Chapter 8

Jarrod tossed the ball with the Main boys for a while. One of the sheriff's deputies came along with some food from the Stockton House café. Jarrod was grateful, because he knew he could not take the boys back into the house yet, not while their mother was in labor. They didn't need to hear her pain, and they did need to eat. He sat down at the table with them and they all ate together, pepping the boys up, getting them talking about something other than their family's problems.

Jarrod asked about how school was going. "I don't like arithmetic," Randy said right away.

"I didn't like it much either," Jarrod said, "but I found out it does come in handy when I started growing up."

"But you're a lawyer," Jack Jr. said.

Jarrod smiled. "And lawyers can't always add or subtract very well. It makes me work sometimes, but we all have to do it in life."

"I like to read," Randy said.

"I liked that too," Jarrod said. "I still do."

"Pa likes to read," Jack Jr. said. "Can he read now?"

"He hasn't tried yet," Jarrod said, "but we'll be giving it a try before long."

They talked about all kinds of things. They talked about fishing. They talked about horses. They talked about San Francisco. The time went by, but as it did, Jarrod felt more and more anxious and had to work harder and harder to keep the boys from getting just as uneasy. Finally, at about two in the afternoon, Dr. Merar came out the back door and down into the yard.

Jarrod and the boys had been tossing the ball again, but the doctor motioned them over to the table. The boys sat down. Dr. Merar sat with them, but Jarrod stayed standing.

The doctor looked very tired – and sad. "Your mother is all right but she's very tired and she's sleeping. Mrs. Haley is looking after her. Boys, she had her baby, a little girl, but the baby was too little and weak and she did not take any breaths. I'm sorry, boys. There was nothing anybody could do."

Jarrod closed his eyes, and the first thing he thought – to his own despair – was it's as if the baby knew nobody wanted her. He threw that thought out of his mind.

Dr. Merar said, "Your mother is in very good hands, boys. Mrs. Haley takes care of women like this all the time." But his eyes looked at Jarrod as if asking him to do something.

"I'll stay here for a bit," Jarrod said quickly. "I'll see the boys get dinner and then we'll see how things are."

"Where's the baby?" Randy asked. "Can we see her?"

Dr. Merar shook his head. "The undertaker has already taken her to be buried in the town cemetery. We'll wait for your mother to be able to arrange for that tomorrow."

"Listen, guys," Jarrod said. "Maybe we three ought to take a little walk."

"Can we go to the cemetery?" Randy asked. "Can we pick out a place?"

Jarrod could have cried. This little boy was showing more concern for this baby than anyone else had so far. "We can talk to the caretaker there," Jarrod said. "We'll wait for your mother to feel a little better so she can make the decisions that need to be made."

"Your mother is comfortable and Mrs. Haley is taking good care of her," Dr. Merar said again. "I'll be back after dinner and check on her, but I think she's going to be fine. She just needs to rest a lot now." Then he looked up at Jarrod.

"Come on, fellas," Jarrod said. "Let's take that walk."

Jarrod herded the boys along with him as he went out to the street, and then he kept them just ahead of him all the way to the town cemetery, more than half a mile away. They didn't talk much. Jarrod eyed a lot of people on the street, knowing they had no idea what Jarrod Barkley was doing with two boys but they were too polite to ask. Jarrod wondered if Jordan Williams noticed them. He wondered if anybody was telling Williams or even Bridger what had happened to Frances. He thought he might see Williams at some point this evening or tomorrow to make sure he knew. He knew he'd never see Bridger about it.

As soon as they got to the cemetery, they started looking around. The caretaker was nowhere in sight. Jack Jr. and Randy gravitated toward a spot near the only tree in the cemetery. There was a lot of empty room around it.

"Most people don't like their loved ones to be buried near a tree because they're afraid the tree roots will disturb the grave," Jarrod said. He looked at the tree branches overhead. "The roots often go out as far as the branches do, and this tree still has some growing to do. What do you say we move over this way a bit?"

