Heroes come in all ages.
Matty Jenkins had a new baby sister. She was three months old. Matty loved her to the moon and back. He tried not to get attached, but it was hard when he spent so much time trying to make her special. He called her endearing nicknames: Sweetie Pie, Hunny Bunny, Darling. The baby's name was Bell, so he called her Tinker Bell. Tinker Bell became Stinker Bell after a poopy diaper, and this was his favorite name for her. Stinker Bell. She was a sweet baby who cooed at him and smiled at him and clutched his finger. She was perfect. He was hooked. He loved her.
Mama did not feel the same way.
One day Matty came home from school. His mother was anxious. She was chewing her thumbnail, clean to the quick. She was talking to herself. She was muttering. She was pacing. She was wringing her hands. Matty was scared. Mama was pacing the floors in a circular route from kitchen to living room. She was wearing the shellac off the wood floor. She circled the table. She mumbled. She glanced at the cradle made from old barn boards and quickly away.
Matty was sick to his stomach. He had seen this before. Twice. A sense of dread was present and time began racing forward in jittery jerks. Matty did not want to be here. He wanted to run.
"Mama, what's wrong?" he asked.
"John 17:15," Mama said. "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one."
"Ain't no evil here, Mama."
"Yes there is son, and we got to make sure that evil don't prevail over good. We got to protect the children."
Matty's mama looked around and reached for a jar hidden on a shelf.
"Matty, go get me some thread, some black thread, at the store. Here's a dollar. Get you a pop too."
Matty looked at the money in his hand, then he looked at the cradle. He wanted to go to the store. He wanted a pop, but he vowed he would not let bad things happen again under his watch. It did not mean he still didn't want to run. He did not want to be here. He did not want to see this.
"We got to win?" he asked. "We got to win over evil?"
"Yes, Matty," said Mama. "Evil don't win. Not today."
He touched his mom's arm. "Let me take care of this mom. I'm old enough now. I'll take her down by the river and put her beside her sisters."
"No, Matty, it's not your place. It's dirty work." And finally, "It's for the best."
"I know," said Matty, not wanting to look but compelled to witness.
While Matty watched not daring to breathe, Mama walked to the cradle, picked up the baby, and flung her against the brick hearth. There was a thud. Matty felt it in his heart.
Matty's breathing stopped. Matty had seen this before. Twice. Both of those times he did not witness this violence so up close. Once he saw this happen through the front porch window, and once when he was younger. He thought it was a bad dream. This time he was an up close witness to a baby killing. It was a lot like a puppy killing. His stomach hurt.
Silence. Nothing to be said.
He picked the baby up tenderly and with care. She looked perfect except for the now growing knot on her forehead. She was still.
Matty wanted to run to the store now, but he couldn't leave just yet. Matty knew what to do. It was time to bury the dearly departed.
Matty knew his part. He wrapped the baby in her blanket. It was suddenly chilly outside. On the way to sisters, he stopped at the shed to get the shovel. He laid the baby down to pick some flowers. When he reached to pick her up, the baby whimpered. He did not believe it. He waited and listened. He opened the blanket and Stinker Bell was looking at him with those big blue eyes of hers. She smiled at him. Matty smiled back. It was only then he became emotional and started to sob. He tried to think what to do. He looked back at the house, back at the baby. He could not take the baby back to mama. She did not love Bell like he did. He needed to take her somewhere she would be loved.
Matty knew what to do.
Later in the afternoon, three farms over, Sarah thought she heard a baby cry. She must be going crazy. Several years passed since she lost her only baby, and there were days, there were moments, she still thought she smelled the baby powder smell of her, she thought she heard her, she thought she felt her.
But she could really hear a baby now. She opened the front door and almost stepped on the basket. Not another puppy, she thought. She uncovered the package. There was a baby in a basket wrapped up like a birthday present. It was a girl, she just knew, it was a girl. Praise be to God. Someone gave her a baby girl. She busted out crying and soon it was hard to tell who was crying harder.
Sarah reached in the basket to lift the crying infant out. "Oh my word, just look at you."
Someone loved this baby. Though there was a large knot on her forehead with black and blue bruising around her left eye, she was clean and wrapped warmly. Someone placed a small bell in the basket for the baby to play with. Someone placed flowers around her face like a halo. Angel. That was her name. No, wait. The flowers were Queen Anne's Lace, her mother's favorite flower. Lacey. That was the baby's name. Lacey. Lacey Bell.
After the baby was inside the house safe, and the store run, Matty went home and found his dad sitting at the table eating supper. Big Matt asked where the loud-mouth little baby bitch was. Matty's mama told him she went to Heaven just like her sisters. Matty's dad never asked another question, he said only, "Well, I guess she won't be waking us up no more."
Lacey's new mother adored her and her new father did too. At first Sarah's husband was reluctant. "We cannot possibly keep this baby. It belongs to someone." But someone did not come looking, and he was relieved to see Sarah happy again.
A few years later, there was another miracle from God and there was a baby brother born. Lacey became a big sister. Matty visited sometimes to check on his girl and spy on the new family. He still called her Stinker Bell, no matter her new name.
Matty found the perfect family for his baby. They doted on Lacey Bell and her brother. They dressed them in the finest clothes they could afford. They bought them new outfits when the crops came in. They took them to town to get photographs made of the family and to show them off. The children were baptized at the Baptist church. Their little family was perfect. Perfect until the parents were killed in a car accident. Lacey and her baby brother were given away to a cousin's family in a neighboring county. This time Lacey landed in a house that already had a whole passel of young'uns. She went from being the apple of someone's eye to being one more mouth to feed.
After she was moved, it took Matty months to find Lacey Bell.
"Where you been?" asked Lacey. "I been waiting for you. I knew you'd come. I saw it in a dream. It took you long enough."
"It wasn't safe," said Matty. "I had to wait."
Lacey looked at Matty thoughtfully and asked, "Is it ok? Is the meanness gone?"
"Yes," said Matty, "evil don't win this time."
"Did we win?" asked Lacey.
Matthew nodded.
Matthew made a vow he would not let anything happen to Lacey again. He was the man of the house now, Lacey was his girl. Matthew would watch over her always. He went to go get her and while he was there, he took her baby brother too. Lacey insisted. No one seemed to mind, two less mouths to feed.