By Katie
Copyright 2000
It was a peaceful night in July. The kind of night that inspired young lovers to sit on the porch, watch the stars, and sneak passionate kisses in the dark. The air was beginning to cool down after the scorchingly hot day that had come before it and a sweet-smelling breeze that bespoke the promise of a greatly needed rain blew gently through the small town located on the outskirts of St. Joseph. A crescent moon hung over the nearby lake, casting its reflection on the lapping waters below. All was quiet, until, suddenly, the sweet, summer song of the cicada was interrupted by two sounds as different from each other as life and death, for, indeed, that is what the sounds signified.
A scream of pain was ripped from the throat of the young woman giving birth in a small, steamy room in a house on the outskirts of that small town and, at the same exact instant, the father of that yet-to-be-born child gave an order for a bullet to be fired into the chest of the man he considered his enemy. The woman screamed again, as she strove to bring her beloved child into the world. The man sniffed with a sorely hidden contempt for the man whose life he had given the order to end.
The woman screamed one last time with the frustration that only a soon-to-be mother who had known the pain of childbirth for too long could know and then began to cry as her child was, at long last, displaced from its safe haven and brought into the harsh instability of the world.
The man strode out of the barn where the killing had been done, walked nonchalantly to his horse and calmly issued an order for the body to be disposed of. He then mounted his stallion and rode towards that small town just outside the city limits - the sound of his horse’s thundering hooves matching the sound of the thunder that was beginning to rumble on the darkened horizon.
It was a unusually hot day in October and Mary Louise McCloud stood outside the general store in St. Joseph’s scanning the street anxiously for her ‘husband’. Her mind kept replaying the conversation between the two older townswomen that she had overheard.
“That poor woman,” said Mrs. Peterson, “I can’t believe that she is still living with that Jeffrey Boggs”.
“I know,” replied Mrs. Birch, “She is such a lovely girl and for her to be living in sin all those years… I think she’s the only one who doesn’t know what he’s doing behind her back”.
“For him to be running off to St. Louis to be courting some young thing when Mary’s stuck by him for all these years”.
“And her with two children and another on the way”.
“He doesn’t even care that he’s putting her immortal soul in danger as well as his own ”.
Mary closed her eyes and tried to block the conversation from her memory. She had noticed that Jeffrey’s “business trips” to St. Louis were becoming more and more frequent, but she had just told herself that his business was important and that she would stand by him no matter what he needed to do. She knew that he hadn’t always been faithful, but he was kind to her and he was the father of her children. That should count for something. Shouldn’t it? Besides she did love him and she was sure that he loved her too. He wouldn’t have stayed with her for all those years if he didn’t.
Mary shifted Jeremiah to her left hip and he started to cry. She didn’t blame him. She was on the verge of tears herself. They’d been in town all day and Jeremiah was starting to get cranky. Secretly, Mary was starting to get cranky herself. She was tired of gossip. Her back was starting to hurt and to top it all off she was seven months pregnant with her third child and was very conscious of the impropriety of even being out in public in her state. She wouldn’t even have gone in to town at all if Jeffrey hadn’t insisted he needed someone to get the shopping done at the general store while he went and took care of some business.
Mary tiredly scanned the crowd again and her heart lifted when she finally saw Jeff walking over to where she was standing. Her six year-old daughter was running; trying to keep up with her father’s bigger steps as they crossed the crowded street.
“Mama, Mama! Daddy let me look at the horsies over in the corral! When can I have one of my own!”
“Louise, darling, you can have one when your Daddy …,” Mary started to say when she was cut off by Jeffrey.
“Mary, I wish you’d stop encouraging that child. You know as well as I do that we have to start planning for when Jeremiah gets bigger. We can’t spend all kinds of money on ponies for little girls, when we’re going to have to start saving the money to send Jeremiah off to school. He’s going to have to be capable of running the business when I turn it over to him. I won’t have a son of mine not knowing how the real world works simply because his sister wanted a pony”.
“Jeffrey, you know that’s not fair to Louise. She may not be taking over your business anytime soon, but she is your daughter and she deserves your respect if nothing else. Everyone deserves a little bit of pampering and just because she’s a girl doesn’t mean she’s worthless.”
“Mary, I said no. I meant what I said and there will be no more talk about it. Is that understood?”
Mary sighed in resignation, “Jeff, if that’s really how you feel, I wish you’d stop taking her over to the corral to look at the horses then. She loves them so much and you’re just setting her up for disappointment.”
“Mary,” Jeffrey said in the tone he would use if he was talking to a five year old, “I don’t need you patronizing me in public. I do business with some of these people and I do not need my authority undermined. Is that understood?”
Mary just nodded her head and wished she could sink into the floor as Mrs. Peterson and Mrs. Birch walked out of the general store and smiled sympathetically in her direction.
“Good,” said Jeffrey, “Now get those children in the wagon and let’s get home. I could use some dinner.”
Mary held back tears all the way home. She was so angry at Jeffrey for having embarrassed her in front of those old gossips and she knew that by tomorrow everyone would know what had happened in town. She tried to hold her head up and told herself that she was just be overemotional due to her pregnancy. She wanted to believe that as soon as the baby she now carried was born everything would be okay again. This baby was the last chance to fix the problems that were occurring in their relationship. She just knew that everything would be alright in a few months time. She would be beautiful again and Jeffrey would be proud to have her on his arm.
