Chapter 10

Tom and the kids walked out of the Doc’s office with the sheriff, just as some men were helping to get Sam and his friend up the steps to the boardwalk. No one spoke as they passed and Sam and his friend kept their heads down, not wanting to look at the sheriff or the tall stranger beside him. The sheriff had his right arm in a sling and the Doc told him to keep it there for a week before he used it much. He told him to get the bandage changed daily too so it would heal better.

“Tom, you go on and find a place to bed down for the night and come see me tomorrow, I was serious about needing some help for a few days.”

“Yes Sir, I’m gonna get these two wild kids taken care of then I’ll see you early tomorrow.”

Tom, Millie and Danny walked down the empty dirt street, followed by Tom’s horse.

“Tom you can stay at our house and get cleaned up some, we have plenty of room. I know ma will still be passed out,” Millie said.

“Well, we’ll see when we get there. I wasn’t planning to stay overnight, much less a week or so.”

“Tom, we sure want to thank you for all you done for us, we’d still be runnin’ if we hadn’t met up with you out there today,” Danny said.

“Tom, ma is a good woman, if we can get her sobered up she’ll be more’n glad to let you stay a while at our place. We sure could use the company too, me and Danny ain’t even been welcome at our own home in a while,” Millie said, walking with her head down, glancing up at Tom every little bit.

“I’ll help get your ma sobered up so you can tell her what all’s been happening around the place while she laid up drunk, then we’ll see about the rest and how it goes with the sheriff. I don’t have any set plans, I was just going to do some traveling and see the land this summer.”

“Thanks again Tom, you sure are a good man and we like you a lot,” Danny said.

“How old are you Tom?” Millie asked, looking up at him with a sideways glance.

“I’m just shy of twenty, but don’t you go telling anyone.”

“Wow Tom you ain’t but a few years older’n me and Danny is twelve,” Millie looked at Tom again and smiled.

“Well, like I said I don’t want folks knowing I’m only twenty, so if you don’t want that butt spanking I was about to give you earlier today, you best keep your mouth shut about it,” Tom tried to sound grown up with his threats.

“We won’t tell Tom we promise, don’t we Danny?”

“We sure do, you been too good to us for us to tell folks you just a little older’n us,” Danny agreed.

The three were coming into sight of the ranch house, Tom could see that it was run down a bit, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed back with a little time.

“I’m gonna take care of my horse, then I’ll be in to see what we can do about your ma.”

Millie and Danny went on over to the house to see about their ma before Tom came in, they were still trying to get her out of bed and dressed when Tom walked in. Missus Croom was in a bad way, she was waking from a week long drunk, naked and lying in her bed that had been pissed in no telling how many times. Her hair looked worse than a sage grass broom. Her eyes were swollen almost shut. She had bruises and cuts and scratches all over her body.

Tom took one look at her and turned to the kids.

“Do you have anything to give her a bath in?”

“No, our bathin’ tub is a wash tub but we got a big horse watering trough out by the barn,” Millie said.

“Danny can you find some coffee and boil it?” Tom asked.

“I sure can Tom.”

“Millie you help me get your ma out to the watering trough, we got to get her cleaned up, grab a bar of that lye soap over there and bring it with you.”

Tom rolled the drunk woman over then hooked his hands under her arms and pulled her out of the bed, her feet hitting the floor with a thud. He pulled her out the door with her heels bouncing down the steps as he dragged her off the porch and across the yard to the barn. Tom could have picked up the woman easily, but could hardly stand the stench of her, just being this close. He lifted her feet over the side of the watering trough, then grabbed her by the arms again and lifted her body over into the water. It came up to her chest as he leaned her back against the end of the trough.

“Millie, you get over here with that lye soap and wash her all over at least twice, I’m going to see if Danny has that coffee ready,” Tom said as he reached and pulled Missus Crooms head back up, where she’d slid under.

Tom and Danny came back with a big tin cup of hot coffee and Tom held her head up while Danny poured the hot liquid in his ma’s mouth.

Missus Croom started screaming and hollering and squalling like a wildcat as the hot coffee went down her throat, burning all the way down.

“Millie wash your ma’s head with that lye soap, looks like she’s got lice all over her head,” Tom said as he let the woman’s head fall back to the end of the wooden trough with a thump. Millie was on her like she was the mother, washing her ma all over, slapping at her hands as she tried to fight her daughter off.

“Danny, you grab one of her feet and pull her leg wide, I’ll get the other while Millie washes your ma in her privates, she smells to hell and back.”

The two kids did as Tom told them, Millie leaving the lye soap in her ma’s hair as she bent over and washed the other end.

“Danny go in there and get the bed clothes off the bed and burn them in the yard, the pillows too. After what I saw, I don’t think they can be cleaned.”

