Five

Sadie Mae studied the wide silver-handled hairbrush. She tugged at Randy’s skirt. “Grandma!”

Randy knelt down beside her granddaughter. “Look!” Sadie Mae said. “Can I get that for Mommy for Christmas?”

“How many pennies do you have, Sadie Mae?”

“A hundred!”

“And how much is that in dollars? Remember what your mother and I have been teaching you?”

Sadie Mae nodded, grinning. “It’s a whole dollar!”

Randy smiled. “Very good, Sadie Mae! Let me see how much it is.” She walked over to the clerk, speaking quietly. “Mr. Cunningham, no matter what the price, please tell Sadie Mae that hairbrush she wants is just one dollar.”

The man grinned and nodded. He quickly wrote the real price on a piece of paper. One dollar and eighty cents. Randy dug into her handbag for the eighty cents. “Thank you!” She walked back to Sadie Mae, who was still ogling the hairbrush. Tricia stood beside her and she pointed it out to her cousin. “I’m getting that for Mommy! Don’t tell!”

“I won’t.” Both girls giggled. “I found some real pretty ribbon for my mommy,” Tricia said. “She likes to tie her hair with ribbons. Daddy likes it that way.”

“Your daddy has long hair, too,” Sadie Mae told Tricia. “Maybe we should get him some ribbons!”

Both girls giggled even harder, picturing Tricia’s big, tall, dark father wearing fancy ribbons in his hair.

Randy reached them and told a very happy Sadie Mae that the brush was only one dollar. Sadie Mae clapped her hands and handed Mr. Cunningham a little drawstring bag with her hundred pennies in it. “Can you wrap it in brown paper so Mommy doesn’t see it?” she asked. “Grandma brought us here without our mommies so we could buy them presents.”

“Sure, I can wrap it.”

“Tricia, let me help you while Mr. Cunningham wraps Aunt Evie’s brush,” Randy told her redheaded granddaughter. She walked to a counter where bright ribbons were displayed.

Sadie Mae felt happy. Everyone was buying presents! Her cousin Jake needed new boots. Her uncle Ben needed dress pants for when the traveling preacher visited. Cousin Stephen might get a new rifle. Her grandmother wanted new curtain material, and her aunt Katie wanted a jewelry box. The list was long, and everyone knew what others needed or wanted, but no one knew if that particular item would become a Christmas present or just a needed supply. Most of the real presents would be a secret until they were unwrapped Christmas morning.

And Sadie Mae loved secrets! She looked out the window and saw a red bird, which totally fascinated her. With joy in her heart, she headed out the door to get a closer look, deciding to follow the bird if possible while her grandmother helped Tricia shop for Katie. The bird fluttered around the corner and into an alley.

Sadie Mae looked around, noticing her father coming up the steps to go into a hat store next to where her grandmother shopped. He was carrying Sadie Mae’s baby brother, Cole.

“Stay close, Sadie Mae,” Brian warned. “I have to go inside.” He walked into the hat store, where Evie shopped with Katie and Katie’s mother. Sadie Mae loved babies and was proud that she often watched her baby sister and baby brother and year-old cousin, Jeffrey Peter.

After her father disappeared into the store, Sadie Mae glanced at the alley where the bird had flown. Following it just around the corner seemed safe enough. She looked to see her grandpa Jake standing outside the Sherman Inn talking to the owners just three or four buildings away and across the street. She couldn’t wait to tell him about the hairbrush she’d bought for her mother, but first she wanted one more look at the red bird.

She darted around the corner, and the red bird flitted from a barrel farther down the alley. Sadie Mae ran after it to the back of the building, then stopped cold. A man wearing a gun and a black hat was bent over another man. The other man’s face was bloody.

“That’ll teach you to cheat me at cards!” the man with the gun said, jerking the bloody man up.

“I didn’t cheat you!”

“The hell you didn’t!” The man with the gun pulled back a fist to hit the bloody man again, then paused when he noticed Sadie Mae. He just stared at her a moment, and Sadie Mae stared back, frozen in place. He looked familiar.

The man with the gun shoved the other man onto his butt and turned toward Sadie Mae, stepping closer.

Sadie Mae’s eyes widened. It was him—the gunman who’d tried to shoot her grandfather back when those men visited the J&L.

The man with the gun grinned. “Well, well, well,” he said, squinting a little to study her as he knelt nearby.

