What Do I Do Now, Mom?
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 26 

Black Sunday, Part 2

We decided to go home and take inventory of what we had, and get started on the picnic meal before someone went to the store.  When we pulled up at the trailer, there were three little boys sitting with their elbows on their knees and it looked as if they had been crying.

As soon as the car was stopped, Bobby, Billy and Witt were out of the car.  Bobby asked, “Guys, why are you here?”

Willy took a deep breath, “We rund away?”

Witt asked, “Why did you rund away, and how did you get here?”

Wally answered, “We rund away because after you left last night, the new people ate all the food we took home.”

Bobby looked confused, “There was lots of food.  What do you mean they ate all of it?”

Willy answered, “The new woman and her daughters acted as if they hadn’t eaten anything in days, and it was all gone before we went to bed.  This morning when we got up, even the eggs that you gave us were all gone.  There was nothing left for us to eat.  The pigs ate everything and there was nothing in the fridge, not even any bread.”

Billy was shaking his head, “How’d you get here?”

Wylie had tears in his eyes, “We walked.  We took all our new clothes and walked through the fields to get here.  We were afraid that that they would try to take the new clothes back to the store, so we hid them.  Please misters, can’t we stay here?  We’ll rund away again, if we have to go back to that other place.”

Bobby took charge, “If you’re going to stay here, then you need to help with all the work, but first we need to fix some lunch.  I’m getting hungry.  Put your clothes in Billy’s and my bedroom, go to bathroom and wash your hands.”

When we heard the three boys in the bathroom, Witt asked, “Sir, do you want me to take the boys home?”

Bobby shook his head, no, “Witt, you heard what they said.  They said they weren’t going back or they’d run away again.”

I intervened, “Witt, we don’t need to decide what to do with them, right now.  We need to worry about what to feed all the people who Bobby and Billy keep inviting for dinner, tonight.”

Billy sniveled, “I figured it would all be blamed on us.”

As we were eating, Witt and Billy were making lists.  Witt was making a menu and Billy was making a list of what we needed from the store.

While we were eating, Willy asked, “Mister Adler, do you always eat like this, for lunch?  This is more like what we have at night.  If we eat all of this food now, we won’t be hungry for the picnic, tonight.”

Bobby giggled, “Don’t worry, Willy.  We’re going to make you work so hard that you’ll be starving by the time we have the picnic.  Let’s get these dirty dishes inside, so the Dads can go to the store and we can start to get things ready for tonight.”

As Randy and I were going to the store, the topic of discussion was definitely what to do with Wally, Willy and Wylie.  We met a car coming toward us that honked and Ritchie stopped, so I stopped,

Ritchie opened his window, “Mom said to tell you she would be bringing a pasta salad.  Is there anything else you want the parents to bring?”

“Ritch, you need to check with the master chef, Witt.  Mr. Taylor and I are nothing more than gofers who are responding to the orders of Witt, Billy and Bobby.  Talk to you in a bit.”

Ritchie pulled away and two motorcycles were approaching, so I remained stationary thinking it was probably Kenny and Blake, since they were the only two people I knew who had motorcycles.  They pulled up beside the car. 

Kenny announced, “We’re bringing two watermelons to ice down.  We figured we’d come early and see if we could be of assistance.  I understand that there is a new kid in town staying with you?”

Randy laughed, “Guys, I think that you’ll find the farm has been infested with kids.  Be careful.”

When Randy and I returned from the supermarket, we were met by seven young guys.  Billy sniffled as only he can do, “The big guys kicked us out of the trailer.  They said we were getting in their way.”

The guys unloaded the car and took the purchases we made into the trailer.  Witt looked at me, “Mr. Adler, we have everything under control.  Why don’t you go get the grills ready to roll?  The guys have the serving tables all set.  We aren’t sure how many people are actually going to be here.  Nobody ever tells me anything.”

“Witt, now you know how I feel.  It’s always better to have too much than not enough.  We can take the leftovers to your Dad's farm, since they seem to be so hungry.”

Wally, Willy and Wylie reacted, “Mister, we’re not going back there.  They were fighting over who should get what to eat after Witt left last night and we ain’t taking any more food for them.”

Blake and Kenny looked confused.  I grinned, “We’ll explain later.”

The seven little guys disappeared and Randy and I were awaiting the arrival of our unknown number of dinner guests because Kenny, Blake, Witt and Ritch had seemed to develop a camaraderie and informed us that they had everything under control.

