——————
SINCE EARL WAS FOUND WITH a tire iron, he was considered armed and dangerous and held in the local lock-up for the next 24 hours. On Friday he stood before the district court judge trying to claim it was all a mistake.
“I wasn’t myself,” he said. “I been sick with worry over my fiancé who took our daughter and run off with a guy named Bobby Doherty.”
The judge looked over at Doherty. “You know anything about this, Mr. Doherty?”
“Absolutely not. I’m not a man who seduces young women with children.”
Standing firm on his claim, Earl said, “I know for a fact my Suzanna’s with a guy named Bobby Doherty. If he ain’t the one, then he knows who else has got the exact same name, and he ought to say who.”
With a curious expression, the judge eyed Doherty and asked, “Do you know the party the defendant is referring to?”
“No, sir, your honor,” Doherty said. “The only other Bobby Doherty I know is my nephew, and he moved to Atlanta over three years ago. He’s a highly respected lawyer with Greene and Garrett and a happily married man. I doubt he’d have an interest in cavorting with this man’s so-called fiancé.”
A light bulb went off in Earl’s head. The lawyer nephew had to be the one he’d been looking for.
“Okay, I made a mistake,” he said penitently. “Making a mistake ain’t a crime.”
“No, it’s not,” the judge replied. “But voyeurism and trespassing certainly is.” He banged the gavel down and said, “Sixty days.”
“Sixty days!” Earl yelled. “You gotta be kidding me!”
“I assure you I’m not,” the judge said, “and if I hear another outburst, it will be doubled.”
“What kind of crackpot sentence is that? A man makes one lousy mistake—”
The judge banged the gavel again. “120 days. Do you want to try for six months?”
Earl shook his head and was led from the courtroom.
Ida
A Family Thanksgiving
TWO WEEKS AFTER THE HARVEST Festival, Ida had a dream that was so vivid it woke her in the middle of the night. In the dream she sat across the kitchen table from Bill, and he looked as he did in those last few years before the cancer. His hair snow white, his hands gnarled and stiff, but his eyes as clear and blue as they’d been the day she first met him. He stretched his arm across the table and took her hand in his.
“Have you thought this through?” he asked.
She nodded, and he smiled.
“I was so terribly lonely in those early days, the days right after…”
She was unable to say the words, but he understood. It was as it had always been. He knew her thoughts before she gave them voice.
“I’d lost the will to even get out of bed. In the morning I’d wake, see the sun in the sky, then pull the covers over my head and turn my face to the wall. Loneliness is worse than cancer, Bill. Cancer only destroys your body, but loneliness, that eats away at every part of you, even your heart and mind.”
“I know,” he said tenderly. “I’ve been watching over you.”
“Moving on doesn’t mean I’ve stopped caring. I hope you realize that.”
“Of course I do. I never meant for you to be unhappy.”
“I was for a long time, but now it’s different. The house is like it was when you were here, full of happiness and laughter. The day that girl walked into the Elks Club, I knew something good would come of it.” She hesitated a moment then gave way to an easy smile. “You brought them here to be with me, didn’t you?”
He shook his head ever so slowly. “No, Ida, I didn’t. But perhaps He did.”
“He? He who?”
Bill chuckled. “You’ll find out in time.” He took his hand from hers and leaned back in the chair. “I can’t stay, sweetheart, but there’s something you should know.”
“Don’t go! Please. Just a few minutes longer—”
His voice grew thin and far away sounding. “I can’t stay, but I’ll always be here. Even when you don’t see me, know that I’m here, watching over you.”
Tears blurred her vision, and when she reached for his arm it was no longer there.
“Bill, wait,” she cried. “What were you going to tell me?”
When no answer came, the thudding of her heart made it seem as though her chest were going to explode. It was as if someone were shaking her, tugging her arm, calling her to wake up.
She opened her eyes and sat up. There in the darkness of the bedroom they’d shared for all those years, she could sense his presence.
“You’re still here, aren’t you?”
There was no answer.
Ida leaned back into the pillows and sat there thinking. A sliver of moonlight fell softly across the floor, and the house was so silent she could hear the sound of her breath rising and falling. Remembering his words, a troublesome thought entered her mind. Perhaps Bill was trying to warn her of something, but what?
He seemed pleased at the thought of Annie and her mom being here, so it had to be something else. Gregg? The thought of such a nice young man being of concern seemed ludicrous; it had to be something else. Ida ran through a litany of things to worry about and summarily dismissed each one.
Then it hit her. Time. That’s what Bill was trying to tell her. He was trying to warn her that, like him, she had less time than she thought. If that were the case, she would have to do something soon. With the situation as complicated as it was, she was going to need a plan and even then it would be no easy task. She sat for hours trying to figure out a way to overcome the obstacles, work around the truth of what was, and get to where she needed to be. It would be difficult but not impossible. Bill had done it. He’d planned ahead and arranged for a
