Chapter 4 "Get Out"
Day 9
It had been nearly a week since LaRissa and Annette passed. Since then, Hershel has kept himself locked up in his room, constantly drinking or weeping. He refuses to open the door, and only comes out to use the restroom or to eat. Beth and Shawn, similarly, have spent most of their time alone in the fields, or just being very distant. With Shawn, Beth, and Hershel down, Otis, Arnold, Jimmy, and Robert's group have stepped up to fill in the role of farmer, making sure everything that needs to get tended to does.
On this morning, Otis tried to convince Hershel to come out and be with the group. Hershel opened the door and spit some of his alcohol at Otis's chest. He noticed Robert and Lily observing, and yelled at them. "It's your fault that Annette is dead! I want you off of my property, now! Leave, and don't you ever come back!"
Maggie, Patricia, Arnold, and Jimmy came out of their rooms, hearing the commotion. They stood against the drunk man, not allowing his depression and intoxication to cause more pain.
"Daddy," Maggie yelled back at her father, "you need to stop that right now. You know it's not their fault. It ain't no one's fault. We couldn't have known." Arnold and Jimmy nodded their heads.
"Hershel, you know I love you, and you know I loved Annette," Patricia said, "but you are acting like a sore jackass right now. These people have been nothing but kind and helpful since they've gotten here. If you kick them out, Otis and I are leaving with them."
"Me too," said Arnold.
"Same here," Maggie added. "You have no right to kick these people out. You lost your wife, but we lost our mama. Our aunt. Our best friend. We're all hurting, but we have to move on." Maggie walked up to her dad and grabbed the alcohol out of his hand and threw it out of the nearest window, right into the wheelbarrow outside.
Hershel, still drunk, hiccuped. He had a look of defeat on his face. Wordlessly, he retreated back to his room, slamming the door behind him.
Robert and Lily approached the others and hugged them. "I didn't know you guys cared that much about us," Lily said.
Maggie smiled at them, "It's no problem. We've been through a lot now, haven't we? If we didn't care for you by now, we'd be heartless."
At dinner, when Hershel came down, there was an awkward air about the room. Instead of grabbing the food and going back to his room, he took his place at the head of the table and ate with everyone. The others tried to carry on despite the awkwardness. Finally, after about twenty minutes of small talk, trying to ignore the shady elephant in the room, Hershel cleared his throat and spoke up.
"I just want to apologize to Robert, Lily, and Lyrik. And," he paused, "to everyone. I've been a 'sore jackass' to everyone, I understand. And I want to make up for that. I lost my wife, and I wasn't dealing with it well. I took it out on you people, and I drowned my sorrow in vodka. And I want to re-extend my invitation to you three. They're right, you know," he said, looking to his family who had yelled at him earlier, and then to Robert, Lily, and Lyrik. "You three are a tremendous help. And I appreciate everything you've all done to accommodate for the...mourning I went through."
He smiled at them for a few seconds, and after getting no response, he picked up his fork again, digging back into his food. Everyone laughed at the weird tension, and began talking as if there had never been any rifts in the group. They were beginning to feel like a family.