Breaking Matthew (23 page)

So I opened my heart to him and poured out my fears of the future, my longing to be free, my heartache at seeing Matthew’s faith so shaken. I prayed my Mother would stay strong, and I thanked God for bringing Asa back into her life. It was such a comfort to know she wouldn’t be alone.

I did my best to stay positive, to avoid questioning why this was happening, or asking for God to take away the lonely ache in my chest. I wanted to face my future with the same courage the apostles had when they were thrown in prison for their faith. Maybe God would give me the opportunity to tell others about Him while I was in there. But I also thought of John the Baptist, and I wondered if he had a moment of weakness as he faced his execution. Did he wonder if God had abandoned him?

I thought about what Matthew had said, about how no one would ever know what I’d done, and that it wouldn’t change anything. I prayed he was wrong. I prayed that somehow my tiny, brief existence would be like a pebble tossed in a pond. I prayed that small example might eventually ripple out toward others, and someday people wouldn’t look at skin color as a way of measuring a person. Maybe someday we’d figure out how to see into a person’s heart without even noticing the pigment in their skin.

Rain was beginning to tap insistently on the windows, the noise disturbing my reverie and making me feel unsettled. I opened my eyes to discover we were well past Hanceville, driving past muddy brown fields, broken up occasionally by patches of woods with only a smattering of green pine trees in them. The dark cloud overhead seemed a perfect companion for my trip. Soon, I saw a sign ahead for the little town of Blount Springs, and I realized it was the first time in my life I’d been that far away from home. Seemed sad really. Here I was about to leave Cullman County, after dreaming about getting out of there for so long, and it was in the back of a sheriff’s car headed for the state penitentiary.

In the seat ahead of me, I heard Sheriff Peterson ask John, “You see that?”

“Sure do,” John said.

I slid to the middle of the bench I was sitting on so I could see too. Up ahead of us, just in the bend of a turn, a car had run off the road and crashed headlong into a tree. Steam was shooting out of the engine, and a man’s body was lying in the ditch a few yards away from the open passenger door.

Sheriff Peterson slowed down. “I reckon we ought to check on ’em.”

Another man stumbled out into the road from in front of the car, waving his arms for help. Our car came to a stop about thirty feet behind the wreck. The stumbling man fell to his knees. He seemed familiar somehow, but it was hard to see through the rain, which was heavier now, and beginning to fall in sheets.

“I can help,” I said. “I’ve been trained to take care of injured folks.”

“You stay right where you are,” Sheriff Peterson said. “Something about all this don’t feel right.” He opened his car door and stood behind it. “Sir,” he called to the man in the middle of the road. “Sir! Are you all right? What’s happened here?”

The man in the road moaned loudly, lifting his head. Beneath the brim of his hat, I saw my Uncle Roy’s face, and my heart jumped into my throat. “I…I lost control,” he said. “Hit the tree there. Can you help my friend? I think he’s hurt.”

Sheriff Peterson glanced at John. “Get Jefferson County on the radio and get some help out here.”

“We ain’t crossed into Jefferson County yet,” John said. “Still Blount.”

Sheriff Peterson swore under his breath. “Get Blount then. It’ll take ’em five years to get here, but ring ’em up anyhow.”

“Yes, sir.” John reached for a large round speaker that looked like a huge sucker. He twisted some knobs until it hissed and called Blount Sheriff’s department, explaining the situation and our location to a crackly voice on the other end. I kept my eyes on Roy, wondering how in the world I was to keep this situation from turning bad. My initial concern for injured strangers had been replaced by a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that things weren’t as they seemed.

“They’re on their way,” John said to Sheriff Peterson.

“All right. You keep an eye on this one while I check out the one in the ditch.”

John climbed out of his side of the car and took a position behind his door, his left foot propped up on the running board. Sheriff Peterson approached the man in the ditch, who I assumed was another one of my uncles. He knelt down and felt my uncle’s neck. Roy rocked back on his heels, moaning again. “I don’t feel so good,” he said.

