Page 27 of Resilience on Canvas

Chapter Thirteen

Henry

Henry could hear the faint back-and-forth of the twins fighting from outside Robert’s farmhouse. Dirt crunched beneath his feet as he made his way from his Model A toward it, unease slithering up his spine. Raymond’s body was rotting in one of the bedrooms. God, how awful it was.

Swallowing thickly, Henry climbed up the porch steps and then took a long, slow breath to calm himself. He only needed to knock twice before Clara opened the door.

Henry’s heart cracked the moment he saw her.

Beautiful Clara’s face looked careworn, as though maybe she had sprouted a few extra wrinkles since he’d last seen her, with one vertical one between her eyebrows and a long line stretching from one end of her forehead to the other.

Even though the rims of her eyes weren’t pink like Robert’s had been, Henry couldn’t miss the tiny little red spots beneath them.

He knew those spots well himself. Because whenever he cried too hard or too long, he wound up with them too.

Ignoring the lump that had formed in his throat, Henry said, “Hey, Clara.”

“Robert isn’t here. He—”

“I know. He, uhm, he sent me here. To check on you all?”

Clara sighed and said, “Well, we’re still here. Guess that’s somethin’.”

Henry glanced past her into the house just in time to see one of the boys push the other into the wall. A frying pan fell off the hook behind him, and it clattered to the floor, making Clara startle.

“I know I ought to stop them,” Clara said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “But, oh, I’m so tired.”

“Let me try,” he said, pushing past her.

He walked into the house, briefly noticing May snoozing on the tattered brown couch, somehow too exhausted to be woken up by the ruckus happening nearby, before he continued into the kitchen area.

The boys were there, still tugging on something, back and forth, back and forth.

He knelt in front of them to see what it was.

“It’s mine !” one of the boys—the one who was a smidge taller with one single freckle on the tip of his nose—said, pulling on what looked to be a knitted monkey.

“Yers is missing the little ball on the top of its head,” the other replied.

“Not no more! Clara fixed it!”

Henry placed his hand on top of the monkey, his presence momentarily making the twins stop pulling on the thing.

“Where’s the other one?” he asked.

Wordlessly, the twins both turned their heads toward the hall. Henry followed their eyes to the bedrooms.

“Which room?” he said, though he thought he knew which they’d say.

“It’s the one with... the one with Pop,” the boy with the freckle said .

Henry’s stomach lurched, but he fought to keep it from showing by briefly pressing his lips together and waited for the wave of nausea to pass.

When he finally felt less wobbly several seconds later, he stood up and said, “Alright, well, I’ll retrieve it for you. And then you can figure out whose is whose.”

Starting toward the bedroom, Henry’s legs began to shake.

He’d never seen a corpse before. Death wasn’t so uncommon here in Guymon lately, but somehow, Henry had managed not to be confronted with the reality of the hardships everyone had been facing.

At least, he’d been spared the worst of it. Until now.

When Henry reached the bedroom, he needed to grit his teeth to contend with the sudden rush of pain that shot up both of his legs from having trembled so violently on the way.

Come on, Henry. Be strong. Swallowing thickly, Henry turned the knob, and the stench that wafted out in one big puff when he inched open the door made his stomach lurch.

Quickly, he hooked his shirt over his nose and pressed the fabric to his face. Then, he forced himself to keep going.

There, on the bed, was Raymond Davis, one of the most intimidating men Henry had ever had the misfortune of meeting.

He looked so much smaller now. Strangely enough, he looked peaceful, too.

If Henry had been born without a sense of smell, he could have sworn that the man was only sleeping.

Keeping his nose pinched, Henry moved closer to the bed and tried not to gag when he noticed a few insects skirting over the man’s skin and ratty button-up shirt.

Robert had mentioned centipedes in the store, but these seemed more worm-like.

Millipedes, maybe. There weren’t too many of them yet, but Henry knew that there would be more soon.

Gosh, they couldn’t leave Raymond here much longer .

