrub oaks grew a few yards from the propane tank. Wood ticks infested the trees and stripping and being inspected for ticks became routine. Erica would sit with a lit cigarette to touch to any tick that had attached to Henry's body. The heat from the cigarette made the tick loosen easier, reducing the chance of leaving the head of the tick still attached after the body of the parasite had been removed. Often, especially after a few beers, Erica would confuse a freckle or mole for a tick.

 The property was owned by Winston Hunnicut and rented for forty dollars a month, utilities included. A barbed wire fence at the back of the property separated the rental land from the fields. Winston's new brick home was located on the other side of the field. Separating the landlord and the tenants were twenty acres of cotton, ten acres of peanuts and ten acres of hay.

During the summer the outhouse smelled and the flies were everywhere. In the winter the small building was freezing. An old Montgomery Ward catalog was used to clean oneself. During the spring, yellow jacket wasps built nests in the corners. At night an old Folgers can was placed inside the house near the back door to serve as a 'slop jar'. This 'slop jar' was used for any late night calls of nature.

 

Charlie 'laid down the law' to five year old Henry as soon as they finished moving. Henry would have certain chores to do and he would be expected to do them every day, without being told. He was to never argue or talk back and to say 'yes sir' or 'no sir' and 'yes ma'am' or 'no ma'am' when asked a question. Charlie asked if he understood and Henry nodded. Charlie slapped him hard enough to stagger him. "Let's go through this again you ignorant hare-lip. When you answer me you say 'sir'. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Henry mumbled. Charlie hit him again.

"Don't mumble when you talk to me! Do you understand?"

"Yes sir".

"You're going to learn to respect me if I have to beat it in you!"

"Can I go?" Henry asked. Charlie hit him again.

"What did I do?"

Charlie popped him on the skull with his index finger like one would do to check the ripeness of a melon. "Think! You do know how to think don't you? When you talk to me you say SIR! Do you understand?"

"Yes sir. Can I go, sir?"

"Get out of my sight."

Erica sat in the kitchen staring toward the back door with her head lowered. Henry's head hurt.

 

One of Henry's chores was to dump the Folgers can every morning over the barbed wire fence behind the outhouse. He was also expected to carry out the trash to an old fifty gallon drum at the far corner of the back yard. When the drum was full, Charlie would light a fire in the drum and Henry would stand on an old pail and poke the fire with a stick to make sure all the trash burned. Holes were poked in the side of the drum near the bottom so any rain water would drain out. In spite of the holes, water often accumulated at the bottom providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes. After a good rain and a few hours of sun, the drum would begin to stink. Henry was also expected to do any yard work that was needed. The yard was mostly dirt with a few islands of grass scattered here and there. Besides pushing the hand powered lawn mower, he was told to get on his knees and pull any grass the mower didn't reach. What grass they had was filled with 'grass burrs', a weed with small thorns that would break off in a finger and cause the finger to fester until the thorn was removed.

Charlie had Henry try to draw water but he only managed to draw the bucket up a few feet before the rope slipped and the bucket dropped. Charlie cursed Henry and told him to get back to the house. The next day, Charlie nailed a five foot piece of two-by-four to the center of the well. He then showed Henry how to draw water up as far as he could and wrap the line around the two-by-four until he was rested enough to pull it up a few more feet. He was to pull and rest, pull and rest, until he had the bucket high enough to reach over and pull it to the side of the well and balance it. Reaching up with both hands he could take the bucket and lower it to the ground where he would transfer the water to another bucket. Henry lost more water than he managed to carry to the house.

Charlie 'laid down the law' at the kitchen table too. Mealtimes had always been pleasant at his grandmother's but Charlie made each meal an ordeal. Henry was told to sit straight with his elbows at his side. He was told to keep an eye on Charlie's plate and make sure he always had a biscuit on it. He was to eat everything on his plate and ask permission to be excused before leaving. Any infraction brought a hard slap from Charlie, often hard enough to upset Henry's chair, dumping him on the floor. After the meal he was to get on the floor and pick up any crumbs he might have dropped. Henry noticed most of the crumbs were around Charlie's chair.

 

Three days after moving into the house, Charlie drove to Grainsley and returned a few hours later with a roll of chicken wire, a dozen, ten-foot poles and a fifty pound sack of dog feed. He unloaded the feed and carried it to the 'smoke house' then he put up an eighteen-foot by twenty-foot fence around the building, leaving a small gate in the fence facing the house. He left the next morning after breakfast and returned that afternoon. On the back of the pickup was a wood and wire mesh cage with eight fox hounds, six males and two females. He backed the truck up to the fence and unloaded the dogs, one at a time, grabbing them by their thick leather collars and dragging them through the gate. Charlie had decided he wanted to be a fox and wolf hunter.

 

Wolves, foxes and bobcats were a nuisance to the farmers and ranchers in the 1950's, particularly around the Red River. When the problem became too great, bounties were placed on the animals. Over a period of years these animals were hunted to near extinction, first for the bounty then for the sport.

 

Charlie knew more than a dozen men who owned hunting dogs and these men gathered three or four nights a week to turn their dogs loose while they sat around a campfire and passed the bottle. While they drank, they listened to the dogs barking and chasing some unfortunate critter. When they thought the dogs were nearing a kill they would load up in their pickups and drive as close as they could get to the pack to be there when the dogs tore the animal apart. Around daylight the group would break up and go home. The dogs were trained to return to the place where they had been released and each man would return later to pick up any dogs that wandered back. A few dogs might not return until the following day and often they wouldn't return at all. The dog's owner would receive a collar in the mail or a call that their dog had been found dead near a highway or poisoned by the wolf traps ranchers set out. The dogs were the principle reason Charlie had a telephone installed. He sent Erica to her mother's to borrow money for the deposit.

 

One afternoon Charlie called Henry over to the dog pen and handed him a shovel and a bucket. He told Henry to get inside the pen and shovel the excrement into the bucket. When Henry started to open the gate the dogs started growling. He threw the shovel down and backed away. Charlie hit him and knocked him down. "You stupid little coward! Those dogs know you're scared of 'em. Now pick up that shovel and get in there!" Henry picked up the shovel and started for the pen. The dogs started growling and he threw the shovel down again. Charlie hit him again.

