No Room for Mercy (13 page)

All of Walee’s siblings and a few ranch hands checked on him
out of concern, but they all quickly understood that the only thing
that was hurt on Walee was his pride so they went back to their
routines. Slo Moses wasn’t so lucky, however; he was trampled
amidst the confusion. His shell was crushed by the calf and he died
on sight. Walee took the lose of his favorite pet really hard.

A few hours later, the family was having lunch on the patio before
they left for Spoonie and Tyke’s soft ball game. Spoonie and
Tyke’s team was in a playoff game on this day and it was a big
day for the twins. Walee sat with Spoonie, Tyke and Mary and ate, but
he was still saddened by the loss of Slo Moses, his beloved pet.

Kimi, Koko and the big three were at a nearby table enjoying their
meal and conversing about much of nothing when Walee began to
sniffle. “How can y’all act as if nothin’ happened
out there?” he asked his five older siblings sorrowfully as
Spoonie and Tyke rubbed his back softly, trying to console him.

Naomi was at a nearby table with Doss, Dimples, Siloam and Dimples’
son, Tacoma. They knew what happened as well; but everybody felt as
if Walee had gotten what he asked for out in the field for agitating
Kimi, Koko and the calves.

“Kimi, pass me the napkins please.” Walee requested
sadly.

Kimi passed Walee the napkins and he tore off a few sheets and blew
his nose, producing a loud trumpet sound which caused the family to
sniggle. Walee could carry on with an act and milk it dry whenever he
wanted to, but he was actually hurt this day and the family seemed
not to care about how he felt about losing his pet.

“Slo Moses didn’t hurt
anybody
or
anything
—and
that heifer killed him for nothing! She knew my turtle couldn’t
move that fast,” Walee said as he wiped his watery eyes.

“Poor thang. Bet he never saw it coming,” Koko said as
she and Kimi sniggled.

“Make fun of me if you want to! But I’m tellin’
y’all, that heifer killed Slo Moses on purpose!” Walee
screamed as he slammed the table with his fists.

“Hey! You better get your emotions in check over there before I
come over there and step on
your
skinny behind on purpose!” Naomi chuckled as sniggles
were heard.

“Momma, he really hurt this time!” Spoonie said as she
and Tyke wiped Walee’s tears with the napkins.

“He shouldna been out there clownin’ around! He lucky it
was Slo Motives and not him.” Naomi replied.

“His name was Moses not motives,” Walee corrected. “Slo
Moses was his name, momma!”

“Whatever his name was you put him in that position, son. Take
it as a lesson learned and stop meddling people. You done went so far
as to upset the animals and now your li’l buddy is vamoose.
Lesson learned I say again.”

“That don’t ease the pain, man.” Walee said as he
covered his eyes and cried lowly.

“Tyke pass me the napkins, please.” Kimi said softly.
When Kimi sniffled slightly, Tyke was touched.

“Aww, Kimi? You ‘bouta cry for Slo Moses too?” Tyke
asked lovingly as she reached for the napkins.

“Girl, please! Don’t nobody care ‘bout that damn
turtle I’m tryna get a biscuit, shucks!” Kimi snapped as
sniggles began to emerge from the group again.

Tyke threw the napkins at Kimi and she quickly caught them. “Umm,
hmm,” she said nonchalantly while grabbing a biscuit. “After
all he done did tellin’ y’all about Mister Spots y’all
still support his little act. Y’all gone learn to stop being
his cheerleader. After that? He’ll grow up—I hope.”

“But he hurt for real this time, Kimi and you and everybody
else actin’ like he playin’!” Tyke snapped.

“We know he ain’t playin’! We just sayin’ we
don’t care about that li’l ugly turtle! He gone be all
right!” Koko remarked as she stood up and did the Carlton
dance. “One time for Slo Moses,” she ended before she sat
down and high-fived Kimi.

Mary recognized her nephew’s sense of loss; but it was just a
turtle by all measures. How exciting could that pet be was her
reasoning. “Walee, it’s a bunch of turtles out by the
canal. Just find yourself another one, baby, and put it back out by
the swamp.”

“Find another one she says,” Walee cried. “I’ll
never find another Slo Moses! He understood me!”

“This is where I get off,” Mary said as she returned to
her meal.