Tom walked over to the barn and picked up a wide board. He lay it with one end up on the side of the watering trough and the other end on the ground. He pulled Missus Croom up and out of the water with her legs to the bottom and her head lolled over to one side at the top of the slanted board. He took the bucket by the pump and pumped it full, handing it to Millie.

“Wash her off good, then check to see if she needs scrubbing any where else.”

Tom watched as Millie rinsed her ma off then rinsed the lye soap out of her hair.

Danny had the bedclothes burning and Tom told him to get a clean blanket and another cup of that hot coffee.

Tom took Missus Croom and sat her on a block of wood that was turned up for a seat by the barn. When Danny got back with the coffee, Tom jerked her head up and saw the woman crying.

He made her drink from the cup and told her that if she spilled it she was going to get the next one poured on her.

Missus Croom was sobbing. She knew she was shamed before her own kids as she saw her naked body and the soapy water all over the ground near the trough.

“Cover yourself Missus Croom, you need to be more respectful of your kids, they love you too much to be shamed this way,” Tom scolded her.

Millie had a comb and was combing her ma’s stringy tangled hair. Danny was kneeling beside his ma, rubbing her arm and talking to her, telling her that he loved her and that everything was gonna be alright from now on.

Tom, Danny and Millie got her back in the house and made her sit at the table and eat some cold biscuits. She got sick and stumbled to the back door, then she came back and sat down. Tom made her drink coffee and eat biscuits until she could keep it down without puking her guts up. Millie got her ma a thick, but thread bare, faded robe and helped her ma put it on to cover herself. All four sat at the table, no one spoke for the longest as Missus Croom drank her coffee. Finally she looked up at Millie, then Danny sitting there watching her, then at Tom as he sat there with a smile for her as she looked at him. Her eyes were still swollen and red, her face looked as if she had been beaten. She still had scratches and bruises, but she was going to be alright.

“I don’t even know who you are or what you’re doing here young man, but you better git from here before Sam Wilson comes back, he’ll tear this place down to get at you.”

“No he won’t ma, Sam won’t be coming back here ever. Tom took care of Sam today in town,” Millie said with a big grin.

“What do you mean Tom took care of Sam, you mean he killed him, that’s the only way he’d stay away.”

“Tom didn’t kill’m but he shot his right hand nearly clean off,” Danny said.

Missus Croom looked at her kids then at Tom as if in disbelief, then she smiled at Millie, “Are you alright girl, did Sam hurt you any?”

“No, he ain’t hurt me none ‘cept to slap me around some. Danny hit him once with his fist and knocked him off me, then he knocked that sonofabitch out cold with a shovel as he was about to breed me like a dog, that’s when we ran away and found Tom.”

“Young man, when I came to my senses out there and saw you helping my kids to get me cleaned up, I could have died with shame. I could have killed you for shaming me like that. Then I saw that it was me that had done all the shaming, I’m the one that’s crawled all over the bottom of hell, dragging my kids with me. I owe you for helping them and for caring enough to come here and help them sober me up.”

“Well, no one owes me for anything, my folks would disown me if I didn’t help others that were in more trouble than they could get out of.”

“Ma, Tom’s gonna stay a few days and help the sheriff out some since the sheriff got shot in the shoulder by Sam. I think we need to put Tom up here at our place for him helping us like he did, don’t you?” Millie said.

“Well that’s the least we can do for him. Let me get my feet under me and I’ll cook us a good supper and we can sit down and all of you can tell me about what happened. Danny, go out there and kill a pullet and you and Millie clean it, we gonna have fried chicken, and biscuits and gravy tonight.”

Tom sat with the family at the table and felt good about the way that they had pulled together after getting Sam Wilson out of their life. Missus Croom still looked like death could claim her any minute, but she was coming to her old self quick. She was smiling at her kids and she was joining in the laughter.

The chicken was good and they all needed the good home cooked meal. Tom had decided he would sleep in the barn out of respect for the family and what all they had just been through with Sam. He sure didn’t want any talk of him moving in on them. Missus Croom, Millie and Danny pleaded with him to stay in the house, but in the end they knew he wasn’t gonna change his mind.

Millie was out to the barn early the next morning to see Tom and tell him that breakfast was ready. Tom was already up and using a big stiff brush he found in the barn, to brush his horse out good.

“Tom, Ma has breakfast ready, we got lots of fried eggs, biscuits and salt meat. She said come and get it before she throws it out,” Millie laughed.

“Well, I reckon we better get in there and eat, sounds like your ma has returned as head of the family again,” Tom told her.

Tom and Millie went into the kitchen to see Danny already sitting at the table. Missus Croom was busy at the wood cook stove finishing up the eggs. They all sat around the table and Missus Croom reached out to her two kids, grabbed their hands, and Millie and Danny reached out to each take a hand of Tom as their ma asked for blessing of the food.

