Eighteen
____________
Hands
of the Almighty
The late winter of
1939 was a very dark time in my young life. I was quite sick with a sore throat
and constant earaches. Money was scarce, but my parents took me to the doctor
in Hydro anyway, old Doc Hanky and his son, they were just starting out in practice
back then. At first the Doc’s son tried puttin’ warm oil in my ear, and then
tried blowin’ smoke into it. Doc Hanky Sr. put goose grease all over my chest,
but I continued to get worse. Finally the doctors told my parents to take me to
Oklahoma City to St. Anthony’s Hospital.
The first thing they did at St. Anthony’s was to
lance my ear; I got nothin’ to deaden the pain. It took several folks to hold
me down. I was diagnosed with Rheumatic Fever. By this time I couldn’t even
walk so they moved me to my own private room. Ma stayed with me most of the
time. Two of Ma’s cousins were working at the hospital, so Ma had lots of help
and I had lots of company. Family came from Union City to visit me and one of
them gave me a quarter, quite a lot of money for a youngin during that time. I
remember Pa came once with Mary, they hurried so much to come and see me that
Mary put her little blue dotted Swiss Easter dress on backwards.
To help pay the hospital bill, Pa had to sell
one of our horses. I had a long recovery period once I got home and wasn’t able
to return to school. To everyone’s surprise they passed me anyway. As soon as
January came ‘round my tonsils were removed. That may have been one of the
causes of my illness the doctor said.
I can still almost taste the crumbled cornbread
in warm milk my Ma gave me to drink at night when I was sick.
These were very hard times and we were glad that
we felt secure in the hands of God, no matter what transpired or what the
outcome was to be.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him;
remember the days of darkness, For they will be many; Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, For You are
with me, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me…,” Rae Ann shared some of the
words of comfort she held close to her heart during her worst days of sickness.
“Those are special words, Rae Ann, special words
God gave to you.”
“Ya think we’ll ever be havin’ electricity, Ma?”
Rae Ann changed the subject.
“Electricity… well, I don’t see too many farm
owners goin’ to all that trouble for us sharecroppin’ families who be stayin’
on their land.”
“They should. I think if folks had it a little
better things would go better too. But then it would cost money for the
electricity and farmin’ folks ain’t got a lot of that these days.”
“You rest a bit, Rae Ann. Mary and your brothers
will be home from school soon and you know how noisy things get when they’re
all in the house.”
Rae Ann agreed, “Yes, Ma. Thanks.”
“Thanks for what, dear?”
“For bein’ here with me and takin’ care of me.
Some youngins don’t have it as good as I do. Some youngins only got one parent,
or even none. Now that’s got to be mighty tough on those youngins’ souls.”
Hilda Charlton returned to the kitchen to start
on supper preparations while Rae Ann read one of her books.
When Rae Ann was in the hospital an elderly
woman who was also admitted there during the same time as her gave her a number
of books published in recent years along with a few from ages past. She had
already read through the entire Bible in only two weeks, so the elderly woman’s
gifts were well welcomed. One of the woman’s books was Rebecca about an orphaned woman who worked as
a maid and was romanced by a handsome widower. Another two were All This, and Heaven Too and Little
Dog Toby, both written by the same author. She thoroughly enjoyed Our Town and found what she felt were
similarities between life in the story’s village of Grover’s Corner with her
own life. The best seller The
Yearling felt like she had taken
a vacation into the backwoods of Florida. But, her favorite story was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Rae Ann got out of her bed slowly and rose to draw her bedroom
curtains closer together. The afternoon sun had made its journey around the
earth far enough for its rays to penetrate her bedroom window and glare in her
eyes. After laying back down she continued to read until she fell asleep.
“Hey, Richard,” an older student hailed, “you
got any money?”
“I wish.”
“Yeah, me too. I thought if you did have any
money we could stop and get a soda together after school.”
Seeing his brother talking to the older boy,
Teddy approached just as the boy departed.
“What did he want?” Teddy inquired.
Richard proudly replied, “He wanted to go with
me and get a soda.”
“Yeah, I bet he did,” Teddy said sarcastically,
“and he wanted you to have the money to pay for it all too, I bet.”
Richard thought for a second and responded, “It
don’t matter anyhow if he did.”
“That boy does that to pert near everyone, even
to me once, believe it or not.”
Feeling a bit embarrassed, Richard said, “Let’s
go, we got to get home.”
Just outside of the school and parked directly
across the street stood a 1938 Ford COE Crew Cab delivery truck glistening in
the afternoon sun.
“Look at that!” exclaimed Richard. “C’mon, we
gotta check it out.”
Teddy was a bit unsure, but followed his brother
anyway.
Richard climbed up on the driver’s side running board
to peer inside.
“We’d better wait for Mary don’t ya think?”
“She’ll be comin’ soon enough, Teddy. Jump up
and check out the insides.”