"You can beat me all you want," Henry told him, "but I ain't going in there."

"You hare-lipped little coward! Maybe they think you're a rabbit!" Charlie grabbed Henry's arm and pulled him toward the pen. "Maybe I oughta feed you to 'em!" Henry broke free and ran toward the house while Charlie laughed. Then Charlie told him to get out of his sight. He watched Charlie shovel the waste from the pen into the bucket. He hoped the dogs would turn on Charlie and take turns biting him.

 

 Saturday mornings, Charlie would order Henry to draw water for his bath. The galvanized bathtub needed several buckets to fill it halfway. Erica helped him while Charlie sat on the porch and drank beer. Henry also had to draw water for the laundry. Erica helped him carry the water and she heated it in a small, round, galvanized pan. Charlie helped her carry the pan from the stove to the wringer washer then he'd return to his chair and his beer. After the wash was done, Henry helped his mother hang it on the line. He then drew water for his mother's bath. Then he bathed, using the same water his mother used. The water was nearly cold by then and Erica would draw another bucket and heat it, pouring it in the used water.

CHAPTER TWO

Charlie found jobs that spring for he and Erica, hoeing cotton. Hoeing paid by the hour and a worker was expected to keep up with the other hands. Henry was too small to keep up and was taken to Lahoma's every weekday morning. Erica told her mother they would pick Henry up every afternoon after work and they did on the days Charlie wanted to go hunting that night. Other days they'd stop at the bars and wouldn't pick him up until late. Some nights Henry would sleep in his grandmother's bed and Lahoma would ask them not to disturb him but Charlie always insisted on taking him home only to return him a few hours later.

Henry loved staying with his grandmother. He'd ride the pedal of her Singer sewing machine and listen to records. She'd let him go outside to play near the pond, catching tadpoles and crawfish while she watched through the window in the sewing room. Often she'd take a break and go outside and join him.

Henry hated going home. Charlie and Erica were always fighting and on the way home Charlie would usually find an excuse to backhand her. At home, the fighting would continue and the thin wall, separating the bedrooms, let Henry hear everything. The cursing, the screaming, the loud moans and then his mother pleading, "Please don't hit me again, please. I'll do anything you want. Just please don't hit me." Then the bedsprings, squeaking louder and louder, then silence.

                         

When cotton harvest started, Charlie hired his family out to pull cotton. Henry was given his first cotton sack, the traditional burlap feed bag with a strap sewn across the top to hook around the neck and under the arm. The next year he'd be given a store bought eight-footer, a year later a ten-footer, then a year or so later a twelve-footer. Henry worked the fields until school started, averaging fifty to eighty pounds a day his first year.

 

On the second Monday of September, Erica drove Henry to the Joneston school for enrollment. Less than two hundred students, grades one through twelve, attended the school and the whole procedure took less than two hours. Regular school classes would begin the following morning and a school bus would pick Henry up in front of his home between seven and seven-thirty.

Henry's first grade class consisted of fourteen students; six girls and eight boys. The teacher, Irma Eubanks, was a heavyset redhead in her late thirties. At ten a.m. all students, from the sixth grade down, were allowed outside for a twenty minute recess. The teasing began at once and soon Henry found himself in the middle of a circle with several kids throwing dirt on him and calling him names like 'dirty rabbit' and 'rabbit face'. A second grader, Sammy Laughlin, a boy ten pounds heavier and four inches taller than Henry, stepped into the circle and shoved him down. "My daddy says you don't know who your daddy is", Sammy taunted. "He says that makes you a bastard."

Henry stood up and swung at the bigger boy. Sammy laughed and hit him, knocking him to the ground. Mrs. Eubanks saw the scuffle and ordered the students back inside. She scolded Sammy, calling him a coward for fighting someone smaller. When she asked Henry if he was hurt, he shook his head 'no'.

At noon the students were given a thirty minute lunch break. Some students were given money each day to buy their lunch and ate at Luther's or the diner. Most, like Henry, carried their meal in a tin lunch box or a paper sack. Henry carried his sack around the corner of the building hoping to avoid Sammy and some of the others but Sammy and his two friends, Randy Dietz and Kevin Moran, saw him duck around the corner and followed. They took his lunch then pulled his pants off, leaving Henry and his trousers in the dirt. At two p.m. the students were given another twenty minute break. Sammy went straight for Henry, saw Mrs. Eubanks watching and changed direction. When the bell rang at three thirty, signaling the end of the school day, Mrs. Eubanks called Henry to her desk. "Are you alright, Henry?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Are some of the other students treating you badly?"

"No ma'am."

"I know your grandmother. She's a good friend of mine. If you ever want to talk to me about anything I hope you feel free to do so."

 

The teasing continued at school but after several weeks it didn't seem as bad. Most of the kids left him alone and called him names only when they felt they were impressing someone. Because of his small size and dark hair some of the older boys called him 'Runty Rabbit' or 'Rabbit Head'. Later they shortened it to 'Rabbit' and the name stuck. One afternoon he complained to his grandmother. "So what's so bad about being called a rabbit? Rabbits are smart and cute. Look at Bugs Bunny. The Cherokees have a saying, 'The moon is not shamed by barking dogs'. Be like the moon and ignore those hounds."

 

Henry didn't ride the bus home. Instead he walked to his grandmother's where Charlie and Erica would pick him up later. Lahoma also kept Henry in decent clothes. She often drove to Grainsley to shop for bargains at 'second-hand' stores. She purchased used clothes that were slightly large and altered them to fit Henry then let them out as he grew.

Lahoma was scared of tornadoes and the first dark cloud would send her and Henry to the small cellar near the center of her back yard. There they'd sit among the pickled cauliflower and peach preserves until she was sure the storm had passed. The place was cool, musty and full of spiders. If the storm was bad enough, Charlie would usually decide not to make the drive to pick him up and Henry would spend most of the night on a cot in the cellar with his grandmother.

