His words cracked me up. “That’s true,” I said, glad he understood.
“So, what’s your plan?”
“I just need to turn eighteen, and then I'll fight her for him,” I said, confiding in him.
“That could be tough without money and such.”
“I’m a hard worker, and I know how to survive,” I said defensively.
“Oh, I’m sure you are, dear. I’m just saying it’s going to be tough, trust me,” he said earnestly.
“Did you do it?” I asked.
“Yup, I raised my two younger brothers. My dad’s belt seemed to be a permanent fixture to his hand. I suffered many beatings being the oldest. I pulled up stakes when he started using the belt freely on my youngest brother.”
“And you guys made it okay?” I asked, intrigued about his story.
“It was tough at first, but then I met Marge and she helped me raise up my brothers until they went off to college.”
“Wow, where are they now?”
“One’s a doctor over in Bozeman, and the other is a wildlife specialist in Yellowstone,” he said proudly.
“Wow,” I repeated, impressed that his brothers had turned out so well. My worst fear was that Kevin would fall through the cracks and never find his true potential.
“I’ll tell you what, when your moment comes, you look me up. My Marge and I set money aside for such a situation.”
“Oh no, I could never take your money,” I protested.
“It’s not my money, sweetheart, it’s yours. That’s what Marge would have wanted. It broke her heart when she found out she couldn’t bear her own childre
n, so she threw herself into showering all her love onto those less unfortunate. You ask my brothers Hank and Tommy and they’d claim she was a saint,” he said with bright eyes as he looked at the picture on the table beside his chair.
“Can I see?” I asked
“Sure, this is my Marge on our wedding day,” he said, handing over a picture of a couple standing at the alter with two teenage boys next to them. The woman in the picture had rich auburn hair that seemed to float around her. The dress she wore was simple, but her poise made it very elegant.
“She was beautiful,” I said sincerely.
“That she was. What she saw in a ragamuffin like me, I'll never know.”
“I’m sure she saw something,” I said, studying the picture of him that was easily more than thirty years old. Strangely enough, he wore the same look on his face that I often had on mine, and I came to realize it was the look of someone who had the weight of the world on their shoulders. He and I were two peas in a pod.
“Katelyn, can we go home?” Kevin asked, joining us.
“Sure bud, are you feeling better?”
“A little, I threw up again too.”
“I’m sorry bud,” I said, standing up.
Old Man Wither held up a hand. “Now you just sit here for a moment. I’m going to go warm up my pickup truck and I'll drive you two home.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I tried to protest.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way. Your mother should be tarred and feathered for letting you two come out on a night like this.”
Kevin joined me on the couch and laid his head in my lap as Mr. Wither headed out the front door to warm up his truck.