Fifteen
____________
Christmas
Cheers
One Christmas our
Model T wasn’t running so our friend’s cousin Darryl and his girlfriend drove
us all, except Ma, over to midnight mass in Clinton. I think he was around
eighteen years old at the time and he locked the keys in his car. Pa and Darryl
finally got it unlocked by usin’ a coat hanger and slippin’ it through the top
of the window.
We returned home in the wee hours of the mornin’
to discover that Santa had come and left a bunch of presents. I remember
Richard got the much coveted football that he wanted for so long, Teddy got a
huge pile of books to read, and my Pa had made me and Mary doll beds for our
dolls. We youngins didn’t know it at the time but this was our last Christmas
at this place. Pa told us about us movin’ the next day.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Pass me the ball,” Teddy yelled to Richard as
they pretended to be professional football players.
“Go long.”
“How am I gonna do that in the barn?”
“Figure it out.”
Teddy ran as far as he could and Richard passed
the football straight as an arrow. Teddy jumped up hitting his back flat
against the back wall of the barn, catching the ball perfectly.
“You alright, Teddy?”
“Yep,” he yelled back, “and that was quite a
throw. You are gonna make one great football player one day I bet.
“I'm gonna play for the Oklahoma Sooners
football team, maybe be as good as that fullback Claude Reeds who's the head
coach over at Central State Teachers College now," Richard proudly
convinced himself and attempted to do the same with his brother, "you just
wait and see.”
Teddy shared his dream, “I want to be a
scientist, a real one.”
“Real one?”
A slight zephyr graced the fields in the
distance.
“Yeah. A real scientist is one that examines the
facts, observes, analyzes, you know. He isn’t a person who just comes up with
crazy ideas on how somethin’ was or how things happened, one way or the other,”
Teddy stated firmly. “True science folks present the facts, not with their
personal opinions mixed in as bein’ true. Interpretation of facts and why
events occurred that a soul hasn’t observed is really nothin’ other than a
personal philosophical belief. But, of course, if you have reputable eyewitness
accounts….”
Richard was growing tired of the complex
direction the conversation was heading and quickly changed the subject, “C’mon,
throw the ball.”
“Let’s go outside.”
“It’s freezing out there, Teddy.”
“Awe, c’mon, real football players don’t give no
mind to the weather.”
“Realizing his brother was correct and to prove
his worthiness as a candidate for the professional football world, Richard
agreed.
“Now you go long, Richard,” Teddy cheered.
Richard ran long and far, turned sharply as the
football flew high through the winter’s biting cold air and… slammed right into
one of the thin trees growing in the yard, falling to the ground.
.”You ok, Richard?” his brother shouted.
“Yeah, I recon so,” Richard moaned.
“Ya know what?” Teddy informed his brother. “You
missed the ball.”
“Very funny.”
As Richard rose from off of the cold ground he
noticed something or someone across the barren winter’s cotton field to the
south of the house, “Look, way across the field, there!”
Teddy turned and stared. Neither boy could
determine what they saw in the distance.
“Let’s go see,” Richard’s excitement and
curiosity grew.
“Shouldn’t we be tellin’ Pa first?”
“You a coward or somethin’?”
Teddy never enjoyed being referred to as weak,
slow, and especially as to being a coward.”
“I ain’t no coward. Let’s go.”
Teddy ran off quickly but was soon passed up by
his brother. It was quite some distance across the field and both boys fell on
a patch of ice near the shallow middle of the field.
Laughing, Richard said, “That didn’t hurt none,”
and got up.
“I hurt my butt,” Teddy said before breaking
into a contagious laugh his brother soon became afflicted with.
“It looks like a person,” Richard said.
“Your right,” Teddy agreed. “Maybe we should be
gettin’ Pa.”
Richard thought for a second, then replied,
“We’re pert near there already. Let’s go check and see if there is somethin’
wrong.”
Teddy felt unsure and hoped it was not somebody
who froze to death lying out in their field. Not wishing to appear as weak or a
coward, he reluctantly agreed to go and investigate things further.
To the boys’ surprise, a man was lying on the
ground. He was alive and moaning very faintly. He was more than just a man, he
was an Indian.
“I wonder how in tarnation this fella got here,”
Richard pondered out loud.
Teddy backed up slightly, feeling uncertain.
“Go get Pa,” Richard commanded his brother.
“Tell him we got us a sick Indian out here and we need a doctor. I think we
need somethin’ to carry this Indian fella back to the house so we can warm him
up.”
Teddy ran as fast as he could, sliding across
the ice patch in the middle of the field. He used to practice sliding on ice
just for the fun and thrill of it. It was a game he played whenever possible,
usually at school.
Richard removed his coat and placed it as best
he could over the man, “It’ll be ok, mister, my Pa’s comin’ soon. We’re gonna
get you a doctor.”
The man mumbled something, but Richard did not
understand it. He mumbled again, “Cēpane hvtkē cēpane… kapv.”
Richard thought he recognized one or two of the
man’s words. They sounded like something he had overheard one day when he was
in town by the old livery where an elderly Indian man worked. He thought it was
the Creek Indian dialect, but he was not completely sure.
