*** Here is the next installment of Pains of the Past, hope you all like it and please tell me what you think so far. <3 ***
IrishEyez
Chapter 3
"Mom... Danny took my doll!" I jumped at the sound of a young girl wailing and had to wait a moment for the cloudiness from my sleep to clear. When I realized that I was not in my own bed at home, the last week of travel came back to me.
"No I didn't, Nick did!" Another voice yelled.
I slipped out of bed and dug my father's watch from my coat pocket. It indicated that it was about 11:00am, this was the longest I had ever slept.
After I dressed in my dark purple dress and braided my bright red hair, I stepped out into the hallway and took a moment to take in my surroundings. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I was nearly bowled over by a thin brown haired girl.
"May, stop running in the house, if you feel the need to run, go outside."
I made my way down the hallway until I found where Aunt Betty was shouting from. "Good morning" I said sheepishly.
"Well, look who finally decided to join the living. How did you sleep child?" I cringed at the name that she insisted on calling me.
I put on a smile before answering. "I slept wonderfully, thank you. Would you like some help?" I asked as I watched her cutting biscuits from rolled out dough.
"You don't have to dear." She answered, never taking her eyes off of her work.
"I insist, I loved helping with the cooking at home."
"If you must, go ahead and grab an apron, I'll let you take over here."
As I was tying the blue flowered apron around my back, an older woman came into the kitchen, ranting in Spanish.
"Yo nunca tienen un día libre, incluso cuando se toma el día para ir a la ciudad, cuando puedo conseguir un día libre?" ("I never get a day off, even when you take the day to go to town, when do I get a day off?")
I chuckled at the woman's forwardness and knew that Aunt Betty had no idea what the woman was going on about. I decided to let her know that I knew what she was saying.
I walked up to the woman as she set down the eggs she was carrying in. "Buenos días, minombre es Lilly y lo que es tuyo?" ("Good morning, my name is Lilly and what is yours?")
The woman and my Aunt stood in shock that I was speaking Spanish.
"How do you know what she is saying Lilly?" Aunt Betty asked as she washed off her hands.
"My best friend back in New York, Hector, he and his mother taught me how to speak Spanish."
"Por favor, no le digas lo que yo estaba diciendo: Yo necesito este trabajo Miss" ("Please do not tell her what I was saying, I need this job Miss.") She said pleadingly.
"No te preocupes, no se lo diré." ("Do not worry, I will not tell her.”)
"Gracias querida, mi nombre es Juanita." ("Thank you dear one, my name is Juanita.")
I shook her callused and firm hand. "Encantado de conocerte Juanita". ("Nice to meet you Juanita.")
Aunt Betty cleared her throat, causing Juanita and myself to look at her.
“Sorry Aunt Betty, it has been nearly a week and I miss speaking Spanish.”
“It’s fine child; let’s get lunch done, shall we?” She said sternly with a cocked eyebrow.
I set to finish the biscuits as Juanita Fried up chicken and Aunt Betty made mashed potatoes.
Once it was all prepared and sitting on the very large table that sat at least 20, Aunt Betty went to the front door and rang a bell that was attached to the post in the front yard. Within the matter of minutes, there were about 12 men I didn’t recognize sitting at the table and then there was my cousins sitting together with Aunt Betty, a man I assume to be my Uncle Henry. Next to the only open chair at the table was Carter.
I took my spot and waited while everyone else filled their plates and nearly everything was gone by the time I got my chance.
“Don’t be shy, if you don’t jump right in, you may never have the chance to eat.” Carter said as he leaned closer to me.
I took the last wing from the large tray and the small scoop of potatoes. Looking around the table, I noticed that almost all eyes were on me. I set down my fork and let my gaze drop to my lap.
“Hey now, why so bashful?” Another man said who was sitting on my right. He was filthy and his breath stank of whiskey. I shifted to sit closer to Carter, where I felt safer.
“Leave her alone Bill.” Carter said as he shot daggers at the older man.
“Someone is awful protective of the little lass.”
I pushed my chair back and stood to leave. I felt a hand grab my wrist harshly and spin me around. I looked at my capturer and noticed it was Bill.
“Don’t run away pet.” He smiled evilly at me.
Carter pushed his chair back with such force that it fell to the ground. Everyone at the table was now watching the situation unfold.
“Let her go Bill, she does not want to be in your grasp.” Carter boomed.
“Both of you, outside now!” My Uncle Henry ordered.
Carter and Bill glared at each other, and then turned to walk out the front door with everyone behind them. I pushed my way to the front and saw them both rolling up their sleeves.
“You two need to work out your problems, maybe if I finally allow you two to duke it out, we can relieve some tension around here.
My Uncle said as he stepped between them. “I want a fair fight; the first one down is the loser. Let’s make this fast so we can finish lunch.”
He stepped away and Carter stood with his hands clenched in fists as his side. Bill had his hands in the fighting position in front of his face and was bouncing around. He took a swing and Carter barely dodged it.
