Filed to story: Love on the Sidelines (Natalie & Karl)
“Natalie? Where’s the bowl?”
“I’m sorry. I forgot and left it in the barn. I’ll get it in just a second.” 22
The Judge looked up as I leaned over the arm of his chair. “Come outside with me, please? It’s an emergency,” I whispered.
One of his eyebrows went up, but he folded the paper, stood and followed me into the night. “What’s wrong, Natalie?”
A lone lightning bug drifted between us as I stared up at him. “Before I tell you, he said you have to promise not to tell anyone else.”
“Who said I have to promise?”
“Karl. Please, Judge. He’s afraid if you know you’ll send him to a home.” I think he must have heard the desperation in my voice because he nodded. “Okay, I promise no one is going to send him to a home.”
“He’s in the barn and he’s hurt really bad.” I held out my hand to show him the blood. “I don’t know what to do.”
He headed toward the barn, his jaw clenched. “Stay here.”
“I can’t. He’ll leave if I’m not with you.”
Whenhedidn’tanswer,Itookitaspermissiontogowithhim.AsfarasIwas concerned, Karl was my responsibility and if I had to risk punishment to stay with him, I would.
I’d heard more than one person in town say the Judge was like an avenging angel when he’d sat on the bench, that justice and honor meant more to him than his own life, but I didn’t understand what they meant until that night. I’d never even seen the Judge mad before, but I saw it now.
Karl had managed to sit up. His head hung limply and he was breathing heavily when the Judge reached him. My grandfather’s entire body went stiff and I swear his eyes blazed fire. A string of words I’d never heard before issued from his lips, but when he spoke to Karl his voice was soft.
“I’m gonna help you stand up, son. Natalie, open the door to Mr. Bob’s room. We’ll put him in there.”
I hurried to obey, turning the light on and rushing to pull the blankets down on the twin-sized bed that sat in one corner. Mr. Bob’s needs had been simple. A bed, an easy chair with a table beside it, an electric heater for cold winter nights, and a bathroom.
Since he’d taken all his meals with the family, there wasn’t even a kitchen.
Karl’s face was white as the Judge lowered him to the bed, but he didn’t make a sound.
“You’re already running a fever,” the Judge said, gently removing the remnants of Karl’s shirt. “Lie down on your stomach. Natalie, get the first aid kit out of the bathroom, and find something clean to put warm water in.” The first aid kit was easy. We kept it in the medicine cabinet over the bathroom sink. There was also a bottle of aspirin and I grabbed that, too. Something to put water in was a little harder unless I wanted to go explain what was happening to my mother.
There weren’t any dishes or even buckets in the barn. Wait. The bowl I’d carried scraps in.
I darted into the barn and grabbed it, taking it back to the sink. There, I scrubbed it out with hand soap and rinsed it clean. When it was full of warm water, I dropped in a washcloth from the closet and carried it to the Judge.
“I’ll try to take it easy, son, but this is going to hurt some.” The Judge lifted the washcloth out and began bathing the blood from Karl’s back. In an agony of sympathy, I sat on the floor by the bed and held his hand.
“Did your daddy do this?” Under the circumstances, it was amazing how calm the Judge sounded.
Karl didn’t answer.
“You should be seeing a doctor.”
“No. You promised. He just got drunk is all.”
The Judge’s teeth ground together so loudly I could hear them. “From now on, when he starts drinking, you come over here. This is your room now, hear me?”
“I can’t. He’d come looking for me and cause you problems.”
“You let me worry about that. I made you a promise, now I want one from you.
When he starts drinking, you come over here.”
Karl hesitated, then nodded weakly. “I promise.” Once his back was cleaned and medicine applied, the Judge found one of Mr. Bob’s T-shirts for Karl to wear, then tucked him under the blankets and turned to me. “Natalie, you stay here and keep an eye on him until I get back. I’ve got some business to take care of.”
“What should I do?”
“Just keep him in bed and give him water if he’s thirsty.”
“Yes, sir.”
It wasn’t until years later that I discovered where he went that night. After a quick swing by the sheriff’s house, they confronted Frank Hayes. Not only did they threaten to take Karl away from him, the Judge promised him a healthy jail term if he ever touched Karl again. The sheriff got into the act by informing him that Karl had permission to stay at our house any time he wanted to, and if Frank knew what was good for him he’d accept the situation.
And while no one ever actually admitted it, I was pretty sure the female contingent of my family also knew what had happened. The barn cats suddenly became the recipients of three square meals a day, all nicely arranged on our good dishes with a fork and a glass of milk included. For once, even Aunt Darla kept her mouth shut.