A Soldier's Heart

A Vicious Beating (Anne)

When Travis and Beth were ten, there came a week when Beth was not waiting for him to walk her to school. He waited as long as he could, then went alone.

When he came home for lunch, he said maybe she was sick. When this happened several days in a row, he became very worried, and truth to tell, so did I. We went over to Beth's house after school one day, Travis bringing her some homework assignments so she wouldn't get too far behind. I brought some cookies.

No one answered the door. The house looked deserted, but then, it usually did. I rang the bell several times, and still no one came. We turned back toward home, but Travis kept looking over his shoulder at the door, just in case someone answered it. I hoped they had just gone away for a few days but somehow I doubted it. I had the fleeting thought that maybe Martha had taken the advice I had given her years ago and left with the children. As it turned out, I wasn't far off the mark.

A few days later, there was Beth, sitting hunched over on the step. When Travis approached, she came to meet him, but without the normal happy greeting.

As usual, after school they sat at the kitchen table to do homework. After being away for several days, Beth had a lot to catch up on. She winced when she shifted in her seat, and when she stuck her leg out, I could see welts and bruises all down her calf.

"What happened?" I asked.

Beth hunched her shoulders and mumbled, "Nothing."

"That isn't nothing." I pointed at her leg. "Stand up."

She did, and I looked her over carefully. Her other leg was similarly covered in welts and bruises. I led her into the bathroom and lifted her skirt, to see they extended up her thighs and presumably under her dingy panties. I made her take off her sweater. She didn't need one in the June heat and my suspicions about why she was wearing one were confirmed. Her arms also had many bruises, though they looked older than the ones on her legs.

We went back into the kitchen and I told Travis to get his father.

"Now, tell me what happened, " I said as soon as they returned.

It came out in stumbling half-sentences. Martha had taken her children and a bit of money she had managed to set aside, and got on a bus. She chose the first bus leaving town, which was headed north, and made the mistake of telling the children they were never coming back. When they got off the bus, Jake begged for money to buy himself a cold drink, but instead used it to phone his father and tell him where they were. Joe came and forced them into his truck and brought them back home, where he proceeded to beat Martha severely. He used his belt on Beth, too, but his arm was sore after working Martha over, so he instructed Jake to find a stick and finish the job. Jake was a husky fifteen-year-old now, and evidently following in his father's footsteps. He applied the stick enthusiastically, not just to her backside, but all down her legs. She knew he wanted her to cry out, because that would be a sign to keep hitting, so she bit her lip until it bled. Jake escaped punishment because he was his father's thrall.

"If Pa finds out I told you, he'll do it again. Please don't tell anyone," Beth begged.

I knew we had to report it to CPS again, and prayed that this time they would do something.

While Beth was telling the story, Travis had gone ghost-white and his eyes were hard as emeralds.

"If he touches you again, I'm going to kill him," he said through clenched teeth.

We should have remonstrated with him but, truth to tell, I felt much the same way and I'm pretty sure Dave did too.

Of course we reported the incident to CPS. They didn't remove Joe from the home, as I had hoped, nor did they remove the children.

I decided that if another incident occurred, I would go straight to the police and have Joe arrested.