Carter went to punch Bill and got hit in the face instead. He started to fall backwards, but I jumped in and held him up. When he was back on his feet I stepped between them.
“Enough of this! You are two grown men, you should be able to sit down and talk out your problems, not fight like children.” I huffed out while holding my hands up to stop them from advancing forward.
Bill broke his stare down with Carter and looked at me with a smirk. “Why don’t you go and let the men handle this little girl?”
I put my arms at my side and got in Bill’s face. “You repugnant flea of a man, do not ever call me little girl again!” I turned around to talk to Carter when I got a tap on the shoulder. “WHAT?!” I bellowed as I turned around.
“Listen here little girl, no one talks to me that was and gets away with it.” I was getting ready to say something back to him when he slapped me clear across my left cheek. Before I even hit the ground, Carter reacted and punched Bill hard enough that he flew back about five feet, right into the crowd.
“Are you okay Miss Morris?” He asked as he knelt down next to me.
I held my face in my hands and could not answer him. My teeth were bit into the side of my cheek to keep me from crying out in pain. Carter helped me to my feet and Aunt Betty came to my other side.
“That was very stupid of you child, you could have gotten seriously hurt.”
I jerked away from her and Carter pulled me closer. “Please stop calling me that, I am not a child. I am 18, a woman.” Without letting her respond, I stormed off through the crowd, leaving Carter and my Aunt behind.
Walking into the kitchen, I was met by Juanita who was holding a slab of meat in her hand. "Ponesto en tu mejilla, hay que ayudar". ("Put this to your cheek, it should help.")
I did as she said and it instantly helped to relieve the sting that Bill’s hand left behind. "GraciasJuanita". (“Thank you Juanita”)
She continued going about her work until Carter also came in the kitchen. When he came in, Juanita smiled at me. "Hombre estúpido". (“Stupid male.”)
This made me laugh and Carter gave us a questionable look before grabbing a steak for his own eye and taking a seat next to me.
“What did she say?” I laughed again, only to wince as a pain shot through my face.
“Nothing.”
“That was not ‘nothing,’ I would like to know if she said something about me.” He said sternly
I let out a sigh and turned in my seat to face him. “Fine, she called you a stupid male. But in her defense, you had to go and let Bill antagonize you.”
“I did it for you, Bill has a history of not stopping until he gets what he wants and he had his sights on you. I was helping you.”
I was taken aback by what he was saying, he did it for me. “But why Carter, why would you get into a fight for me?” I was thoroughly confused.
“I feel protective of you Lilly; I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
“I thank you Carter, but please no more fist fights for me.”
He smiled at me and chuckled. “Promise.”
Aunt Betty then came in and stood with her hands on her hips. “What am I going to do with you? You are not even here a full day and you are already getting into fights. I don’t know if this is how things work in New York, but they don’t’ here.”
Carter stood from his chair. “You cannot honestly blame her for what happened out there. Bill and I are the dumb ones here. He was making advances toward her, I was not going to let that happen Mrs. Peterson and you know it. Now if you want to be mad at someone, be mad at me and Bill, she was just sticking up for herself.”
The look on my Aunts face was priceless, her mouth was hanging open and her eyes were huge. “Do you not value your job here Carter, because I know that we can find someone else to do it for you.”
I could not believe that she was threatening his job over standing up for me. Not even 24 hours in my new house and I wanted to just go back to New York and forget about all of this.
Carter sighed and stood up; he then gave the steak back to Juanita who was just taking in the argument.
“Of course I want this job Mrs. Peterson, I like it here and I appreciate you taking me in. I have chores to do, so I will just leave now.” As he shifted to head out of the kitchen, he looked at me and nodded, which caused me to laugh again.
“This is not funny at all Lilly; you could have been seriously hurt by one of them.”
“Carter would not hurt me, and I have been hit harder by girls. So don’t worry too much about me.”
"Una mujer dura poco". I heard Juanita whisper under her breath. (“One tough little woman.”)
Aunt Betty shot her a look as if telling her to be quiet and she went back to doing her work. I noticed she had a lot of vegetables to cut, so I got up to help her while I talked to Aunt Betty.
“You don’t know him Lilly; you don’t know what kind of person he is or what he’s done.”
I stopped cutting the carrot I was working on and looked at her. “What is there to know, he seems to be the only one here that treats me with any respect, besides Juanita and have you looked into his eyes? They tell me all that I need to know.”
I have always been a believer that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Carter’s eyes tell me that he may have had a hard life, but he is trying to be happy.
“Just be careful Lilly, I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
I slammed down the knife and walked out of the kitchen quickly.
“Where are you going Lilly?” Aunt Betty yelled as I started heading for the front door.
“I need to go for a walk.” I called back to her.
As I got to the bottom of the porch stairs, I looked around to see which way I should go. I noticed a pond some ways off, so I headed for it.
The small pond was surrounded by cattails and tall grasses. There was a canoe upside down on the very tiny beach and there was one single willow tree.
