The Road Not Taken

Chapter 29

June 18, 1974

The next morning, Katie and Sam went to the courthouse to obtain a retraining order. The resulting document indicated that Chuck Parnell was to have no contact with Katie Beckett Parnell and she could only be contacted through a neutral third party source. Sam now felt that things were looking up. If Chuck would stay away from her, they could get her the help she needed to regain her self-esteem.

Katie was silent as they drove back to the farmhouse. Sam tried to ask her what she was thinking of but she said she didn't want to talk. When they got home, she again made a bee-line to her room. Sam decided to work his nervous energy off doing chores.

He'd been out in the field when his mother called him in. "Phone call, Sam."

"Who is it, Mom?"

"It's Donna."

Sam wasn't sure if this was a good sign or not. When Donna had broken off the engagement, he'd been devastated. He'd so wanted to spend his life with her. He understood, however, that her dream was to go into quantum physics research and that a farm in rural Indiana didn't fit her requirements. He came in and took the phone from his mother. "Hello?"

"Hi, Sam." Her voice was flat, as if she were trying not to show any emotion whatsoever.

"What do you want, Donna?" Sam felt if he cut to the chase, the agony of the phone call would be over quicker.

Donnas seemed to sense Sam's feelings and met his desire to finish the call as quickly as possible "Well, when I was packing my things to leave Lawrence, I came across your copy of Brigadoon. I thought you might like it back."

Sam thought about it. He'd received it as a gift for his eighth birthday. "Yeah, thanks Donna. I would. My Grandmother gave that to me."

"Okay. I thought it might be special to you. I'll pack it up and send it to you."

"Thanks."

Concern entered Donna's voice as she asked, "Are you doing all right?"

Sam's emotions answered the concern that Donna had voiced. "Yeah. Well, as well as can be expected." He decided he needed to let her know how he felt. "I still love you, Donna."

"I know. I love you too." Donna's next words dashed any hopes he might have still harbored. "It just wouldn't work between us, Sam. We want different things. This is for the best."

Sam sighed, resigned to the reality. "I suppose so. I do wish you happiness, Donna, in whatever you do."

"You too, Sam. Bye. Have a good life."

"Bye, Donna." Sam's eyes were tearing as he hung up the phone. His mother came around the corner.

Thelma took in the vision of her son, his body language indicating great pain. "Everything okay, Sam?"

Sam's eyes told the story. "Ah, Mom. I still love her. It really hurts to know I won't be with her ever again."

Thelma took her son into her arms. "I know, Sam. Time will heal this wound." She hugged him tighter as she felt his tears swallowed by the cloth on her shoulder.

After a few moments he pulled away. "I'm going for a walk, Mom. I don't know if I'll be back by supper."

"Okay, Sam." Thelma knew that Sam would head out to the cornfields and find a place to be alone. He'd always gone there whenever he was troubled. She remembered the first time Sam had done so. He was six and had come in from school at the end of the first week, a black eye just beginning to show its colors.

She quickly rushed to her son, taking a close look at the injury. "What happened, Sam?" she asked with great concern.

Sam shrugged. "Nothing, Mom."

Thelma went over to the freezer and pulled out some ice, wrapping it in a towel and putting it up against Sam's face. "That eye is telling me more than nothing. Did you get into a fight?"

"No," Sam shook his head.

"Don't lie to me, Sam," she stated with a little warning in her voice.

Sam looked up at her, begging her to believe him. "I'm not, Mom. 'I' didn't fight."

"What?" She looked into his eyes and saw the sincerity there.

He looked down and with barely a whisper answered, "They held me down and hit me."

"They did WHAT!" Seeing Sam jump just a little she asked, "Why would they do that?"

Her little boy sighed before explaining, "The teacher told me I had to go to sixth grade math class. She said I couldn't stay with the other kids. The sixth graders said they didn't want a baby in their class. When the teacher said that I was the only one to get an A on the pre-test she gave us today, some of the boys said they'd get me for showing them up."

Thelma tilted her head, "Didn't you tell anyone?"

"No," was his simple answer.

Thelma couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Why not?"

"Cause when I said something earlier this week, they did this." Sam pulled up his shirt and Thelma was shocked to see the bruises that had formed around his stomach.

She went over to the phone, ready to call the school. Sam had pleaded with her not to, saying it would make it worse. Thelma decided to wait until she could talk to John about what to do. Sam had just told her he was going outside for awhile.

Later, when John came back from town where he'd gone to get udder balm for the cows, she told him what had happened. Tom came home from Junior High School and heard his parents talking. John was angrier than anyone in the Beckett house had ever seen him. He told Tom to go and find his brother.

Tom looked for Sam everywhere he could think of, but couldn't find him. His parents joined the search for his little brother. It was near twilight and they were getting worried that something even worse had happened to him and decided if they didn't find him within the next ten minutes, they would call the police. They finally found him sitting in the cornfield at the back edge of the farm. They asked him what he was doing and he told them he was "just thinking."

They brought him back to the house. John told Sam he didn't have to take this abuse from the other children. It was wrong. He told Sam he was going to contact the principal and get to the bottom of it. The next day, the boys who had beat Sam up were called into the office finding their parents there as well. The boys were told that if Sam Beckett was beat up again, they would be expelled from school.

Later Thelma had heard that Tom had also paid the boys a visit before the office call and told each of them that if they touched his brother again, he'd make sure that any damage they did to him would be doubled on them. That it was a promise and not a threat.

Whichever message had gotten to the boys, Sam had never been beat up again. But whenever he was troubled, she knew they could find him out in those cornfields. Tonight was no different. When Sam walked in a little after dark, she could smell the scent of the new corn on him.