Page 15 of Kinsey

Martha still worked for the city cleaning jail cells.About the only time he got to see her was when she was cleaning the cells he was in.But that didn’t stop her from popping out one boy after another.He had him a good half dozen of them, and he thought that his momma would be so proud of him.All she did was scream at him for losing more farm land to cards.

“She hit me a bunch, too.”She didn’t, but he liked to tell people that was why he sold off the farm.He was forever looking for the next big win at cards, and it never came.But he lost a lot of land that way, and it pissed his momma off so much that she went and took his name off the land and put it in her own.“Damned women ain’t got no sense at all if you asked me.How was I supposed to get more money if it ain’t coming to me?I suppose she gave it over to the boys, too.Like that’s the right thing to do.”

His momma had come to see him one time.Right after the youngest, he thought his name was Eric or something like that.He never knew any of their names after he was told what it was.Just numbered them one through six.That worked until it didn’t no more, and they all looked to be about the same height.But she’d had plenty to say to him then.

“Them boys are going to do all right by me.”He asked her then why they didn’t do right by him, sending him a little money now and again.“Because they aren’t as stupid as you are, thank the good lord.You listen to me now.They went and joined up as soon as they was out of school so they could get them a free education.”

“Joined up to what?I’m not going to like it if you tell me that they joined some gang or something.That’s no way to make any money, don’t you know.”She just stared at him, and he told her he would shut up now.“They is my boys, you understand?”

“Thankfully, they’re nothing like you.But they joined the Army, all six of them did.The last one is going to come out in three years.Anyway, they got all but a hundred acres back of the family land.I hope they sell it all and spend the money on something sustainable.Like a house and a new car.Kinsey is still driving that truck of your father’s.”He had to ask her who that was.“Your oldest son,you idiot.I swear to Christ, you get stupider every time I try to have a conversation with you.Do you understand what it is I’m telling you?I’m not leaving the farm to you, but that oldest of yours.So he’ll take care of his brothers.”

“Again, why ain’t they taking care of me?”She did that eye thing where he would swear that she was looking right into his brain and knowing his every thought.“I was just asking.A man has a right to expect his kids to take care of him in his golden years.”

“You ain’t never going to have a golden time until you’re dead.And they ain’t gonna take care of you if I have anything to say about it.You’re useless and they know it.Killed their momma like she was nothing at all.Why’d you have to go and do something like that?They loved her.”

“Well, I didn’t.”He hadn’t either, and that made his momma sore at him again.But she had gone on about how he was getting nothing from her, and she told them boys of his daily that they needed to sell out and get a life.“How much you figuring it’ll be worth?I couldn’t get anyone to bid on any of the land since you took it out of my name.Damn, but that was mean of you.”

“Good.”She told him about a bunch of stuff that was going to happen when she passed on and how he wasn’t going to be mentioned in her will.After hearing that, he just tuned her out until her time was up and she could get away from him.“I won’t be back, and as surely as I’m standing here, I’m not going to tell those boys to come and visit you either.You don’t deserve them even though they’re only here because of a bit of spit that came out of that peter of yours.”

After she left, he had to wonder if something she said to him was important.And in all the years since then, nothing had ever come to bite him in the ass.Putting the paper in the trash can, he just knew that they were clamoring to get to see him, and he’d have to make sure that they did right by him.

“A little money in my pot won’t go unnoticed either.”But in order to get that, he’d have to know who to call, and since he didn’t even know their names at all, he was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to be visited by them any too soon either.“That’s funny how that worked.”

Remembering that one of them had been named in the paper, he had to read the article three more times until he found two names.Wylie, like the coyote in them old time cartoons that he used to watch as a kid, and Kinsey.It sounded like a girl’s name to him.

It took him nearly three hours to get someone to help him.Once they were set up to find the names of his two boys all he had to do was sit back and wait.Maybe there would be some money coming in from the accident.He’d be getting some of that or know the reason why.They told him that he could have the phone numbers on Thursday, when it was his turn to use the phones.

