Caleb's Wars by David L. Dudley Read Free Book Online Page B

to protect me.
    I got up and lay down on Randall's bed. The quilt felt cool against my face. Where was he tonight, and what was he doing? Playing cards with his buddies in the barracks? In town somewhere, drinking and looking for girls? Or just lying on his bunk, thinking of home?
    My brother was getting ready to go fight and kill—maybe
be
killed.
Life
magazine was full of pictures of the war in Europe and the Pacific. Our guys were getting slaughtered every day. Like Blaine Durden. And just down Brinson's Mill Road, prisoners that we'd captured were going to spend the rest of the war safe, playing soccer.
    Why couldn't I be off with Randall? He was lucky to be old enough to join up and get away from Pop.
    Ma came to the door. "Your daddy's back. Why are you on Randall's bed?"
    I didn't know how to answer, but Ma seemed to understand. "Smooth out the quilt when you get up. Supper's on the table."
    After Ma asked the blessing, Pop told us about going to Nathan's and Henry's. "No doubt where your buddy Nathan get his foolishness," he said. "Artie just laugh when I talk to him about the mess down at the camp and with them Hill boys. Course he already know what happen, 'cause Nathan show him his tooth, and anybody can see his face. And the whole time I'm tryin' to get Artie to see how serious this is, Nathan be addin' more details ab out what you boys said and done, and Artie think it the funniest damn thing he ever heard!"
    Ma shook her head. "Artie has never been strict enough with Nathan."
    "That ain't all. Artie say he
proud
of his boy for sassin' them Germans and for talkin' back to the Hill boys. Say he like to see a young man with some ball—some backbone!"
    "What happened at the Johnsons'?" Ma asked.
    "Just what you expect. Cora all to pieces about her precious baby boy gettin' hurt, fussin' over him like he five years old. Cecil actin' outraged at how Caleb and Nathan done led his boy into temptation, and about how the baptism sure ain't done no good—'specially for Nathan."
    "How's Henry?" I asked.
    "That little sissy make me sick! He start in on how he didn't want to go to the camp with y'all and how he try to get y'all to run into the woods when the Hills come along. He put all the blame on you and Nathan, which ain't no surprise."
    Henry was telling the truth, mostly, but he made us look bad, trying to make himself look innocent.
    "I suppose to give you a message," Pop told me.
    "Who from?"
    "From the
Reverend
Cecil Johnson."
    "What is it?"
    "That you and Nathan can't have nothin' more to do with Henry, 'cause you two is a bad influence on him. Henry ain't allowed to hang around with y'all, and he ain't gonna be workin' at Davis's with Nathan, either."
    Suits me, I thought.
    "I always said that boy is sorry."
    "More stew?" Ma asked Pop. "Another biscuit?"
    He poured syrup on his dinner. "So that's that. All we can do now is hope nothin' more come o' this thing. Looks like you got off easy, Caleb."
    I kept my eyes on my plate.
    "You do understand why you had to get that whippin'?"
    I was silent.
    "Maybe if Artie had laid the strap on Nathan when he little, Nathan wouldn't have that smart mouth on him now."
    I kept my mouth shut, but it was hard. Pop didn't understand anything. He'd whipped Randall and me for years, but it hadn't made one bit of difference to how we behaved. I wasn't thinking about all his whippings when I threw the rock at the German, and I sure as hell wasn't thinking about them when the Hill boys came after us.
    Sometimes you had to do what was necessary right then—no matter what bits of wisdom your folks had tried to cram into your brain.
    ***
    As I tried to get to sleep that night, dark, ugly thoughts kept me company. I couldn't get comfortable. Usually I slept on my back, but my rear end hurt too much when I tried that, so I had to turn on my stomach, and that was worse. I settled for lying on my side.
    Pop had no right to whip me. The more I thought about it, the madder I got.