Chapter 3: The Prodigious Son

Millicent purchased an additional wardrobe for Billy that consisted of overalls and plaid shirts. After a week of rest he was taken to the shoe store and fitted with brogans and another pair of soft leather slippers. The boy looked at Colleen and said, "I ain't never had no finery like these here shoes. They is new and nobody else ever owned them but me. I'm going to sleep with them on even."

Millicent laughed, "Perhaps you should consider taking them off to sleep and also to change your stockings. Come along now we shall have you fitted in dress clothes for other than every day wear." She led the wide eyed boy to the tailor shop down the block from the shoe store.

"Missus Summers, what a pleasant surprise. How may I be of service to you?" The old man smiled his welcome as he met them at the door.

"Good afternoon mister Weiss. Billy here needs some dress attire appropriate for church and social functions. Perhaps a few pair of light woolen trousers and linen shirts, as well."

The tailor looked downcast, "Missus Summers, I have nothing on my ready to wear rack in his size. Perhaps you should try Penney's or the mercantile." Times were hard and business was slow. Sol Weiss hated to turn any potential income away.

"Mister Weiss, we came here because Billy is now a member of our household. Therefore it would be best to clothe him in proper attire. Take his measurements and ply your trade as a tailor. You made Mister Summers some very beautiful suits. Do the same for Billy please. Two suits, five white dress shirts, one additional shirt with French cuffs and five pair of dress trousers. If you need to, order the shirts from Oklahoma City and cut them down as is necessary."

The grateful tailor told Billy, "Come back here and remove your overalls and shirt. He led him into a small back room."

"Why you want me to take off my shirt overalls?" a suspicious Billy wanted to know.

The old man patiently cajoled Billy until he acquiesced. "Now, young man, I shall measure you and create new clothing for you that is sewn to your individual body measurements."

Billy was nervous while he endured the necessary measurements until at last the time came to put his overalls back on. He hurried back out into the front where Millicent and Colleen waited for him. "Boy howdy, that really takes the cake. He made me take my clothes off so he could measure me."

"Mister Summers does the same, Billy. It must be done that way to get the best possible fit."

"Well, if he does it, it must be okay 'cause he's th' princess' daddy. He's not too bad after you get to know him.

Millicent smiled down at the boy, "No Billy, in fact he's pretty nice when you get to know him.

"I'm sure sorry that there first suit got ruined when they cut them pants off me. It was the first nice thing I ever had." He looked down at the floor.

"Billy, you are more important to us than a cheap suit. In fact you are so important to us we would like for you to come live with us for good."

"Really?" he asked. "You really mean it?"

"Billy, if my mother says it she means it." Colleen thought a moment and added, "I want you to live with us too."

"What about my ma? What if she says no?"

"First things first, Billy. What are your wishes? Would you care to live with us?" Millicent gave a pensive look at the boy. "If you do not wish to live with us, then we won't pursue the matter any further. What are your wishes in this?"

"Well shore I want to live with you all. You like me and the princess likes me and, and, you said you loved me. Nobody ever told me that before." He looked up at Millicent with sadness showing in his eyes as he compared and remembered the vast differences between the Road House and the Summers' home...

Millicent knelt down and hugged him close. "Oh Billy, we all love you so much."

"Me too," Colleen smiled at him, "I love you most of all. If I am to be a princess, you must be my knight in shining armor." As the three left the tailor shop together Mister Weiss smiled after them.

That evening after supper, Martin turned the radio on and they listened to Amos 'N Andy. As Lawyer Calhoun made one of his famous mangled law quotes, Billy laughed. "You shouldn't laugh at stupid people," Colleen chastised him.

"Why not? They laugh at me."

"Who laughs at you, Billy?" Martin asked.

"Oh, them guys out at the Road House and the kids here in town." He shrugged as if it were of no import.

"Doesn't it hurt your feelings, when they laugh at you?" Martin asked.

"Well, yeah, sometimes. If I went around whipping everybody that pokes fun at me. I'd be real busy all the time." He smiled bashfully at Martin.

"Which leads us to the subject now at hand." Martin turned the radio off. "Your mother just got back into town this afternoon. I've had people on the look out for her. So I am going to ask you one last time, do you wish to live with us permanently?"

"Well sure, I always wanted a family of my own and now I got one. Why?"

"Tomorrow I intend to speak to your mother and try to convince her to sign a release so there can be no future problems. I want no misunderstandings where you are concerned." Martin hesitated and then said in a low, husky voice, "I have come to care for you very much, so very much, Son."