Sheriff Peterson called from the ditch. “He’s alive! Beat up pretty good though.”

Roy fell onto his back, splashing down hard into a puddle. “Oh Lordy!” he hollered as he landed.

John bent down and met my gaze. “Just…stay here. Don’t move, all right?”

“John, listen—”

“Just stay where you are.”

He darted over to check on Roy. I was staring at the car and Roy, trying to figure out what was going on, when there was a light tap on the passenger side back window. It startled me, and I jumped.

A face slid up into view. It was Franklin, his hair plastered to his scalp by the driving rain.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

He slid in the passenger side door where John had just left. “Getting’ you outta here. What else?”

“No! You’re going to get someone hurt…or worse. Now get out of here before one of them sees you.”

“There ain’t no time to argue, now come on.”

“No,” I insisted. “It’s illegal!”

Franklin took a quick look at the Sheriff and deputy still tending to the supposedly injured men. Then he turned back to me. “Look, did you kill anyone? Tell me, Ruby, for real. Did you kill Calhoun?”

I was tired of lying at this point, and something about Franklin told me he wasn’t interested in spreading anything I said to the police.

“No.” I sighed. “I didn’t kill him.”

“I knew it.” He shook his head, stealing another glance toward the wrecked car. “Then there ain’t nothing wrong with you getting out of this car. You didn’t commit no crime. So there ain’t no punishment you need to pay. You shouldn’t die for something you didn’t do.”

I had to admit there was a good part of me that agreed with his reasoning. At this point, if I disappeared, it wouldn’t cast any suspicion on Samuel. But my heart was racing too fast for me to find peace with that decision. “You might be right, but breaking the law here don’t fix nothing. I can’t do it.”

“Then you’re condemning all of us, including Matthew.”

“Matthew?” I nearly shouted. “What is he doing?”

That was when all hell broke loose. Glancing up at the sound of my voice, John spotted Franklin in the passenger seat and sprang to his feet. “Hey, get away from that car!” He took about three steps towards us before the blast of a pistol sounded.

John fell to the ground. Sheriff Peterson jumped up and tried to pull his gun out, but another blast sounded. He fell face down against the wet gravel. I couldn’t tell if he’d been hit or if he was dodging a shot. Franklin swore and jumped out of the car, pulling a pistol out from his belt. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He peered around the passenger door, took two steps, and fell to the ground when another blast of gunfire sounded.

“Franklin!” I shouted.

I climbed over the seat and out the door. Franklin had gotten back up and was stumbling off the road into the dead stalks of corn just below.

“Ruby, get back in that car!” Sheriff Peterson called from the ground. He had his pistol pointed straight at me. I dove back into the car, peering over the hood as Sheriff Peterson crawled over to John, who was groaning on the ground. Sheriff Peterson helped him sit up, and they started sliding backwards toward the sheriff’s car.

Another blast came from the front of the wrecked car, and the Sheriff fired back. He and John continued to scoot backward until they reached the open passenger door. I reached down and helped pull John into the car. Then Sheriff Peterson stood and ran around the back of the car to the driver’s side, while I took a quick look at John’s condition. The bullet had gone through his back and out his chest. He coughed up blood and groaned.

Sheriff Peterson leaned against the door, pointing his gun over the top at the other car. “Ruby, get in the back of the vehicle!”

“I can stop this! They won’t shoot at me.”

“Who are they?”

“I…I think it’s my uncles.”

Sheriff Peterson’s knees buckled, and he fell against the door. That was when I noticed the blood staining the front of his shirt. I climbed past him and out into the open.

“It’s me!” I shouted. “Stop shooting!” I kept moving toward my uncles’ car. “Please stop!”

“Ruby,” a gruff voice called from the front of the car. “You all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine. But please stop all this. The sheriff’s hurt, and so is Deputy Frost. I have to help them. You all need to get out of here!”