Ignoring the roiling in his stomach, Henry refocused his thoughts on the reason he had come in here.

He needed to find that sock monkey. He breathed in shallow breaths through his barely open mouth as he began to search the room.

Thankfully, the monkey wasn’t nowhere near Raymond but was resting on a broken rocking chair in the corner of the room.

Henry snatched it and quickly spun around to leave.

When he returned to the living room, the twins were waiting in front of the stove, Clara nearby holding the first sock monkey. Henry held up the one he had retrieved from the bedroom, letting his makeshift mask fall from his face.

One of the twins rushed over, smiling with relief.

It seemed like he had known all along that the other monkey hadn’t been his.

Handing the other monkey back to the second boy, Clara looked up at Henry with a small smile and said, “Thank you.”

“No problem,” he replied, rocking back and forth on his heels. He needed to tell Clara that they had to move Raymond somewhere before there wasn’t nothing left to bury but a bunch of bones. Dang, he was not prepared for this. “But, uhm, can we... talk?”

“Sure.” Clara cleared her throat loudly enough that both of the boys stopped playing with their toys to look at her. “I need you two to play out back for a bit.”

Henry cut in. “Clara, the wind?”

“Ain’t too windy today. And I can’t send them to their room, not with our pop close by.”

Lesser of two evils.

“Alright,” Henry relented.

He’d have to make sure not to take too long. If poor May had been coughing on and off lately, it probably wouldn’t be long before the other children’s lungs started hurting, too, especially if they spent too much time outside.

Once the boys were out of the house, Clara led Henry over to the couch where May was sleeping.

“Won’t we wake her?” Henry said.

“Not if we whisper.” Lowering herself slowly, Clara settled on the cushion closest to May’s feet.

Gesturing to the empty chair nearby for Henry to sit, she said, “May was up cryin’ a lot of the night.

Cryin’ and coughin’. I think she was only coughin’ so much because she was workin’ herself up with all the wailin’.

It’s hard to lose someone. Even when that someone is.

.. less than perfect.” Her next breath shook.

Henry winced as he sat. Poor Clara. Poor kids.

Goodness. “It was scary to see him pass, Henry. He had a fever, and he... he wasn’t breathin’ right and then. ..”

“Oh, Clara.” Henry took her hand. “I can’t even imagine.”

“We couldn’t even find help. I mean, we knew it would be too expensive to try to find a hospital or somethin’. We weren't even sure if he’d survive the ride. Gosh, Henry, we were such a mess for most of the evenin’. All of us.”

“I know. I saw Robert. He looked real tired this mornin’.”

Clara blinked back tears. “How’d our pop look in there? I can’t bring myself to check on him. I haven’t seen him since yesterday.”

“He, uhm, he looks peaceful. But we need to move him.”

“Robert told me it would be three hundred for the casket and the service. I know we’re probably supposed to contact someone, but Robert told me to wait.”

“Yeah, I think you need one of them, uhm, official papers now? A death certificate?”

“Once we have that, though, we’ll need to bury him.

Henry, three hundred dollars...” Clara shook her head.

“I’m sure the folks at the funeral home would let us pay with an IOU, but we wouldn’t never be able to pay it back.

Maybe if we... if we sold the tractor or.

.. or the car, even. But I know Robert wouldn’t never sell either of them.

” She pressed her lips together and stilled as though she was only barely holding back the swell of emotions inside her.

Eventually, she eked out, “It’s hopeless, ain't it?”

Henry’s chest pinched, those last two words twisting the knife that was still stuck in his gut.

“I can pay for it,” Henry blurted out, his voice no longer a whisper. “I can pay for them to take yer pop. And I think I have enough money saved up to pay for some of the funeral.”

Softly, Clara said, “But not enough for everything.”

Henry sighed. “No,” he admitted. “I’d have to talk to my folks about the rest.”

Good Lord, why was this situation so seemingly impossible to fix?

Robert would hate for Henry to borrow money from his parents.

Heck, Robert wouldn’t be none too happy with Henry paying for anything himself, neither.