He steered the boys to an empty spot near the fence, away from the tree but not too far away. Just as they got there, Jarrod spotted Mr. Ferguson, the caretaker, coming their way. "Afternoon, Cyrus," Jarrod said.

"Jarrod," the man said. "What's going on?"

"The boys' baby sister was stillborn today," Jarrod said. "The undertaker has her and will be coming to see you as soon as their mother is able to make decisions, probably tomorrow at the earliest. Jack and Randy just wanted to pick out a spot for their sister."

"Oh," Ferguson said. "Well, boys, that spot is already taken, but down here a bit, still along the fence – here's a good spot."

The spot Ferguson chose was alarming because of the tombstone in the spot next to it. It was that of an infant who was murdered. Jarrod knew the whole story there. The baby was murdered because it was the illegitimate child of a local woman of the evening. The baby was murdered by its father, many years earlier, because he didn't want an illegitimate child of his around. Jarrod had prosecuted the man when he was an assistant district attorney. The jury had acquitted the man, who subsequently left Stockton, and Jarrod was always furious about it. He was furious now because he knew Ferguson knew about the whole thing, and now he was cruelly insulting him and these boys.

"Cyrus, you've got a lot of nerve," Jarrod said very quietly.

The fury in Jarrod's eyes made Ferguson back down. He looked away and said, "How about over here? This spot is – less troubling."

The stone next to the spot Ferguson pointed out now was the grave of a poor boy, the son of a local handyman, who had been accidentally run over by a wagon two years earlier. "Hold onto it," Jarrod said. "We'll talk to Mrs. Main about it when she's strong enough."

Jarrod herded the boys out again and they started back up the street. Randy spoke up then, but with a question that was a little surprising. "Mr. Barkley, why aren't they going to bury the baby in the churchyard?"

Jarrod wondered how to explain that. The local Presbyterian minister was touchy about burying people in the churchyard – the church the Mains belonged to – when the person to be buried had not been baptized Presbyterian. That included children who died before they were baptized. Jarrod never liked that idea, but the parishioners went along with it, and Jarrod was pretty sure the Mains would too – especially with the paternity of the baby in doubt.

Jarrod tried to think of a way to answer the question, but Jack Jr. answered it first. "Because the baby wasn't baptized before it died."

"Why does that make a difference?" Randy asked. "The baby was never alive."

"I don't know," Jack said. "In our church, it just does."

"Churches are complicated places, Randy," Jarrod said. "They have their rules. We just have to live with them."

"Do you think Ma's gonna give the baby a name, Mr. Barkley?" Randy asked.

"I don't know," Jarrod said. "It's up to her."

"Not Pa?"

Jarrod said, "No, probably not your Pa."

"Pa couldn't do it if he wanted to, could he?" Jack Jr. asked.

"No, not right now," Jarrod said.

"And when he gets well, he's gonna leave us, isn't he?"

Jarrod was surprised Randy didn't react at all to what Jack Jr. just said. These boys knew the score more than Jarrod thought they did. They knew their parents were breaking up, even if they didn't know the reason for it. Or maybe they did. Jarrod said, "I don't know what's gonna happen, Jack. Things are really complicated right now. Your parents are both sick, and they both need time to get well before we can figure this all out."

"What happens to us?" Randy asked, now sounding a little frightened.

Jarrod stopped them and squatted down in front of them. "Listen. Times are tough right now, but I won't let anything happen to you fellas. You're gonna be looked after, I promise, until one of your parents is well enough to look after you."

"I want to see my Pa," Randy said.

"I know you do," Jarrod said, "and he wants to see you but right now your ma's not well enough to take you to him. I promise you, though, you won't be left behind. We'll figure this out."

The boys both nodded solemnly. Jarrod wasn't sure if they felt consoled or not, but he gave each of them a gentle rub on the head as he straightened up. He gave himself a big sigh, and they continued on home to the Main house.