Read Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers] Online

Authors: With Hope

Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers] (37 page)

BOOK: Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers]
3.59Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
“If you mean, does it change in an instant, yes. I never know what to expect.”
“Want me to take off my dress?” Emmajean was stroking the doctor’s knee.
“No, not now.” He patted her hand, then held it in his.
“She ran off the night of the rain. I had to call on Johnny Henry and the Henrys’ hired man to help me find her. Johnny found her in a shed over in the Austins’ woods. She’d been with a man. She had bruises on her face and blood on her thighs.”
“She’d been raped?”
“I don’t think it was rape, Doc. She’d . . . do it with anyone at anytime. If I find out who took advantage of her, it will be hard for me not to kill him.”
“Want to see my titties? Want to see my titties? Want me to take off my—”
“No, not now.” Doctor Hendricks took her hand in both of his.
“Was this the first time?”
“I’ve no way of knowing, Doc.”
“Could she be pregnant?”
“She’s not been sick in the morning as she was with Jay. But I’ve not noticed evidence of a monthly flow lately. Christ! I’ve not thought of that. She has never been very discreet and left the cloths she used at that time lying around until I made her pick them up and wash them.”
“It wouldn’t be unusual for her flow to stop, as run-down as she is. She’s lost a lot of weight since I saw her last.”
“I have a hard time getting her to eat.”
“Commitment to the state hospital for the insane, if that is what you decide to do, will require having a judge of the probate court pass on her mental state. An affidavit charging lunacy would then be filed with the clerk of the court, and she would be taken by the sheriff and placed in custody so that one or more physicians could examine her. The judge would then listen to testimony of witnesses. If she is judged insane, it would be out of your hands and she would be committed.”
“I don’t want to do that unless I have no other choice. I’ve heard that they just lock them up and forget them.”
“I agree that they are awful, but necessary, places. It isn’t a place to send someone to get well.”
“Her brother was here yesterday. He’s taking word back to her folks. In the meanwhile is there anything—No, Emmajean. Don’t do that.” Emmajean had pulled her hand from the doctor’s and had thrust it up under her dress and between her legs.
“Don’t be embarrassed, Tom. She doesn’t realize what she’s doing. A person of unsound mind will sometimes show strong sexual tendencies”
“It seems to be what’s on her mind . . . most of the time.”
“You were going to ask if I could give her something to calm her down. I’m not qualified to prescribe for her, Tom. In a hospital, they would know what to do. The best you can do now is to fix a place to put her, so that you can get some rest. You look exhausted.”
“I thought of locking her in her room. But it would be hot, and she could crawl out a window if I raised one.”
“Cover the windows and the door with chicken wire. You can see in, but she can’t get out. It would serve for a few days until you decide what to do. I’m sorry I can’t do more to help you, Tom. If you decide on the state asylum, let me know, and I’ll help you arrange it.”
“I’ll wait on that until I hear from her folks. I want them to come and see her. After all, she’s their only daughter, and they can afford to put her in a private sanitarium.”
The doctor stepped off the porch and headed for the car. Emmajean clung to his arm. Tom braced himself for the scene when the doctor left. When they reached the car, Doctor Hendricks reached inside and brought out a red candy sucker.
“This is for being a good girl, Emmajean.” He spoke as if he were talking to a child. “Go sit on the porch. I’ll come back and see you in a few days.”
Emmajean took the candy, looked at it, and threw it in the dirt. She screamed an obscenity and hit him. Then she darted past Tom and tried to get in the car. He grabbed her about the waist and lifted her off the running board.
“Sorry, Doc.”
Tom carried her kicking and screaming to the house. When he looked back, Doctor Hendricks was backing out of the yard. In her room, he dropped Emmajean on the bed. To his surprise she stayed there. He waited to see if the tantrum was over, then went to the kitchen and splashed water on his face in an attempt to suppress his frustration.
Tom doubted now that Marty would take his message to Mr. Conroy, and unless he was able to get to a telephone and call the man, there would be no help there. He was also disappointed that Doctor Hendricks was unable to perscribe a medication to calm Emmajean. His head ached with the need to sleep, and his heart ached with the burden of loving a woman he couldn’t have.
* * *
During the day Emmajean went into another stage of strange behavior. She sank into a deep depression and became so docile that she ate when Tom told her to eat, she sat when he told her to sit, and washed her face and hands when he told her to. She uttered not a single word. It was such a drastic change that it was scary.
Tom took her with him when he did chores, pushing her down to sit on a box where he could see her. She sat there until he finished, then followed him back to the house.
This behavior, although it allowed him more freedom, was almost as frightening as the hyperactive, erotic way she had been for weeks. Then, he had known what to expect.
She sat on the porch until dark saying nothing. When it was time to go to bed, she pulled off her dress and slipped a nightdress over her head.
“Do you want a drink of water, Emmajean?”
When he received no answer, he urged her down on the side of the bed and went to the kitchen for a dipper of water. She was still sitting there when he returned and drank when he told her to drink. When she lay down and tucked her pressed palms under her cheek, Tom looked down at her. She looked like a helpless child. He felt deep sympathy for this disturbed young woman whose family despised her for reasons that were no fault of hers.
Indulging in his favorite pastime of dreaming about the brief moments when he had held Henry Ann in his arms, Tom lay on his bunk in the kitchen. Time had gone fast. It was the middle of summer, and tomorrow was the Fourth of July. It would be no holiday for him. If Emmajean were still in this mode of behavior, he might be able to do the washing.
Long ago he had hidden the knives and anything else that he thought she could use as a weapon. Nevertheless, he had not been able to do more than catnap. Tonight, for the first time in weeks, Tom had a good night’s sleep, although he awakened periodically to go to Emmajean’s room to be sure that she was still in bed.

