Promise by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Author:Rachel Eliza Griffiths [Griffiths, Rachel Eliza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2023-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

TWO

15

Deputy Charlie demanded that my father pay for the cost of replacing the glass of the police cruiser. Daddy agreed that Mr. Hobart could dock his pay until a new window was installed. At home, my father didn’t complain about any of it, but we all could see his worry. If he protested in any respect, he was certain that Mr. Hobart would fire him. It was winter and the holidays were ahead of us; my father was not the kind of man who trusted that things would work themselves out or that God would provide if he were to quit outright, which was what I’m sure a part of him wanted to do.

Despite his efforts at appeasement, there had been a shift in the environment. The faculty had tacitly agreed that I should not roam around the school. My presence was dangerous because I could now be cited as having issues with rage and adult authorities; I was still permitted to attend my classes, but no longer could I linger anywhere on the campus of the school without supervision.

It was worse for my father. He was asked to take his lunch in his own classroom rather than sitting alone, as he usually did, in the faculty’s shabby dining lounge. Sometimes Mr. Caesar invited Daddy to join him out in his woodshed, which he’d made cozy with a small woodstove, a couch and chairs, a table set; there was a large adjoining room filled with tools, kerosene lamps, turpentine canisters and paint, ammonia and innumerous supplies, which Mr. Caesar kept in immaculate order. Most days, the Junkett children, Ezra, and I also took our lunch there. The entire school had seemed to sigh in relief that we had finally begun to know our place.

What disturbed me most was that life continued.

It made me question whether the whole thing that happened between Mr. Caesar, Daddy, myself, and the deputy was a real event. It took me some time to figure out that Mr. Caesar had been arrested after being accused of stealing Miss Alley’s purse, which was never found. It was rarely mentioned when our families visited. Like the adults, I tried to go on as best I could and be grateful that nobody had been killed. Mr. Caesar had had three of his ribs broken and there was a gash from the impact of the deputy’s baton that fractured his skull. He’d come close to losing four of the fingers on his right hand. Daddy and Mama discouraged me whenever I asked why wasn’t there a way to challenge what that deputy had done to Mr. Caesar; I couldn’t let it go.

Mr. Hobart had forced his niece to drop the charge of theft against Mr. Caesar, who, to my surprise, was not fired. There was no follow-up investigation of any kind. In fact, the day after the incident, Mr. Hobart had phoned Mr. Caesar to ask if and when he’d be returning to the school to handle an infestation of mice in the dining hall.

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