It was her eighth birthday and Louise Boggs sat in her room and wiped away the tears that cascaded down her cheeks as she listened to her parents scream at each other in the other room. Her father hadn’t been home all that much in the past several months, but when he was home the small family held their collective breath and watched their step when he was in the vicinity. Jeffrey and Mary had been fighting more frequently and more violently than they ever had before, but it had never been anything like this and Louise knew it was her fault. If she had only obeyed her father when he’d told her to stay away from their neighbor’s farm, none of this would have happened. She had only gone over to check and see if the dog that her neighbors had allowed her to adopt as her own had given birth to it’s puppies yet. She had let time slip away from her and hadn’t noticed how late in the day it had become. Her father had missed her at dinner and had gone looking to see what type of trouble she was getting herself into. Louise knew that she was in trouble the second she saw her father coming. She somehow managed to fight the incredible urge to run away and had waited for him to reach the spot where she was standing. She had braced herself for the onslaught of harsh insults and admonishments she usually received from her father when she disobeyed him, but she wasn’t prepared for the slap across the face that she received this time. Louise put her hand to her cheek to see if the swelling gone down at all. It hadn’t. After her father slapped her, he told her to get herself home and to wait for him there. Louise ran home sobbing. When she walked in the door Mary saw what Jeffrey had done and sat Louise down so she could wipe away her tears. As she was taking care of her eldest daughter’s face, Mary was inwardly fuming. How dare he raise his hand to one of our children. How dare he treat her like this.
Louise knew that her mother was very angry and worried about what was going to come next. She hated to be the cause of her parent’s arguments as she so often was. She didn’t try to get into trouble. Trouble just always knew where she was going and headed her off before she could get there. Louise’s stomach leapt into her throat as she heard her father’s horse stop outside of the small house. Mary told Louise to go to her room and get into bed and that she’d be in later to tuck her in. Louise had gone, but not before she saw the stubborn, proud silhouette of her mother as she waited at the door for Jeffrey to enter. Her parent’s conversation had started out low and muffled, but over the past half hour or so, had steadily increased in volume until Louise was sure the neighbors across the creek could hear it like it was occurring in their own living room.
The screaming from the other room woke little Theresa up and she began to cry. Theresa’s wail’s broke Louise out of her stupor and she crept over to her little sister’s bed and picked up her sister in an attempt to comfort her. She was turning around to put Theresa into bed with her when she noticed that Jeremiah was also awake and beginning to cry. She took Theresa over to Jeremiah’s bed and they both crawled under his covers. The three of them huddled together under the sheets and attempted to block their ears to the fight that was raging between their parents outside the bedroom door.
The screaming continued for what seemed like hours and then ended abruptly with the sounds of breaking glass and a loud slapping noise. Louise heard Mary’s sudden intake of breath and knew that her father had hit her mother in the same way that he had hit her earlier in the afternoon. Louise heard the low, angry tones of her father and the determined but frightened ones of her mother. She was glad Jeremiah and Theresa had fallen asleep. She wanted to go put her ear to the door the way she normally did when there was something she wanted to know about, but she was hesitant. She didn’t want to get in her father’s way because, with the mood he was in, she would be in even deeper trouble than she already was. However, curiosity won out. She had just made up her mind to creep slowly towards the door when she heard her father’s voice raise to a level that could be easily heard.
“Mary, I’m going to go take care of some business. I want you to keep the fire burning and the bed warm for when I get home. Is that going to be a problem?”
“No, Jeffrey, “ Mary said evenly, “There won’t be any problems.”
Louise heard the heavy tread of her father’s footsteps and the decisive slamming of the front door. Then she heard her mother, under her breath, utter the words that would change the lives of them all. There won’t be any problems Jeffrey. Not ever again.
Louise had finally fallen asleep and was in the middle of a dream that involved her father and the puppies across the way when she felt someone shaking her.
“Louise. Louise, you need to get up now”.
“What … Mama, what’s going on?”
“Sweetheart, you need to get up and get dressed. You, Theresa, Jeremiah, and I are going to go on a little trip.”
“Mama, where are we going?”
“We’re going to go to my parent’s, your grandparent’s, house out West. We have to leave right away.”
Mary had managed to get her oldest child out of bed and was now attempting to help quickly dress her sleepy form while keeping Jeremiah and Theresa from panicking about the strange circumstances they were being awakened to.
“Mama, I wanna bring toys,” pouted Theresa when she saw that her mother was not concerned with her belongings.
“Not now darling, we don’t have time for that.”
“Mama, what’s going on?” asked Jeremiah, who had taken his thumb out of his mouth to ask the question. Jeremiah was almost as confused as Theresa was. In the three short years of his life, he had never had his mother wake him up at night. Normally she wanted him to sleep. He didn’t understand. He was very confused and wanted nothing more than to crawl back into his bed and regain the feeling of safety that enveloped him there.
Mary knew Jeremiah and Theresa couldn’t understand what was going on and she also knew that Louise wasn’t old enough to understand all of it, so she thought quick.
“Alright boys and girls, here’s what is going on. We are going to play a game. We are spies in an enemy territory and we must sneak out of the house without being caught. Any questions?”
No one had any.
“Ok, we have to move fast. Louise, help your sister put her shoes on. Yes, Theresa let your sister help you. There you go.. Hurry kids, we have to get out of here.”
By some act of God, Theresa forgot about her toys and began to get caught up in the game. Jeremiah also began to get into it. Louise alone had a limited understanding of the night’s events and she knew she would never set foot in her house again. She grabbed her favorite doll off her bed and prepared to set out on the long journey that she knew was before her.
On to chapter Chapter Three
Main Page
