The Brothers Lewis

Prologue

Here they sat again. Two young boys, dressed in their Sunday best,

waiting for their father to appear to take them out for the afternoon. Dale

wanted his Dad to show, but he had never shown in the past two years and

Dale was old enough to keep his feelings under wrap. But Chase was so

young, and Dale just couldn’t find it in his 8 year old heart to dash his little

brother’s hope. Maybe one day their dad would actually appear. And then

what? Dale could only dream about the possibilities.

Dale found himself thinking of his mother again. He wondered what had happened to her, where she was now. The nuns kept telling him his father was in Texas somewhere and he heard them talk about how he faithfully sent in his monthly payments to cover the boys care. But whenever Dale asked about his mother, the nuns would just shake their heads and walk away.

Dale knew his mother wasn’t like the other mothers he had met, but he loved her anyway and Chase just about worshipped the ground she walked on. Sure, there had been some incidents, but nothing bad had ever happened to the boys. Dale could remember clearly the time his mom had put them in the front yard when one of her friends had come over to visit. She had asked them to stay out and play for awhile, but after a couple hours Dale had to go to the bathroom and couldn’t hold it one minute more. When he tried the door, it was locked, and no matter how loud he knocked or how much he hollered, his mom never came to let him in. He finally had to go behind the trailer and pee in the bushes. If his dad had caught him, he would have gotten a bad whooping, but he had managed not to get caught that time.

Dale started thinking again about that day two years ago when everything had gone terribly wrong. It hadn’t seemed like a bad day to him, but his dad had started yelling the minute he walked through the front door. Dale grabbed Chase and ran to the bedroom, hiding Chase in the closet, waiting as quietly as he could to see what would happen next. He expected to see his dad walk into the bedroom at any minute, belt in hand, to spank Dale for something. Dale didn’t always understand what his whippings were for, but he took them the best he could so Chase wouldn’t have to. Chase would never survive one of Dad’s whippings, and Dale knew it. He was the older brother, he could take it. That’s what being a big boy was all about his Dad had said.

But this particular day, Dad had never come into the boys bedroom. It seemed like forever waiting there. Chase was complaining about being hungry, but Dale stayed still and quiet, not wanting to bring any attention to the small bedroom in the back of the trailer. They would eat later if they could keep from getting in trouble. Dale tried to keep Chase busy coloring in one of those coloring books he liked so much. Dale pulled his trucks from the closet toy box and sat beside Chase on the floor, neither boy saying much of anything. Just waiting.

When Dale didn’t think he could wait any longer, his Dad came into the room and started pulling the boys clothes from the small dresser they shared. Neither one of the boys had much in the way of clothing, so it didn’t take Dad more than a couple minutes to get everything out and put into the small beat up suitcase he had brought into the room with him. Dale didn’t move from his spot on the floor, but kept his arm around his little brother, watching every move his dad made, trying to prepare himself for what might be coming.

“Ok, you two get up and get in the car. We’re going for a ride. You two are going on an adventure. You get to stay in a new home with a lot of other kids to play with.”

“But, Daddy, I don’t want to go to a new house. I want to stay here with Mommy.” Chase had the words out before Dale could make a move to stop him. Dale looked up at his Dad expecting the worst, but still his Dad seemed to be off somehow. Something was different.

“Well, that’s too bad, boy, because your Mommy isn’t here anymore. She’s a sick woman and they’ve come to take her to the hospital. Me, I gotta go down south to get work and I can’t take two boys with me. So, you are going to St Mathilda’s to live until I can get enough money to come back for you.”

Dale had heard the words, but he didn’t totally understand what they meant. Why would his mother being in the hospital cause them to have to go someplace to live? Mommy had been in the hospital before and they just went to their aunt and uncle’s house. But he did know better than to question his father and he quickly squeezed Chase’s shoulder to get him the message to just keep his mouth shut and go along. Dale didn’t know why, but he suspected any resistance on their part would not be met with a kindly smile and understanding assurances that everything would be ok. No, Dale was quite sure everything was not going to be ok ever again.

Now he had wondered for two years what hospital his mommy had gone to. What kind of sick was she, and how come she hadn’t gotten better and come to get them herself? It just felt like his mommy was gone forever. They only had their daddy left.

And now here they were again, sitting on the same bench in the garden where they had sat every Sunday since their dad had dropped them off at this horrible place. Dale hated getting dressed, hated going through the motions, but Chase needed to believe Dad was coming back for them. The other kids laughed at them, sometimes going so far as to tell Chase they had seen Dad’s car drive up before mass. Dale hated them for getting his little brother excited, knowing how crushed he would be later that night and how Dale would have to hold him while he cried, promising that Dad would be back to get them one day soon. Dale feared his Dad would never be back. This was going to be their home forever. And those other kids, well, Dale would take care of that problem the same as he always did. Sure, he’d get in trouble again, but his Dad had taught him how to handle himself.

And then, as if walking out of a fog, Dale spotted him. He looked the same as that night he had dropped the boys off at the front door with a pat on the back and instructions to go ring the bell. The same as he had as Dale had watched him just drive off before anyone had even opened the door to let them in. The same as Dale had remembered him, the same as Dale had been dreaming about the past two years.

But there was something different. Dad hadn’t returned to pick up his boys alone. With him was the most wicked looking creature Dale had ever seen. Worse than any of the nuns. And she was carrying a big belly out in front of her, a belly Dale had learned meant a baby was on the way. Dale had seen enough of those bellies on girls coming in and out of St Mathilda’s over the past two years. As all these things were registering in Dale’s 8 year old mind, Chase was off the bench and running at full speed to jump into the arms of his Daddy. Dale wouldn’t even meet him halfway. No, his Dad was going to have to come to him, to somehow convince him it was going to be better to go back out into the world with a family than to remain locked away in the orphanage with the nuns.