                      

 When the cotton season ended, Charlie and Erica found jobs across the river in Grainsley, Texas. Erica went to work as a 'cutter' in a shoe factory while Charlie found employment pumping gas at a Standard service station a few blocks away. Erica worked from seven a.m. till four p.m. After work she would walk the few blocks to the station and wait for Charlie to get off then they drove straight to the bars. Charlie worked two weeks then quit, complaining he was working like a dog for someone who didn't appreciate him.

 

 Henry hated the weekends. The other students looked forward to Saturday but Saturday, for Henry, meant drawing water and working most of the day. Worse than that it meant being around Charlie all day and watching him sit on the porch barking orders and drinking. 

The dogs changed Erica's social life. Charlie preferred hunting with his friends to bar hopping with Erica. He would load his dogs shortly before sundown and meet the others for a night of passing the bottle and listening to the so-called 'music' of a pack of dogs barking. Henry spent Saturdays silently praying for good weather so Charlie would go hunting. After he drove away, Erica would make Henry's supper then open a beer and turn on the radio. On Saturday night, weather permitting, she could listen to the Grand Ole Opry broadcasting live from the Ryman in Nashville. After a few beers she'd pull Henry up on her lap and tell him over and over how much she loved him. A few more beers and she'd start singing along with the radio. Later she'd start to doze and Henry would try to lead her to bed. Sometimes she'd stagger to her room but most often she'd tell him to leave her alone and go to bed. Around daylight he'd wake to the sound of bedsprings.

                               

The abuse grew worse. The first few days of November had been cold but during the week of Thanksgiving the temperature had risen to the high sixties. On Thanksgiving Day, Charlie drove Erica and Henry to Lahoma's for dinner. Since Thomas' suicide, Lahoma had little contact with her brother-in-law, Ben or her sister-in-law, Leta. She'd invited them and their families to share the holiday with her, her brother, Levi, her sister, Patricia and her daughter Erica and their families. The ten-foot mahogany dining table was covered with meats, casseroles, vegetables (raw and cooked) and pies.

Charlie ruined the day. He made himself comfortable in a stuffed chair where he could see everything that was happening in the dining room or kitchen. There he sat, staring at Erica and sulking. Every adult in the house tried to be cordial but Charlie answered questions with grunts and continued staring at Erica and pouting. Immediately after dinner he announced that they had to leave. He told Levi he had a sick dog that needed tending and couldn't be left alone too long. Lahoma asked if Henry could stay and said she would take him home later but Charlie wouldn't allow it. He shoved Henry toward the door. At the truck he turned, bent over and grabbed Henry by the shoulders with both hands. He made Henry look him in the eye while he stared hard at the boy and told him in a voice that was hardly louder than a whisper, "When I tell you it's time to leave, I mean it's time to leave. Do you understand me?" Charlie then thumped Henry hard on the top of his head with his middle finger and it hurt.

"Yes sir."

Charlie looked up and saw Lahoma and Levi watching from the front porch. He told Henry to get in the truck. He started cursing Erica before they were out of the driveway. Henry sat in the middle between the couple while Charlie accused Erica of flirting with her uncles and cousins. He struck her hard in the mouth with the back of his hand then pulled the truck over to the side of the road and jumped out. He ran around to the passenger side and jerked the door open and grabbed Erica by the hair and pulled her from the truck. She fell to her knees with Charlie straddling her and still holding her by her hair. She started begging Charlie not to beat her in front of Henry. She told him he could beat her all he wanted if he'd just wait until they were home. Charlie swung with his right, catching her with his fist high on her cheekbone. Erica fell over on her side. He pulled her up and twisted her arm behind her until she could touch her neck with the back of her hand and swung her around again hitting her near the top of her head. She fell to her knees again. "Get in the truck and if I hear one whimper out of your mouth I'll stop the truck again!"

Erica crawled into the truck and sat with her hands covering her swelling mouth. At home she went to her bedroom and Charlie followed, shutting the door behind him. Henry heard a loud moan, then the bedsprings started squeaking. He walked outside wanting to avoid Charlie as much as possible. Finally, at sunset, Charlie loaded his dogs and left. Henry walked back into the house and saw his mother sitting at the kitchen table holding an ice pack to her right cheek. Charlie returned at daylight and Henry woke to the sound of bedsprings.

                                        

 Before Charlie re-entered her life, Erica had always left most of the grocery shopping to her mother. Lahoma preferred to shop at a large open-air market in Grainsley. On Sunday afternoons she'd load Henry in her car and drive across the river to do her shopping. Erica was always invited to go but never accepted. She found grocery shopping boring. Now, Charlie insisted she go with him but he didn't like the market. He said it was too expensive buying fresh fruits and vegetables. Damaged goods were considerably cheaper and Freight Salvage had any canned goods the market had, even if the cans were bent and impossible to stack. Freight Salvage also sold meal, flour, cereal and powdered milk. More often than not, the meal, flour and cereal had weevils, tiny beetles that live in grain. If the weevils were too many, the meal, flour and cereal would be thrown in the dog's feed bucket to be mixed with the table scraps and dry dog food. The powdered milk never had weevils. Even beetles wouldn't eat it.

Charlie also bought a twelve pack of Twinkies each week and placed them on top of the refrigerator. At first Henry assumed the Twinkies were for everyone and climbed on a chair one day and took one. The next day Charlie called Henry inside and asked him if he'd taken one of the Twinkies.

"Yes sir."

Charlie hit him hard on the top of his head. Henry grabbed his head and bit his lip to keep from crying. "Don't you ever touch anything up there!" Charlie yelled, pointing to the top of the refrigerator. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes sir."

"I need them when I work. Someone has to work to feed your sorry face." Henry wanted to tell Charlie those Twinkies wouldn't be fit to eat if Charlie waited until he got a job to eat them.

 

The following Saturday, coming home from Freight Salvage, Charlie stopped the truck again. Erica had smiled at a clerk and Charlie beat her for it.

 

 Four inches of snow fell the third week in December. The temperature stayed near freezing and snow covered most of southern Oklahoma on Christmas day. Driving was difficult and hazardous in many areas and Lahoma's siblings and in-laws decided to stay close to home. There would only be the four of them at Lahoma's for the holiday dinner.

