Damon (3 page)

“Yes, sir. I’m sorry.
My momma wasn’t waking up much lately and she told me there was a
clinic on North Fourth Street.
I thought maybe if I got her something for the pain, she’d be able to get up again.”

“You have no reason to be sorry, Connor. What you did for her
is incredibly brave and smart.
I didn’t mea
n that you did anything wrong
. Y
ou were man enough to know that her needing help was something you needed
to take care of. I’m very proud of you.
As I’m sure your mom will be too.”

No one had ever been proud of Connor before and he wasn’t sure what to say to t
hat so he didn’t say anything.
He did keep the feeling it gave him deep in his heart so that when he was feeling bad or Mr. O found them again then, he could
pull it out and feel it again.
He didn’t have many things he could pull out of that special place—his mother’s hugs and kisses, an
d this thing from Dr. Damon.

He’d eaten the candy bar when the
y had left the office.
The water was so good and cold tha
t he had drunk it really fast.
Too fast, he guessed, bec
ause it didn’t stay down long.
Mr. Jamie had told him not to worry about
it when he helped him clean up.

“My wife is going to have a baby soon and she was always throwing
up when we first got married.
Never saw a woman who could eat so littl
e and puke up twice that much.
Scared me for a while. I thought she was
having an alien or something.
But Da
mon said it was a normal baby.
Just between me and you, I’m still waiting for it to be born to be sure.”

“My momma’s
friend throws up all the time. She said it’s her diet.
Don’t know why someone wou
ld throw up on purpose, do you?
It makes my belly hurt.”

“Yeah, that is weird.
There are a lot of od
d people in the world, my man. A lot of them. Okay, you’re cleaned up.
I thin
k that shirt looks good on you.
I might ha
ve another one if you want it.
My mom keeps everything.”

Jamie’s wife, Dane, brought some shirts and pants to the office before
they left.
Connor knew it was new. They had forgotten to take one of the little tags
off when they gave it to him.
He acted like he
didn’t see Jamie pull it off.
It was real nice of
them to get him some clothes.
He didn’t know how he was going to pay t
hem back, but he would.
Every penny of it, even if it took him a hundred years.

The bandages at his back itched and he
was getting really tired now.
The warm car was making him feel too good
and he tried hard to fight it.
He had to see to his momma and Dr. Damon hadn’t said he could stay in the house with her. He just said his momma was
staying until she was better.
When they pulled up in front of the big house,
Connor could only stare at it.
It took him a couple of seconds to realize that one of the other men was picking him up out of the car.

“Put me down. I can walk. I ain’t no baby.”
He tried to struggle to get down, but this man, he thought someone said he was Byron, just tightened his hold.

“No, you’re not a baby, but you’re back is bleeding ag
ain and it’s wet out here. We forgot to get you shoes.
I know you’re not stupid enough to believe we just had clothes lying around waiting for you so tell me what size shoes
you wear and I’ll go get them.
My wife and I are going to get some supplies for Damon and it’ll be no problem to pick you up a couple of things too.”

“I don’t know. My momma buys them.
But the
ones I had on are good still.
I can’t afford to pay you all back if you ke
ep buying stuff we don’t need.
As soon as my momma is all right, we gotta get going again.”

“That’s really good of you, son, but let me
tell you something, all right?
Our mom taught us to be kind to our neighb
ors and to help those in need
. Y
ou want to pay us
back, then here’s what you do
. Y
ou get a little older and when you find someone who needs something just like you and your mom
ma do now, you pay if forward. Help them for us, all right?
That’ll mean more to us than you thinking you have to pay us for helping you.”

Connor nodded.
He looked at the men and women who had come out in the c
old to help him and his momma.
Not one of them had said no to a
thing they’d been asked to do.
He had more clothes right now than he had in the last three years that
these strangers had given him.
His momma was getting help and
so was he.
And no one had yelled at him, hit him, or made
him feel stupid or dumb either.

“Mister, thank you.
I’ll make
sure I help somebody someday.
I promise I’ll pay it
forward like you asked me to.
I’l
l make sure my momma does too.
I think my shoe is a two if you still want to get me some.”

Connor ended u
p going with them to Wal-Mart.
Damon had said he would be all right for a little while longer, but to ma
ke sure his back was kept dry.
He was wide awake now. He’d never been in a Wal-Mart before and was excited to see one of the places the commercia
ls on television talked about.
But the stop at the fast foo
d place would be his favorite.

When they went through the drive-thru, it took Connor a few seconds to realize they had been talking to him about what he wanted. He was sitting in the back seat of the really nice car when Byron’s pretty wife Taylor turned around
and asked him what he wanted. He had no idea.
This was another place he’d never been before and just looked at the pretty pictures
on the menu.