Sadie Mae couldn’t make her legs move. She just blinked, her throat feeling tight. The man with the gun scared her, not just because she knew he’d just beat up another man, but because he had an ugly, still-unhealed cut on his right cheek where her grandfather had hit him with his gun. One eye was still black, and his nose looked crooked. Did Grampa break it when he hit this man with his fist?

“You look familiar,” the man with the gun told her.

Sadie Mae swallowed. “You’re that bad man who tried to shoot my grampa!” Sadie Mae told him, her little hands moving into fists. “My grampa beat you up! You’re mean!”

The man grinned wickedly. “That’s why you look familiar. You’re one of the little girls who was watching through the front window.” He laughed from somewhere deep in his throat. “You’re Jake Harkner’s granddaughter, aren’t you?”

Sadie Mae pressed her lips together, refusing to answer.

“Well, now, you listen here, you little brat,” the man told her. He leaned in closer, leering with the Devil in his dark eyes. “You’d better not tell your grampa or anybody else that you saw me beat up that man over there. If you do, I’ll kill you, got that? I’ll wrap my hands around that little throat and squeeze till you can’t breathe any more. And after I kill you, I’ll go after your grandpa and I’ll kill him! And then I’ll find a way to hurt your mommy, so you’d better not say a word, understand?”

Tears streaming down her chubby cheeks, Sadie Mae nodded. “I remember your name. You’re Tommy Tyler, and you’re a bad man,” she told him, jerking with sobs at the words.

Tyler poked at her chest. “So is your grandfather! He killed his own daddy! Did you know that? He killed a lot of men and did a lot of bad things. And if you tell on me and he comes after me, the law will hang him! He’ll—”

Tommy didn’t finish. He heard the click of a gun hammer behind him.

“Touch my granddaughter again and you’re a dead man!”

Jake Harkner’s deep, hard words interrupted Tommy, who froze, still kneeling.

Sadie Mae burst into tears. “Grampa, he said he was gonna kill you and me and Mommy! And he said if you hurt him, somebody will hang you!”

Jake kept his gun pressed against the back of Tommy’s head. “Nobody is going to hang me, Sadie Mae. You go find Grandma and tell her to get the sheriff. Right now, Sadie Mae. Do as I tell you!”

The girl’s whole body jerked in a sob as she wiped at her tears, then ran off.

Jake pressed the barrel of his gun to the back of Tommy’s head. “Pull that gun out and throw it aside,” he told the young man.

“Shoot him, Harkner!” Tommy’s bloodied victim demanded as he got to his feet. “The sonofabitch deserves it!”

“Stay out of this!” Jake ordered. “If you’re able, go help my wife find the sheriff so he can throw this bastard in jail!”

The wounded man ran off and Jake kicked Tommy’s gun aside.

“How…how did you find us?” Tommy asked.

“I’m not easily fooled, Tommy Tyler!” Jake growled. “A man like me is always aware of his surroundings, and I keep a close eye on my family! I saw Sadie Mae run into this alley and I came over here the back way because it was quicker. It’s a damn good thing I did! Do you have any idea how badly I want to pull this trigger?”

Tommy closed his eyes and swallowed. “Please don’t.”

“It wasn’t that many years ago that I would have!” Jake growled. “You ever touch my granddaughter again—or scare her or make one wrong move against any member of my family—and before I kill you, I’ll make you wish you were dead! If we were alone right now, I’d blow your goddamn head off and bury you out in the foothills, and no one would ever know what happened to you! Right now you’re the luckiest man who ever walked, but this is the last time I’ll let you live! One more incident like this and I’ll kill you in the slowest, most painful way possible, even if it means prison or a hanging! Understand?”

Tommy slowly nodded.

Jake suddenly jerked him up by the back of his collar and literally threw him against the wall of the dry-goods store. With a strength that surprised Tommy, he stiff-armed him, pinning him to the wall and half choking him while he held his six-gun against Tommy’s eye. “If you have a grudge against me, then you face me with it, understand? Not a little girl! Come against me in an honest gunfight again, Tommy Tyler, and I’ll put a hole in you so big, people will be able to see through you! Nobody makes my little granddaughter cry!” he growled. He shoved the gun barrel harder, making Tommy grimace with pain and terror. “Maybe if all I do is push this eye out, they won’t hang me! What do you think?”