Charlie spent the morning pouting and Henry spent it in a chair. As soon as they entered Lahoma's house Charlie told him to sit in a chair and stay there. Charlie watched Erica help set the table and he watched her eat and he watched her help clear the table. As soon as the dishes were done he announced they were leaving. Before they were out of sight Charlie accused Erica of talking about him behind his back. He stopped the truck and drug her out into the snow and beat her. At home he shoved her into the bedroom, slamming the door behind him. Henry listened to his mother's begging and moaning and then the bedsprings started.

 

Charlie skipped the hoeing season and insisted Erica keep her job at the shoe factory. When the cotton season started, he bought Henry a new eight-foot cotton sack and hired the two of them out to pull cotton.

Even in the fields the other children found moments they could enjoy. They talked and joked while pulling the long rows of cotton but Henry wasn't allowed to talk or joke. Charlie spent little time working, preferring to stand around the wagon and talk while watching Henry like a hawk. Once, another boy had thrown a green cotton boll at Henry. Henry looked to see if Charlie was watching, saw that he didn't appear to be, then threw a boll at the boy. When he looked up again, Charlie was coming at him with a cotton stalk. He stripped the stalk until it resembled a buggy whip then grabbed Henry by the shirt collar and beat him from the shoulders to the knees, leaving welts on Henry's back and legs. 

The whole field had witnessed the beating and Henry was embarrassed. He spent the rest of the day pulling cotton and wishing God would hit Charlie in the back of the head with a green cotton boll the size of a watermelon.

 

 Henry was happy to see school start again. He was hoping second grade would be easier and the other kids wouldn't pick on him. The first day, Sammy, Randy and Kevin drug him around the corner at recess and pulled his pants off. Sammy took his pants and dropped them near the main entrance. When recess ended Henry stayed in the yard near the corner of the building. He had no idea where his pants were. Mrs. Lomax, his second grade teacher, came around the corner carrying Henry's pants. She handed them to him and turned her head while he put them on in an attempt to not embarrass him any further.

"Thank you ma'am."

"You're welcome, Henry. If you'll tell me who did this I'll put a stop to it." Henry kept silent.

"Henry, you have to understand that this will keep happening unless we put a stop to it. I can't do anything unless you tell me their names. Don't you want it to stop?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Then tell me their names." Henry kept silent.

"Very well, if that's the way you want it."

 

During the lunch break, Henry sat in front of the school near the main entrance. Sammy and the others wouldn't take his lunch or his pants with so many people in sight. All they could do was throw dirt clods and call him names.

After school Henry walked to his grandmother's. She decided he needed a haircut and instead of trimming it herself, as she normally did, she chose to walk him the half mile to the Post Office/barber shop. Key Larson was postmaster, barber and Justice of the Peace. Often, while one of his customers was getting his 'ears lowered', a state trooper would bring in a speeder and Key would hold court and fine the man while he cut the customer's hair.

 

Benches sat in front of the white building and two metal rods used for pitching horseshoes was driven into the ground about forty feet apart. During warm weather the benches filled with as many as a dozen men at a time, most retired farmers or ranchers, chewing tobacco, rolling cigarettes or smoking 'ready rolls' and pitching horseshoes. During the colder weather the men would occupy the two benches inside or stand against the wall. A large, wood-burning, pot-bellied stove stood near the center of the room. The barber chair stood to the right and the postal area and rental boxes were behind the chair. The same group of men would spend a good portion of the day filling spitoons and telling stories while Key worked. Lahoma called them 'wishers'. Always wishing they'd done this or done that. Henry was still too young to know what he wanted to be but he knew one thing even then, he didn't want to be a 'wisher'.

 

Most of the men were gone when Lahoma and Henry walked in. Key was sitting in his barber chair talking with two other men. He smiled and stood up when he saw Lahoma. "Well, hi there young lady. I haven't seen you out and about lately."

"I stay pretty close to home, Key. I just brought my grandson, Henry, in for a haircut." Key lowered the chair several inches and told Henry to climb up. When Henry was seated Key raised the chair to its former height. He reached around Henry with a towel, snapped it once so it would lay flat against Henry's chest and stomach then fastened it around his neck. Henry wanted to run and Key sensed it.

"I don't recall ever having you in this chair before. I promise it won't hurt a bit but I need you to sit real still for me. Can you do that?"

"Yes sir."

Henry sat as still as possible expecting to see one of his ears fall to the floor at any time. A few minutes later the ordeal was over. Lahoma paid Key his quarter, thanked him, then walked with Henry to the diner and bought them both a coke.

 

                        

By the fourth grade, Henry was spending his lunch and recess with Bernard 'Bucky' Stevens. Bucky had moved here with his family a year earlier and the quiet, overweight boy had been singled out from day one. A few weeks after school started four older boys saw Bucky walking home and offered him a ride. Once they got him in the car they took him to a secluded area near the river and threatened to beat him if he didn't perform oral sex on each of them. The next day they made sure every student in school knew what they made Bucky do. It made little difference to the other students that Bucky had been threatened and they teased him the way they'd teased Henry by throwing dirt on him and calling him names. Henry liked Bucky and felt sorry for him.

Sammy still singled Henry out anytime he was bored and having Henry and Bucky together gave him two people he could torment. One day, near the end of the morning recess, Sammy and Randy walked over and stood in front of the two friends. "Rabbit Head and Peter Eater. I wonder whose pants I'll take first", Sammy said, while Randy laughed and made faces at them.

Henry stood up and Sammy hit him in the chest, knocking him down. "I'll take hare-lip first. You just stay where you are peter eater and I'll get you next." Sammy dropped down on Henry's stomach with his right knee, pinning him to the ground. Henry felt Sammy undoing his pants and tried to shove him off. He fell back and felt a rock near his right hand. He picked it up and swung, catching Sammy on the left side of his head. When Sammy tried to sit up the ear flopped over like a Cocker Spanial's. Blood covered the left side of his face and ran down his neck and under his shirt. Before Henry could rise, Mr. Rice, the seventh grade science teacher, pulled him up by his shirt collar and half-walked, half-dragged him to the principal's office. Sammy was taken to a doctor in Mayetta, Oklahoma and Henry learned later it took a dozen stitches to sew Sammy's ear back on.

