|
A Good Day Today was a good day. Harvey left the house before daylight with his bass boat hitched to his four-wheel drive sport pick up truck, a cooler full of beer, and his two dogs riding in the back. The place would be quiet and peaceful while Harvey was at the lake. It always was. Sheila woke up to an empty bed and a house that smelled like old crank case drippings. Harvey was rebuilding an engine on the front porch. He said it was the only place he could work out of the rain to repair the old Buick for his daughter who had just taken a job at a cafe in town. Besides, who cared what the place looked like anyway, they lived so far out in the boonies. An odor of grease wafted through the place on the damp morning breeze. Sheila cleared her throat and reached for a cigarette. She ran her fingers through her straight blonde hair. Across the room a face she hardly recognized looked back at her from the dirty mirror on the wall. Harvey really did it last night. He was mad. He seemed o.k. at supper. He hadn't complained about anything. Around midnight Harvey had gotten up and gone to the bathroom. When he came back to bed he wanted to make love, but Sheila tried to persuade him to wait until morning. That must have been it, she thought. Would she ever learn what sets that man off. Sheila studied her bruises in the morning light. She could still hear Harvey's curses. She could still feel his fists pummeling her face. "Why? Why me? Why does he beat the crap out of me? He says he loves me and doesn't want to make love to anyone else. He said he wanted some lovin' last night. Maybe it was only sex he wanted. Who will ever know what that man really wants?" Sheila slipped out of bed and put on a pair of overalls with the knees busted out. She put on an old shirt that smelled like grease even though she had washed it several times since Tina had worn it while working with her dad on the old car out front. She finished her second cigarette and poured some cold coffee into a mug. "Today," she thought, "will be a good day. I sure hope its better'n last night. It couldn't be much worse, no matter what. My daddy warned me about Harvey. Said he wasn't quite right. I wouldn't listen. I love that fool so. Maybe I'm the fool." Sheila spent most of the day trying to clean up around the place. She would show Harvey she was a good wife. Clean the place up, make it shine. Then maybe he would be proud of her and not hit her anymore. Moving around wasn't easy. She limped a bit. Something was sure wrong with her right leg. In the fight last night she had tried to fend off Harvey's blows by falling back on the bed and kicking him. He had grabbed her leg and twisted it pretty bad. Then he ripped off her night gown and got what he wanted. No kissing. No tenderness. No sweet words like when they were dating. After that he went into the living room, had a couple of beers, and fell asleep on the couch. * * * The sun went down behind the live oaks. Its last rays outlined the Spanish moss and cast eerie shadows onto the kitchen wall. Harvey wasn't home yet. Maybe he and his buddies were still catching lunker bass and drinkin' beer. Sheila hoped Harvey would have a good time so he would feel good when he got home. It was full dark when a pair of headlights turned off the gravel road into the lane. A car stopped in the front yard. It was a deputy sheriff and someone was with him. The two men bounded up onto the old planks on the front porch. Sheila opened the screen door. "What brings you fellows way out here?" In the dim light from the living room Sheila recognized the young preacher from the community church. She had been there a couple of times to family weddings. "Mrs. Johnson, I'm afraid there's been an accident over at the lake. Some fellows in a bass boat got flipped out when they hit a stump. Two of the fellows drowned. One of them was your husband Harvey. I'm sorry to have to bring you this kind of news. Do you have someone you want us to contact?" Sheila stood silently staring into the night. Numbness surrounded her heart. Right now all she could think about was that Harvey, the fool she loved, would not be coming home tonight. She hoped Harvey had a good day at the lake before the accident. Slowly Sheila realized, yes, this was a good day. Today was a good day. End |