Page 9 of Gibb
~*~
Thad watched Mr. David chopping wood. He didn’t know this man very well. Hardly at all, but he watched him every day doing the chopping. When he’d asked his sisters about him, Belle told him that he had some things to work out. That he was a man that had a broken heart. Today, Thad decided he was going to have to talk to the man. Time was running out for things.
When he laid down the ax and sat down on the stump that was close to him, Thad waited to see if he was going to pick it up again. It had been the third time that he’d done that, and he quickly picked up the ax and began chopping again. When he didn’t this time, he made himself known to the man and walked to where he was sitting.
“Hello there, young man. You must be Gibb’s little boy. My name is David. I’ve heard that you’re fitting in all right around here with your two sisters.” He said that they were and that he was glad that Dad had found them. “He’s a good man. I’m sure you know that by now. What can I do for you?”
“Do you know about me and my sisters?” He said only in that they were Gibb and Maddy’s children. “Nobody told you anything else about us? How we can see things sometimes?”
It was important to know whether or not the man believed him or not before he spoke to him. When he asked what he was talking about, Thad was both relieved and worried at the same time. Relieved because he didn’t say that he didn’t believe what he’d heard and worried because he might not believe what he had to tell him. Instead of leaving, like he was ready to do, he nodded and began with his tale to the other man.
“My sisters and I are triplets. I guess you might know that, but what you don’t know, and even our mom doesn’t know, is that we could talk to each other before we were born. We could talk to Mom, too, but it was only to let her know not to do something that would be a danger to her or us.” The man nodded, saying nothing yet. “We knew that we were special before we were born. Even in the hospital, we told the nurses which baby was sick and which needed extra care. Diaper changes and little stuff like that. They did a good job there. Even when someone came to see the babies that shouldn’t have been there, we told them about it. Mr. David, we’ve never told anyone this before.”
“I see. And I’m guessing that you have a reason for telling me now.” Thad nodded. “Is this dangerous, whatever you’re going to tell me?”
“Yes, sir. Not for you but for this woman that is living in town. You have to go and help her. If you don’t, it’ll be all right if you say no. But I guess, but she’ll die. My sisters and I, we’ve been trying to take care of her since we’ve been here. Now we can’t do it anymore without you helping us.”
David stood up. So did Thad. Turning to go to the house, wondering if he’d been an adult if someone would believe him then, his heart hurt for the—
“Aren’t we going to save her?” Thad turned to look at David. “You said that she needed my help. I’m assuming that it needs to happen today, or you wouldn’t have come out here three times to tell me. Why didn’t you just say my name, Thad? I would have stopped to talk to you.”
“I don’t know you.” David said that was his fault, that he’d been working through some stuff. “Yeah. My sister, Maria, she said to tell you that your wife wasn’t happy for a long time.”
David sat down again, narrowly missing the ax this time. Thad went to him, making sure that he was all right. When David asked him how he’d known about his wife, he sat back down on the log to tell him what he knew.
“Her name was Lily. Right?” David nodded. “Yeah, we thought that was your wife. Maria, she could talk to her a lot. She has this sort of radar thing that reaches out to people before they die like your wife did. Sometimes, she can talk them out of it, but Ms. Lily she was too sad for her to be able to talk her into not doing that. Her heart was broken, Maria said.”
“Your sister tried to talk her out of killing herself?” Thad said that they could all do it and did. But Maria was stronger at it. “What did she say to her? Did…did Lily say why she didn’t talk to me first?”
“She said that her heart was broken because you were so sad.” David was crying now, and it hurt Thad that he was the cause of the man’s pain. “Don’t cry, Mr. David. I’m only telling you this because Maria said that you’d need to know it. It’s not a bad thing to have spoken to her for you, right?”
“No. It’s all right. Tell me what she said to Maria, please? You said that her heart was broken for me. Did she say why?” He nodded, and Mr. David sobbed loudly. Then he pulled him off the stump and held him to him tightly. “Tell me, please? Even if you think it will hurt me.”
“She said that her heart was broken because she had been such a burden to you. Maria, she told her that you’d not think that. That you loved her to pieces, but she told her that it was costing the two of you too much for her to be sick like this. Not money, she told my sister, but of life. That the pain of watching you see her suffer was hurting her deep in her soul. Lily said that the only way that she could be happy in Heaven was to set you free.” He let Mr. David cry.
It hurt him to hear an adult cry like he was. Great sobs that even made him want to cry with him. When Dad joined them there, Mr. David grabbed onto him and held him while he told him what he’d said.
“She did this for me. I knew that she had in some way, but to know that…she set me free, Gibb. So that I’d not hurt anymore. And it’s all I have been doing is hurting because I’ve let her down.”
“No, you didn’t.” Thad watched as Maria smiled at David. “She told me that you’d say that. That you let her down. She wanted me to tell you that she loved you dearly, Mr. David, but she wasn’t in love with you. I don’t know what that means, but she said to tell you that and that you’d agree with her. Ms. Lily said that you loved her, too, but you weren’t in love with her anymore. That your heart was too burdened to be in love with anyone. She didn’t want that for you either. That’s why she set you free.”
“But I did love her.” Maria looked at Thad, then back at David. He stared at them both before he nodded. “No. I think you’re right. I never…I did love her. More than anything. But I wasn’t in love with her anymore. She was…she wasn’t my heart anymore but the person that I loved because I had for so long.”
Neither of them said anything. Thad was glad that Maria came out to help him, but he really needed Mr. David to help the lady in town. He seemed to understand that about the time that Belle joined them. Wiping his eyes, he asked where they were going to go.
“Her name is Rusty.” He told him that he didn’t know her last name but gave him the address. Dad loaded them up in the car, and they were all five headed out when he remembered that he’d not told his mom where they were going. Dad said that he’d make sure that she knew, and they were all right with that. Thad wondered if he should have told him the rest of the story of Rusty. But Belle told him that they’d figure it out soon enough. He hoped so. Thad had never seen a little baby before.
As soon as they pulled up in front of the house, he knew that they were going to make it for Rusty. While he knew absolutely nothing about babies, he did know that Mr. David did. Belle told him that he’d almost been a doctor and that he’d delivered three babies when he’d been practicing. Asking his sister how long ago that had been, she patted him on the arm and said not much had changed. Like she would know, he thought. But wisely kept his mouth shut.
“We have to hurry.” Even as they were going in the front of the abandoned house, Thad could feel her pain. It took his breath away when they went inside, and he found himself pushing Dad and Mr. David up in front of him. Hurry, his mind kept yelling at him. Hurry. Hurry.
When Ms. Rusty screamed, Dad looked at him, and he told him to hurry. As soon as they busted the bedroom door open, Ms. Rusty was soaking wet with sweat and pain. Dad looked at him.
“Did you know this part?” He nodded. “Then why didn’t you have us call an ambulance. It would have been better for her.” Thad started to tell him that it wouldn’t have been for the baby when Belle told Mr. David to help her. “David, do you know how to deliver a baby?”
“I do. I honestly do. My goodness, this is what I was needed for.” The two of them set to work. Maria called for Aunt Amelia, and she was able to give them all the things that they’d need to deliver the little boy. As soon as he started crying, everyone in the room, except for Rusty, started laughing. She was lying on the dirty floor, sleeping.
While they were all looking over the little boy, he and his sisters explained why they’d not been able to call an ambulance. Rusty was fine with having her son, but the people that she was having it for weren’t all that thrilled.