Henry knew he'd get a whipping. Principal Nickles loved to show troublesome students his two-foot, polished wood paddle and brag about the countless backsides he'd paddled in his twenty-five years as a principal, but Henry didn't expect to be given a lecture on fighting fair. He called Henry a coward for using a rock and warned him there was a place in Pauls Valley for boys like him. He told him his parents would be informed of the incident and they would also be responsible for Sammy's doctor bill. He then told Henry to bend over and grab his ankles. Principal Nickles swung his pride and joy against Henry's backside fifteen times then ordered him back to class.

 

Henry took longer than usual walking from school to his grandmother's. He knew he had to tell her and he was sure she'd understand why it happened, but he knew Charlie wouldn't. He told Lahoma about the fight and the paddling. She asked Henry to drop his pants and turn around. When he pulled them up and turned to face her again he could see she was angry. "I'm sorry, Grandmother. Please don't be mad at me."

Lahoma pulled him close and hugged him for several minutes. "Dear boy, I'm not mad at you. Don't think that for a minute." She had seen bruises on Henry's legs caused by the paddling. She planned to call Principal Nickles when she had her temper under control.

"Charlie will beat me."

Lahoma decided not to wait to call Principal Nickles. She called him and offered to pay Sammy's doctor bill and asked him not to call Henry's parents. Nickles agreed to let her pay the bill and assured her he wouldn't call Charlie. An hour later, Charlie and Erica arrived to pick Henry up. Nickles had called Charlie as soon as Lahoma hung up. Charlie came through the front door like a bull and Lahoma met him in the center of the living room. Henry hid in the kitchen. "You'd better get out here, now!" Charlie bellowed. 

Henry stepped through the doorway and started for the front door. Lahoma stopped him and glared at Charlie while Charlie glared at Henry. "You better get in that truck!"

"What are you going to do to him?" Lahoma asked.

"I'm going to have a long heart-to-heart talk with him."

"I know you, Charlie! You can't utter a word to a woman or child without using your fists!"

"Do you know what he did?"

"He told me. He also told me why he did it and I'm not sure I wouldn't have done the same thing."

"Forty dollars I'll have to pay to have that kid's ear sewed back on!"

"If it's the money that upsets you, I'll pay the bill."

"He needs to learn he can't go around hittin' people with a rock!"

"And you think a beating's going to teach him?"

"Who says I beat him?"

"No one has to say it, Charlie. I've got eyes. I know you beat Henry and Erica both. You're a coward!"

Charlie's face turned beet red. He clenched his fists and took a step toward Lahoma. "It's none of your business old woman! You remember that!"

"I'll remember it Charlie. You can bet I'll remember it. I'll surely remember it the next time you need some money!"

 

Henry climbed in the cab and slid close to his mother. Erica put her arm around him and Henry smelled stale beer. She asked Henry why he'd hit Sammy but before he could answer, Charlie climbed in behind the wheel and slammed the door. He hit the gas and spun his wheels, throwing dirt and gravel onto Lahoma's porch. Erica stared out the window and chewed her lip. Charlie backhanded Henry hard in the mouth. Henry tasted blood and his lip started to swell. He put his hand to his mouth and moaned. "Whimper one more time and I'll stop the truck!" Charlie screamed. "When we get home and I get through with you, you'll run backward every time you see a rock!"

Charlie parked his truck near the dog pen and dragged Henry out of the truck by his shirt collar. Henry heard his top button pop off and the collar tear. Charlie swung, catching him above the left temple and knocking him down. "Forty dollars you cost me! Forty dollars!"

"Please, Charlie," Erica whined, "don't hit him again! If you have to beat someone, beat on me but don't hit Henry again!"

"Get in the house!"

"Please, Charlie!"

"Get in the house and I mean now!"

Erica lowered her head and walked slowly to the house. Charlie turned his attention back to Henry. "Get up! You ain't hurt...yet!"

Henry stood up and Charlie hit him on top of his head, staggering him. Henry grabbed his head and turned away and Charlie hit him high on the back of his shoulder knocking him face down. Henry rolled over on his left side and curled into the fetal position. "Forty dollars! You ain't worth forty dollars!"

Charlie kicked Henry high on the tail bone. The needle-toed cowboy boots sent a jolt up Henry's back and down his legs. "You plan on hittin' anybody else with a rock?" Henry didn't answer and Charlie kicked him again. "You better answer me hare-lip!"

"No sir," Henry mumbled.

"You do and we'll have this little talk again." Charlie squatted down near Henry's face, "Won't be no Santa Claus for you. That forty dollar doctor bill is all the Christmas you're getting." Henry wasn't thinking about Christmas. Christmas was two months away and Henry's head, mouth, shoulder and tail bone hurt.

 

Henry was embarrased to go to school. He'd looked in the mirror before catching the bus and saw that his left eye and the left side of his head was purple. His tail bone hurt also and he knew he'd have trouble sitting all day. During the first recess, Mrs. Eubanks brought Principal Nickles outside and called Henry over. Nickles grinned and said something to her that Henry didn't hear and she walked away. Henry was also ordered to come home on the bus instead of going to his grandmother's. Charlie would look after him from now on.

 

Christmas day was cloudy and in the low forties. Charlie, Erica and Henry arrived at Lahoma's late in the morning. Levi and his wife and four year old daughter and Patricia and her husband were already there. Benjamin and Leta wouldn't be coming. Two hours later, Charlie was ready to go. Lahoma wanted Henry to stay. "He has chores to do," Charlie told her.

"For goodness sake, Charlie, it's Christmas! Can't he do them tomorrow?"

"He'll do them today."

Henry had been standing halfway between the porch and the truck hoping Lahoma might get her way. Charlie turned and saw him. "You better get in that truck, now!"

Henry climbed into the truck and slid next to his mother. On the way home Charlie stopped the truck and beat Erica. Henry didn't know what reason he was using this time to justify it but he supposed his mother had just enjoyed herself too much. That seemed to be the only reason Charlie needed. At home, Charlie dragged Erica into the bedroom and slammed the door. Henry went outside.