“Lord, we thank you for sending us this friend and for delivering us from the evil we were wallowing in. We thank you for this food and for this small family. Amen.”

Millie and Danny dug in as if they were starving dogs as their ma smiled at them. Tom got a big plate full of eggs, biscuits, gravy and salt meat too and filled his stomach. The others drank coffee, but Tom drank water, he just didn’t have a taste for coffee he told them.

Tom was in town early and went directly to the sheriff’s office. The jailer told Tom that the sheriff was over at the hotel gettin’ breakfast. Tom walked into the hotel dining room and looked around for the sheriff. Spotting him over against the far wall, Tom started that way but was cut off by the hotel manager.

“We don’t serve Indians in here. You’ll have to leave immediately.”

Tom felt the heat rise in his face as he looked down at the little man, but turned to leave, just as the sheriff yelled to him.

“Tom, don’t listen to that little piss ant, come on over and have some breakfast.”

Tom looked down at the man, then walked over to the sheriff’s table.

“Good morning Sir,” he said as he sat down.

“I’ve already eaten sheriff, Missus Croom was up early and cooked a good breakfast, last night after she got sobered up, she cooked some fried chicken and biscuits.”

“Good to hear that you and the kids were able to get her sobered up, she was a good woman until that ornery cuss moved in with her. Tom, I really do need you to stay on a week or so. I been needing a good man for over a month now, the last one I had was worse than having a crook working as a deputy. Just stay until I can get my good arm working again, I’ll pay you a dollar a day and your meals in town.”

“Sheriff, I’ll stay another week, but no more than ten days. I don’t have any set plans, I just wanted to see some of the territory south of the Dakotas while the weather was warm and I had time.”

“Thanks Tom. Say how old are you anyway Tom, some that saw you yesterday say you look kinda young to them.”

Tom knew this would come up sooner or later and was prepared to lie about his age to keep his story from getting out of hand about a kid with a gun.

“I’m just barely twenty Sir. I know I look younger but I’ve had some good teachers that helped me accept the responsibilities of being a man.”

“Who might those teachers be Tom?”

“Well Sir, the Sioux chiefs and elders taught me how to ride and shoot a bow and arrow. My dad, my uncle, and Mr. Bill Cody showed me how to shoot and handle a gun, and my mom taught me to read and write, as well as right from wrong.”

“Sounds like you’ve had many lessons then. You’re a well spoken young man and you have a caring heart, just be careful who you trust and who has your back. It’s all over town about how you can handle a gun. I didn’t see any of it, but I did see the blood and bones flying from what was sposed to be the two fastest gun hands in this part of the country.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Lets get back to the office and I’ll get you a badge to make it official, don’t let the folks get to you with remarks about you bein’ Indian, they’ll come around and warm up to you.”

The two walked out of the hotel as others looked at the sheriff and the tall Indian walking side by side. Some scoffed at the sight, some looked in awe at the tall man with the broad shoulders and black hat. He was near a foot taller than the sheriff.

“Tom place your left hand on the bible and raise your right hand and repeat after me. I Tom Cooper do swear to uphold the laws of this county and this land, in my duties as deputy sheriff.”

The sheriff took the big star and pinned it on Tom’s white shirt on the left side.

“Welcome deputy,” the sheriff said as he shook Tom’s hand. “I’m going over to Doc’s and get my bandage changed, you take a walk around town a couple of times, let the folks get used to seeing you with the badge. I know I can depend on you to keep your calm, I’ve seen you in action,” the sheriff told him as he left the office and turned left on the boardwalk.

Tom walked out of the sheriff’s office and turned right, down past the hotel and Miller’s store. His horse walked in the street, following Tom as he walked. He walked to the livery, stopping to visit with the old man that owned it.

‘Langley’s Livery Stable’ the sign read.

“I sure would like it if you took care of my horse for the next week or so during the day. I’ll be helping the sheriff some for a few days.”

“I’d be honored to take care of that horse deputy, he sure is a prize if I ever seen one.”

He led his horse over to the stall, took his saddle off and patted him on the neck. He leaned over and whispered in his ear as the man put the saddle on a rack.

“What did you just tell him deputy?”

“I told him to take good care of you Mr. Langley.” Tom smiled and walked away as the man watched him. He couldn’t help the big grin on his toothless face.

Tom walked on out to the edge of town, then walked back behind the buildings on the main street. He walked past a few houses and then turned up between an alley to come back out on the main street again. He walked with his Henry hooked in his right arm, his hat pulled low to keep the sun out of his eyes. Looking the town over good, he saw every loose board every flapping piece of roofing, every broken window. He was used to looking at the prairie with a close eye and he couldn’t help but notice these things.