Fight for Glory (My Wounded Soldier #1) (11 page)

Tom
Tanner

Chapter
Fourteen: Church Part Four

So my team broke
ranks, and Jimmy had also gathered his men around, and he held to the sides of
his vest while he pontificated. The new one, Quinton, stood
back
a ways, and listened with an expression of confusion, unsure if he was at a
baseball game or an election. He didn’t know our sheriff, but he would shortly.

So Jimmy’s team
broke with a “huzzah,” and went on that field to try and stop us.

Seth, Harley,
Lem. That’s how it would go. Seth was strong enough, and had a shaper eye than
most.
Than Gaylin.

Cousin Quinton,
and I took pleasure in referring to him as such, was playing first base. Jimmy
was pitcher. Gaylin was catcher, so he spoke threats to Seth, always looking to
see Ma was out of earshot, which she never was, not that one.

I took in Addie,
watching over Cousin as if he was her sweetheart going off to war. I did not
like such a notion. Best not look at her too often, I thought as I looked at
her. Lord she was a pretty thing. Holding that baby, the one I’d brought into
the world…what in the Dixie Queen was this carpetbagger doing here? And there
was Johnny, my most ardent supporter, currently hitting another boy with a
stick again.

Crack went that
bat, and Seth sent that ball flying past Jimmy who dove for it and landed hard
on his belly. I had to rub my hand over my mouth to get the smile off. He took
second.

Harley was next. Nerves
like iron. Always skinnier than most, never got the muscle, but it was there if
you seen him with no shirt, which I had, too many times, but he held his own
and made up for things best way he could.
Wiley.

So he tapped that
ball, just enough Gaylin wasn’t expecting it, and Jimmy couldn’t reach it quick
enough seeing as he was screaming at Gaylin and using up all his strength that
way. So we had a man on first, a man on third. The Lord was on our side.

Lem.
Next to William, I’d take him.
Been
in a ditch with him more than once come time for battle.
Didn’t talk too
much, didn’t need too much, wasn’t given
to
much, not
joy, not sorrow. He would see what he needed to do, and he’d do it.

Jimmy thought he
had it figured, but he wasn’t so bright and sunny now, yelling at Jake to get
close to that third base, yelling at Michael to look sharp at second.
Almost yelling at Cousin, then face fanning into a grin that looked
ridiculous, and saying to the stranger, “Reckon you got it?”

Cousin nodded,
looking all eager, but undone a bit too cause we were serious.

Well, I dug my
heel in the dirt, my arms folded over my thudding heart. I wanted to get my
hands on that bat, and I only had to wait until Lem knocked that pitch to
glory.

Lem wanted it
bad, and he swung and missed. I figured he wanted to look all sloppy for Jimmy
to simmer down a little and get hopeful. But Jimmy knew all his tricks so he’d
have to figure out the attack on his own. I made my way around to where Missus
stood.

“Addie,” I said,
hit by all the pretty in this gal, “there’s a thing called a home run in this
game and it’s quite exciting,” I said, a little angry about the way she’d made
over Cousin and watched him now like he was in peril. He was in peril, though. I
wished she could look at me, and not be so distracted by this fellow.

“What is a home
run, Tom?” she said a little strict, like I was Johnny or something.

“You’ll know it
when you see it,” I said. “And it’s for you.” I lifted my hat and all.

Allie was in
hearing, and she looked all wide-eyed and openmouthed, staring from me to
Addie. The bat cracked and I turned then and walked towards the game. Lem made
it to first, Harley to third, and Seth had tagged home. This crowd of church
folk never made so much noise, not even the day they praised God the war was
over, I reckon.

Gaylin swore, and
Seth got on him with the families about. Gaylin wouldn’t back down. He was a
high red color.

I stepped to the
base then. Jimmy had circled and made a hand motion for everyone in the
backfield to move further away. They took two steps or so, and the minute his
back was turned they came forward again.
Couldn’t tell them a
thing.

I swung once or
twice, close to Gaylin’s face, but I didn’t pay him no mind when he flinched
back all histrionic. I knew where that bat was.