 

The last week of April, a car load of older boys grabbed Bucky again and drove him to the river. That evening Bucky walked to the storage shed behind his home, threw a nylon cord over a rafter, climbed on a chair and hung himself. No one bragged this time about picking him up. Henry missed his friend and Lahoma couldn't find answers to her grandson's questions.

 

Lahoma bought a television and invited her daughter and family over. After watching Gene Autry, Red Skelton and Dragnet, Charlie knew he had to have one. A few days later Erica 'borrowed' a hundred dollars from her mother and the following Saturday, while Henry and Erica did their chores, Charlie watched the delivery men from Kelly's Appliances raise the antenna and secure it with guy wires. He spent the rest of the day inside, drinking beer and marveling at modern science. That evening he went hunting and Erica and Henry watched the Jackie Gleason Show and Your Show of Shows.

Erica's social life had been trimmed to two or three nights a week of bar hopping. Now, with a television in the house, Charlie quit taking her to the bars altogether. He chose the shows they watched while he was home, preferring Treasury Men in Action to Four Star Playhouse or Shower of Stars. He hated the comedies and chose westerns or cop shows whenever possible.

 

Charlie decided to stay home for the cotton harvest but told Henry he was expected to go to the fields. The fields were close enough to walk to and Charlie told Henry he was expecting him to pull at least two hundred and fifty pounds a day. Henry seldom pulled more than two hundred pounds and Charlie cursed him daily for being 'lazy and ungrateful', ending the scolding by popping him hard on the top of his head.

CHAPTER THREE

Henry was at Luther's, trying to decide whether he wanted to spend his nickle on a candy bar or a coke. He chose a Milky Way and was standing at the counter waiting to pay when he saw Leon and Jacob Holton shoving cigars down the front of their shirts while Joshua Holton kept an eye on Luther. Henry paid for his candy and walked across the street to the school.

During English class, Principal Nickles called Henry and Leon to his office. Jacob and Joshua were already seated in the waiting area. When the boys were told to enter they saw Luther standing there waiting for them. "Are these the ones?" Nickles asked. Luther nodded yes.

"Okay boys, Luther wants his cigars back. He saw the four of you take them." No one spoke.

"I want to know where those cigars are and I want to know now!" No one spoke.

"All I want are those cigars. You boys are in enough trouble without making it worse. Just return Luther's property and take your punishment and we'll forget this little incident ever happened." No one spoke.

Nickles let out a sigh, "Thank you for calling this to my attention, Luther. I'll search their lockers and desks and anywhere else they might have hidden them. I'm also going to call their parents."

Luther left and Nickles called the boys in one at a time and gave each one fifteen licks with the heavy paddle. On the way back to class, Leon told Henry that he'd informed Principal Nickles that Henry wasn't with them at Luther's. Nickles searched each boy's locker and desk but didn't find a single cigar.

 

Charlie wasn't home when Henry climbed off the bus. The phone rang when he entered the house and he ignored it. He walked into the kitchen, cut a slab of bologna, grabbed a handful of crackers and a raw turnip and left the house through the back door. He climbed the fence and made the twenty minute walk across the fields to the river, eating bologna and crackers on the way. At the river he sat on an embankment and ate the turnip then spent the next hour following the river downstream. When the sun touched the tree tops he turned back, arriving home shortly before dark. Charlie was waiting for him.

"You little thief!" Charlie hit Henry on the left side of his face just below the eye. Henry fell back against the screen door and he heard the screen tear. "I'll teach you to steal! I can't even go to town and face Luther because of you!"

Henry climbed to his feet and tried to back away. Charlie grabbed the front of Henry's shirt and pulled him closer. "I hear you like cigars. When I get done with you the last thing you'll want is a cigar!" Charlie grabbed Henry's mouth and squeezed, forcing the boy's mouth open and his head up. He took a cigar from his shirt pocket and shoved it in Henry's mouth. Henry couldn't breathe and he grabbed Charlie's hand trying to force it away. He heard his mother screaming.

"You're killing him, Charlie! For goodness sake, he can't breathe!" Charlie turned loose long enough to hit him again. The blow split Henry's lip and slammed him into the corner! Henry spit the cigar out and Charlie pulled him up and held him by the jaw, forcing Henry to look into his eyes.

"Someone's going to pay for those cigars and it won't be me! I'll call Luther and find out what you owe and you'll pay him every last penny! I don't care how or where you get the money but you'll get it! Do you understand?"

"Yes sir."

"You get in that bedroom and don't let me see your ugly face again before morning!"

 

Henry woke the next morning to smell eggs frying. He dressed, then carried the slop bucket outside and dumped it over the fence, stopping at the outhouse before returning to the house. He stood at the kitchen basin and washed his face. The left side was swollen and his left eye was black. His bottom lip was swollen enough that he could turn his eyes downward and see the lip protruding. He sat down at the table and looked around the room for Charlie. Erica set a plate of eggs, bacon and biscuit down in front of Henry and he asked where Charlie was. "He's looking after one of his dogs."

"I hope the dog kills him."

"He's your father, Henry. Show him some respect."

"He ain't my father and he never will be. I hate him!"

Erica sat down next to Henry and sipped a cup of coffee. "Mr. Holton called last night and told us his boys said you had nothing to do with stealing those cigars."

"Did you tell Mr. Holton I got a beating for it?"

"That's none of Mr. Holton's business, Henry."

"Everybody in school will take one look at me and know." Erica chewed her lip and looked away. "Don't worry, Mama, I'll just tell 'em I fell off the porch."

 

Henry could feel the other kids staring at him.The left side of his face looked like a purple melon and his lower lip stuck out like an extra thumb. Mrs. Eubanks asked Henry what happened to him and Henry told her he'd fallen off the porch. "That must've been a high porch," she replied.

 

During lunch, Henry found a place near the pump house, a few feet away from the school entrance and sat down. Halfway through his sandwich the Holton brothers joined him. Although Henry rode the bus with the Holtons every day and Leon was in his classes, he'd never spoken to them. The brothers always sat together at the back of the bus. Henry had never seen any of the three in a fight but he'd heard stories that they were all 'scrappers'. He'd also heard that their daddy, Orville, was one of the toughest men in the county and their mother, Mona, was the toughest of the lot. "Can we sit with you, Rabbit?" Leon asked after all three of the brothers had already sat down.