Millicent looked in surprise at her husband and then understood. Billy had, in a few short days, become the son they never had in Martin's heart. "Yes," she added her agreement to her husband.

The following day Billy's mother turned out to be not willing to relinquish her son to the Summers. He accosted her in the main room of the Road House. The pretty young woman showed the ravages her of hard life on her face and in her raspy voice. "I just don't want to let go of my Billy Joe. He's my only son. I love him a whole lot," she whined.

Martin scowled at her. "Yes, you love him so much that you went of with an itinerate musician for over ten days and left him alone without anything to eat. You have displayed your great love for your son." He snorted his contempt.

Her face flushed and she answered angrily, "It ain't nobody's business how I treat my kid. He's mine to do with as I please."

"Shut up woman!" he shouted at her. The bartender quietly came around the bar with a sawed off pool cue in his hand. Her walked up behind Martin and began a swing at his head. The blow never landed. Martin twisted sideways and grabbed the weapon and wrenched it from the bartender's hand.

"You rich..." he started to say as he swung a mighty blow that landed on and mashed Martin's nose flat. With a guttural roar Martin Summers swung the cue and knocked the bartender unconscious.

He tossed the stick away and turned to the woman, blood flowing freely from the injured nose. "Five thousand dollars," he told her.

She shrugged, "Okay."

"And you leave this town and never return. If you do I shall have you arrested and thrown into jail and held there as long as it suits me. Do you understand?" Although the broken nose interfered with his speech she understood him well.

"Yeah," she answered, "You rich people get what you want and us poor people get nothing."

Without another word he counted out five thousand dollars from the large roll in his pocket. "Here," he said and handed her fifty one hundred dollar bills. He produced a typewritten paper and said, "Sign by the red ex." He handed her a pen and she scrawled her name. Martin looked at the childish scrawl and barely recognized it as handwriting.

She stuck the expensive Sheaffer's pen in her dress pocket and turned away. "Well, he finally was worth something besides a bother to me." Disgusted, Martin wiped his bloody nose with a fine linen handkerchief and walked out. He drove directly to the doctor's office.

"Well," Doctor Price greeted him, "It seems that your whole family is prone to violence these days. Now this is going to hurt." Martin grunted in pain as the doctor snapped the injured nose back into place and packed the insides of both nostrils. "In two days the packing can come out. You should be able to breath normally by then. It might be prudent to wash your bloody face. You'll scare fewer people that way. He smiled and stepped back to admire his handiwork. Martin nodded and left the examining room. He paid the nurse on the way out and drove home.

"Martin!" Millicent exclaimed when she saw her husband, "What in heaven's name happened to you?"

"I went out to the road house to see Billy's mother," he answered in a muffled voice made indistinct because of the nose packing.

"She did this to you?" Millicent asked in a unbelieving voice.

Martin tried to snort and couldn't. "No, of course not. The bartender tried to hit me with a home made billy club. I took it away from him and he struck me in the face." He smiled grimly and added, "He's probably still lying there if someone hasn't moved him."

Millicent laughed and touched her own face, the bruises now yellowed and fading. "We are quite a fighting family, let all outsiders beware."

She turned serious, "What about Billy's mother, will there be any future repercussions? That young boy has been through all too much already. He needs no more pain in his young life."

"I gave her some money and told her to move far away." Unable to fathom it, he asked his wife, "Can you imagine that she actually said the only good thing about Billy was the money I gave her? How can any person be so callous toward their own child?"

"I already told you she never said she loved me. She never even said she liked me." Sad eyed, Billy came into the room. "I tried to make her like me even a little but she never paid me no never mind." He examined Martin's damaged and bloody face. "Ike did that, didn't he. If I had known you was going out there I would have warned you. He swings that club first and then smashes the suckers in the face with his fist. He's sneaky and cruel."

"I took the club away from him and he hit me once with his fist. He was lying on the floor when I left," Martin told him with no little pride.

"You whipped Ike?" Billy asked in surprise. "I'm glad. He was always hitting me. My ma thought it was funny."

"Don't worry, Billy. From now on I am the only one who gets to hit you." Colleen had entered the room unnoticed.

"What?" Billy exclaimed. "There ain't no old girl going to hit me.

"Calm down, Billy, I was teasing you. I wouldn't hit you, I might hurt you." She smiled as Billy bristled. She turned to her father, "Really, Father, you should wash the blood off your face and change your clothes. You look quite fearsome, you know."

"Uh," Martin grunted and shook his head as he left to clean up.