Chapter 2

Five days had passed since he had discovered the three people on the road. Late October passed into early November. The colors of fall faded as the leaves fell to the ground and slowly turned brown. Even in five days time, the weather had turned colder. Glen had started working on the interior of the house.

Glen drilled the hole for the wiring to pass through the stud. He only had one more wall and the ceiling to finish drilling and then he would be ready to start running the wire through the house. He could hardly wait for that part of the job to get finished. As much as he enjoyed the soft light afforded by kerosene lamps, it would be nice to get rid of the odor they generated. Most evenings were spent with the single light over the desk and the dull light from the fireplace.

His work was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. He ignored it and drilled another hole in the next stud. The knock was repeated a second and a third time. Tired of it, he shouted, “Fuck off.”

“It’s the Sheriff. We’ll break down your brand new door if you don’t answer!”

Glen was going to ignore the Sheriff until he realized that the guy would probably carry out his threat. He set down the drill and stormed over to the door. He threw it open and challenged, “What in the hell do you want?”

The Sheriff smiled at Glen. Glen stood there in blue jeans and work boots. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and he was covered in sawdust. He looked like the construction worker in the diet cola commercial; the rugged blue collar man that the white collar women went wild over. The Sheriff replied, “Well, I had a little talk with the judge about the Metchettes.”

“What’s that?”

“Not what, who. The Metchettes are the three people you rescued last week.”

“I don’t want to know their names. I don’t want to know anything about them.” Glen had done his bit and now it was over. All he wanted was for his life to return to its normal isolation. He would work on his house and everyone else would stay away. He liked it that way. He turned and went back to where he had been working.

Dale smiled as he considered the effect that his next statement would have. He stated, “You’ll have to know their names. The judge has awarded you custody of them until they recover.”

Glen stared at the Sheriff for a full minute as he tried to make sense of what he had just said. He finally blurted, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Dale stated, “Well, you see it’s like this. Those three kids have lost everything. They have no money, no car, no home, and no relatives. They are stuck here until their property is recovered. In the mean time, they need a place to stay while they recover from their wounds, so the judge has awarded you custody of them.”

“What in the hell does that mean?” Glen was afraid that he understood very well. The idea that the kids were that down on their luck caused a twinge of guilt. Still, his cabin wasn’t really the place for them.

“You have to take care of them until they recover.”

“No, I don’t,” Glen might not be a lawyer, but he knew a judge didn’t have that kind of power. A judge can’t arbitrarily make another person responsible for someone else. He argued, “The judge can’t do that.”

“Well, I guess you’ll have to take that up with the judge. He’ll be back in ten days. Until then, you have to take care of them.”

Glen couldn’t believe that a judge would issue an order like that and then leave for ten days. There had to be some mechanism for him to contest this situation. This was ridiculous and he knew it wasn’t true, but he took a look at the Sheriff and realized that arguing the legality of it wasn’t going to work. Instead, he fell back on stubbornness as he replied, “I won’t do it.”

Dale was enjoying this. He had threatened to play rough and now he was going to deliver on that threat. He stated, “Yes you will. If you don’t, I’ll just have to put you in jail. They’ll stay here anyway.”

“I guess you’ll be taking me to jail then. I don’t want people out here.”

Dale laughed gleefully and then said, “I was hoping you’d say that. I’m going to arrange for you to have visitors in the jail. People will be talking to you nonstop the whole time you are there.”

Glen knew the Sheriff well enough to know that he would carry out that threat. He fumed at the invasion of his privacy that this represented. He was going to have to put up with strangers for ten days. He stated, “I can’t do it. This place isn’t fit for human occupation.”

“That isn’t stopping you from living here,” countered the Sheriff.

“Shit,” retorted Glen. He looked around his unfinished cabin and tried to imagine four people living in it. He added, “I don’t even have beds for them. They’ll have to sleep on the floor. They’d be more comfortable in your jail than here.”

“Well, we thought about that,” replied the Sheriff with a grin. He pointed to a truck and stated, “That truck has two mattresses from the hotel in town. They’ve been refurbishing the rooms and donated the beds. They also threw in sheets, blankets, and pillows. The church has contributed a bunch of clothes.”

“Damn it Dale, why are you doing this to me?” Even as he complained, he felt guilty about it. The Sheriff might be doing this to him, but he was doing it to help out the three kids.

Dale looked around with a very self-satisfied smile. He hiked up his pants. He was proud of himself for having come up with this idea. He stated, “Well, you need to interact with people. Now you have to, whether you want to or not. The fact that the Metchettes are taken care of at the same time sounds real good to me.”

“I guess I’ll put them up at the hotel in town. Ten days shouldn’t cost me that much.”

“Nope, that won’t do. They need to be watched in case there are unforeseen complications due to the treatment they received at the hands of that madman.”

Glen fumed. He realized that there was nothing he could do. He said, “You aren’t going to let me get out of this, are you?”

“Nope.”

“I don’t have a bathroom.”

“You will soon. Until then, they can use your outhouse.”

Glen grumbled, “It’s more an out than a house.”

The Sheriff laughed at the statement. He shook his head and turned to a couple of men in the truck. He shouted, “Bring that stuff into the house.”

Glen watched in horror as two men climbed out of the truck and proceeded to carry a couple of mattresses into the house. When they got inside the cabin, one of them asked, “Where do you want it?”

Glen answered, “Anywhere else except here.”

“That’s funny. Seriously, where do you want us to set up the beds?”

Glen pointed to the far end of the cabin. It put the maximum distance between where he stayed and where they would stay. He answered, “Over there.”

The men quickly set up two queen size beds in the areas he had framed in for bedrooms. While one of the men arranged the mattresses on the beds, the other went back to the truck and brought back a box of bedding material. He nodded at Glen and then stated, “It’s sure good of you to do this for them folks. They really are down on their luck.”