 

Chapter Twenty
Henry Ann had not missed going to town on the Fourth of July since she had scarlet fever when she was eight years old. She debated with herself about going this year, fearing she might be snubbed as she had been the day she went to town with Johnny. She talked it over with Aunt Dozie.
“Yo go and hold up yo head. Yo ain’t done nothin’ fer them folk to high-hat yo over.”
Oh, but I have, Aunt Dozie! But knowing that Tom loves me is worth the snubs of everyone in the whole state of Oklahoma.
The festivities began with a group of war veterans marching down the street followed by the high-school band and a few cars carrying the banners of political candidates. There were vendors with pushcarts selling hot tamales wrapped in corn shucks and others selling crushed ice flavored with thick sweet syrup in paper cones. Popcorn and hot peanuts in the shell were sold along the street, as were colorful balloons tied with a string.
A high-striker machine was set up, and the barker challenged the young men to show off their muscles and win prizes by hitting the base with a mallet hard enough to make the bell ring at the top. A shell game, a penny pitch, a baseball throw, and other games lined the street. A small, six-horse merry-go-round was set up in the middle of the unpaved intersection, its music blaring. The crowd wandered along the street while they waited for the big attraction of the day, the start of the dance marathon.
In other years Henry Ann and Karen had been in charge of the church sale of crafts produced by the ladies and some of the men members, but this year Henry Ann had declined early in the spring; and now, as she came into town with Johnny, Grant, and Jay, she was glad. They had left Aunt Dozie at her church so that she could participate with the other members of the congregation in the “dinner-on-the-ground” and visit with her relatives.
They could see the striped tent over the dance platform as they drove down a rutted side lane. Johnny parked the car under a leafy tree on the street near the church. At the side, shaded by the church building, the tables holding crafts for sale and a lemonade stand had been set up. Karen came out from behind the makeshift counter when Henry Ann, with Jay’s hand clasped in hers, approached.
“I wondered if you’d come today.” Her eyes darted past Henry Ann to where Johnny and Grant leaned against the car, then back. She lifted Jay’s face with a finger beneath his chin. “Hello, Jay.”
“I almost didn’t.”
“You’ve heard. Oh, Henry, it’s so unfair. That old biddy! I’ve told everyone I could that what she’s spreading around isn’t true. But some people want to believe it.”
“What’s she spreading around?”
“Well . . . that . . . you’re having an affair with . . . you know who.”
“Is that all?”
“No, she blames you for leading Chris astray and arranging for him to be with Opal.”
“Oh, my goodness.”
“That’s not all.” Karen giggled.
“Not all? What else could there be?”
“She’s blaming you for
my
downfall.”
“When did you . . .
fall
?” Henry Ann’s grin was forced.
Jay’s hand was pulled from Henry Ann’s. She looked around to see that Grant had removed his battered Stetson and was lifting him to his shoulder to sit astride his neck.
“Hello, Karen.”
“Hello.”
Henry Ann saw the flush rise on her friend’s cheeks and noted the way her eyes clung to Grant’s face.