“Lord, the turtle understood him,” T-top said lowly as
she looked to the sky briefly. “Ain’t nothing to
understand about you but the fact that you’re a silly young
man. Now suck it up and get ya’ self another turtle, boy!”

“Thissa cold-bloodied family, man’,” Walee ended
sadly as he finally began eating his lunch.

After finishing lunch and showering for a fresh change of clothes,
the family headed out to Kaw Lake Park to watch Spoonie and Tyke’s
game. Upon leaving the ranch, a right turn led out onto a road
bordered by prairie land and brush on either side that went for about
two miles. A right turn would lead down to busy U.S. Highway 60,
which lead into the city. Passing Mary’s produce stand on the
right while headed east, one would cross over Kaw Lake Bridge where
Kaw Lake Park, which sat right beside the bridge and lake shore,
would come into view.

Kaw Lake Park was the happening place in Ponca City along with the
town’s only bowling alley and Sonic burger chain, all of which
sat on the far west side of town near a Walmart Center along with the
town’s compact strip mall. Ponca City didn’t have much by
way of entertainment or shopping because it was such a small town,
but whenever the Holland-Dawkins family, who were well-known around
these parts, were on the scene, things were pretty interesting to say
the least.

Kaw Lake Park might as well been named the Holland-Dawkins Playground
because that is what it was to a degree. Doss had paid to renovate
the park last year when Spoonie and Tyke joined the league. Some
parents buy a playland and place it in the backyard for their kids.
Doss had taken things to a whole other level by rebuilding an entire
park to his youngest daughters’ liking.

A new concession stand was put in along with new bleachers, three
boat launches and a fishing pier. The softball field had new turf put
down and there was an electronic scoreboard in the outfield. Doss had
shelled out $60,000 for the renovations and had received a key to the
city for his efforts and was deemed Park Commissioner, a job he’d
transferred to Naomi, who now managed the park’s payroll and
hired people and also had another avenue to wash the family’s
money clean.

The family, packed into three Suburbans, exited the vehicles sixteen
strong and making plenty noise. Naomi was the loudest this day,
yelling aloud that the stars had arrived to claim the championship as
the family approached the bleachers.

All of the family members were exited for Spoonie and Tyke, who were
elated to have led their team to the playoffs. The scores of people
who were on hand were greeting the family, and there was even a band
on hand to celebrate this day, a band that had caught Siloam’s
attention by the song they were playing and singing.

“…
The judge said guilty on a make believe trial…slap
the sheriff on the back with a smile and said supper’s waitin’
at home and I gotta get to it…That’s the night that the
lights went out in Georgia…that’s the night that they
hung an innocent man…well, don’t trust your soul to no
backwoods southern lawyer…’cause the judge in the town’s
got bloodstains on his hands…”

Twenty-nine year-old Siloam Bovina, a huge fan of music who’d
had her share of the rock and roll experience by running with a small
band a couple of years ago, was taken aback by the powerful voice
that was shielded by scores of onlookers. She made her way through
the jubilant crowd and eyed a brown-haired light-skinned little girl
of Native American descent playing the drums beside the bleachers
with three other youths and singing Reba McEntire’s version of
the song
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.

Siloam was floored. She had to find out who the little girl was, but
for now, she just stood and listened in admiration as the little girl
playing the drums continued singing the inauspicious song.

“…
They hung my brother before I could say…the
tracks he saw while on his way to Andy’s house and back that
night were mine…and his cheatin’ wife…had never
left town…and that’s one body that’ll never be
never be found ya’ see little sister don’t miss when she
aims her gun…That’s the night that lights went out in
Georgia…”

“Damn, I ain’t know that li’l girl could sing like
that,” Dawk said as he walked up and stood beside Siloam and
bobbed his head to the music.

“You know her, Dawk?”

“Yeah. She stay ‘round my girl Oneika house on the west
side. Her name Jane Dow and that’s her band. The Jane Dow
Band.”

“How old is she?”

“She like, all four of ‘em like thirteen or so I
believe.”

“Do they have a manager?”

“Nahh. They not that serious about it I don’t think. They
just play together from time to time as far as I know.”

