Page 6 of Resilience on Canvas

Kneeling, Robert reached out to brush May’s cheek with the back of his hand, wiping one of her tears.

It was up to him to make sure that his siblings weren’t broken by the hard times they were living through.

He had to take care of them, not only by feeding them and sending them to school and keeping the roof over their heads but by protecting their kind little hearts as well.

He’d have to make sure to take them somewhere else, somewhere out of view of the carnage, when the next rabbit drive happened.

Thousands of rabbits being clubbed or shot or maimed somehow.

.. it was a necessary thing, maybe, but his little brothers and sister shouldn’t have to witness such horrors.

Heaving a sigh, Robert let his hand fall from May’s face.

“Yeah, I feel a little sorry for him, too,” Robert said, reaching out to stroke the bunny’s fur. And then the kids copied him, keeping their movements slow and their touches light .

“Can we take him home?” May asked.

“Nah, we can’t. It might hurt him more to move him. Ain’t like we can fix him, neither,” Robert said. “But, well, maybe we can stay here with him ’til he passes.”

Minutes ticked by. How long, Robert wasn’t sure, but it felt like a long while. Finally, the bunny’s breathing stopped.

“Bye-bye, little bunny,” Thomas choked out.

May turned and buried her face in the crook of Robert’s neck.

“Let’s keep goin’,” Robert said, hoisting her up.

Balancing May on his hip, Robert tousled Peter’s and Thomas’s hair with his free hand, hoping to remind them that he was there for them, too, even if he couldn’t carry them the same way. And then they left for home.

***

About an hour later, Robert was cutting up some carrots for marmalade when he heard the faint rumbling of a car’s muffler coming down the driveway toward the house.

After wiping his hands on his pant legs, Robert turned to the window to see who it was.

Clara exited the car, and Robert could see Henry in the driver’s seat.

It seemed like Henry had brought her home.

Which probably meant that everything was fine between the two of them. Thank God.

Robert resumed chopping the vegetables. After another minute, Clara came into the house, but instead of saying hello, she simply pulled out one of the chairs from the table and sat. Arching an eyebrow, Robert looked over his shoulder.

“Everything good?” he asked.

“Well . . . not really. Not with the weddin’. ”

Robert set the knife on the counter and turned around. “What happened?”

“I was right. Henry won’t marry me. But I’m not mad. It’s, uhm, it’s better this way.”

“Better this way?! Don’t talk like that.” Robert huffed. “I ought to smash his face in.”

“Don’t,” Clara begged. “It’s fine. Really.”

“Why won’t he marry you?”

“I...” Clara trailed off, and her cheeks turned pink.

“Does he think yer not good enough for him?” Robert said, the volume of his voice rising. “I’ll teach him to—”

“It ain’t that. I swear. It’s somethin’ else.”

“Somethin’ or some one ?” Robert curled his hands into fists. “What, did he meet someone else in the store? Some woman who has no respect for who was promised to who?”

Clara stood and came over to him. Robert’s muscles tensed. She tried to take his hand, but he pulled back.

“Robert, I swear Henry never meant to hurt me. He never found no one else either.”

“Well, still, I—”

“Leave it,” Clara said, urgency in her voice. “ Please. ”

Despite the fact that Robert could tell how badly Clara wanted him to leave this whole thing behind them, he couldn’t fight the fury that was coursing through his veins.

He had to fix this. Clenching and unclenching his fists a few times, Robert shrugged off Clara’s hand and started toward the door.

“I can’t leave it,” he said, his voice shaking slightly. “I’ll be back for supper.”

When Robert reached for the handle, Clara cried out, “Oh, Robert, no!”

Robert whirled to face her. “Clara, I will beat some sense into that fool if it’s the last Goddamn thing I do,” he snapped. “And you won’t be changin’ my mind, neither.”

Before Clara could protest, Robert stormed off toward their pathetic Model T, praying to God or Satan or whoever the hell might help him make it to town faster that it would start.

Because if he was forced to walk, he’d probably lose some of his steam.

And Robert wanted to stay mad. Because if he ended up hitting Henry, he wanted his punches to hurt .

Going back on his promise to marry Clara—what a bastard Henry was.

Robert walked to the front of the car. He clenched his teeth as he pulled on the choke, and then he began to turn the crank, muttering curses to himself with each rotation.

Once he was finished priming the shitty old engine, he circled over to the cab, his heart hammering, both because he was so mad and because he was nervous that the car might not cooperate.