Dad and Mother arrived with Grandma and Grandfather Kuhns and Uncle Mark and Aunt Peggy arrive with Grandmother and Granddad Adler.  We had just gotten them settled when Dr. and Mrs. Brown arrived.  That took care of the private conversation I wanted to have with Uncle Mark.

Billy and Alan Brown appeared and Billy announced, “We need one big person to help us with the milking since Witt and Ritch are pretending they’re fixing the food for dinner.”

Blake stepped forward, “I’ll help you, if it’s not too difficult.”

Billy giggled, “Good, you’re the perfect person.  You can check to see if the cows need any fillings while you’re helping us.”

Doctor Brown came to where I was standing, “Hank, could you show me what the boys are doing?  Alan and Andy think this is the greatest place.”

When we got to the barn, the two ten/eleven year olds were putting the milking machines on the cows.  Blake was complaining, “Come on guys, let’s get done.  Plugging in hoses isn’t the most exciting thing in the world.”

Dr. Brown and I stopped in the chicken house, since there was a lot of noise coming from there.  When Bobby saw us, he grinned, “We figured we would help the big guys, since they’re being slow and we’re getting hungry.”

As Dr. Brown and I were walking back to the area where the others were visiting, he commented, “I never thought I would see my sons doing things like this.  You and Randy shouldn’t have to pay for feeding them.  We need to work out some sort of deal.  My wife loves it when the boys come here.”

 

We had just joined the other adults when a car pulled in.  I didn’t recognize the car, but I went to greet the visitors.  Dr. and Mrs. Ring exited the car.  Dr. Ring looked around, “I’m sorry to interrupt your family gathering, but I would like to speak to Randy if he’s available.”

“Come join us, you know everyone who’s here.  Randy is talking to the Grandparents.”

Grandfather Kuhns stood, “Good afternoon Dick and Sue.  Take a load off and sit down.”

When the Rings were seated, Granddad Adler commented, “Reverend Ring, your sermon seemed a little discombobulated this morning.”

“Sam, you can blame it on Randy.  He made some comments during the Talk Back class that caused me to do some thinking.  There wasn’t time to revise the sermon so I was trying to wing it.”

Grandma Kuhns laughed, “That was obvious when you kept skipping points and had to go back and fill the blanks on the stupid screen.  I don’t know why you even do that screen.  People worry more about filling in the blanks than they do to listening to the message.  That’s something that you do in grade school.  I keep expecting to be handed a pop quiz after the sermons.”

That was more than my Mother could handle, “Mother, Reverend Ring didn’t come here to be criticized.”

“Meg, your Mother has every right to say what she did.   If she feels that way, then you can be sure that others share her feelings.  Randy, I came to apologize for putting you on the spot, today.  And you were right; Neal had no right to tell you that you were wrong.  As you’ve heard, the second service was a disaster because I kept thinking about some of the things you said.”

The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of another strange car.  The driver rolled down the window and a lady asked, “Is this the home of a Mr. Henry Adler?”

Uncle Mark stood, “Hi Ellen, this is Hank’s farm.  He’s the ugly young man sitting over there next to Rick Brown.  Is Hank in trouble with the law again?”

The lady laughed, “Not as far as I know.  I have two young men with me who would like to apologize to Mr. Adler.”

I still had no idea who the lady was.  I watched as two teenagers exited the car.  I recognized the two guys, who had hung me in effigy, Aaron and Eric Corn.  I stood and the younger boy, Eric asked, “Mom, do we have to do it in front of all these people?”

“When you hung Mr. Adler in effigy, you did it where everyone could see the dummy, so get on with it.”

The guys approached me and the older of the two spoke, “Mr. Adler, we apologize for our actions.  We honestly thought that it was you who had our father arrested.  Mother sat down with us after we were released, and explained that our father was not the wonderful person he led us to believe he was.  What time do you want us to report to the school in the morning, and are you really going to make us do all the hours of community service time?”

“I’ll tell you what; I’ll meet you in the school parking lot at seven thirty in the morning.”

The look on the two guys' faces was priceless. 

“We have to see how soon we can get your attitudes adjusted before I commit on how many hours of services you will be doing.”

The conversation was interrupted by Witt, Ritch and Kenny coming out of the trailer.  When Witt and Ritchie saw the two Corn boys, Witt yelled, “Hi guys, come make yourselves useful.  You can help us until our reinforcements from the barn arrive.”