Tommy fought tears. “Go ahead! I can take it! My pa beat me plenty, so I’m tough, like you!” His words came out in a raspy whisper because he couldn’t take a full breath.

Jake just stared at him a moment, then pulled the gun away. “Where is your father?”

“He’s dead! Killed by another drunk two years ago, and I never shed one tear!”

Jake towered over him. “How the hell old are you?” he asked.

“Eighteen!” Tommy sneered. “Old enough to take care of myself and to carry a gun!”

“Well, let me tell you something, Tommy Tyler! When I was your age I was a lot like you, and it would take me days to explain the hell I’ve been through my whole life because of it! If I can save even one kid from that hell, it’s worth it.” He kept Tommy pressed against the wall, glaring at him to get his point across. “I’m trying to teach my sons and grandsons the right way, so they never have to go through what I’ve gone through! And I’m telling you right now to change your ways or you’ll be damn miserable and alone your whole life! Even if you’re surrounded by people who care about you, you’ll be alone. Alone because you’ll live with black memories that never let go. So I’m giving you a chance to think about that! I’ve let you live twice. Don’t count on that happening three times, understand?”

Tommy slowly nodded.

“Keep your sorry little ass away from my family! I’m giving you the best damn Christmas present you’ll ever get! I’m giving you your life!”

“Pa!” Lloyd came running down the alley. “Mom said—”

“He made Sadie Mae cry!” Jake told his son, keeping his dark eyes on Tommy.

“Leave this to the law, Pa. Sheriff Bosley is coming. Some man with a face all bloodied told him Tommy Tyler beat on him and held a gun on him. Bosley will arrest him for assault, and he’ll be out of our hair.”

Jake just remained standing there with a tight grip on Tommy, finally lowering his gun into its holster.

“Pa, we’re in town and there is law here!” Lloyd reminded him. “Don’t do something crazy.”

In moments, Sheriff Bosley and Tommy’s victim came running down the alley, followed by a small crowd of onlookers. The news that Jake Harkner had a man pinned down in an alley had traveled as fast as a bullet.

“Jake, let the sheriff take care of this!” Randy pleaded then. She appeared at the end of the alley and slowly walked closer. “Sadie Mae is fine.”

Always calmed by his wife’s voice, Jake finally let go of Tommy, who stood there sweating and now crying.

Jake glanced at the sheriff. “Lock him up, and don’t let him out until my family and I leave town, understand? I can’t guarantee I won’t shoot the little bastard next time!”

“Sure, Jake.”

People whispered and stared as Jake walked past them and up to Randy, who saw an odd devastation in his eyes. “I just saw me,” he told her. He grasped her arm and pulled her away from the crowd. “He’s a cocky, angry little shit like I was at his age—full of hate and a desire to feel important because his father beat the pride right out of him! He told me I could beat on him all I wanted and he didn’t care, because his father had toughened him up.” Jake turned away.

“Jake.” Randy put a hand on his arm. She knew what the ugly memories of his own father did to him…the beatings…the mental abuse.

“I’m all right,” Jake told her. “I tried to tell him…to explain the hell he’ll always live with if he doesn’t straighten himself out. I don’t know if it helped. I just know it’s almost Christmas and maybe…I don’t know…maybe I was supposed to say something to him. I hope I won’t regret letting him go.” He lit a cigarette, obvious anger and frustration in his dark eyes. “Go rest at the hotel,” he told Randy. “You and the other women can finish your shopping later today and tomorrow morning.”

“Jake, you did the right thing.”

“Did I?” He turned away and sighed. “I’d better not see that little sonofabitch anywhere near one member of my family again! But part of me says I should help him.”

“Good! That’s a good sign of how much you have healed from your past.” Randy moved around to face him. “With Christmas near and the children around, you did the right thing, handing him over to Sheriff Bosley.”

Sadie Mae stood at the corner between her parents at the end of the alley. She clung to Evie’s skirt and burst into tears. Evie knelt down to try to soothe her. “It’s all right, Sadie Mae.”

Jake tossed his cigarette into the snow and hurried over to where they stood.

“Daddy and Grampa will be mad at me,” Sadie Mae whimpered. “Daddy told me to stay close, but I saw a pretty bird and I chased it. I thought maybe it had little babies like the chick-a-dees at home.”