Making my way over to the tree, I noticed that there was an old swing hanging from a large branch. Sitting down on it, I found the first peace I have had since my father’s passing. I sat on the swing and watched as a couple cranes came down and waded in the water, a small turtle came up for air and deer bounded across the open field behind the pond.
It was quiet, serene and tranquil. A little too much so. The sound of someone walking towards me had me halting the swing. Too afraid to turn around in case it was Bill, I froze.
“Miss Lilly?” The familiar sound of Carter’s voice gave me a feeling of calm.
I turned in the swing and smiled up at him. The bruise on his eye was getting darker so I got up to see if it was more swollen. As I brought my hand up to his face, he stopped me.
“What’s the matter Carter?” He seemed sad by the fact that I wanted to touch him.
He released my wrist and dropped his hands to his side, slouching his shoulders in the process. He walked over to the beach and sat down on the edge of the grass and sand.
“I can’t have you getting too close to me; I’m really not a good person Lilly. I’ve done things that I am not proud of.”
I took a seat next to him and contemplated what he said. “Tell me about what you’ve done Carter and I will decide how I feel about you.”
He let out a deep sigh and ran a hand through his coal black hair. “I’m not sure you are going to be able to handle it Lilly. It’s not a story anyone should hear. I don’t even like thinking about it.” His voice sounded so distant and sad, I knew he needed to tell me so he could heal.
I laid my head on his shoulder. “Please Carter; I’m not as weak as people might think.”
“Fine, but if you feel it is too much for you, please tell me to stop talking.” He glanced down at me and I sat up straight again.
“I can agree to that.”
He nodded and took a deep breath. “When I was 19 I met a girl named Molly who was a member of the church I went to. The first time I saw her, I was in love. Her parent’s agreed to let me court her and we fell even more in love with each other. Less than a year later, we were married. I had never been happier in my entire life, then Molly became with child. I was overjoyed to become a father and watch my child grow up.
We would talk all the time about names and what the baby might look like. We had settled on the names Isaiah Carter for a boy and Elizabeth Grace for a girl. The day came that our child would be born, I couldn’t leave to get the doctor and there was a terrible snow storm.” Carter stopped for a moment and let out another deep and heavy breath, trying to push through the terrible memories.
“She was in so much pain and the baby just would not come. It was nearly 26 hours before she was pushing the baby out and she was so exhausted. The beautiful baby girl was born backwards and she wasn’t breathing. I tried everything I could to save her. I tried rubbing her, giving her air, but nothing worked and Elizabeth died before she even had a chance to live.
Molly followed behind her the next day. The doctor said that there wouldn’t have been anything anyone could have done to save either of them. Within a two day span, I lost my wife and my daughter.”
I felt the need to comfort him, so I moved closer to him and weaved my fingers through his.
“That’s when I fell apart at the seams. I felt like my soul had been ripped out and trampled on, for the next two years. I got drunk every night, I would get into fights for no reason and I would take saloon girls to my bed. But every time I looked at them, I realized that they were not Molly and I would make them leave. The home that Molly and I shared became a jail for me, so I never stayed there. It was easier for me to sleep in alleys or ditches than it was to stay there.
One night I was drunk on whiskey and looking to kill the pain. I intentionally got into a fight with someone much bigger than me. I wanted to die and saw him as the way to do it. I basically let him beat on me until I was barely breathing and then I felt the need to fight back. Only I didn’t fight, I pulled my revolver from my holster and shot him. It was as if I was not thinking, I just reacted and killed him.”
I could not help myself; I grabbed Carter and pulled him into a hug. I was crying remorseful tears and needed to help him feel strong again.
“This was not your fault Carter. You were hurting and dyeing inside, I can only tell you what it’s like to lose a parent, not a spouse and child, but my heart aches for you.”
He wiped the tears from my eyes and looked at me in a way I had never seen before. His head started moving closer to mine and I wanted so badly to have my first kiss, and to get it from Carter, but he pulled away.
“I’m sorry Lilly; I should not have done that. You are so much younger than I am and even though she is gone, I still love Molly.” He let his gaze fall to the ground and he moved away from me.
I placed my hand to his shoulder. “I know that you still love her, but you deserve to be happy Carter, and you are not too old for me. I feel a need to be near you and I trust that you won’t hurt me. We don’t have to make any decisions as to who we are to each other right now, but I would like to get to know you better.”
“Why Lilly, why do you want to get to know me better? I just told you that I killed someone.”
“And I know you did that out of pain Carter. You are not a bad person. I see it in your eyes, you’re not bad, you’re just broken.”
He gave me a sad smirk. “Why do you trust me?”
I smiled, recalling the night before. “What makes me trust you is the fact that last night when I told you about my fear of horses, you made the horse walk slow, which I’m sure made it take a lot longer to get back here. But you didn’t force me to ride on the buggy scared to death.”
“Oh, well I saw how terrified you were and I didn’t like it at all. I meant it when I said I feel protective of you.” I moved closer to him and he did not move away, instead he just sat and listened to the silence.