Teddy stepped up and stood next to his brother
to look inside the truck then jumped down to see what was in the back.
“Wait for me,” shouted Richard.
Not believing his eyes, Teddy gasped, “You gotta
see this.”
Richard rounded the back of the truck to see a
1932 Burch popcorn machine that looked as new as the day it was manufactured.
Teddy informed his brother, “It’s a World’s Fair
model. Saw one in the newspaper once.”
“Since when you been readin’ the papers? Never
mind, your always readin’ somethin’:”
Curiosity overcame the boys and they climbed
into the back of the truck to get a closer look at the machine. No sooner than
they had made their way deep into the back, the truck started and drove off
before the two boys could get out.
“Let’s jump,” Richard suggested.
“No way!”
The truck picked up speed and the two curious
boys pondered whether they should start making noise to alert the driver.
“Better not,” Richard said, “’cause you know Pa
would get real mad about somethin’ like this. We don’t even know the driver. He
might get even madder.”
“But….”
The boys watched as they drove further away from
town and in the opposite direction from where they lived. About a half hour
later the truck turned off of the main road and into a large farm. When it
stopped the boys jumped out.
“Hey, you two,” a voice sounded behind them,
“What are you doing in the back of my truck?”
Teddy was too nervous and scared to talk, so
Richard replied, “We didn’t mean nothin’ mister, honest. We just had to see
that popcorn machine. You was parked right across from our school and all,
and—”
To the boys’ surprise the man smiled and said,
“Yeah, I know. I was a youngin once myself. Once I got on this boxcar at the
train station and, well…, anyway. You two help me unload this contraption for
these folks and I’ll take you back to town.”
“Ok, but is it too much to ask to get a ride
sort of closer to our farm. It’s the Fowlers’ place,” Richard informed the man,
“not far from—”
“Eakly, I know it. Delivered somethin’ there
before you folks moved in.”
“We’d be mighty obliged, sir,” Richard begged.
“No problem. I need to go that way anyway.
What’s your two’s names?”
Richard pointed, “That’s my brother, Teddy, and
I’m… I’m Richard, sir.”
“Ok, Teddy and Richard, let’s get to work.”
After the popcorn machine was unloaded and
placed inside the large farmhouse the driver started back toward the Fowlers’
farm.
“You boys been workin’ hard I bet,” the driver
commented in an attempt to have a conversation with the boys and so they would
not feel so nervous.
“Yep, sir. Lots to do these days, with school
and all.”
“How about you, son,” the man addressed Teddy,
“someone stole your tongue?”
Teddy squirmed a bit but answered, “No, sir, I
got it right here in my mouth.”
Richard and the driver laughed and Teddy relaxed
a little bit.
“Our Pa’s gonna—”
Richard interrupted his brother, “Kill us!”
The driver smiled and said, “Leave it to me. I
ain’t gonna lie now, ya hear, but I also ain’t gonna tell all the details
either. That’ll be up to you two fellas to do if you have a mind to.”
The boys said nothing.
The Charlton family was wondering why Richard
and Teddy did not come home with their sister. Mary made it home fine, but John
and Hilda Charlton were not pleased that their boys had run off someplace
without telling Mary.
After the delivery truck arrived at the
Charlton’s home, the driver explained that Richard and Teddy had helped him
deliver an item to a well-to-do farming family and had not caused him any
trouble. He then drove off.
Mr. Charlton sternly admonished his boys, “You
two better be tellin’ your sister, and Rae Ann when she gets back to school, if
you’re gonna be traipsin’ off to who knows where.”
“We will, Pa,” Teddy replied.
“Promise,” Richard affirmed.
“Now go and tell your sister that you’re sorry
for leavin’ her to fend for herself. Run along now.”
The boys went to Mary and Rae Ann’s room to
apologize and found their two sisters talking. They stopped abruptly when the
boys entered their room.
“I saw you two get into that truck and then it
drove away. I laughed when I saw the truck drive off with you two in it. I was
just tellin’ Rae Ann all about it,” Mary explained. “Is Pa gonna give you two a
wooping?”
“Naw, he just wants us to apologize for leavin’
you there alone and all,” Teddy answered.
Both the boys apologized and their sisters
laughed.
Mary responded to their apologies, “I’m more
than old enough to go and come home from school by myself, but I accept your
apologies. Anyways, I didn’t tell Ma or Pa nothin’ about seein’ you gettin’
into the truck.”
Richard went on to explain about the popcorn
machine and about the fancy things he and Teddy saw inside the large farmhouse.
Rae Ann exclaimed, “Wow, some folks sure ain’t
havin’ bad times.”
“Maybe they had it even better before,” Mary
speculated.
“Probably right,” Rae Ann agreed. “But it still
must be nice enough for some folks.”
“Anyway,” Mary added, “it suits me just fine to
be livin’ day by day in the lovin’ hands of the Almighty.”
Rae Ann simply smiled then laid back down to rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment