Finding Grace: A Novel Read Online Free Page B

glass close
to himself, and taking the jug from the table, he placed it safely
and securely at his feet. "My father drank himself into the grave.
And you know what they say about fathers and sons."
    He was scaring her now, the way he was
talking. But with her fear, there suddenly came a burst of
frustration and anger at him. Men were supposed to be pillars of
strength, but when it came right down to it, they were just little
boys who had to be told what to do. Or they had to find their
courage in a bottle, of all places. It frustrated her to no end. It
also bolstered her nerves, and in a swift move, she snatched the
jar away from him, dodging his attempts to snatch it back. Going to
the front door, opening it, she pitched the glass out in the front
yard.
    Behind her at the table, Charlie rose
unsteadily to his feet.
    "Who the hell do you think you are? Barging
in here and trying to tell me what to do. I'm a grown man. I don't
need no little girl like you telling me how to behave." He started
to stumble toward her. "I'm going to throw you out of this house
right now."
    She took a step back from his approach,
suddenly afraid of what he might do.
    What had she gotten herself into? She
prepared herself to run. But just as he neared her, he suddenly
stumbled in his footing. He fell to the ground with a flailing of
limbs, landing face down on the floor, and instinctively she jumped
out of the way. He lay unmoving where he fell, and for several long
moments she just stood there, looking down at him.
    It cut her heart to the quick to see him
there, in a state of helplessness and stupor. Suddenly she didn't
care how angry he got, or even if he cursed and shouted at her. She
wasn't going to leave him like this. She went to him and knelt on
the floor beside him. She tried to help him up, but he pushed her
hands away, as she had thought he would. But there was no anger in
him now. She saw only shame and embarrassment, and it showed in his
voice when he spoke to her.
    “ I can get up by myself,” he
said, his voice low. He managed to rise, but didn’t get to his
feet. He sat on the floor, hanging his head and muttering to her.
“He didn’t even know who I was. He forgot about me, just like he
did before.” He looked at her for the first time, and his eyes were
hollow and sunk.
    It broke her heart to look at him, but she
managed to hold back her tears. He didn’t need her sorrow, when he
was so deeply buried in his own. Her attention was all she could
give.
    “ In almost ten years,” he
said bitterly, “No letters. No visits. Nothing.” His voice shook,
with pain and anger all at once. “But I got through everything just
fine without him. Aunt Mary and Uncle Robert took me in and raised
me. Do you know how hard they worked to bring me up right? When I
got into trouble at school, Uncle Robert would take me home and put
the fear of God in me…to teach me to do right. My father never did
that. But I never needed him anyway. I finished school without his
help. I served my two years in the military just like every good
man. I ran a whole company of men on my own. I didn’t need him for
any of that, did I?”
    She shook her head, unable to speak for the
lump in her throat.
    “ I hope he burns in hell,”
he said.
    She saw a tear roll down his cheek. Then,
before she had time to react, he put his arms around her and buried
his head in her shoulder. He began to cry like a little boy lost,
and she didn’t know what to do. All she could do was sit there,
holding him gently in her arms.
     
    * * * * *
     
    His tears had ceased. But now, his head was
a heavy weight on her shoulder. She tried to stir him, but he only
mumbled incoherently. He was still conscious…but she was sure that
wouldn't last for much longer. She took his arm, draping it around
her shoulders, and after much coaxing on her part, she managed to
get them both to their feet.
    It's like dragging the dead
weight of a carcass , she thought, as she
moved with him to the