"Sit where you want to," Henry answered.

Leon was Henry's age but a good two inches taller and ten pounds heavier. Jacob was close to Henry's height but stockier and a year older. Joshua was thin and tall and two years older than Henry. "Thanks for not telling on us," Joshua said.

"Yeah, Rabbit, thanks," Leon added. "Did your daddy give you that beating?"

"I don't have a daddy."

"Sure you do. Everybody knows Charlie is your daddy, even if he ain't married to your mama." 

Henry turned red. "I told you, I ain't got no daddy!"

Jacob grinned. "Sure you do. You may not claim him but he's your daddy."

"Leave him alone, Jake," Leon told him. "If Rabbit says Charlie ain't his daddy then he ain't his daddy. I wouldn't claim him for my daddy neither."

"What are you doing after school, Rabbit?" Joshua asked.

"Going home I reckon."

"Why don't you ride the bus home with us? I promise I won't let Jake tease you about Charlie no more."

"I got chores to do first but I can meet you after that. You're not that far down the river from our house."

"We'll meet you on the river then."

 

During the afternoon recess, the four sat together and talked. Joshua knew all the schoolyard gossip about which girl would show her tits or pull down her panties for a nickle or which would 'put out'. Henry was ignorant about most of what he heard but tried to act well-informed. "I'd like to pluck Luann," he told them. The others started laughing and Henry blushed.

"It's not pluck," Jacob told him. "Pluck is something you do to a chicken."

"I know that," Henry lied.

 

Charlie wasn't home when Henry arrived. He carried out the trash and checked the water bucket in the kitchen then climbed the fence and started across the field to the river. He followed the river downstream and had gone nearly two miles when he met the Holtons walking toward him. "We thought we'd walk up river and meet you," Leon explained. "The old man wants us to bring you to our house. He says he'll drive you home when you're ready."

"What does he want with me?"

"He just said he wanted to meet you."

 Henry followed the brothers another two miles down river then up an ambankment and another quarter mile to a white farmhouse with a hand-painted sign that read 'hay for sale - 50 cents a bale' nailed to a fence post in front of the house. He followed the trio passed the front porch and around to the back. The boys entered the house through the back porch into the kitchen. Henry saw a small woman pouring coffee into a cup held by the biggest hands he'd ever seen. The man stood up from the table and extended a ham-sized hand to Henry. He was well over six feet and muscular. The woman wasn't much bigger than Henry. "You must be Rabbit. I've heard the boys talk about you. I'm Orville Holton and this is my wife, Mona Holton." Henry shook his hand and the man returned to his chair.

"The boys say you got a whipping for something they did." Orville Holton was studying Henry's face. "Boy's, would you mind stepping outside for a minute while I have a man-to-man talk with Rabbit? You don't mind do you, Rabbit?" Henry stayed in the kitchen while the others walked outside.

"What happened to your face, Rabbit?"

"I fell off the porch."

"I didn't know we had porches that high around here. Listen...I don't condone what my boys did. I want you to understand that. When Luther called and then Principal Nickles called, I was waiting with a strap when they got home and I took the strap to all three of 'em. They told me you took a whippin' when you could have told on 'em. You know why they told me, Rabbit? It's because I've taught my boys there's nothin' lower than a snitch. Like I said, I don't condone stealing but I can tolerate a thief easier than I can tolerate a snitch. I called Charlie last night and told him what the boys told me. I reckin I called too late and I'm sorry about that." Henry started easing toward the front door. The conversation was making him uncomfortable. He felt Charlie would have beat him regardless of any phone call.

"You got a lot of your uncle Robert in you. Some of your grandmother too, I suspect."

"You knew my uncle?"

"We grew up together. He was my best friend and he was one of a kind. They don't make 'em like your uncle anymore. You'd be the spittin' image of him if it weren't for that hare-lip." Orville drained his cup and Mona Holton asked if he wanted a refill. Orville declined.

"You're welcome here anytime, Rabbit. You remember that. Why don't you go outside now and get the boys to show you their canyon?"

 

Henry found the brothers sitting on the butane tank, waiting for him. "What did the old man want?" Leon asked.

"He said for you to show me your canyon."

"Then we'll go to the canyon," Joshua said.

Henry followed the boys passed a chicken coop to a fenced pasture a hundred yards or so from the house. A flat-bed trailer sat in front of the barn, its tongue resting on a cinder block. Henry counted three dogs lying in the shade of the trailer. They climbed the fence and walked across a pasture, populated by several cattle, until they reached a growth of small trees and shrubs. They climbed another fence and a moment later arrived at the canyon, a large ravine a dozen or so feet at one end to nearly forty feet in the middle. Several small gullies ran out in all directions from the main body of the ravine. The four climbed down an embankment and walked to the center.

As they sat in the soft sand, Joshua pulled six cigars from inside his shirt. "Daddy didn't find these. He found the others and took 'em back to Luther but I had these hid under the butane tank."

Joshua gave everyone a cigar and put the other two back in his shirt. He pulled a small box of Diamond safety matches from his pants pocket and lit his and Leon's cigars and then blew out the match. He struck another match and held it to Jacob's cigar and then Henry's. "Bad luck to light three on a match, Rabbit."

Henry had never smoked but he'd seen others smoke. He took a deep draw, sucking the smoke into his lungs and immediately went into a coughing spasm. The three brothers laughed. "Here's how you do it, Rabbit," Leon showed him. "I nearly got sick my first time."

"I'd rather have a cigarette anytime," Joshua said, "but the old man won't leave his Camels laying around anymore."

"Not since he caught you stealing them," Leon said.

"Let's play slap," Jacob suggested.

"Rabbit can't play," Joshua told him.

"I forgot about his face," Jacob mumbled. "We can still play though. Our old man didn't beat us."

Henry was embarrassed and Joshua sensed it. "Shut up, Jake."

"Why don't ya'll play and I'll watch?" Henry offered.

