“Your worthless! How dare you shoot me—you could have killed me,” Sam shouted a string of obscenities.

“You were going to rape Nora,” Eloise roared back. “Why don’t you report me to the police?” she challenged him.

“I’m here to take the law into my own hands. You don’t have a gun today, do you?” Sam laughed, swiping his hand across his face—a telltale sign he had been drinking. Wild-eyed, he raised his arm and struck Eloise. He smashed his foot into the side of her belly as she lay on the ground.

“Stop!” Eloise screamed, curling into a ball.

Sam let out a blood-curdling howl. “Now you know how I felt!”

Lisa looked at Nora. She couldn’t repeat those words. Instead, she summarized the details.

“Sam attacked your mother. It happened in a split second. I screamed out the window of my car for him to stop. I think I startled him. Someone from inside the mill must have seen what had happened. Minutes later, a police siren blared out. Two police cars zoomed onto the scene. The policemen grabbed Sam, cuffed him, and shoved him into a squad car. An ambulance arrived; paramedics swarmed around your mother.”

“I followed the ambulance to the hospital.” Nora hung onto Lisa’s words. “Your Mama is strong. I was with her in the hospital that September night when they told her she would recover, but she might lose the baby. They warned her to take it easy. Your mother was released from the hospital the next day. She took a week off work, but still she had the miscarriage.”

“Why didn’t Mama tell me?”

“She didn’t want to worry you, or have you feel any guilt about the baby.”

The reality of losing her little baby brother or sister finally began to sink into Nora.

Lisa patted Nora’s hand. “This has been hard on your mother. You have to try and understand the major is helping her. He’s a good man—nothing like Sam. Give him a chance for your mother’s sake.”

“I hate men!”

“Well, just try and like him,” Lisa said with a strong, compelling voice.

Nora stammered, “I don’t want to! But . . . for Mama’s sake, I’ll . . . I’ll try.”

“Good, that’s a much better attitude!” Lisa sighed with relief. “Now, let’s go see True Grit. It starts in fifteen minutes.”

Lisa squeezed her hand. Nora squeezed back.

Chapter 49: February 1970

Chapter 49

February 1970