I reached the side of the car and could see Roy and Eddie crouched down with their guns drawn. “Come on,” Roy said. “We gotta get outta here.”

“They could die!” I shouted, pointing back to the sheriff’s car. “I have to help them. We have to get help!”

I turned to run back to help the sheriff, when I saw another car approaching. Just before it stopped, I could see Matthew’s worried face come into view.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Matthew

My stomach churned as I approached the two cars ahead of me. This wasn’t what I was supposed to find. The sheriff’s car was parked to the side of the road, both doors flung open to the elements. Sheriff Peterson sat on the road, leaning against the running board. Ruby stood between the two cars, her face ashen and eyes wild.

I jumped out of my car and met her as she raced for Sheriff Peterson. “What’s going on?”

She knelt beside him and placed her fingers on his neck. “Roy and Eddie are over there. I think they staged some kind of wreck or something to try to get me to escape. But then everything went crazy and they all starting shooting at each other!”

“Are you all right? What can I do?”

“I’m fine, but we’ve got to help them.” She pointed inside of the sheriff’s car where I saw John Frost laid across the seats. “They’re hurt pretty bad. Can you go around to the other side and see if John’s still alive? Then check to see if Roy and Eddie are hurt. We need to find Franklin too. He’s around here somewhere.”

I stared at her for a moment, not registering everything that was happening. This wasn’t at all what Roy had explained I’d see when I drove up. They were supposed to be gone. They were supposed to have lured the police into a chase after Ruby had already been taken from the car. I was supposed to pick her up.

She pulled open Sheriff Peterson’s shirt and wiped away the blood spurting out. At least he was alive. Then she closed her eyes and lifted her face to the stormy sky, prayers tumbling from her lips.

The hair on my arms stood on end as I realized what she was about to do. I was suddenly crushed by the weight of how badly this had turned out. I got my feet moving and ran around to the other side of the car, climbing in as best I could to check John. “Still alive!” I called out.

Then I backed out and jogged over to the car in front, finding Roy helping Eddie nurse a wound to his forearm. “How did this happen?” I asked as soon as I realized they were all right.

Roy shook his head. “Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. You have to improvise.”

“Improvise? You may have just killed two policemen. And now this whole thing is going to blow up in our faces!”

Roy finished tying off a piece of cloth around Eddie’s forearm, then he came around the side of the car and took a look over my shoulder. “We can still get everyone to the caverns and hide out until this blows over.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Was this all a bad dream? “Murdering cops don’t blow over!”

“He’s right,” Eddie said, coming around the car. “This is bad, Roy. There’s gonna be cops all over in a few minutes. We gotta get out of here. Forget all this. I ain’t going to jail.”

Somewhere up ahead and around the curve, I heard a car engine roar to life and a loud honk.

“We can’t just leave Ruby in a mess like this,” Roy said.

“I’ll get her out of here and meet you at the same place we agreed to,” I said.

“Don’t you let no cops follow you now,” Eddie said. “Cops get on your tail, and you’re just gonna have to keep going.”

“Hush up, Eddie,” Roy said before turning his glare on me. “Don’t come straight to the cave. Backtrack if you can, drive around the back roads, and stay off the highway. Get to the cave by dark, though.”

Another honk. Roy ran around to the driver’s side of the car and pressed down on the horn. A second later, a black Ford came barreling around the curve and swung around in front of us. Thomas jumped out of the driver’s side and ran around the car. “Frankie’s hit!”

As Roy and Eddie ran over to check on Franklin, I ran back to the sheriff’s car. Ruby was inside now, with John. She was on her knees on the floorboard, bent over his chest, and weeping.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I can’t do it,” she said, leaning back and looking over at me with eyes that seemed lost. “I’ve been praying for God to heal them, and it just…it won’t work. Just like Chester.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks as I reached for her hand. “Come on, Ruby. We can’t fix this. We need to get out of here.”