"I don't want to play slap with Jake," Leon said. "He slaps too hard."

"I'll play," Joshua said, climbing to his feet.

Jacob stood up and the two brothers faced each other. Both boys held their hands together in front of their faces like they were praying. Jacob's right hand shot out and Joshua slapped it away. Jacob feinted with his left then swung with his right, slapping Joshua hard on his left cheek. Joshua staggered back a step and then grinned. "I quit,'" Jacob said.

"We just started," Joshua reminded him.

"I saw you grin and I know you're going to try to hurt me." Before Jacob could drop his hands, Joshua's right hand shot out, catching him hard and staggering him. Joshua's left hand followed, catching Jacob on the right cheek and staggering him again. He slapped Jacob three more times before Jacob could get away from him.

"Come on!" Joshua yelled. "Let's play slap!"

"No, you hit too hard when you're mad!"

"The old man's calling us," Leon told them. Henry hadn't heard a thing but the three brothers started up the embankment at once.

Orville was waiting by the back porch when they walked up. "I better take Rabbit home," he told them. "Crawl in the back if you want to go with me."

"I can follow the river home, sir."

"You'd never make it before dark and you don't need to be falling off no more porches."

 

The four friends rode in the back of the truck to Henry's. Charlie was in the dog pen with a shovel and bucket. He left the pen, dropped the bucket and shovel near the gate and walked toward the truck. "Where have you been?" He asked Henry, ignoring the Holton's.

"It's my fault, Charlie. I invited him to the house. If you have to get mad then get mad at me."

"I don't tell you how to raise your kids, Holton, and I don't want you telling me how to raise mine!" Charlie glared at Henry. "Get in the house now!"

Henry jumped from the truck and started walking toward the house with Charlie behind him. Orville Holton stepped out of the cab and hollered at Charlie to wait a minute. Charlie stopped and turned toward Orville. "I don't have a thing to say to you, Holton!"

Orville waited until Henry was in the house. Henry stopped just inside the door. He couldn't be seen but he could hear everything the two men said. "You think you're a big man , Charlie, beatin' a small boy like that."

"Did he tell you I beat him?"

"He didn't tell me nothin' but some bull about fallin' off the porch. You could have come up with somethin' better than that, Charlie!"

"It's none of your business! Now get off my property! You're not welcome here!"

Orville took a step closer to him and Charlie had to look up. Henry, peeking around the door, could see the sweat on the back of Charlie's neck. "I know where you hunt, Charlie, and I know the men you hunt with. If that boy falls off anymore porches I'm going to show up at the next hunt and we're going to continue this discussion. Am I making myself clear enough?"

Henry didn't hear Charlie's answer. Orville walked back to his truck and backed out of the driveway. Charlie walked into the house and slapped Henry down. "I don't want you around those white trash Holtons! Do you hear me?" Charlie thumped Henry's head with his middle finger.

"Yes sir."

 

Henry left the house one Sunday morning shortly after daylight. Charlie had come home an hour or so earlier and the bedsprings had woke him. He walked to the river and headed down stream toward the Holton farm. Two hours later he stood on an embankment and watched the house for any movement. After a little while he saw three figures leave the house and walk toward the barn. Henry ran across the field and arrived at the barn as Joshua was coming out carrying a milk bucket. "Hi, Rabbit. Did you walk over here? Leon and Jake are in the barn. I have to take this inside and I'll be right back."

Henry walked into the barn and saw Jake and Leon engaged in a milk fight. Both boys sat in front of a cow with a pail under the animal's udder with a teat in their hands. They were aiming the teats at each other and squeezing, shooting a long stream of milk in each other's face. They stopped when they heard Henry. "Did you walk over here?" Jake asked.

Leon turned a teat toward Henry, squirting him in the face. Henry took several steps backward until he was sure he was out of range. "It's not that far using the river."

Joshua entered the barn and walked over to Henry. "Can you stay awhile? We're going crow hunting."

"I don't have a gun."

"Maybe the old man will loan you one."

The boys finished milking and walked to the house to ask their dad if Henry could go crow hunting with them. Orville Holton had reservations about loaning Henry a gun, especially after learning that Henry had never held a gun before much less fired one. He agreed to loan him an old twelve-gauge, single-shot, shotgun, providing Henry would let him show the proper way to handle and fire the gun.

Orville lined up several cans along an embankment in the ravine then handed Henry the shotgun and told him to pick a can and try to hit it. Henry raised the gun to his shoulder and Orville stood behind him and pulled the gun tight against Henry's shoulder and told him to hold it there, as tight as he could, when he fired. Henry pointed the barrel and fired. The recoil threw the barrel up and Henry back several feet. His shoulder felt like Charlie had kicked it. The can lay in the sand several feet from where it had been sitting on the fence. "Well, you hit the can and stayed on your feet. That's pretty good. How's your shoulder?"

"It's alright, sir."

"You just remember to keep that gun pointed up, Rabbit. Boys, ya'll keep an eye on him. Don't let him shoot any of our cows."

 The boys walked away from the river toward a tree line at the east end of the pasture. Henry saw several crows circling the tree tops. Joshua cupped his hands to his mouth and began imitating the crow's cawing. In a couple of minutes the crows began to land in the trees. An hour later everyone but Henry had killed at least one crow. Henry had killed a couple of tree tops. "Guess we oughta start back," Joshua told the others. "We told the old man we wouldn't be gone long."

Walking back, Henry saw a crow flying low over the field. He raised the shotgun and fired. The crow flew off. "Uh oh," Leon said, "look at that." Henry saw the cow a hundred feet or so away, standing near the fence. The animal's legs were wobbling and blood spurted from a hole in her neck. She stood several more seconds before dropping to her knees, a pink foam coming out of her mouth and nostrils. She snorted one last time.

"Holy

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: Linda L. Crelia
Bildmaterialien: Vicki L. Payne
Lektorat: Linda L. Crelia
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 10.06.2014
ISBN: 978-3-7368-1950-4

Alle Rechte vorbehalten

Widmung:
Dedicated to my wife, Linda Lee and my daughters, Melissa Anne, April Lea, Janie Marie and Jana Lee