Jimmy grinned at
me, but just for a second, then his real thoughts bled through and he got that
face, that face I’d seen a hundred times when he was about to lay down the law.

He only had three
good pitches, a fast pitch, a slow pitch, and one that started to drop about
the time it got to the batter and he’d use them now because those other pitches
where he tried to curve it this away or another never worked. I waited. This
was for Addie, and it would be nothing less than legendary. I saw the trees it
would head for, soaring like a dove. That’s exactly what happened. I swung
loose and hard and drove that ball to the pearly gates. Good thing we had
another bat because I split that one right down the heart. There was no
stopping me.

Jimmy threw his
hat down and cursed, and I ran those bases, shaking hands all around. Johnny
ran onto the field and hugged me round the legs. All three of the men before me
had tagged home. Michael and Jake had gone for the ball, and there was plenty
of time to conversate or take a piss, or get a drink and a big slice of cake. We
had four points and no outs.

Soon as Johnny
took off, I went over to Addie. She was holding that baby, and there was still
worry in her eyes, but she was smiling at me, and proud, proud, and I had a
notion to grab her and kiss the daylights out of her, but of course I wouldn’t.
Not just yet. I let my home run speak for now. “That was for you,” I reminded.

She nodded
looking round, a little embarrassed because Allie heard, and Ma, maybe others. I
had no care. “Th
..thank
you,” she stuttered, but she
was paying attention again, not looking for Cousin right now and it felt good. She
was blushing, and I got caught in looking, until Ma said something, and I
looked at her not having an idea, but she was handing me the dipper and I took
it and swallowed a good deal, but the missus watched me, and she was giving me
a look I couldn’t figure now, but they were calling me to the field so I had to
put it in my mind and shut the door.

The trouble
started in the second inning. Jimmy’s team was surly. They couldn’t get a run,
and if they did get a hit, we took that ball and drove it into them so they’d
know they were tagged.

Gaylin wasn’t
good under fire. Lem tagged him out at second. He didn’t agree, said his foot
was on the bag. Doc
Tusaint
who couldn’t see past his
nose, sided with Lem. So Gaylin threw the first punch at Lem. That was not a
good mix. Lem was a temperate man, but Gaylin never softened it. He had one
punch and it hurt. When he hurt Lem, Lem hurt him. Then Lem kicked him in the
breads and down he went rolling and carrying on. Pa went to him,
then
Pa looked to me when Gaylin wouldn’t be helped, but I
had a game to play so I shook my head and got back to it. I figured man could
throw a punch he had to be willing to take what came. Sow the wind, reap the
whirlwind…or have your old pa carry you off the field like a sack of dirty
clothes.

Cousin Quinton
was up to bat. What was it about these city boys, same in the war, approaching
everything all fine like they were getting graded for
deportment.
Whoops, I hit him in the leg. Dr. Tusaint didn’t like it, and I apologized. I
looked quick at Addie, and I could see that one hand on her hip. Well, she
wasn’t going to like what I did next
cause
I hit him
in the ribs. Now folks were yelling and Doc told him to take a base. The
preacher went forward and spoke to Tusaint, and I waited for this nonsense. Then
Tusaint waddled to me and said the preacher said I needed to play fair or he
was stopping this spectacle of hedonism. He said it was wrong to go about this
business on a Sunday anyhow, and setting an example of debauchery, greed, and
lasciviousness for the women and children.

I said to Tusaint
I was truly sorry for all of those big words, and to pass that along.

If the preacher
didn’t like the way it was going, just wait until it got there, for it surely
would.

So Cousin was on
first, and some folks had clapped because that meant Jimmy’s team was finally
doing something. Not that they were, but it could look that way to a stander
by.

I pitched to
Jimmy next, and he swung so hard he nearly spun clean around, and the crowd
called all kinds of encouragement to him. I looked round at the boys, made sure
they were ready. I threw it light, and he swung for it and got strike two. He
wiped his forehead with his bandana and resettled his hat, and took the bat in
his two hands, gripping and regripping as he held it in his strange way. My
next pitch was fair game. If he could, it was there, and he did, and he ran.
 