But Henry had seen those worm-like critters crawling on Raymond’s skin.

He had smelled the stench of rotting flesh.

It wasn’t wise—nor was it safe —for Raymond to remain in the house like this.

At the very least, Henry needed to head back into town and have Mr. Simmons take the body away.

And, well, since Robert would be upset with him for that anyway, Henry might as well see to it that everything else would be taken care of, too.

He knew that his parents had enough money for these kinds of things.

He’d pay them back soon enough. Somehow.

Anxiety churned in Henry’s stomach. Would Robert hate him for this?

God, maybe the two of them would lose whatever it was that had started up between them.

Maybe Robert would beat Henry to a pulp.

And Henry wouldn’t even fault him for it.

He knew he would be betraying Robert by paying for Raymond’s burial.

But Henry needed to pay for it. No matter what might happen between him and Robert, paying for the funeral was the right thing to do.

“Clara, I need to head back to town soon so that I can start the whole process of havin’ yer pop taken to the funeral home.

” Henry sucked on his teeth, taking a pause as worry over the horrible, inevitable confrontation with Robert started to percolate in his stomach.

But, oh, he had to push past it. He had to make things better for Clara and the kids.

“I can’t stand the thought of leavin’ everyone here, though, Clara.

What if y’all come with me? We can head over to my house.

Gosh, my folks love those kids. I know they won’t mind the company.

I’ll take care of movin’ yer pop out of here myself.

I’ll even clean the room a little before you come back. ”

Clara released Henry’s hand. She began twirling her hair, wrapping a chunk of it around her finger over and over. “What’ll Robert think?”

Henry’s stomach continued to roil. He swallowed hard to keep the worry from climbing up his throat. Otherwise, he’d soon be heaving his breakfast right back up and onto the floor.

“Uhm, Robert might be mad, but... but we can’t let ourselves worry about that right now.

We’ll leave him a note. Let him know where everyone is.

I bet you they’ll be able to come get yer pop within the next couple of hours.

I might not have a chance to clean the sheets or the floor or nothin’ by the time Robert is finished with work, but I can try.

It’ll be suppertime soon, though. My folks won’t want me missin’ that. ”

“Supper?” Clara shook her head fervently. “We can’t be takin’ food from y’all, too.”

Henry tried a warm smile. “Oh, no, my parents won’t see it that way. I know they like you, Clara. And they like the little ones, too. Boy, they’ll be happy to spend some more time with them. Especially once they learn of the, uhm, the circumstances.”

Clara released her lock of twisted-up hair and sighed. “Alright. ”

Well, it was settled, then. Henry would have to spend the bulk of his savings to help bury Raymond. But it would be worth it. Because he wanted to help the Davis family. More than that, though, Henry wanted to help the man he was starting to love.

Love.

Henry’s stomach fluttered from the thought. But not two seconds later, that happy flutter was replaced with a wave of nausea as his fear of losing Robert took over, the flutters transforming into violent waves of upset instead. Would he really lose Robert over this? Forever?

Clara tore him out of his thoughts when she placed a hand on his knee.

“Thank you, Henry,” she said. “I’m lucky to have a friend like you.”

Henry’s cheeks flushed, and he forced what he hoped looked like a warm smile. He couldn’t have Clara knowing how hard this was for him.

“Oh, it’s nothin’.”

“It is somethin’. And I can’t thank you enough. What a wonderful man you are.”

Henry’s cheeks burned hotter as a small spark of pride ignited in his chest. What a wonderful man you are. Oh, what a lovely woman Clara was. Helping her was the right thing to do. No matter the potential consequences.

Afterward, Clara woke May while Henry left to tell the twins that they were heading into town.

Even though there was still one more thing Henry was supposed to tell Clara, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He couldn’t make himself hurt her even more than she was hurting right now.

So, Henry would have to break his promise to Robert about that.

At least for now. Hopefully sometime that evening, they could tell Clara what the bank said together.

If together would even be possible now.