Still holding baby Cole in his arms, Brian knelt down to his daughter. “Sweet pea, I’m not mad. But you do have to mind better, when it comes to running off. I only give you those orders for your own good.” He took her hand. “Give Daddy a kiss.”

Still sobbing, Sadie Mae kissed Brian’s cheek, then looked up at her grandfather, who sometimes seemed like a giant to her. “I’m sorry, Grampa. Did that man hurt you?”

Jake rubbed at his eyes and sighed before leaning over to pick the girl up. “No, Sadie Mae, he didn’t hurt me. And the sheriff took him away, so everything is fine.”

“I’m sorry, Grampa,” she whimpered. “I got you in trouble.”

Jake wrapped his arms around her, looking at Randy as he patted her back and let her cry on his shoulder. “Sadie Mae, Grandpa gets himself in trouble. I don’t need someone else to do it for me. You didn’t do anything wrong, and nobody can hurt Grandpa, so you stop crying, okay? If you keep crying, you’ll make me cry.”

“Big men like you don’t cry, Grampa.” Sadie Mae’s words came out slowly as she kept her head on his shoulder.

“Oh, you’d be surprised, Sadie Mae.”

“Did you cry when your daddy used to hit you?”

Pain stabbed at Jake’s heart. Did she remember Tommy Tyler’s words? That he’d killed his own father? “Sometimes,” he answered. He could tell the girl was getting sleepy, exhausted from the emotional ordeal. “Did you get that present for your mother?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she answered drowsily. “Don’t…tell her, Grampa. It’s a secret.”

“I won’t tell.” Jake kept Sadie Mae in his left arm and reached out with his right to put an arm around Randy. “Come on. I’ll go to the hotel too, and we’ll all rest.”

“I’m for that,” Brian answered. “This son of mine needs to be fed.”

“It’s not that far,” Jake told Brian. “Let’s just walk there. You can leave the sleigh hitched right here for now.”

“Let me carry Cole for you,” Lloyd told his brother-in-law. He took the sleepy boy into his arms.

Randy stood on her tiptoes and kissed Jake’s cheek before ducking from under his arm. “You go ahead. I’ll get Katie and Clara.”

Evie grasped her mother’s arm as Jake walked off with Brian. “I’m proud of how Daddy handled this,” she told Randy. “He can’t make his own laws anymore.”

They walked together then with Lloyd toward the rooming house. “He knows things have to change,” Randy answered Evie, “but I think something happened here that hit him deeply, Evie. He saw his younger self in Tommy Tyler. That helped him hold back. He could have shot it out with Tommy again and would have had the right, but he let him go. He still fights that deep anger, but I think he understands himself better, if that makes any sense.”

“It does. We just have to keep praying for him so we don’t lose him again. It’s just a shame, all of us here to have fun buying Christmas presents, that this happened at all.”

Lloyd glanced back to see the sheriff marching Tommy Tyler off to jail. He turned to his mother, towering over her with the same big frame his father had. “If Tommy Tyler ever shows his face again around Pa, I’m not sure what Pa will do. He only held back for the sake of Sadie Mae.”

“I know. Keep an eye on him, Lloyd. He talks to you.”

Lloyd leaned down and kissed his mother’s cheek. “I’ll go find the boys and herd them over to the hotel after I hand Cole off to Brian again. We all need some rest.”

“We’ll meet you there with Katie and Clara,” Evie told her brother. “Young Jake won’t like having to nap. He has far too much energy, but he’ll just have to do as he’s told. And he’ll probably wish he’d been here to see his grandfather in action. I swear, I have already lost complete control of my son, and he’s not even quite eleven years old.”

Lloyd smiled. “Like grandfather, like grandson.”

“Lloyd Harkner, you belong in that same picture. And the older you get, the more you look like our father in every way,” Evie teased.

Lloyd turned to watch Jake and Brian nearing the hotel. “Not every way. I don’t have his memories, and thank God I don’t.” He turned to his sister. “Little Sadie Mae sure does love him, though. He’s crazy about her and Tricia. It’s almost comical, when you think about the life he’s led and how ruthless he can be. He has so many personalities, I sometimes don’t know which Jake I’m talking to.”

“I’m just glad he’s here with us for the holidays,” Randy told her son and daughter. “This will be the merriest Christmas we’ve ever had.” She saw Tommy Tyler resist a little when the sheriff shoved him into the jailhouse. “At least I hope it will be.”