“I’m scared all the time.”
“That true Raine?” He turned to look at me then and raised an eyebrow. I looked up at him and nodded the sad truth.
“Well, I know something about being brave little darlin’ and I learned it in ‘Nam. Shit, I even have a medal called a Purple Heart in a box right on top of my brown dresser in that cabin over there. If you want, I can show it to you some time.”
“They give medals for that?” I asked.
“They sure do, honey, and the thing I learned most about courage is that it’s something brave people call upon when they are so scared to do a thing they can barely breathe, but they do it anyway because it’s just the right thing to do.”
“Does anyone ever get tired of being brave, Prosper?” I put my tiny hand in his.
He squeezed it gently and said,” Sure they do little darlin’, people get tired of being brave all the time.”
“What happens then, Prosper?” I was looking at him now, the weight of the world on my shoulders.
I heard something catch in the back of his throat and he had to clear it before he went on. “Why they call on someone who has some brave left over, that’s what they do honey.”
“Prosper?”
“Yes Raine?”
“Do you have any brave left over?”
“Little darlin’, just so happens I been saving up a bunch of brave just for you.”
I thought about this for a while.
“So Prosper?”
“Yeah, Raine?’
“You got this?”
He brought the back of his hand up to his eye.
“Yeah, darlin’, I got this.”
I’m not sure how longed we stayed at the cabin by the lake with Prosper and Pinky because little ones measure time differently. But I knew it was good time. Claire and I flourished. We had plenty to eat and there was always homemade cookies. Sometimes there were people wearing the leather letter jackets same as before, and same as before I would sleep tight with Claire next to me, too afraid to look at their shadows thrown on the wall.
Prosper bought me several harmonicas in different keys and continued my earlier lessons on the art of playing the harp. The best part of all, was sometimes at night, I would sit curled up at his feet and he would teach me to sing harmony.
Our father first came to see us about two weeks after we were there. Prosper met him at the end of the driveway and they talked for a long time before he came up. Claire ran to his arms and he held her tight. I stayed back watching. When he reached for me, I put my little hand into Prosper’s and I saw such a look of unbearable pain cross my father’s face, I knew that he loved me. He started coming more often after that and the dark shadows started to leave his face and when I watched him watch Claire, I knew that he saw her.
Right after that first visit, Prosper took me by the hand and led me to a wooden bench in the back of the yard. He sat real close to me, with his hands planted on his thighs and his eyes looking into mine.
“Raine, what I have to say here is pretty important. Fair to say it will be the most important thing you’re ever going to hear, so I need you to listen to me real close and to remember. Now I’m going to help you do that, but you have to help too. Can you do that for me Raine, can you listen real close and remember what I tell you?”
“Yes, Prosper. I do solemnly swear it.”
He smiled at that.
“Raine, I’m gonna help your daddy get where he needs to be. Me and him, why we had a long talk and we’re going to do whatever that takes. That’s our job. When he does that and when I think, when I know , he is ready to be the daddy that you and Clairedeserve, you’ll be going back home with him. When you’re back home, he is with you, cooking and cleaning and doing all those things that the good daddies do. That’s his job. You good with that Raine?”
“I’m good with that Prosper.”
“Now in the beginning and a long time after that, I’m going to be checking and making sure that everything happens the way
William K. Klingaman, Nicholas P. Klingaman
John McEnroe;James Kaplan