“They cared enough to give themselves a name, though.
Hmm
,”
Siloam said to herself as she and Dawk continued watching the
performance with the rest of the appreciative crowd. Siloam had not a
clue at the time, but once she got to talking to little Jane Dow, she
would soon embark on an adventure that would eventually turn into her
life’s greatest work.

*******

About an hour later the game was underway. Naomi had just yelled that
the umpire needed a new pair of eyeglasses when he called a strike on
Spoonie in the second inning that to her was an obvious ball.

Tyke came up to bat in the fourth inning and when she hit a double
the entire family cheered aloud. The next two girls struck out and
Spoonie was now at bat. Spoonie wanted to bring her sister home and
she did so when she hit a triple to allow Tyke to cross home plate
and their team took a one point lead before the last batter hit a fly
ball that was caught in left field for the final out of the inning.

Out in front of the bleachers, Walee was ecstatic for his two
sisters’ performance this afternoon. He climbed the chain link
fence and began booing one of the opposing team’s players as
she came up to bat. “You suck! You suck!” he yelled
aloud.

Walee’s taunt didn’t sound right to one of the
on-lookers. Telling a ten year-old little girl she sucked was a
little over the top to him and he expressed his disgust to Walee.
“Sit down and shut up talkin’ like that!” he
screamed aloud.

Naomi heard the man, and when she turned and looked, she saw that it
was her nameless neighbor whose fish the family had eaten a while
back. “
Not this old ass man again,”
she said to
herself. “Hey! Leave him be! He ain’t bothering nobody!
If ya’ get your mind out the gutter you can understand the
jostling! Everybody here does it!” she yelled to the old man.

“This ain’t the Chicago Cubs! They might wear the Cubs’
uniforms, but it’s just a kids’ game for Christ’s
sake! He needs to sit down before somebody puts him in his place!”

Naomi stood up and removed her ten gallon hat and faced the man, who
was sitting a few rows up. “Don’t talk about somebody you
don’t know! Leave Christ outta this! And if anybody—and I
mean
anybody
—say another word to me or my son today it’s
gone be trouble in paradise!”

“I come to watch a game! Not to hear a bunch of sexist taunts.”

“I’ll give you a sexist taunt you old bald-headed pus—”
Naomi caught herself, refusing to call the man a bald-headed
pussy-faced bastard and stooping down to a low level in public. That
was reserved for the times she encountered the old man on the ranch
and the two of them were left alone to argue and cuss one another out
in peace. She turned and calmly sat down and counted backwards from
ten to one in order to calm her nerves. “
Oooh he steams me,”
she said to herself.

“Ha! She told you she did, already old man!” Walee
snapped before he turned back to the game and climbed the fence once
more. “You suck! You suck!” he resumed yelling.

*******

“These here items are a size bigger than the outfits we brought
here the last time, so if you can still fit the other clothes, then
these will be too big for now,” Kimi said to a group of four
girls as she and Koko began pulling outfits from two large cardboard
boxes.

Kimi and Koko, at the young age of thirteen, were five foot six one
hundred and thirty-five pound big-bosom teens. Their thick, wavy
brown hair was to their shoulders, and their brown eyes sparkled.
They were miniature replicas of Naomi, except for the long, brown
hair. The twins had on a short, but loose fitting pair of tan
camouflage shorts and matching tops with dark tan cowgirl hats and
dark tan sandals with straps around their ankles.

“How much you paid for those sandals, Koko?” a young teen
asked.

“These was like twenty dollars from that li’l store
beside Walmart? And the outfit hit for like fifteen dollars. We
needed something to wear right quick so we ran and snatched these
up.” Koko answered modestly as she held up a pair of olive
Dolce and Gabbana Capri pants with a matching top.

“These clothes y’all giving away cost more than what
y’all wearing now,” another girl said.

“And your point is?” Kimi asked as she held up the
clothes.

“I’m just, I’m just saying, we appreciate what you
and Koko be doing. These clothes are really nice.”

“It’s nothing. And didn’t I tell you they was gone
be sweating them mauve sandals I gave you?”

“You did, Kimi. And they were,” the young teen answered
in a sassy tone as she high-fived Kimi.

“See? Y’all follow our lead and people will never make
fun off y’all at that school,” Koko added as she pulled
out a pair Gucci jeans and smoothed the fabric out with her hands.