She pulled back, her eyes wide. “Matthew Doyle! We are not leaving them here to die!”

The way she looked at me, with such disappointment and shock, was like a jolt of electricity. Who was I? What kind of man had I become that I would leave two innocent souls on the side of the road? I was just as bad as Father.

“You’re right.” I leaned into the car and made sure I had eye contact with her. “Listen, I believe in you. Whatever your gift is, whatever you do, or God does through you, I believe. You’re just scared, and everything’s going crazy. Just take some deep breaths, calm your spirit, and talk to God. You can’t do this, but He can.”

She closed her eyes and took a long, slow breath. Her hands steadied, and she moved them in a small circle over John’s chest. I was certain I was witnessing something holy that I had no business being a part of, but I couldn’t move. Then she opened her eyes and reached for my hand.

Her skin on mine was like fire, and everything around us seemed to go perfectly still. All around me the air prickled the hairs on my body, like a fiery breeze coming into the car. Except nothing moved, and nothing made a sound. A wave of love and peace washed through me, and I could’ve sworn, if I hadn’t been braced by the car door, it might have knocked me over.

And then as quickly as it had come, it was gone. Ruby let go of my hand and opened John’s shirt. She closed her eyes again. “Thank you, Lord,” she whispered.

I backed away, still reeling from the experience. She tightened his shirt around his chest and then climbed out of the car and ran around the front. Through the open doors, I could see her kneel down beside Sheriff Peterson on the other side.

Off to my left, I heard the roar of approaching cars and turned to look. Police cars—two of them—were coming from less than half a mile away.

“It worked!” Ruby called.

I was already running around the car and took her by the arm, pulling her away from the car. “Then they’re all right?”

“They should be.” Her eyes looked past me at the approaching cars.

“We have to go,” I said. “This is our only chance to keep you out of the electric chair. Especially now. There’s no way to explain this.”

“No, if we just—”

A gunshot spilt the air by my head, and she screamed. There was no time to argue. I dragged her to my car and pushed her inside, diving in and slamming the door. Just as I cranked it up and pressed the gas, a police car slid to a stop beside me. I yanked the wheel to the right and took off into the field. Dead corn stalks flew everywhere as I plowed through, with no idea where I was headed. My wheels dug into the wet mud, spinning in the ever-deepening puddles, but somehow the car kept moving.

“Matthew, stop!” Ruby said. “We’re only going to make things worse!”

Furiously I pressed the gas pedal into the floor, swerving left to try to find the road again. The back window of my car shattered, spraying glass all over the back seat, and Ruby screamed again.

“Stay down!” I yelled.

Up ahead I could see the ridge of the road. I burst out of the cornfield and jerked the wheel again to straighten us out on the road. Then I floored the gas again. A moment later, I took a quick look behind me. One police car was still coming.

Ruby

I closed my eyes and prayed with all my might as Matthew slung us around the winding highway.
Lord, please protect us. Jesus, please be with all of us. Don’t let anyone else get hurt.
I repeated the prayer over and over. I grabbed the door and the seat as we took another turn, my knuckles turning white.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Matthew said. “Roy told me about a cave where we should meet him, but that ain’t till later. And I got to lose this cop first.”

“So you
were
involved?” My mind reeled. “This is crazy, Matthew! What possessed you to do this?”

“I told you, I ain’t gonna let them execute you for something you didn’t do. I can’t lose you like that!”

I slid up a bit until I was sitting in the seat. A quick glance behind us showed the cop car still hurtling down the road after us. Matthew jerked the wheel, and I tumbled sideways as he turned onto a dirt road.

Lord, please let us lose this cop so we can stop and find our sanity again.
I couldn’t even think straight, just bounced from one side of the car to the other as I tried to hang on. The road was fairly narrow and boggy, and the tires slid as we took every curve. On the other side of Matthew, I could make out a large creek that seemed to be following our same path. The heavy rain was causing it to overflow, and parts of it were nearly up to the road.