“Damned people outta know that my kids are special to me.They’d been in an accident, haven’t they?”He was told to shut up again and did so.There was some money riding on getting to talk to them, and he wasn’t going to screw that up.When he realized it was Friday and not Monday like he thought, he didn’t know if he could be good for a whole week.He’d have to be extra careful about the guards not taking the numbers back from him.

Walton had trouble being good from hour to hour, much less days.It was the talking to himself that got him into the most trouble.He could have hours of conversations that turned out that he was smarter than he thought before someone would take exception to him talking all the time.People just didn’t understand him and they was jealous of him being able to be in here and not go stark raving mad.He kind of liked the quietness of the days and the way everything was the same.

He figured that if he stayed in his cell, he’d not cause so much trouble.He could talk to himself there and get the answers that he wanted before anyone noticed.The guards would come by and check on him once in a while, and that was fine by him.He usually got in a question or two before they just simply moved on.He was like that, questioning everything.

As he was closing his eyes that night, he thought of the next five or six days.He was going to be plum worn out when Thursday rolled around again, but it would be worth it to see what his children were up to and, more importantly, to tell them they needed to bring him some money.

~*~

Kinsey held her hand as best he could.He had sprained his wrist holding down his brother, and it waspainful for the most part.When they said that they were going to X-ray it again, he decided that he needed something for pain.It was beginning to hurt a great deal then.

Having Meggie at his side helped with so many things.The thoughts of the accident played in his mind, and all he could see was that he’d been lucky that he’d not been cut in half.That and the fact that Wylie had been all right and not killed either had made him feel like he was going to be sick when he thought about how bad it could have been.Then he’d gotten a look at his grandpa’s old truck.

It was crushed like an accordion.The front end was close to the seats they’d been sitting in, and the bed of it looked like one of those short truck beds he’d seen in drawings.It was the way that the hood of the truck had been crushed down about ten inches that made him think that it could have been him and his brother under the semi in front of them.

“Do you know how many stitches you have in your head?”He told Gleason that he didn’t know and had asked not to be told.The outcome was better than it should have been, he thought.“That’s for sure.When I saw the truck, all I could think about was that there wasn’t enough room in it for one person, much less the two of you.”

“I don’t want to think about it.”They said they understood and changed the subject.David came in then and was much calmer than he’d been when he’d seen him at the accident site.He’d been telling people that they were to be careful with his family, which had the police believing that he was their father.No one seemed to be able to get him to stop, either.Which, to Kinsey, had been all right.He was getting things done, and he was starting to feel the effects of the accident even then.He asked David about the conference.

“It’ll go on without us.Just a shame I couldn’t take you there.It would have been fun for the two of us.”He said that he’d go next year.“Yes, but you’ll take a limo then.I don’t want to come up on a scene like that again.I nearly had myself a heart attack seeing the two of you all bunched up in that metal mess.Like the officer told you, it was lucky that you were driving that old thing, or you might well have been killed.”David shivered.“No, that’s not a sight that I’m going to easily not think of when I see the two of you again.”

When he was taken down to X-ray, he was nearly sobbing for something for the pain.If this was what a sprained wrist felt like, he never would make fun of his brothers again when they turned their ankles.It had happened a few times on the farm, and he was going to be more sympathetic toward them from now on.By the time he was back in his room, he was nearly cross-eyed with pain.

“It’s broken.”It didn’t make it feel any better to know that, but he was glad for the pain medications now that he could have them.“We missed it the first time with all the other things going on.We’ll have to prep you for surgery now and get it taken care of.”

Closing his eyes, he would have agreed to anything now because of the medication he’d been given.It was wonderful stuff, and he wanted to just sleep.Instead of him being allowed to rest even for a few minutes, he was told that he’d have to be ready to go down to the operating room to get the bones put back in place.He didn’t care so long as they kept giving him whatever he had now.

Waking up, he forgot where he was.Not on that, but he didn’t know what had happened for several minutes either.It was Bodi who told him he was all right and that the surgery had gone well.Falling asleep again, still no pain, he mumbled something about going home and decided that his brother was being nuts when he said that he wasn’t going home anytime soon.

Whenever he woke, there was a different person in his room.Meggie was there each time, but his brothers or David would be switched out.Finally, when he thought that he needed to get things clear in his mind, he looked over at Meggie and smiled.

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