After throwing up the spark, Robert turned the key and said one final prayer before heading back over to the crank. He turned it once. Nothing. Twice. Still nothing. Three times.

“Son-of-a-bitch car,” Robert cussed before turning it once more.

And, thank the Lord, the engine roared to life.

Robert hopped into the cab.

Driving into town, Robert’s muscles started to shake, fury continuing to simmer beneath his skin. Henry Sherwood would soon learn not to break a promise. Robert would see to it.

After a few minutes, the wind kicked up a whole bunch of powdery soil, and Robert ended up coughing and sputtering worse than their lousy car had this morning when he’d tried to start it before church.

He coughed so hard and for so long, he felt like his lungs might explode.

It let up eventually. But only once he was within a block of the store.

And so, when Robert pulled up and shut the car off, his whole face still felt like it was on fire. Not to mention his lungs.

Huffing and puffing, Robert threw open the door to Sherwood’s Goods. He spotted Henry behind the register, his eyes wide with fear.

“Goddamn liar,” Robert said, starting toward him.

He only made it halfway to the counter before Henry threw off his apron. And ran.

“Hey!” Robert shouted as Henry pushed through the door out the back of the store. “Get back here, you son of a bitch!”

Robert took off after him. When he reached the counter, he hopped right over the thing and then left out the back. Henry was already close to the end of the street, heading toward the open field. Where the hell was he even running to? He lived the other way.

“Yer makin’ it worse for yerself!” Robert hollered, his feet pounding the pavement. “I only wanted to talk, but now I think I better kick yer teeth in! Teach you some manners!”

Henry kept running. God, this was tiring. Threatening Henry hadn’t worked. Maybe Robert better try something else.

“I won’t really hurt you!” Robert called out. “I was only kiddin’! But we need to talk!”

Still, Henry kept running. Dammit.

Both men started sprinting through the field, and soon, their fast-moving feet sent the nearby Hoover hogs fleeing. Robert started chuckling to himself, and then that chuckle changed to full-blown laughter. He must have sounded like he had lost his marbles.

Sure enough, his laughter stopped Henry in his tracks. Robert caught up to him.

“Did you see the way them Hoover hogs scattered?” Robert cackled, thumbing over his shoulder.

He leaned forward and placed his hands on his thighs, trying to catch his breath, and although he coughed a few times, it thankfully didn’t turn into another one of them coughing fits.

“Here I thought they weren’t never scared of people no more. ”

“Instinct,” Henry said, his breathing even more ragged than Robert’s.

“Yeah, probably,” Robert said before heaving a few more times. “Why’d you run?”

“I thought you might kill me,” Henry said, wiping sweat from his brow.

Robert stood up straighter. Snorting a laugh, he said, “Yeah, I might have.”

Henry swallowed hard, and Robert shook his head. Henry was as scared as they came.

“I wasn't really going to kill you,” Robert said with a roll of his eyes. “But why’d you tell Clara you can’t marry her?”

Henry chewed on his bottom lip. “Because I can’t.”

“But, then, why’d you say yes when yer parents brought it up? And why’d you wait ’til now to call it off? It’s been months since—”

“I wanted to make my parents happy,” Henry said.

“I mean, I thought maybe... maybe things would change for me. But I came to realize that I can’t marry someone who.

.. who I won’t ever love.” His face turned red.

“Not that Clara ain’t lovely. She is. But she ain’t the one for me.

I figure she should find someone else. Someone better. ”

“Someone better is right,” Robert huffed, still a little irritated, though he had laughed some of his earlier upset right out of himself, and so, he wasn’t really sounding as mad as he’d have liked to.

Henry not seeing himself with Clara made some sense. Clara was sweet, sure, but she was soft spoken and timid, too. And Henry seemed a lot like that himself. Couldn’t have two meek people marrying each other. Especially in these hard times .

Robert blew out a breath. Now what? Clara was too shy to meet someone else.

And Robert couldn’t think of another man for her, neither.

Not one who had a potentially promising future like Henry.

Robert wasn’t looking to try to marry her off to some farmer who barely had a penny to his name.

Robert supposed Clara would stay a Davis for now.

“Well, thanks for yer honesty, Henry,” Robert forced himself to say, though he couldn’t leave it like that since he couldn’t have Henry thinking everything was peachy, and so, he tacked on, “Sooner would have been better, though.”

“Yeah...” Henry rubbed the back of his neck. “I know.”