Well, Lem had it.
Most things didn’t get by him, ground-hogs, bunnies, balls or rebs frankly. He
caught Jimmy’s hit, threw it to Harley and truth be told Harley tagged Jimmy
hard cause we’d put up with him, God knows. It probably hurt, but Jimmy swung,
and they went down, and others jumped on, and it was just a pile of fury.

Quinton went for
Addie then. I saw him go to her, grab her arm, her listening to
him,
I could see his head wag. Allie was listening,
then
she called for Johnny. It’s like Quinton was sweeping
them away. Then Gaylin punched me in the face and I went down.

When I came to
someone was standing on my arm, and someone else got knocked back, tripped on
me and came down on my middle and the air left me, and I kicked him off and
rolled to my side trying to get some air. I couldn’t breathe. But someone else
piled onto me and I swear my ribs were ready to split. But I couldn’t say to
get off, so soon as I could breathe I had to crawl away from the melee. My
forehead was bleeding. I got far enough I could see the last of the food being
packed, the older fellows helping the wives, making kind of a human old man
fence to keep the soldiers and wishful soldiers away. Children peaked from the
carriages. The rented Greenup buggy was already kicking dust, and Pa and Ma
were packing the boot on the carriage. “Hellfire,” I whispered, standing
stiffly and dusting my backside.

The preacher was
giving Jimmy a dusting, wagging the bible in his face. Jimmy saw me then, and
gave me a wave. He’d had a good time, and it hadn’t been so bad until Cousin
kidnapped Addie. Preacher marched to me now, his white beard pumping but beyond
knowing he blamed me for everything and what a great disappointment I was to my
mother and the county, I could not follow a word he said, for my eyes…and
probably my heart, black as it was, were straining after that cloud of dust.
My Addie.

Tom
Tanner

Chapter
Fifteen

I soon caught up
to Pa on that road. Others followed, but we did not wish to stay close to one
another for we had separated along party lines again, the blue and gray, all in
the name of baseball. There would be no flag to unite us now, for while this
breach mayhap did run
more shallow
than the war, it
would not heal more readily.

Least that’s what
the preacher said. It was coming to me now. I had waked snakes and sinned to
Moses, I guess. I wanted to blow around my pa, but even I didn’t dare at this
moment. So I tottered along behind like a good old mule, and I wondered where
Cousin had taken Addie, to our farm or to hers? I did not know and it was
killing me more than my throbbing jaw and aching ribs.

Wrong time for Jimmy to pull beside me on that black.
There
was that grin, only it was purple and blue now, and that gave me some pleasure.

“He took her mite
quick,” Jimmy said.

I stared ahead
like I hadn’t heard.

He was laughing. “Allie
says you moon around all the time now.”

Still staring.
Allie was looking back though, anxious like
always.

“You lift your
hat to my sister or Miss Addie?” I asked.

I’ll say one
thing, he never let down. ‘Cept those couple of times, and talk about a crazy
man.

“I just lifted
it, Tommy. Figured I’d kill the two birds…you know.”

“They are
deserving of fair treatment, Captain, but it won’t do you good to set eyes on
either.”

Allie was turned
clear around on her seat, her neck craning. Was this an ambush?

“That’s pretty
much what I wanted to talk to you about old pard.”

“Nope,” I said to
save him the trouble.

“Hear me out
now.”

“Nope.”

“She’s
seventeen,” he said, “nearly.”

I stopped that
rig, and he pulled up.

“My baby sister?
Are you out of your mind?”

“I reckon I’m
not.”

“
You been
sneaking?”

“No sir. I’m
shooting straight. Man who wants to run for office needs to be respectable.
Needs to take him a wife.”

“Wife?”
I wrapped those reigns quick and made to jump on
him.

“Hold on Tom. Let’s
think this through. She’s marriageable. And I’ve loved her since she was
knee-high.”

“Love her? You
ain’t never
loved anything past your own reflection.”

“What ails you,
Tom? I done tried to show you I’m a man of worth, but you won’t give me
no
more chance than a dog what got in the henhouse but that
one time.”

“I told you at Chickamauga we were done.
I looked down your throat and up your ass and there ain’t
nothing
but black end to end. You come for her, you’ll meet my Enfield.”