The man said one more word softly, “vlēkcv,” before collapsing into unconsciousness.
The remainder of the morning was spent
retrieving the man from the field and driving him into town to find the doctor.
Once the man was with the doctor, Mr. Charlton and his two sons reported the
incident to the sheriff and returned home.
“Is he alright, Pa?” Rae Ann questioned with
eagerness when her father and brothers returned. “The Indian… is he gonna be
ok?”
“Well, the doc said he should be fine and that
he’d send someone over to the tribe to come and get him once the man felt good
enough to leave.”
“Most of ‘em ain’t too fond of white man
medicine, Pa,” Rae Ann stated.
“I know,” Mr. Charlton affirmed, “and a man
can’t be blamin’ ‘em either.”
“Or a woman,” Mrs. Charlton added as she entered
the living room.
Rae Ann inquired further, “Was he some kind of
criminal, Pa?”
“Well, the sheriff knew nothin’ of any recent
crimes, but time will be the tellin’ factor.”
“Anyone hungry?” Mrs. Charlton interrupted.
“I sure am,” Richard proclaimed.
“Me too,” Teddy agreed.
“We got fresh baked bread,” Mrs. Charlton
announced with a smile, “hot from the stove.”
“That reminds me,” John Charlton remembered, “we
men need to be cuttin’ some more firewood later today. Not much, since we’ll be
gone in a few days, but enough to last and get a new farmin’ family started.”
“Bread first,” Hilda commanded, “then work. One
can’t be expected to get some hard work done on an empty stomach.”
When lunch was finished Rae Ann and Mary helped
their mother peel spuds for supper while the boys commenced with the cutting
and stacking of firewood.
After the three large stumps were set in place
and each of the Charlton males had their first log on top of the stump for
splitting, standing with axes in hand, John Charlton said, “You boys know what
the Good Book be sayin’ about splittin’ wood, don’t ya?”
Neither boy could provide an answer readily.
Their father confessed that, “I thought of
askin’ you durin’ lunch but Rae Ann would have jumped in with an answer as
quick as a dog jumpin’ into a mountain lake on the hottest day of summer.”
“Yeah, Pa, I think you’re right on that,”
Richard agreed.
“Your sister is a spunky and feisty one, and one
day you two fellas are gonna appreciate that more than you could ever imagine
now.”
The boys listened carefully as their father
continued, “I know how it be… when a man is young he tends to prefer the quiet
soft-spoken type of womenfolk, those that don’t have a confrontin’ bone in
their bodies. But when a man gets older in life and livin’ gets harder,
times get tougher, well,” Mr. Charlton placed the head of his axe on the ground
and leaned on the handle, “a strong woman is what he knows he needs. A woman
who ain’t afraid to say no and who ain’t afraid to tell things like they are,
even things a man don’t want to hear sometimes.”
A small field twister darted across the
cotton field where the boys had discovered the Indian that morning. It
eventually dissipated into the dusty air it had produced; not a common site
during the winter.
Their father stated, “Anyway, boys, in the Bible
book of Ecclesiastes it says that you could get hurt splittin' wood and that an
axe that ain't sharp makes a soul use more strength in the usin’ of it.”
Pondering the meaning of his father’s words,
Richard asked, “You want us to sharpen the axes more, Pa?”
“No, son,” Mr. Charlton chuckled, “they are
sharp enough for what we’ve got to do. The Bible also says in that same place
that, “wisdom gives a soul worthwhile advantages toward success.”
“Those are big words, Pa,” Teddy replied.
John Charlton smiled and said, “Big words for
big boys.”
The youths felt a sense of pride at their father’s
words of praise.
Teddy still did not understand what all this had
to do with the chores at hand, but Richard had an idea, “Pa?”
“Yes, son.”
“I think your tryin’ to tell Teddy and me to
gather up as much wisdom as we can and to use it.”
“That’s exactly right. If a soul takes the time
to learn as much about a particular thing that soul has a better chance of not
only understanding the thing, but comin’ to a better decision concernin’ that
thing.”
“I don’t get it, Pa,” Teddy looked confused.
Their father thought for a moment, then replied,
“Like the axe, if you take the time to sharpen it you’ll be able to cut wood a
lot easier. You won’t be gettin’ tired as fast.”
Teddy responded, “I sort of get it.”
“Another example,” Mr. Charlton moved the wood
off of his stump and sat down before continuing, “think of a tractor for a
minute. The more a man knows about the tractor, its workin’s, its motor, and
all the things a tractor has and uses,” he stood and continued, “that knowledge
gives that man an advantage when it comes to usin’ and fixin’ that tractor. And
the more time that man spends learnin’ and usin’ that tractor… that produces
the wisdom and know-how he needs.”
“I get it, Pa,” Teddy’s face lit up.
“It’s like anything else,” Richard interjected,
“the more we be doin’ it the better we become at it… like football.”
Mr. Charlton and Teddy laughed. They both knew
that Richard loved to play catch football almost as much as he liked to play
marbles.
“And playin’ marbles too,” Teddy joked.
“Yeah, that too, “Richard agreed, “but some boys
just have a knack for things more than others.”
“Let’s get this wood chopped, boys,” their father refocused the
two and himself on the task at hand.
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