Glen just turned away. He wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of his heart. The Sheriff had forced him into doing it. In a way, that made him feel even worse about himself. There was a time when he would have been the first to volunteer to help. Glen went over to his recliner and sat down, trying very hard, but unsuccessfully, to ignore the activity within his cabin.

The Sheriff leaned against the wall and watched Glen fidget. He knew that this was a tough time for the son of his friend. He waited to see what Glen would say or do next. He was surprised to see that he didn’t do anything. The degree of submission Glen was demonstrating was very uncharacteristic.

After the men who had set up the bed left, another car pulled up in front of the cabin. The Sheriff let the woman and her teenage son into the cabin. They carried boxes of clothes that had been donated for the Metchettes. Glen numbly watched them come and go without comment. He wondered how many more people would end up trooping through the house.

After all of the activity died down, it was very quiet in the cabin. The only ones there were Glen and Dale. Dale stated, “Glen, snap out of out and talk to me. They’ll be here soon.”

Glen looked over at the Sheriff with an even gaze. He stated, “I will do as I must. Don’t expect me to thank you or jump up and down in joy.”

“Before they get here, you’ve got to understand some things. These kids have had a tough time. The boy was raped. Now rape is tough on everyone, but often worse when the victim is male. The twins are very fragile. They were treated brutally. They all suffer from nightmares. You are going to have to be very gentle around them.” Dale stared at Glen.

“Look, I’m not the right person for this. I mean look at me.”

“Glen, you are the only one around that can take care of them. You’re here twenty-four hours a day. Hell, you’re the only one that I know that doesn’t have a real life to live.” It wasn’t a nice assessment of Glen’s life, but it was accurate. He added, “Living here, they won’t have to deal with other people until they are ready for them.”

Glen thought about it. He stated, “Don’t expect me to coddle them. I’m not a wet nurse.”

“I don’t expect you to coddle them.” The Sheriff heard a noise outside and looked out the window. He said, “They are here. You might want to put on a shirt.”

“Are you telling me that I’m not pretty enough?”

“Nah, I just don’t want you exciting the women.”

Glen actually laughed at that. He turned and put on a shirt. There was a knock on the door, which the Sheriff answered. Glen turned to watch a group of four enter the cabin. The deputy led the twins into the cabin. They were followed by the young man. It was the first time that Glen actually looked at the three of them. He put their ages in the late teens or early twenties. They all had sandy brown hair and you could tell that they were all related.

The Sheriff waved the trio over and stated, “Glen, this is Cliff, Sandra, and Wanda Metchette. Metchettes, this is Glen. You’ll be staying with him for a couple of weeks until we can figure out what to do with you.”

Cliff smiled uncertainly as he extended his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Glen looked at the hand and just nodded in Cliff’s direction. Cliff didn’t know how to react and stood there awkwardly. Finally, he put his hand back in his pants pocket and stared at Glen. He decided that he didn’t really like this guy.

The twins, almost in harmony, stated, “Hello. Nice to meet you.”

Glenn just stared at them wondering which girl was which. He frowned as he decided that he would never be able to tell them apart. He nodded in their direction and then went over to the wall of the cabin and leaned against it. He watched the three of them stand there nervously.

Sandra smiled uncertainly and nodded her head in Glen’s direction. She was tired already and wanted to take a nap. She meekly asked, “When will we be going to your house?”

Glen actually smiled at the question while the Sheriff laughed. The Sheriff answered, “You’re there. This is where he lives.”

Wanda, the much more conservative and introverted of the two twins, burst out, “It isn’t even a real house! We can’t live here.”

Cliff interrupted, “Girls, we’re safe here.”

That stopped all arguments. Glen had hoped they would argue a little more about staying here. He was all ready to use that to suggest they go somewhere else. He stated, “Your beds are over in the corner. They brought some clothes for you.”

Dale stated, “Well, kids. I’ll leave you to get settled in. Don’t worry about Glen, he’s gruff but has a good character. He’s the one that found you.”

All three of them started to thank him, but he held up his hand. He was about to say that he should have left them there, but a glance at the Sheriff he stopped himself. Instead, he said, “Don’t ever mention it again.”

The Sheriff slowly shook his head and opened the door. He stated, “I’ll be seeing you tonight at the diner. My niece has arranged an account there for you to pay for your meals from donations. Now, I’ll expect you kids to tell me how he’s treating you. Okay?”

The trio all nodded, very nervous about being left with this strange man. With a quick glance in Glen’s direction, Cliff answered, “I’m sure we’ll be okay.”

Glen walked over to his recliner and noticed the magazine on the floor next to it. He shoved it under the chair with his foot. The bottle of hand-lotion was still on the desk. That wasn’t so telling of his normal nightly routine. He watched the Sheriff leave. He went over to where he had dropped his drill and went back to work.

The trio stood there in shock. They weren’t use to being ignored so effectively. For several minutes they watched him drilling holes in the studs. Finally, Sandra went over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to look at her before asking, “What?”

“What are you doing?”

Glen looked at her for a moment and then answered, “I’m drilling holes in the studs.”

“Why?”

He shook his head as though he had just bitten into something extremely sour. He replied, “I’m getting ready to run electricity through the house.”

“Oh. Will you be done soon?”

“I plan to work for another couple of hours.”

Sandra pouted and said, “We’re really tired. Can you stop while we take a nap?”

Glen looked at the trio for a moment. “I guess I can stop drilling for a while. You have your choice. I can drill holes, I can use the power saw, or I can nail some electrical boxes onto the studs. Which would you prefer?”

Sandra frowned as she answered, “They are all noisy. Can’t you do something quiet for a while?”

Wanda stated, “I need to go to the bathroom. Where is it?”