“Hold on tight!” Matthew yelled.

Up ahead, was a fork in the road—a curve to the right and a bridge to the left. As Matthew turned the wheel of the car, time seemed to slow down, and I saw everything that was about to happen in one hideous instant of clarity.

I braced myself against the dashboard as the wheels slid sideways along the road, gliding out into the rushing water for half a second before rolling onto its side. I screamed as I crashed into Matthew, and felt a surge of pain shoot through my head. Everything went black.

When I could see again, it was hazy and cold. Freezing cold.

We were moving. The car was drifting down the overflowing creek, bumping along as it hit rocks on the bottom and sides. Matthew lay beneath me against the driver side door. His head had hit and cracked the window. He was bleeding, and he was unconscious.

I shook him, pain shooting like a web of fire from my shoulder. “Matthew! Matthew! Wake up. Wake up!”

He groaned and shifted. His eyes fluttered open.
Thank God
. Water seeped in all around us, its freezing cold fingers sliding along my legs and feet.

“We have to get out of here,” I said.

He pushed against the door and managed to half-way sit up. “Are you hurt?”

“Yes, but we have to get out of this car.”

He took a look around, squinting groggily. Water seeped in through every crack. It rushed around the trunk, pouring into the back of the car through the smashed window. Then the car lurched and came to a stop, wedged against something. The back end lifted for a brief second before the water began to gush in even faster. It was already waist high.

Matthew pushed his way to the back seat and tried to get through the window. He managed to get his head and shoulders out, but the car dislodged and started moving down the stream again. He fell against the broken glass, cutting through his shirt.

“Watch out!” I yelled. My head throbbed, and my vision blurred.

He pulled himself back into the front seat and tried to stand against the driver’s side door. I steadied him as he reached up for the passenger door. He pushed it up, but it fell right back into place. He took my hand and pulled me up beside him. “Come on. Climb on my shoulders and push the door open.”

The water was up to my chest. I crawled up his back and put my knees on his shoulders, using the seat to my right to steady me. Then I pushed up on the door until it fell open.

“Climb out!” Matthew yelled.

I put my hands on the sides of the open door and pulled myself up as Matthew pushed from below me. Climbing out onto the side of the car, I got my first view of what we were facing. Only a few feet ahead lay a wide waterfall. I only had time to yell Matthew’s name.

Matthew

“Matthew!” Ruby screamed.

I looked up at the hole she’d climbed out of. Her face was there for one instant. Then the bottom dropped out, and she disappeared. The car tipped forward, and I slammed into the steering wheel and dashboard. A sharp pain shot through my ribcage as the car hit the bottom of the fall.

And then it sank.

Water poured in from the top, the back, the sides. Everywhere, filling up past my head before I even had time to take a deep breath. And as the car fell beneath me, my head swam with confusion. Which way was up? I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. Darkness surrounded everything. I pushed on every surface, trying to find the hole again. Nothing budged, and panic took over.

I fought. I hit my fist against everything. But I couldn’t find the hole. I couldn’t find the hole!

Be still.

The voice in my head wasn’t my own. I couldn’t think clearly. I slammed my hand against one thing after another. The steering wheel, the radio, the dashboard. The side of the car. And then I realized why I couldn’t find the hole. The door had closed when the car went over the waterfall.

Be still
.

I felt for the door handle, pulled on it, but nothing budged.

Be still.

It was so dark and cold. I quit fighting. I couldn’t breathe. I was going to drown. This was it.

But then a small hand grabbed my arm. It pulled me, and I found my way past the seat and into the back of the car. The hand slid down into mine. Pulled again. I reached forward and felt the shattered glass of the back window. The hand pulled me forward, tugging insistently. My lungs were about to burst. I couldn’t hold my breath any longer.