Renewal 5 - an Untimely Fall by Jf Perkins Read Free Book Online

switched over to thinking of Sally and her red hair. He realized that she hadn’t really been in his mind much, with everything he had been doing, but now that he thought about it, he was anxious to get back to Teeny Town and see her, bad attitude and all.
    Judith stepped up onto her porch and asked, “Are you boys doing ok? Are my ladies taking care of you?”
    Unconsciously, Terry’s hand rubbed his stomach. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you,” he said, and hesitated for a moment. “Uh, Mrs. Bell. We really appreciate it, but maybe you could ask them to take a little less care of us. Even Seth here can’t eat any more.”
    Judith laughed for the first time Terry had seen. “Yes, Terry. I’ll talk to them. They’ve watched Michael grow up, too. I’d say they just want to make sure you feel properly appreciated.”
    “We do, ma’am. We surely do.”
    Seth held his bloated belly and nodded emphatically.
    “Ok, boys. I think I can get them to hold off until supper,” Judith said with a smile as she gracefully disappeared through the front door.
    Terry couldn’t help but think of her transformation from before the trip to after they returned with her son. She was certainly cordial before, but she was alive now. Everything about the woman was magnified, and oddly for Terry, that meant more than all the profuse thanks he had endured since they returned to Murfreesboro. The other part that meant a great deal to him was his place in the small team of men. He had departed with them from Teeny town as a green outsider, a piece of luggage that they were required to tote along. Now he was one of them, and among young men, the best way to know was the big invisible target for good-natured teasing he now wore proudly on his back.
    “Hey, Big Guy. I’m going to head over to the hospital and check on Bill. I’ll see you after a while.”
    Maybe Seth heard him. Maybe not.
    ***
    “Hello, Mr. Shelton. How goes the outside world?” Bill asked as Terry knocked quietly and stuck his head in the door.
    “Oh, you wouldn’t like it out there. It’s hot, humid, and hazy...” Terry noticed he was not making a dent in Bill’s determination to get out of the hospital. “And there’s a swarm of locusts that spray like skunks, and they have sharp teeth. Big sharp teeth.” Terry made a grasping motion with the last part, mimicking the nasty bite of imaginary locusts.
    “Good try, but you know we only get the biting skunk locusts once every seventeen years.” Bill responded with a sideways grin.
    Terry just shrugged with a mischievous smile of his own.
    Bill was about to make introductions when he looked over and saw that Mike was sound asleep in his wheelchair. Instead he just indicated the sleeping young officer and said, “Mike Bell is awake, more or less.”
    Terry stepped out in the hall and flagged down the scary nurse to wheel Mike back to his own bed. He probably needed a long rest.
    When Mike was gone and door bumped shut, Terry was the first to speak. “I should have snuck in some food. They are trying to kill us with edible kindness.”
    “Good way to go, I’d say.” Bill replied. “I’m sure Judith will bring some back with her, now that she is done with yelling at doctors.”
    “Yeah, you should have seen it. That woman was scary.”
    “They all are, given the right situation.”
    Terry chuckled and said, “Yes, sir. A couple of examples come to mind... One in particular.”
    “I’ll just bet. Take my advice, young man. They can smell fear.”
     
    Chapter 5 – 8
    Mom was pure genius at handling my dad. It took a while to really see that simple truth, but I got one of many hints when we pulled up in front of the Carroll’s barn on that old hay wagon. She was subtle about it, but one look at her face made it clear.
    At the exact moment when the realization struck her that the rickety old barn was her new home, her expression said, “This won’t do at all.”
    Then she turned to my dad with a smile and all