The next day at the Potter household, a long table is set in their living room and being lovingly set for a Thanksgiving celebration even tho its not Thanksgiving day. Unfortunately, they were in the hospital with the scare of Margaret falling down the stairs so they are celebrating the day after.
Sunshine and Mildred are setting the table and all the guests sit down, including the good Father Francios Malcuhy and Hawkeye sits beside him and Sherman across from him and they all are laughing and having a good time then Margaret comes in the room and goes to sit down by Hawkeye . Hawkeye then says,
"I really wish you had stayed in the hospital"
She waves it away then says,
"I can rest just as much upstairs"
Hawkeye then asks with his hands pointing upstairs,
"Then why aren't you UPSTAIRS?"
She rolls her eye then flatly says,
"Because I'm here...get over it"
Everybody snickers then Sherman says,
"Son, you are fighting a losing battle, just raise the white flag of surrender"
Everybody laughs then Father Mulcahy says,
"I wish I was able to be here for you yesterday Margaret"
She looks at him and says,
"You couldn't have done anything but sit around and worry"
He puts his hat down then says,
"Yes, but worry is what I do best"
They all laugh then B.J. and Peg come in and watch Erin and their twins go up the stairs to where Misty and Kim Lee are then they walk over to the table and Sunshine says,
"Oh Peg! I love your new hairstyle!"
She smiles and her hand runs over the back. Her hair is now in a fresh, new bob look and she says,
"Yes, the beauty shop at the hotel was open this morning so I went in and..."
She does both her hands in a open wave and she says,
"I love it but I don't think B.J. does"
He gives a small grunt but still 'smiles' then Sherman says,
"I don't know why you didn't stay and one of our houses"
B.J. looks around then says,
"Oh, you know, I didn't think a big family like ours should be around...we take up a lot of room"
Everybody tries to smile and wave it off but a unsettling feeling comes in the room then the doorbell rings and Max says,
"I'll go get it"
Max gets up and strides over to the door and as soon as he opens the door, this huge man falls onto Max's arms, he has red hair cut in a army crew cut...a three day old five o'clock shadows and he reeks of whiskey. The women in the room scream and the drunken man "stands" up and he screams,
"Sherman Potter! You old man! Why weren't you at my house yesterday!"
Sherman's face is blood red from anger and he yells,
"Damnation spurs Jacob! We ain't family! I didn't know I had to check my schedule with you!"
Just then Myron comes in with tears streaming down his face and he says,
"Dad! Why do you do this to mom?"
Hawkeye asks his former boss,
"Who is that?"
Barely able to speak because of his anger, Sherman hisses out,
"Reuben Byrone, Mryron's father...neighbor...if you can call him that"
Max tries to control the man but he flings his arms away then says,
"Leave me alone! I can handle myself"
The man who can handle himself, "throws" a punch at Max who easily ducks it and the man flings out a string of cuss words then Sherman says,
"Get him out of here before I..."
Mildred puts her hand on her husbands shoulder and looks at young Myron then Sherman composes himself a little then says in gritted teeth,
"Just get him out of here"
Max stands up and gets a hold of the man's jacket, jerks it up and says,
"Come on Radar, let's take him home"
Walter shakes his head and goes on and Mryon wipes away his tears and when they all finally leave, Sunshine puts her hand over her heart and says,
"THANK GOD Misty and the kids were upstairs!"
Peg shakes her head in agreement then Sunshine says,
"He was so mean! I've never seen such a mean drunk!"
Sherman smiles and says,
"And that was one of his nice days"
Hawkeye whistles then Margaret says,
"As much as I have seen you all drunk back in Korea, I've never seen any of you mean "
Hawkeye smiles and says,
"None of us have a mean bone in our bodies...besides there was too much mean elsewhere"
Everybody silently agrees then Max and Walter come back in and sit down and Sherman asks,
"Got Reuben down?"
Max grunts then says,
"Yeah, he's sleeping it off"
Walter shakes his head then says,
"I felt so bad for Myron, I don't think he'll quit crying for hours"
Max shakes his head and then he says,
"Yes and his mother was just sitting at the table staring out the kitchen window, she didn't say a word the whole time when we were putting her husband to bed"
Sherman says,
"Poor lady has been through a lot over the years with him"
Margaret asks,
"Has anybody tried to help him?"
