Page 20 of August

August left a sticky note for May so she’d know that they had three older than they normally had for breakfast. Yawning again, he locked up the house and made his way to the stairs.

“Mr. August?” He smiled at Mandy. “I’m not the little ones’ sister but her aunt. My sister was the one who was beaten to death. Also, I’ll pay you back for what you’ve given me. I have a job—not a good one, but a job all the same. Anyway, I’m twenty-five. I could use a few pounds but in this, it’s helped me be with the kids when they needed me.”

“You and your nephews, you’re not hurt, are you?” She nodded, then shook her head. “Someone else I know answers like that. I don’t know what that means.”

“I’m not hurt all that much, but Teddy is, not really. The man from the welfare department didn’t want to take him to the hospital because of…he did say he was missing a game of sorts. Bastard. Treated them and myself like shit when there was no reason for it. He didn’t even tell us kept going on about how he was missing his game or something.” He asked her if she got his name and if the injuries were bad enough to take them in tonight. She pulled up her sleeve. She told him that Teddy had somecigar burns, but he was going to be all right. “I can’t get this to stop bleeding, and he told me not to bleed all over his car. I should have spoken up but I was afraid he’d pressure me into telling him my real age.”

“I’m sorry about the way you were treated. Come on, honey, we’ll get going and be back hopefully in good time. There is no reason for you to lose too much sleep. That looks deep and there is no point in you suffering if you don’t need to.” He went up to his room to tell Jack what was going on, and she said that they should take all three of them in. “All right. I’ll get the car and tell Mandy to gather up her nephews. I’ll explain it all later.”

The emergency room wasn’t at all busy. They took one look at Mandy’s arm and took her to a trauma room. She asked him if Jack could go with her. The boys were being taken care of down the hall from their aunt.

“She isn’t our sister. She’s our aunt. But we didn’t tell that man that because he already looked pinched.” He just barely stifled a laugh. Just as a nurse told them that the doctor was here, he was never so happy to see his brother right then. Locke looked freshly showered, too. His mood was perfect for the little boys, and he was glad that someone had called him in.

“I’ve told them whenever one of my family comes in, they’re to let me know.” He winked a Teddy. “You know how brothers are, I bet, never telling you everything you might need to know.”

While he was looking them both over, Teddy was telling Locke about the pinched officer. He wasn’t lying, he told him, but they were mighty hungry and upset that their mom had gotten shot. Teddy was the most talkative of the two of them and he had a feeling that no one tried to get one over on him when he was talking. Martin was the thinker and when he had something to say, you’d better pay attention. He was a smart child.

By the time the sun was coming up, the three of them had been admitted. He wasn’t sure why the boys had been until he got into the room where Carrie was and saw them all in the bed together. They loved her, and he thought that it was the most wholesome thing that he’d ever seen. Carrie had needed fifty-four stitches in her arm, and that made him hate the boys’ father all the more.

They were released the next morning. But Locke said that he’d come by and check on them when he got up again. By the time they were leaving, he remembered to ask his brother about his board. The smile on his face was all the answer he needed. He was officially Doctor Locke Erickson. Hugging him tightly, he was never so proud of someone as he was of his brother in that moment. He deserved it, too. For all the hard work he’d done over the years.

“Believe it or not, I aced it.” He said that he hadn’t any doubt that he wouldn’t. “Thanks. But I did take your advice and told myself to not second guess myself. I didn’t even go back over the questions to make sure that they were right or not. Thanks for that advice.”

“I’d like to take credit for that, but that was what you used to tell me, too. Just do what you know and move on.” He thanked him for that. “I’m very proud of you, Locke. More than I think I could put into words. Thank you, too, for being the best big brother anyone could ask for.”

He nearly burst out laughing when Locke looked embarrassed. It was great to see that he was still humble in his work. But he’d never been so proud of him as he was at that moment. He’d seen what needed to be done and accomplished it. August thought that Martha would have been cheering him on, too. She’d been a great woman, and he missed her every day.

After they left the hospital, the kids were put to bed. They didn’t sleep in the same bed this time. They seemed to understand that their aunt needed her rest. But they still checked on her a great deal. She was all that they had left after their bastard of a father, and she was great with them. He wondered what would happen to them in the immediate future. He hoped they’d be a part of their growing family.

Chapter 8

It had been a while since he’d spoken to Martha. He knew that the others had their own ways of talking to her. Locke simply spoke to her wherever he was. He thought he and Zander were the only ones who went to her grave and spoke to her. Like he needed today.

“I’ve been thinking about you a great deal of late.” He pulled some weeds from the iris’ that covered her grave. They were the same color as the ones on her husband’s grave. His were larger, however. “What was your marriage like? You were so concerned with us being good to our wives that I wonder if your own marriage was a mess. I know also that you blamed your son’s upbringing on your husband. Not to mention his way of treating you.”

August watched as three kids riding their bikes on the pathways between the headstones seemed to know where they were going. They weren’t loud however, each of them had some flowers grasped in their hands. When they were several headstones away from him, they pulled out a blanket and sat on it.

“You’d go over and talk to them. Make them feel good about themselves. For coming to visit their family.” He thought of her charm and grace, how she could make a person feel good about doing the simplest of things. “I miss you some days more than others. Having Jack in my life helps a great deal.”

The kids were removing weeds, talking about the person they’d come to visit. The younger of the three of them wandered off. They kept an eye on him, but not enough as far as he was concerned. When he finally came back, his hands full of weeds, he smiled when the older of them scolded him gently and added his weeds to the array of flowers they’d brought with them.

He enjoyed having the kids. They were a joy and exhausting at the same time. Funny and time-consuming. And he couldn’t love them any more than he did every day. His partner was amazing, and he didn’t think that anyone loved their wife more than he did today and he knew he’d love her more tomorrow and the day after.

“Remember about the second day we were at your home? You sat the six of us down and told us about your son?” he thought about the things she’d told them. “That not only was he stealing from you, but he knocked you around as well. I don’t think we gave him the opportunity again after that, not so long as we were around anyway. Then his wife showed up.”

Martha met her at the door. They never did find out why she was there. They only were aware that she’d shown up because of the sirens in the front of the house.

“There she was, wallowing in the mud, trying to get up with blood on her face and mud on her clothing like she’d bathed in it, screaming about how she was going to get you.” He laughed hard, wondering if there would be a time when it wasn’t funny. “I don’t know that she ever came around us again alone. She hid behind your son when she did like he wasn’t worthless, too.”

He sat there for another hour, talking about his new family and the things going on there. When the kids left, he did as well, still keeping an eye on them when they left. Looking at the grave they’d been at, he was surprised to see it was Mr. Graner, the retired teacher from the high school. They must be his grandchildren.

Making his way home after his visit, he stopped and got flowers for the women in his life and toy trucks for the boys. He was such a sap, as Alex was fond of calling him. But he didn’t care. His brother was just as much as one, if not more, than he was.

They were in the backyard when he got home. The trees were beginning to turn now that it was mid-September, and he was happy about it. The older ones were ready to start school, and they were excited. He was, as well, sort of. He was going to miss them so much while they were gone. Howeverhe was excited too for the holidays, too, especially for the kids.

It would be a lot of firsts for everyone. First holiday without Martha around. First holidays with their wives and children. The first for him in putting up a tree. Even buying gifts for everyone. And he was planning to go all out, too. You’d not be able to see the tree for all the gifts, kind of all out. He was home as soon as the delivery of his office supplies arrived. August was tearing down the boxes when Jack showed up without the children.

Locke and Alex wanted the babies, as Dusty and Shipley asked for the five older ones. They were having pizzas and movies.