I think the two teenagers were glad to be taken out of the spotlight.  I shook hands with Mrs. Corn, “Mrs. Corn, you obviously know some of the people who are here.  Let me introduce you to those people you don’t know.”

Mrs. Corn looked around, “I think I know most of the people who are here.  I don’t recognize the young man who is bossing everyone around or the gentleman seated next Dr. Ring.”

I pointed to Witt, “That’s Witt Latham; he’s our hired man and chief boysitter.  The other gentleman is Randy Taylor.  He and his two sons live with me.”

Mrs. Corn grinned, “I’ll say this for you, Mr. Adler, you sure do surround yourself with some very good looking gentlemen.”

“Wait until you meet Randy’s two sons.  You’ll want to kidnap them.”

We heard voices coming from the barn area.  The seven young guys were walking with Blake.  When Billy saw all the people, he yelled, “We’ll be there as soon as we put the eggs away and wash our hands.”

When the guys returned, Wally, Willy and Wylie came to where I was standing.  Wylie looked up at me, “Mister, why are there so many people here.  Are they going to take us away?”

I knelt down and put my arms around the three boys. “They're not here to take you away.”

Billy and Bobby went to where Dr. Ring and his wife were seated. “Hi Reverend Ring, good message this morning, but I have a question.  After they had the big celebration, did the son who had run away help with the work or did he leave again?”

Dr. Ring glanced at Randy and asked, “Did your Dad talk to you about the sermon?”

“No sir, we were too busy planning the food for this afternoon and when we got home, there were three little boys who had rund away from home waiting for us, on the porch.”

Dr. Ring asked, “Where are the three boys, now?”

“They’re standing next to Dad and that lady whom I don’t know.  Is the lady sitting next to you your wife?”

“Yes, this is my wife, Sue Ring.”

Billy shook Mrs. Ring’s hand, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.  I’m Billy Taylor and this is my brother, Bobby Taylor.”

The two guys came to where I was standing next to Mrs. Corn, “Mrs. Corn, these are Randy’s two sons, Billy and Bobby Taylor.  Guys this is Mrs. Corn.  Her two sons are helping Witt and Ritchie.”

After the introduction formalities, Mrs. Corn asked, “Where are the three young boys who ran away?”

Wally answered, “We’re here and we’re not going back to that other place, ever again.”

Billy and Billy came to the rescue, “Let’s go see if we can help Witt and the other guys with anything.”

Mrs. Corn turned to me, “What are you going to do about those three boys?  You could get in big trouble if you keep them here.  I’m a judge in the juvenile courts.  Have you talked to Mark about what’s happening?”

“Judge Corn, I haven’t had time to talk to Uncle Mark about this or the other problems I want to discuss with him.  I am well aware of the difficulty that I could get into; being a teacher and now a principal, but there is also an issue of child abuse, here.  For your information, Witt is the three young boys' oldest brother and Mr. Latham knows that he’s living here, and even sanctioned it.  There is a lot more to the story than that.”

Our conversation was interrupted by Witt, “We’re ready to eat.  Reverend Ring, would you please offer a prayer of thanks?”

After the prayer, Billy, Bobby, Alan and Andy helped my Grandparents through the serving line.  Once the Grandparents were seated, the non family guests were ushered through the line, followed by my parents, Uncle Mark and Aunt Peggy.  Wylie pulled my arm, “Mister, is there going to be anything left for us to eat?”

“Son, there’s lots of food.  There will probably be some leftover for your breakfast.”

“We’re not taking it to the other house.”

Randy and I helped the three youngest Latham boys through the food line and there was indeed plenty left.  After we got all of the young boys settled, Randy and I were going through the serving line when we heard the sound of an approaching tractor.  Witt was right behind me, “That sounds like Ollie.”

Randy asked, “Who’s Ollie?”

“Ollie is the name we gave the tractor at Dad’s farm.  That must mean Dads’ car is broken down again or one of the other brothers is coming.”

I glanced at the three young boys and it was apparent that they also recognized the sound.

To be continued...

Editor's Note: In the cover note that came with this chapter, E Walk mentioned that he had ended the chapter with a cliffhanger.  I think I just found it.  Was it Witt's Dad, or one of his other brothers, on the tractor?  If it is Mr. Latham, is he going to be angry that his youngest boys rund away? Is he going to blame Witt, or Hank and Randy?  

I guess we will have to wait till next time to see what happens next.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 07/09/10