“
Your
Enfield.
You didn’t have the guts. That’s what. You didn’t have the sass, and now you
want to hate me for doing your dirty work.”

I flew across the
short expanse and took him off his horse. We landed hard on the ground, him
mostly on the bottom, but still it hurt like the devil’s pitchfork was poking
me all over. This was no boys’ tussle like back at the church. I hoped to break
his jaw or kill him.

He fought
cause
he knew how. But so did
I
. For
every punch he got in, I got in two. He kicked
me,
I
kicked him twice as hard. I was fighting blind, but he was too, and we stayed
in close to each other and kept on going, and I bit him while he scratched down
my neck until I let go so I could holler.

All I knew was at
some point hands were on me and we were being ripped apart. My eyes were so
swollen, I could scarce make anything out, and when I got red like that, I
couldn’t think. Next I knew I was in the carriage, Seth driving, his mare tied
on the back. I barely realized when we made it home. That rented buggy was
there. Pa had already pulled in the barn and unhitched. I stumbled from the
buggy and started to the well, “Tom,” Seth called, “it was the Lord’s Day
first, but mine after.”

I tried to stare
at him, but I could barely stay straight on my feet. I started to walk away
again.

“Tom,” he said.

I stopped and
looked back.

“It was my day.”

“Sorry,” I said,
then
I took off to dunk my head in the trough.

I didn’t stir
from my bed of woe until sun up the next day. So it was I pulled on my pants
and went to the well to renew myself. Well, I was sore and busted. Once I
washed I went to my room to finish dressing. I already felt her gone, like the
heart ripped out of this place and maybe out of me. If she was here she would
have come to me last night trying to patch me up. But she did not come. I
dreaded going in to the house, but today was the day when I would start to
bring in her crops and a man had to eat. Yet I took a good drink of whiskey to
fortify myself against them. Then I took another for what they would tell me
about her.
About Cousin.

They were quiet
as I entered. Even Gaylin, not as bruised as me, but hurt still, even Seth bore
marks. What a fine bunch. I went to table with my knuckles raw and shining
before me like reminders of my sins.

We just ate. Allie
looked at me, but then she looked away, and I went to put potatoes in my mouth,
but my lips were on fire from the grease, though I said nothing but I did drop
my fork with a full load and my shirt got splattered.

The family did
not speak or care as they continued to labor over their food.

“Pa,” I said, ashamed
at how garbled I sounded, “
reckon
Seth could help me
in Missus’ fields today?”

“That be up to
him,” Pa said, head down as he scooped his food.

Seth looked at
me, his always kind face rather stern. “I will go for Missus,” he said. “Just
for her though.”

I could feel my
thin patience cracking.

“Lord
have
mercy I smell spirits at my table!” Ma said sniffing
the air like this bird dog I had me once.

Pa looked ornery
at me. “Tom…is that whiskey on your breath?”

Why in tarnal I
had to hiccup so loudly at that moment I could not tell, but I said, “No Pa,”
like he was addled to suggest such, “I had to treat my cuts.”

“Lies pour like
melted butter,” Ma said. “My own child grown into a man I do not know.”

She was right. I
didn’t want her to know me.

Then Allie,
“Why’d you do it! Why do you have to ruin my life! He loves me and I love him. He
only asked you
cause
you’re so horrible and violent. You
aren’t my pa, and you have no call to try and kill someone for loving me! I
hate you!”

No sooner was she
done Gaylin started, “We sent off Garrett and we got back you. Ain’t fair and I
ain’t even sure I believe there is a God anymore.”

Pa and Ma got
after him good. Not for what he said about me, but because of what he said
about God.

I stood then, yes
I weaved a bit, and I said, “Seth, I’ll hitch up and we can get going then.”

“He’s come for
her,” Gaylin said. “You’ll get yours now.”

Pa and Ma scolded
him again, the way you’d fuss at a baby who threw his spoon on the floor. I
took my licks from him, too, but this was the worst.

“Lavinia is with
them,” Ma said. “Addie has gone home, Tom. Get out her crops and leave her be.”

I went on out
then. But in my gut a sinkhole had opened and I felt every reason for living
being swallowed.