BETWEEN TWO WEEKS
 

"What on earth were you thinking? Do you know how worried I was?" T.J. stood before our mom, his head hanging with guilt. He had been caught running in Nashville, and a Marshall had taken him back to the tiny apartment where we were forced to live. I looked at my brother sympathetically, I could see it in his eyes: he missed our old home.

"I'm sorry Mama, but this place is real bad! The grown-ups steal land Mama! They just take it!"   Mother gave him a puzzled look, not sure what he was talking about. I, at the time, was just as confused as she was.  Tears streamed down my brother's face, and I began to worry. What had happened to him? What had made him so scared and sad?

Mother turned to my sisters and I, "Go to your room," she said softly, "You'll get to talk to T.J. soon enough."

Reluctantly I turned, and headed toward the small plain room in which we slept. As the door closed I pressed my ear against it and listened with curiosity.

"Elizabeth, get away from that door!" Marcy exclaimed in a whispering tone.

I ignored her, tired of my older sister's bossing.  As I leaned closer I could hear my mother's voice.

"I can understand why those adults made you angry and scared, but a roof of a building is owned by the person who owns the building," she sighed, "I know it's different here, but can't you learn to adjust?"  T.J. shook his head quickly, "I can't live here, I can't adjust, I?" Mother placed a comforting hand over his, and sighed deeply.  "You'll only be miserable here won't you?"

My brother's silence told her the answer.  "All right, go and get some rest, and we?ll talk this over in the morning."  T.J. got up and walked towards our room.  "You're to stay here, understand?" she called after him.  He nodded, and came through the door as I backed away.  He sat down in a chair next to the beds, my sisters gave him unhappy glances and slid into the twin bed.  Instead of sliding in with them, I ran and jumped into T. J.'s lap.  He jerked a bit, surprised at the action of his five-year old sister.  Looking down at me, he smiled, "Hey Lizzy," he said softly.

I beamed: loving to be called by that nickname.  I looked up at him with curiosity, "tell me what you did while you were gone," I pleaded, "What'd ya see?"

"I was too shaken to see anything for a while," he began, "when I stopped to look around, I found myself near a train station.  At first, I was very excited, It would?ve been the fastest way to Marron County.  Then I realized that I had no money to pay the fare.  Just when I thought there was no way home, I ran into this street kid 'bout as old as I am.  He walked up to me and asked if I was gonna go or just stand there." 

He smiled in amusement at the memory.  "I told him I didn't have no money.  He took me by the hand and led me into one of the boxcars, telling me to jump in.  I stared at him for a while, not sure whether to trust him.  But, he got me in quick when the train started moven'.  We got all the way to Cincinnati by getting on and off trains.  The street kid, Reggie, his name was, would always get food by stealing from the town stores, or from a farmers crops that we went by.?  I gasped, "He stole!"  T. J. nodded, "I didn't like that much either, but there was no other way to get food.  Both of us were poor."

He leaned back in the chair.  "Reggie wasn't a bad person, he's just had a tougher life than us.  His parents didn't care much for him, so Reggie ran away.  He had to learn how to survive by himself.  The only way he could find was stealing."

 "I feel sorry for him, he has no one he can depend on."

  "He doesn't have cousins, or anything?"

  T. J. shook his head, "Not as far as he knows anyway.  I don't think he'd bother to look.  When I asked about that, he told me that he wanted to keep his freedom."  I gave him a puzzled look, but he just went on.

"In Cincinnati, Reggie and I found an old acquaintance of his, some man named, Henry Artini.  Well, he had a car he'd bought before the war an Reggie wanted him to drive us to Louisville.  Of course, I wasn't sure I liked that idea, and it took a lot of convincing to get me to come.  If Reggie hadn't been by me, I wouldn't have gone.  I wanted to be home so bad though, and at least I had him with me.  So, we get down to Louisville, an' Reggie starts tryin' to get us rides from strangers.  At that point, I let em go on his own, I wasn't gonna hitchhike.  Then I realized I was in real trouble, I didn't know where I was goin' an' I didn't know how I was gonna get food.  'Cross the small street I saw a church, an' thought maybe they had something they'd be willing to give me.  So I walk on in, an see that everyone was sittin'.  It was time for mass, I didn't even know it was Sunday."
 

  He smiled in amusement.  "What'd you see, did you find anything?" I asked.

"Well, It would've been rude to look for things at that time, so I sat down, and listened until the priest was finished."

"Then I walked up to him, and told him that I was lost an' couldn't get food.  Well, he couldn?t find much, but I had enough for two days, if I rationed it. He also pointed out a train that would take me to Nashville."

"Is that where you got caught?" I asked.

T.J. nodded. "I got kicked off the train for not paying. One of the driver?s helpers came in the car. When he saw me he got the train to stop and threw me out."

My eyes widened, "Did you get hurt?"

T.J. shrugged, "Not really."

"What happened after that?" I asked.

"Well, that's when I started walking along the track, I was too desperate too stop. The police saw me, and took me to their station."

"What'd they do?" I asked, full of curiosity.

"For a time they just had me sit with a secretary. Then some U.S. Marshall came out of the sheriff's office. He was some old friend of the sheriff, I think.  He's the one who drove me back here. Sheriff didn?t trust me enough to send me on a bus or train."

"How come?"

"Well, I've been running away, an' he probably thought that I'd run again if I was unsupervised."

"Would you have?"

Reluctantly, my brother nodded, "I don't belong here Lizzy, I miss home." I nodded sadly.

"What do you think happened to Reggie?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Reggie's a tough person, he probably found a place to stay for a while."

The sound of a creaking door stopped me from asking any more questions. It was Father, and it was morning!

"Have you two been up all night?" He asked.  We nodded slowly.  He hesitated, then took T.J. into the kitchen.  I followed curiously, and found them all sitting at the table.

"I can't say I'm not disappointed, but if you are so miserable here, then the only other choice is to let you stay with your Aunt Bernice in Alabama."  T.J.'s eyes lit up as he thought about home.  "But," Father continued, "If I let you stay there, I don't want to hear that you've been causing trouble." My brother nodded.

At that point I fully realized what was happening. I ran to T.J. and clung to his waist, "I wanna go with him!" I exclaimed desperately. All looked at me with shock. "Please?" I asked pleadingly.

T.J. put an arm around me and lifted me into his lap, "Please?" he asked, looking  at them with a profound pleading expression.

Our parents looked each other, they didn?t like this idea and it was obvious, but they didn't want me to become miserable like T.J. had.

"You're going to take care of her?" Mother asked, staring at T.J. My brother nodded.

The next day our two older sisters took us to Aunt Bernice's house where we lived until we came of age, having visits from our family during holidays.

Their life became as it was before, light and beautiful.