“Do you think I coul
d have a shake and some fries?
I saw them once on a commercial and that la
dy seemed to really like them.
I’ve never had a burger
before but one my momma fixed.
Are they the same as here?”

He ended up with two burgers, a large fry,
a chocolate shake, and a cola.
He was just finishing off the last bite when they pulled into
the brightly lit parking lot.
A full belly and a warm car made him a little tired, but he had to come help them pick out a few things for his momma to wear when
she was better, Dane had said. He couldn’t let her down.
Connor didn’t object when they got a cart and asked if h
e wanted to ride in the front.
He was too tired to point out that he could walk.

By the time they were through the checkout and putting the hundreds of bags in the back of the car,
he was dizzy with exhaustion.
When he got in the back seat, he even let Byron buckle him in and make
sure the seat belt was tight.
They were pulling out of the parking space when his head fell to the side and he was out.

Connor never remembered the ride to the house where his mother was being operated on
in the office in the basement.
He didn’t stir when Byron picked him up and carried him i
n the house and up the stairs.
He didn’t fight when Morgan stripped him down to his underpants and put his new pajamas on him and pulled the
covers over his little body.
Connor barely moved all night long. Warmth and security was something he’d not had mu
ch of in the last three years.
And for the first time in all that time, he slept the night through.

~CHAPTER 3~

Damon was sitting at the kitchen tabl
e when Connor came downstairs. He smiled at the little boy.
He had on the ugliest jammies he’d ever seen and he had seen a lot of them being a doctor.

“I done stripped the bed down and if you show me the wash
er, I can get them cleaned up.
I’m sorry about the bloo
d, but I think it’ll wash out.
I’d like to see my momma before you
have me do any chores, please.
I can cook breakfast for you too.”

Damon felt the
anger surge through him again.
He had spent the better part of five hours stitching and repairing the woman downstairs and an hour fixing C
onnor’s wounds while he slept.
He’d almost not had to sedate Connor
he’d been so tired last night.
Damon had called Cait and had her come in and take pictures of the bruises and oth
er injuries that they both had.

Connor’s mother had fou
r broken ribs and two cracked.
Her throat was bruised and the hand prints were a p
erfect circle around her neck.
Her left breast had been so badly bruised that Damon had had to step back from the table and take several deep breaths bef
ore he could continue working.
Tansy, his nurse, had not said a word, but he could feel her anger too. Charlotte’s left leg had been cut up badly and he wondered how s
he had managed to walk at all.
It looked to Cait like a knife had been used w
ith the blunt end against her.

And Connor wanted to kn
ow what chores he needed done.
Damon took a sip of his coffee before he felt he could answer without screaming out the injustice of it all.

“Your momma is still asleep.
I gave her something to help her rest and it’ll be a couple of days
before I want her to wake up.
She’ll need it to heal
. Y
ou were right, sh
e was in a great deal of pain.
I’ll take you
down to see her in a bit.
As for chores for you, I have a woman
who comes in and does all that.
I could do it myself, but I have to work every day
and she likes working for me. I do need something from you
. Y
ou remember Morgan?
She has two little boys who are maki
ng her crazy to go to the zoo.
She said if you went with her and helped her keep an eye
on them, she’d buy you lunch.
Morgan is very protective of her sons and for her to
ask you to help is a big deal.
None of us have ever been asked to wa
tch them yet.”

Which was all true.
He told Connor he’d not lie to hi
m and he promised he wouldn’t.
At least not right out
. Y
es, Morgan needed to take the boys to the zoo, and yes, she said she would buy Connor’s lunch, and no, none of them had ever watched the boys, at least not without Morgan or Nicky close at hand.

“Okay. I’ll help her.
Mr. Byron told me that I should keep track of the help you guys give me and my momma and someday when I’
m bigger I can pay it forward. I like that idea.
I’m gonna pay you for your doctori
ng of my momma and me, though.
That’s different than helpin
g with some clothes and stuff.
Doctor
College
is hard and takes a lot of money.”

“You pay me back the
way you’re paying the others.
My education was paid for a long time
ago.
I was going to fix us some breakfast. If you want to go up and take a shower, it’ll be
done when you come back down.
Byron said he
bought you some stuff to use.
The room you were in, that’ll be yours until you and your mom are well enough to leave
.
And Connor, that
’ll be at least a month or so.
So you make that r
oom yours in any way you want.
The bathroom in there is yours too.”

Connor stared at him for several long
moments, then he got up to go.
Halfway to the door leading out of the kitchen,
he turned back to Damon.
There was a strange look on his face.

“I don’t know how
to make it my room, Dr. Damon.
I ain’t ne
ver…I’ve never had one before.
Mr. O put me in the basement at night time and it was ju
st a hard floor and a blanket.
Momma would be down there with me most nights ‘cause she tried to kill him a couple of t
imes and he was afraid of her. I like the room, though. It’s really nice.”