Sherman and Mildred look at each other then Sherman says sadly,
"Everybody in town from the highest to the lowest . There are some people who just can't be help...I had to find that out the hard way"
B.J. an Peg look at each other and B.J. wipes the sweat off his forehead then Margaret asks,
"What happened?"
Sherman thinks a minute then he says,
'Well, I had just finished my first year of medical school and Alvin, myself and some of my other friends from medical school got together and went to a local bar, more like a hole in the wall but it was called..."
He thinks on it then says,
'Melton's Place...one of the guys name was Eugene...Eugene Farris...Eugene had been a good fella to hang around with for that past year...he was like the class clown of us all, kept things a little light when things got heavy. But that night was strange...the rest of us were carrying on; laughing, joking...some clean, some not so clean.
Alvin and another guy that was with us...Henry was his name, played darts for money most of the night...drinks were flowing fast and hard, each one of the boys paid for each round but ( he laughs ) we were still holding our own.
One of the boys, looked over at Eugene and he leaned over to Eugene who looked like a dark cloud that was about to burst of thunder and the boy said to him,
'Hey, w-what's with you? Yer lo-look-looking like a m-mole on the bottom of a old mule'
Eugene looks at him with disgust then elbows him and I say,
'Hey, watch it, he's j-ust ask-asking you a question"
Eugene looks at me and he says,
'Yeah, well, he needs to get out of my face, he smells like a old beer factory"
I take a another big sip then ask,
'What is bother-ing y-ou? Why did you e-even come? You're not celebrating a-an-anything"
He is silent for a few minutes then he says,
'Nothing to celebrate, at least not on my part'
I look at him and ask,
'Did-didn't you finish?'
He gives a sneer and laugh then says,
'Yeah, I finished..."
He gets out a piece of paper from his shirts pocket then opens it and throws it down and very loudly says,
'I finished all right...I pretty much know I got the lowest grades in class, I'll be lucky if they don't kick me out next year. From the word I hear everybody here got the highest grades in class, even those two lackys playing dart drunk'
I take a drink then I say something that sets off a ring of motion for the rest of the night,
'W-why don...'t you j-ust study m-more ( blech ) and get better grades and go pa-ast each of us faster than a cy-cyclecar?'
Eugene's face turns two shades of rage, his eyes locked on me sharper than a sewing needle and he quickly stands up and turns the table ...fortunately , I still had my drink in hand...Eugene screams,
'That's all I do is study! I'm barely hanging on as it is! You guys come along and make it look as easy as playing drums in a nursery kiddie class!'
He then quickly gets out a razor blade and waves it around...I couldn't figure out how he was talking so clear and handling that knife when I saw for myself how much he was drinking, he drank three times as I or any of the guys! The boy sitting next to Eugene had finally passed out from drink and fright when he turned over that table but I got my nerve up and kept talking to the snarling man and Alvin and Henry carefully walks over like mice and get Eugene's arms in a vice and I go over there and punch the daylights out of him.
One of the guys knew where he lived and we took him home and put him in bed like a child.
Later on, I told each and every one of those guys that the next time one of them invites Eugene with us for a night on the town, I would personally give them a punch that would make them feel like a mule had kicked them!"
Back in 1965-
Everybody laughs then Margaret asks,
"What ever happened to Eugene?"
Sherman gives a sigh then says,
"Well, he was right...he would have been kicked out of school but not for his grades...he was hooked on Morphine and refused to admit that anything was wrong so doing that...drinking...he was dead 6 months after that"
Everybody goes quiet then Mildred and Sunshine come in with a HUGE turkey and Mildred says,
"Eveything's ready!"
Everybody claps their hands then Walter hollers for the kids to come down and the kids come running down like a pack of hungry wolves!
Everybody eats and passes food around and laugh and share good times with each other.
Slowly, everybody leaves. Sunshine helps Mildred clean up while Margaret and Hawkeye go up to their room to retire and so does Max and Kim Lee. Misty goes over to her grandpa and asks as tender as she can,
"Grandpa? Can we read 'Black Beauty'
He smiles then says,
"Sure we can honey"
She goes and gets the book and they go and settle on the couch and he opens the book and says,
"Chapter 25- Reuben Smith..."
He then does a small chuckle and shakes his head at the coincidence and confused then Misty asks,
"What is it grandpa?"
"Oh, not a thing, let's just start reading"
She snuggles up to him and he starts the chapter.
Reviews please!
Sand n' Sable