Spare Change (Wyattsville #1)(65)

“You don’t understand,” he moaned, “if I was to tell, I’d be sent to reform school, or stomped dead as a doornail.” Ethan’s eyes began to fill with water.

Olivia, flabbergasted by such a statement, asked “By who?”

“That policeman, and his daddy—Mister Cobb.”

“Officer Cobb is an unpleasant person, no doubt about it,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean he’d harm you for telling the truth.”

“You just don’t get it,” Ethan said, a look of skepticism on his face, a look that was way beyond his years. “Those Cobb’s know I saw what happened that night and no matter what I say, they’ll claim I’m lying. Who do you suppose people are gonna believe,” he asked, “a policeman and his daddy or a kid?”

“If you tell the truth,” Olivia answered, “I’d believe you.”

“Yeah, and how you gonna know if what I’m saying is true?”

“I trust you,” she said.

“That’s it? You’re just gonna go by trust?”

Olivia gave him a smile and a nod.

“Then what?” he asked.

“Then we’ll figure out the best way to deal with whatever needs dealing with.”

“You’re not gonna hand me over to them?”

“Ethan,” Olivia said, her voice clear and straightforward, “those policemen would have to shoot me dead, before I’d let them take you away.”

“Honest?”

“Honest!” Olivia drew a crisscross over her heart.

A look of dread settled over Ethan’s face when he began to speak. “I lied,” he said solemnly, “I lied when I said I was asleep and didn’t see nothing. I saw it all.”

Olivia said nothing, just waited for him to continue.

“That day Mama and Daddy were fighting fierce. ‘Ethan,’ she told me real secret-like, ‘you slip out back and stay there till I get away from your Daddy, soon as I do, we’re going to New York City with Scooter.’ I did just what she said. Me and Dog went out back of the woods and hid in my fort. I waited all afternoon; then finally Mama came out and stuck her suitcase in the car. Daddy came running out right behind her, yelling how she wasn’t going nowhere. He smacked her to the ground and she didn’t get up. After a spell, he picked her up and carried her inside the house. I figured Mama must’ve been hurt, elsewise she’d of called him every name in the book.”

“Who’s Scooter?” Olivia asked.

“The policeman’s daddy,” Ethan answered his eyes full of fear.

“Oh. Were he and your mama…”

The boy gave a knowing nod and continued on. “Later on, I snuck around back and looked in the window—Mama was stretched out on the bed like maybe she was sleeping off a headache. They was always fighting, Mama and Daddy, and lots of times she went to bed for a while after so she’d feel better. When I saw she was sleeping, I figured she’d be along later.” He hesitated for a moment then with the saddest look imaginable, said, “Mama wasn’t at all mean the way Daddy thought; she just had her heart set on going to New York City so she could be a singing star.” After that he slid back into telling the story. “I was waiting in my fort when I saw Mister Scooter’s car come up our drive, then I snuck closer to see what was gonna happen. I figured for sure there’d be shit flying if Scooter started mouthing off about going to New York, ‘cause Daddy wasn’t in the mood for no foolishness. He didn’t say nothing about New York, just told Daddy he needed to talk to Susanna—that’s Mama’s name—and pushed his way inside the door. In no time at all, he was screaming to the top of his lungs about how Daddy had killed Mama…”

Ethan’s eyes filled with tears and he stopped to wipe them away. With the sound of sorrow latching onto his voice, he said, “That’s when Mister Scooter started beating up on Daddy. Believe me, Grandma, you don’t never ever want to see a thing like that; it was really, really awful…”

The words eventually slowed to a stop and Olivia understood; Ethan Allen was looking back in time, rerunning his memory of the event as it had happened. “It wasn’t a fair fight,” he finally said, his voice thick with resentment, “Daddy didn’t do nothing to defend his self, just stood there and let Scooter beat on his head till it was split open. I was scared Scooter would kill me too, so I stayed hid. Even after I peed my pants, I stayed hid. I could’ve done something to help my daddy, but I didn’t even try.”

“You’re just a boy,” Olivia said, her arm wrapped around his shoulders. “You couldn’t have done anything. A man such as that would have killed you too!”

“Maybe.”

“There’s no maybe about it. He’s a violent criminal. He belongs in jail.”

“You think his policeman son is gonna put him there?”

“Somebody has to!”

“I know you’ve a mind to help, but Mama warned me—if I tell tales on Mister Scooter, his policeman son will see I go to reform school.”

“Nonsense,” Olivia answered, although she knew it was a good probability that the son would not, in fact, acknowledge the crime of his father.

“The best thing,” Ethan said, “is for me to be gone when they get back.”