The Forgotten Child

Chapter 8, The Forgotten Child

Chapter Eight

Right after breakfast, Emily hustled out the door with Katy, Trevor, and a mile long grocery list. Brad, being true to his word, provided her with plenty of cash. She'd made good time through the store, and both Katy and Trevor had been on their best behavior. Except standing in line for more than five minutes became a problem; Trevor wanted out of the cart and tried to climb over himself. He yelled when Emily tried to make him sit. So she lifted him out but he then tried to crawl under the cart and ride on the bottom rack. Emily grabbed his legs and he screamed, his arms flailing. Then he threw his shoe, smacking the cashier dead center in her forehead with a pervading thud—it was one of life's most horrifically embarrassing, frozen moments in time. The grumpy cashier became hostile and called security. It wasn't just one security guard who showed up but two stern faced, out of shape, middle aged guys who looked like wanna-be cops. While Emily struggled to calm Trevor, who flailed in her arms, and Katy gripped her sleeve whimpering, one of the guards issued her a stern warning to control her child. They didn't do it nicely and pull her aside; they did it in front of all the other shoppers. And Emily still needed to pay.

By the time she loaded all the groceries in her van, with Trevor and Katy buckled in their car seats both munching on the crackers she'd piled in their laps, her insides were trembling. She worried if, in fact, her picture was now plastered in the store, with each cashier, with bold black lettering stating, "BEWARE OF THIS CUSTOMER" underneath it.

By the time Emily got home, Mary Haske was already there. While Emily hauled in the groceries, Mary settled the children in front of the television. Mary was a' robust seventy-year-old, gray haired woman who wore bifocals and had a grandmotherly smile that warmed Emily's heart.

While Emily put the groceries away, Trevor squealed in a voice sounding exactly like Arthur—the cartoon program blaring on the TV. When she peaked around the corner, he was bouncing and swaying in front of the TV. Katy was snuggled with her baby blanket on the sofa.

"Would you join me for a cup of tea, my dear." Mary filled a yellow flowered teapot with hot water. "Come sit down."

"Thanks, Mary."

Mary set a tray with milk and sugar, and carried it to the oak kitchen table that had been freshly scrubbed. "Sit down while you can. You're going to spend most of the day on your feet, so you may as well take advantage of some down time."

Emily accepted the hot mug of tea but waved off the milk and sugar. "Mrs. Haske—"

"Mary, please, I insist. Dear Brad, bless his heart, can't seem to shake the formality. He's called me that since he could first talk."

Emily was drawn into the genuine motherly affection of this woman. "Mary, Brad told me you live down the road and he's known you his whole life."

"His mom and I are old friends, saw that boy in his diapers. We're a small community here. You'll find out. We help out our neighbors. I live down the road on a small ten-acre parcel; it's all that's left of the 50 acres Herman sold off to Brad's daddy. Lived here my whole married life; my Herman, God rest his soul, and I were married fifty years when he passed on a few years back. He brought me here from the big city of Spokane. I was a city girl who knew nothing about farming and what it takes to live off the land. He was patient, and I cried a lot of tears; packed my bags to leave more times than I can count. I was a silly young thing." Mary smiled warmly.

Emily turned in her chair, so she could see the kids. Actually, her gut ached as she worried what Trevor would do next. "Oh, they're just fine. Your little angel, there, seems quite comfortable with Trevor."

"Yes, she's a good girl."

Mary wrapped her hands around her mug as if she needed to warm her hands. She gazed into it, as if needing to say something, but couldn't quite find the words.

"Brad's real special to me. He owns a lot of land here, Emily, almost five hundred acres. His daddy started buying up the land in these parts when families were approached by developers. He didn't want a bunch of small acreages, and city slickers moving out here. And Brad has stayed true to his daddy's ways. He's a farmer. He works the land, raises cattle and hay, has dairy cows, and he's one of the few around here who's stayed away from all those antibiotics and growth hormones. He's got a good head for business. Smart when the smaller farmers went under. Brad's expanded until he's become the largest dairy producer on this side of the peninsula. What I'm saying to you is he's not good at tending the home. I'm glad he hired you."

"Thank you, I am too." They both laughed, but Mary's frankness about Brad gave her a deeper insight into the fallibility of this difficult man.

"Now, I shouldn't be telling you this, but Brad and his two brothers were a wild bunch growing up. One night the sheriff showed up with all three of them in the back of his car. His daddy sure was mad. After that, he worked them pretty hard. Said if they had all this free time to get in trouble, well, he'd find more productive ways to direct that energy. And boy, did he. All the farm grunt work was done by his boys, all summer. He didn't need to hire no help that year." They both laughed at the picture that presented.

"Emily, you know, Brad had quite a time finding someone for this job. It was awful. Women apply, they come out, work a few days, see Trevor and one of his spells and they'd leave. And I can see that same look in your eyes."

Emily met those wise, glassy eyes straight on. "There is something wrong with that child. In the store today I didn't know what to do. He went ballistic. Threw his shoe, it hit the cashier, and then security was called..." she dropped her face into hands as her stomach pitched, reliving that awful moment.

Mary gripped her forearm. "Brad should have been straight up with you. I've seen some things. Taken him to the store and he'd pee in the middle of the food aisle. There're colors like orange and yellow that he'll yell and scream if sees them. Even the smell of certain perfumed laundry soaps can send him in tailspin. I don't know what to tell you, Emily. I just don't know about these things. In my day, we'd give the child a hard whack on the bottom to straighten him out."

The knowing look Mary fixed on her confirmed her suspicion of this astute woman. "He doesn't know anything's wrong with Trevor, does he?"

Mary threw her hands up. "I raised five young'uns, some kids are high-spirited. But Trevor's not quite right. Brad may know deep down, but he's been struggling for a while to just get through day and night."

Emily couldn't fight the urge, even though she knew it wasn't her place to ask. "What about Trevor's mother, what happened to her, didn't she help?"

"Nah, that girl Crystal was selfish. A baby didn't fit her lifestyle. The best thing that ever happened to Brad was the day she left. Hurt him bad and changed him overnight."

Her mouth ached; she didn't know how to ask how'd it change him? What was he like before? Those questions remained unspoken, locked inside.

Mary finished her tea, and then got up and rinsed her cup in the freshly scrubbed sink, before putting the cup in the dishwasher. "Keep Brad out of the kitchen. He's the worst cook and wouldn't know how to put a proper meal together."

Emily had figured that much out. The first day when she went to the cupboards, the fridge and freezer, she saw nothing but prepackaged foods, TV dinners and a lot of canned ready-to-go meals. Easy, and absolutely zero nutritional value. Except the one saving grace; two freezers on the back porch filled with homegrown beef.

Mary lingered for a few hours, showing Emily where things were stored in the house. The chicken coop behind the house, where she could collect eggs; normally one of the hired hands would look after it, but in case they got busy, she'd know what to do.

Emily carried Trevor through the twenty-stall horse barn, with individual turnouts, a hot wash rack, separate hay storage, an outdoor riding ring, a poultry barn for meat birds, and the dairy barn. There were several other outbuildings; Emily had no idea what they were for. There were, what looked to be, hundreds of cattle grazing in the field with calves dogging their mommies. The sky appeared bluer, larger; so did the pristine untouched forest and the picturesque mountains in the background. It was invigorating, and a lot of responsibility for a man to carry. Maybe that's why Mary showed her around, to give Emily this outside view of how complex a man Brad was. She knew that she'd only skimmed the surface of his life and his responsibilities.