“Johnny and I will take Jay for a while so you ladies can visit. We’ll be back in time to walk down to see the start of the marathon. Can you go with us, Karen?”
“I think so. I agreed to be here only for an hour, and the time is about up.”
A minute or two passed before the girls spoke. Their eyes had followed Grant, with Jay perched on his shoulder and Johnny sauntering along beside him, until they turned the corner and were out of sight.
Two women came down the walk and stopped to look over the crafts on the tables.
“Hello, ladies,” Karen greeted them cheerfully. “Can I sell you something?”
“I don’t think so.”
The one who spoke wore her hair in scallops held in place with long bobby pins on each side of her face and drawn in a small bun on the back of her neck. She kept her gaze turned from Henry Ann, who had known the woman for most of her life.
Henry Ann squared her shoulders defensively. She was being snubbed and decided to force the woman to face her to do it.
“Hello, Mrs. Oden. How’s Marie? I haven’t seen her since she moved to Duncan.”
“She’s all right.” Mrs. Oden spoke without turning and with a hand on the back of her companion urged her out toward the street.
Anger and resentment forced Henry Ann to ask about Mrs. Oden’s son, who was in jail in Ardmore for stealing gasoline.
“And how is Melvin? I’ve not seen him for a while.” When she received no answer, she said, “Well, ’bye. Tell Marie I said hello, and Melvin, too—when he gets out.”
Henry Ann was too angry to cry.
“Narrow-minded old biddy! She can snub me because she
thinks
I’m a homebreaker when her own son is in jail for stealing!”
“Good for you. I’m glad you asked about Melvin; he’s a warthog.”
“Did anyone say anything to your daddy about you being out at my place last Sunday?”
“Oh, yes! Mrs. Miller told him about Tom being there when his poor wife was sick at home, and about Chris being with Opal, and how poor Mrs. Austin was heartsick over her son being seen with a woman of ill repute. She hinted that I was too innocent to know what was going on between you and Tom out at that
indecent
place. She also told him that since your daddy died you had lost your reason and were taking vagrants in off the road.”
“My goodness! What did he say to all of that?”
“Nothing. He knows Mrs. Miller. He met Grant . . . and he liked him.” Karen’s eyes danced. “He told me to ask him to come to supper sometime this week.”
“You mean it?”
“Sure. Daddy’s a good judge of character. He likes Tom, too.” Karen’s smile widened. “Even if he is a Catholic.”
The woman who was to relieve Karen arrived, freeing her to leave with Henry Ann. The two girls walked down the street toward the high-striker, where Grant was paying the operator. Johnny sat on the running board of a nearby car. Jay was standing between his knees eating an icecream cone.
BOOK: Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers]
3.59Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

All Our Yesterdays by Natalia Ginzburg
Mama Gets Hitched by Deborah Sharp
Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts
B008KQO31S EBOK by Cooke, Deborah, Cross, Claire
Shadows Linger by Cook, Glen
The Third Kingdom by Terry Goodkind
Haunted Clock Tower Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Ransom by Grace Livingston Hill